Tag: Philip Dodson

Hand writing a blog on a piece of paper

Posted on by philipdodson

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I have not hand written more than say my name and address, so a few words, on a piece of paper for what seems like a decade or more.

I never had brilliant handwriting even when I was writing regularly on paper. My teachers often joked that I should become a doctor with writing that bad. Never quite got the joke, something to do with doctors scribbling prescriptions so quickly that they are often illegible.

I am not sure this will ever get published either, as I won’t be able to read it when I come to typing it up when I am repatriated with my Chromebook.

This feels so odd writing by hand now, I have lost the skill to write quickly and clearly. Also, without my now life-saving Grammarly App to correct my grammar and typos, it’s even stranger.

However, as I am writing more, it is strange how I am starting to like doing this, perhaps there’s a novelty factor.

Of course, productivity-wise, it would be almost laughable to return to handwriting everything. But in terms of pleasure and a real sense of creating something by hand and putting pen to paper, it is an art, and art has a soul and productivity does not.

We have lost a lot of soulful things in the never ending embracing of technology, efficiency and productivity.

From now on, I plan to do a bit more handwriting.

No one says ‘we’re shit’ in their marketing.

Posted on by philipdodson

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We never write in our brochure, or on our social media feed, or our web copy, that ‘we suck’ or ‘we’re really shit’ or ‘our service is average at best’.

We all put that ‘we are the greatest’, so people receiving your marketing message discount all the glowing stuff you write about yourself, they heard it all before.

The best marketing ever, is what your customers say about you, not in some doctored testimonial, but that experiences they share about your business to the outside world via social media, reviews and word of mouth. Word of mouth is now one to many not one to one. So it is even more powerful than ever.

So the focus must be on creating an exceptional experience that others want to share, sure marketing must be good, but creating something truly worth sharing is the way to succeed and that takes thought, creativity and time.