Writer of Your Success Story

Spoken vs. written communication

Communication, as it springs from the ancient Latin word ‘communis,’ means sharing. The real significance of this, however, is revealed when we consider the actual habits involved in sharing. It is a known fact that,

• in spoken communication – we gain information through what we see, the image of the person we are talking to, the way she presents herself, the presence or absence of charisma, the tone of what is being said. Only 7% of the substance of communication is conveyed through words.

• in written communication – again, we do not receive content entirely through words, as even the layout of text can influence our perception. But because in formal written communication, such as with job applications, these aspects of appearance are uniform, and you will not be able to impress the reviewer with typography, we can safely say that 70 to 100% depends solely on words. That is a substantial difference as compared to speaking. There, you might, at some pivotal point, need professional help, especially at times when you cannot afford to lose, or to put the probability of a winning position at risk.

From seven…

Personally, when I, Alica Árvay, introduce myself as a communication strategy advisor, I often receive smirks in return or see blank faces. My work, you see, goes on behind the scenes, while the professionals I work with have fields of expertise that are better defined than the field of communication would seem to be. Think, for instance, of the legal profession, event production, or marketing, fields that are characterized by relatively predictable rules, set frames of reference, and distinct features.

As a communication advisor, I create unique content, while bringing new value to what is already there, giving content a whole new dimension, whatever the form. The steps of this process are clearly definable, because the core of my expertise is to understand first, how and in what ways content and various forms of writing interact, and second, how to make this interaction work toward achieving a specific goal.

So anyone thinking that this is all about embellishing is wide of the mark.

… to seventy

Saying this is tantamount to saying that all an engineer does is draw up plans, that a dentist does nothing but remove bad teeth: that all any professional does is the thing that is most obvious. Hence the image of the communicator who does nothing but embellish a piece of writing with eloquent words. Is it not high time these notions were revised a little? On the other hand, while we are never sure about what we do know, we are always sure about what we don’t. But when we start acting on something, it should be based on certainties, shouldn’t it? So which is better: your rock-solid ignorance, or your waggling, shaky, uncertain, partial knowledge?

One might start by making ignorance an asset, a step that could, when handled skillfully, prove more productive than concentrating on what you believe you know. It is easier to discover how to handle the limits of your knowledge – to learn the ropes of running a project by defining clear objectives – than to learn and know everything.

Of course, besides our rock-solid ignorance, we have our various areas of expertise on our side.

Mundane challenges that lift or damage

Although when applying for a job that pays EUR 5000/month, you will probably have a number of achievements relevant to the position, unfortunately, most applicants’ achievements will be similarly impressive.

If a cover letter is required, you will have the chance of testing your skills on slippery ground while performing your repertoire of double Lutzes, Rittberger jumps and Salchows. It is not enough to list achievements: in a cover letter, one literally performs them. If not, failure is guaranteed.

Should you assume that the mere ability of using words will be enough: that you will be able to perform these word acrobatics when you need them?

Clarity of vision

Every single piece of written material – every application form, company PR strategy, speech, article, essay, study, market research paper, publication, etc. – requires a totally different approach, and it is only with the precision of measurement and cool judgement of the engineer who handles a power outage – and only in an extraordinarily intense state of creativity – that one can start writing. I usually receive applications and papers in fully written form. Not a word is changed until both the client and I – as a team – know exactly what is behind the questions—what the real depth of the challenge is. We do not proceed until the exact thing that HR wants to know – the organization or market in question – has been infallibly identified.

It is not hollow, decorated words that will make one stand out in a crowd.

’Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid of standing still.’ Chinese proverb

Preserving complexity; the juice and the blood

Every individual written task is a great challenge.

Some people feel their achievements are undervalued in their professional community; others seek a renowned international scholarship or hope to get a prestigious job. What is important is that they do something about it – start advertising their achievements. But how?

I have read a number of introductions where people naively tried to push their achievements down the throats of fellow workers, superiors, prospective clients, or prospective co-workers. Many of us have committed such fatal errors once or twice, often with devastating effect. This is a point where a little professional assistance can come in handy, the help of someone who, at the critical point, with a little mentoring, helps you, the applicant or client, navigate the slippery ground that could finish or discredit you, causing lasting professional damage.

Apart from the problem of how to produce a truly persuasive piece of prose that adheres to the strict rules of Anglo-Saxon essay-writing, especially with regard to argumentative structure, that is pertinent to your specific field and expertise, and that fits your personality and goals, there is another difficulty.

Respect the minute, because it could shake the whole

One has to find the story the reader would construct in their own mind, the one that will land its author solidly in the category of:‘People I would like to work with’,‘People I would like to impress’,‘People who can be points of reference’.

Just imagine you are, for instance, the HR manager of a big corporation. There are a number of superb applications in front of you, offering up achievements that are both distinct, and original—so original, in fact, that they make you see the whole mass of applicants as a clamoring crowd of people, all wanting something from you. Five hundred complacent applications, all with pushy styles that tear you up.You have to choose one. There will be many that seem to fit your own requirements, but these fail to make clear or fall short in explaining how they fit exactly with your superior's requirements. You have no more than about forty seconds to decide; he or she will have even less.

One application will have to have something that distinguishes it from the others.

Feed the need

You, the reader, on the receiving end, have both a psychological, indomitable inner need for an emotional response, and a drive to feed that need.

Not only do you want to see one who is a perfect match to your requirements, but, having reviewed 500 applications, you are looking for someone who can still impress you with their human side, still enable you to resonate and connect with them in the manner of someone who lives just down the corner from where you grew up.

Sometimes achievements are put carefully in a way that allows the HR manager to understand, without a second thought, how they make the applicant capable of meeting job requirements, while also portraying a human side, one that makes you feel something specific, as if….

Arrival

… you had come home.

As HR manager, you need to identify a feature you can relate to – something that gives you that feeling of safety you experience when everything you have learned about the world so far has been comfortably underscored. And when you do, when the message has been received and the sense of homecoming fully imparted, you, the HR manager and you, the applicant – whatever role you happen to be in – experience a special connectedness, share a special moment.

This is the point where my client and I can reach the highest peak of Mount Everest, and by the time we have done so, we will have fully deserved our success, have earned the right to be winners. But now, let’s switch perspectives: you are the applicant again. And it is not me, but you who has set a goal and achieved it, you who did this thing, and only the Almighty will know what help you had along the way. Though it may have been I, who carried your pack for a while, or who pointed out that you already had the instrument you needed to grasp that rock, still, there is only one thing that counts: It is you who reached that peak.

… only to discover much later that your rock-solid ignorance has protected you as you ran amidst moving, insidious, inimical shadows toward your goal.

Tune in, be the goal

Techniques

Now, this is point where what I call ‘functional writing’ becomes art.

When all previous work experience has been discussed with the applicant in depth, every fact stripped of egocentric projection and bustling self-complacency, everything made into black-and-white fact that can withstand any test, the communication strategy advisor slowly and carefully applies colour, until the fully dissected body of writing lives and breathes – looks human – again, and a kind of professional resurrection takes place. And not only will the end result be anthropomorphic, but will also find opportunities to show the applicant’s vulnerable, human side.

However, in this, courage and diplomacy must also be exercised. All things happen for a specific purpose. We may uncover something that seems vulnerable, but, in a way, that does not put our success at risk. This kind of writing fuses engineering, psychology, analysis, empathy, strategy, and development into a single powerful tool: the written, acrobatic word as applied to the theme it explores, your special field of expertise, your uniqueness to its receiver/s, whether a single individual or an entire market.

Techniques

In analyzing, observing, and testing our perception of rules that may influence your future prospects, we are subjecting you to something along the lines of an invasive brain operation, one that, while totally reconstructive in nature, allows you to feel happier in the end; even if the cutting, truthful images that are unearthed in the process are trying and even a little painful. In the end, all parties will see your success as a forgone conclusion, because the real, true virtues of you, the applicant, lecturer, or presenter, will have become so obvious to all that there will be no question in anyone’s mind as to who is best for the job.

Until this recognition has been made and the eventuality of the applicant’s success has become obvious to all concerned, my task is not finished.

’Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.’ Albert Einstein

Ghost writers must have a list

• A talent for writing;• A keen listening ability;• A passion for quality;• The imagination to see reality in all its richness and complexity, and to connect with it;• The ability to move and breathe in synchrony with the partner;• Some minor psychic abilities: good antennae for picking up quality information from distant

locations; good intuition and instincts; and a knack for tapping into collective wisdom and various other networks;

• Competitive spirit: a fierce desire for success, even where the prey is someone else’s; and a willingness to make sacrifices in achieving goals;

• The capability of consolidating heterogeneous pieces of information into a unified platform and then turning them into a vision;

writingin discretion

’Add perfectionism’, said Rachel.

Confidential Services

Confidential services

• Acting as a communication strategy advisor for your international projects – whether for a single individual, or an entire company – and/or completing projects as a ghost writer;

• Mentoring you and/or your team toward acquiring the set of skills in one-to-one discussions that will enable you to manage critical communication issues at critical points successfully;

with Can Do Courses – please feel free to contact me either via phone or mail; send your enquiry and all necessary information will be provided

• Sniffing out B2B opportunities for your corporation – people who are aware of the advantages and master word acrobatics are better able to read between the lines and to discern things most people are perfectly blind to.

CONTACT DETAILS: +36-70-214-39-07arvay.alica@gmail.com

Can Do Courses

•’From tomorrow onward’ – a specific, intensive English language course• ’Your voice’ – strategic language consultation on any piece of writing, whether a

publication, essay, study, speech, application, project, PR document, novel, investigation, or analysis

Please feel free contact me and request a free brochure and further information on these courses.

My Brand

The core of my personal brandWhat makes me different from other ghost writers, communication experts, advisers, and specialists, corporate or private?

A wholesome disregard for the impossible. My idol is Shakespeare: not Shakespeare the playwright, but rather, Shakespeare the ultimate entrepreneur, who started his career with but little family history, yet ended up buying exquisite estates in both London and Stratford-upon-Avon, and whose properties prove the notion that words are tantamount to DEEDS, where the ’metaphysical translator’ is good, or the translator is a doer, as I am, even if at an early stage of understanding my vocation.

The list of areas in which I have written or produced – or had something to do with writing or producing (i.e. translated or edited or developed a concept) – a piece, includes all of the following: science, innovation, B2B, financing, business, market psychology, art history, literature, theater, philosophy, sociology… from the time concepts of the Australian tribes to a translation of Edwin Panofsky’s interpretation of the Tizian’ Allegory of Prudence, or to plain vanilla project management*—you name it.

If you are interested in seeing the actual pieces I have written, feel free to contact me at arvay.alica@gmail.com. *with strawberry topping and chocolate sprinkles IGÉZŐ

What I still hope to achieve…

Apart from providing good personal service to others and advocating good causes to the best of my knowledge,

I still wish… To write fiction. To do investigative journalism in European affairs. To do scientific researches. To study law and advocate for important issues, such as the protection of intellectual

property and/or human rights. To invent, to write, to reap royalties for my work, and to achieve the life-long security

necessary to continue to create, to invent, and to write on and on and on. … and …

To do something outstanding every three months, and to do it wholeheartedly.

My thanks go to

I would like to express my deep gratitude to those who have contributed to this project:

János Boris, as mentor and supervisorKatalin Szvetlána Csorba, as art director

Péter Dara, as coach and initiator of this projectDávid Harangozó, as photographer

Rachel Maltese, as editorWilliam Shakespeare, as master entrepreneur

Zsolt Venczel, as photographer

Thank you for your insights, your opinions regarding both the pros and cons of this project, your valuable testimonies, and your supportive friendship. They are warmly appreciated.

http://www.imagekind.com/venczel-posters

Contact details

Please feel free to express your comments, contact me, or request a free brochure of my communication strategy and mentoring services at arvay.alica@gmail.com.

The following links are provided for your reference:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBlPyDhivyQ&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ki_la9kBC0

Thank you for your attention!