About
Daphne

My veins run with ink

I grew up in the newspaper business. Literally. My family owned a weekly newspaper and I worked there from the age of 16, eventually running the place. It was not fun, but I learned the hard lessons - about meeting deadlines, managing people, juggling tight budgets and fighting with banks.

Eventually, I escaped to the land of daily newspapers.

Why does the expression "from the frying pan to the fire" leap to mind? My first boss was a brawny Scotsman, who had hands like hams, a mind like a razor and a set of lungs like a bull. (We called him McBagpipes or the Tartan Tornado.)

More hard learning but lots of fun in the intense orbit of daily journalism. I ran the features department with 14 of the most interesting, creative people you could ever imagine. Thought I had the best job in the world.

Time for a change

Then the upstairs office called. They wanted me in corporate communications. I jumped in with some trepidation and learned to navigate those choppy waters. Talk about a challenge…. I had to sell the business message to a bunch of tough-as-nails journalists and grumpy pressmen. Producing corporate pubs for this group was like being a cobbler to a bunch of shoemakers.

That chapter wrapped up when I decided to have kids. You see, it just wasn't your typical childbirth deal. As late-blooming thirtysomethings, my husband and I discovered we were expecting triplets. Imagine the shock! The two girls and a boy were born early and healthy. But clearly it was high time for more on-the-job flexibility. Hello, self-employment....

The birth of fast

Although I'd worked in demanding, deadline-driven jobs all my life, now I had a reason to work harder and faster. Between work and home, I had enough challenges to keep me busy 43 hours a day. Suddenly, I developed tools to deal with a lifelong case of writer's block. I wrote and edited as if mainlining caffeine (while, in fact, sipping herbal tea). I produced a corporate newspaper in less than two days a week - replacing a person who'd taken five days. Without really meaning to, I had taken the skills I'd learned in daily journalism and turbocharged them for the corporate world.

How do you do that?

People started asking me: How do you do that? How do you write so fast? How do you stay so organized in a job with constant interruptions? How do you produce publications that get results? And so, the Publication Coach was born.

If you want to produce your publication faster or better, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Call me. I can help. No budget? Or simply skeptical? Subscribe to my free newsletter or check out my free articles. You'll get lots of helpful ideas - without spending a cent.