Authenticity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. To show our care and compassion for others, we often need to put aside our feelings. There are higher truths that need to be served. Ask a mother whose child has fallen off a swing set. The child is bleeding and crying. Does the mother give in …

I love meetings. But I understand why you might not. A friend recently shared a workplace anecdote. One day, she and her colleagues gathered together for a meeting. For the first few minutes, they shuffled papers and fumbled with their phones. Then they stared at each other. Finally, someone said it. “Hey, what’s this meeting about?” …

Apparently, I have Impostor Syndrome. An estimated 70% of us do. Even so, I don’t feel I should write this post. Who am I to write about my own experience? I don’t even know how to spell it. Is it Imposter Syndrome? Or is it Impostor Syndrome? E or O? That’s the essence of Imposter Syndrome. …

I often act patient, even when I don’t feel it. I’ll bet you have, too. We’ve been conditioned. Let’s say you been on hold with customer service for what seems like forever. One of the first things the phone rep might say is “thank you for your patience.” They’ve been trained to say it. But …

After a student gives a class presentation, I’ll sometimes conduct a quick poll. I’ll ask the entire class: on a scale of 0-10, how nervous did the speaker appear? The audience might give the speaker a 2 or a 3. But the speaker? A nervous speaker might rate themselves a 7 or 9. That’s a …

As a public speaker, you’ll want your audience to understand you. You’ll want to be clear. To gain insight about your speech clarity, try this insightful and easy exercise. Take the one-minute “speech pace” exercise I posted last week. Then, upload your one-minute video sample to YouTube. Within a few moments of uploading your video, YouTube …

I designed an exercise to give public speaking students insight into the concept of pace. If you’re curious about your own speaking pace, you can complete this exercise in minutes. Try it alone, or as part of a class (or party?) activity. Step One: The script below contains 170 words. Read it to yourself, so …

People say they’re scared of public speaking, but are they really? I see these people speak in public all the time. They’re relaxed, confident — and they seem to be enjoying themselves. Take a friend of mine. Let’s call him Greg, because that’s his name. Greg insists he’s terrified of public speaking. Yet, I’ve seen …

A colleague told me about a women’s self defense class she was taking. She shared some surprising information she learned. For me, the information was surprising on two levels. The first level was the actual new information about women’s self defense I learned. My colleague said, “If you’re being attacked, my instructor said you’re supposed …

As I work on voice search optimization projects, I keep reading about the topic. The research fascinates me. In short – voice search is on the rise. It impacts how people find your business online. You need to think about voice search optimization. Cool. Makes sense. Most of the articles I find online offer great …