Global Communications: Skills, Strategies & Storytelling Across Four Continents - My Life As An International Journalist (Introduction)

One of the greatest challenges we face in life, practically every day - whether we're conscious of it or not - is this: How do I communicate most effectively? Or most persuasively? Or most impactfully? Or even, most memorably?

That’s why I wouldn’t want you to mistakenly think that this book is exclusively for aspiring International Journalists or Global Communicators. As you’ll see in Chapter XX, my four-step, who-what-why-how formula to Strategic Communications would benefit anyone, in any scenario.

Over the years, I’ve grown increasingly impassioned about the challenge of how to impact any audience. Sharing my approach with first students, then professionals. Anyone who seeks a clear, logical system for how to effectively engage and persuade an audience. Especially, foreign audiences.

I needed to get it all in writing, in a single, online clearinghouse. Thus, this two-volume package.

Meanwhile, I’ve also noted over the years that no other book has been written on these topics. Particularly, one that uses my approach: share skills and strategies in a practical, applicable way. Then, illustrate it all with real-life, on-the-ground examples: my stories, my projects, my products.

That helped inspire me to write this two-volume book: as a do-it-yourself manual that will coach you, step-by-step – in easy-to-follow detail – through the entire process of how exactly to produce this sort of effective, persuasive content. With full explanation of my rationale behind each skill and strategy.

But that’s not all: this opus is one part textbook, one part memoir, one part travelogue.

I chronicle my journey from a young American newspaper reporter to Central Europe, out to Hong Kong, down to Southern Africa, over to Beijing, and now back in New York. I present this teaching-guide through the prism of how I learned and honed my skillset, then applied and shared it elsewhere.

Beyond the journalistic sojourn, and meticulously detailed toolbox, I illustrate it with my own “Case Studies” – scores of my own articles, essays and photos, produced and published along the way.

In fact, this digital e-book actually spans three specialized fields: International Journalism, International Education and Global Communications. Depending on your interests and perspective, you could even add two more fields: International Storytelling and Professional Development.

That’s what you’ll find on the pages of this one-of-a-kind, how-to guide. That said, before I launch into the nuts-and-bolts learning and storytelling that fills these pages, let me use this Introduction to explain more about why exactly this digital guidebook is so meaningful. Specifically:

1) How you would benefit, personally and professionally, from sharpening soft skills like these.

2) The 18 categories of audience I’ve identified, who might benefit most from my Method.

3) Why this specific book should exist, in our increasingly globalized, inter-connected world.

4) How this book compares with the “competition” out there.

5) The book’s 12 most unique features, which comprise the foundation of my MJ Method.

6) The 25 core skills and strategies that you’ll be able to apply to your daily work-life.

7) My motivations for writing this book.

8) How I’ve written and structured this book.

?Do You Communicate Impactfully?

?This book isn’t a Diary – as if written for my eyes only. It’s for an audience. To impact as wide an audience as possible. With that goal in mind, I should identify where exactly lies my audience’s self-interest, if I have any chance that they’ll consume whatever content I’m peddling.

You yourself may have already thought that:

Why should I read this book? Can it benefit me? How?

This is another essential element for how to hit our target with the most effective, persuasive Communications: Consider our audience. As I write in Chapter XX, we should think through who exactly our audience is, why they’re here, how they might benefit, how to give them a reason to stay, and so on.

Let me then lay out the many ways in which I think this book can benefit you.

We all communicate, every day. Regardless of if we communicate as an individual or as an organization. Whether our audience is family or friends, teachers or bosses, colleagues or clients, customers or critics. No matter if it’s an audience of 1 or 100. Oral or written. Face-to-face or remote.

When communicating, we all strive for impact, in some form. Aiming to influence our audience, consciously or subconsciously. Who doesn’t want to convince others, of our viewpoint’s validity? Who doesn’t want to persuade them toward our way of thinking? To score points, or even win an argument?

At the same time, too many of us in modern, high-tech communication are intoxicated by the novelty of innovation: The shiny “bells and whistles” of the online world, emphasizing style over substance. Substance, though, is key to sustainability. Quality content must prevail over the superficial.

This book will show that when it comes to communicating content, we can pack a punch that combines substance and stylistic delivery. It’s not easy to achieve impact with words alone. It’d be one thing if our target-audience were gullible, even sheep-like. However, it’s far more difficult if our target is smart, yet skeptical. (More about their traits in Chapter XX: Audience Psychology.)

My question for you, Dear Reader, is: How well do you communicate? How effectively? How persuasively? How memorably? Even if you think “I’m a darn good communicator,” how to measure if we’ve truly achieved our desired impact? Even if we are good at it, isn’t there room to improve?

Beyond our daily, personal interactions, experts agree that Communication skills are among the most important to possess in today’s job-market. They’re more than soft skills, but survival skills.

?On a more self-interested note, we should appreciate how employers are positively influenced by a candidate’s website, when they research us. According to Forbes : “… 56% of all hiring managers are more impressed by a candidate’s personal website than any other personal branding tool.”?

?I’ll explain some effective strategies for creating content on our personal-professional website in Chapter XX: Building My Brand and Chapter XX: Building Your Brand.

Moreover, in our increasingly globalized world, more employers demand that we arm ourselves with sufficient skills to communicate with foreigners . Effectively and persuasively, in various venues, through assorted platforms. Whether it’s externally, among strangers, or internally, among colleagues.

?The objective, though, is essentially the same: to positively impact the audience.

?With foreigners, however, I’ve learned there’s a greater degree of difficulty. It’s challenging enough to achieve effective, persuasive impact with a domestic audience – our compatriots, who reside within the confines and familiarity of our society. They immediately grasp the cultural context.

However, it’s far more challenging to impact a foreign audience from an alien culture. Sometimes directly, in person. But more often, indirectly: via Zoom-meetings, websites, social-media channels, and other content posted online. Typically, of course, it’s in English, as our lingua franca.

Be aware, though: When aiming our words at smart-but-skeptical foreigners – to tout our personal brand, or to promote the products or services of a company, organization, government agency, etc. – this is no ordinary communication. Cultural context is lacking. Relevant details are needed.

That helps to create urgency for the specialized skillset I illuminated in the Prologue[MJ1]? and share throughout this e-book: Where International Journalism meets Global Communications. If we hope to achieve any lasting impact,we must also overcome the hurdles of cross-cultural communication.

Don’t just take my word for it. Global, intergovernmental organizations like the United Nations and World Bank increasingly turn to “storytelling” as an effective way to touch their audiences.

?After my UNICEF-Lesotho gig[MJ2]?, I observed that UN agencies weren’t alone in their need for more effective and persuasive Cross-Cultural Communications. Every company, organization and government agency can benefit from what I call Strategic Storytelling – since they all reach out and attempt to influence their target-audiences. Sometimes, a local audience. But more often, a foreign audience.

Throughout the not-for-profit world, more activists are embracing the use of journalism-style Communications for Development as a profound way to illuminate dry, data-driven content.?

?Meanwhile, it’s clear from surfing around that any globally-minded entity around the world now has – or realizes they need – a second website. In English, in addition to one in their mother-tongue.

Across the business world, more and more companies also embrace terms like Corporate Storytelling and Executive Storytelling – as a way to humanize their enterprise and resonate with foreign audiences. There’s evidence that it works: Studies suggest that corporate storytelling that reflects an organization’s authentic values not only resonates with millennials , but can build brand loyalty .

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My Own Target-Audience

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For all these Communicators – and the organizations in need of Global Communications – at whom are they taking aim? For whom do they disseminate content via their websites, social-media channels, PPTs, and other platforms? At us, the foreign audience. Faraway consumers of their content.

We could be … foreign donors, partners, investors, shareholders, customers, clients, diplomats, government leaders, state officials, bureaucrats, activists, media, researchers, random readers, and so many others. That’s why more and more embrace this journalistic form of Communications. (It also explains why so many are hiring current and former journalists, for their storytelling skills.)

Individuals are embracing this style, too. Whether we have professional, brand-building, activist, hobbyist or other aspirations. Humanized, evidence-driven content often resonates with an audience.

As I wrote portions of this book in 2020, 2021 and 2022, I applied this Method to every new professional challenge I faced. It didn’t matter whether the task was related to media, Communications or education – via strategic consulting, content-creation or teaching-training.

The key questions for me to think through were: How effectively does the content inform and educate them? Or persuade them? Inspire them? Does it open their eyes, touch their heart, alter their attitude? Or convince them to change behaviors?

That’s why this two-volume book toolkit can benefit a wide audience: it illuminates both sides of the equation – for anyone who dips their toe into the realm of cross-cultural communications.

Judge for yourself, of course. But since I began teaching International Journalism in 2003, then expanded into Global Communications a decade later, my method has proven itself, time and again. With professionals and students, on four continents. With native and non-native English-speakers, alike.

Here, then, is the range of people[MJ3]? whom I believe would benefit from this guidebook:

1)???? Anyone who writes for, or otherwise communicates with, an audience beyond their borders.

2)???? Any employee of an internationally-minded company, organization or government agency.

3)???? Any owner, CEO or entrepreneur who promotes their product or service to a foreign audience.

4)???? Freelancers building their own brand, who’d like to promote their own “product” to foreigners.

5)???? Professionals already in Communications, looking to develop new skills or sharpen existing skills.

6)???? Professionals in domestic Communications, angling to break into Global Communications.

7)???? Professionals in Global Communications, seeking ways to produce more impactful content.

8)???? Any job-seeker needing valuable, marketable, career-enhancing skills – to survive, if not thrive.

9)???? Job-seekers seeking Communications-related jobs, who need professional-development skills.

10)? Students who aspire to work in any branch of Global Communications or International Media.

11)? International educators who teach students of the need to interact impactfully with the world.

12)? Local educators teaching their students new skills in written or visual Global Communications.

13)? International businesspeople and others who blog about clients/partners/projects in the field.

14)? Foreign-aid activists who hope to raise awareness of vital issues, through stories from the field.

15)? Experts, scientists, researchers who globally promote their analysis, research, innovation, etc.

16)? Domestic journalists who want to branch into foreign reporting or international storytelling.

17)? Local commentators who want to write effectively about their country, for a global audience.

18)? Writers, travelers and others who write/blog about their homeland, overseas adventures, etc.

19)? Communicators illuminating their company’s effort to achieve Sustainability, ESG or DEI goals.

20)? Communicators illuminating a non-profit’s progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.

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The Ideal Companion Guide

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I’ve already stated my case for why to publish this two-volume book: this skillset is in demand, yet no other guidebook like it exists. Now let me describe the competition.

Needless to say, I’m not the first to discover the crossover benefits of a journalist applying their extensive skillset to Communications: We find former journalists scattered throughout the ranks of Communication officers at companies, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, etc.

In fact, it’s a common lateral move for journalists – as all those operations appreciate the skillset we bring to the table. I even recall a Journalism Professor of mine at the University of Missouri who once informed us: If money becomes a greater priority than passion, you should consider Communications.

That said, I may be the first to ever blend International Journalism with Global Communications, then develop this unique hybrid into a full-blown methodology. (Even a curriculum.) At least, I seem to be the first to put it all in writing. Detecting a gap on the bookshelves, this is my response.

Yes, I’ve researched the competition. Online, we find an impressive array of books in the vicinity of mine. If you surf through the seemingly bottomless collection on Amazon.com , searching for key phrases like International Journalism or Global Communications, you’ll certainly find plenty of scholarly-style books on topics like global media systems, global communications, and the work of foreign correspondents. Also, specific fields like audience psychology, marketing, even storytelling in business.

Typically, they’re produced by subject-specific experts or academics, who research and analyze the industry from afar, perhaps interviewing those “on the frontlines” to create insightful Case Studies.

For example, International Journalism: Critical Texts studies the work of Foreign Correspondents, yet its primary focus is the “imperialism, post-colonialism and commercialization, whose vestiges today are all too apparent.” A book like Foreign Correspondents and International Newsgathering: The Role of Fixers highlights – by way of Case Studies – how local staff hired in certain hot-spots, by major foreign media, can shape the news coverage we consume back home. (I myself touch on this in Chapter XX, where I re-publish two chapters I wrote for a European guidebook in 2015.)

A closer example is Global Journalism: An Introduction , which offers students a textbook that’s a “truly comprehensive overview of international journalism and global news reporting in the digital age.” It also “surveys the full variety of contexts that journalists around the world operate in; the challenges and pressures they face; their journalistic practices; and the wider theoretical and social implications.”

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However, I myself am writing “from the frontlines,” about my own professional experiences. In the eyewitness first-person, not remote third-person. Moreover, no other book offers something like my collection of “global soft-skills.” Especially, a practical, how-to guide to honing those skills. Until now.

On the other hand, when searching Amazon for books listed under Global Communications , we find a wider range of offerings. Theoretical tomes like Global Communication help “readers understand the thinkers, concepts and questions in this changing landscape.” A text like Intercultural Communication for Global Business is at least more practical for managers; it’s “Grounded in the need for building awareness and knowledge, practicing mindfulness, and then working on skill development.”

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Coincidentally, one of the closest comparables was written by two faculty at the University of Missouri: Cross-Cultural Journalism and Strategic Communications: Storytelling and Diversity .

This book, according to the blurb, “prepares readers to write about and communicate with people of different backgrounds, offering real-world examples of how to practice excellent journalism and strategic communication that takes culture into account.” Most significant is that this book was the foundation of “one of the first required journalism-diversity courses in the country.”

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Beyond their unique objective, though, the most obvious difference between their book and mine is that mine focuses almost exclusively on how to produce cross-cultural journalism internationally.

Then there’s my guidebook’s practicality. Aimed at students and professionals alike, it offers the value of Professional Development. You need no previous experience in Journalism or Communications. Simply a curiosity and open-mindedness to follow The MJ Method. Later, maybe the courage to try it.

In conclusion, my e-book would be an excellent companion to any of the books described above.

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What Makes This Book Unique?

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Because I believe in the uniqueness of my how-to guide, let me highlight what publishers often request: What are this book’s most unique features? I’ve identified at least one dozen[MJ4]? features contained on these pages, which also distinguish the Intellectual Property of my Method from others:

1) Audience Psychology & Empathy. My analysis and strategies for how to engage consumers of our content; editors who may publish us; employers who may hire us; people we seek to interview; etc.

2) My Four-Step Formula. A recipe for all Strategic Communications and Effective Messaging.

3) The Intersection of Self-Interests. Diagram on how to “push the right button” of our audience.

4) The Circle-Out Strategy. How to identify the most relevant research, sources, locations, etc.

5) The Darwinian Storyteller. My interview & storytelling technique to extract relevant context.

6) The Fork in the Road. My interviewing-storytelling strategy to prove an organization’s impact.

7) The Diamond. My story structure for how to pull in our audience – and keep them there.

8) A Template for interview-requests. Establish our credibility, then persuade others to speak.

9) A Strategy to launch a freelance career. Especially for those who want to venture overseas.

10) A Strategy to build your own brand. Particularly, by growing our evidence-based platform.

11) A Strategy to protect ourselves from Fake News. Skills of Media Literacy and Critical Thinking.

12) A Strategy to write “winning” Personal Essays. For foreigners applying to U.S. universities.

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Moreover, this book will enhance your knowledge and marketable skills in these 26 spheres[MJ5]?:

1)???? How to communicate more effectively with foreigners, individually and organizationally.

2)???? Key differences between domestic Communications and international Communications.

3)???? Key differences between International Journalism and Global Communications.

4)???? Understanding the “two types” of foreign audiences – and which is our preferred target.

5)???? Why your greatest challenge to reaching this audience is actually “existential.”

6)???? Identifying the “intersection” of self-interests – ours and theirs – and how to hit that target.

7)???? My Ladder of Communications, showing the levels of impact – and which are more difficult.

8)???? Why empathy and “humanized, evidence-based” content are keys to achieving impact.

9)???? How to craft an effective, persuasive message, to give our audience “a reason to care.”

10)? The crucial principle of why we should always “show, not tell” our audience.

11)? How to polish rough ideas into compelling, convincing Communications content.

12)? How to “connect dots” between our narrow topic and a broader issue, industry, trend, etc.

13)? How to highlight an issue’s “movement” or trend, to make our content more impactful.

14)? How to identify a “timely hook,” for why our audience should pay attention today.

15)? How to “open a window” onto an entire country, where our topic/issue/story occurs.

16)? How to deepen our content, with relevant context and necessary historical background.

17)? How to support our core messages, with relevant research and “credible evidence.”

18)? How and why to “humanize” our content, with the voices and experiences of real people.

19)? Interviewing skills to draw out someone’s thoughts, feelings, inspirations, motivations.

20)? Impactful writing that contains the most relevant facts, details, anecdotes, insights, etc.

21)? How to identify which are the most “relevant” facts, details, anecdotes, insights, etc.

22)? Several storytelling styles that weave together messages, evidence, context and anecdotes.

23)? Steps of advanced preparation, to ensure our writing is clear, coherent, cogent, compelling.

24)? A writing-video-PPT story-structure to pull our audience in – and hold them until the end.

25)? How to write storytelling introductions that are colorful, humanizing, dramatic and relevant.

26)? How to proofread like professionals, to ensure our writing is in the best possible condition.

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My Motivations

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I preach to my students the need for Media Literacy – crucially, our need to gauge the credibility of any information source. Because I’m no hypocrite, I’ll hold myself to the same standard.

My credibility for presenting this skills-centric book starts with that I’m uniquely positioned to do so: As a Foreign Correspondent, Visiting Professor and Communications Consultant who’s lived and worked in America, Europe, Africa and China. Credible evidence of this is published in each chapter.

As I’ll soon show, I developed my journalistic skillset when writing for mainstream media like the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, then publications such as Foreign Policy magazine; Harvard’s Nieman Reports; French news agency Agence France-Presse; South Africa’s?Mail & Guardian; and many others. Along the way, I taught, trained and applied it to many forms of Global Communications.

Admittedly, it’s rare for a journalist to reveal his toolkit – exposing how exactly the sausage is made – and to share his Intellectual Property with others. (Again, nearly all the books described above were produced as scholarship, by academics on a university faculty. Not by practitioners like me.)

So, why am I doing it? Michael, are you sharing this from the goodness of your heart? What’s in it for you? As you’ve probably surmised, I’m not doing this purely out of altruism. Nor is this just an ego-trip for me. Or driven by some deluded belief that this e-book will go viral, earning me millions of bucks.

Instead, it’s partly a biography of my career’s first quarter-century, which I chronicled for my children. (And future grandchildren.) As I wrote in the Dedication.[MJ6]? Moreover, while it captures all I’ve learned about my profession, I include broader lessons about life, humanity and human psychology.

Second, it’s a teaching and training tool. For people like you – and all those categories identified above. But it’s also for my students and trainees, today and in the future. As an archive and repository of all my skills, strategies and illuminating examples. There’ll be no need to continually “reinvent the wheel,” when I can easily refer my protégés to specific sections – whenever the need arises.

Third, I’ll candidly admit: This digital book is a fundamental component of my own brand-building strategy. Even if no one purchases it, the mere fact I can now approach prospective clients with a link to this e-book should further elevate my career and credibility – as a teacher, trainer, professor, Communications guru, consultant, coach, writer, curriculum developer, guest speaker, and so on.

There’s something impressive about the title of Author that can hoist a person’s reputation.

In short, this two-volume package proves that I’m as good as I say I am – which is a fundamental Communications challenge for all of us. Anyone can claim they’re good at something. But how to prove it? (I explain this need in greater detail in Chapter XX: Freelancing and Chapter XX: Build Your Brand.)

Frankly, branding is also what spurred me to name the MJ Method. Yes, the initials are mine. I was partly inspired by my alma mater – the University of Missouri School of Journalism – which is home to the venerable Missouri Method of journalism. In light of my unusual career trajectory, and uniquely diverse toolkit, I’ve adapted that name to mine.

Immodest? Yes. But I believe you should absolutely do the same: If one day you also “discover” a fresh product, which works well for others, then plant a flag in your Intellectual Property. Claim it as your own. If for no other reason, to promote your “product.” (Again, more on this in Chapter XX.)

In my case, I merely discovered one path toward conquering a great intellectual challenge. To reiterate: How to communicate as effectively and persuasively as possible? How to emotionally and intellectually engage, then impact, an audience? Especially a smart-but-skeptical foreign audience?

A unique challenge requires a unique solution. This two-volume book is my solution.

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How This Book “Works”

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Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that I believe mine is the only solution ought there. But if there is, I’ve yet to find anything more impactful than this potent combination of what I see as audience-centric, message-based, evidence-driven, humanized content.

That’s a mouthful, I know. Each element is complex individually, not to mention how to mix it all into a coherent “story.” If this seems intimidating, let me reassure you: While I’m an International Journalist at heart, I’m also a teacher who enjoys teaching my craft. Especially to a receptive audience.

One of my favorite pieces of wisdom is: You can lead a horse to water, but can’t make him drink.

As a Communicator, as well, what I sincerely want is to positively impact my audience as much as possible. With that in mind, I’d summarize my holistic pedagogy in six words:

1) Demystify what some may find mysterious or intimidating. Simplify how the process works.

2) Illuminate the process, by showing how I learned it myself. Then lead viewers step by step.

3) Illustrate with real examples, from me and others. Show-don’t-tell how my techniques work.

4) Empower readers, by arming you with practical skills. To produce such content for yourself.

5) Inspire the audience with a method that’s easily applicable. Encourage you to try it yourself.

6) Reinforce the lessons with a handful of relevant exercises. For you to practice on your own.

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In this first volume, too, my approach is to demystify the entire process, simplify each step, explain every skill, and detail the precise strategy behind it. In effect, to lead you by the hand, slowly and deliberately – to show you how exactly to do it. And why exactly I believe you should do it that way.

To deepen the impact, I illustrate it all with countless examples – primarily my own articles and dispatches, but also some from students and trainees who applied my Method to their own storytelling and content-creation. I even reinforce the lessons with a few exercises, for you to try it yourself.

Demystify-and-simplify are crucial first steps: ideally, they enable you to follow my precise process, like an IKEA instruction manual to build furniture. The only way I can think to do that is to show-not-tell how a relatively ordinary guy like me was able to learn all these skills and strategies for myself.

That’s why the book opens with two chapters of relevant storytelling: my entire journalistic backstory, how I broke into journalism, moved abroad, then began to learn these lessons, one by one. Then, two chapters on what I learned as a freelancer, about pitching to Editors and Audiences.

Just as my Prologue opened a window onto the origins and evolution of my hybrid methodology, detailing my early career trajectory in Budapest is also fundamental to appreciating all my current skills and strategies. (Later, inChapter XX: Why Context Matters, I underscore why such historical context is necessary, for how it increases our chances to influence our smart-but-skeptical audience.)

That skillset sprang from my early years of survival, as a young freelance Foreign Correspondent, desperate to feed and shelter myself on nothing but revenue I earned from generating my written journalism. From those scene-setting chapters, my memoir transforms into a textbook.

Though, to be as accurate as possible, it’s high time that I note that this book is actually the first of two, not one alone: Volume One and Volume Two.

Insert MORE DESCRIPTION OF WHAT’S IN BOOK? Reread/extract from Part III overview?

Volume One, which you’re reading right now, encompasses five critical stages:

*From my early years in Journalism, to launching in Budapest, Hungary (six years).

*Returning home to New York City (six years).

*Heading back to Central Europe, to Bratislava, Slovakia (five years).

*Dropping into Hong Kong for annual teaching stints (seven times).

*Then down to Southern Africa, to The Mountain Kingdom (four years).

*Lastly, I leave off in July 2015, as we planned our next move: to Beijing, China (five years).

Why divide it that way? Based on math alone, why should one book contain four-fifths of the years invested in my career; while the second, spanning one-fifth of my career, deserves its own book?

Because China is China. This first volume does more than chronicle the first two decades of my sojourn, from freelancing abroad in Foreign Correspondence, expanding into International Education, then into Global Communications. It also has a logical flow that explains the full trajectory.

It documents the narrative arc of how this middle-aged, mid-career, freelancing father of three came to be where I am today – after living on four continents over the past quarter-century.

Then comes Volume Two: The China Years. It was while living in bustling Beijing that I truly harnessed my hybrid skillset into a real methodology, which I would adapt to every single assignment. Whether it was my own writing, teaching, training, Consulting, or any other of my myriad endeavors.

Moreover, in China I was far more diligent about documenting nearly every new work experience, as part of my own brand-building strategy: To produce concrete, credible, humanizing evidence of my own professional impact. That means I have a lot of content from those five years.

So much content, in fact, it’s enough to fill a separate “China book,” which will be added to the vast oeuvre of China books. Except that mine will be unique in its own way. It opens a window onto one foreigner’s experience of living in China – and how he developed a great fondness for the Chinese.

But it will also reveal a rare “insider’s view” of Chinese society – and this emerging global superpower – through the prism of my work in Chinese Communications, Media and Academia.

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Let’s start with the first four chapters. Here in Chapter One, I explain the relevant backstory of my MJ Method: how I became hooked on journalism, reporting and storytelling; why I dared to venture to post-Communist Central Europe; and how I developed my worldview on Communications.

That leads to Chapter Two: My Big Break, and how I broke into the world of International Journalism. In Chapter Three, I describe my earliest “lessons learned” and “best practices” of that first sojourn overseas, within both International Journalism and foreign freelancing – especially the proposing, producing and publishing of my story ideas. Then in Chapter Four, I branch into Education, and sharing these skills with others: from teaching university students to training working professionals.

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A Final Word

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You’ll notice that I include hundreds of samples of my own writings in this book, primarily in the form of links and screenshots. Again, the primary purpose is to chronicle my journey while illustrating my lessons for you. At the same time, though, I’ve tried to avoid over-burdening the text with too many of these clippings. So, I’ve inserted all my additional writings into the Appendix, at the back.

Not to mention that I squeezed many of my photos into Chapter XX, in 10 of my photo-essays.

Why display all my stories and photos? For me, this book is much more than a how-to guide. Selfishly speaking, while it’s a compilation of “greatest hits” from my first quarter-century as a professional, it’s also a chance to create an online archive and library for my entire oeuvre of content.

So, among all my motivations for writing this book, I must admit I’ve also produced this book for myself, as I enter my career’s second quarter-century. Nevertheless, you are my true target-audience.

I hope you’ll find the MJ Method as practical and beneficial as I do, with its wide-ranging applicability. Simply put, if you want greater impact with any audience – especially one of foreigners – then this book is for you. Within its pages is a little something for everyone.

Though, let me reassure you once more: None of this is rocket-science. As I demystify the process, and lay out my methodology, you’ll realize there’s a set of skills and strategies you can learn, hone and practice. All you need is a little confidence and courage – to try and learn something new.

If you’d like personal coaching, feel free to contact me. We’ll achieve your goals together.

*****

?[MJ1]Hyperlink to Prologue?

?[MJ2]Insert hyperlink to the Prologue!

?[MJ3]Add more, if I can think of any. Emphasize for-profit companies, not-for-profit organizations?

?[MJ4]Any others I can think of?

?[MJ5]Any others?

?[MJ6]Remove this for LinkedIn version. Reinsert for the AmazonKindle, where I include Dedication.