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Ignite your power to communicate.

We coach people to make a fundamental shift in the way they understand their own power to communicate.

We help people feel seen and heard so that they can do their best work.

Whiskey, Jazz, and Leadership

My colleague and friend Galen Bingham is a leadership strategist, executive coach, whiskey enthusiast, author, and podcaster. Galen invited me to join him on his podcast as part of my virtual book tour, letting folks all over learn about Before You Say Anything: How to Have Better Conversations, Love Public Speaking, and Finally Know What …

What Signals Are You Sending?

Recently I was driving on a very familiar road near my house. As I rounded a curve, I saw a sign indicating that traffic was going to go down to one lane. Okey doke. I’ve done this before; I know what to expect.  After another few hundred yards, I saw the telltale cones narrowing the …

Tell Me How to Work with You

Over the last two years I have been thinking and reading a lot about communication strategies, particularly on remote teams and when starting new working relationships. My big takeaways so far are not going to surprise anyone: we need to be intentional about how we set up our communication strategies, we assume way too much …

What I Learned from the Cashier at The Fresh Market

We all know that we shouldn’t assume. Still though, we get through our days one assumption at a time, despite knowing it may lead to misunderstanding. A couple of weeks ago, I was picking up some groceries at a Fresh Market grocery store before setting out on a road trip. There were a couple of …

What Should You Do If You Get Teary During Your Talk?

I was leading a group in some coaching recently, and each participant was telling a brief story about how they embody their values at work. Unexpectedly, one woman got choked up. It clearly surprised her, and she apologized before moving on. She wasn’t sobbing, and the emotion did not derail her presentation. After she was …

The Pitfalls of Letting Someone Else Create Your Presentation

What happens when someone else writes your speech? If you’re a world leader or a top executive with a team of professional speechwriters who know how to write in your voice, this probably works out pretty well for you. The speech goes through numerous drafts, and you’re very familiar with the content before you stand …

Tell Me What Really Matters to You

Often we think that speeches and presentations need to be full of big words and lofty ideas. And there’s nothing wrong with either of those things, of course! But if you want to move your audience, if you want us to care about the things you care about, tell us what really matters. Tell us …

How Do You Practice When You Can’t Practice?

It’s college basketball season, aka the Most wonderful Time of the Year. And last week, I was listening to an interview with a player on my favorite team (go Heels!) Puff Johnson is a sophomore, and as of the time of the interview, he had just begun playing again after being plagued with injuries that …

More Isn’t Always Better

I’m a reader. My house is full of books, and I trace chapters of my life through what I was reading at the time. In high school and college, you could count on me to always do the assigned reading, not because I was a nerd (though I was), but because I enjoyed it.  But …

What to Do When It All Falls Apart

I was watching a college basketball game the other night, and the team I was rooting for played well for 38 out of 40 minutes. Then in the last 2 minutes, everything they had been doing right seemed to abandon them. They made wild passes, took bad shots, and generally fell apart. When it came …

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