Painfully blunt is the way my hubs describes me.

Not gonna mince words here.

If you’re pitching yourself to event organizers who hire speakers….and all you get are crickets and maybe a gig for “volunteer speakers” …you’re wasting your time and energy.

You DON’T need to:

Create a slick Speaker 1-sheet with new branded photos

Pay for a goofball “speaker reel” video that's staged with “real people”

Join Toastmasters or spend big bucks on a voice coach

Waste a ton of time, money, and energy writing a book

Here’s what you DO need to do:

Connect your topic to the theme of an event so that decision-makers know you "get" their audience

Have a 1-minute video clip from a real talk that showcases your personality and expertise

Work on your internal voice first so that you quiet self-doubt (and get contracts, not crickets!)

Fine-tune your topic and description so organizers see you're a polished pro (and they can easily...

Speaker Rant Here:

You wanna become a paid speaker so you can share your stories and change lives.

That's wonderful.

There's a huge mistake that beginners make that I want you to avoid at all costs.

This is the 3rd time in a few weeks I've heard something like this.

A connection on LinkedIn posted this today and I cringed. You should never experience this!

Look, a keynote is VERY different than a breakout session.

In how you craft your...

Stories and the flow of your talk

Slides

Activities

Handouts

And your mindset!

A true professional speaker who gets paid to present time and time again asks the right questions from the moment they are hired so that they are absolutely in their power and can blow the doors off their presentation!!

My coaching clients know that walking into a surprise is not professional.

If you're wanting to get serious about becoming a paid speaker, let's hop on a free Story Power Session strategy call. Click this link to apply.

You can create stellar content without having to write anything. 

Look, I get it. Not everyone is a writer.

And the good news is…not everyone is a reader.

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Keeping this in mind—and ever-changing algorithms—successful marketing strategies include a mixed bag of content formats.

You may: 

• Create short "how-to" video clips
• Share long-form posts
• Use images for Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat
• Record audio clips
• Create fun infographics

A variety of formats will improve your SEO rankings – and grow your business.

Here are 3 ways for non-writers to easily create fresh content: 

Compile a round-up post. Listening to a webinar or training with a well-known leader in your industry. With basic notes or a recording, you can craft a post of “10 Takeaways” from the program. This is called “curated...

He had the stories in his heart and his head.

But David couldn’t get them out on paper.

No, it wasn’t a sales presentation or media coaching.

David was an accomplished project manager and engineer who was referred to me by a mutual business acquaintance.

He had a personal communication project that was new to me.   

Look, I had ghostwritten nearly 1,000 posts, articles, bios, speeches, editorials and messages during my 35  years in the news and communication industry.

But never one like this.

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David needed a Father of the Bride speech for his daughter Melissa’s rehearsal dinner.

This was big; 150 people at the dinner and 500 for the wedding the next day. David knew some of the guests intimately; the others he had never met.

People would be watching.

And judging.

It could be a tough crowd.

And David—whom...

I was FaceTiming with my nephew Eric, a college senior preparing to take on the world and make his mark.

Eric loves writing and has a strong sense of himself. He's bold, fun and funny.  But he scared me beyond words. 

Eric told me about his papers and professors. I'm sure he saw me twitch as he described his writing style and expression within the confines of a college classroom.  

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I told Eric point-blank: For the most part, everything you've had to write in college—style, formats and opinions.—will all go out the window.

The writing most of us have learned in school and have been using in business all these years is rarely effective these days.

Why? 

Long, dry and stuffy writing is equivalent to a sleeping pill. People want personality and pizzazz.   

Please don't ...

I was driving in a new area a few days ago and got lost...despite the GPS.

So I approached another human being who was walking his dog and he gave me on-point directions. "Go 2 miles; you'll pass the library and a gas station. At the light, turn left onto Broadway. There's a Walgreens on the corner. Take Broadway about half-a-mile and you'll see signs for the highway on the right. Bear right and then stay left towards Highway 10."

The various places and signs he told me to look for were super helpful in me finding my way. Being specific in our communication is critical, especially when we "talk to ourselves"...you know the internal soundtrack that's constantly looping in our heads. Our brains are wired to be specific. When we write down clear goals, our brains become laser-focused and move us towards what we want.

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A key take-away from students in one of my recent online coaching programs was...

Do you feel like you can write or talk about anything and everything, except for your own experience and journey?  

You’re not alone.

You may feel like you need to cram your whole life story into one sentence. Other times you need to hand over a novel.

Writing a professional bio can be challenging because these days, one size does not fit all.

Take the time to prep these four variations of your bio so that you're prepared and confident anytime, anywhere.

Full Bio

Start big! Write (or update) your professional bio similar to a LinkedIn profile. Think 300 words or so.

• Write in first person
• Balance professional with personality
• Focus on results; not tasks
• Use short punchy sentences
• Include keywords for SEO but don’t force them

Use the full bio as a baseline for the next few.

Short Paragraphs for Speaking Engagements + Interviews

You’ll probably find yourself using this one most often. I recommend pulling 8-10 short sentences from your full bio. They don’t...

This is taken from today's Facebook Live in my  FB group, Communication Nation. Join the group to watch the full video training. https://www.facebook.com/groups/communicationnation/

What happens when an empath hires a badass for coaching?

It’s not every day that deep and revealing moments happen in our businesses and lives. Often, we work to “move the needle” and “plant the seed” and all the other clichés. We wait to see if our efforts bear fruit. We grow impatient. But we grow because we want to live our life’s purpose and share our gifts with others so they can be better, stronger. We all want to discover—and live—with purpose and make meaningful contributions to the world.

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When the stars align and we can answer Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” and the “why you do what you do” makes sense deep within our souls and not our heads, we’re on the right path. It’s our calling, our purpose for being here in this moment called life.     

So, here’s the truth....