A Good Reputation
When you become a better storyteller, you become memorable. Every week, get one story and one actionable insight on how to use storytelling to build your reputation, connect with your ideal audience, attract opportunities, and get buy-in for your business or big ideas.
Playing pretend
"What we hunger for perhaps more than anything else is to be known in our full humanness, and yet that is often just what we also fear more than anything else." Frederick Buechner · Tellling Secrets Welcome to Issue 54 of A Good Reputation, a newsletter about how to become a better storyteller and grow your brand. (Did someone send you? Subscribe here.) (Miss past issues? Read those here.) Hello Reader, I never expected Halloween to mark a significant turning point in my life, but on this day...
Know thy audience
"If you talk to someone in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." Nelson Mandela · Activist, Former Prez of South Africa Welcome to Issue 53 of A Good Reputation, a newsletter about how to become a better storyteller and grow your brand. (Did someone send you? Subscribe here.) (Miss past issues? Read those here.) Hello Reader, Stories are all I have left of my dad. He passed away when I was six, too young to really know...
You are the media
"Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture." Allen Ginsberg · Poet & Activist Welcome to Issue 52 of A Good Reputation, a newsletter about how to become a better storyteller and grow your brand. (Did someone send you? Subscribe here.) (Miss past issues? Read those here.) Hello Reader, I was 22 years old and couldn’t believe my luck. Despite making only $40,000 a year, living in a cockroach-infested apartment run by a slumlord, and having virtually zero work experience, I...
Authentically an asshole
"Being known is not the same as being respected for your expertise." Nick Bennett · Entrepreneur Welcome to Issue 51 of A Good Reputation, a newsletter about how to become a better storyteller and grow your brand. (Did someone send you? Subscribe here.) (Miss past issues? Read those here.) Hello Reader, Mila, my 7-year-old, is authentically an asshole—especially when she’s tired. With a short fuse and hot temper, she leans into all the “fiery redhead” stereotypes. You know she’s mad when...
Noticing others noticing you
"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." Carl Jung · Analytical Psychologist Welcome to Issue 50 of A Good Reputation, a newsletter about how to become a better storyteller to grow your brand. (Did someone send you? Subscribe here.) Hello Reader, My heart broke a little when I noticed my daughter noticing others noticing her. She was toddling around the house singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when her dad and I stopped to listen. To us,...
Nerd alert
"A man of genius is he and he alone who finds such joy in his art that he will work at it come hell or high water." Stendhal· Author & French Novelist Welcome to Issue 49 of A Good Reputation, a newsletter about how to become a better storyteller and grow your brand. (Did someone send you? Subscribe here.) Hello Reader, To me, and maybe to you, David Easterbrook is a total dweeb. But to my boyfriend—and other bonsai enthusiasts of the world—David is a legend. That’s because for the past 50...
You feel me?
"Energy flows where attention goes." Michael Beckwith · New Age Spiritual Leader Welcome to Issue 48 of A Good Reputation, a newsletter about how to become a better storyteller and grow your brand. (Did someone send you? Subscribe here.) Hello Reader, This week, I posted something on LinkedIn that got approximately 70,000 impressions, 1,300 likes, 300 comments, and exactly 0 saves. That data makes sense, considering the post was slightly provocative and entertaining, but entirely useless. For...
Walk around in your underwear
"The truth, stated directly and plainly, is the simplest (and often most effective) way to move a person." Eddie Shleyner · Very Good Copy Welcome to Issue 47 of A Good Reputation, a newsletter about how to become a better storyteller and grow your brand. (Did someone send you? Subscribe here.) Hello Reader, I’m late, as usual, and there’s only one seat left in the circle next to the teacher. The class has neatly divided itself into two halves. On one side, there’s a group of old, slightly...
The allure of the perspective shifter
"If you only read books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking." Haruki Murakami · Author Welcome to Issue 46 of A Good Reputation, a newsletter about how to become a better storyteller and grow your brand. (Did someone send you? Subscribe here.) Hello Reader, August always feels like the Sunday of months for my partner, Tyler, an art teacher approaching his 20th year at the same school, who has remained loyal only because he gets the luxury of taking...
And, but…so what?
"A story is a promise. It says: I’ll take you somewhere worth going.” Blake Snyder · Screenwriter & Author Welcome to Issue 45 of A Good Reputation, a newsletter about how to use storytelling to grow your brand. (Did someone send you? Subscribe here.) Hello Reader, My boyfriend likes to do this thing he learned in therapy when giving me critical feedback. He'll point out all of my best qualities before layering on the stuff that’s harder to hear. But he doesn’t just pad the critique with...