Summertime affords us increased opportunities to improve public speaking skills. For more advanced presenters, there are conferences, conventions, and other large venues. But don’t overlook smaller, low-ante networking meetings, lunch-and-learns, or weddings and social functions for wetting your speaking whistle. Try out new ways to introduce...
Last week we trained at Church & Dwight in Red Bank, New Jersey. C&D is a major manufacturing firm of household products, and the attendees were IT Managers. They had fun with the training, engaged in the exercises, and supported one other with wit and...
In communication, your schema is a library made up of symbols, images, and experiences stored in your brain. We all have different schema, so when you hear an unfamiliar piece of information, the brain scans your hard drive. If it can’t find the specific definition,...
After cruising past our northernmost point above the Arctic Circle, we turned south to head down the coast of Norway. In addition to the beauty of the fjords and resilience of the Norwegian and Saami people, one thing stood out---salmon! At every meal, salmon was...
While on our Norwegian vacation, we wanted to see a female musician play the Hardanger fiddle, the country’s national instrument. We were told to “walk toward the Ferris Wheel on the wharf.” No fiddler. Undaunted, we felt a pull toward a stone banquet hall advertising a...
Last week, we attended the inaugural Santa Fe Literary Festival. It was a thrill to hear authors including Margaret Atwood, John Grisham, Don Winslow and Jon Krakauer speak about their process. Although each has a unique style and genre, they all have a goal of...
Carmine Gallo, Harvard instructor, author and keynote speaker just published a terrific piece in the Harvard Business Review called What the Best Presenters Do Differently. It’s about how outstanding presenters incorporate storytelling techniques to transform lectures into compelling performances.Gallo references Abraham Lincoln, who developed his...
An article called Faux Feast appeared in last week’s NY Times. Author Teval Rao wrote about Shokuhin Sampuru. a multibillion-dollar industry in Japan, China and Korea. If you’ve seen life-sized food displays in windows of Asian restaurants, you recognize this craft. Here’s the surprising part. Asian...
We conducted a training last week for a tech company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Thanks to their explosive growth, they face a new challenge—how to navigate and adapt to the changes that accompany success. After completing the training, we drove back to Santa Fe...
Julia Child was an unlikely celebrity. She walked away from a conservative east coast upbringing, married an unconventional man (Paul Child) and moved to Paris. She took a cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu and the rest is history. The 2021 documentary Julia on Netflix...