We’ve all seen presentations and speeches of varying styles and standards. They range from highly engaging and funny, to long and dull, to slow and awkward. But one particular presentation I recently witnessed managed to leave most of the audience feeling uncomfortable, awkward and even offended. Here’s how the presenter started: “So I haven’t prepared anything for today’s presentation. But as I was driving here in my car, thinking about what I could talk about, I decided that the topic … [Read more...]

The other day I finally watched a TED talk I’d been hearing a LOT about. It’s called 'Do Schools Kill Creativity?', by Sir Ken Robinson, and with over 48 million views, it’s THE most viewed TED talk of all time (see below). I was curious as to why it was so popular. When I listened, I swear the actual content (i.e. the research and ideas) only took up about 30% of the speech. The rest of the 18 minutes was heavily story based. And the stories weren’t just related to the research he was … [Read more...]

I've learned that in my business, I have to be very strategic about how I spend my time in order to run it successfully and sustainably. I have recently had a LOT of exciting things happen, such as signing on a number of new 1:1 coaching clients, running corporate workshops, travelling interstate to run training, and getting involved in numerous networking events. All this is GREAT, BUT, I started to feel a bit overwhelmed with it all. And my fear was that I would run myself into the ground … [Read more...]

Want to get in front of a hard-to-reach person? Perhaps it’s a well known thought leader, CEO, HR manager, prospective client or even a celebrity. Let’s face it -- a simple email or phone call won’t cut through the hundreds of messages and requests they receive a day. If you want to grab their attention and make a massive positive impact, you’ve gotta do something creative! In this episode, I share stories of how I (and others) have had success with getting a ‘yes’ from high profile people, … [Read more...]

Who would you REALLY love to connect with and get in front of? Maybe it’s the CEO or HR manager of a company you’d love to work at. Maybe it’s an influential person or thought leader you’d be keen to have as a mentor. Maybe it’s a potential client who you know would love your work if ONLY you got to sit down with them for coffee. Now, if I asked you to reach out to them, how would you do it? My guess is you'd send them an email, right? And perhaps you’ve already tried emailing them -- maybe … [Read more...]