Writing samples

What it reads like, before you hire it.

Voice is difficult to explain on a services page. You need to hear it.

Nothing below belongs to a client. Every passage was written for this page, using situations I see again and again in this work.

These are four situations senior people bring me often. You will see the passage first, then why I wrote it that way.

Because writing is only one part of this work. The harder part is knowing what is worth saying, what should stay out, and how much needs to be said at all. That judgment is what you are really paying for.

Four situations

The passage, and the reasoning under it.

01 · The decision that was read the wrong way

We changed how the delivery team is structured in March. I have read a few versions of why since then, and most of them are more interesting than the truth. The truth is that we were making the same decision twice, in two places, and one of them was always late. So we stopped doing that. I would rather explain how we decide than defend a single decision, so here is the rule now. If two teams can both say no, neither of them owns it.

Why it is written that way

The mistake would be spending the whole post defending one decision. I would rather use the situation to show how this person thinks and makes decisions. The story may be current for a week. The thinking behind it can stay relevant for years.

02 · The industry moment everyone is commenting on

I have nothing useful to add about the acquisition. I do have something to say about what it costs to integrate two sales organizations that have spent four years describing the same customer differently. I have done it once. It took eleven months, and the part that took longest was not the systems.

Why it is written that way

Everyone can comment on the acquisition. Very few people can talk about what happens after one. That is where I would take the conversation.

And I have done it once gives me all the authority I need. I do not need to call the person an expert. The experience already did that.

03 · The opening lines of an About section

I run a company that builds power infrastructure, mostly in places where the grid was designed for a different century and has been patched ever since. Nineteen years. The first eleven were on site. That is where I learned most of it, usually by getting something wrong in front of people who then had to live with it. I still go out. Not as often as I would like.
I am not the person you call for a strategy day. I am the person you call in month seven, when the plan meets the ground.

Why it is written that way

In a few lines I already know what he does, how long he has done it, and where his real value is. I do not need another paragraph telling me he is experienced, practical or results-driven. The last sentence already proved all three.

04 · The number that survives being repeated

Forty percent of what we shipped last year came from customers we had already told no. We changed who is allowed to say no, and how close that person sits to the work.

Why it is written that way

One useful number is enough, especially when there is a real decision or belief behind it. I do not want people to remember five statistics from a post. I want them to remember why one of them mattered.

Confidentiality

Nothing on this page belongs to a client.

Everything on this page was written specifically for this page. The situations are familiar because they come up often in this work. The writing does not belong to a client.

No client writing appears on this site, in a proposal, or in a conversation with anyone else. That is not a preference. It is part of the engagement.

If your own work were here, you would already know everything you need to know about how I would handle the next person's.

If this sounds like how you want to be represented.

I keep my client list deliberately small. This work needs access, trust and enough attention to understand not only what you want to say, but what should never be said in the first place.

If that is what you are looking for, we can start with a conversation.

Write to me