Communication is important and persuasive writing is a skill anyone can possess. Colonel Carla Bass joins Kevin to discuss what good writing does. Good writing helps influence. This includes budget approvals, appropriation of funds, and promotions, to name a few. Carla suggests finding the fun in writing. Everyone is a storyteller; you know the journey for your audience.
Key Points
- Carla Bass discusses influence as the goal of our writing.
- She shares advice on the “right” length of the message and the importance of outlines.
- She provides word sculpting tools, like verbs are your friends and don’t use the words that hog space.
Meet Carla
- Name: Colonel Carla Bass, USAF (Ret)
- Her Story: Colonel Carla D. Bass, USAF (Ret), is the author of the multiple award-winning book Write to Influence! now in its second edition. Throughout her 45-year career (30 in the Air Force and 15 with a federal agency), she composed items sent to Congress, the White House, generals, and ambassadors; hundreds of performance reviews; awards nominations; and budget justifications. Carla’s assignments included Germany, Bulgaria (as the defense and air attaché), Turkey, Korea, and Washington, D.C.
- Worth Mentioning: As a squadron commander, Carla transformed her 480-person unit from the most losing in state-wide, professional awards into the one to beat. She developed her writing methodology and taught her troops to write. So successful was her program, she taught thousands of Air Force members for the next 15 years. Her battle cries are twofold: 1) “Powerful writing changes lives” and 2) “Powerful writing is the lifeblood of successful organizations”.
Book Recommendations
- Write to Influence!: Personnel Appraisals, Resumes, Awards, Grants, Scholarships, Internships, Reports, Bid Proposals, Web Pages, Marketing, and More by Carla Bass
- The Heist by Daniel Silva
Related Podcast Episodes