The best sportswriter in the country, in my humble opinion, is Jason Gay with The Wall Street Journal. He writes about all sports, has a terrific sense of humor, great use of language and I find myself enjoying stories about sports in which I have no real interest. As his article last Saturday on cell phone etiquette in restaurants shows, his skills transcend sports writing.
He does this by using words to paint a picture. Here’s an excerpt from his June 16, 2014 article on the World Cup.
On Sunday morning I woke up in Rio at our Journal WC 2014 headquarters (medium glam) not far from Copacabana Beach (actual glam) and before I had my a.m. coffee, I was jarred by a noisy ruckus in the streets. I looked out the window to see Argentina fans marching and singing in white-and-light-blue jerseys. It was barely 9 in the morning. Argentina’s game with Bosnia and Herzegovina was not for another 10 hours. Back home, if a bunch of Jets fans came parading past my apartment at 9 a.m., I would take my family to the basement and barricade the door. But this was fantastic. It made me want to run outside and join.
He tells stories, uses humor and hyperbole to suck in the reader. He makes it hard to quit reading.
Think about how you do this in your business. Realize that people don’t want to hear only facts and figures, they want their emotions tantalized. The want to hear success stories. Actually they want to hear all kinds of stories.
Last week Lucas Mack with 4th Avenue Media spoke to some of my clients and me. His presentation was all about “telling your story.” More on this next week.
