Welcome to Wise & Wealthy: A weekly newsletter full of proven ideas to become smarter and wealthier. I send this every Monday and every other Thursday.
#34 – September 26, 2022
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Wise: Persuasive writing
One of my friends works in health care and he recently said, “I probably write more than you do!” He was kidding. But he also wasn’t because a large part of his work is to write patient reports.
And like almost everyone else, he communicates with his co-workers daily on messaging apps or email.
While most of us never think about it, we always write with a purpose. We write to achieve a certain objective.
Persuasive writing is about making sure you achieve your objective in the most effective way possible. One tip to make your writing more persuasive is to make things easy for your reader.
When you make it easy for others to respond (by keeping it short or by suggesting a potential call to action), you increase the likelihood of getting a response.
When your writing is vague and lacks a clear purpose, and people have to think hard to figure out what you want, they probably will ignore you. And that’s because so many of us get a lot of emails, messages, and requests.
Persuasive writers are great at putting themselves in the shoes of the reader.
↳ 3 Tips to Make Your Writing Persuasive
Wealthy: Business lessons I learned from writing
This week’s Wise & Wealthy is dedicated to writing. And when we think of writing, we often think of the craft.
Some of us have very romantic ideas about the lifestyle of a writer. We think of Ernest Hemingway who was such an adventurer. But writing is more than just an art or craft—it’s also a business.
I’ve been in the business of writing since 2015 now, and I’ve learned more than all the years combined in university, grad school, and starting a “real” business.
With writing, you instantly get feedback from your readers. When people don’t like it, they will ignore it, which is the harshest feedback.
With any pursuit in life, we never get it right on the first try. We constantly need to adjust and learn. It’s like working with a sports coach.
If you want to learn a particular sport, you can get a long way by simply observing how others do it. But you will make leaps once you work with a coach who can provide you with instant feedback.
Writing is like that. But you don’t need a coach; you need readers. If people engage with your content, that’s good. If they don’t, it means you need to adjust something.
↳ 7 Business Lessons I Learned from 7 Years of Writing
One interesting thing
The secret to improving your writing is to get training. Ernest Hemingway famously said:
“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.”
Writing has little to do with talent—it’s a skill. That means we can improve it with deliberate training.
This is true for any skill. If you want to accomplish a specific thing in life, whether it’s starting a business, running a marathon, or becoming a public speaker, focus on the skills you need to develop to achieve that goal.
Thanks for reading! I hope you found this edition of Wise & Wealthy useful.
All the best,
Darius
Join the 7-day Stay Centered challenge
I’ve created a one-week email course that you can do together with a group. It’s called Stay Centered, and it will help you to reclaim focus and live a meaningful life.
When you’re centered, nothing can hurt you. You will have inner peace no matter what happens.
How to unlock Stay Centered
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