Sara Nelson breaks into song and dances around picket lines to rally the troops. Being blonde, attractive and a flight attendant, is she concerned about her image? Not in the slightest. Nelson happens to be the unconventional President of the Association of Flight Attendants. Nelson is...
Meaningless phrases abound in business presentations. These phrases are filler, or serve as an announcement. They do not reflect well on the speaker and are unnecessary, but old habits are hard to break. Unfortunately, they also waste the listeners' time and test their patience. To illustrate...
The 98th annual Indian Market was held last weekend in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This juried show draws over 150,000 visitors worldwide, with 100+ Native American artists from 200 tribes displaying their art. We go early to get to know the artists and discover the stories...
As a path into the consciousness of their character, actors leave breadcrumbs for audiences. One method is to develop a psychological gesture, or a repeatable, physical tell. It could be pulling at a strand of hair, twisting a wedding ring, or facial tic. However, we often...
Why are audiences attracted to manufactured reality? TV shows like Survivor, Shark Tank, The Real Housewives of...
In Oklahoma City last week, we trained a group of interns attached to the Oil and Gas Industry. Like many of our clients, these young engineers, attorneys, CPA’s and scientists were challenged to construct client anecdotes or case studies. The truth is, no one was born...
Would that we all had the recall abilities of Sherlock Holmes or Jeopardy champ James Holzhauer. But we humans can employ some of history's best memory tools. Your kids undoubtedly sang "The Alphabet Song" to learn letters. And, as we referenced in a recent tip, the ancient...
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?...
It’s not just you. Most people suffer from speaker anxiety. In my years of coaching and training clients, I’ve found that speaker anxiety can be greatly diminished simply by speaking on a regular basis and having the right tools in place when anxiety rears its...