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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.

Tears and public speaking.

We’re people. We have feelings. One topic that comes up frequently in our communication coaching work is: “What should I do if I feel emotional?” This really means, “I might cry. I don’t want to cry. What can I do to control it?” (Note: I am not saying in this post that it is never …

Letting go of the trapeze (scary but fun)

Some of the simplest acts can also be the scariest. What happens when we can show up vulnerably and honestly?

Being a beginner again.

I’ve written here before about my husband Charlie. Recently Charlie got a truck, and it’s a manual transmission. I can’t drive a stick shift. But we both agreed that it’s a good idea for me to be able to drive the truck, so last weekend, we headed out to a big high school parking lot …

The pitfalls of “Introduce yourself briefly…”

Hi there, people who are planning meetings. Here’s a thing you need to know. When you say, “Take 1 minute to introduce yourself, answering the following questions,” and you give a long prompt that requires reflection and sharing, you are implicitly asking for people to speak for longer than one minute. This happens 1) because …

Habits, good and otherwise

Anything you frequently do leads to habits. You probably brush your teeth, wash your hands, and get in to your car the same way every time. You take the same path through the grocery store. Habits–you don’t have to spend time thinking about how to so them every time they come up, which is a …

Speaker view? Gallery view?

For those of us, like me, who spend a lot of our workday on videoconferencing platforms, it can be hard to fathom that the people in your workshops and meetings aren’t as familiar with the ins and outs of the platform as you are. But in the last week, I’ve been on several calls that …

Do this before your next meeting

Angie Flynn-McIver, Ignite CSP’s president, has a few thoughts to share about intentional preparation for even that sixth meeting of a long day.

Fear

“Fear is when your attention is on yourself. When you can think of yourself as being in service of others, the fear vanishes.” —Shirzad Chamine, author of Positive Intelligence This quote jumped out at me because it beautifully describes the experience of conquering stage fright. When I’m giving a speech and I’m thinking about myself, …

Just because you don’t know the reason doesn’t mean there’s not one.

One of my favorite bloggers recently wrote a post questioning why cab drivers ask you what time your flight is when they’re driving you to the airport. His point was: Why ask the question when the answer won’t affect how fast you can get me there? It’s only adding unproductive tension. I usually think this …

One super easy Zoom fix

Put your camera at eye level. Get a cheap shelf that’s made to hold up your laptop, or stack up some books. Check the height by turning on your camera and checking your gorgeous self out. Can you see a bunch of the ceiling behind you? Is the fan coming out of your head? Can …

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