My good friend Catherine wrote me in response to the October 31 blog post, Sending signals. Catherine pointed out that, right when she was getting intrigued by what I was saying in the post, the writing kind of petered out. “What am I supposed to do with this information? How do I apply it to …

Our names are so familiar to us that often, we rush through them so fast they can’t be understood. Senior coach Neela Muñoz tells us all about it in this short video–  

Have you ever been giving a speech or presentation, and when you look out at the audience, your gaze falls on a person who seems completely irritated by what you’re saying?   It’s the job of the speaker to engage the audience. But it helps when the audience gives the speaker something to work with. …

I am a huge fan of The Great British Baking Show, a TV show that delivers on everything in its title. Amateur British bakers convene each week and try their skills at baking various challenging confections under time constraints. Two professional and renowned bakers, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, judge their efforts. Each week, someone …

The power and the polish of an event is demonstrated in the moments the audience doesn’t notice. These are the moments in between things, the time when elements are moving and the next thing is about to happen, but hasn’t yet.   How do we plan for those moments? How do we practice them?   …

William Shakespeare wrote quickly, and he wrote to make money. He had to—his job was to create something that was appealing to an audience. He knew that he needed to write plays that made different kinds of people happy, from the illiterate groundlings to the Queen of England.   Here’s how he did it:   …

I read pages and pages of listener reviews of different podcasts yesterday. Here is what they boiled down to:   That quirky thing [the host’s voice, the style of the podcast, the huge amount/scanty amount of research, the political slant, the banter, the fact there were/were not interviews] is what I love about this podcast. I’ve listened to …

Quitting, in and of itself, is value-neutral. There are great reasons to quit just about anything. When does the urge to quit well up in you?   Are you doing something you’ve never done before? Are you doing something you’ve done often? Are you frightened? Are you bored? Are you exhausted? Do you feel alone? …

Yes. And. Saying yes to new ideas, even ones that seem like they may not lead anywhere, is how we encourage more and more ideas. Creating a culture that values innovation and creativity means we celebrate every idea, and we do this as an investment in our future. Without welcoming the mediocre and even the …

Despite a lifetime spent in theatre, until last week I had never heard the Italian term for wishing a performer a good show. Now I’m fascinated by it.   The phrase is in bocca al lupo, or “in the mouth of the wolf.” A little internet research reveals that the origin of this phrase is …