Stories That Work™ Training & Coaching

Captivating, eloquent, and plain old smart. Gerry corrected more writing mistakes in an hour than most schools do in a year.

—Devin Quinn, Acct. Supv. MR YOUTH

Gerry Lantz is a great business communications instructor. He uses his 5 CoreStory Outlines for Business Documents to shape his curriculum at multiple levels. He also draws upon his years of relevant advertising, marketing, and business experience. to create relevant and custom course materials that meet Ogilvy's learning needs.

Gerry is a fantastic presenter - he's engaging, dynamic and his courses are interactive and fun. Our employees gain very practical knowledge from his sessions that they use immediately. They also find his individual feedback on their own writing samples extremely valuable. I enjoy working with Gerry and highly recommend him as an instructor.

—Aimee Villella, Partner, Associate Director Learning & Development Ogilvy

This course captures and delivers so much writing wisdom and put it right at my fingertips. I can apply a more persuasive structure to my business writing right away. Gerry is so human and positive.

—Chris Gierlich, Director, Experience Design, DRAFTFCB

5 Stars. Best writing class I've ever taken. Gerry's presentation is clear, the content completely relevant, and his style is perfect for those who are scared to write and read in public.

—Brenda Silva, Account Executive, Ogilvy, NYC

Gerry made the entire room feel welcome and unafraid to share their work and ideas. I will now write clearer and simple emails. Gerry is persuasive, engaging and energetic.

—Jon Morgan, Copywriter, R/GA

Gerry boosted my writing confidence by arming me with the tools to deliver efficient and authentic business writing. I look forward to cutting the crap out of my emails and delivering writing in a concise and sincere manner.

—Lianne Sheffy, Acct. Exec. MR YOUTH

Gerry is very charismatic and understand the challenges and barrier to persuasive communication in business.

—Shirley Wong, Associate Director, Data Intelligence, R/GA, NY

The 5 CoreStory Outlines for Business Documents is going to vastly improve my business writing. With them, I can cut the fluff and make my communications more precise.

—Kyla Applegate, Asst. Acct. Exec. MR YOUTH

I strongly recommend Gerry Lantz to any company which wants to give itself an extra edge. Because when it comes to teaching writing skills to mid-level and senior managers, I know of no better coach and mentor than Gerry.

For us here at OgilvyOne, he has gotten rave reviews for both his advanced business writing course and his seminar on "How to Write and Manage E-mails".

The content is relevant because he uses writing samples from students' own workflow. He tailors everything and gives loads of individualized attention so that outcomes are relevant to both the student and the organization. And that's why we bring him back again and again.

—Chuck Guariglia, former Director, Career Development,OgilvyOne, NYC

I printed Gerry's "5 CoreStory Outlines for Business Documents" and have them on my wall. After applying them a couple of times, business writing, even complicated documents, became second nature. Gerry's course doesn't just cover how to write, but how to think. He teaches you how to use writing as a way to organize your thoughts.

—Gina Ciniglio, Partner, Account Supervisor, Ogilvy

Gerry taught me to think more and therefore, write less. He is down to earth, clearly someone who has been in the trenches.

—Robert Sadowski, Senior Producer, R/GA

Gerry is very in-tune with current communication needs . . . refreshing to see that someone feels our pain.

—Liz Solomon, Account Executive, Ogilvy

Gerry Lantz is excellent - smart, straight-shooter, relevant, receptive, constructive, balanced and inspirational. Have already begun to employ the learning.

—Maryanne DePresco, Partner, Management Supervisor, Ogilvy

No matter how highly you think of your writing skills, this course can spark new ideas how to them better.

—Michael Schmidt, Planner, Gotham NYC

I recommend Gerry highly. In his current role as President of Stories That Work, I have seen him run fantastic training programs on improving all facets of personal communication, from formal written recommendations or more effective e-mails. His programs are highly engaging, involving, and very well received by participants. Top Qualities: Great Results, Personable, Creative

—Mike Vaughn, former SVP, Exec. Group Director, Ogilvy & Mather

A straight-talking course that shows you how to cut through the clutter and make your point heard. Edit, edit, edit. Very personable.

—Minna Hong, Account Supervisor, Gotham NYC

I really appreciated the open yet direct and honest atmosphere. Gerry stresses "normal speak." Too often I get overly formal in business writing. I'll stop using "attached please find." I will also put the desired action right upfront. I like the one-on-one edit session on our pre-course writing sample.

—Michelle Phillips, Account Director, Gotham NYC

Gerry's class offers insightful and useful tools for those of us business profession who've gotten a little rusty and need some tuning up. The content and Gerry's style are just awesome.

—John Charles Scott, Account Supervisor, DRAFTFCB

Thank you so much. Your workshop was extremely helpful! I work in a multitude of capacities (research, new business coordination, managing our internship program and various other internal projects), so it meant a lot to me that I was able to extrapolate learnings into all areas of my unique role. I look forward to implementing your lessons.

—Lauren Durand, Strategic Planner, Momentum Worldwide, St. Louis

For many entry level associates, the transition to business writing is a difficult one. I strongly suggest Gerry's course for anyone new to the workforce.

—Blythe Green Account Exec., Ogilvy & Mather, NYC

Gerry gets you writing the second you start the course and you can see improvement immediately. He's great, engaging and obviously knows his stuff.

—Bill Ehninger, Account Supervisor, Gotham NYC

Gerry did a fantastic job of sharing his knowledge on the best way to communicate internally and to clients. He did a great job of balancing positive feedback and ways we could improve.

—Manisha Marberry, Acct. Exec. MR YOUTH

The class was engaging, entertaining, and incredibly useful. I plan on spending half the time doing twice as much four times as effectively.

—Fred Seddon, Asst. Acct. Exec. MR YOUTH

Fist pump! Engaging. Fun. Realistic.

—Noopur Shukla, Account Executive, Gotham NYC

Gerry Lantz rocks the writing game!!

—Carlene Mahanna, Creative Recruiter, R/GA, NYC

BUSINESS WRITING: THE WHAT VS. THE HOW

For most people in business, WHAT to write is not their problem — they are experts about their work, their product, or their service—

BUT, they struggle with HOW to get their messages down on paper, into an email or a presentation, or out verbally in a speech or pitch.

After writing professionally for nearly 30 years in marketing and communications and having read thousands of business documents across many industries, I am convinced there only five outlines to any business document you may want to write.

And, if you could learn these outlines, have them injected into your veins so they come out of your keyboard or pen naturally when you sit down to write, you will never struggle again with the question "how should I write this?"

Whether your purpose is to:

inform or report,
confirm or document,
analyze,
plan,
persuade,

. . .the documents that fulfill these purposes have a three-part outline, just as any story does: a beginning, middle and end.

These beginnings, middles, and ends are different and specific to each business purpose for writing. Yet, they are simple and learnable. So short and easy that all five CoreStory™ Outlines fit on a page. No matter how complex or long a document is, these five outlines can simplify your writing task.

THE STORIES THAT WORK® APPROACH TO BUSINESS WRITING IS:

relevant
customized
reinforced over time so learning "sticks."

Why?

The method is not lecture, but lots of practice. Participants write and edit early and often: before, during, and between sessions, if there are multiple sessions. Multiple sessions are recommended so learning "sticks." Skills and solutions analyzed and taught in the first session are practiced between sessions and reinforced in second or third sessions.
Training and coaching is diagnostic and remedial: moving participants from what they know and can do to what they don't know and a higher and more confident skill level.
Course content is relevant: because I take multiple consultative steps to get actual working documents from clients, so that learning occurs within the stuff that they write everyday.
Grammar, syntax, and usage is taught within the context of actual working documents: rather than as principles or as exercises in some off-the-shelf seminar.

Variable Class size based on goals:

Fifteen or fewer is ideal for the most individualized attention.
Large groups are possible, especially when the goals are tightly focused, e.g., effective emails.
Individual coaching for intensive skills development or document or presentation development and editing.

Flexible Sessions:

lunch-n-learn
half day, full day
two and three session workshops
30-60-90 Day Guaranteed Improvement Program
retained coaching, consulting and editing