Thanks, Apologies, and Promises...

Okay, this issue is a little different.
Alright, it is very different.

I don’t have anything for you specifically on communication today (don’t worry, I will continue the OTS over-the-shoulder series next week). This week I want to just talk to you directly about what is happening with the newsletter and where (I think) it is going.

Thank You

I want to start by thanking you.
I am humbled to have a small but engaged group of people reading this newsletter. Honestly, the open rate is far better than I would have expected, and I love seeing comments and fielding questions. I have signed up for many newsletters myself and don’t always open them when they arrive, so I want to thank you for opening and reading mine.

I started this newsletter as a bit of an experiment.

I love working in the communications space. I spend a lot of time thinking and working on communicating things better from the stage. I know that I can add real value to those that I coach. However, I was unsure if I could add the same value with a newsletter.

I don’t know what value you have gotten from this newsletter, but I do know the value this newsletter has for me. Simply writing out the ideas, concepts and frameworks I have incorporated over the years has been hugely beneficial for me.

My Apology

This leads me to the point where I feel I must apologise.

The truth is that I have been ‘feeling my way’ around this newsletter thing. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I wasn’t sure how it should work. I have been focused on consistency, which often meant sub-standard content put together at the last minute just to meet my self-imposed deadline.

You deserve better.

I can do better. I want to do better.

As I mentioned, I have considered this for the past couple of weeks or so. But this morning, I was not 100% happy with what I had written for today’s issue. So I decided to write this and lay it out for you so you know what is happening. (and even then this got delayed!)

This is not a considered, well-written, or edited piece of content. 😜 And I would like to apologise for that also.

Promises

I have spent a bit of time over the past two weeks considering where I want to go with this newsletter or if I even want to continue it. I decided that I do want to continue on the basis that I improve the quality of the newsletter.

The truth is that I haven’t promoted the newsletter because I have not been very happy with the quality to date. I think there has been some great information shared, but it has not always been consistent and could often have been written in a more concise or compelling way.

This was okay because I was learning and trying different things. If you have been reading from the beginning, you will have seen an evolution over the past 40+ weeks. But at 42 issues, I think it is time to stop playing or using ‘new’ as an excuse.

So to achieve this, I have created a workflow that I hope will enable me to increase the quality of this newsletter consistently. It has yet to be tested or to meet the challenges of the real world and I will ask you to bear with me as we move forward. I expect there may be some glitches and delays as I work the kinks out.

But I do want to make the promise that I will be focusing on quality. This will mean that if I do not meet the standard I am setting myself, then I will not publish until I meet that standard. I will endeavour to get a newsletter out every Monday morning. But as I iron out this workflow, don’t be too surprised if the newsletter is delayed or possibly even skips a week.

I do expect that when my workflow is embedded and I get into the flow of it, we will be back to consistency but with far better quality. So thanks again for your patience and your continued support. It makes a huge difference to hear from you and get feedback both positive and negative.

Cheers,
Chris

Snippets is a section where I take some interesting text I have come across in the previous week and comment on it.

Going forward I intend to keep Snippets as a space that I can add some spontaneous information. This will remain casual, interesting to me at least, and low key. If I don’t have anything I will cut the section out.

This weekend I attended a workshop by my friend, an inspiring filmmaker, Guy Pigden. I loved one of the things he shared “One Widey, Two Tighties”.
This is in reference to getting coverage footage when shooting on set. It is easy to remember with the alliteration, and makes sense.

It made me wonder what little phrases I could create to use as mnemonics for my own stuff.

Unpacking Wisdom is a weekly section where I dive into a famous (or not so famous) quote and explore how this can apply to the Compelling Communicator.

This is a dangerous quote. Because I would suggest that this is the opposite of what any speaker should think. Just because you have a great story with a great outcome does not mean your talk will be good.

In fact, in his excellent book Storyworthy, Matthew Dicks explains that whereas he started off telling the big stories of his near death experiences, he now gets far more engagement in telling stories of seemingly mundane moments, where he layers in meaning and a personal perspective that his audience can recognise and empathise with.

So just because it is a big moment don’t think of that as the story. Perhaps focusing on a smaller element within the bigger story will often make it more accessible to your audience.

What I am up to this week…

Professionally:

I have been enjoying coaching some new clients. And have been exploring the opportunity of coaching for a new TEDx event.

Recreationally:

Misty Flicks Challenge has been launched. And I have been involved in co-producing another short film, still in pre-production.

What I am reading:

On the final Stainless Steel Rat audio book, as my relaxing ‘read’. I have bought Dungeon Crawler Carl on Kindle as my next relaxing read.

On a more interesting note, I re-read Tim Urban’s post about AI, which is almost 10 years old. I am stunned by how accurately it predicts what is happening right now. It is a long read but I highly recommend it:
https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html

What I am watching:

I have been watching Ash vs. The Evil Dead. I finally got to the episode that I was in as an extra… but even though I knew exactly where I was standing as an extra, I couldn’t spot myself! 😉 It was the closest I got to Lucy Lawless since I turned down the opportunity to be on Hercules back in the day.