This past week, while in Oahu for OneAmerica, we were fascinated by the roots of the Hawaiian culture. Ancient mariners made their way from Polynesia, and before that SE Asia and China. The sailors had sophisticated instruments, but also counted on close observation of winds,...
A universal teeth-grinder is when reps from AT&T, United Airlines, Restoration Hardware or many other companies apologize when you call in for tech or customer support. Whoever teaches this kind of backward communication needs a new playbook. Do they assume we care how they feel?...
Northern New Mexico has had a glorious spring, ending ten years of drought. We've nurtured our new trees, and now have baby crops of peaches, cherries, plums, and pears. Caring for our trees, we were struck at the similarities between them, and the art of...
Gabriel Garcia Marquez rewrote his seminal work One Hundred Years of Solitude many times...
When stressed, annealed glass breaks into dangerous, jagged chunks. But tempered glass can withstand pressure and even impact from flying objects, because it is created under extreme heat. As we know with side and rear car windows, tempered glass cracks but never shatters. Speakers who strive...
Last week we were coaching ‘Jacob’ on an important talk. Our session was fraught with challenges because he was trying to deliver a memorized script, afraid that he would forget his lines. Jacob is a person of influence who donated millions to establish a botanical...
The Heima is a troupe of extremely talented young Korean men who danced their way into the top position on the TV series World of Dance. In an effort to make it into the finals, the dancers removed a signature piece of wardrobe, their masks. One...
Leonardo da Vinci's passion was to know how the world works, down to the muscles beneath human lips that allow us to smile. (visualize theMona Lisa) Without formal education, da Vinci relied on experiments and experience. For example, when studying the dynamics of flow, he...
Beethoven and Mozart employed themes, or repeatable musical phrases in many of their compositions. The same technique can benefit speakers. Themes represent the whole idea of a talk, and orient an audience. Although usually suggested in the opening, a great theme can be employed anywhere...
After watching The Inventor documentary, we decided to delve deeper into Elizabeth Holmes' masterful con. First, there was her odd contralto voice, seemingly modeled on Yoda. (Note: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher also lowered her voice and hired a speech coach to be perceived as powerful.) Then, Holmes...