‘There’s no such thing as writer’s block. It’s a myth. What you do is you sit down at a keyboard and you type a letter, and then you type some more letters, you have a word. Then you type some more words, you have a sentence. A few more sentences,…
It’s The Extraordinary Business Book Club’s half-century episode! And we’re celebrating with an extraordinary selection of Best Bits from episodes 41-49: Michael E. Gerber on creating a legacy David Taylor on being the best you Martin Goodyer on the single strong idea Heather McGowan on visualizing information Emma Serlin on the psychology…
Susan Heaton-Wright has performed on many of the world’s greatest stages as an opera singer, but it was only after she’d had her baby that she realised the skills she’d developed – being able to walk into a room with confidence, to project her voice clearly and perform in front of an…
‘I don’t think many authors would put themselves through what I put myself through. How many authors are confident enough or stupid enough to send their manuscript to a thousand people who they have no idea who they are, and just say, “Okay, just tell me what you don’t like.”‘…
When Emma Serlin founded the London Speech Workshop, she came at the science of effective communication from two perspectives: her professsional background in the theatre as an actor and director, and her academic background in psychology. The result is a powerful theory and practice of communication – The Communication Equation. At its…
One of the many opportunities open to authors today is the chance to crowdfund their book: to whip up enthusiasm for the project and get friends, relatives, ex-girlfriends (yes, really) and total strangers who want to see this book happen put their hands in their pockets and pledge to support…
If you’re struggling to write your book, here’s an idea: try drawing it instead. That’s how Heather McGowan, academic entrepreneur and futurist, gets started. ‘I don’t usually start writing anything. I start drawing a lot of things. My starting process is: how would I put this on a single page…
‘Anyone can read those things, whether they’ve met me or whether they haven’t and go, “Yeah, that’s about me,” because the stories are relevant to so many people.’ Coaching psychologist Martin Goodyer has a very simple idea he wants to get across to as many people as possible: we can…
Back in 2012, Kelly Pietrangeli and her friends had a brilliant idea for a book. Project Me was all about helping busy mothers balance their lives with more effective time management, productivity skills and goal-setting, using tools techniques they’d developed for their own lives. They began to write, but then: ‘It…
Perhaps the most powerful thing you can do as the writer of a business book is to cut through the fluff and change people’s lives. Many of us feel uncomfortable making grand claims for our ideas. We hedge them around with qualifiers and we’re anxious to cover off all the…
