Sue Horner is a freelance writer in Oakville, Ontario, who blogs about writing, newsletters, communications and running an independent business in The Red Jacket Diaries blog.
When you were a kid, you probably loved birthdays. Cake and presents and being king or queen for the day made you feel special, didn’t they? These days, when you hand over your birth date to marketers, they have a chance to make you feel special, too. Of course,...
Pride Month may be over, but the need for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at work is only getting stronger. Building on that idea, the theme for the June issue of the newsletter I edit for IABC/Toronto’s independent professionals was “pride and inclusion.”...
Keeping up with the famous “firehose” of information on the internet is impossible at the best of times. During the summer? Even more unlikely. So once again, I’ve collected some of the helpful tips and fascinating reading encountered on the internet and shared on...
When June winds to a close, I like to look back and see what posts drew the most readers over the previous months. A peek under the blog hood shows these were the 10 most-viewed posts this year: 1. Have you been swept up in the Wordle word craze? Like many, I’ve been...
“I’m excited to announce…” “We’re delighted to welcome…” “It’s with mixed emotions that I announce…” I’ve seen a flurry of business announcements lately that start like this, on the way to introducing a new employee or a changed role. Don’t those emotions seem a...
Part of the joy of running your own business is playing hooky on a random weekday. So it was that my husband and I spent a recent day enjoying a visit to Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) followed by a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game. For the second time, the ROM...
Safety precautions like a national marshmallow test. The spread of COVID-19 like glitter. Fighting the virus like a game of whack-a-mole. I first shared these and other pandemic analogies at the end of 2020, thinking it would be a one-time thing. Remember thinking it...
Confess – you’re spending more time than ever online. There are work events on Zoom and Teams. There are photos and messages from family and friends on Facebook and Instagram. There’s YouTube and Twitter and TikTok. And then there’s Wordle and all...
The music may live on, as Apple says, but not the devices many of us relied on before streaming music services showed up. Yes, Apple has finally discontinued the iPod. It’s not surprising, of course. What other technology from 2001 is still around? Kids, this was...
Volunteering can sometimes seem invisible, but it’s so important to running organizations like the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). And never think what you do as a volunteer isn’t noticed, even if you certainly can’t be in it for the...