Aaron Bernardi

What I Write

I love business but sometimes hate how it sounds.

So I write for companies that want to cut out jargon and that know you can't stand out by blending in.

Think of me for websites, corporate communications (internal and external), brand messages and positioning statements, proposals, investor and annual reports, special features, blogs, biographies, and research-based projects.

(But ignore me for social media, consumer packaging, and traditional advertising scripts. Other writers out there love that stuff and are better at it.)

Whatever I write, I make it clear, brief, and useful. Sometimes entertaining, sometimes down-to-business, and always bullshit-free and with your audience top-of-mind.

Why Me?

You’ll never hear me say I know what’s best for your business. You live and breathe it every day, obsessing over every murmur. But I know business, having long worked with everyone from start-ups to the Fortune 100.

It won’t take me long to understand who you are and where you fit and to distill that into words that capture your target audience’s attention. I’ll meet your specifications, but I’ll also test your willingness to explore the periphery because sometimes you need to abandon the beige middle to be exceptional or get noticed in the first place.

So, if you’re open to an honest dialogue about the story you need to tell, your challenges, and what makes you different, I’ll help you find your voice — one that’s clear and concise and draws the right crowd.

I get to the point. I put the laser on who you need to reach and no one else. And I’ll test your comfort on the edges because sometimes going down the middle is a lousy way to get people off their asses or to pay attention.

Your trust matters, and our work together is about you. About making you more credible, better understood, or more profitable. It’s not about me dazzling you with wordy brilliance.

But, to make this work, you’ve gotta lock arms with me in some straight-shot, screw-the-platitudes talk about who you are and why you matter. Then we’ll have some fun making your message pop.

How I Write

It’s time to dispense with clichés and vacuous corporate jargon and instead respect your audience with honesty and clarity.

People — your customers, colleagues, shareholders, the board of directors — are inundated with forgettable noise, from loudest-person-wins social-media babble to empty advertising promises to lifeless policy memos thanking them “in advance.”

We all deserve transparent messaging that imparts something valuable, something different.

And different often begins with communicating from a place of humanity and a commitment to brevity and utility. Any topic can be approachable, regardless of your field, and keeping it simple doesn’t mean stripping it of depth or removing all insider code. Your writing project might demand a measure of industry vernacular or technical specificity, and we can do that together.

But if your audience doesn't understand, trust, or know what to do with you, why should they care?

No one deserves to be fed bullshit.

But we eat it all day: Twenty-page, same-as-the-last-suit sales proposals. Jargon-soaked corporate reports. Websites promising “optimization and strategic transformation” but that leave you clueless about what the company does or how they do it.

It's time to get to the point in plain language.*

Want more attention? Tell the truth and make sense. Stop sounding like the rest of your industry. Be willing to walk away from anyone you’re not for by pouring yourself into who you are for. Respect people’s time and don’t take them for idiots.

No topic is out of reach, and a clearer message doesn’t mean that just anyone can do what you do.

But if people don’t get you, what’s the point?

Chicken Scratch

Clients & Contact

Here are some companies I’ve worked with.

Best Buy / Carter Hales Design Lab / Eos Lightmedia / Fernie Brewing Company / Hootsuite / Korn Ferry International / LightArt (a 3form Company) / Mark Anthony Group / Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC™) / Moxies / SAP / Tinhouse Brewing / Upstart Co-Lab / Vancouver Airport Authority (YVR) / viaSport.

Want to see a portfolio or talk Strava, Elmore Leonard novels, or where to find the best ramen? Just say hey.

aaron@firmlogic.ca
+1 604.315.5286