Welcome to joefumo.com
(visit one more page than you normally would)
Day Job
Business writing consultant in the Milwaukee area since 1985. Major client for many years has been Johnson Controls, a Fortune 100 manufacturer of automotive interiors, automotive batteries and building control systems. Current projects for Johnson Controls include Request for Proposal responses, case studies and awards program support.
Here are a few samples of how I have incorporated humor and other creative approaches into serious business writing. They are from a "Creativity in Communications" workshop for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Southeastern Wisconsin chapter.
Introduction
Pretend you're someone else when editing. This is good advice for fiction writers, too. Read your draft in a foreign accent, as if you have trouble understanding English. Or pretend you're a drill sergeant who is not easily impressed. You'll see your work in a new light, and will always spot the boring stuff. And read it aloud whenever possible.
Save your creative work for the morning, unless you can concentrate better at another time of day. Do your edits or other mundane tasks in the afternoon. Put a sign on your office door or cubicle: "I like to create in the morning. Can this wait until the afternoon?"
Poke Fun at Dry Subject Matter
Everybody has a sense of humor. Even engineers and risk management folks.
Johnson Controls external newsletter
Do your pneumatic actuator a favor. Introduce it to electronic control. Once it flirts with improved accuracy, it’ll never be the same.
Snap-on Tools press release
Nuts and bolts may appear lifeless, but they're just itching for the chance to break loose. They are particularly restless when it comes to industrial environments. If they are not held in place with required torque, nuts and bolts will struggle free like Houdini in a straitjacket.
Corporate Real Estate Executive magazine
You don’t have to be a research scientist to realize there is a direct link between a thoughtfully designed building and the costs of operating the building. That’s what research scientists are for. And they are compiling a growing body of evidence that measures the financial impact of “high performance” buildings in critical areas such as increased productivity and cost savings.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield employee newsletter
Headline: It's Risky Business, but somebody has to set premiums
As phrases go, "refined risk classification" is a sleeping giant. On the surface, it would bore most people to tears. But if they realized how it affects their health insurance coverage and premium, they'd probably have some pretty strong opinions.
Personal Experience and Interests
If you inject your personal interests and experience into your subject matter, it will almost always be more lively. Sometimes you have to stretch to find the right analogy, but it's worth it. I've had lots of success weaving in music, film, soccer and other references that I enjoy to pep up mundane subject matter.
American Society for Quality speech on corporate creativity
Let me end on an entertaining note. Many of you remember The Far Side comic strip by Gary Larson. In one panel, a monster is standing on top of a hill on the outskirts of town. He's reading a sign on a tree that says, "You must be taller than this sign to attack the city."
It looks like the monster is a bit short. Is he going to obey the rules of mankind, or attack the city anyway? Can the monster even read the sign? We don't know. The reader, like the monster, is in a state of uncertainty. But one thing is certain: the longer the monster waits to decide, the better chance the city will have to defend itself.
If your organization is the city below, you will need to think creatively and act quickly to defend yourself. If your organization is the monster, poised to capture greater market share, you will need to think more creatively and act more quickly than your competitors. In either scenario, I'm sure you will emerge from these learning sessions better prepared to act decisively and appropriately in any circumstance.
Johnson Controls employee newsletter
Don't be shocked if you see this football score a few years from now: University of Florida 112, Florida Gulf Coast University 3. Florida is currently building its 10th state university. The four-year institution in Fort Myers may be the only new college currently under construction in North America. And Johnson Controls will be supplying a Metasys system to keep students and faculty comfortable.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield employee newsletter
The Top 20 is usually associated with hit songs or college football rankings. But it's equally convenient for telling which health care diagnoses are the most common. Even more important than the numbers are the factors that explain why a diagnosis (or diagnoses-related group, DRG), makes the list.
Change of Environment / Imagine the Future or Past
A change of environment can help spark creativity. I get some of my best ideas while walking the dog. Beethoven and Mahler often brought notebooks with them as they walked through the woods, and jotted down musical ideas.
Freelancers can work in their back yard, living room, beach, park or the public library for a few hours. When I worked for a corporation, I would run off to the Legal Library for peace and quiet. Try the employee cafeteria after lunch is over, or a conference room if it's not booked.
For a creative opening sentence or paragraph, conjure up images of the ideal, the past or the future – and then compare the subject at hand to these images.
Briggs & Stratton brochure (Ideal)
Picture the perfect lawnmower engine. Briggs & Stratton did, and the result leaves very little to the imagination. Quantum combines optimal power and easy starting with an unprecedented reduction in noise.
Johnson Controls employee newsletter (Future)
Peek inside the Tillsonburg, Ontario Headrest Plant and you will see the future of foam. It is our first location to use a new pour-in-place technology, where foam chemicals are poured into headrest covers that have already been sown.
Wisconsin Electric newspaper supplement on power plant expansion (Past)
Step back half a century or so and draw a mental picture of industry at work. Your head is probably full of clanking and thumping, whirring and hissing, zipping and zapping. And you've no doubt littered the landscape with smokestacks spewing their plumes all over town, lining windowsills with ashes.
Maybe it used to be that way, but my, how times have changed. The continuous march of technology, along with increasingly stringent government regulations, have teamed up to make sure that image stays where it belongs - in your mind. Pleasant Prairie is one of the best examples of business doing all it can to keep the air and water - and noises - as close to natural levels as possible.
Consider the Reader, or End-User
Always think of the end-user of your work, especially when you're in a rut. Pretend that your article is competing for the reader's attention with Time magazine or the daily newspaper. That's one of the best pieces of advice I ever received.
Instead of a Q&A or anecdotal lead, determine what's the most important thing you want to communicate. How would you interest your mother? "Mom, guess what? Briggs & Stratton is putting tomorrow's technology to work for you today by combining optimal power and easy starting with an unprecedented reduction in noise. Mom? Mom? Hello?" Or: "Mom, step back half a century or so and draw a mental picture of industry at work."
New York Telephone employee magazine
Fast as the speed of light.
As thin as a human hair.
Able to leap great distances without a repeater signal.
Does any of this ring a bell? If you’re at all in tune with the fascinating world of telephone transmission, chances are you can associate these marvels with fiber optics.
Snap-on Tools press release
When you work with your hands for a living, the last thing you need is a sore wrist, hand or finger. And yet these little annoyances cause lost work time for employees and headaches for employers. If we can send a man to the moon, why can't we help mechanics here on earth?
Science has heard the cry and has sent one of its branches – ergonomics – to the rescue. The result? Many tools for the professional mechanic are now being redesigned to minimize stress and fatigue that come with repeated or awkward use of hand tools.
National Kitchen & Bath Association magazine
Mark Brady wants to get on with his life. And he wants the same for his kitchen and bath clients, who find it difficult to thoroughly research the overwhelming array of products in the marketplace. Brady figures that if he can compress the decision-making cycle, he'll secure more business - and his clients can move into their dream spaces much sooner.
His solution is both innovative and classy. And yet it's very simple: He chauffeurs his clients to six showrooms in a single day for an Exploratory Shopping Cruise. Ten hours and 175 miles later, they have plenty of samples, literature, photos and notes to take back home and begin making decisions.
Here are a few samples of how I have incorporated humor and other creative approaches into serious business writing. They are from a "Creativity in Communications" workshop for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Southeastern Wisconsin chapter.
Introduction
Pretend you're someone else when editing. This is good advice for fiction writers, too. Read your draft in a foreign accent, as if you have trouble understanding English. Or pretend you're a drill sergeant who is not easily impressed. You'll see your work in a new light, and will always spot the boring stuff. And read it aloud whenever possible.
Save your creative work for the morning, unless you can concentrate better at another time of day. Do your edits or other mundane tasks in the afternoon. Put a sign on your office door or cubicle: "I like to create in the morning. Can this wait until the afternoon?"
Poke Fun at Dry Subject Matter
Everybody has a sense of humor. Even engineers and risk management folks.
Johnson Controls external newsletter
Do your pneumatic actuator a favor. Introduce it to electronic control. Once it flirts with improved accuracy, it’ll never be the same.
Snap-on Tools press release
Nuts and bolts may appear lifeless, but they're just itching for the chance to break loose. They are particularly restless when it comes to industrial environments. If they are not held in place with required torque, nuts and bolts will struggle free like Houdini in a straitjacket.
Corporate Real Estate Executive magazine
You don’t have to be a research scientist to realize there is a direct link between a thoughtfully designed building and the costs of operating the building. That’s what research scientists are for. And they are compiling a growing body of evidence that measures the financial impact of “high performance” buildings in critical areas such as increased productivity and cost savings.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield employee newsletter
Headline: It's Risky Business, but somebody has to set premiums
As phrases go, "refined risk classification" is a sleeping giant. On the surface, it would bore most people to tears. But if they realized how it affects their health insurance coverage and premium, they'd probably have some pretty strong opinions.
Personal Experience and Interests
If you inject your personal interests and experience into your subject matter, it will almost always be more lively. Sometimes you have to stretch to find the right analogy, but it's worth it. I've had lots of success weaving in music, film, soccer and other references that I enjoy to pep up mundane subject matter.
American Society for Quality speech on corporate creativity
Let me end on an entertaining note. Many of you remember The Far Side comic strip by Gary Larson. In one panel, a monster is standing on top of a hill on the outskirts of town. He's reading a sign on a tree that says, "You must be taller than this sign to attack the city."
It looks like the monster is a bit short. Is he going to obey the rules of mankind, or attack the city anyway? Can the monster even read the sign? We don't know. The reader, like the monster, is in a state of uncertainty. But one thing is certain: the longer the monster waits to decide, the better chance the city will have to defend itself.
If your organization is the city below, you will need to think creatively and act quickly to defend yourself. If your organization is the monster, poised to capture greater market share, you will need to think more creatively and act more quickly than your competitors. In either scenario, I'm sure you will emerge from these learning sessions better prepared to act decisively and appropriately in any circumstance.
Johnson Controls employee newsletter
Don't be shocked if you see this football score a few years from now: University of Florida 112, Florida Gulf Coast University 3. Florida is currently building its 10th state university. The four-year institution in Fort Myers may be the only new college currently under construction in North America. And Johnson Controls will be supplying a Metasys system to keep students and faculty comfortable.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield employee newsletter
The Top 20 is usually associated with hit songs or college football rankings. But it's equally convenient for telling which health care diagnoses are the most common. Even more important than the numbers are the factors that explain why a diagnosis (or diagnoses-related group, DRG), makes the list.
Change of Environment / Imagine the Future or Past
A change of environment can help spark creativity. I get some of my best ideas while walking the dog. Beethoven and Mahler often brought notebooks with them as they walked through the woods, and jotted down musical ideas.
Freelancers can work in their back yard, living room, beach, park or the public library for a few hours. When I worked for a corporation, I would run off to the Legal Library for peace and quiet. Try the employee cafeteria after lunch is over, or a conference room if it's not booked.
For a creative opening sentence or paragraph, conjure up images of the ideal, the past or the future – and then compare the subject at hand to these images.
Briggs & Stratton brochure (Ideal)
Picture the perfect lawnmower engine. Briggs & Stratton did, and the result leaves very little to the imagination. Quantum combines optimal power and easy starting with an unprecedented reduction in noise.
Johnson Controls employee newsletter (Future)
Peek inside the Tillsonburg, Ontario Headrest Plant and you will see the future of foam. It is our first location to use a new pour-in-place technology, where foam chemicals are poured into headrest covers that have already been sown.
Wisconsin Electric newspaper supplement on power plant expansion (Past)
Step back half a century or so and draw a mental picture of industry at work. Your head is probably full of clanking and thumping, whirring and hissing, zipping and zapping. And you've no doubt littered the landscape with smokestacks spewing their plumes all over town, lining windowsills with ashes.
Maybe it used to be that way, but my, how times have changed. The continuous march of technology, along with increasingly stringent government regulations, have teamed up to make sure that image stays where it belongs - in your mind. Pleasant Prairie is one of the best examples of business doing all it can to keep the air and water - and noises - as close to natural levels as possible.
Consider the Reader, or End-User
Always think of the end-user of your work, especially when you're in a rut. Pretend that your article is competing for the reader's attention with Time magazine or the daily newspaper. That's one of the best pieces of advice I ever received.
Instead of a Q&A or anecdotal lead, determine what's the most important thing you want to communicate. How would you interest your mother? "Mom, guess what? Briggs & Stratton is putting tomorrow's technology to work for you today by combining optimal power and easy starting with an unprecedented reduction in noise. Mom? Mom? Hello?" Or: "Mom, step back half a century or so and draw a mental picture of industry at work."
New York Telephone employee magazine
Fast as the speed of light.
As thin as a human hair.
Able to leap great distances without a repeater signal.
Does any of this ring a bell? If you’re at all in tune with the fascinating world of telephone transmission, chances are you can associate these marvels with fiber optics.
Snap-on Tools press release
When you work with your hands for a living, the last thing you need is a sore wrist, hand or finger. And yet these little annoyances cause lost work time for employees and headaches for employers. If we can send a man to the moon, why can't we help mechanics here on earth?
Science has heard the cry and has sent one of its branches – ergonomics – to the rescue. The result? Many tools for the professional mechanic are now being redesigned to minimize stress and fatigue that come with repeated or awkward use of hand tools.
National Kitchen & Bath Association magazine
Mark Brady wants to get on with his life. And he wants the same for his kitchen and bath clients, who find it difficult to thoroughly research the overwhelming array of products in the marketplace. Brady figures that if he can compress the decision-making cycle, he'll secure more business - and his clients can move into their dream spaces much sooner.
His solution is both innovative and classy. And yet it's very simple: He chauffeurs his clients to six showrooms in a single day for an Exploratory Shopping Cruise. Ten hours and 175 miles later, they have plenty of samples, literature, photos and notes to take back home and begin making decisions.
Life before becoming a business writing consultant in 1985...
Public Relations
New York Telephone, New York City (1983-85)
Editor of 32-page monthly employee newspaper with staff of three full-time writers. Other projects included speechwriting, brochure production and audio/visual scripts.
Freelance Writer, New York City (1981-83)
Speechwriting, brochure copy and more for Equitable Life. Product releases and trade show press kits for Nissen-Lie Consult, a Scandinavian PR agency with a New York office.
Carl Byoir & Associates, New York City (1980-81)
Associate on the Emery Air Freight account for the nation's third largest PR agency at the time. Duties included press kits, news releases, media contact and editing worldwide employee newsletter.
Newspaper Reporting
The Herald-News, Passaic, NJ (1978-80)
Feature writer and county government reporter for this 75,000 circulation daily newspaper.
Beloit Daily News, Beloit, WI (1978)
Police/court reporter for this 19,000 circulation daily newspaper. Also wrote features and opinion columns.
The Mauston Star, Mauston, WI (1976-78)
Sole reporter and photographer for this twice-weekly newspaper. Generated all story ideas and wrote a weekly humor column.
Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from University of Wisconsin-Madison (1976).
Public Relations
New York Telephone, New York City (1983-85)
Editor of 32-page monthly employee newspaper with staff of three full-time writers. Other projects included speechwriting, brochure production and audio/visual scripts.
Freelance Writer, New York City (1981-83)
Speechwriting, brochure copy and more for Equitable Life. Product releases and trade show press kits for Nissen-Lie Consult, a Scandinavian PR agency with a New York office.
Carl Byoir & Associates, New York City (1980-81)
Associate on the Emery Air Freight account for the nation's third largest PR agency at the time. Duties included press kits, news releases, media contact and editing worldwide employee newsletter.
Newspaper Reporting
The Herald-News, Passaic, NJ (1978-80)
Feature writer and county government reporter for this 75,000 circulation daily newspaper.
Beloit Daily News, Beloit, WI (1978)
Police/court reporter for this 19,000 circulation daily newspaper. Also wrote features and opinion columns.
The Mauston Star, Mauston, WI (1976-78)
Sole reporter and photographer for this twice-weekly newspaper. Generated all story ideas and wrote a weekly humor column.
Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from University of Wisconsin-Madison (1976).
