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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.

Big, exciting, fun news! (I wrote a book.)

I wrote a book. The book is called Before You Say Anything: How to Have Better Conversations, Love Public Speaking, and Finally Know What to Do with Your Hands. I’m incredibly excited about it, and I wanted the people who read this blog to know about it first. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you …

Can you tell a story?

Can you tell a story? Can you tell one about yourself? About what’s important to you? About your values or your challenges? Storytelling is an important business skill (and if you don’t believe me, check out a few of the 44 million Google results from “storytelling business communication.”) What do I mean by “storytelling”? The …

One more thing about the deadliness of webinars…

Before you create a slide deck and record a webinar, please ask yourself this question: Does this need to be a webinar? Is a webinar the best way for me to get this information to its intended audience? If the answer is yes, this needs to be a webinar, here’s the next question: How will people who …

Make webinars less deadly

Y’all. I have been in webinar hell. Without naming any names, I’ll share that I’ve been grinding through a bunch of webinar content in order to get a specific professional certification re-upped.  The people who recorded the webinars seem to be knowledgeable, nice folks. But they are missing the mark in a couple of ways …

Process nerds

I am fascinated by people who are great at what they do. I love learning the process behind different people’s craft, from athletes to musicians to writers. My latest deep dive into the nerdy world of process is Mike Birbiglia’s podcast, “Working It Out.” Birbiglia is a comedian, and on the podcast he interviews other …

Take off like a rocket

When you’re starting a presentation, challenge yourself to engage the audience from your very first words. The first minute or so when we’re speaking is the honeymoon period, when they are really ready to listen and be wowed, so you don’t want to waste it on boring introductions and thank-yous. Ask a question, say something …

Intention versus impact

I write a lot in this space about how to use deliberate, productive intention as a tool to create effective communication and decrease misunderstanding. What I haven’t spent much time on is the fact that intention does not equate to impact. It’s not possible to completely know what effect our words will have on a …

“The single biggest problem in communication…”

 “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw, the playwright, is credited with this quote. While neither he nor I can promise that this is, in fact, the single biggest problem in communication, it is a big one. I see evidence of this all the time, at work and in my personal life. All …

You can’t really know your audience

One of the most common pieces of advice on public speaking is to “know your audience.” Experts advise the aspiring speaker to think about the audience they’ll be addressing, do some research, and tailor their speech to the group. In a broad sense, there’s nothing wrong with this. It’s important to know if you’re talking …

Tell your team that their work matters

One tricky element of being on a team that works remotely is that all the incidental ways people can interact are stripped away. There are no chats by the coffeemaker or spontaneous lunches. You don’t catch up while you’re on the elevator or grab a couple of extra minutes to talk after a meeting while …

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