Lost the groove

Creating

It is remarkably easy to get out of a solid groove.  The groove you lost may have been one centred around a good habit you had, or one for a skill you built up and were maintaining.  Either way, we can break out of these with surprising rapidity, losing the characteristic we worked so hard…

Information is precious: give generously

Connecting

I interrupt your current series on Conference Terror to refer you to today’s blog post by Seth Godin: Hoarding Information   Information – good information – is a precious thing.  If it is ours to give, we shouldn’t be afraid of giving generously.  Generosity tends to be reciprocated.  It doesn’t mean that you should happily do…

Conference Terror part 1: Permission

Presenting

Note: I haven’t decided how many instalments of this topic I’m going to do, but I do know that there’s a part 2 and 3 on the way… Finding a venue to broadcast your message is easy; what’s scary is actually doing it.  There are lots of ways you can practice speaking in front of groups or…

So little space

Getting the message across

We live in a hyper-connected, info-flooded world.  This is no secret. We have limited space in our brains to take in all the information and connections available to us.  This is also no secret. Limited brain space affects the speaker (or writer) as much as the audience.  The onus is on the receiver to decide…

This is my art

Personal1 Comment

“Art is the narrative of being alive. [. . .] The pain of facing the void where art lives is part of the deal, our stretching into a better self.” -Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception – Speaking is my art.  Communication is my art.  Bringing this art to others through coaching, training, writing, and presenting is…

Analysing the interview: Justin Trudeau

Performance

The other day I was working with a client, and I gave him a section from a political commentary article to read aloud.  He glanced over the article, which was about Justin Trudeau and the recent Liberal Party leadership race.  We briefly chatted about Trudeau’s famous father and the current buzz around the newly elected Liberal…

Short term revenue

Arguing

During today’s indulgence in YouTube-hosted business advice, I received an excellent bit of wisdom from the ever-charming Marie Forleo.  She stated that we should not be afraid to sacrifice “short term revenue for long term gains.” This advice resonates when it comes to communicating with other people.  So often, we are focused on the short-term…

The wall

Connecting

When we feel under threat, misunderstood, ill-used, or otherwise hard done by, we tend to put up walls.  They are our mental defence mechanism, a way of deflecting conversations that might make us feel bad, or uncomfortable, or wrong. When we say that someone “put a wall up between us,” we usually refer to someone becoming quiet…