About Jay

After 25 years as a journalist and publishing executive, I dedicated myself to studying persuasion full-time, researching ancient and modern rhetoric and linguistics, interviewing rhetoricians around the country, and studying modern neuroscience. I live with my wife on 150 acres in New Hampshire. We have two grown children who feature prominently in my books.

I work with companies, universities and individuals to help them solve their biggest persuasion problems--whether to get people to buy a product or to recover (even benefit from!) a public mistake. Bring your problem to me and let's talk about how to solve it.  (You can see some of my clients here.)

My book Thank You for Arguing is published in 14 languages around the world and bought in bulk by corporations, high school AP English programs, and college rhetoric departments. I'm also the author of Word Hero, a fun guide to becoming a better writer and speaker, as well as How to Argue with a Cat. (Learn more about my books here.) And I’ve ghostwritten two books as principal for the publishing house Gavia Books.

My pieces have been published in dozens of magazines ranging from Reader's Digest to the New York Times Sunday Magazine. And I write one of the geekiest (and, ahem, most popular) language blogs, Figarospeech. There you'll find one of the most popular pieces I ever wrote, on how to argue with a kid. I also maintain the rhetoric and linguistics site, WordHero.org, and a cocktail site called Psychomixology.com.