It’s that time of year, and several of my clients are working on wedding toasts. Fortunately, the same skills you use to communicate effectively in business will get you through this very personal assignment. Public speaking is public speaking, whether you do it in a board room or with a glass of champagne in your Read More
From (A)pologies to (P)itches to (W)edding Toasts
Pitching: When You Talk About Your Business, It’s All About THEM
You’d think that, when you’re pitching your business, it would be about you — what you offer, how you operate, etc., etc. Turns out that, as with most public speaking, a successful pitch isn’t about you at all. It’s all about your audience: Their wants, their needs, their expectations. In this clip from a workshop Read More
College Summit: Write Like Yourself (Even If You Break a Few Rules)
You can never learn too much about communications That’s one of the many reasons I’m passionate about College Summit, a national organization that promotes college-going cultures in disadvantaged high schools, and, every summer, helps 25,000 rising high school seniors prepare to apply for college. This year, I joined an awesome group of 48 teens and Read More
Apologies: Why You Wanna Give Me That Funny Vibe?
For the second time this year, a high profile person has been fired for confessing they sometimes get nervous around folks of another religion or race. And that’s sad, because Juan Williams’s comments, like those of Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod last spring, actually point to a model for discourse about “difference” that would Read More