Words matter more than ever.
These are our final fleeting moments before AI outshouts humans everywhere: in our inboxes, our search results, our phone calls, our grocery lists, all of it. We’ve seen the radar, and the flood is well on its way. Prepare to get soaked.
Hilariously, we’re both seeding the clouds and suffering the storm. The pressure we face is not to stop this surge, but to harness it to make yourself X percent more efficient. Marketing, advertising, content, and communications were teed up as early targets because it’s hard to get ChatGPT to make the kids fish sticks for dinner, but words are easy, and AI can produce a million words a minute.
That’s how currency gets devalued. Those of us who have scrolled through hundreds of AI-generated taglines know this. Words made cheaply are cheap.
The Why
August Hale was founded on the premise that your audience can always tell.
If you’re in a position to use mass-manufactured words, godspeed. If not, though, they’ll know. They’ll detect if you had a robot manufacture empty calories and tried passing it off as Sunday dinner. And they’ll sense if you devoted yourself to creating a message meant just for them.
They crave your voice. They want to be transported. And they reward intention. August Hale exists to help you find it: the purpose behind this presentation, the shape of this seminar, the catalyst for this conversation.
The What
So are you, like, an editor?
It’s better to think of August Hale as your life coach for communication skills. We start at the studs and build out, rather than approaching the job roof-first.
What does that look like, if it’s not editing?
It looks like working with a plan. We operate from tried-and-true principles of narratology, a rich field of thought that guides premise, voice, language, audience, timing, and other controls that aren’t just, you know, editing. (Though we do bring the fire brigade for that, too.)
Whose principles?
Roll call: Yorke, Egri, Tufte, McKee, Chatman, Olson, Jung, Aristotle, and a handful of others. They’ve already trained us on sending and receiving. Much of our work focuses on remembering what you already know.
Sounds deep. Who do you work with, exactly.
Individuals, teams, organizations: our work has put us in touch with everyone from day-one employees to executive suite officers. Scale and stature are no matter when you’re dealing with the universal.
The How
01
Skills Coaching
Determining the hitch in your game and removing what obstructs you from connecting with your audience
02
Workshops
Training your team up on how humans can intentionally approach other humans and recruit or persuade them
03
Front-End Design
Drafting a narrative plan (key messages and strategy) for your project before pen ever hits paper
04
Recon and Review
A diagnosis of missed opportunities or ways to optimize before the presentation goes upstairs
05
Rescue Service
Butt-saving if everything has gone hopelessly pear-shaped, word-wise, with the clock ticking
06
Bespoke Consultation
Connecting to determine if the AH toolbox has some ancient instrument to get you unstuck from your tendencies
REACH OUT
Send an email, eh?
In time, you can click this button below and get some joy out of it.
