Susan B. Weiner's Blog, page 43

7 tips to help you write more and be a better person

Are you looking for tips to help you write or blog more frequently? Some of the tips from the “Work Well” chapter of Kate Hanley’s How to Be a Better Person may help.

1. Mono-task one thing a day

This is one of my favorite tips. Hanley says:

Multitasking is a fact of life and can sometimes be useful, but it’s not always the best choice. When you work on the most important thing on your daily to-do list, invite your best thinking by closing your email program, putting your phone on airplane mode, blocking yourself from social media, and doing one thing. You’ll get it done more effectively and efficiently when you do.

This works well for me. I’ve cranked out many of my blog posts writing on a steno pad on vacation, as I’ve discussed in “No batteries required: My favorite blogging technique.”

2. Make a learning plan

“If you want your career to continue to grow, you need your skills and interests to keep evolving too. Ensure your growth by making a plan to keep learning,” says Hanley.

I offer some learning tips for writers in “Confessions of a lousy writer—and 6 tips for you.” Also, I offer a financial blogging class.

3. Delegate better

You don’t need to prepare every part of your blog post, article, or white paper yourself. Outsource the parts that aren’t the best use of your time.  That’w what I do with the images and tricky formatting of my blog posts.

When you do outsource, don’t micromanage the person who’s doing the work for you. Hanley says to tell the person to “ask for help if the person gets stuck, but otherwise, let them at it. People who are doing something for the first time may make mistakes—focus on appreciating the effort more than the results at first and give positive feedback they can hear.”

4. Take on uncomfortable tasks

Are you scared to write a kind of article or other publication for the first time? Give it it a go.

Hanley says, “Accept your missteps and view them as ways to refine your skills. Growth can be uncomfortable, but so is staying in the same place for too long.”

5. Get better at prioritizing

You can’t do everything. You’ll just drive yourself crazy if you try to do it all.

Hanley says,

Here are some guidelines for setting priorities in a way that helps you focus on the important instead of merely the urgent: Think about the things on your list that make the biggest impact and that mean the most to you—those are your highest priorities. Next come the things that have a big impact, even though you may not love them. For things that don’t move the needle and that you don’t enjoy, either delegate them or bang them out in one concentrated burst.

6. Work smarter, not harder

Identifying your priorities, as suggested in Tip #5, will help you to work smarter instead of harder.

Hanley says,

The eighty/twenty rule—otherwise known as the Pareto principle for the late nineteenth-century economist Vilfredo Pareto who noticed that 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by 20 percent of the people—says that 80 percent of your results comes from 20 percent of your efforts. Spend some time thinking about the simple actions that, when done consistently, result in big strides toward your goals—strengthening relationships with the 20 percent of your clients who generate 80 percent of revenue, for example, or making sure you get ninety minutes (approximately 20 percent of an eight-hour day) of focused time to produce your best work (no meetings or Facebooking allowed). Now make sure you prioritize those needle movers when planning what you’ll get done in a day or a week. Small, meaningful steps taken with consistency can take you everywhere you want to go.

7. Make time for your soul work

Hanley says,

Every job comes with a long list of responsibilities, but you have an obligation to do the work that speaks to your soul too, even if it doesn’t show up anywhere on that list. When you plan your week, make sure to block out a chunk or two of time that you can devote to the work that’s speculative—the proposal for the new project, or even the art you create on the side that keeps you a passionate and engaged person—because that energy will spill over into the narrower confines of your “job,” too.

Blogging is soul work for me. I do it because I enjoy it more than I do it for an ROI measured in dollars and cents.

 

Disclosure: If you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I provide links to books only when I believe they have value for my readers.

Learn more about my financial blogging class!

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Bloggers, honor your influencers

Totally original content doesn’t exist. Everyone is influenced by others. Your work is not diminished by giving credit to them.

As Jeff Goins says in Real Artists Don’t Starve:

…cite your sources, giving credit where credit is due. This won’t discredit you. It will likely endear you to your influences and your audience.

What might citing your sources mean for a financial blogger? It could mean naming and linking to the website of a person, article, or blog that inspired you. Or, linking to a resource for further information. One advantage of sharing your sources is that it gives insight into you as a person. It shows what you read and the resources that you trust. It also shows that you are ethical, in terms of giving credit where credit is due.

Goins also stressed the need to bring something original to what you take from others. He says, “When you steal, don’t just copy and paste the work of your predecessors,…bring those influences together in a new way.”

If Goins doesn’t convince you to credit others, remember that violating copyright can land you in legal trouble. I’ve written about copyright in “Financial bloggers’ posts may violate copyright law.”

Is Real Artists a good resource for writers?

Goins attracted my attention after I read something he wrote about building his career as a writer and blogger.

If you’re in the early stages of building a career as a writer, you may find inspiration and practical tips in this book.

Disclosure:  If you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I link only to books in which I find some value for my blog’s readers.

Learn more about my financial blogging class!

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Marketing wealth management to women with Charlotte Beyer

You know that women present an attractive audience for your wealth management or other financial services. “Women with Wallets,” a chapter of Charlotte Beyer’s Wealth Management Unwrapped: Unwrap What You Need to Know & Enjoy the Present, made me think about how you should market to women. Her book targets your potential clients instead of advisors.

1.Don’t treat all women as the same

Beyer points out that women are not all the same. Women who are newly widowed, single and highly successful in their field, married and staying at home with kids, newly divorced, or the beneficiary of a large inheritance will have distinctive needs. She tells women considering a firm to ask themselves if they feel they will be treated as an individual, not a stereotype.

To avoid gender assumptions, here’s what Beyer suggested in an email interview with me, “Look at each woman first as an individual, then discover her goals, her comfort with securities markets, and her hoped-for outcomes, both tangible and intangible.” She also suggests asking questions such as “How much do you know about securities markets?” and “How much time do you want to devote to your finances?”

2. Your employee policies matter, too

Showing respect for women clients and prospects isn’t enough. Your firm’s respect for women should permeate your firm’s culture.

Think about how your firm would fare if potential clients follow these four suggestions by Beyer:

Request that a diverse team be assigned to you. This team should include younger and older, male and female, and ethnic variety as well.
Inquire about the representation of women on the firm’s board and at senior levels, as well as the annual turnover/promotion of women professionals versus men.
Find out how maternity leave policy works at the firm. Ask about flextime, paternity policy, and elder care leave.
Ask what training or educational workshops are offered to women clients. Also ask what professional skills training is offered to women professionals in the organization.

In her email to me, Beyer said, “While many firms may not have answers that will satisfy the client, the willingness to examine current policies and be open to change is appreciated by clients. Cultural change comes slowly, and these questions can speed up the process.”

In addition, she said, “If a firm is proactive and begins to tackle these questions before they are asked, this shows a genuine desire to analyze gender issues. That will be detected quickly by clients and seen as a positive—even as the firm struggles to bring in more women advisors, for example. The turnover of women in financial services is well known. If a culture is not welcoming what women will remain with this firm? Good news: just asking the tough questions internally benefits that firm.

Looking for more book recommendations? Check out “My 2017 reading, with book recommendations for you.”

Disclosure:  If you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I provide links to books only when I believe they have value for my readers.

Learn more about my financial blogging class!

The post Marketing wealth management to women with Charlotte Beyer appeared first on Susan Weiner's Blog on Investment Writing.

Avoid long introductory clauses, or lose readers

You want to give your readers all the information they need to understand your message. This sometimes prompts you to write long introductory clauses. Please stop. Or, at least rein in your impulse.

Those long introductory clauses often make it hard for readers to grasp your main point. I like how Harold Evans, author of Do I Make Myself Clear? Why Writing Well Matters, explains the challenge posed by these long introductory clauses:

It is akin to someone rushing into a building saying he’s sorry to interrupt the meeting, but it’s important that, for a number of reasons too complicated to explain at this moment, everyone there should be good enough to pack up their stuff and leave in haste because the building is on fire.

Wow! Clearly the speaker should have said, “Fire! Get out now!” You should do something similar with long-winded sentences that delay getting to the point.

To read examples of too-long introductory clauses, see Evans’ Chapter 3, “The Sentence Clinic.” Evans analyzes the sentences. He also rewrites them to be understandable. Some of his solutions include:

Using active voice
Being more specific, especially with unclear pronouns
Changing negatives to positives
Cutting the number of dashes, parentheses, and similar marks
Cutting misplaced modifiers

In some cases, Evans turns one long sentence into multiples sentences.  In most cases, he shortens the sentences. More importantly, his rewrites direct the reader better than the originals. As he says, “We are more likely to understand the argument if we know where we are heading.”

Let’s head your sentences in the right direction. Kill those overly long introductory clauses!

Disclosure:  If you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I link only to books in which I find some value for my blog’s readers.

Learn more about my financial blogging class!

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What if your article has 5 points, but 1 is a digression?

Imagine that you have five important points to make in an article, quarterly commentary, or white paper. Four of the points hang together. The fifth point is a digression. It doesn’t have much to do with the other four points. How can you best manage your oddball point?

Solution 1. Delete your digression

In the best of all possible worlds, your piece has a clear focus. Don’t dilute it by adding irrelevant information.

Solution 2. Move it to the end

Deleting the unrelated content isn’t always possible. I often encounter this in quarterly client letters.

For example, a letter may discuss the developments that drove portfolio performance during the past quarter. However, it’s also relevant to discuss the firm’s new hire.

In this case, discuss the new hire at the end of the letter. If possible, set off the announcement with a new heading.

Solution 3. Put it in a sidebar box

If you’re writing a longer piece that will be printed or published as a PDF, you have more options. You can put your digression into a sidebar box. That box gives a visual cue that its content is not essential to the main thrust of what you’ve written.

Other ideas?

If you have other ideas for handling a digression, please share them with me.

 

If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy “5 steps for rewriting your investment commentary.”

Learn more about my financial blogging class!

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Top posts from 2017’s fourth quarter

Check out my top posts from the last quarter!

They’re a mix of practical tips on grammar (#1), writing (#2, #9, #10), investment commentary (#3), client communication (#4 & #5), newsletters (#6), and blogging (#7, #8).

Post #1 sparked a lot of reader feedback when it headlined one of my monthly newsletters. My readers tend to care about topics like this.

I’m surprised that #4 made it on the top posts lists. Published late in December, it got a strong response from readers.

If you’re a blogger, check out #7 and #8, along with my financial blogging class.

My posts that attracted the most views during 2017’s fourth quarter

Shall vs. will—which is best?
My 2017 reading with book recommendations for you
Bond market commentary rewrite
Writing about the new tax legislation in your client letters
Communicate with your clients about their legacy—This post features advice from Kathleen Burns Kingsbury
Canned newsletters can hurt your marketing
Blog post headings vs. no headings for your financial blog
4 financial blog post ideas from a writing teacher
Don’t wait for perfection
Red tulip writing exercise

Learn more about my financial blogging class!

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Abbreviation: U.S. or US for United States?

A client used to abbreviate the United States as U.S. and the United Kingdom as UK. The inconsistency drove me batty. I couldn’t find a reason for that disparity. But it made me wonder, what are the rules for how one should abbreviate the United States?

What style guides say

The 2017 AP Stylebook uses periods most of the time. It says “The abbreviation U.S. is acceptable as a noun or adjective. Use US (no periods) in headlines.” AP style seems to allow for multiple space-saving adaptations for headlines—like using numerals in headlines, but spelling out numbers under 10 in the body of the text. By the way, AP style has a similar rule for abbreviating United Kingdom.

Garner’s Modern American Usage says of U.S. and U.SA.,

As the shortened forms for United States of America, these terms retain their periods, despite the modern trend to drop the periods in most initialisms… U.S. is best reserved for use as an adjective…, although to use it as a noun in headlines is common. In abbreviations incorporating U.S., the periods are typically dropped .

However, other style guides favor US. For example, the MLA Style Center says,

In its publications, the MLA uses the abbreviation US. (Practices among publishers vary, however, and it is not incorrect to use U.S. Whichever abbreviation you choose, be consistent.)

What you should do

Notice how the MLA Style Center mentions consistency? Consistency is key because it makes your publications easier to read. Your organization should pick one style and stick with it.

I am sticking with U.S., unless I write for a publication with a style guide that calls for US. What about you?

If you like this post, you may also like “How to capitalize financial acronyms.”  

U.S. vs. UK

I couldn’t find any rules suggesting why one should use U.S. for the United States along with UK for the United Kingdom. Do any of you have ideas about this? Please let me know. Curiosity is killing me.

One of my friends suggested that some publications mix the two styles of punctuation because UK is preferred in the United Kingdom.

Another suggested that it’s OK to drop the periods from UK but not U.S. because uk is not a real word, while us is a widely used pronoun.

Learn more about my financial blogging class!

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Writing about the new tax legislation in your client letters

If you’re an investment or wealth manager, you and your clients will be affected by the tax legislation signed by President Trump on December 22, 2017.  You probably need to mention the legislation in your quarterly client letter or commentary. I think the language that you use to refer to the legislation will be important.

Your choices for how to refer to the tax law fall into three categories, as I see it.

Neutral—tax legislation, tax bill, tax law, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)
Positive—tax reform, tax cuts
Negative—tax cuts for the rich

What advisors and writers recommend

When I asked about on social media about writers’ choices, respondents preferred neutral language. Their suggestions included using the tax legislation’s official name. Financial writer Lisa Plotnick said,  “I refer to it by name for two reasons — to be neutral (as per my journalism training) and to make it easier for future readers to know the exact bill being referred to (the researcher in me).”

Another said he refers to the Affordable Care Act instead of Obamacare, so he sees using TCJA as a comparable decision. The Affordable Care Act analogy raises the issue of the power of formal names to shape public perception. When talk show host Jimmy Kimmel had a crew interview people on the street about Affordable Care Act and Obamacare, people spoke much more favorably about the Affordable Care Act than Obamacare. This was true even though Obamacare is another name for the Affordable Care Act. Be aware of that when you use legislation’s formal name. Using the TCJA may not be as neutral as using a generic term.

Yet another respondent suggested that a firm’s compliance officer might flag your commentary if you use partisan language in discussing the legislation.

If you refer to the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” people may not recognize that name. Substitute something like “the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the tax legislation signed by President Trump on December 22, 2017.”

The risks and benefits to using positive or neutral language about the law

The risks stem from the fact that people feel strongly about the topic. If you seem to endorse or oppose the law, you may alienate readers.

On the other hand, if your clients and prospects are mainly in one camp or the other, partisan language may make your readers feel a deeper sense of connection with you. You sacrifice that opportunity, and perhaps lose authenticity, if you don’t use language that expresses your positive or negative views.

What newspapers do

As you may remember from “Financial jargon killer: The Wall Street Journal,” I suggest looking to newspapers for guidance on matters of writing style.

For example, a Wall Street Journal article published on Dec. 22 uses neutral language, but doesn’t use the law’s official name. It said, “President Donald Trump signed the 21% corporate tax rate into law Friday and Democrats are talking about which pieces of the bill they will keep and which they will toss aside should they assume power” (emphasis added).

In a quick scan of the Journal‘s website, the bill’s name seemed to appear more in opinion pieces and reports on the legislative process than in news articles. That may be because the name “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” is more agreeable to Republicans than to Democrats. Or perhaps it’s to save space because, as I said above, you need to describe what the act is if you use its official name.

On the website of The New York Times, a Dec. 22 Reuters article didn’t use the legislation’s formal name. Instead, it initially referred to “the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years.” However, later it used the positive term “tax reform” and referred to the “Tax Cut and Jobs Act” in discussing Mallinckrodt’s filing discussing the legislation.

YOUR preference?

I’m curious. How will you refer to the tax legislation in your next client communication?

The post Writing about the new tax legislation in your client letters appeared first on Susan Weiner's Blog on Investment Writing.

When I was a lousy writer

This is what I remember about my writing before I became a reasonably skilled writer.

As a high school student, I had a hard time understanding the use of footnotes. Luckily, earning a Ph.D. in Japanese history forced me to learn. In one seminar, my professor recalled students’ books to check the quality of our citations and our translations from English to Japanese.
I overused initial capitals in job titles. My Ph.D. thesis advisor drummed that out of me as I discuss in “Do you use ‘pride capitals’?“
I believed that I had to write out all of the evidence before I expressed an opinion. I didn’t know that I could engage readers by stating my opinion before building my case.
My laborious attempts at speaking and writing Japanese instilled empathy in me for those who struggle to express themselves. I lacked subtlety in Japanese. Sometimes I felt as if I were trying to slice a loaf of bread with an axe.
I used too many words. I hate to think about how the Hemingway tool, which I described in “Free help for wordy writers!”  would grade my Ph.D dissertation.
I used lots of passive verbs. In other words, many passive verbs were used by me because I wasn’t taught to know any better.

How did I overcome these weaknesses?

Working with a writing coach while I was a staff reporter at Dalbar’s Mutual Fund Market News (now Money Management Executive)
Taking many writing classes that involved lots of feedback on my writing
Participating in a monthly writing group
Writing a lot—both for clients and on my blog
Reading about good writing and absorbing some of the lessons by blogging about them

By the way, except for my work with a writing coach at Dalbar, little of my process was specific to financial services.

Inspiration for this post

This post was inspired by “Remembrances of Being a Little Fat,” a chapter in Tina Fey’s Bossypants. The chapter consists of two sentences, plus a long list of bullet points.

This is more proof that non-financial sources can help your financial writing.

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Shivering Turn approach to organizing your thoughts for writing

Sometimes you get locked into writing about a topic in a certain way. It’s not easy to develop a fresh perspective. If this describes you, try what I call the Shivering Turn Method.

In The Shivering: A Jennie Redhead Mystery, a private investigator tries to unscramble the anagram, “shivering turn.” She says,

…because you cannot always see patterns if all the components are presented in a linear manner, I make a rough circle of the letters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the book, this helps her to crack the anagram in less than two minutes.

This made me think about a technique that you can use to reconsider your topic:

Put each of your main ideas on an index card.
Shuffle the cards, or spread them out on a surface in a random order.
Look for patterns and associations among your subtopics.

If you like this idea, you may also enjoy “Index-card approach to writing.” Or, learn about mind mapping in Financial Blogging: How to Write Powerful Posts That Attract Clients.

Did you figure out the anagram? I confess that I did not. I’m not going to share the answer so I don’t spoil the book for other readers of this well-written mystery.

Disclosure: If you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I only link to books in which I find some value for my blog’s readers.

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