In this day and age, it makes sense to view sales efforts with a critical eye.

In this day and age, it makes sense to view sales efforts with a critical eye. Certainly, there are those who make false claims or create messages that play on their audience’s fears.

At Heliograph, we feel that the most powerful messages come from the truth at the heart of the client’s products, services, or artistic expressions. We focus our content-development and writing efforts on cultivating a deep understanding of who the client is, what they want to provide to the public, and how their unique talents accomplish that mission.

Good promotions are rooted in the ability to understand–on a mental, emotional, and intuitive level–the truth about the client and what they offer.

In this way, with integrity, we hope to support others’ personal and professional aspirations, and to connect those who serve and create with those who genuinely might benefit from those services and creations.

We’re all one.

CONTACT US for a free initial consultation. We’d love to discuss how we fit in to your creative cycle.

Our Partner in Crime, Bendt Design: Rock-Star Graphic Design

Darlene Twitchell at Bendt Design is a real-life graphic design rock star. We’ve been collaborating for years, and Darlene never fails to produce stunning work that makes the client’s message shine.

Heliograph Communications creates bios, press releases, liner notes, web sites, and more for bands, musicians, and artists. Plus, through our partnership with Bendt Design, we offer cd art, band logos, custom web site design, merch design, posters, and more.

CONTACT US for more information. We offer a free initial consultation and free, no-obligation estimates.

…and with that in mind, we’re announcing our new credit card payment options. You know the drill: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and–yes–even American Express.

Whether it’s a rocking band bio, mammoth technical manual, pithy tagline, highly precise data sheet, or captivating web site, we’ve got you covered.

CONTACT US any time for a free consultation. Estimates are free and no-obligation, too.

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Click the image above to go to Heliograph Communications' new BAND BIOS AND PROMO MATERIALS web page.

The loveliness of musical powerhouse Lindsey O’Brien, in her full performing glory, adorns our new band bios & promo materials web page.
 
 
Check out the sample section of the page, which links to bios and web sites of talented musical acts Cary Morin, Constitution, Lindsey O’Brien Band, and drummer Peter Knudson.
 
 
Heliograph Communications provides cost-effective services for musicians on-the-rise, including bios, press kits, posters, press releases, web sites, social media, cd art & liner notes, and more.
 
 
Contact us for a free 20 minute consultation to discuss how our services can put a spotlight on your talents.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Click the photo to check out the official web site of professional drummer/percussionist Peter Knudson

Please check it out, sign up for e-mail updates, and let us know what you think!

Heliograph Communications continues to make strides in the world of music with web sites, bios, press releases & kits, cd liner notes & art, posters, and more for solo artists and bands.

Support local musicians! Yeah!

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With that in mind, we’ve expanded into the music industry, providing promotional writing to solo artists and bands, including bios, press releases, and press kits.

Upcoming class for spiritual seekers, creatives, and writers: SHOCK, AWE & EROS

Samples and details to come!

What’s more, writing classes are back! I’m currently defining the content and schedule for our first offering, “Shock, Awe, and Eros,” a writing/spiritual workshop that frees the creative spirit, helps participants connect with their authentic voices, and celebrates the sensual aspects of this human life. This is for spiritual seekers, creatives, and writers of any experience level, including songwriters looking to expand and deepen their lyrical content.

More breaking news to come as it’s available! Thanks for your interest in Heliograph Communications.

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Kernels of Truth

We all know there’s a cacophony out there. You don’t even have to leave your house–or your bed, if you sleep with a smartphone by your side–before the information starts pouring in.

As demands on our attention grow, those wanting to get through to us–with a product they’re selling, with a political message, with whatever (I don’t have to tell you; we’re all surrounded by it)–often resort to the strategy of “more.” More phone calls, more junk mail, more ads and billboards and information.

The inevitable result is that we, as audience members, tune out. Our mental/emotional filters engage, as a method of self-defense and self-preservation. We become desensitized.

Knowing this, what are we, as writers and media-makers who want to work with integrity, to do? Do we give up, for the health and happiness of our fellow citizens? How do we diverge from the increasingly aggressive methods of mass media?

I believe that all humans, when connected with our inner knowing, are keen “authenticity detectors.” We want most what is REAL not what is merely big or loud or shiny.

When we want Vegas, we’ll go to Vegas. Otherwise, a walk in the sun, a cogent conversation, a caress, will do.

Communication Should Open a Window, Not Blow Smoke.

No matter what your subject matter–a personal experience or a product–whether you’re writing a poem or a commercial web page–the most powerful message is the one that is rooted in a kernel of truth. It need not be a lush garden of revelation–though indeed, it may grow into one.

Just a a kernel–because the truth is small and unassuming. As Jack White sings, “Truth doesn’t make a noise.”

It’s small–but time and time again, these small truths contain the most compelling messages, even if it’s a statement about the capabilities of a toothpaste or high-tech manufacturing tool. It answers the question: What does this thing mean to me, really?

And in telling the truth–with the skill of good writing–you distinguish yourself from the rest.

Communication should be an open window–not smoke and mirrors.

In terms of communication, the time for fighting your way to the front is done; when you tell the truth skillfully, you can be heard even from the very back of the room.

For me, I didn’t know about this whole concept of surrendering until life kicked me to the ground and wouldn’t let me up again until I cried uncle. It took quite a beating for me to finally understand what was going on: I am not in control, not of life, not of my creativity. The only control I have is to surrender and have faith in my ability to connect to a creative source that will never fail or run out. Call it whatever you want: Source, The Universe, The Great Mystery, The Beyond, God… maybe you pray to your fancy pen or your brand new supercomputer… call it what you like.

But what a relief it is: there is a wisdom greater than your own. You don’t have to have the answers. Yet, if you’re able to position yourself in a certain state of consciousness, you can become connected with this greater wisdom, and it can come through you. It comes through in many forms: poetry, fiction, drumming, advice spoken to a friend in need, needlepoint, gardening, deep breathing.

THAT is the important work, attending to your own state of consciousness so you can bring through something from a higher place than ordinary thought. That’s how you become a good writer. (Technique helps, too, but that’s another discussion.)

What helps you get to this state of consciousness? If you’re lucky, you see it without having to suffer first. Maybe you’re raised with some kind of mindfulness practice: meditation, music, art for art’s sake. Maybe you stumble upon it by chance or out of necessity. But most of us have to get kicked in the shins a little bit before we have any real idea what it is to surrender. We have to come to a brick wall and even slam ourselves against it a few times before we get the point that our way of approaching things simply doesn’t work.

But usually, we keep trying before we get the point. We get bruised, we get exhausted, we bleed, we fall down before we’re willing to admit that there’s a wall at all. The wall is ourselves, our old ways of doing things, and it won’t move until we do, until we decide it’s not worth the pain anymore to cling to old ways, and then, it’s not that we move the wall; we simply turn and walk in a different direction. The wall no longer matters; it is no longer who we are.

You have to get humble to turn yourself around. You have to stop struggling. You have to lie down and let the sky rain on you.

The good news is that once you’ve been to this place, you don’t have to go back there in order to get into such a state of surrender. Hopefully, you remember. It’s a good lesson–falling down, getting wet, giving up on what doesn’t serve you, admitting that you’re–what?!–wrong.

Hard times help you know how to write well. They make you humble and therefore open. This is why writers sometimes say they only write during difficult times; difficulty helps us acknowledge that we’re overwhelmed, that we can’t cope, that we’re not as in control as we wanted to think we were. We get low; we get humble.

But it doesn’t have to take an atom bomb to write a good poem. If you cultivate mindful openness, humility, surrender, you don’t need the bomb.

Among us human beings, there seems to be a temptation to go back to a previous state, a more contracted state, a state of less spiritual growth, as state of greater chaos, greater pain. Perhaps that fear of dogs or wide open spaces or public bathrooms that you thought you’d overcome pops up again and for some reason, you just can’t leave the house. Maybe you’ve been seduced into an old argument and you’re angry again at someone for something that happened 30 years ago. Maybe you’re not eating well again or not sleeping well or not exercising or not practicing the drums as much as you’d like.

Even though we might know better, we can be tempted by what is familiar. Even after we’ve figured out that this habit or that person or that strategy doesn’t work anymore, there can be something in us that wants to go back, simply because it’s what we know.

This is where writing can help. It can discharge that force of attraction to what no longer serves us. When you write it, it goes into the page and not into the world. It does not invite chaos into our lives, but instead makes a story out of it. It makes it into something useful. It turns, potentially, the self-sabotage impulse into something different. It transforms reactivity. It helps us go beyond conditioned responses.

And going beyond the familiar, transcending past conditioning, is the definition of growth, whether you’re talking about writing or about personal/spiritual development.

So, try to catch yourself before you go into your usual reactions–and if you’re having trouble with that, try writing about it. Cry over the page. It can take whatever you have to give, and it does not hit back. It does not return insults. It does not escalate drama. Only you do. The page is generous. It has all the time in the world, enough space for you and all of your belongings, and it is as strong as the forces that hold the planets together, maybe more.

Even after you feel you’ve answered some big question, after some huge light bulb has clicked on above your head, even after E=mc2, new questions arise, and once again, you are a beginner. Even after you write the Great American Novel, or a mind-blowing collection of verse, there is still a blank page.

You cannot stand atop what you have done before. There is no safety in past success. Awards and titles are temporary.

Some call Einstein’s inability to come up with a workable “theory of everything” his greatest failure. No. No. No. Don’t you understand? This was his true brilliance–even after being named a genius by the world, even after he could have sat back and enjoyed his international fame and acclaim, he went back to where he started–a question–and a big, scary, possibly unanswerable question, at that.

When we ask questions, we are vulnerable. We are open. And genius only comes in when we are vulnerable and open.

So, whatever you have written in the past, at this moment, you are no more than a beginner. Whatever accolades you have accumulated, right now, sitting in front of the screen, you are no more than who you are. No matter what difficult life experiences you pulled yourself through, and whatever lessons those experiences taught you, whatever epiphanies you have had, no matter how much stronger you have grown, there are more lessons. There are more experiences. You are never done.

Based on the myth of achievement most of us grow up with in this culture, this probably sounds pessimistic. But no, it is just the opposite. This understanding is an important part of ending the feeling of constant struggle. It is an end to the illusion that once you earn or win or are lucky enough to be given a certain job, a certain lover, a certain piece of jewelry, a certain amount of money, a certain car or house or level of spiritual understanding, you will finally and forever be happy.

True genius, a deep and authentic sense of creativity, and yes, happiness itself, is only possible if, at some level, you accept the process of constantly becoming, if you know yourself to be both Frankenstein and Einstein–because only the beginner’s mind is capable of genius. Answers only come to those who are willing to say, “I don’t know.”