About Daphne Gray-Grant

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My veins run with ink.

Hi! My name is Daphne Gray-Grant. 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 that’s where I learned some 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 a dozen of the most interesting, creative people you could ever imagine. Thought I had the best job in the world.

Time for a change

While I was working at the daily newspaper, 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 wasn’t just 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 write  faster or better, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Call me. I can help. No budget? Or simply skeptical? Check out my blog. You’ll get lots of helpful ideas — without spending a cent. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter, which is also no charge and will give you a free copy of my special booklet on mindmapping. (See the subscribe box at the very top of my home page.)

If you have a small budget, take a look at my book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better.

If you have a little more money, you might want to consider my Extreme Writing Makeover, a popular year-long course delivered by email. Or perhaps you could sign up for some one-on-one coaching?

Whichever option you choose, I can not only help you write faster, better, I can also take a task you may dread and turn it into a pleasure.

You too can learn to write faster, better. See my contact information page or just email me directly.

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