The tragic news of our 2012 Holiday Season is the sad deaths of children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Much has been said and reported; and I don’t have anything to offer that can help the situation. My heart hurts for those families, friends and neighbors who are grieving this [...]

  Travis Kalanick is the CEO of Uber, a service that uses apps to call a car, usually a Town Car, in 15 minutes. What I like about him is his authenticity. He says that telling your authentic story is how business needs to be communicating. He shares that in toughest times, we learn to [...]

  I had never seen Steve Jobs talk before; but after he died, I heard lots of people rave about the way he spoke in public. It seemed like many people thought he was the epitome of a great speaker. Then I began reading his biography Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Before even finishing a [...]

  I am in love with this word – storyselling!  It says it all about the power of stories to persuade listeners to buy products and services or buy into ideas. Storyselling is the act of telling the authentically persuasive story. It is sharing the story that excites others to say, “Yes, I want that!” [...]

  Next week I am facilitating a day-long training program for sales professionals in the world’s fifth largest software company. Unlike my usual clients who feel fear of speaking, these folks will be good at speaking and selling.  They are already very successful. So, “What,” I wondered “Do they need from me?” They need me [...]

   On May 1, 1969, Mr. Rogers spoke to the US Senate Subcommittee on Communications to ask them to grant funding for the newly created PBS after President Nixon attempted to slash their funds in half.  Watch a video of his speech.  Saying “I’d just like to talk about it if it’s alright,” Mr. Rogers [...]

 I spoke at a conference for proposal managers last week and was reminded of how much business professionals rely on PowerPoint for delivering presentations. The following is an article I wrote forThe Houston Business Journal several years ago.  I have rewritten it to share with you…. Has PowerPoint gone from useful tool to emotional roadblock [...]

I just read a great series of articles by Andrew Dlugan of Six Minutes Blog fame.  Andrew has reminded us that Aristotle wrote the definitive work on what it takes to be persuasive over 2300 years ago. He defines the three aspects of persuasion, Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Then he writes an article about each [...]

  When I see a brilliant article, I have to shine some light on it.  Jessica Swanson of Shoestring Marketing has written a brilliant article called “Creating A Brilliant Marketing Message.”    Her three step method for designing a marketing message that sizzles is excellent.  Check it out at http://www.jessicaswanson.com/creating-a-brilliant-marketing-message

  When I am using the law of attraction to open myself to new clients, I look for people who sense that I am the right one to help them with their communication issues. In a meditative moment this morning, I had a thought about persuasion.  Persuasion happens when people sense that you are the [...]