Lights, Camera, Wisdom: Vivir con miedo es vivir a media – This week’s “Lights, Camera, Wisdom!” quote is, “Vivir con miedo es vivir a media.” It means roughly, “To live with fear is to live a life half-lived.” It’s an old Spanish proverb used in one of my favorite movies, Strictly Ballroom. The movie is…
How Being Like Luke Skywalker Changes Your Clarity, Wisdom, and Decisiveness. This week’s quote: “You’ve failed, your highness. I am a Jedi like my father before me.” Sometimes, I pretend I am Luke Skywalker. I know, I know. “Huh?” But bear with me. Choosing makes me struggle. I agonize, and I hit the breaking point…
What Makes a Speech Great The anatomy of a speech and a review of a speech by one of the greats, Dr. Willie Jolley We know what makes for a great book or movie. They move us and make us laugh. Additionally, they lift our spirits and teach us something about ourselves. In fact, we…
My Birthday and My Gift To You! Today is my birthday. And even though I’m not German, I follow a German tradition of giving other people presents instead of receiving them. So, today I want to offer you a template for the little item that helps me be productive. I developed this so that I could…
Active Speech and Writing Get You What You Want Here is today’s bonus mini podcast episode. In it, I detail the difference between active and passive speech and writing. You give a lot more information when you use active speech. And your listeners learn a lot more without having to do extra research. If you use…
Speak From Within – The Book and The Message Am I ready? What’s the Message? I haven’t held book release events for all five of my books. In fact, the last time we “partied” was for The Fiddler’s Talisman (and we did a party for Life Elements). That was back in 2011. The Piano’s Key and…
Grow Your Listeners in this Super Fun Way I tried something super fun this past weekend. While attending a conference, I hopped out of my comfort zone and asked people to do impromptu interviews with me. I wanted to get people’s thoughts and ideas on a super fresh and spontaneous way, boy did it work!…
How to Make Mistakes and Be Happy About It I’ve lived my life by making one mistake after another. From errors in grammar and vocabulary when I was first learning the languages I had to learn while we immigrated to social faux pas because I didn’t know the customs in my new country, I’ve made…
Do you want more local connections? If you’re a podcaster, this is for you. Here are some tips on getting more local-to-you podcast listeners. If you want to get more listeners to your podcast, reach out to the news channels in your area. As part of my interview on stress management for busy people…
The Communicator’s Secret Weapon! I know. I’m calling it a secret weapon. And I believe that if you want to be an incredible speaker, communicator, or negotiator, you need to know how to wield it. This week’s Tell Your Story Better podcast episode delves into this arrow in our quiver. I give you examples, ideas,…