Slides from a Ladies Lunch talk given on 7/18 on writing great copy on your career experience.

1. How to Successfully
Write About Your
Career Experience
Or How Not to Look Like an As$hat on Linkedin
@lanegenee

2. Good Copy Checklist
➔ Clear
➔ Authentic
➔ Story
➔ Voice

3. What about all the other
stuff?
It doesn’t matter.

4. CLEAR
If you can’t explain it simply,
you don’t understand it well
enough.

5. TIPS
Front load your copy (headlines first paragraphs
most important)
Organize your copy
Use the active voice (It is believed to believes)
Reduce wordy verbs (are suggestive to suggests)
Use expletive constructions ("It is," "There is,"
"There are") sparingly
Try to avoid using vague, all-purpose nouns
(Consumer demand is rising in the area of
services. To Consumers are demanding more
services.)
Eliminate unnecessary prepositional phrases

6. AUTHENTIC
This above all: to thine own self
be true, And it must follow, as the
night the day, Thou canst not
then be false to any (wo)man.

7. AUTHENTIC COPY
TIPS
Before you start a first draft do a braindump of
ideas
Write the first draft as if you were talking to your
BFF
Use the same words that you do in your everyday
life
Show your sense of humor. Or don’t.
Use a pen and paper :)
Read Bird by Bird

8. STORY
A story can go where quantitative analysis
is denied admission: our hearts. Data can
persuade people, but it doesn’t inspire
them to act; to do that, you need to wrap
your vision in a story that fires the
imagination and stirs the soul.

9. TIPS
Make sure your story has a conflict or obstacle
You, not KPIs, are the focus of the story
Make the specific universal
Make the reader ask: Then what?
And don’t worry about a neat ending

10. VOICE
Voice is the purposeful, consistent
expression of you through words and prose
styles that engage and motivate. It's true:
Your voice is determined, in large measure,
by the words you use and the sentences you
write.

11. TIPS
Always keep your audience in mind
Get personal
Focus on your goal
Avoid imitation
Go far and rein back in
Try writing using someone else’s voice

12. Wait.
There are some rules you
should follow.

13. NEVER DO THESE
THINGS
Use the words: ninja, rockstar, or
hardcore
Use anything close to “world’s best” or
“best in the world” (superlatives)
Write for everyone
Copy someone
Use vague language

14. What to cover in your
Linkedin Summary

15. Reading Exercise
Read the beginning of this LinkedIn summary.
“The achievement I'm most proud of didn’t start with a
business plan. It started in a dumpster.
Twenty years ago, I adopted an abandoned, crumbling
brick row-home with a group of friends at Habitat for
Humanity in Philadelphia. It was a blighted
neighborhood, seemingly beyond hope. We
collaborated with the community, working relentlessly
to take the neighborhood back, block-by-block and
house-by-house.”

16. Freewriting Exercise
Get a pen, paper and timer. Take 10 minutes to answer the questions below. Put
the pen to paper and don’t lift it up. If you complete the last question keep
writing for the whole 10 minutes.
1) Career achievement you’re most proud of (victories)
2) Best work habit (values)
3) The highest praise your boss has ever given you (validation)
4) Why your coworkers want to sit next to you (verve)
5) Something about yourself you view as a weakness, or something
that has impeded your career (the conflict or obstacle of your
story)
6) How you overcame that obstacle (valiant superpower)

17. Structuring Exercise
Take your answer to question 1) and format to match:
The achievement I am most proud of is not ______________. It is _______________.
OR
It could have started ______________. But it started with ___________________.
OR
The achievement I am most proud of didn’t start ______________. It
started__________.
Use this as your topic (first) sentence.
Example: The achievement I am most proud of didn’t start at a tech startup. It
started in Georgia politics.

18. Structuring Exercise
The next paragraph should use your answers for questions 6) and 7) to give color
to your first sentence.
Example:
The achievement I am most proud of didn’t start at a tech startup. It started in
Georgia politics.
My first marketing role was as a communications manager for a dark horse judicial
candidate.
Our opponent out spent us, had political savvy friends all over the state, and
employed a well-known PR and Communications firms to run his marketing efforts.
What he didn’t have was a driven, data-lovin’ storytelling marketer who believed in
her candidate.
Weakness:
Weakness:
lack of
pedigree
lack of
pedigree
Superpower

19. Structuring Exercise
The Fun part! Use the rest of your Freewriting exercise to come up with the the
next supporting paragraphs. Don’t exceed 225 words.
The achievement I am most proud of didn’t start at a tech startup. It started in Georgia politics.
My first marketing role was as a communications manager for a dark horse judicial candidate.
Our opponent out spent us, had political savvy friends all over the state, and employed a well-known PR and
Communications firms to run his marketing efforts. What he didn’t have was a driven, data-lovin’ storytelling
marketer who believed in her candidate.
While my current role as Marketing Director of CB Insights has taken me far from judicial campaigns, the skills I
learned that summer are still used daily.
I’m fortunate to lead a crack team at CB Insights that focuses on PR, demand generation, branding, and growth.
Our team uses a multi-channel approach to generate high value leads for our business development team...