When I walked into my training room, one student was already there. He looked up and asked, “Are we gonna cover smartphones? You know when you’re up there speaking and the audience is on their smartphone. Isn’t that just rude? I mean… how do I handle that when I’m the speaker?” I’m waiting for him to […]
Imagine an audience of 1,500 medical device salespeople in Las Vegas at their national sales conference. The speaker is introduced as a leading authority on cardiovascular disease. She begins with a request, “I want you to look around. Look at the people around you. In particular, look at the person to your left, your right, the person […]
“Play it safe.” “Don’t risk too much.” “Don’t let others know you’re struggling. Just act strong.” “Fake it because you know you’ll never make it!” You hear that voice whispering to you? That evil voice? Yes, I said evil. It’s the evil voice that convinced you to wear that mask in the first place. What would the […]
My class asked for an example so I stepped to the front of the room, paused for a moment, and then… “Every day in the Greater Houston area, 300,000 children under the age of 5 go to bed hungry each night because their parents can’t afford to put food on the table.” Then I pause for […]
Let’s take a break from work. Take a break from focusing on communication as leaders and sales professionals. Let’s focus on something much more significant today. My prayer for you is that your year has been one of lessons learned, relationships mended, and joy discovered. May we all be blessed by being a blessing to others as […]
My student pulled me aside during our break to ask me a coaching question with regard to her recent classroom presentation. “When I was speaking, did you notice anything peculiar about how I was speaking?” When my students present for the first time, I often pick up on distractions in speech or body language, but doing […]
The salesman at my front door held out the vile and said, “Fill this with some water from your tap and I’ll show you what you’re drinking.” The football game wasn’t on for another 20 minutes so I was game. I also had a question in my head, “What am I drinking!?” After returning the tap […]
My brother’s favorite hunting buddy wasn’t me. It was his golden retriever, Dakota. This past week Dakota passed away peacefully at home. After my brother got home from work that day, Dakota greeted him as usual but wasn’t the same. After Dakota got to see his favorite hunting buddy for the last time, he went […]
The Disney World attendant reached out her hand toward my crying son and said, “Russell… will you come with me please?” Earlier we had asked about getting Peter Pan’s autograph and we were told he would not be signing autographs today, but he would be in the parade down Main Street USA. Peter Pan was […]
