With gratitude
This blog wouldn't be what it is without you, its audience. And The Word Factory wouldn't be what it is without our clients and partners. We're thankful for the lot of you!The post With gratitude first...
View ArticleThat’s a wrap
We're ducking out on 2021 at little early. As we raise a cup of kindness, we toast everyone who's read our blog and done business with us during the wild ride they call 2021. And we look forward to...
View ArticleScholastic Journalism Week: Amplifying voices
I cut my teeth at the Proconian, the student newspaper at Chapel Hill High School. While reporting there, I was tapped to write a weekly update on campus activities for the local paper, The Chapel Hill...
View ArticleVoter education: Supporting civic engagement
Every Election Day, I close The Word Factory so we can participate. This didn't start as a conscious statement about making Election Day a holiday (it should be, and it should be paid). My reasons are...
View ArticleUnexpected payoffs
I do a lot of pro bono work for non-profits. Mostly, it's because supporting organizations doing good work is the right thing to do. And while money is always important, capacity-building is also a...
View ArticleDon’t ignore these key influencers
Assuming you treat them right -- and I'm going to assume readers of this blog do -- the people who work for you are among your most effective influencers ambassadors. Leveraging their good will is an...
View ArticleOur love-and-hate relationship with punctuation
It's amazing how such tiny little marks prompt such big feelings. Punctuation -- especially commas -- create more tension in workplaces that the person who cooks fish in the break room microwave. (I...
View ArticleIs your writing sabotaging you?
A colleague wasn't getting good results from emails and Slack messages. They knew their writing wasn't effective didn't know why. When they spoke directly to someone, they were very effective. When...
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Corporate Social Responsibility: Voting
We're big proponents of voting around here. We take time off for voter registration drives, get-out-the-vote activities and early and Election Day voting. So when we saw this email ahead of National...
View ArticleConference survival tips
After the COVID hiatus, in-person conferences are back. I've been to two so far this year, the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference as an attendee and the Environmental Educators of North Carolina...
View ArticleBusiness holiday cards round-up
'Tis the season to start on your organization's end-of-year season's greetings. We've got you covered with tips and tactics for a successful and less stressful creative process! 4 ways to use business...
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Resources for NaNoWriMo
If you're doing NaNoWriMo -- or otherwise producing a work of fiction -- and want some professional support, I can't help you, but my friend Duncan Murrell can. I don't write fiction. OK -- a few years...
View ArticleBooks for nature lovers and environmentalists
Got a nature lover or natural sciences fan on your gift list? Here are a few titles – some old and some new – that spoke to me both as a writer and a certified interpretive naturalist. I dig them and...
View ArticleThat’s a wrap on 2023
We're shuttering the factory for the close of the year, returning to our posts on 3 January. Best wishes from all of us to all of y'all for a terrific end of 2023 and fantastic 2024! P.S. They call me...
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Big idea for 2024: Hope
This year is already starting off with a lot of trying events -- some carrying over from last year (and before that) and some emerging -- and we haven't even gotten to the primary elections yet. I try...
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Marking a Milestone: Half my life as a business owner
A couple weeks ago I realized that March 12, 2024, is an important professional milestone: half my life owning this business. I had to stop for a minute and think about how that happened. This post...
View ArticleDrop everything and do this right now
I know I usually share advice on writing and marketing and words -- sometime social justice and climate change. Today, though, I'm departing to talk about what happens if you or someone you love get...
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Nerd Alert! Kangaroo words
So often school made words and even word games tedious and joyless. I'm on a mission to put some of the fun back into word study. When you make your living by the word, you pay attention to cool little...
View ArticleQuick networking tips
A friend of mine is an early career professional attending their first big-time national conference this week. I got this text from them last night: Networking and socializing with so many people is so...
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Word nerd alert! New (to me) vocab
John Vaillant's excellent book, Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World, is one of the best-written things I've read all year. The content itself is fascinating and relevant (the week I read it,...
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