Podcasts about National Speakers Association

The most powerful communicators do not just speak, they create movement. Rosie sits down with legendary speaker, coach, and National Speakers Association founding member Joel Weldon for a masterclass in communication that actually gets results. Joel shares the simple shifts that help leaders move from talking at people to truly connecting with them, including how to make every message about "you," why feedback is the fastest path to growth, and how one small tweak can change the way your words land. Whether you are leading a team meeting, sending a sales email, telling a story, or speaking from a stage, this conversation will help you communicate with more clarity, credibility, and human connection. Because at the end of the day, it is not about you. It is about the people you are here to serve.   Additional Resources: Connect with Joel on LinkedIn Learn more about Ultimate Speaker Follow Joel on Instagram! Get your copy of "Future-Proofing Leadership" Dr. Rosie Ward! Connect with Rosie on LinkedIn Learn more about Salveo Partners Follow PeopleForward Network on LinkedIn Learn more about PeopleForward Network   Key Takeaways: Great communication is measured by results. Make your message about the listener. Replace "I" language with "you" language. Feedback reveals what you cannot see. Speak with clarity, purpose, and relevance.  

Bill Lampton: Hi there. Welcome to the Biz Communication Show. I’m your host, Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication guy, bringing you tips and strategies on communication that will boost your business. Now in our eighth year of producing this video, audio podcast. And as you know, I do not just share my on— my own wisdom about business communication, but I bring on an expert and our conversation will enlighten you and me both with tips and strategies that will help us boost our business. Today it’s a wonderful privilege to welcome a long-time friend, colleague, associate, mentor, Terry Brock, coming to us from Orlando, Florida. Terry Brock is a communicator and I can underscore that. Since he was a kid, in fact in second grade, he has been writing. He worked as a journalist for many years and his undergraduate degree is in communications working with radio, TV, and newspaper. Today Terry and his partner and fiancé, Gina Carr— and Gina was a recent guest on the Biz Communication Show— Terry and his fiancé, Gina Carr, have a membership program called Stark Raving Entrepreneurs where they help people build their business, leveraging the daylights out of AI and other tech. Today he joins us again to talk about what is happening and how you can move your business to the next level. So, I know you’ll join me in welcoming Terry Brock. Hello, Terry. Terry Brock: Great to be with you, Bill. Thank you for having me on board. Bill Lampton: Well, your— your introduction, which you kindly provided, did not even begin to describe your uh immense qualifications, which I’m very familiar with. Not long ago, Terry, you and I were having a visit, as a matter of fact, you and Gina came to see me here in my home in Gainesville, Georgia, and I remember asking you how many countries you had spoken in, directed seminars in, or done training in. What is that latest number? I know you’re a global presenter, what is that latest number? Terry Brock: Well, the latest as of now is uh 44 countries and counting. So, they would include um places like England and Canada and France and Dubai, and even Texas. And so, you know, a lot of different places there. Bill Lampton: Well, truly, you— you— some people call themselves a global speaker because they made one presentation outside the country, but you definitely are a global speaker. And in recognition of the great impact you’ve had globally, you have received the highest honors available from the National Speakers Association. And I still remember in 1998, I believe it was, you and I met at a National Speakers Convention, and then I had other encounters with you when you lived in Georgia and we were both members of the Georgia Chapter of the National Speakers Association. This was before you set your business and your residence in Orlando, Florida. One of the great traits that you have, and there are many as a presenter, is that you involve your audience. It’s not just [laughter] it’s not just what I would call a— a mannequin with a mouth. [laughter] Just somebody who spews out a message and hope people are getting it. And also, you’re not a novice who, when you want to get your audience involved, you say, “Hey, anybody got any questions?” and there’s this [laughter] there’s this frightening deadly silence. Share with us, please— many of us are presenters, whether we’re professional or whether we’re business and professional people— share with us some of the strategies and techniques that you use, Terry, to get your audience vocally and physically involved in the presentation. Terry Brock: Well, that’s a good question because I think that’s important when you’re connecting with people. You want to find out what it is that’s on their mind. One of the things I found a change that I’ve done recently that helps, maybe this will help some of the viewers and listeners here, often I would ask for, “What would you like to hear about? What topic do you want to hear?” And that’s good, not bad, they might say, “Well this or that.” We work do a lot with AI. So, they’d want to know about using Chat GPT for this or maybe using Gemini for this or how does this tool work, etc. Those are good, but even better is when you can do your research and then lean forward and ask people, “Where are you having problems right now? What are some of the big frustrations you’re having with technology? What’s the biggest problem you bump into with Chat GPT or what are your biggest concerns or worries about it?” Something like that, those kind of questions that are tailored for the market, whatever it is that you’re serving, does a lot better. I think in terms of what a surgeon, a physician would do, when you go into this physician’s office, the physician often doesn’t say, “Well, would you like to know more about this medicine or would you like to know about this medicine?” No, they say, “How you doing? Any pain, any hurt, anything I can do to help you out?” A really good physician will do that and so, I’ve been thinking that’s a probably a good way to do it, and I think then you respond back to the people based on where they’re hurting. And by the way, as you know this very well, Bill, today, we’re in a great shape as better than ever before. That sounds like hyperbole, but it’s true because now we can do the research and find out where are they hurting. Where are they bumping into problems? With tools like Perplexity, it does great work with research. So does Chat GPT now and Gemini and particularly Grok. Grok is giving you real-time information of what’s going on right now, particularly relevant in some areas when there’s say a crisis or an emergency going on. So, I think what we want to do is be aware of what’s possible and then always be oriented toward how do we solve their problems. Nice to talk about a topic and we’ll mention that, okay fine if it’s relevant to them, but more importantly, find out where they’re hurting, where they’re bumping into real-world pain and how we can grab a tool over here that’ll help that or a tool over here that’ll solve that problem. Bill Lampton: Audience analysis is absolutely a vital key because the presenter, whether you’re an executive or whether you’re a professional speaker, the presenter, if— if it’s a solo act, audiences today are— are not um they’re not going to stick with you, and so you need— and I see perpetually, you and I both know Lois Creamer who advises us so often about what is happening in the speaking business. And one of the points that she makes repeatedly is that we must be problem solvers. We must not just be topic experts, but we must be problem solvers. And carrying this just a little bit farther, Terry, you’ve done your audience analysis and you get up to present, and knowing you, you do not talk for 60 minutes or whatever is allowed without really getting the audience involved. And as— and as I said a few minutes ago, the old way is saying, “Hey, anybody got any questions?” [laughter] and of course, usually no one will be the first one, and there— there are none. So, how do you get true involvement, feedback, maybe a Q&A? How do you get the audience stimulated to do that, guided to do that? Terry Brock: I don’t think there’s any one particular way to do it, but there’s some things we can do today that help a lot. Like for instance, I recently spoke uh out in Texas uh to a group of people that are in landscape and in nurseries, that working with those and earning with, out of the green industry, growing just wonderful, wonderful people. And I wanted to study their industry and find out what are they going through. So, I used my buddies, as I like to say, my buddies Chat GPT, Perplexity, Grok, and some other tools out there to find out what is going on, what is bothering people in those industries out there in Texas right now. And so, I knew some of the issues that were going on, and I had some fun with it, Bill. You’ll appreciate this. What I did is I looked at what was going on, and one of the issues they’re having concern with right now is with labor— getting people to come and work for them, what the prices are going to be for labor, etc., etc., and the shortage. And so, what I did is I say, “I understand that in your industry right now, here in Texas, you’re going through uh labor issues trying to find out,” and they’re kind of shaking their head going, “Yeah, he knows what he talking about.” I say, “Let me show you a way we can figure that out,” and what I did is I reached over, grabbed my phone, went over to Chat GPT, popped it into voice mode and I said, “Chat GPT, need you to act as an expert here in Texas in the area of nursery and with grooming and growing shrubs and things like that. What is going on right now that is causing problems in labor? What are— do you see happening in that?” And it came back and gave me an extensive conversation there about what’s happening, the issues, etc. I cut it off saying, “Okay, okay, that’s real good. Hang on just a minute.” And I paused, I looked at them, I say, “Is what Chat GPT told us accurate?” And they said, “Yeah, yeah, that’s true, but uh we all know that.” I said, “Yeah, that’s right. And you want to know what he can do to tell you to get around that and work around it.” They go, “Yeah.” I say, “Okay, we just confirmed though that he knows what he’s talking about. He,” because I was using the male voice at that time, “he was there, uh give me the information to that what was said. Is that correct, correct?” And they’re all going, “Yeah.” I go, “Now, the other issue is what?” And they told me some of the issues. I said, “That’s right.” And then I said, “I repeated that back into Chat GPT, and it came up with some solutions for them, some of which they had heard, some they had not. They’re writing it down, they go, ‘Oh, this is great.’ And I said, ‘This is what’s happening right now in the industry and this is how you can do it.’ If we had more time right now, we could go further in-depth on it, but here’s how you can do it on your own.” And I gave them the instructions on what to do with Chat GPT or other LLMs. So, Bill, cycling back around to what you’re asking about, find those areas where they’re hurting, where they, your audience, has pain, and then customize it. And today, we can leverage the daylights out of these tools to help us find out what’s really going on underneath the surface because people will go— go out on Reddit, and they’ll type, “Boy, I’m really mad with this company because they did this and this and this.” And then you start watching that, does that replicate in other areas? “Oh, okay. Now we know something that’s good here.” This company has been doing this in a couple areas, people don’t like that. Guess what we need to tell that company? “Hey, yeah, listen to what people are talking about.” So, it’s like you’re getting a sneaky way to do it, but using it right here with our phones, our LLMs like Grok, Chat GPT, Gemini, and some others, Claude also a very good one. Bill Lampton: Audience analysis is absolutely a vital key because the presenter, whether you’re an executive or whether you’re a professional speaker, the presenter, if— if it’s a solo act, audiences today are— are not um they’re not going to stick with you. And so, you need— and I see perpetually, you and I both know Lois Creamer who advises us so often about what is happening in the speaking business. And one of the points that she makes repeatedly is that we must be problem solvers. We must not just be topic experts, but we must be problem solvers. And carrying this just a little bit farther, Terry, you’ve done your audience analysis and you get up to present, and knowing you, you do not talk for 60 minutes or whatever is allowed without really getting the audience involved. And as— and as I said a few minutes ago, the old way is saying, “Hey, anybody got any questions?” [laughter] And of course, usually no one will be the first one and there— there are none. So, how do you get true involvement, feedback, maybe a Q&A? How do you get the audience stimulated to do that, guided to do that? Terry Brock: I don’t think there’s any one particular way to do it, but there’s some things we can do today that help a lot. Like for instance, I recently spoke uh out in Texas uh to a group of people that are in landscape and in nurseries, that working with those and earning with, out of the green industry, growing just wonderful, wonderful people. And I wanted to study their industry and find out what are they going through. So, I used my buddies, as I like to say, my buddies Chat GPT, Perplexity, Grok, and some other tools out there to find out what is going on, what is bothering people in those industries out there in Texas right now. And so, I knew some of the issues that were going on, and I had some fun with it, Bill. You’ll appreciate this. What I did is I looked at what was going on, and one of the issues they’re having concern with right now is with labor— getting people to come and work for them, what the prices are going to be for labor, etc., etc., and the shortage. And so, what I did is I say, “I understand that in your industry right now, here in Texas, you’re going through uh labor issues trying to find out,” and they’re kind of shaking their head going, “Yeah, he knows what he talking about.” I say, “Let me show you a way we can figure that out,” and what I did is I reached over, grabbed my phone, went over to Chat GPT, popped it into voice mode and I said, “Chat GPT, need you to act as an expert here in Texas in the area of nursery and with grooming and growing shrubs and things like that. What is going on right now that is causing problems in labor? What are— do you see happening in that?” And it came back and gave me an extensive conversation there about what’s happening, the issues, etc. I cut it off saying, “Okay, okay, that’s real good. Hang on just a minute.” And I paused, I looked at them, I say, “Is what Chat GPT told us accurate?” And they said, “Yeah, yeah, that’s true, but uh we all know that.” I said, “Yeah, that’s right. And you want to know what he can do to tell you to get around that and work around it.” They go, “Yeah.” I say, “Okay, we just confirmed though that he knows what he’s talking about. He,” because I was using the male voice at that time, “he was there, uh give me the information to that what was said. Is that correct, correct?” And they’re all going, “Yeah.” I go, “Now, the other issue is what?” And they told me some of the issues. I said, “That’s right.” And then I said, “I repeated that back into Chat GPT, and it came up with some solutions for them, some of which they had heard, some they had not. They’re writing it down, they go, ‘Oh, this is great.’ And I said, ‘This is what’s happening right now in the industry and this is how you can do it.’ If we had more time right now, we could go further in-depth on it, but here’s how you can do it on your own.” And I gave them the instructions on what to do with Chat GPT or other LLMs. So, Bill, cycling back around to what you’re asking about, find those areas where they’re hurting, where they, your audience, has pain, and then customize it. And today, we can leverage the daylights out of these tools to help us find out what’s really going on underneath the surface because people will go— go out on Reddit, and they’ll type, “Boy, I’m really mad with this company because they did this and this and this.” And then you start watching that, does that replicate in other areas? “Oh, okay. Now we know something that’s good here.” This company has been doing this in a couple areas, people don’t like that. Guess what we need to tell that company? “Hey, yeah, listen to what people are talking about.” So, it’s like you’re getting a sneaky way to do it, but using it right here with our phones, our LLMs like Grok, Chat GPT, Gemini, and some others, Claude also a very good one. Bill Lampton: I remember, uh Terry, that [laughter] I was not the most technical guy ever to go into this business, and I would imagine that you remember a publicist, Raleigh Pinsky. Raleigh wrote a book on how to become highly influential, how to publicize yourself. And I go back to a time, and I’ve told this on the Biz Communication Show before, but it’s highly relevant. I go back to a time when I was just starting out and Raleigh Pinsky’s and I got on a phone conversation. She was in Arizona, I was in Georgia, and I said, “What do you think I need to learn to get started?” And she mentioned a couple of things and I said, “Oh, oh, no. That’s— that’s just way too complicated for me.” And she said, “Bill, we’re not hanging up this phone until you get this right.” And I finally did, Terry, and guess what? It was how to copy and paste on the computer. [laughter] Terry Brock: I’m thinking you still use that little ditty now every— every so often. [laughter] Bill Lampton: So, we’ve come a long way. And what amazes me so much about artificial intelligence and the particular tools that you mentioned is that when you ask a question, which is the way to really find the information, the second that you stop typing the question, AI begins giving you the answer. [laughter] And— and and um I wouldn’t— I wouldn’t try to sell an— an Encyclopedia Britannica today, Terry. [laughter] You know, we get our answers uh much more instantly, much more specifically, and there’s nothing at all outdated about them. One of the points that we observed at the start is how you’ve spoken in so many countries, how you have been awarded the highest award of the National Speakers Association. And Terry, there are people who are listening, I’m sure, who are curious about the speaking profession today. And there are some who have had some speaking experience and they’re thinking about becoming a professional speaker. So, right after this message, we want your advice on how we would go about doing that. Be back in a couple of seconds. [Commercial Break] Bill Lampton: We’re here on the Biz Communication Show. I’m your host, Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication guy, welcoming the opportunity to speak with Terry Brock, one of my long-time friends, associates, mentors, and certainly a role model. Terry, just before that short break, I mentioned that there are people who are wondering, how do you get started today? Not 20 years ago or 30 years ago, when you and I started. How do you get started today to become a professional, full-time professional speaker? Terry Brock: Well, there’s no one way to do it because it varies from a lot of people, but a way that I have seen and we’re seeing with many, many professional speakers is you want to be knowledgeable and an expert in a particular area, so that you can solve problems. As you were saying before and our friend Lois Creamer talks about that extensively. So, you want to be able to solve problems and do it in a way by presenting. But people need to know about you. Right now, competition is white-hot. There’s so many people that are speaking, that are giving information, and doing a very good job of it, too. So, you’ve got to stand out in a real good way that solves their problems. A good way that I have found works for me, works for you, Bill, and is working for many other people as well, is make sure you have a very good professional appearance on YouTube, regularly. Regular communication that you send out, being able to stay in touch with people solving their problems. If people want answers, they often go today to YouTube. YouTube has exceeded the viewers on the traditional networks, long ago. No longer are we tied to ways that it was years ago when we’d have the three networks, or then the cable stations. Today, we’re doing it on the net and YouTube is there because it can get fine-tuned. I’m amazed, and Gina and I sit and watch YouTube and are amazed at the kind of specificity and degree of influence that is out there for many different people in given fields. We have certain people that we follow in AI, certain people that we follow with um improving our lives, certain people— I like following uh the Stoic philosophy, and seeing what they’re doing. I’m a big fan of Miyamoto Musashi, the Japanese samurai warrior long ago, and people like that. I like to see those and they have a lot of channels for that. This is the beauty of it. So, I would say to get started, think about the problem you can solve first, not just what you can do or what you think is a nifty groovy idea. “Well, that’s real good, Sparky, but uh [laughter] it doesn’t really matter what you think, what matters is what they think.” So, this is where the LLMs, those large language models, AI tools can show us people are looking for help in this area, and they’re not getting enough of it. And by the way, that’s an area that you know about that’s really good or you could learn it because it’s very close. It’d be like if a medical doctor needed to learn about a given disease but she hadn’t studied that yet, she hadn’t studied as much about that, but she could easily come up to speed on it, studying on her own, studying at the University of YouTube, we call it that euphemistically, [laughter] going out there, taking in some college courses, some extra medical courses to learn that disease if a lot of people are there and it ties in with her background. That’s the way to do it today. You find out those areas where people are hurting, where they have a need, you find the— well like they told us in business school, you find a problem and you solve it. You want to find out what’s going on, and today we’ve got the research to be able to do that as never before. I was just doing some research uh before our call today on some areas that are going on and what you can trust online and what you can’t trust. And it was really revealing for me. I’m going to be sharing that later today at our Stark Raving Entrepreneurs meeting. It happens to be today we’re going to be talking about things, and showing this tool that has shown what was going on, and we knew that it was going on then, but there were other tools that were saying something different. And then they were even saying what is happening now, that’s not true, that’s misinformation, that was a term they were using, or disinformation. And yet, it really was happening and now we can look back and go, “Okay, this is good to know for the future.” That way when you know what is right, and you know what is accurate and a reliable source, and you know how to use that tool, now you got a real edge and that gives you the ability to get out and speak as a speaker. And another thing, Bill, if I could mention, right now, again I agree with you, the market has changed. It’s no longer the way it used to be in the field of professional speaking. Yes, there’s still is a place for a person standing on a stage with a microphone, real people there, talking to them. There is a place for that. We like that, we like that human connection. But also, there’s other ways we communicate— that we communicate as you and I are doing right now with video. We’re communicating with one person to many so you can do that. Our Stark Raving Entrepreneurs, we do that where we have people around the world that join us and we get a chance to solve problems and have feedback as if we were in the same room. Find out how you can do that, how you can communicate in other ways. We’re also doing a lot with writing, now more than ever, and it’s easier than ever because we can get the LLMs to help us write— not writing it for us, but as an assistant giving us the raw material that we then take and craft along with what we want. Audio is still very strong with podcasts. You can do audio-only or you can do audio and video that would be on say YouTube, where you might have an interview. This is a great way for you to solve problems. Often people talk about what we are as a professional speaker and I say that we all need to aim for being a CSP. Now, CSP has a meaning within the National Speakers Association of a Certified Speaking Professional. That’s a good thing to have for professional speakers. I encourage them to look into it. I have one myself, but I don’t mean that in this case. Here I mean CSP is a communicator who solves problems. That’s what we need to go for. Find out what the problems are, how you can solve it, and then have the skills in communication to use that, and you can learn a lot about that from the Biz Communication guy, Bill Lampton. Those of you watching this, I’m going to embarrass Bill a little bit here but uh he is incredibly good. He also has his doctorate, a real doctorate in communication. He has helped many people with this, and he can help you with these kind of areas and more. So, get in touch with this young man. He’s got some real wisdom. Bill Lampton: Thank you for that very kind endorsement, Terry. I am— I am a— a true devotee of YouTube. To me, this is a visual encyclopedia that— that is— it’s in your and my price range. [laughter] We get so much free advice there on practically any topic from a great range of experts. And I remember you and I were having a conversation, as we do often sharing ideas, about a year and a half ago. I mentioned to you that I had started doing YouTube Shorts, which is 60 seconds or less. And you said, “Bill, that’s a good idea.” Well, Terry, I now produce, while I continue to host interviews such as this, I now produce three 60-second-or-less YouTube Shorts a week because you and I know and all of our viewers and listeners know that our attention span is not what it was even 20 years ago. There was a time when people would listen to very long monologues or even very long dialogue, but we want it quickly now and so, I— I have found value in YouTube Shorts and I assume you’re producing those as well. Terry Brock: Oh yeah, I find them really helpful because people want information quickly and you can get a lot of views that way. People get a chance to know you and then it can lead to your long-form videos which would be there and what they do. Actually, the way YouTube does it now, it was 60 seconds and now they say it can be three minutes or less, which is okay, but Bill, you’re right on target once again. 60 seconds and less gets more views because people think three minutes, boy, that’s a long time. Huh? [laughter] But they’re thinking of it that way. So, we’ve got to adapt and change to the market. And that’s the important whenever we’re alive, we’ve got to say not— let me— don’t let me tell you about what’s happened in the past, I mean, that’s— we— that’s nice, but when you think about it, Bill, when you and I were younger, when I say think of uh like 1940s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s around in there, there were things that people were looking at that were in the past at that time. Well, what we’ve got to always do throughout history is say, what are people looking for now? Right now, right now. Now, we can bring in what we had in the past, you and I talking about uh Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus, Seneca, and people like that, the Stoics like that, that’s good. Their wisdom is still good today and that’s what we can bring in versus some of the styles and customs that might have been valid in the 1820s or the 1840s or the 1900s. Whatever it is, that’s okay. What we’ve got to do is focus on what people want right now. Bill Lampton: Terry, we have time for one more question. I invite you to tell us about something I mentioned in the introduction, Stark Raving Entrepreneurs, which is your weekly grand training opportunity. Tell us the format, what happens, and also, how do we get access to that? Terry Brock: Well, thank you for asking. It’s a program that’s designed to help entrepreneurs who uh want to get out there and do things on their own, serving a market by using technology particularly. Using video was one thing we did, we were actually called Video Rockstars before we became Stark Raving Entrepreneurs. But now what we do is we show people every week, like today we’re going to do that, how to use certain tools and how to make that work to translate into business. How to use AI, how to use Grok, how to use Chat GPT, how to use these. Matter of fact, today, I’m going to be talking about Grok in key areas where you can use that tool to generate business, to do research, to create magnificent videos more than you can in other places, and the audio as well. These kind of things that are available. So, Stark Raving Entrepreneurs, we give people an opportunity to build their business the way they want and we build it on a rock-solid foun— philosophy that we both, Gina and I, embrace and that is, live and let live. Do whatever you want in life. Bill Lampton: How do we— how do we access uh that? Is it a membership deal or is it just come in and— and watch or what— what’s the deal on that, Terry? Terry Brock: Yeah, it’s a membership and we offer the opportunity for people to get involved. Come over to starkravingentrepreneurs.com. If you go to starkravingentrepreneurs.com, you’ll find the information there, all of it’s there. And uh let us know and if you got a specific question, drop me a note. I’m terry@terrybrock.com and be happy to help you and work with you on that because you need to ex— do the things you want to do in life. As long as you’re not harming someone else, get out there and have fun, learn it and build your business. It’s really the best way to secure your future and those of your loved ones is to have your own business where you’re not dependent on anyone else, but you can do it on your own and make the world a better place. Bill Lampton: I certainly endorse Stark Raving Entrepreneurs and I encourage every viewer and listener to check into that. Terry, as always, I’ve had the privilege of interviewing you periodically on the Biz Communication Show and always, you’re not contemporary, you’re way ahead of contemporary. [laughter] You’re a— you’re a pace setter and anytime important change comes along that we need to be aware of, you’ve— you’ve got on the leader’s cap. You learn it and then, very fortunately for the rest of us, you translate it into our lingo and you help us learn these vast new accessories, or I’ll call them really necessities, that we need for success. Certainly, we have viewers and listeners who want your contact information, so will you share that with us, please? Terry Brock: Yes, and you can reach me at terry@terrybrock.com. And those of you that might be joining with audio, Terry and Brock can be spelled different ways, so Terry is T-E-R-R-Y and Brock is spelled the right way, B-R-O-C-K. So, terry@terrybrock.com, and I answer all of those requests that I can get to, which is usually 100%, so I’ll look forward to hearing from you on that. Bill Lampton: Thank you, Terry. And I— I believe that Terry Brock, if I were to look back over three decades, if I were to look at the top three coaches, mentors, colleagues who have taught me and who have encouraged me and who have supported me, Terry Brock would be in that top three, there’s no question about it. Terry Brock: Thank you, Bill. Bill Lampton: And now I’d like to give my contact information. My YouTube channel is Bill Lampton, PhD. On there, you— in fact, I go back, Terry, to 2007 when I started recording instructional videos about communication. And many of those are solo presentations, but in the last eight years, the Biz Communication Show has been hosting experts. So, I hope and encourage you to, when you go to my YouTube channel, Bill Lampton, PhD, to subscribe there. Then, my website, since my tagline is Biz Communication guy, logically, my website is bizcommunicationguy.com. When you’re there, you’ll have an opportunity, which I invite you to take, to subscribe to my podcast, which I hope you will do. And then I welcome telephone conversations so that I can hear what your communication problems and challenges are, explore solutions, find if I’m the resource that you need to work with, or do I refer you to someone else. And an initial call like that has no financial involvement. That number, 678-316-4300. Before we close, I want to recognize the co-producer of the Biz Communication Show, Mike Stewart, Nashville-based. He’s been a marketing and technology guide for me for many years. And his website is localinternetpresence.com. Terry Brock, again, so many gems of wisdom, so many guidelines from a genuine unquestionable expert, and that’s you. So, please tell us how you would sort of pull together our conversation today and leave us with a minute and a minute and a half of what I might say are— are some nuggets or some gems that we really ought to remember and act on? Terry Brock: We are living in an exciting time right now. It’s also very scary when we see AI changing our world profoundly, really every day, new things happen, it can get scary, but there’s great opportunities for those who can understand what’s happening and then be able to take that and use it to do good for others. Helping others out, helping them to achieve their goals is the way to do it. When you can help others get what they want, you’ll be able to get whatever you want, my buddy Zig Ziglar said that long ago, that you can get anything you want if you help enough other people get what they want. Take the power that’s available with AI and all these other little tools that are out there, that can help you to serve others better, to help them meet their needs, and by doing that, you’ll have the lifestyle that you want, the future that you want. The more you can help them, the better off you’ll be. Bill, it’s an honor to be with you as always. I appreciate you and for those of you watching it, get to know this guy. I know him one-on-one, he is genuine, sincere, and he really knows his stuff with a real PhD. I mean, he earned it and all that. So, he’s a guy you want to get to know for your communication, to get better and better. Bill, thank you so much for having me with you today. Bill Lampton: My privilege and keep that calendar handy because as you know, I will call on you again. And three months from now, we— we will have other remarkable changes that you have mastered and we’ll be calling on you, so keep that calendar handy. Terry Brock: You bet. Bill Lampton: Thanks to those of you who joined us for this dynamic conversation with Terry Brock on the video and on the audio portions of the Biz Communication Show. Invite you to be with us again next week for another informative, interesting, exciting, and beneficial version of the Biz Communication Show. I’m Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication guy.

How can you supercharge your creativity in an age when AI is reshaping everything — including how we write, edit, and market our books? What does it look like to use AI as a genuine creative partner rather than a shortcut? And could professional speaking become an income stream that complements your writing career? With James Taylor. In the intro, Audible's new royalty model; New royalty model details [ACX; Kindlepreneur]; Public Speaking for Authors, Creatives and other Introverts; Why Indie Authors Should Ignore the Market's Mood and Focus on their Mission [Self-Publishing with ALLi]; Lichfield Cathedral; This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn James Taylor is a nonfiction author, professional speaker, podcaster, and entrepreneur who helps people unlock their creative potential. He hosts the SuperCreativity Podcast and his latest book is SuperCreativity: Augmenting Human Creativity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How to define creativity and why it's becoming the most valuable skill in the age of AI The five stages of the creative process — and the stage most people skip Three types of creative purpose: play, self-expression, and legacy How James used multiple AI tools alongside human collaborators to write, edit, and market SuperCreativity Bulk book sales, industry-specific editions, and revenue models for nonfiction author-speakers Practical tips for authors who want to break into professional keynote speaking You can find James at JamesTaylor.me. Transcript of the interview with James Taylor Jo: James Taylor is a nonfiction author, professional speaker, podcaster, and entrepreneur who helps people unlock their creative potential. He hosts the SuperCreativity Podcast and his latest book is SuperCreativity: Augmenting Human Creativity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Welcome to the show, James. James: Well, thank you for having me as a guest. I'm looking forward to this conversation today. Jo: It's going to be really good. First up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and publishing. James: Well, today I'm a professional keynote speaker, so I deliver about fifty to a hundred keynotes per year in twenty-five-plus countries. Primarily I speak on creativity, innovation, and artificial intelligence. Go back into my deepest, darkest history—I actually used to manage rock stars. That was my old job. I used to be in the music industry for many, many years. I worked with members of The Rolling Stones, and for our listeners in the UK, I managed bands like Deacon Blue. Then I went to the dark side. In 2010, I moved to California to work in Silicon Valley, to work in the world of tech. That got me involved in artificial intelligence. Right about 2017, I was speaking at an event in San Francisco and someone came up to me and said, “You realise you could probably speak for a living, you could do this for a living.” So I thought, well, how does that work? And he told me. Then I embarked on the career that I have today, which is primarily as a speaker, with writing now coming a bit more to the fore. Jo: Wow, I remember Deacon Blue. James: Yes. Jo: “Dignity.” That's crazy. Very, very cool backstory there, but we'll come back to the career side of things. Let's get into super creativity, because my listeners are certainly creatives. Most of the listeners will have a book either on the way or they might even have lots of books. So we all do want to be super creative. How do you define creativity, and why is it important to keep focusing on this even if we do identify that way? James: For me, creativity is about bringing new ideas to the mind. Innovation is about bringing new ideas to the world, but without creativity, there is no innovation. So creativity is really the engine of innovation. Whether that is designing new products, new services, or creating new works of art and new books. The reason that creativity is becoming more important is because of what we're seeing right now in terms of artificial intelligence. AI is going to replace a lot of the non-creative tasks that we currently do in our jobs. If you look at things like the World Economic Forum, there was recently a study with a thousand global business leaders, and work from companies like LinkedIn—they all highlight that creativity is going to be one of the foremost important soft skills for this new future. So creativity, strangely, will actually become more important, not less important, as we go ahead. That's the creativity side. Probably for many of the listeners here, they'll consider themselves to be creative. That is not the norm. As I mentioned, I speak in about twenty-five countries a year, and if I ask the audiences—primarily corporate audiences—to put their hands up if they consider themselves to be creative, only between ten to forty per cent of the audience will raise their hands. So part of my job is to show them why they are more creative than they think they are and why we're all born with this creative potential. Then moving into the super creativity side, it's really to show them how they can augment that creativity by collaborating more deeply with other people or machines—things like artificial intelligence. So SuperCreativity, the book that I've written and the speeches I give on it, is really about how we can augment our individual creativity by collaborating more deeply with other people or artificial intelligence. For me, that's been the thing I've been fascinated by for the past few years, and probably for many of our listeners who are now using AI in their writing, their researching, and their marketing of their books, they're probably getting into this space as well. I really wanted to dive into that—both the collaboration with other people and with machines and AI. Jo: In terms of the super creativity then, do you have any practices or ideas? Before we get into collaboration, many of us authors work alone—and of course we can come back to the AI stuff in a minute—but in terms of super creativity, are there ways that we can even supercharge what we do already? Then, of course there are people listening who might not feel creative. So give us a few tips on how we can potentially change our mindset or become even more creative. James: In the book I talk about what I call the eight Ps of super creativity, which are purpose, personality, practice, people, process, place, product, and persuasion. Persuasion is really the marketing piece at the end. Probably the one that could be most useful to many listeners today is the practice piece—the practice or the process side of things. For many of us, what that usually consists of is just having some type of daily creative practice. Different people do it in different ways. Many of your listeners will know the works of people like Julia Cameron—the morning pages style of having some type of daily practice. Other people do it in slightly different ways. The process bit is really interesting. I talk about this creative process that we all have, and I talk about these five stages of the creative process. The first stage, let's say if we're writing a book, is really that preparation stage. That is usually the stage where we are trying to absorb as much information as possible about the thing that we're going to be writing about. The topic, if it's nonfiction, or going to the places, visiting the scenes that we're going to set certain things within for the book. So that preparation stage is really about absorbing as much information as possible from the outside. It's not going to look very creative. We're just absorbing at that stage. Now the mistake that a lot of people tend to make is they immediately try to jump from that preparation stage to looking to generate ideas. But what all the studies show us is we should spend a little bit of time in what we call the incubation stage. This is where it's often very useful if we've done some research, that we put things to one side for a little while, maybe a few weeks, move on to another project, think about something completely different. Your brain will continue to work in the background. Your unconscious brain will work on that content you've been absorbing. Then what often happens as a result of that is we come to this third stage, which is that insight stage—that aha moment. That happens for various different reasons and you can seed that in slightly different ways so you're more likely to get inspiration in your day-to-day work. Then as we know—as you are a writer of many, many books—many people think, “Well, that's it. I've done it. The idea for that book or that chapter has come to me.” That is really just the first five per cent of the process. The next stage is where we look at all the different ideas we have and decide which ones we want to pursue, which ones are going to make the grade. This is what we call the evaluation stage. Once we've done that, we move to that final stage, which is the elaboration stage. If it's a startup, this is when you're building your minimum viable product. As a writer, this is where you're actually doing the work, putting those words out onto the page. It's a very iterative process, so it's not necessarily linear. You'll go back and forth. Even as you're getting input from readers and audiences in that last stage, that is then giving you the material to move back to the preparation stage and think, “Oh, I wonder if this next book in this series, maybe I go in a slightly different direction with this character.” So each of those different stages, you can do different things to increase your levels of creativity. Jo: I love all of that, but can we go back to purpose? Because you mentioned that as one of the Ps and I think this is something that a lot of us need. As we are recording this in April 2026, the world is an interesting place. There are lots of things going on that have people worried. Well, we are not talking about politics, but I think one of the things that people struggle with is, what's the point in writing this story, for example, or what's the point in trying to get my words out there when things are difficult? I feel like coming back to purpose is perhaps the thing that helps people even take it into the process as you were talking about. And then of course, just from a practical angle— Is purpose about making money or reaching people? So maybe you could talk about the purpose side of things. James: Yes. So I talk about three different purposes, and it's not that there's just one that predominates, but usually there's one that maybe predominates on different projects. The first one is creativity as play. It's what we're basically, as humans, hardwired to do—this instinctive joy that we get just for creating for its own sake. There's nothing that really sits beyond that. We just have fun. We find pleasure in creating something. That could be a musician creating a piece of music, a sculptor creating a sculpture, an entrepreneur creating a new business or product or service. There's just this sense of play. One of the things I talk about in the book is this idea of being childlike, not childish. If you look at children, you see this very instinctively. If you see a three-year-old or a five-year-old, you give them some crayons and they will just naturally create. That's part of who they are and it's pretty abstract. Then what happens is they go to school and they're taught useful conventions—”this is how you should do it.” You even see their work start to change. You start to see them move from abstract paintings to more formal structures. Then you get your peer group, then you go to college or university and the world of work, and you're taught all these useful conventions. That's fine, but as adults, it is our responsibility to become what we call post-conventional, where we see these conventions as a useful signpost but we're willing to challenge them. We're willing to have a playfulness in what we do. So the first one is just this hardwired thing—creativity as play. The second one, and this is maybe for a lot of your listeners the reason that they are writers, is self-expression. It's a way of placing something out into the world. I was actually just in France recently, and I was talking to a young visual artist, a painter from Hungary, and she had to go up and give a speech. She really hated doing it. She was having to talk about her work and she was really uncomfortable. I could see the discomfort and my heart went out for her, because that is not the way she primarily expresses herself. She expresses herself through her art form, which is painting. For many of us, we might struggle to get on a stage, but we can express ourselves in the written word. We have something we want to say, a position we want to have, and we want to express that and get that out into the world. The final one is just this idea of legacy. That is not going to be for everyone. I can tell you, for me personally, legacy is not the reason that I write and do a lot of the stuff that I do. Maybe that changes—maybe as we get a bit older, we want to leave a body of work. So those are the three main purposes that we tend to see. Then you mentioned the financial side of what we do as well. This starts to come into that self-expression, because we need to be able to get people to buy our books or download our books and read our books in order to give us the ability to write new works and create new things. The financial side is an important component of it, but it is not the only one. I think there's a great question any writer should ask themselves. One of the first questions that I asked myself as a relatively new nonfiction writer is: why am I writing this book? What is the purpose of this book? For me, primarily it is a form of self-expression, and then you have to go, “Well, that's fine, but I also need it to have some type of financial basis for it.” It doesn't need to be the main driver of my income, but I need to have some type of revenue model. I'm happy to talk about revenue models, because probably the type of revenue model that I have as a writer is going to be different from other listeners. I tend to focus more on bulk selling of books rather than individual selling of books. Jo: Yes, I definitely want to come back to revenue models and business, but a few other things first. I want to circle back to collaboration, because I've certainly co-written with some humans, and I know a lot of listeners either have co-written or collaborated with other humans—and some of it works and some of it doesn't. You have some great information on human-plus-human creativity and collaboration. So maybe you could give us some tips on how we can be more effective collaborators with other humans. James: So there's a whole section about this idea of creative pairs. Often if you look at great creative work or innovative companies, very often when you strip it all back, you'll find at the core lots and lots of creative pairings. That is usually two different but complementary personalities who are willing to develop and challenge and improve each other's ideas. We think of Jobs and Wozniak in the world of business, or Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. For authors, often that relationship is the work with their editor. There was a documentary I saw—I think it was a New Yorker documentary that came out a while ago—talking with a writer of history books about his relationship with his editor. It was a really beautiful relationship. These were two very different personalities, but what worked was the fact that they were different. A core component of having these creative pairings is a sense of trust—or what some people today would call psychological safety—that you are willing to challenge someone's ideas, but in a space of trust. The Germans have a great phrase for it. In English it translates as “someone to steal horses with,” which I love. Hopefully our listeners have that person where you can go to them and say, “I had this idea for a book or a chapter or a character,” and that person is a “yes, and.” Like, “Yes, and have you thought about doing it this way?” or “What would happen if you did this?” They stress test your ideas. They make your ideas better. For many of us, maybe it's our husbands or wives, our partners. Some of us are lucky enough to have editors. When I started rewriting this latest book, I actually had someone like that—a human, not an AI—that I worked with, especially on taking all these random thoughts and ideas I've been expressing in keynotes and putting them into more of a book form. The format and the structures that we use for telling stories in a speech are quite different from the structure that we would use for a nonfiction book. I didn't have as much experience there, so I wanted someone who could say, “Have you thought about structuring it this way?” or “This is a great story arc you might want to think about.” So I don't know, for you, who is your creative pairing? Who is your “someone to steal horses with”? Jo: Well, it's funny. I really think since the arrival of Claude Opus 4.6, it is absolutely Claude. James: Yes, yes. Jo: All the way. I mean, so we could come onto that next in terms of how AI has changed, because I do still work with a professional editor for both fiction and nonfiction, but it is very much in the “make my finished work better” stage. It is not in the exploratory phase. I find particularly the latest reasoning models to just be fantastic at this. And my Claude is not sycophantic. The Opus 4.6—I'm sure you've been using it too—it just doesn't behave in the way that a lot of people think these AIs did. They did behave like that, and now it's changed. So let's talk about that. What are your thoughts on collaborating more effectively with AI tools, especially as they become more and more powerful? As we record this, Claude Mythos has not come out, but it's certainly rumoured to arrive. I'm pretty excited. James: So because I've been doing this AI thing for a little while, it's given me the ability to experiment with things—the early versions of what many people are using today. I'll give you an example. Even before I started writing the book, I decided to write a book proposal. Even though I could pretty much sense I wanted to independently publish this book through my own publishing company, I thought it's a good practice to put it down into a proposal form, even though I don't go to a traditional publisher or a hybrid publisher. One of the things I did within that was get a sense of who my ideal readers are. I used a very early version—this was a few years ago—of an IBM AI tool, creating what we call a psychometric map of my ideal reader. This basically tells me, over about seventy-two different factors, how this person thinks, how they feel, what their value system is, very broadly for my ideal reader. I pulled in different sources. I knew the kind of magazines and books they were reading and what their general worldview was. So I created this—going one step beyond just creating your ideal reader to really understanding their psychometrics. I do this in my keynotes too. Before I ever give a keynote or an important pitch or a presentation, I use AI to analyse the psychometrics of the audience I'm going to be speaking to. This might tell me, for example, this audience values humour a little bit more, or this audience values a bit more practicality so they want actionable next steps, or this audience is going to be a little bit authority-challenging so they're going to push back. So even in those very early stages, just starting to think about the book—who was I writing this book for, what was the purpose of the book—I was using AI to understand the psychometrics of my absolutely perfect, ideal reader. I gave her a name. It was a female reader. There was someone similar to her that I already knew. Probably for some of your listeners, they do this instinctively anyway. They maybe have a person or a few different people they think of in their head. Then from that stage, because I've been delivering lots and lots of keynotes—and this may be an important distinction in the way that I have decided to write books as opposed to how other people write books—my family were all jazz musicians. The difference between a rock musician or a pop musician and a jazz musician is this: a rock or pop musician will go into the studio, create this opus, this work, and then tour that for the next two years. A jazz musician, on the other hand, goes out and performs the songs and the things from the album that they're eventually going to create hundreds of times, thousands of times, to find out what works with audiences, and then they go into the studio and record the stuff that works best. So I created a book more like a jazz musician. I'd delivered keynote versions of the book hundreds of times before I ever decided to actually write the book. So it had been stress-tested with real people to a certain extent. Then, getting into it, I thought—well, what works as a keynote is not necessarily going to work as a structure for a book. So what I did was start using ChatGPT models at that point to think about the structural edit of the book. What was the structure going to be? What was great is you can basically feed it every single keynote you've given over the years, all the notes, everything you've done, and it could start to give me something to riff with and really get into thinking about how I was going to create this. I was using it a little like that creative pairing we spoke about earlier. Then once I'd done that—so I've now got an idea of a structural edit essentially—I then go back and speak to some humans about it. “What do you think about this?” “What do you think about that?” And try some things out over dinner conversations. “I'm thinking about doing this—what do you think?” Then once I did that, I just did the thing that I really didn't want to do, but I guess you absolutely have to do: sit in a seat for multiple weeks and just get that crappy first draft done. That was just me writing, from my voice, in my way of doing things. Every so often I would use an AI to research a particular thing, but I didn't want to slow down the pace too much. I was focused on getting that word count done. Once I had the first draft, I then brought the AI back in. In this case, I was still using OpenAI at this stage, to act more like an editor. To tell me what was weak about the book. At this point I was starting to give it the overall framing. What was weak, what chapters needed to be improved. I then went back, started reworking each of the chapters, and worked chapter by chapter using that AI as a sparring partner. But once again, the AI is not really writing my words for me. It's maybe saying, “This part could be said better. You might want to think about doing it this way,” or “You are missing a really powerful case study or example here,” or at the very end of each chapter, I have actionable next steps, and “You're missing some things here.” So I've gone through that entire process of writing, and now I'm essentially at the second draft. At this point, what I'm doing is using another AI tool—Claude, in this case—to have a different perspective on it. I gave it the work. I mentioned a couple of editors that I really respect and different writers I respect and said, “I'm going to create a virtual beta readers group. Give me feedback on this now.” For someone that's listening to this, and we're recording this in April 2026, here's some good news for you. There are now a bunch of tools out there that use AI swarms, as we call them. You can basically feed it your book and it will create synthetic readers—thousands and thousands of synthetic readers that read your kind of style of book—and it will then give you feedback from these synthetic readers. Essentially, I was just doing an early version of that. So I got the feedback from the synthetic readers, the AI readers, and then reworked a little bit. Some of the stuff I just decided not to do because it didn't align with what I was trying to say in the book. Then the next stage was I had a beta reader group of about thirty human beta readers—my ideal readers. I sent the book to them, they gave me feedback. I then used AI to give me an overview report of all their feedback, and then I was able to go back into reworking the book. That's still really just draft three of the book, not the final book at this stage. But just to give everyone a sense of opening up the process: you could see how the human and machine were working together. Jo: Yes, I love that. I also often say to people who are speakers first that you can, if you have recordings of your talks or if you use your slide decks to record them as MP3s and then just use that transcript as the basis of a draft. Obviously it's not the book or a chapter, but it can actually preserve your voice—your speaking voice—which I think can be really effective for speakers. I like your multi-step process there. And then of course, if you have audience avatars in AI, that can help you design your book marketing. So take this into book marketing and how you're doing that. James: So I still decided to go old school with a human editor—a book editor that someone had recommended to me. I used that human book editor just to go through the book. At that point we're talking about style, some stylistic things that we wanted to do, and they can pick up other things as well. So I've got that book, and then I'm obviously starting to use AI to understand what tags, what kind of copy do I want to have in terms of putting it onto Amazon, putting it onto IngramSpark, and all these other platforms I want to put it out into. I'm using Claude here in particular—and with Claude, you have something called Cowork. It wasn't quite fully happening at that point, but there were early versions of it and Claude Code—to almost start working with and creating a virtual marketing team. I give it the book and then they could start thinking about: what is the marketing strategy for this book? What does the campaign look like? What are the things that we need to do? That was then starting to break it down. We're now three months out or so before the book is due to get released, and I'm starting to deploy that particular campaign. So for example, I'm on a podcast right now, and we try different versions. We have a human going out and reaching out to potential shows for me to be a guest on, but I also have an agent. There's also one going out and finding and researching podcasts and reaching out to those podcast hosts to have me as a potential guest. So they're doing some of the tactical work there at the same time. One mistake I made—and I don't know if you've experienced this as well—if I was to go back, one thing I would do differently is this: I decided to record the audiobook version after the physical book was already committed and ready to go out. Jo: Mm-hmm. James: And I noticed so many small errors or things I would change after having spent two days in a studio recording the voice for the entire book—changes I would have made. This is something other people did ask me: why are you not using ElevenLabs or an AI clone of your voice to read the script? There are some things I feel quite personal about, and my voice is one of those things. As a professional keynote speaker, I decided I wanted to keep that and have it in there. So it's going to be different for everyone which things they decide to offload to AI, which things they decide to give to a human member of their team, and what they decide to keep to themselves. Jo: Yes, I mean, I human-record my nonfiction, but I have an AI voice clone with ElevenLabs for my fiction now. But obviously, for people listening, you can't put an ElevenLabs voice-cloned audiobook on Audible, and a lot of your sales will be on Audible, especially for a book like this. So I think that's also important. I agree with you on doing the audio edit. There's always things you want to change. But as you mentioned, you're self-publishing this, so you can just go in and change your files. James: Yes, and that was the other reason, and this was part of the marketing—now we're moving into the marketing and the business model behind the book. For me, the book doesn't have to be a financial driver in its own sense. The way that I sell books, and usually people like myself—professional speakers—is we bulk sell books to our clients. Let's say I'm speaking at four different events this month. Each has about a thousand people at them. Those organisers will buy, say, a thousand copies of the book. So at the end of that month, you might have sold four thousand copies—not individual copies. Anything that sells on Amazon or in other places is almost like a positioning piece. Obviously you want people to buy the book and learn things from the book, but in terms of the distribution model, it's slightly different because I'm primarily selling through bulk sales. Now, here's a little twist you can do on this, and this is a decision I made even before we released this version of the book. I speak to lots of different industries. There was a speaker and author—I've forgotten his name now, I think he was from Florida—and what he decided to do was to write a slightly different version of his main book every year, but for a different industry. So what this allows him to do is, let's say in my case, I'm doing a version of the SuperCreativity book just for legal professionals because I speak to a lot of law firms and legal groups. I've already started working on a version of the book which is a little bit more attuned to that audience. As a speaker, it allows me to go to all these law firms and legal associations and bar associations and say, “Hey, I've just written the book on creativity and artificial intelligence for the legal industry.” That makes you a very bookable proposition for a client. And then obviously you can sell books from that as well. And that's before we get into the foreign language versions. That's just a model that happens to work pretty well for my part of the industry, but obviously it's going to be very different for other types of authors. Jo: No, I think that's great. For nonfiction authors, as you say, there are different revenue models. Your income, I guess, would be what, eighty, ninety per cent speaking revenue? Or do you have other things as well? James: Yes, primarily it's the keynote speaking, and anything that comes from the back of that. Sometimes it's boardroom advisory work that I do as well. But primarily it's the speaking side. So really the book is just the simplest form to get my ideas out and the most affordable form. Jo: Mm-hmm. James: Because the other thing is, you want as many people getting your ideas as possible, and there is no better, more affordable way of getting someone's ideas out there than in the form of a book. I think it's just the most unbelievable transmitter of knowledge—a book. That's why I love to write the book as well. A lot of my friends say, “Listen, books are old hat. You don't need to do a book any more. You can do these other things, other forms, online courses.” I've done lots of online courses in the past and membership sites and all those things, but there's just something that is great about a book—to be able to summarise your ideas at a particular point in time. It's also a great transmitter of value to other people. And it is affordable. Any book, someone can download a book on Audible or wherever they want—that's just an affordable way of absorbing that content. Jo: Yes. Well, of course we are all fans of books here. I do speak—I don't tend to do keynote speaking. I do more content speaking at conferences. For people listening, keynote speaking is where you tend to get the higher revenue. So if people listening have books already—let's say they have nonfiction books or even fiction books that could be turned somehow into different topics—if people want to get booked for speaking gigs, preferably ones that pay— How would you recommend authors think about moving into speaking if that's something they want to do? James: So obviously it's much easier for nonfiction authors to do that. I mean, I'll give you an example. I was speaking at an event last week in New York for L'Oréal, the hair care and cosmetics company. They had six different speakers. One of them was a speaker on macroeconomics and geopolitics. Another was an expert on communications. Another was an expert on AI. Another was an expert on storytelling. So you have to think: does my topic have value for that type of audience—that corporate audience? An easy way of finding that is if you just go onto any of the speaker bureau websites, type in “speaker bureaus,” look for the speaker bureaus, and then type in your topic area—emotional intelligence or whatever the topic area is—and look at the other speakers. See if there is obviously a number of speakers talking on this area. Importantly, look at how busy they are and look at their fee levels as well. I did an online summit a few years ago called the International Speakers Summit, where I interviewed a hundred and fifty of the world's best professional keynote speakers. I interviewed Sally Hogshead, who's an author and a speaker, and she said to me, “James, you're going out speaking about creativity, but if you just twisted it a little bit and spoke more in terms of innovation rather than creativity, you would earn an extra five thousand dollars per keynote.” So creativity and innovation—an extra five thousand dollars. That's just a simple thing that, as you get to understand the industry, you learn. Then once you do that, it's like any business—you have to treat it like a business, obviously. What makes someone a great storyteller on stages is not the same as what makes a great storyteller on the written word. So depending on where you're at, you might need certain training and skills development. If you are listening to this from America, there are things like the National Speakers Association, the NSA. If you're living in the UK, the Professional Speakers Association. These are great ways just to develop your skill set and learn from other professional speakers. Here's the good news, I didn't know anything about professional speaking until 2017–18, and it was only from having a conversation with someone who said, “Listen, you have some original thoughts. You can get paid to speak about this on stage.” Then I spent the next year really researching and understanding and looking at how to do it and creating a minimum viable product—a speech—that was a very short period of time, a year. Most of the listeners here have gone through that process of writing a book, which takes many, many months. So you have the stamina to do this type of work. You just need to find out where you fit. I thought I was going to be a speaker in marketing. I thought that was going to be my thing. And it turns out that's not what the market wanted from me. They wanted me to talk about creativity and artificial intelligence. So you have to listen to the market, like you have to listen to your readers. Jo: Yes, I think that's really interesting. I was also a member of the PSA here, and I learned in Australia with the NSAA as it was. James: Yes. Jo: And that thing about who you speak to—I mainly speak to author conferences, who, I just want to be frank, don't pay very well, if at all. So exactly what you said there— If you want to be a highly paid speaker, you have to pick the audience who's going to pay, as well as a topic that works with them. It is a very different thing to writing a book, I think. James: It is a different model. This is what was interesting when I interviewed those hundred and fifty professional speakers—the thing that came back loud and clear is there is a model to suit everyone. Jo: Mm. James: So the model that works for me—getting paid high fees to go and travel around the world, speaking on stages to primarily corporate audiences—that is not the only model. There is another model, which is called the “sell from the stage” model, where you maybe don't get paid anything to go and speak on the stage, or very little, but what you're doing is you're selling your consulting, your online course, your books, your other products from the back of the stage. That's another model as well. I have friends who have young families and they are writers and they don't want to schlep on planes like I do. I know one speaker in particular who never leaves his own city. He is a very successful professional speaker. He happens to live in Orlando, Florida, which is one of the busiest cities for conferences. So literally, he's home with his kids every night. He gets to do all this cool stuff he wants. He never has to step on a plane if he doesn't want to. That just shows you the range. I remember I once interviewed a person whose title was a Buddhist monk, French speaker, and author. He figured out he could live very affordably by living in Thailand. So he lives in Thailand for part of the year and he's very into meditation, mindfulness, yoga, and writing. He figured out he only had to give two keynotes per year to pay for his entire lifestyle. That was it. So that gives him a lot of freedom. He does those two corporate keynotes a year and for the rest of the year he's doing his yoga, his meditation, his writing, and surfboarding, whatever he's into as well. So you can see there's a whole range of different ways you can design that life. Jo: Yes, we talk a lot about definition of success and it's great to hear those different examples. So before we finish up, I just want to come back to your journey into the writing side, into books and self-publishing. We all understand, me and the listeners, how hard it is to write a book and also to market a book, but we've got the bug. So we wonder: how much have you got the bug? Do you plan on doing more writing, more books, or do you still want to lean more heavily into speaking? James: Primarily the income for me will still come from speaking. I remember listening to Elizabeth Gilbert once when she talked about her writing. She said she always wanted to have other things, so she never had to push onto her writing that it had to be the income stream for her. If it was successful, great, that's fantastic. So I have a little bit of a similar view to that. In terms of my own writing, I've got about five different nonfiction book ideas I'm now looking at. Some of them relate to speeches that I already do. Some don't. I'm looking at different versions of the SuperCreativity book, so there'll be other versions coming out—different industries, different languages. That gives you a few years of work. The other side that I want to develop is the fiction writing side. I'm already starting to work on a fiction book at the moment—a little bit like this idea of one for them, one for me. Jo: Mm-hmm. James: So one for them is for the corporate audience, that world that I live in, and the other one is for me, for my own creativity. My hope—and I don't know, maybe we need to speak in a year's time when I've written and published it—is that by doing the fiction side, it will make me a better storyteller on stages as well for my corporate audience. It will help me understand story arcs, slightly different ways of expressing stories, building emotion, building the anti-hero characters within a book, for example. So I'm hoping that they both feed off each other. But we will see. Jo: Yes, we will. All the best with that. So where can people find you and your books and everything you do online? James: The easiest place to go is JamesTaylor.me, and you can find the book, which is called SuperCreativity, there. Or just go to wherever you buy your books—your local independent bookstore—and get a copy of SuperCreativity. The audiobook may already be out by the time you're listening to this as well. If you want to learn a little bit more, we also have a podcast called the SuperCreativity Podcast, where I interview lots of wonderful guests talking about this area of super creativity. Jo: Well, thanks so much for your time, James. That was brilliant. James: Thank you, Joanna. Thanks for having me as a guest on the show.The post SuperCreativity And KeyNote Speaking With A Non-Fiction Book With James Taylor first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Willie Jolley is a man on a mission! He is a Hall of Fame speaker, singer, best-selling author, and popular media personality. In January 2023, he received the Joseph R. Biden Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. In July 2023, he was the recipient of The National Speakers Association’s highest and most cherished award, The Cavett. His new book “Rich is Good Wealthy is Better” seeks to bring the historically disenfranchised into conversations about wealth building and understanding generational economics.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/civiccipher?utm_source=searchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bill James is known as the man who 'teaches sales to those who have to sell but don't like it.' In this session he will be sharing how to have zero spend on marketing. The lost art of paying nothing for marketing and NOT using social media. Knowing where it will work and how to create it. Practical examples + a live demonstration for one attendee Bill James is a prominent New Zealand-based business speaker, author, and trainer specializing in sales systems, lead generation, and "zero dollar" guerrilla marketing. He is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) and former President of the National Speakers Association of New Zealand (NSANZ).  He focuses on helping introverts, new salespeople, and top performers improve sales results through practical, low-cost, and sustainable strategies. He was awarded New Zealand Speaker of the Year (2015-16) and Business Speaker of the Year (2012). Known for actionable, "offline" marketing techniques and building, rather than just chasing, business opportunities

In a world defined by uncertainty-funding cuts, global instability, and constant change-what if doubt isn't something to overcome, but something to lead with?In this episode, I sit down with Marc A. Pitman, founder of Concord Leadership Group and a leading voice in nonprofit leadership, fundraising, and executive coaching.With more than two decades of experience coaching CEOs and training over 25,000 leaders across the globe, Marc brings a deeply practical and refreshingly human approach to leadership. He is also the author of Ask Without Fear! and his latest book, The Surprising Gift of Doubt.At a time when nonprofit leaders are facing unprecedented challenges such as shrinking funding streams, rising demand for services, team burnout, and global instability, Marc offers a powerful reframe: doubt is not a liability. It's a leadership advantage.In this conversation, we explore how leaders can navigate ambiguity without losing clarity, make thoughtful decisions without perfect information, and foster trust even when the future feels uncertain. Marc shares practical frameworks, coaching insights, and real-world examples to help nonprofit professionals turn uncertainty into a source of strength rather than stress.Whether you're leading an organization, managing a team, or responsible for fundraising in a volatile environment, this episode will challenge how you think about confidence, control, and what it truly means to lead.

Cathy Fyock, CSP, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, The Biz Book Strategistprovides you with the intensive support you need to get your book DONE. She is the author of On Your Mark: From First Word to First Draft in Six Weeks, Blog2Book: Repurposing Content to Discover the Book You've Already Written, The Speaker Author: Sell More Books and Book More Speeches, and the WSJ, USA Today, and Amazon best-seller, Authority.LA Weekly Feature Story, June 2023 - 15 Book Coaches to Watch in 2023. Founded by Cathy Fyock, the Business Book Strategist, Cathy Fyock, LLC offers one-on-one coaching, group coaching, writing retreats, and learning programs to through leaders and professionals who want to write a book as part of their business growth strategy.Cathy Fyock was featured in the article 15 Book Coaches to Watch in 2023 in LA Weekly. Click here to read the story.She has mastered the art of getting a book on paper quickly, and then using her speaking and writing to generate revenue streams and create new business opportunities. She leads her own consulting/coaching/speaking practice and has been a member of the National Speakers Association for more than 20 years. Cathy has been a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) since 1993. Since starting her coaching business in 2014, she's helped more nearly 200 professionals become published authors.She has consistently used her writing skills to promote her business, build credibility, create powerful revenue streams, and establish herself as a thought-leader. While never picked for the high school newspaper or seen as a “writer” by any of her teachers, she consistently uses writing to build her business, and to help other speakers, consultants, and small business owners use writing to meet their business objectives.Cathy helps aspiring consultants through her webinars and coaching programs, and supports small business owners, consultants and speakers in leveraging speaking and writing to build their businesses through a variety of services, including her books, webinar programs, one-on-one and group coaching programs, retreats, and consulting.#cathyfyock #bizbookstrategist #author #coaching #chrispomay #livewithcdptalkshow #barrycullenchevroletdealership https://www.cathyfyock.com/  / thebusinessbookstrategist    / cathy-fyock-973b735 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfF8...https://beacons.ai/chrisdpomayhttps://www.cameo.com/chrispomay book a cameo from yours truly CDP! https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/chris... if you wish to support my media content and You Tube Channel. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast...https://www.barrycullen.com/

Sure, here’s a script from this audio: Interview Script Host: Dr. Bill Lampton, Business Communication Expert. Guest: Gina Carr, CEO of Stark Raving Entrepreneurs and AI Specialist. Bill Lampton: Hi there! Welcome to the Business Communication Show. I’m your host, Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication Guy, once again bringing you communication tips and strategies that will boost your business. Yet, this is not a solo act. I bring you those tips and strategies through a guest, a highly qualified business communication expert. Today, I am so delighted to introduce you to Gina Carr, the visionary CEO of Stark Raving Entrepreneurs, where she empowers leaders to harness AI-driven tools for transformative marketing and sales strategies. With an MBA from Harvard and an engineering degree from Georgia Tech, Gina—affectionately known as the Tribe Builder—specializes in cultivating passionate communities of raving fans. As a dynamic international speaker and serial entrepreneur, she’s founded multiple successful ventures, including an award-winning real estate firm and a chain of community magazines. I knew her way back then when she was in those ventures. Gina, formerly the CEO and speaker curator of TEDxDuPree Park, now resides in Orlando, Florida, with her fiancé, Terry Brock. She’s an advocate for animals, freedom, and plant-based living. Her zest for life inspires all those around her, including me, for a long time, I can assure you. So, let's now welcome Gina Carr to the stage! Hello there! Gina Carr: Hello there! I am delighted to be here. Bill Lampton: Well, it’s terrific to have you here. As the introduction qualified, you're a highly credentialed guest who has mastered business communication for a long time. Gina, many of our podcast viewers and listeners are entrepreneurs. Some are long-time entrepreneurs who started, as you and I did, about three decades ago. Some are new entrepreneurs—a few of those by choice, some because the business they were in no longer included them. For all of us who are entrepreneurs, I think of your MBA in business from Harvard University. Judging by what you’ve learned as a highly successful entrepreneur, what are some of the business and communication tips that you would give today to those who are entrepreneurs? How do they make it? Gina Carr: Well, that’s such a great question and something that I think many entrepreneurs ask themselves every day: what is the key? What am I going to do? What will make me successful? I would say the number one thing is that you really need to be clear about who you serve and what problem you solve. And as much as those are important, why you do that is also important to you, because there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs on the entrepreneurial road and you’re going to need to be clear so that it comes across to your potential clients as well as sustains you. You also need to be very clear about how you are going to make money, how you’re going to monetize. That may sound obvious, but it is not. Especially for people who are coaches, speakers, authors, people who are in professional services—but they’re not so much traditional professional services like an attorney or an accountant—how to price those services, I think, can be tough for a lot of entrepreneurs. And then my final main tip here might be a surprise, but it’s going to be: work out. And I say that because I know that it’s important to have that at least one nugget of your day—and I think it’s important to exercise every day—one nugget of your day that you are in total control and that provides stability and confidence to your life that comes across through so many other aspects of your business. It’s like powering up my battery on my phone; I need to charge it every day. It’s like a power-up session for your body and your mind, and I find if I do that, it really helps me in every area of my day, especially in my business. Bill Lampton: I would echo, underline, and emphasize everything you said. First of all, to be clear about what we are offering and to be able to state it with clarity. There are many wonderful consultants who can help us refine and define how we state our mission. It’s important to have help from others on that. Gina, this takes me back to the first year I was an entrepreneur. I remember so well having lunch with someone who also was a member of the National Speakers Association, and I knew that I needed some advice from him. So, I took along a draft of my website. He looked at it, and of course, with pride of authorship, I was thinking he’d say, “Oh, this looks great, this will be a real winner, you’ll attract clients.” But what he said to me was, “What you’re doing is just presenting your credentials,” which is a mistake that many entrepreneurs and even seasoned business people make. I put my degrees, I put clients I’d had, and it all focused primarily on my qualifications. But you and I have learned, and marketing experts have taught us, that as you say, it’s not so much who we are, it’s not so much what we’ve accomplished, but what really counts so much is: what can we do for other people? What is our service? How will they benefit from being with us? And I would like for you to give us some further tips on the business of pricing. There’s a wonderful expert friend of mine in Atlanta named John Ray; he specializes in helping people on their pricing. And one more note on that—I remember also, Gina, near the start of my consulting, speaking, and coaching career, I had somebody say that they would represent me in a speakers bureau. That sounded great. So I gave them my materials and then, after a year, nothing had happened. I called him and I said, “What’s the problem?” And he said, “The problem is you priced yourself so low everybody identifies you as a beginner.” So, give us some guidelines on pricing, please, and tell us how we get the courage and the fortitude to state that affirmatively without apology. Gina Carr: Oh boy, that’s a real tough one. I have certainly learned a lot about pricing over the years and generally, I tend to be too low on the pricing scale. So, I have actively worked to learn from people who are charging more and to confidently present a price that is probably higher than I am comfortable with. I think if it doesn’t make you feel like “ooh” when you say it, you’re probably pricing yourself too low. So, to your example of speaking in particular, speakers come out and they say, “Well, if I’m a brand-new speaker, yes, I should price myself on the low end.” For professional speakers—let’s just throw out some numbers here—generally, that would be in the $2,000 to $5,000 range. Even though that sounds like a lot of money—it is a lot of money for an organization to pay—for the professional speaker, for the ones who have more, it’s not just experience, it’s the background of the person who is doing the speaking and what they bring to the table. You were talking about earlier, what is that change that they help people make? What is that transformation? So, the transformation and the years of experience not necessarily as a speaker, but as an expert doing whatever it is that you do, could translate to right out of the gate a speaker could be in the $7,500 to $10,000 range or, if there’s some celebrityhood to it, in the $20,000 range for a single keynote. So, I hope that that’s helpful. It is hard to say and you really do need to do some research. I’ll tell you one of the ways that it’s making it easier for me to do the research when I’m making a proposal for a new service or to a new client: is using my AI tools, which I’m very big on, using AI tools—artificial intelligence—to say, “What’s a price range for this service? What do you think of this? What should I be asking for this?” And give me different levels, which in the past, that would have been hard for me to come up with, but because of AI, I can come up with those levels. And I do like to go back to a prospect with different levels of opportunities—a high, medium, and a low—and really give some options because you don’t know. A lot of times people will choose the higher price even though you think, “Well, that’s crazy, why would someone choose that?” It happens a lot. Bill Lampton: Well, they choose the higher price because they see the value in it. They choose the higher price because they know it’s going to make, as your introduction used the word, a transformative difference. And by the way, Gina, I couldn’t ask for a better transition to our next topic because you mentioned artificial intelligence. I know that over the past several years, you have been, along with your fiancé and business associate Terry Brock, not only learning artificial intelligence and how we can use it, but you’ve been teaching it ardently. Now, for those of us who maybe know the term and we’ve heard how some other people do it, what would you give as great starting points for really getting so involved in artificial intelligence that it not only makes your work easier, but it makes it far more productive? Gina Carr: Well, just think of AI, and let’s just talk about ChatGPT, which is one that many people have heard of and most people think of AI as ChatGPT, which it’s so much more than that. But even just ChatGPT is your new 24-hour, seven-day-a-week assistant that never goes on vacation, never needs a break, and never needs a raise. They can help you with so many things personally and professionally. Just personally, let’s just look at an example from a few months ago—maybe it was a year ago—there was a problem with our toilet. And we used our ChatGPT to turn on the mode that allows the ChatGPT phone to look into whatever you’re showing it and said, “Hey, what’s the problem here?” And it identified that it was a flapper problem. We ordered a new flapper for less than $10 on Amazon and then we asked ChatGPT to help us learn, show us how to install it. And so we saved ourselves hundreds of dollars, and that’s a personal issue. I use it all the time with recipes and those sorts of things. So, those are on the personal side. On the business side, I mentioned pricing of services, writing those proposals, thinking of what would be the name of a new workshop or the name of a new service. My goodness, I do a little demo in some of my presentations where in about five minutes, I go all the way from the idea of a product, naming the product, developing packaging, developing the marketing plan for the product—things that would have taken months in the past can now take about five minutes, and they’re really, really good. Bill Lampton: It is, it’s very much like a hired assistant that is so incredibly cost-effective. My favorite—and of course, I know you and Terry have mentioned, I think it’s Grok and some others—the one I use probably the most is Perplexity, which is sort of a confusing title because Perplexity sounds like you’re confused. But for an example of how I use it, let’s say I’m going to write an article or I’m going to do a YouTube short video. And I might ask Perplexity, “What are some famous quotes on this topic?” And then I’ve got some highly qualified, credible resources familiar to the public that I can quote. Now, of course, one thing that you and I and many people who are in the business communication arena would emphasize is that there’s an ethical problem involved, and that is that if you go to ChatGPT or if you go to Perplexity—the amazing thing about it for anyone who hasn’t used it is the second you get through typing your question, the answer starts being typed—one of the ethical problems here is that people will get a large printout of information and then they’ll just copy and paste that and publish it as their own. I suppose you’ve had to warn clients about that, Gina. Gina Carr: Yes, actually, I just was doing that yesterday with a client, and she was worried that she’s using AI too much. After reading the sample that she shared, I think she probably was. And so what we talk about in our program—and Terry Brock, my fiancé, coined this term—he calls it “UIs.” You take your initial story or your videos or whatever and you get AI to help you with that. If AI generates it initially, you still need to review it, you need to add your own stories, you need to ask it to make it more formal, make it shorter, make it more humorous, make it sound more like you. And the more that you feed it—that is, you’ve loaded in your own videos, your own transcripts, your own articles that are in your pre-AI voice—then the more it’s going to come back in your own voice. And AI has the ability to organize the thoughts very well, the ability to just polish and make things sound much better than what I sound initially. I’ll give it what I want it to say, but it makes it sound a little bit better. So, that’s one way to use AI. Bill Lampton: It is, for those who may not have ventured in that direction yet. Gina Carr is a great resource for teaching AI because she’s been doing that for several years. Gina, we mentioned in the introduction that you are known as a tribe builder. In just a few seconds, we’re going to come back and talk about that. (Brief break with an ad for Bill Lampton’s services) Bill Lampton: Hello again! You’re on the Business Communication Show with our distinguished, highly qualified guest, Gina Carr. Gina, I remember as long ago as 20 or 25 years, I interviewed you one time about your term “tribes.” Now, tell us please what a tribe is, how we develop it, and what are the benefits? Gina Carr: Well, a tribe is nothing more than a group of people that have bought into a particular philosophy or movement or leader. Typically, there is a leader that says, “Hey, let’s go—we’re at Point A, let’s go to Point B. This is how I think we need to go there, and do you want to follow me? If so, here’s how we’re going to go.” And building a successful tribe includes communication channels such as you have this great channel right now. So, you are a tribe builder, Bill, whether you think of yourself that way or not. You’re teaching people how to communicate professionally, how to communicate better. And so it’s so helpful. People are saying, “Do I want to communicate better? Well, yes, I do.” Well, watch Bill’s show. Bill is going to communicate with you through his show and other posts that he’s doing in the social media world and in the digital world. And so that’s one way that people have joined, not officially but effectively, they have joined your tribe and they are learning from you about how to communicate better. This is one of the so powerful ways to build a tribe because then you develop trust with the people who are following you. And when you want to help them, serve them, or work with them, they are more likely to know you better and to more easily make a decision as to whether they want to follow you to that next step. And as we talk about business here, is that next step a paid opportunity, is it a free opportunity? There’s a mix and match that you’re going to do as a tribe builder to help people. And often it is going to be a paid opportunity because you can serve people better when you’re making the money so that it allows you to serve people more. Bill Lampton: I don’t mind admitting some of the mistakes I made early in my entrepreneurial career. And probably the most blatant mistake—I wish, Gina, that I’d heard you talk about tribes before my first six months—because not knowing any better, I just picked up the phone and started calling people and telling them how fortunate they would be to have my services. But you and I know another benefit of the tribe is that it’s so much more effective when we have formed a tribe and we’ve associated with those people and they know what we do and they’ve benefited from it, and they become our advocates. It’s far more persuasive to have someone else talk about our credibility and the benefits of working with us than us doing it ourselves. And then a second thing I would say about tribes is we learn from those people. We learn business insights, we learn about leadership, we learn about networking. I would imagine as you look back, since you started out as a tribe builder, the reason that you are, in my judgment, very high in the pinnacle of success is not just because of your own doing, it’s because of your tribe. Gina Carr: Oh, completely. There’s an old African saying: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” And so that is definitely a fundamental philosophy for me of tribe building. Because of all the people that are in my life, including you, including Terry Brock, including the amazing members of our Stark Raving Entrepreneurs community that I’ve had the honor to serve, I’m able to do more. I’m able to impact more people, I’m able to serve a lot more people, and that makes my heart sing. That makes me happy. And I just want to help people have better lives. Bill Lampton: It’s just not a solo way to success, is it? Gina Carr: Not at all. And with AI tools and the agentic AI tools that people these days are having full suites of executives that are working for them that are all artificial, they are all AI agents. This is something that’s going to happen more and more. People are going to be able to build bigger companies with fewer real employees—in real-life employees. But the ones that they have now, they don’t necessarily need to fire them or lay them off, they free them up from tasks they were doing that were filled with more drudgery, that were boring. The AI can do those tasks now, and so the human can do things that are more creative and things that are going to be better for bringing in more business. And so it’s a win-win for everybody. That’s part of why I’m so excited about it. Bill Lampton: That’s a wonderful point for you to emphasize because so many who hear about AI think it’s gloom and doom for their careers. It’s not. It’s an opening to new skills and to new opportunities. And when people take the training that you and Terry Brock and other experts offer, they can have a far more productive, lucrative, and service-oriented business. Time for one more question, Gina. You are a veteran professional speaker. I remember we were in the Georgia chapter of the National Speakers Association back in the late 1990s. So you have been an in-demand speaker, even internationally. In just a few sentences, what tips would you give to business leaders—what are the two or three keys to highly effective speaking? Gina Carr: Well, one is to be clear on how you want your audience to be transformed when you’re done. What is the position? They’re at Point A and they’ll be at Point B after they have heard you speak. So what is that? Be very clear on that. Another key skill is to engage the audience. And as we’ve been speaking here, I’ve been using my hands, I use head gestures, I use smiles, I use voices lower, voices higher. Those are engagement techniques that mostly I do naturally, but I do work on those. And they’re much more engaging than the speaker who sits here and just talks like this in a monotone, right? So variety! People want variety. Exactly. So those are some of the main skills. Connecting with the audience and then actually selling. If you’re going to be a professional speaker and you want to get paid to show up to speak, you have to be able to sell yourself as a professional speaker. It’s a joke in the business that you’re actually a salesperson who gets to get on stage every now and then and give a speech. Bill Lampton: Yes, it doesn’t just happen, does it? Gina Carr: It does not. Bill Lampton: Gina, this has been a highly informative, helpful, and interesting conversation. I refer to the Business Communication Show not as an interview but as a conversation with an expert, which I’ve been fortunate to host today. I know that there are those who would like your contact information. So please share that with us. Gina Carr: Well, easiest way to reach me is at ginacarr.com—G-I-N-A-C-A-R-R dot com. And then also, I’d love you to check out my community: starkravingentrepreneurs.com. That’s a great place to find us. And I do have a tool that is available for free. It’s called aitools4biz.com—AI tools the number four B-I-Z dot com. And that has some of my favorite AI tools that I’m using right now and that we have videos on there that help you know how to use those tools better. So that’s a free resource for your community that you can share with your folks. Bill Lampton: Hey, free is everybody’s favorite word, isn’t it? I think so. I am going to order that and I encourage our viewers and listeners to order that. I know it’s going to be highly resourceful. And now that Gina has given her contact information, I’m happy to give mine. First, my YouTube channel: Bill Lampton PhD is the way it’s listed. I have been producing educational videos on the area of communication since 2007—don’t look at any of those earlier ones, please. And in the last eight years, most of my videos are for the Business Communication Show. So you will, by going through and, by the way, while you’re on my YouTube channel, please subscribe there. And then my website—since my tagline is Biz Communication Guy—logically my website is bizcommunicationguy.com. And while you’re there, you can subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t done that already. I welcome phone calls with no obligation for an exploratory call to talk about your communication challenges and problems and how I can assist you with them. And then I want to give credit to the co-producer of this show, Mike Stewart. Mike is based in Nashville. His website is localinternetpresence.com. Mike Stewart and I met, Gina, at the Georgia chapter of the National Speakers Association in the first year that I was getting going. And Mike said to me, “Have you got a website?” And I said, “Yes.” He said, “Does it have sound on it?” And I said, “No.” And of course, then we started out in print but we needed to get to sound, and now we include video. So localinternetpresence.com, I certainly encourage you to check with my long-time associate and long-time mentor, Mike Stewart. Gina, this has again been so intriguing, so informative, and such a wonderful pleasure to host you. What nugget of a minute or a minute and a half would you like to leave with our viewers and listeners? Gina Carr: Well, I love Stephen Covey’s philosophy or one of his principles of: begin with the end in mind. And I think it’s important to think about—at your eulogy, what will people say about you? And so think about that as you are planning your life for today and for the next year and for as long as you are going to be on this planet. Life is hard—and not in a bad or a sad way. Life is hard; choose your hard. If you want to be an entrepreneur, it’s going to be hard. But being an employee is also hard, and doing nothing—sitting on the couch watching TV all day—is also hard in other ways. It’s going to be very hard for you in financial and health and mental health and all of those ways. So, I just want to encourage you: begin with the end in mind, choose your hard, recognize that it’s going to be hard. But which hard is going to make you happier right now? What are you willing to go through—whatever the pain is—for the gain that’s going to make you the happiest and fulfill your life? Bill Lampton: Reminds me of a great piece of advice I heard years ago: they call it W-O-R-K, not P-L-A-Y. And we do have to do the things that are difficult. We have to do the things that might be unpleasant. Learning AI is not something you’ll do in one afternoon, but it will bring dividends when you get into it—you’re amazed already at what can happen. So thank you, Gina, for being our wonderful guest today. I’ve looked forward to this opportunity and keep your calendar handy because I know we will call on you again for the Business Communication Show. And to those of you who have been with us today on the Business Communication Show, we invite you to be with us again next week for another business communication strategies and tips session. Thank you. I’m Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication Guy.

Terri walks through how a background in competitive speech and debate evolved into a 30+ year career helping top performers—CEOs, brokers, sales teams, and even members of Congress—win more often by mastering persuasive communication. Her foundation is simple but powerful: communication is not about what you say—it's about what the listener hears, processes, and acts on. She shares how her early career "breaking territory" through cold calling and filling rooms from scratch shaped her philosophy: you must be both scrappy enough to earn attention and skilled enough to convert it. The core problem she sees today: experienced professionals rely on confidence instead of preparation, while newer professionals lack structure—so both default to "winging it." And that's costing deals. Her latest book, Presentation Ready, is built on a multi-phase research study identifying the 12 most common mistakes that cause professionals to lose opportunities—based on both self-reflection and buyer feedback. What You'll Learn (from Terri) Why "winging it" is the silent deal killer – Veterans rely on experience → leads to complacency – Newer professionals lack a repeatable structure – Result: inconsistent messaging and missed outcomes The real mistake: being informative instead of persuasive – Most professionals "data dump" instead of influencing decisions – Buyers don't reward information—they reward clarity and conviction The disconnect that's costing you deals – You think you're clear → your audience thinks you're boring – #1 feedback from buyers: "The presentation was boring" Why recording yourself is non-negotiable – You cannot fix what you don't recognize – Watching yourself exposes verbal habits, weak structure, and lack of impact The importance of scrimmaging (roleplay) – Top performers don't practice presentations—they rehearse outcomes – Like athletes, drills build specific skills that show up under pressure Why "scrappy + structured" wins in today's market – Scrappy gets you in the room – Skill gets you the deal About Terri Sjodin Terri Sjodin is the Founder of Sjodin Communications and one of the leading experts in persuasive presentations and sales communication. She is a New York Times best-selling author, Hall of Fame speaker (National Speakers Association), and has worked with Fortune 500 companies, national sales teams, and government leaders. Her latest book, Presentation Ready, is based on decades of real-world experience and a multi-phase research study on what actually causes professionals to win—or lose—opportunities.

1100, folks. Man, that's a lot of podcasts, don't you think? Only a couple dozen podcasts in the entire world have ever reached that level. So we're real proud of this. I'm going to do something different today. I don't know whether you're going to like it or not, but I'm going to do what I call my life in bullets because a lot of people ask me every time I'm interviewed on something like wanting to know my background, how you got where you are and all this stuff. So I'm going to give you my life in bullets. Launch Team - https://www.ScrewTheCommute.com/launchteam Please watch this short trailer to the end and leave a comment - https://www.facebook.com/AmericanEntrepreneurFilm/videos/558575401181955 AI Hacks - https://www.ScrewTheCommute.com/aihacks Screw The Commute Podcast Show Notes Episode 1100 How To Automate Your Business - https://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/ Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Higher Education Webinar – https://screwthecommute.com/webinars See Tom's Stuff – https://linktr.ee/antionandassociates 00:23 Tom's introduction to My Life In Bullets 01:50 Personal bullets about his upbringing 10:02 Give before you Get and losing everything in one shot 16:48 Joining the National Speakers Association 22:19 Creating the Great Retreat Center and rescuing animals 29:24 Opening IMTC and starting the Screw The Commute podcast Entrepreneurial Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Higher Education Webinar - https://screwthecommute.com/webinars Screw The Commute - https://screwthecommute.com/ Screw The Commute Podcast App - https://screwthecommute.com/app/ Screw The Commute Podcast Producer - https://screwthecommute.com/larryguerrera/ College Ripoff Quiz - https://imtcva.org/quiz Know a young person for our Youth Episode Series? Send an email to Tom! - orders@antion.com Have a Roku box? Find Tom's Public Speaking Channel there! - https://channelstore.roku.com/details/267358/the-public-speaking-channel How To Automate Your Business - https://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/ Internet Marketing Retreat and Joint Venture Program - https://greatinternetmarketingtraining.com/ This is the shopping cart system Tom uses! Kartra - https://screwthecommute.com/kartra/ Copywriting901 - https://copywriting901.com/ Become a Great Podcast Guest - https://screwthecommute.com/greatpodcastguest Training - https://screwthecommute.com/training Disabilities Page - https://imtcva.org/disabilities/ Tom's Patreon Page - https://screwthecommute.com/patreon/ Tom on TikTok - https://tiktok.com/@digitalmultimillionaire/ Email Tom: Tom@ScrewTheCommute.com Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Related Episodes Invisible Expert - https://screwthecommute.com/1099/ More Entrepreneurial Resources for Home Based Business, Lifestyle Business, Passive Income, Professional Speaking and Online Business I discovered a great new headline / subject line / subheading generator that will actually analyze which headlines and subject lines are best for your market. I negotiated a deal with the developer of this revolutionary and inexpensive software. Oh, and it's good on Mac and PC. Go here: http://jvz1.com/c/41743/183906 The Wordpress Ecourse. Learn how to Make World Class Websites for $20 or less. https://screwthecommute.com/wordpressecourse/

Generative AI is not just another tool, it's a complete shift in how decisions are made and work gets done.In this episode of the OnBase podcast, Paul Gibson sits down with Jim Sterne, author and AI thought leader, to explore how organizations must rethink leadership, culture, and ROI in the age of generative AI. They discuss why AI moves us from deterministic systems to creative ones, why traditional ROI models fail, how leadership misalignment slows adoption, and what it really takes to embed AI into workflows without losing human judgment. If you're navigating AI transformation in your organization, this episode will fundamentally change how you think about it.About the GuestJim Sterne focuses his forty-five years in sales and marketing on using technology for marketing. He sold business computers to companies that had never owned one in the 1980s, consulted and keynoted about online marketing in the 1990s, founded a conference and a professional association around digital analytics in the 2000's, and has lately been advising companies on the adoption of generative AI. He has written thirteen books on Internet advertising, marketing and customer service including the humorous Devil's Data Dictionary. His first book on AI was “Artificial Intelligence for Marketing: Practical Applications” (2017) and his latest is “The New Science of Customer Relationships: Delivering on the One-to-One Promise with AI” (2025).Sterne has consulted to some of the world's largest companies; lectured at MIT, Stanford, USC, Harvard, and Oxford. Since 2002, Sterne has remained active producing the Marketing Analytics Summit and spent 20 years with the Digital Analytics Association as cofounder and Board Chair Emeritus. He was named one of the 50 most influential people in digital marketing by one of the UK's premier interactive marketing magazines and was included in a list of the Top 25 Hot Speakers by the National Speakers Association. Sterne is on the Advisory Board of a variety of startups, has served on the Boards of his local library foundation and the Better Business Bureau, and the Editorial Board of the Applied Marketing Analytics peer-reviewed journal. His current passion is leveraging generative AI as a catalyst for innovation as seen in his TEDx talk.Connect with Jim.

"The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come." – Steve Jobs Check Out These Highlights:  I love this quote because I believe that when we tell a story well, one that is relevant to our clients, we create emotional responses that allow the client to FEEL our solution and visualize using it in their life and business.  In this episode, just like Steve Jobs' quote, you will discover how strategic storytelling helps sales teams build trust, clarify value, and influence buying decisions—turning conversations into conversions. About Robert Kennedy III: Robert wants to live in a world where people are no longer afraid to tell their stories with confidence.  His work as a keynote speaker and trainer in the area of leadership communication has led him to work with organizations such as the US Coast Guard, Barnes & Noble, Social Security Administration, Panda Restaurant Group, AARP, T-Mobile, and UNCF, as well as appearances on Fox, CW, and other networks. Additionally, he is involved in his community through various boards and is a member of the National Speakers Association. How to Get in Touch with Robert Kennedy III: Websites:  http://www.robertkennedy3.me Email: rk3@robertkennedy3.com Virtual Event: http://www.storyvaultremix.com Stalk me online! Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/conniewhitman   Subscribe to the Enlightenment of Change podcast on your favorite podcast streaming service or YouTube.  New episodes are posted every week. Listen to Connie explore new sales and business topics or address problems you may have. 

Bill Lampton: Hi there, welcome to the Biz Communication Show. I’m your host, Bill Lampton, the Biz communication guy. We’re in the eighth season of the Biz Communication Show and our purpose and our service to you is to bring you communication strategies and tips that will boost your biz. And I don’t do this solo. I do it with the conversation with a highly qualified guest who will give us those tips and strategies that will benefit us and our clients. Very happy today to welcome from Minnesota, happy to welcome Gloria Russell. She’s the founder of Russell Resources LLC and a strategic marketing copywriter who helps service-based business owners and career professionals turn complex expertise into clear, confident messaging that attracts aligned opportunities across websites, LinkedIn, blogs, posts, and newsletters. Wow, that’s quite comprehensive. With 12 years in business after a demanding corporate career, Gloria brings clarity, strategy, and encouragement to every project guided by integrity and a commitment to apply her gifts with excellence. Gloria’s clients walk away with words that sound like them, spotlight the outcomes they deliver, and build credibility without hype, fluff, or feeling salesy. As I mentioned, she’s based in Minnesota and can be found at www.writer.mn. So I know that you will join me in welcoming Gloria Russell. Hi, Gloria. Gloria Russell: Hello, Dr. Bill. Thank you for the invitation. It’s delightful to be here with you. Bill Lampton: Well, I hope this will be the first of frequent times because you have so much to offer as I mentioned in the introduction and I’ve known your work firsthand and know the value of it. I am a very frequent, several times a day user of LinkedIn and as many business professionals, I want to know if I’m doing the right thing or the wrong thing because if we’re on there all day long but we’re off target with what we’re trying, we’re not gaining ground, we’re losing ground. So here’s what I’d like to start with. Would you please identify and discuss two or three of what you see in your work as some of the most common mistakes we make? And I know they’re well-intentioned mistakes, but they still can be harmful. Give us two or three that come to your mind and then what should we be doing instead of each one of those two or three mistakes? Gloria Russell: Absolutely. Thank you for that. Definitely, there are mistakes. We all make mistakes, but I tend to think of it more as most of the time it’s just that we’re unaware. So the first thing that I see is that people are treating LinkedIn like an online resume. And so a resume is something in its own right. LinkedIn definitely works well with the resume because there are a lot of things you can do on LinkedIn that you can’t do on your resume. The two go hand in hand. But on LinkedIn, rather than talking about here’s what I’ve done, we want to talk more about here’s how I help, here’s the outcomes that my clients achieve. And so staying within your topics of your business, we want to use LinkedIn more as a decision tool than a resume. So that’s one thing. The next, and oh, I’ve been talking about this a lot lately, Dr. Bill. I see people just not keeping up with their profiles. We all get busy and that a lot of times is at the bottom of the list. But what I find, we all grow professionally, personally, ourselves and in our businesses, but our LinkedIn does not always grow with us. And so I’ve been noticing a lot lately that people who really have been growing over the last say five years, they have so much to offer, but their LinkedIn still sounds like five years ago or maybe seven years ago. And so that’s not telling the true story and they’re missing a lot of opportunities. And so I have been actually posting about that quite a bit lately because I really feel that it’s something to be aware of and we can update that and make sure that we are talking about who we are today. I think the other mistake is more with the content. And so this can be the content on your profile, in your posts, even on your website. But when we’re posting, sometimes it’s either too technical, too salesy, or even too scattered. And what I mean by that is if it’s too technical, sometimes we get into a lot of verbiage that’s just a lot of jargon or words that or phrases that people don’t really understand yet. So we need to write in words and language that people will understand quickly. And then too salesy, we all know what that’s like and if you do the sales pitch too soon or too often, that’s really not a good thing either. So basically, if you’re doing the sales pitch too soon, probably what you’re really getting is a mental eye roll and that’s not good, that’s not a good place to be. And then what I mean by scattered, if we’re having conversations and we’re posting about unrelated topics, that’s not really serving us well either and it confuses the reader, they’re not sure what you’re about. So we want to basically stay in that lane, stay true to our topics. And LinkedIn doesn’t like it either, with especially with the new algorithm, they really want us to stay in our lane and talk about that what the particular role is that we are taking on within our industry. Bill Lampton: All of those are very valuable points. One that I would certainly like to follow up on and give my observation on it, and that is your very pertinent point about being too salesy because people are not going to be so impressed, it seems to me by my own experience by what our credentials are, our clients. I mean this is a qualifier, but what they are going to be most impressed about on LinkedIn is how does it relate to what I need, how does it relate, how did this person’s services, how will they assist me? I’m not here just to admire somebody, I came here to really find who can can help me. And then I also want to reflect on what you said about unrelated topics. Over the last, I’ve been on LinkedIn, I’m sure maybe a dozen or more years, and over the last couple of years, I’m finding that there are many topics that are introduced there that have practically nothing to do with business or professional life and some people are thinking this is Facebook number two. And and that is not on point, as you say. I like what you said as well about this is not just a resume because a resume mostly centers on us, but LinkedIn should be pointed in the other direction. Now talking about salesy brings this up. We certainly have to present ideas and content, maybe videos, maybe podcast, that reflect our qualifications. But when you’re advising clients, Gloria, how do you help them draw the line between competence and cockiness because yes, we need to show the competence but what are some of the guidelines you would give us not to come across as as arrogant? Gloria Russell: You know, Dr. Bill, I can’t tell you how many times I run into this with my clients, especially my clients from the Midwest, because we are taught from a very early age not to brag about ourselves. And they are worried about doing that when they’re online or meeting with people and I have to let them know that that’s not what this is about. We are, we have a service to provide and we don’t want to be invisible so we need to talk about it in some way, but it can be in a very respectful way. I look at it this way and and it’s a little bit like what you were talking about earlier. Arrogance keeps the spotlight on me, like I’m the greatest, I’m the best, how impressive am I, how impressive am I. But that is, that does not impress anybody. And confidence on the other hand, is when you shine the spotlight on the other person or on the client, because we want to know what they are about, we want to ask the right questions, we want to understand their situation, and let them know how we help, maybe something they need, it may not be, but we’re that outcome really isn’t part of the equation there, it’s just letting them know what we do. So when we present confidently, it’s not braggadocious. And really arrogance I feel like is trying to win the room often with rather pushy tactics, whereas confidence is trying to serve the room respectfully. There’s a big difference. Bill Lampton: That’s a good distinction. Another point that I’m sure many of us wonder about and I’ve heard, I’ve heard different bits of advice on this. First of all, what’s the what would you say is the recommended frequency of our appearance? I on LinkedIn in the way of content or even comments. I see some people who either they’re working all night to to get their copy ready or they’re they’re just prolific during the day and they’re they’re on there almost ad nauseam. And then on the other hand, the other extreme would be somebody who publishes or comments two or three times a week. What what guidelines would you give us about the frequency? Gloria Russell: Well, we hear for certain platforms like Facebook or or others that you should be posting constantly eight times a day. To me, that’s just exhausting and maybe it works for some people that way, but when we’re talking about LinkedIn, that’s not necessary. And anyway, I don’t think any of this should be stressful for a person. I typically will encourage my clients when they’re starting, to start with something that’s reasonable and sustainable. So that might be posting once a week, and LinkedIn is very happy to have you post once a week as long as it’s consistent and you’re sharing something relevant and something that is useful for your audience. You could post once a week, you could post three times a week or five times a week, LinkedIn is good with all of that. And the other part of it is, you also want to be commenting. And that’s kind of the giving part and that I I feel like there really isn’t an equal balance there. I feel like you almost want to be posted, post once, three times, five times a week, but commenting pretty much every day, five times a week. And that has to be a meaningful comment though, because you have to be giving value. In other words, some people may come to your post and and their comment is “great post” or it might be “thanks for sharing,” but that’s all there is, it’s really not helpful. And LinkedIn with their algorithm doesn’t think it’s helpful either. So if we’re going to comment, we want to do it properly and really share a meaningful comment that would probably be one or two sentences. Bill Lampton: I have become more and more involved in commenting because you are supporting the work of others, you are aligning with it, and it’s very likely that some percentage of those people will see value in your work and eventually may not only comment but could even repost. Gloria, we’re going to come back in just a minute and we’re going to talk about something that I know you have advice about and that is what about video content for LinkedIn? We’ll be back in just a few seconds. Advertisement: Do you wish you felt confident about giving speeches? Do you want to deal with difficult people constructively? And what about becoming more persuasive in sales? Then keep listening now to Dr. Bill Lampton. He spent 20 years in management so he knows the communication skills you need for success. I urge you to call the Biz communication guy today for a no-cost, but very very valuable 30-minute discussion about your communication challenges. Call now 678-316-4300. Again, that’s 678-316-4300. Bill Lampton: Gloria as I mentioned, we we’re in the age of video. I I very well remember when the internet first came along and I I became active somewhere around 1997 or 1998. And at that time it was rather predominantly print and then along came audio. And now we have video available and as I’ve said often on the Biz Communication Show, we have easy access to produce video. 20 years ago we for a five-minute video we may have to hire a company to come in with their productive equipment, production equipment, and for $5,000 or more get a five-minute clip. But now our phones or iPads or whatever we can produce meaningful videos even without the assistance of anybody else. So because we have that access, what part should video play in our LinkedIn not only our profile but in our posting as well? Gloria Russell: Yes, and here we are on video. Video does build influence and I think it’s because it can it can build trust faster. People can connect with your voice and your presence, which is wonderful, you know, rather than just your words. It can make you more memorable and perhaps more referable. So I think it’s really compounds across your your content. And what I hear from people is that sometimes they are and I know that you’ve heard this Dr. Bill because this is where you’re at, but people will say to me I I don’t want to be on camera, I don’t like how I look, I don’t want to be on video, I don’t like the sound of my voice. And so that’s fine if they don’t want to do it, however, it can serve them well if they can get over it and I was kind of like that too where I basically had to say but truly it’s really not about me so much as sending a message to our audience or our clients. So if I would challenge people to reach out to you if they’re having a trouble a little bit of trouble with that or maybe that’s a barrier for them. But I I feel like when we’re posting on LinkedIn, we have to remember that people learn in different ways and so it’s really to our advantage to have a variety of content and that would be some people like they’re they are very visual people, some people like to read, some people like long form, some like a quick short read, many different varieties of ways that you can post even to have a poll on LinkedIn. So I think it really is worthwhile to have a variety and video can definitely play a part in that. Bill Lampton: I agree with you that many people are are reluctant to get into that and yet I remember many years ago when I first went into the communication business full-time and I was I was teaching the speech courses at the University of Georgia and there were so many students, of course that required course was one many students would have dodged if they could have, they didn’t want to be in front of a group. Yet we even back then quite a number of years ago we were videoing the students as they gave their eight to ten minute speech or so and almost without exception when the video went into playback and we were going to critique it they were quite surprised that they didn’t look as nervous as as they thought they would, that they seemed a bit more composed and just a few times doing that will assure a person. And one of the things I tell my students and I’m coaching students and I mentioned this on here often is I’ll give them a sheet of instructions Gloria and on there I’ll put “don’t try to be perfect” and I’ll misspell the word “perfect” and they say you didn’t spell that right and I say no but you got the meaning of it didn’t you, so that gets the point across. And video as you’re saying gives us a variety. I think now if we were on LinkedIn and were to use only print and no sound and no no no facial contact we would be way behind a lot of people. Switching topics you in our introduction we talked about how you help your clients bring clarity. Tell us how does that work? Gloria Russell: Well, I think the whole the clarity is the key. So the whole idea is to look at your content and see if it is being received the way it is intended. And typically we will have a shift from a lot of times the content will be just describing the tasks and the activities that you do. And what we want to do is to focus on describing the outcomes, because that’s what people really care about, at least at first. What’s it going to be for me, what does that mean for me? So that is a huge shift that we have to take care of to begin with. And part of that is usually there’s very broad language and so we bring that together and instead of using broad language we create more client-focused language, that ideal client language, even using words that they would use, language that they would understand and relate to. And that’s where I think the clarity and the trust starts to show up. They see that we understand them. And the other thing is replacing some of those vague claims that we can hear and read across the content. We want to instead show some proof, which can be details, can be examples, can be recommendations. This is really a tremendous thing about LinkedIn, you can have recommendations there where people, other people are talking about you and letting the audience know how you help them or how you work, how easy is it to work with you, what is the outcome that they received. Those things are, I mean that’s just golden. And so when I work with my clients, basically I teach them some of the strategies that are important so that they can really make the most of that and do it consistently to try to get those recommendations. I think that makes a world of difference. Bill Lampton: And we don’t just wait for recommendations. There are plenty of people who might support us on LinkedIn with a testimonial if we ask them. If you just assume people and if you ask people who you’ve dealt with professionally and it was successful, they’re delighted to be on there and in fact, I look at it this way that there’s a double advantage that’s one more place, a prominent place that when you make a referral, it’s another prominent place that your name appears and people might then check you out. One final question we have time for, Gloria, and that is you work not only not only with LinkedIn but with other platforms as well. When you’re talking to a client and you deal with LinkedIn and they want to look at other places where they can market their skills, market their services, market their products, what would be a couple of other places that you would recommend that they they align with? Gloria Russell: Well, I would say first of all that there really is no right platform for everyone. So and there’s so many that yes, you do need to choose. If I could back up one step, I would say that the your kind of your home base would be your website and your email list because those are what I consider owned assets and you have control over your message and it’s not like someone’s going to pull the rug out from under you and all of a sudden your your site is gone. So I would really work on that and then if if you have a business like mine B2B, business to business, LinkedIn is definitely a place to be. And I think that’s that’s the rule, you would want to be where your clients are. So if your clients are on LinkedIn that is certainly the first place that you would want to be making some progress there. And then you also would like to look at places where your clients may be searching, that could be Google business profiles, it could be YouTube, and depending on your again your business and who your clients are could be Instagram. So you want to look at how it would be serving and where you would build that trust. And for me, it would it would mainly be LinkedIn and a little bit of Instagram for you, you you do very well on YouTube and that’s searchable that’s a wonderful platform and the video. So I think that’s really good. I think the thing that overwhelms people is that there are so many platforms and I just like to say you don’t have to be everywhere all the time and you don’t have to be into everything. Start with one and get very comfortable and and find a rhythm that you can that’s sustainable and that you can keep up. Once that happens, then you can decide to either increase your activity on that platform and or find another platform. But really, I feel like if people have two platforms that’s that’s plenty, some definitely will have more, but we I think we make it harder than it needs to be sometimes. Bill Lampton: Yes, if we try to do six or seven platforms daily, that’s all we’re going to do and we will we will be so diluted and scattered that we won’t consistently build an audience. Gloria this has been fascinating and I I know all of us have learned plenty from your expertise today, we’re very grateful. So there are those I’m sure who would like to get in touch with you, give us your contact information that you’d like to share, please. Gloria Russell: Well, I think the easiest way to find me would be on LinkedIn and I’m easy to find there, Gloria Russell, Russell Resources. I think it’s I think it says marketing content writer or marketing content creator, it’s very easy to recognize me and if people want to reach out there and ask for a connection they could just mention that they saw me here with you Dr. Bill and I’m happy to accept their connection and have a conversation. Bill Lampton: Thank you so much and I’m happy to share my contact information after I encourage all of our viewers and listeners to follow up and get in touch with Gloria. My YouTube channel is Bill Lampton PhD, you’ll find this video there. I’ve been producing videos on YouTube since 2007, I encourage you to not look at the earlier ones, but over the last few years as I mentioned at the outset the Biz Communication Show has gone for we’re in our eighth year now spotlighting experts that all of us can learn from. And while you’re there be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. My website, since my tagline is Biz Communication Guy, quite logically my website is bizcommunicationguy.com and when you go there you can subscribe there to the podcast. I will welcome phone conversations at no initial financial commitment to just talk about your communication challenges and problems and see if I can help you with them or if there’s someone else who can that I know is competent. I need to mention too the co-producer of this program, Mike Stewart. Mike is a longtime marketing and technical expert and you can contact him at localinternetpresence.com. Gloria again with all the kernels of information that you’ve given us, how would you pull together in 30 seconds or a minute what you’d like to leave as maybe nuggets of information that we need right now? Gloria Russell: Well thank you for that. I think really the the theme of the whole thing was clarity and clarity really is the key and trust is built in small steps. So we just have to remember that they don’t have to do everything and we don’t have to do everything at once. I have found that the most influential people are not always the loudest or the the most self-promoting but they are the clearest and they sincerely want to serve their audience. And so we can do that just by showing up consistently consistently with some pearls of wisdom and encouragement and that’s just what you do on your podcast Dr. Bill. Bill Lampton: You remind me of one of the outstanding speakers in the National Speakers Association, he’s spoken in more than 50 countries now, Terry Brock based in Orlando Florida and Terry did a short video one time where he said too many people suffer from “I disease” and that’s not EYE, that’s I. So as we’re promoting ourselves on any platform as you said make it client-centered. Thanks so much to Gloria Russell for sharing with us those valuable tips and strategies today. Thanks to those of you who joined us on the Biz Communication Show and we encourage you to be with us again next week for a powerful guest who can help all of us with their tips and strategies.

Join the Divas in discussing what Dental Assistants can do beyond chairside assisting.   Mary, Leslie and Olivia share their career experiences as dental assistants and offer insights into how Dental Assistants can find their niche in dentistry for a rewarding career.Resources:The Association for Dental Safety https://www.myads.orgOSHA - Authorized Outreach Trainer   https://www.osha.gov/dte/outreach/outreach_trainersDental Assisting National Board (DANB) https://www.danb.org/Speaking Consulting Network https://speakingconsultingnetwork.com/Academy of Dental Management Consultants https://admc.net/National Speakers Association https://nsaspeaker.org/Toastmasters International https://www.toastmasters.org/ https://www.thecompliancedivas.com

Kathy Parry doesn't just walk into a room; she energizes it. She is a nationally-recognized keynote speaker and authority on workplace resilience, energy, and purpose-driven performance. With a foundation in corporate training and deep roots in caregiving and wellness, Kathy empowers professionals to stay energized, even in the face of relentless disruption. Kathy holds degrees in Business and Food Management from Miami University, a Certification in Plant Based Nutrition from T.Colin Campbell Program at eCornell University, and a QualityCare Certification from the Alzheimer's Association. She holds the designation of Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) from the National Speakers Association and speaks at events nationwide. Kathy has authored six books, including The Rubber Band Resilient Leader and is the creator of Power UP Leadership Workshop. She lives near Canton, Ohio. where she enjoys a mild dark chocolate addiction and cooking for hungry friends.

For 30 years, Laura Stack was best known in the business world as "The Productivity Pro."  Her career as a keynote speaker, bestselling author of eight books, and corporate spokesperson came to a screeching halt on November 20, 2019, when her 19-year-old son, Johnny, died by suicide after becoming psychotic from dabbing high-THC marijuana concentrates.  Laura responded by forming the nonprofit, Johnny's Ambassadors, to educate parents, teens, and communities about the dangers of today's high-THC marijuana on adolescent brain development, psychosis, and suicide. Her platform now brings prevention education to drug prevention conferences, community groups, and schools to stop youth marijuana use.  Johnny's story has been told in People Magazine, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Epoch Times, the Ingraham Angle, the Untold Story with Martha MacCallum, and PBS.  Laura is the recipient of the Drug-Free America Foundation's Moxie Award for protecting youth from substances, the Leadership in Advocacy Award from the National Speakers Association, and the American Association of Suicidology's Loss Survivor of the Year Award.  Laura is a powerful speaker who brings Johnny's personal warning and solid research together in her book, The Dangerous Truth About Today's Marijuana: Johnny Stack's Life and Death Story.  Described as a force of nature with unstoppable drive and unwavering purpose, Laura is determined to get teens to #StopDabbing. HELP SUPPORT OUR FIGHT AGAINST ADDICTION: DONATE HERE: https://www.patreon.com/theaddictionpodcast PART OF THE GOOD NEWS PODCAST NETWORK. AUDIO VERSIONS OF ALL OUR EPISODES: https://theaddictionpodcast.com CONTACT US: The Addiction Podcast - Point of No Return theaddictionpodcast@yahoo.com Intro and Outro music by: Decisions by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100756 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ #drugaddictionpodcast #alcoholaddiction #alternativetreatment #hopeforaddiction #helpforaddiction #newmaninterventions

In this episode, host Gary interviews Ariana Tadler, a renowned lawyer and leader, about finding fulfillment and balance in the legal profession. Ariana shares insights from her 33-year career, discussing leadership, the impact of technology, and the importance of rituals for well-being. She emphasizes compassion, candor, and adaptability, especially for younger lawyers navigating blurred work-life boundaries. The conversation highlights practical strategies for managing stress, setting boundaries, and leading with empathy. Ariana and Gary encourage legal professionals to align their careers with personal values, prioritize presence, and pursue joy and purpose both in and out of the office.Ariana is the founding partner of Tadler Law LLP, a WBENC-certified, women-owned boutique law firm and Of Counsel to Kaplan, Fox & Kilsheimer LLP. With 33 years' experience advocating for consumers, employees, investors, and businesses through negotiation, arbitration, and litigation, Ariana is one of our nation's leading women lawyers. Ranked by Chambers and Partners, Ariana is also a global ”STAR” in e-Discovery (the use of data for litigation) – she is the first woman to receive this distinction and one of only three people ever to have achieved this distinction.Beyond the courtroom, Ariana is the founder of Ariana Speaks LLC, a thought leadership platform where she shares her voice as an author, entrepreneur, emcee, and keynote speaker. Drawing from decades of real-world experience, she speaks powerfully on leadership, resilience, innovation, and what it takes to thrive in today's fast-moving world.Her message resonates deeply with Millennials, Gen Z, and women of all ages—those seeking to confidently and joyfully design a life that is both highly effective and deeply fulfilling. A proud member of National Speakers Association's New York City Chapter, Ariana speaks nationwide about resilience and grit; and work-life integration, built on her curated formula for living a happy, highly effective life. Her mission? To empower and mentor the next generation of leaders—giving them tools not just to succeed, but to lead boldly and live fully.Optimizing Life & Career Choices (00:02:12)Launching a Boutique Firm: Lessons in Leadership (00:05:13) E-Discovery and Star Distinction Explained (00:07:37) The Human Edge in a Tech-Driven Legal World (00:09:29) Listening as a Core Legal Skill (00:11:43) Risk, Litigation, and Core Values (00:13:54) Leading with Candor & Difficult Conversations (00:15:09) Learning from Junior Team Members (00:17:40) Flex and Pivot: Adapting to Change in Law (00:19:16) Gen Z, Millennials, and Evolving Legal Culture (00:21:57) Boundaries, Joy, and Work-Life Balance (00:23:49) Rituals for Happiness and Success (00:24:49) Presence and Avoiding Burnout (00:26:55) Personal Story: The Cost of Not Being Present (00:27:35) Non-Negotiable Rituals for Wellbeing (00:29:39) Transition Rituals and Sleep (00:34:00) Ariana Speaks: Mentoring and Impact (00:35:35) The Power of Coaching and Mentorship (00:38:22) Empowering the Next Generation (00:41:44)You can find The Free Lawyer Assessment here- https://www.garymiles.net/the-free-lawyer-assessmentWould you like to learn what it looks like to become a truly Free Lawyer? You can schedule a complimentary call here: https://calendly.com/garymiles-successcoach/one-one-discovery-callWould you like to learn more about Breaking Free or order your copy? https://www.garymiles.net/break-free

This week's theme: Charisma In this From Fear to Fire interview, Heather Hansen O'Neill speaks with Eleni Kelakos about charisma as an innate quality rooted in authenticity and presence, not performance. Eleni describes charismatic presence as a dynamic life force that draws people in when we are fully present, grounded, and real. Through her experiences as an actress and speaker, she explains how fear and self-doubt can dim this natural spark, and how reconnecting to the moment allows charisma to re-emerge naturally. The conversation also reframes fear as a powerful teacher rather than a limitation. Eleni shares practical tools for accessing charisma, including grounding the body, regulating breath, setting intention, and shifting limiting beliefs. She emphasizes that people feel our energy before they hear our words, and that true influence comes from emotional alignment and connection. Ultimately, the interview highlights that charisma is strengthened through practice, self-awareness, and the courage to show up fully, even in life's most challenging moments. From Fear to Fire: Secrets to Overcome Fear, Embrace Your Gifts and Achieve Success This is the place where real people share real challenges. Where you can find a common bond and uncommon wisdom through their stories. Use tips from the breakthroughs of others to jump-start your success. Speaker, author, adventurer, and host Heather Hansen O'Neill takes you on the journey from fear to fire.  Today, we explore how charisma is an innate, learnable presence that grows when we meet fear with authenticity, self-awareness, and intentional connection. Eleni Kelakos Eleni Kelakos CSP®, The Speaker Whisperer®, uses performance techniques to help executives worldwide be more relatable and magnetic as speakers and leaders. When she’s not coaching individuals or facilitating training at companies like GM or Allstate, Eleni practices what she preaches, empowering audiences with her signature keynote presentations. A graduate in both Theater Arts and Semiotics from Brown University, Eleni is a past president of the National Speakers Association of Michigan. She has recorded four critically acclaimed CDs of original songs, and released three award-winning, bestselling books: Touch The Sky, Claim The Stage, and Charismatic Presence. Connect with Eleni: Website: The Eleni Group LinkedIn: Eleni Kelakos, CSP Facebook: Eleni Kelakos Instagram: @eleni.kelakos Visit the home page of my website and sign up for my 5 Ways To Minimize Stage Fright, Amp Up Your Presence, And Wow Any Audience free ebook. Quote of the Day: “Charisma is a sparkle in people that money can't buy. It's an invisible energy with visible effects.” ~Marianne Williamson Finding Humanity: The Evolution of Sales is out now. Check it out here! The post Charisma with Eleni Kelakos appeared first on Heather Hansen Oneill.

Simone Knego is an international speaker, two‑time TEDx speaker, and award‑winning author of the bestselling book The Extraordinary UnOrdinary You and the upcoming How to Love the Woman in the Mirror. Her work has been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Yahoo News.She is the co‑host of the Her Unshakeable Confidence Podcast alongside her daughter, Olivia, and the creator of the REAL Method, empowering women to build confidence and embrace their authentic selves. A CPA with a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Accounting from the University of Florida, Simone blends business acumen with personal development expertise.A proud member of the National Speakers Association, Heroic Public Speaking, and Brand Builder's Group, Simone is also a National Indie Excellence Award and NYC Big Book Award winner. Outside of her professional work, she's a devoted wife of 32 years, mother of six, adventure‑seeker who summited Mt. Kilimanjaro, and an inspiration to women worldwide.

https://randygage.com/This thought-provoking episode was originally recorded at the National Speakers Association convention during the pandemic—and its message is even more relevant today. Randy explains how to position yourself as the definitive expert or thought leader in your market by creating market gravity instead of chasing attention.He breaks down how to package your services so you become an essential resource, not a commodity to be sold, and why deep, long-term client relationships matter more than transactional wins. In today's AI-driven economy, becoming iconic in your space isn't optional—it's the advantage that separates those who endure from those who disappear.Please like, subscribe, and share! What You'll Discover• What “market gravity” really is and why relevance beats visibility.• How to position yourself as the go-to authority in your industry.• Why being an essential resource is more powerful than selling products.• How to package your expertise for long-term client relationships.• Why becoming iconic in your space matters more than ever in the AI age.Show Notes:• Randy Gage Website:https://randygage.com/• Randy Gage Books:https://randygage.com/the-books/

Bill Lampton: Hi there, welcome to the Biz Communication Show. I’m your host, Bill Lampton, the Biz communication guy, once again bringing you communication tips and strategies that will boost your business. And as is the case always with the Biz Communication Show, this is not a solo act. I bring you those highly useful tips and strategies through conversations with a highly qualified guest. And today we do have a highly qualified guest coming to us from the greater Atlanta, Georgia, area. In fact, buckle up, friends, because today’s guest is a force to be reckoned with. Deb Krier is an entrepreneur, outspoken cancer advocate, three-time cancer survivor, and a certified integrated cancer coach who brings equal parts strategy, humor, and sass—how about that?—to the cancer conversation. She’s the founder of tryingnottodie.live because, let’s face it, “suddenly” has never been her thing. She now serves as a strategic advisor to business owners and executives facing cancer, helping them keep their businesses, their sanity, and their spark intact. With decades in marketing and PR under her belt, Deb knows how to command a room, and she’s here to remind us that cancer doesn’t get the final word—she does. Hello, Deb! Deb Krier: Hello, sir! I am so honored to be a guest on your podcast. We’re going to have such a fun conversation. Bill Lampton: Yes, we are going to, and you’ve been referred to me by other podcasters who have discovered how well you inform and inspire, and I know that will be the case today. Deb, one of the points I think that’s so important to begin with is when someone gets a diagnosis of cancer, there’s a variety of reactions that they can have. And of course, we will talk some about mindset, and that’s what we’re really talking about now because that’s a central part of our reaction and even our recovery. When you first got the diagnosis of cancer, what were the thoughts that went through your mind? Deb Krier: I was annoyed. I really was. It was like, “Excuse me?” And I literally told my doctor, “I’m sorry, I don’t have time for this.” And she looked at me like, “Well, darling, you’re going to have to make time.” But the fear, the anger—all of that didn’t come until a little bit later. But yeah, I was just annoyed. It was like, “Excuse me, you must have the wrong person.” Bill Lampton: “You’re interrupting my life.” Deb Krier: I know, I know. How rude! Bill Lampton: And is the question often among cancer patients, “Why me?” Deb Krier: Oh, yeah. You know, and I think we all feel that. There’s a little bit of guilt: “Did I do something to bring this on?” And of course, we didn’t. We all know people who smoke two packs a day and don’t get lung cancer, right? And there’s all of those things. Sure, there are things that we can do to make ourselves healthier just in general, but we certainly never want to do anything that has caused us to have cancer. And so I think there’s that, but yeah, there is the “Why me?”, even though the stats show that it’s a good portion of us. But yeah, it’s the “I’m sorry, go pick on somebody else” type of thing. Bill Lampton: As I mentioned to you when we got acquainted, I empathize with you because I’ve come through successfully two types of cancer: prostate cancer and colon cancer. And I remember so well waking up from a colonoscopy and the doctor said to me, “You have a cancerous polyp that we’re going to have to remove,” and it was eventually soon, really, remove twelve inches of my colon intestine. And you do have a range of thoughts, and of course, anger comes into that as well. Your life was going along quite smoothly—why does this happen to you? Which leads me next to what came of this. There are many people who could get cured, fortunately, and that’s it. But it really led to a new lifelong mission for you. Describe that mission to us, please. Deb Krier: Well, way back when I was just a wee little person, I worked for an oncologist and I worked for the American Cancer Society. And so I tell people, “I know just enough about this to be dangerous,” right? But I have a fabulous business coach, her name is Kathleen Caldwell, and it was her idea that I do this, and I went into it kicking and screaming. When she would say, “You need to help people,” I would say, “Oh, but I don’t want to be Cancer Girl. Ugh.” And I really did just want to get back to business as usual. But I realized I was helping people. I would be in the doctor’s office and they would have me talk to students or they would have me talk to new patients. I’m actually still in active treatment even after 10 years. I go in every 21 days and I go in, I’m the person going to, “You need some water? Do you need some crackers?” I’m bebopping around the infusion room. And it’s just kind of something that I have always done. But I really did realize that I could and should use what had happened to me to help others on this journey. And so that was when I decided to start tryingnottodie.live because we all get so caught up in trying not to die, whether it’s with cancer, whether it’s just with life in general or something else, that we forget that we have to live. And so that’s really the premise behind it: how are we going to live through this process? Bill Lampton: Tell us about your “Trying Not to Die… Live!”—what is that? Deb Krier: Well, the name came from when I was initially undergoing treatment. I’m special, and so I had to develop every complication, every serious life-threatening thing, all sorts of things that you could get. And at one point, I was in the hospital for over seven weeks. And my mother—I am an only child, my mother has since passed, but I am an only child—she of course came because I was in very critical condition. And one of the times when my fabulous medical team came and went, I got the disapproving mother look, you know, the “Hmph.” And I went, “What?” And she said, “You did not say thank you.” And I said, “Oh, for heaven’s sakes, Mom, I’m trying not to die here!” And so that kind of just stuck in my head that there was that. But then I really did think we need to live. Maybe it’s five hours, maybe it’s 50 years—whatever it is, how are we going to live during that time? Whether we’re on a cancer journey or not. Are we going to say, “I’m going to put stuff off. I’ll do it at some point. I’ll take that vacation whenever.” No, we need to live now. Bill Lampton: I was reviewing this morning a story that I imagine you’re familiar with. An American journalist and author, Norman Cousins, he was an editor. Quite a few decades ago, he was diagnosed with severe rare arthritic disease. And instead of just staying absolutely serious about it, he started watching television at the time—the Marx Brothers television, Jack Benny and Bob Hope—because he said laughter was a good way to handle what otherwise could be a totally grievous situation. Deb Krier: Right. Humor really is one of the things—I mean, we hear that laughter is good medicine. It’s more than good medicine; it’s great medicine. And there are very real benefits from laughing: it, for some reason, lowers your blood pressure—right? You’d think it would raise your blood pressure, but it lowers your blood pressure. There are certain chemicals in your body that are activated when you laugh, and those help you heal. And it’s one of those things where we sometimes develop kind of a weird sense of humor about some of this, but we do have to laugh. And the funny thing is, even if you fake laugh—”Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,” right?—your brain doesn’t know that you’re faking it. And so the healing benefits are still released. And so they do things like laughter yoga and things like that. But yeah, watch I Love Lucy, watch—my favorite is Big Bang Theory, right?—some things like that. But how can you laugh? And one of the things that I always try to do is to make my care team laugh because they have really hard jobs. Really, really hard jobs. And so can I give them a giggle or a chortle for the day? Bill Lampton: Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite authors. I’ve got three of his books on my shelf. And you just reminded me of an experiment he reported by some behavioral scientists. And the experiment was this: they prompted people who were working with them to smile, even though they really had nothing to particularly smile about. But he said, “Let’s find out what happens when you consistently smile.” And what happened was their mood changed. And he said the outcome of that was that we always think that a smile or laughter comes from our mood, but he said very perceptively that if we laugh or if we smile, that can elevate our own mindset, as we’re talking about. Deb Krier: Right. And let’s be honest, this is not fun. You know, it’s—there’s just times where I just want to crawl back under the covers and not come back out for several days or weeks. And but how can we have fun with it? And I tell people, you know, we’re not saying that it’s huge. Sometimes the micro-gratitudes are enough. You know, just find something. Somebody the other day asked me, “What was I grateful for for 2025?” Right? It’s the end of the year as we’re doing this. And I said, “The fact that I’m still alive.” And they knew my story, and they said, “Well, we’d hope that would be what you would say.” But yeah, just something little. You know, I have a new puppy—oh my gosh, he is the cutest thing in the world, and getting a little puppy kiss from him, you know, just whatever that what is happening. And and now here’s the thing: you can when you smile, you kind of it’s you make other people smile too. Bill Lampton: Yes, and that’s true. And one thing I found when I was a patient diagnosed with cancer and I was in the hospital a couple of days, one of the first things I did with my caregivers—the nurses and the doctors—was bring levity into the situation. I would crack some bit of humor when I met them or when they came by, and it changed the atmosphere. Deb Krier: Right. You know, and sometimes it like I said, it could be a little inappropriate humor, especially you know when we’re joking about this. But as if we’re joking about ourselves, it’s okay. You know, and I was talking with a stand-up comedian who has cancer, and she said she would never, ever say something about somebody else. It’s like calling you know the “the kid the fat kid.” No, that’s just not right. But if you’re joking about yourself, then then it’s okay. And you know, anything to to lighten—even when you’re getting bad news, you know, you can still find something in there that might be a little bit of something to laugh about—you know, the “well, it could be worse” type of thing. Bill Lampton: Deb, in just a minute we’re going to come back after a short break, and when we do, I want to talk with you and get your reaction to the fact that there are there are a large number of patients who might think, “Well, I’m just going to go it alone. I’m a—I’ve always been a survivor of every difficulty I’ve had, and I’m going to go it alone.” We’ll get your reaction to that in a few seconds. Commercial: Do you wish you felt confident about giving speeches? Do you want to deal with difficult people constructively? And what about becoming more persuasive in sales? Then keep listening now to Dr. Bill Lampton. He spent 20 years in management, so he knows the communication skills you need for success. I urge you to call the Biz communication guy today for a no-cost but very valuable 30-minute discussion about your communication challenges. Call now: 678-316-4300. Again, that’s 678-316-4300. Bill Lampton: We’re back here with Deb Krier on the Biz Communication Show. She is not only a three-time cancer survivor, she’s an advocate for becoming a widely known caregiver for those who are currently going through the problem. Now, Deb, many of us, of course, for a variety of reasons when we contract cancer, we say, “Well, I’m just going to go this alone, and I’m not going to talk with the neighbors, I’m going to shut myself up until I whip this thing.” It’s sort of a reaction, and and I’m—I’d love your comment on this: is there even a feeling of shame or guilt that causes us to isolate ourselves? What’s the what’s the danger, the repercussions of isolating ourselves? And what then do you do to help people move beyond that? Deb Krier: Well, you’re so right, Dr. Bill. I think so many people you know I don’t know if it is shame or if it is fear—”Ooh, they might judge me. Did I bring this on myself?”—you know, like we were saying earlier. I think there’s also the thing, “We just don’t want to bother people. I don’t want to be a bother.” And so we don’t tell about it. And of course what we need to do is we we do need to talk about it, appropriately, right? Now, I’ve been very, very open with what I’ve been going through, but I’ve also done that on purpose because I am using it to educate people, to help people, some things like that. But you know, it’s it’s okay to to share what you want with who you want. But I really think we shouldn’t go it alone. I did a Facebook post one time about you know something along these lines, and somebody who I didn’t even know, because my posts are are public, responded and said, “I’ve never felt so alone in my life.” And it broke your heart. But the cool thing was other people who did not know this man responded and said, “What can we do to help? Please reach out to us.” And you know, and I think that’s the thing is we are social animals. So when something happens to us—you know, it’s it’s funny, if it’s good, we want to share it with the world, right? But if it’s bad, we kind of you know do the little turtle thing or and and we don’t want to share. But it is very important for us to build that community. I say it’s a tribe. I also tell people I’m a warrior, and I know not everybody likes that term, but you know it’s me. I am in the fight for my life, quite literally. And so I am a warrior. I am battling this. And so I build my tribe around me, and my tribe includes my medical team, family, friends, whoever. And people have come and gone in that 10-year time span, right? But it’s it’s been something where initially I didn’t really want to tell people. And I didn’t want people visiting me in the hospital, and I looked really bad—really, really bad. But I didn’t want people to to come and see me like that. And then I realized—I mean, clearly I am a very social person. And isolating myself was damaging my mental health. I needed people to come and talk to me about what was going on in the world. I needed them to at one point I needed them to come take me for walks, to get out and get fresh air, you know, all of these things. Sometimes I just needed somebody to run an errand or drive me to to an appointment. You know, and and as much as we want to kind of isolate ourselves, it can be very damaging to ourselves. But again, you need to do it as on the level that you feel appropriate for you. Some people like me are very open, other people are much more private. Bill Lampton: As I remember, you you have—you talked about tribes—you have some ways of getting cancer patients together. How do you do that? Deb Krier: Well, we do have a Facebook group, and I’m you know it’s you can find it on our website, which is tryingnottodie.live, and you can find the Facebook group there. It’s you know we we keep it lighthearted. Every Monday I post jokes, I mean, all sorts of things. But it is a place for support. And so you know we’ve we’ve had one day we had someone who posted, “Got my scan results today, everything is good.” So everybody in the group, “Yay!”, right? Then the next day somebody posted and said, “I lost my husband overnight.” And so then of course the group said, “We’re very sorry. What can we do?” And you know, and so it is a place where we can share. And you know, it’s kind of interesting, it goes along with what we were just talking about: sometimes it is easier to share with someone who you don’t really know. You know, they’re just that Facebook person. But it is a a place for us to be able to share what’s going on in our lives. Earlier today I posted and shared that I had my annual PET scan, right? You know, and and those are just fear-inducing, right? You you know there’s nothing going on, your body you know everybody’s cool with that, but until you get those results and until you read those results, you’re thinking, “Ugh, what if?” And got my results this morning, everything is absolutely fabulous, and so I posted that. But I also know if I had said there’s a problem, I would have had everybody rallying behind me. Bill Lampton: One of the things that I’ve run across over the years when somebody is in trouble: the neighbors might think, “Well, I would go see them, I would go talk to them, but I really wouldn’t know what to say.” And reply to that, because the words really don’t matter, do they? Deb Krier: Right. And but that is the one of the biggest things that people ask me is, “I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do.” And it’s funny because my neighbors—oh my gosh, some of my biggest supporters, I absolutely love them—that’s actually where I went when I got my diagnosis. I got home and I went next door. But yeah, we don’t know what to say, and so then we don’t say anything because we don’t want to say the “wrong” thing. Well, you can say, “Dr. Bill, how are you doing today? I’m sorry this you’re going through this.” You don’t need to say anything more than that, just acknowledge it. I remember I was I have taken grief training because we were talking about, you know, grief is one of the emotions that you feel as you’re going through this. And I was talking to someone who had lost a child—which of course is the worst thing that Bill Lampton: The ultimate grief. Deb Krier: Yes, yes. And he told me that nobody ever wants to say anything about the child because we don’t want to cause them pain, right? And and but what he said was by them not saying anything, it’s like he didn’t exist. And so, you know, when people act like we don’t have cancer, they and I get it—you know, especially you know whether it’s something little or something big—we don’t want to make people feel uncomfortable, we don’t want to say the wrong thing. But it’s okay just to say, “I’m sorry you’re going through this,” because then the person can decide how they’re going to respond. They can say thank you, they can go into more detail, they can do whatever. But don’t don’t act like it hasn’t happened, because it has. But you don’t you know it’s it’s okay just to say I’m sorry. Or you know when I had people who told me, “We didn’t know what to say to you,” I told them, “You know what, Hallmark has cards.” You know, and and I have all of the cards that were sent to me when I was in the hospital. I’m not you know at some point I’m probably going to have to recycle, right? But you know, it’s it really was you know and I got the very inspirational cards, I got very faith-based cards, I got funny cards, you know, and we hung them up around my hospital room because it was a simple way for somebody to to show that the they cared and really you know then they didn’t have to to talk, they just sent the card. Bill Lampton: We have time for just one more question, and it is a vital one. I know that you also not only are a caregiver, counselor, encourager for patients, but you also give services of that nature to the healthcare professionals. Tell us in a couple of minutes about that, please. Deb Krier: Well, thank you, Dr. Bill, that’s a that’s a a great question. You know, I talk to medical care providers about how to provide better care for us, the patient. And it’s funny, in their world, they call it patient-centered care, and I call it customer service, and they suck, right? You know, and there’s a variety of reasons for it. Not the least of which is they’re told, “Now you must see 10 patients in an hour,” and bleh bleh bleh, right? And all of those various things. But they tend to forget that we’re not our diagnosis. I’ve actually been referred to as my diagnosis. I was in a room one day and in in my doctor’s office, and I heard the staff say, “The thyroid cancer is in room four.” And I went out, and I said, “Excuse me, I understand HIPAA. I know you can’t yell my name to the whole world.” I said, “But please not refer to me as just my diagnosis. Because that’s just a very small part of who I am.” And I said, “Find some other way to say, you know, who is in room four, but don’t ever call somebody just their diagnosis.” And so it’s it’s things like that. And how to make sure that you can be that the you as the care team can be reached. You know, and I get it, they’re busy, there’s a lot going on, but I was having a procedure last week and my my surgeon needed to talk to my oncologist, and after 45 minutes of trying to get through, he finally told me, “We’re going to have to postpone. I can’t reach your doctor.” That was unacceptable. I told her about it and she said it was unacceptable. You know, and and so how can we make things easier for the patients, which then of course makes it easier for them? Because when we’re more comfortable as a patient, we’re going to be more comfortable sharing with them what’s going on. But if we feel like we’re the number, we’re just the diagnosis, we’re whatever, we’re not going to share what what we’re dealing with with our care provider. Bill Lampton: Deb Krier, this has been absolutely fascinating and and encouraging and uplifting, as I knew it would be. We’re eager, I’m sure, to have others getting in touch with you that you can help them, you can help their families, you can help their caregivers. You’ve got a remarkable way of doing that. So please share with us your contact information. Deb Krier: Well, again, Dr. Bill, thank you so much. I am so honored to be here. I was listening to some of your other programs—you are absolutely phenomenal, and you’ve got a great program, and I truly am honored that that you wanted me to to come on. As I mentioned, the website is www.tryingnottodie.live, and you can go on there. There’s several tabs on there if you are a business owner or an executive, we do have a special program for you, and so that information is there. The link to the Facebook page is there, and there are also ways on there to reach out and and connect with me. And I am more than happy to connect with with anyone, whether you are the person going through cancer yourself or you are a loved one or a friend. Bill Lampton: Thank you for your kind words about the Biz Communication Show, and the Biz Communication Show makes a contribution because of outstanding guests like you. Absolutely. And now that you’ve given your contact information, I’m happy to share mine. My YouTube channel is Bill Lampton, PhD, and I’ve been doing YouTube instructional videos since 2007. I really don’t want you to look at those that I started with, but and honestly and remember these are the YouTube instructions on there for communication, business communication—they belong to our favorite word, free! Deb Krier: Complimentary. Bill Lampton: Alrighty. And then on my YouTube channel, of course, I encourage you to subscribe there. My website, since my tagline is “the Biz communication guy,” naturally my website is bizcommunicationguy.com. And I am open to phone calls, an initial call to talk about your communication challenges and opportunities and what you would like to achieve, and that initial call will be at no cost. I want to give credit to the co-producer of this show. Mike Stewart is a technology and marketing genius that I met in 1997 when I first became an entrepreneur. We were at the National Speakers Association in the Georgia chapter, Mike walked up to me and said, “Have you got a website?” And I said, “Yes, I do,” and he said, “Have you got sound on it?” And I realized then I needed his assistance. And I’ve been calling on Mike ever since. His internet site is localinternetpresence.com, so I definitely encourage you to get in touch with him. Deb, we the clock keeps moving and so we have to come to the end of it. Wonderful, informative, uplifting. And I want to ask, now that we’re at the end of our conversation, are there in 30 seconds or a minute any particular key thoughts that you would like to leave with us? Deb Krier: Well, again, thank you so much. This has been such a delight. I want to remind people that you are in charge. You are your biggest advocate. It’s not the medical team, it’s not the insurance company, it’s not anybody—you are in charge. You get to make the decisions as to how your cancer journey is going to go, and stand your ground, be strong, and you can do it. Bill Lampton: Thousands of people are are are handling it that way because of Deb Krier. Wonderful to host her, and I know the information will be helpful to you, to your family, and to your friends. Thank you again, Deb Krier, for being our guest today. And for those of you who have been our viewers and listeners, invite you to join us every week for the oncoming editions of the Biz Communication Show, where we do bring you those tips and strategies that are vital to your life and to your business. Thank you again.

When you write a book, you're not just sharing your knowledge, you're planting the seeds for long-term growth. Your book can open unexpected doors: attracting ideal clients, boosting your visibility, and positioning you as a trusted authority in your space. But to make that kind of impact, you need more than a finished manuscript—you need a strategy that helps your book connect with the right people and lead them back to your business. That's exactly why I started the Biz Book Pub Hub. It's a free resource where experts, authors, and writers come together to support each other through every stage of the book journey—from blank page to book launch and beyond. You can explore all of it at www.BizBookPubHub.com . Today, I'm excited to introduce two incredible authors: Antonio Valles wrote “Empower Your Presentation Skills: The Confident Entrepreneur's Guide to Grow Your Business,” a hands-on guide for professionals ready to level up their speaking skills and use presentations as a tool for building authority and closing more business. Kathy Sparrow is the author of “Ignite Your Leadership: Proven Tools to Energize Teams, Fuel Momentum, and Accelerate Results,” a book packed with powerful tools and insights to help leaders inspire their teams and create lasting organizational success. Please join me in welcoming Antonio and Kathy.  In this episode, we discuss the following:

Something New!  For HR teams who discuss this podcast in their team meetings, we've created a discussion starter PDF to help guide your conversation. Download it here https://goodmorninghr.com/EP230  In episode 230, Coffey talks with Linda Swindling about how HR professionals can build negotiation skills, increase approachability, and advocate more effectively inside their organizations.  They discuss why people fear negotiation and how media influences our mindset; the role of everyday micro-negotiations in building confidence; how to uncover true needs through strategic questioning; using the A-S-K framework to navigate difficult conversations; ways HR can speak up when discussions go off-track; understanding personality and negotiation styles; overcoming internal narratives that limit assertiveness; developing boundaries and protecting emotional energy; and helping leaders adopt negotiation as a core communication skill.  You can find Linda's assessments and tools including the “What's My DEAL Style?”, “How Well Do You Ask?” assessments and “Negotiate Like a CEO” E-Book here https://www.lindaswindling.com/assessments  Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com.   If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com.   About our Guest:  Linda Swindling, CSP, CPAE, is a globally recognized expert in negotiation, high-stakes communication, and leadership influence. Ranked among the Top 15 Negotiators in the World by Global Gurus for six consecutive years, she equips leaders and professionals to negotiate what matters—from closing major deals to dealing with workplace drama with confidence and clarity.  A Certified Speaking Professional and inductee into the National Speakers Association's Speaker Hall of Fame (CPAE), Linda is also a Professor of Practice in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at the University of Texas at Dallas.  Her negotiation expertise was refined in the courtroom and the boardroom as a practicing corporate attorney and later, a strategic advisor to CEOs. During her 10 years practicing law, Linda became a partner and a mediator, successfully negotiated several million-dollar deals, and resolved cases that “couldn't be settled.”  For more than 25 years, she has delivered innovative, research-based programs which result in better conversations, proactive dispute resolution, and high-performance leaders and teams. You won't hear anecdotal or intangible theories based on books she read. Instead, you get strategies that produce breakthrough outcomes and lasting results.  Linda's clients include Fortune 100 companies, government agencies, and associations seeking to boost performance, build resilient cultures, and champion change. The creator of the popular Passport to Success book series, she is the author/co-author of more than 20 books including Ask Outrageously, Stop Complainers and Energy Drainers, and The Manager's High-Performance Handbook.  Whether she's speaking from the stage or coaching executives behind the scenes, Linda empowers professionals to use their voices effectively, resolve conflict respectfully, and negotiate durable outcomes that benefit all parties.  Linda Swindling can be reached at: https://www.facebook.com/JourneyOnLindaSwindling https://x.com/LindaSwindling https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindaswindling/ https://www.youtube.com/@LindaSwindling  About Mike Coffey:  Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business' small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association.  Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community. Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year.  Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas' 31 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. Mike and his very patient wife of 28 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth.  Learning Objectives: Identify the psychological barriers that make negotiation feel uncomfortable for most professionals. Apply the A-S-K framework to improve preparation, questioning, and next-step planning. Strengthen leadership communication by encouraging employees and executives to clearly express what they really want.  

Bonus Episode Alert — "You Can Change Your Life" with Les Brown   In this powerful throwback episode, legendary motivational speaker Les Brown sits down with Gary Hibbert to unpack the mindset shifts, courage, and resilience needed to break through barriers and build a life of purpose. Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, investor, or simply striving for more — Les delivers a powerful jolt of inspiration that feels just as urgent today.   Why it matters now: In uncertain economic and housing markets, hope, clarity, and mental strength are more valuable than ever. Tune in to reignite your vision and get mentally ready — whether it's for your next real estate move, life pivot, or long-term wealth journey.   Les Brown   On today's show I had the chance to talk with one of my mentors that has had a huge impact on my life, Les Brown. From listening to him in my car, at the gym and when I'm relaxing, to now be in a position to be able to interview him was a huge accomplishment for me up to this point in my life.   There are so many great take-aways from this show, Les Brown has truly mastered the craft of communication and shares his incredible story and how to design your life.    "Do what is easy your life will be hard. Do what is hard your life will be easy" – Les Brown.   Bio   Motivational speaker Les Brown was born Leslie Calvin Brown on February 17, 1945, in Miami, Florida. After giving birth to Brown and his twin brother, Wes, on the floor of an abandoned building, Brown's biological mother gave her sons up for adoption when they were six weeks old to Mrs. Mamie Brown. When he was in fifth grade, Brown was forced back a grade by the school's principal after being disruptive in class. Brown's demotion subsequently led him to being placed in special education classes and labeled as mentally retarded. As an adolescent, Brown attended Booker T. Washington High School where he was influenced by a speech and drama instructor who encouraged him to pursue a career in radio broadcasting.   After graduating from high school and briefly working for the Department of Sanitation, Brown worked as an errand boy for a Miami Beach radio station. At the station, Brown observed the disc jockeys with hopes of one day becoming an on-air personality. His break came when one of the disc jockeys became inebriated. Brown stood in for him and then was hired as a disc jockey. In the late 1960s, Brown moved to Columbus, Ohio, to work for WVKO Radio, where he became active in the community. Brown's political activism in Columbus won him a seat with the 29th House District of the Ohio State Legislature. In his first year, Brown passed more legislature than any other freshman representative in Ohio State legislative history. In his third term, Brown served as chair of the Human Resources Committee.   In 1981, Brown left the Ohio State House of Representatives to care for his ailing mother back in Florida. While in Miami, he continued to focus on social issues by developing a youth center training program. In 1986, Brown entered the public speaking arena on a full-time basis and formed Les Brown Enterprises, Inc. In 1989, Brown received the National Speakers Association's highest award, the Council of Peers Award of Excellence (CPAE). In 1990, Brown recorded the Emmy Award-winning series of speeches entitled You Deserve, which became the lead fundraising program of its kind for pledges to PBS stations nationwide. In 1991, Toastmasters International selected Brown as one of the world's best speakers and awarded him the Golden Gavel Award.   Brown ranks amongst the nation's leading authorities in understanding and stimulating human potential; he is a featured guest on many radio broadcasting stations and is often hired by professional corporations to teach and inspire new levels of achievement.       What you'll learn from this call;   How do you make the best of everyday to change your life? The early ages of Les Brown and the major turning point in his life. The 3 major lessons Les Brown learned in the 11th grade from his Drama teacher. How to get the most out of listening to Podcasts and seminars to better your life. The scariest moment Les Brown had on stage and what he did to overcame his fear. Why do some people become successful while others don't? The importance of a vision board and remaining focused on your dreams. The difference between failing and seeing yourself as a failure. How to know when an opportunity presents itself? The secret medicine to life and what you need to do every single day to live longer.  

This episode is essential for speakers aiming to transform their presentations from ordinary to extraordinary by honing in on what truly captures and holds an audience's attention.This episode of Speakernomics, host Kenneth "Shark" Kinney engages with Brian Walters, CSP, CPAE, a seasoned speaker, emcee, and infotainment expert. Brian, a past president of the National Speakers Association, shares his expert advice on creating memorable and "sticky" content in the ever-evolving speaking industry.In this session, Brian will: * Explain the "sticky framework" as a crucial method for speakers to design presentations that resonate. Attendees will learn to identify and apply the framework's components: gettable, feelable, sayable, and doable in their presentations. * Illustrate how to identify the Scooby Doo moment in a speech, ensuring that speakers recognize and craft their 'aha' moments to maximize audience engagement and recall. * Discuss techniques for crafting and branding key points, using memory hacks and storytelling to enhance the impact and retention of a speaker's message. Become and NSA Member! https://nsaspeaker.org/join/#membership THRIVE 2026! You NEED to be here! https://thrive.nsaspeaker.org/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's episode, we have the pleasure to interview Laurie Maddalena, author of The Elevated Leader: Boost Your Confidence and Transform Your Team by Mastering Coaching, Accountability, and Difficult Conversations.To Learn More about Laurie and buy her book visit: The Book: https://a.co/d/aB7yJ6rWebsite/Socials: https://www.lauriemaddalena.com/https://www.instagram.com/lauriemaddalena/https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriemaddalena/https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriemaddalena/Laurie is a keynote speaker, certified executive coach, and leadership development consultant who's on a mission to upgrade workplace cultures and rid the world of bad management practices. She's the founder and CEO of Envision Excellence, a leadership development firm, she's also a member of the National Speakers Association, and a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP)—a designation earned by fewer than 17% of speakers worldwide. Drawing on years as a VP of Organizational Development and HR and more than a decade of coaching leaders, she helps managers move beyond outdated “command and control” tactics to modern, human-centered leadership.In this episode, you'll learn why great individual contributors don't automatically make great leaders—and what to do about it, how to shift from fixing problems to facilitating performance through coaching and curiosity, and the three core actions of elevated leadership: creating clarity, caretaking the culture, and facilitating results. We'll also dig into the six leadership saboteurs, practical feedback frameworks that build self-awareness and emotional intelligence, and how to delegate without “drive-by” dumping.We hope you enjoy this incredible conversation with Laurie Maddalena.0:00 Intro2:02 Becoming indispensable at work5:07 Not everyone is meant to be a leader8:25 Moving from fixing to facilitating performance10:57 Focus on the right role & the “saboteurs”15:30 The more self aware you are, the better leader you become17:57 Specific questions to become more self aware22:02 The “What is working and what isn't?” framework24:50 Putting leadership structures in place26:13 Jack Canfield's principles for life28:32 Creating a better leadership/work culture32:34 How to get started and where to get the book____________________________________________Join the world's largest non-fiction Book community!https://www.instagram.com/bookthinkers/The purpose of this podcast is to connect you, the listener, with new books, new mentors, and new resources that will help you achieve more and live better. Each and every episode will feature one of the world's top authors so that you know each and every time you tune-in, there is something valuable to learn. If you have any recommendations for guests, please DM them to us on Instagram. (www.instagram.com/bookthinkers)If you enjoyed this show, please consider leaving a review. It takes less than 60-seconds of your time, and really makes a difference when I am trying to land new guests. For more BookThinkers content, check out our Instagram or our website. Thank you for your time!

Marketing your book doesn't have to feel like a second full-time job—or a mysterious game only the loudest voices win. Some of the most successful authors aren't chasing trends or algorithms. They're building momentum by staying true to their roots and the original purpose behind the book. The truth is: marketing isn't about selling—it's about inviting. Inviting readers into a conversation and into the value your book unlocks. Whether you're marketing your first book or refreshing the launch of a well-loved one, it's not about reaching everyone—it's about reaching the right people. That's the approach I take as a book launch strategist. I help authors create marketing plans that feel authentic and effective, leveraging systems like launch teams, content strategy, and virtual events to build lasting connections and measurable results. If you'd like support mapping out your launch or relaunch, grab a complimentary 30-minute session at www.BookLaunchBrainstorm.com. Now let's dive into our author panel.. Diana Morgan wrote “Whole Heart Social Media Success Formula™: What to Say, Where to Play, How to Win”, which equips heart-centered entrepreneurs with evergreen strategies to authentically grow their online presence, visibility, and influence while inspiring them to embrace their unique voice and purpose. Karen Kaufman wrote “Magic: Making a Good Impression Count On and Off the Golf Course” to help elevate your leadership, presence, and personal power through the unexpected wisdom of golf in this inspiring guide packed with stories, strategies, and soulful lessons for living your most authentic and rewarding life. Please join me in welcoming Diana and Karen.  In this episode, we discuss the following:

What does it take to win the National Speakers Association's LAST STORY STANDING competition?   Today, Mark and Darren get answers from the 2025 winner, Michelle Hutchings-Medina. She shares her journey, her process, and the lessons she learned along the way. Her wisdom will help any presenter on their path to delivering an unforgettable presentation.   SNIPPETS: • Rethink how you use your voice   • Marry your creativity to your desire to have an impactful message   • Spend an hour every day working on your speaking   • Do your best around your intention and let go of the outcome   • Sometimes your message isn't for a particular audience   • Much of the exposition in your stories is not relevant   • In rehearsals, ask for specific feedback   • Your story is like having a conversation with the audience   • Stay in touch with yourself, your values, and your why   • On contest day, get rest, do vocal exercises, pray/meditate   • For contests/timed talks, factor in beats for gasps and laughs   • Speak to let the audience feel something different Work with Mark and Darren: https://www.stagetimeuniversity.com/get-a-speaking-coach/   Check Out Stage Time University: https://www.stagetimeuniversity.com  

Join us for a heartfelt tribute to Kenneth "Shark" Kinney, beloved host of Speakernomics and an influential member of the National Speakers Association, who recently passed away. In this special episode, friends and colleagues gather to share their memories, stories, and the impact he made on the speaking community. What you'll hear in this episode: Personal stories from Tom Singer, Maureen Mahoney, and many others about their unique connections with Shark. Reflections on Shark's generosity, humor, and passionate support within NSA. Insights into Shark's influential role as host of Speakernomics and champion of fellow speakers. Touching anecdotes of Shark's friendships, mentorship, and the legacy he leaves behind. A community call to honor and remember Shark's contributions both professionally and personally. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this conversation, Nicole Gebhardt shares her profound journey of transformation from pain to purpose after experiencing significant loss and trauma. She discusses her spiritual awakening, the importance of community, and the healing power of sharing stories. Nicole emphasizes the need for support groups for women who have experienced loss and offers insights into her unique 12-step program that incorporates emotional healing techniques like Reiki and Emotion Code. Throughout the discussion, she highlights the importance of embracing one's worth and the power of connection with angels and spirituality in the healing process. More about Nicole: Nicole B. Gebhardt, MS, CCLS, CECP is a highly accomplished best selling author, speaker, and transformational coach with a passion for helping families heal and find peace after experiencing pregnancy and infant loss. She also is a huge advocate for individuals struggling with addiction. With a Master's degree in Human Development & Family Studies, specializing in Child Life from the University of Alabama, and a Bachelor's degree in Business Communications from Florida State University, Nicole combines academic excellence with extensive hands-on experience in human development and mental health. A Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS), Nicole also holds certifications as a Sacred Usui Reiki Master, Holy Fire III® and Karuna 2® Reiki Master, and Certified Emotion Code Practitioner. As an active member of the National Speakers Association, she is a sought-after speaker. Nicole's dedication extends beyond her professional credentials. As a military spouse herself, she was recently named 2025 Washington, D.C. National Guard Spouse of the Year. She has volunteered in various leadership roles with the National Guard Bureau Spouses' Club, the Air Force Officers' Spouses Club of Washington, D.C., the Eielsen Air Force Base Spouses Club and other military support organizations. She has also served as a support group leader for infant loss and miscarriage across the country. Her extensive career includes positions as Executive Director at two private preschools, the CEO and Founder of The Worthy Femme and a recognized expert in Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness. Nicole is also a licensed teacher, demonstrating her lifelong commitment to child welfare, family support, and making a difference in the lives of others. For more information about Nicole and her work, visit www.nicolebgebhardt.com and https://spirituallighthousehealing.com/nicole-b-gebhardt-author-coach-and-reiki-healing/ and emotioncodereiki.com Broken Wings Broken Dreams: A Mother's Life After Infant Loss and Miscarriage: https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Wings-Dreams-Miscarriage-Meaningful/dp/B0DPT5FMCV/ The Healing Cocoon : A Mother's Emergence After Infant and Pregnancy Loss: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJZSR8WG “The Queen's Companion Book: Rule Your Throne. Own Your Queendom” available to purchase on Amazon here:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMWQLNM1 https://www.facebook.com/nicolebgebhardt https://facebook.com/nicolebgebhardtofficial https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolegebhardtheals https://www.instagram.com/nicole.gebhardt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this conversation, Nicole Gebhardt shares her profound journey of transformation from pain to purpose after experiencing significant loss and trauma. She discusses her spiritual awakening, the importance of community, and the healing power of sharing stories. Nicole emphasizes the need for support groups for women who have experienced loss and offers insights into her unique 12-step program that incorporates emotional healing techniques like Reiki and Emotion Code. Throughout the discussion, she highlights the importance of embracing one's worth and the power of connection with angels and spirituality in the healing process. More about Nicole: Nicole B. Gebhardt, MS, CCLS, CECP is a highly accomplished best selling author, speaker, and transformational coach with a passion for helping families heal and find peace after experiencing pregnancy and infant loss. She also is a huge advocate for individuals struggling with addiction. With a Master's degree in Human Development & Family Studies, specializing in Child Life from the University of Alabama, and a Bachelor's degree in Business Communications from Florida State University, Nicole combines academic excellence with extensive hands-on experience in human development and mental health. A Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS), Nicole also holds certifications as a Sacred Usui Reiki Master, Holy Fire III® and Karuna 2® Reiki Master, and Certified Emotion Code Practitioner. As an active member of the National Speakers Association, she is a sought-after speaker. Nicole's dedication extends beyond her professional credentials. As a military spouse herself, she was recently named 2025 Washington, D.C. National Guard Spouse of the Year. She has volunteered in various leadership roles with the National Guard Bureau Spouses' Club, the Air Force Officers' Spouses Club of Washington, D.C., the Eielsen Air Force Base Spouses Club and other military support organizations. She has also served as a support group leader for infant loss and miscarriage across the country. Her extensive career includes positions as Executive Director at two private preschools, the CEO and Founder of The Worthy Femme and a recognized expert in Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness. Nicole is also a licensed teacher, demonstrating her lifelong commitment to child welfare, family support, and making a difference in the lives of others. For more information about Nicole and her work, visit www.nicolebgebhardt.com and https://spirituallighthousehealing.com/nicole-b-gebhardt-author-coach-and-reiki-healing/ and emotioncodereiki.com Broken Wings Broken Dreams: A Mother's Life After Infant Loss and Miscarriage: https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Wings-Dreams-Miscarriage-Meaningful/dp/B0DPT5FMCV/ The Healing Cocoon : A Mother's Emergence After Infant and Pregnancy Loss: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJZSR8WG “The Queen's Companion Book: Rule Your Throne. Own Your Queendom” available to purchase on Amazon here:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMWQLNM1 https://www.facebook.com/nicolebgebhardt https://facebook.com/nicolebgebhardtofficial https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolegebhardtheals https://www.instagram.com/nicole.gebhardt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cathy Fyock, CSP, SPHR, SHRM-SCP is The Business Book Strategist and works with professionals and thought leaders who want to write a nonfiction book about their expertise as a business development strategy.  She is the author of 12 books, including—On Your Mark: From First Word to First Draft in Six Weeks, Blog2Book: Repurposing Content to Discover the Book You've Already Written, My New Book, and with coauthor Lois Creamer, The Speaker Author: Sell More Books and Book More Speeches. Her book, Authority, is an anthology about the power of authorship and was a Wall Street Journal bestseller. Her newest book is Writer Crisis Hotline, coauthored with full-time author Allie Pleiter. Since beginning her business in 2014, she has helped over 250 professionals become published authors. She believes that we all have a purpose, and that our stories are the way in which we share our truth with others. She is certain that authors can and do change the world, one word at a time. Three interesting facts: Diane Sawyer's mother was my 3rd grade teacher I love retail therapy I'm an active member of the National Speakers Association and I've been the referral champ for three years Whether you've just started writing, you're racing toward the finish line, or your book's been out for a while, there's one truth that always holds: it's never too early—or too late—to start promoting your book. Here are 10 simple, strategic things you can do right now to build buzz and boost visibility: Design a Cover-in-Progress. Even if it's a draft, create a mock-up of your book cover using tools like Canva or PowerPoint. Post it to build excitement, keep yourself motivated, and start gathering feedback. Bonus: when you reveal the final cover later, you've got another marketing moment! Update Your Email Signature. Add a tagline like “Author of the upcoming book…” or “Check out my new book!”—and include the cover image. Let every email you send be a subtle ad for your book. Collect Advance Praise. Reach out to 10+ influencers, colleagues, clients, or fans and ask for short, impactful testimonials. Use them in your book, on your website, in your launch campaign, or even on the back cover. Write Your Book Summary—Then Use It. Craft a compelling summary (with a little help from AI if needed), and turn it into a Speaker One-Sheet. Don't wait for publication—use this summary now to book speaking gigs months in advance. Audit Your Online Presence. Review your website, bios, social media profiles, speaker intro, and newsletter. Make sure your book is mentioned everywhere your name appears. Build Your Media List. Gather contact info for your local newspaper, alumni magazine, and professional organizations. Then brainstorm niche outlets that would love to hear about your topic. Mine Your Manuscript for Content. As you write, highlight stand-alone sections that could become blog posts or articles. Include a note: “Excerpted from my upcoming book…” It builds credibility and anticipation. Tap into Timely Topics. Use “newsjacking” by connecting your book's topic to trending headlines. A timely blog or LinkedIn post can attract fresh eyeballs and media attention. Start Teasing on Social Media. Share quotes, stories, stats, or sneak peeks related to your book's theme. Use visuals—including your evolving cover art—for extra impact. Turn Your Book into a Talk. Create a presentation based on your book's content. It could be a keynote, webinar, workshop, or book club session. Market it now—even before the book is finished. Your book is more than a product—it's a platform. And the sooner you start treating it that way, the faster you'll grow your impact and visibility. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's guest is a recognized leader in the speaking industry and a master at helping experts turn their message into money. For over two decades, she's been the go-to consultant for speakers, consultants, and thought leaders who want to book more business, make more money, and build sustainable, profitable brands around their expertise. She's the author of “Book More Business: Make MORE Money Speaking” and co-author of “The Speaker Author: Sell More Books and Book More Speeches,” and she's worked with clients at every stage—from rising stars to some of the most successful names in the business. Her proven strategies help experts clarify their message, refine their marketing, and unlock high-paying opportunities that align with their strengths. She's been a featured presenter at the National Speakers Association, the Global Speakers Federation, and the Professional Speakers Association UK/Ireland, which named her an Honorary Fellow for her outstanding contributions to the industry. Please join me in welcoming Lois Creamer.  In this episode, we discuss the following:

Today, I interview Michael Grant and Lee Glickstein. Michael once struggled with stage fright, from freezing in high school to facing the daunting role of speaking at his uncle's memorial service. His voice, long held back by anxiety and fear, often felt locked away.Everything began to shift when he discovered Speaking Circles, created by Lee. Instead of relying on performance or technique, Michael experienced the power of pauses, silence, and being truly seen. He learned to drop into his heart, receive listening, and let his authentic words emerge naturally.What once felt like collapse slowly transformed into presence, connection, and shared humanity. Now, Michael is stepping into personal leadership with a voice no longer frozen by fear. Together with Lee, he shares how listening itself can be healing, how authenticity matters more than performance, and how true voice is found not in speaking louder—but in speaking from the heart.__________________Michael Grant is an architectural designer whose journey with stage fright has spanned decades. What began in high school as a phobia of public speaking—whether in class, on stage, or even raising his hand—developed into a deep-seated anxiety that shaped much of his adult life.Over the years, Michael explored countless avenues to face this fear: public speaking courses, acting classes, personal growth workshops, and three years with Toastmasters. While these tools helped him function in front of groups, he never truly felt safe internally. The anxiety persisted, often leaving him frozen under the spotlight, even on Zoom calls.Everything changed when he was asked to MC his uncle's memorial ceremony—a high-stakes moment with over 130 attendees. Michael feared delivering a stiff, scripted performance instead of honoring his heartfelt intention: to create a safe, loving, and inclusive space.He discovered Be Heard Now! by Lee Glickstein, immersing himself in the practice of speaking from true inner presence, and with intensive dedication to planning and practice, he pulled it off. The memorial became a magical experience. Today, Michael sees his early fears not as burdens, but as invitations into lifelong personal growth.__________________Lee Glickstein, founder of Speaking Circles International, is an authority on leadership presence and magnetism in public speaking. Decades of debilitating stage fright led him to develop an innovative approach to solving the epidemic fear of being fully oneself in front of groups.Lee has presented his unique programs at over 20 chapters of the National Speakers Association. He is the author of Be Heard Now! Tap Into Your Inner Speaker and Communicate with Ease (Bantam Doubleday and Sounds True Audiotapes) and Be Seen Now! Inspiring Insights into Being a Fearless Speaker (Precosity Press).He has facilitated thousands of Speaking Circles, workshops, seminars, and retreats around the world. Through Speaking Circles International, his team has trained over 1,000 Speaking Circle facilitators, who have led groups in eight countries and six languages.Lee graduated from Brooklyn College with a B.A. in Sociology in 1966. In 1996, he was awarded the Athena Award for Excellence in Coaching and Mentoring.Lee lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. His hobby is constructing crossword puzzles for The New York Times.__________________Find Lee here:https://speakingcircles.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeglickstein/Support the showI'm Dr. Doreen Downing and I help people find their voice so they can speak without fear. Get the Free 7-Step Guide to Fearless Speaking https://www.doreen7steps.com​.

How do you define success as an entrepreneurial author? Is it when your book opens doors and sparks conversations? Books should make people think, “I need to talk to them.” That might lead to a speaking invitation, a consulting opportunity, a new client, or a connection you never saw coming. The more clearly you show up in your expertise, the more those doors start to swing open. I'm on a mission to help entrepreneurs figure out how to turn their book into a business asset, not just a business card. If you're curious about what your book might open up for you, I invite you to schedule a complimentary 30-minute book launch brainstorming session at www.BookLaunchBrainstorm.com. Let's explore what's possible. Now, I'm excited to introduce three authors who know this journey well. Dan Gingiss is the author of “Becoming The Experience Maker: Turn Everyday Interactions into Remarkable Customer Experiences,” which shows businesses how to transform ordinary customer interactions into powerful word-of-mouth marketing opportunities. Deborah Stine wrote “From Expertise to Impact: A Practical Guide to Informing and Influencing Science and Technology Policy,” a guide that helps scientists, engineers, and health professionals use their knowledge to shape public policy and create real-world change. Helen Holton wrote “Intentional Leadership: How to Drive Leaders, Visions, and Teams Forward,” a thoughtful, practical book for leaders who are ready to lead with clarity, purpose, and renewed energy. Please join me in welcoming Dan, Deborah, and Helen.  In this episode, we discuss the following:

I'm pleased to interview one of our Biz Book Pub Hub Partners. Our Hub Partners are experts who support entrepreneurs along their author journey.  Today's guest brings a rare mix of marketing savvy, publishing know-how, and strategic content expertise. She's spent decades helping everyone from Fortune 500 companies to entrepreneurs and thought leaders turn their ideas into books that make a real business impact. She's the founder of Leverage2Market Associates, author of Marketing Above the Noise, and a member of the Million Dollar Consulting Hall of Fame. Whether she's coaching aspiring authors, shaping a manuscript, or helping a business owner figure out how their book fits into their brand, she brings clarity, insight, and a deep understanding of what makes content resonate. She also leads a team that supports authors through the entire publishing journey—from writing and editing to production and design—ensuring the final result is not just polished, but powerfully positioned. Please join me in welcoming Linda Popky.  In this episode, we discuss the following:

Every so often, an episode calls for something a little different—and today is one of those times. You're about to hear a conversation between two friends, colleagues, and champions of books that actually drive business results. In this special episode, I'm handing the mic to Kate Colbert, award-winning author of “Think Like a Marketer” and “Commencement: The Beginning of a New Era in Higher Education.” She's also a founding partner of the Biz Book Pub Hub. If you've listened to this show before, you know Kate's passion for helping entrepreneurs write books that don't just live on shelves—but move readers to act, engage, and buy. Today, she's taking over as the host to interview someone she knows well: ME! I've spent years behind the scenes coaching entrepreneurs on how to turn their books into business assets. Now, I'm pulling back the curtain on my own playbook with the release of my fourth book, “LAUNCH Your Book! An Entrepreneur's Guide to Reviews That Drive Revenue.” In this conversation, Kate and I go beyond the typical “how-to” and dive into what it really takes to launch a nonfiction book that builds credibility, generates leads, and drives long-term results. This is more than a launch story. It's a roadmap for what's possible when you combine thoughtful strategy with a history of community building. And as you'll hear, Kate's guest-hosting duties aren't just a formality—her thoughtful questions and behind-the-scenes knowledge bring an added layer of richness to this conversation. So let's dive in as Kate Colbert interviews me about the intentional launch behind “LAUNCH Your Book! An Entrepreneur's Guide to Reviews That Drive Revenue.” In this episode, we discuss the following:

In this episode, we talk with Darren Pratley about how to make important life choices and find the right people to help you. Learn how Darren went from not being a speaker to leading the National Speakers Association of New Zealand in just two years. is story shows the impact of clear choices, strong commitment, and smart personal and professional development. Prepare to get useful ideas that can help you with your own ambitions.

I'm pleased to interview one of our Biz Book Pub Hub Partners. Our Hub Partners are experts who support entrepreneurs along their author journey.  Today's guest is a ghostwriter and content strategist who's made it her mission to help bold thinkers turn their Big Ideas into books that actually move the needle. Known for her truth-telling style and sharp strategic brain, she works with experts who are ready to own their voice, take a seat at the table, and build a platform that drives their business, not just their book sales. She doesn't believe in writing a book just to say you did it. She believes in developing thought leadership that creates real traction: the kind that builds credibility, lands speaking gigs, and fills pipelines. Through her company, The Pocket PhD, she helps Big Idea Experts test, refine, and amplify their message long before the manuscript gets started—so that when the book comes, it's not just smart, it's unstoppable. She's the author of Unwritten: The Thought Leader's Guide to Not Overthinking Your Business Book, the go-to guide for business owners who want to stop overthinking and finally complete their book without pausing everything else in their business. Please join me in welcoming Emily Crookston.  In this episode, we discuss the following:

In this episode of the Start From the Hart Gratitude podcast, Ed Hart engages in a heartfelt conversation with Meridith Elliott Powell, member of the National Speakers Hall of Fame, and Chair of the National Speakers Association, about the transformative power of gratitude. They explore how gratitude can provide peace and perspective, especially in times of uncertainty and adversity. Meridith shares her personal journey, emphasizing the importance of responding to challenges with a grateful heart and casting a vision for the future. The discussion highlights the significance of accountability and the choice to focus on what one can control, ultimately framing adversity as an opportunity for growth.THANK YOU, Meridith, for the person you are, the life you choose to live, and the impact you have on millions!

You didn't write your book just to check a box—you wrote it because you have something important to say. Something that will outlast a single post, a single talk, or even a single launch. A book is a legacy-building tool. It crystallizes your expertise, your message, and your unique lens on the world in a way that no other medium can. And when it's done right, it opens doors—not just for your business today, but for the reputation and body of work you'll be known for tomorrow. That's why I support entrepreneurs through their entire author journey—because writing and publishing are only the beginning. When you leverage your book as the foundation for your bigger mission, everything changes. I'd love to help you think long-term about your book's potential. Schedule a complimentary 30-minute book launch brainstorm session at www.BookLaunchBrainstorm.com. Today, our panelists are here to share how they've used their books not just as products but to build their platform. Jenn T. Grace is the author of “Publish Your Purpose: A Step-By-Step Guide to Write, Publish, and Grow Your Big Idea.” She is the founder of Publish Your Purpose, a hybrid publisher for authors who are thought leaders, experts in their fields, and visionaries paving the way to social change. She's also one of our Biz Book Pub Hub Partners. Nikki Green wrote “Chameleon Mindset: Creative Ways To Embrace Change And Build Mental Resilience To Transform Your Career & Life,” an engaging, research-based guide that helps you adapt with confidence using creative strategies and interactive exercises for lasting personal and professional growth.  Rob Swymer wrote “Surrender to Your Adversity,” a powerful, heartfelt guide to embracing life's challenges with courage and grace. It shows how surrendering to what you can't control can lead to growth, resilience, and a renewed sense of purpose. Please join me in welcoming Jenn, Nikki, and Rob. In this episode, we discuss the following:

I'm pleased to interview one of our Biz Book Pub Hub Partners. Our Hub Partners are experts who support entrepreneurs along their author journey.  Today's guest is a personal brand strategist and messaging expert with over a decade of experience helping thought leaders, authors, and speakers amplify their voices and step into greater visibility. She's known for her ability to reflect back the brilliance of her clients, putting words to their ideas in a way that sparks action and creates lasting impact. As the CEO and Founder of Raised Voices, she specializes in positioning experts for book launches, speaking opportunities, and platform growth, especially those looking to pivot into the next level of thought leadership. With a signature process that combines storytelling, digital strategy, and sharp insight, she helps her clients shape messages that truly move people forward. Originally from the U.K. and now based in the U.S., she brings a global perspective to her work and is the author of “A Power of Your Own.” She's also the host of the podcast We're Speaking, which was created to level the public speaking playing field by offering world-class advice to rising voices. Please join me in welcoming Nikki Groom.  In this episode, we discuss the following:

What if the expiration date on your current life isn't a dead end—but an invitation to reinvent yourself? In this inspiring, high-energy episode, Anne Bonney chats with Ken Hartley www.kenhartley.com  award-winning speaker, singer, and corporate magician, about his wild and courageous career pivot at 50 years old. After 36 years leading music ministries, Ken walked away from everything stable and familiar to chase a completely different dream—and he didn't just pivot; he pulled a full-on magic trick on his career and life.From secret childhood magic shows to rocking stages as an inspirational illusionist, Ken shares how he turned fear into fuel and rejection into redirection. His story will challenge everything you think you know about leadership, reinvention, and what it really takes to chase a dream at any age. In this episode, you'll discover:Why courage isn't about fearlessness—it's about movement despite the fear How true leaders speak their team's "language" to create belonging and connection (and why outdated leadership styles fail) The human-ness of personal reinvention—and how it can connect you to others If you're standing at a crossroads (or just need a little push to dream bigger), Ken's story is your sign. Press play and prepare to be inspired—and maybe pull a little magic into your own life too.Indiana Jones clip Ken mentions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-JIfjNnnMAWant more from Ken?www.kenhartley.comwww.linkedin.com/in/ken-hartley/www.facebook.com/kenhartleyspeakingKen Hartley is a CSP® (Certified Speaking Professional) with the National Speakers Association, a Certified Leader with the John Maxwell Team, and a Certified expert in DISC. He is also a recipient of the Merlin Award from the International Magicians Society for "Corporate Inspirational Magician of the Year” for 2024.He exists to empower you see past the illusions of leadership and communication so you can become the authentic leaders others want to follow.

Have you ever thought of your book as a business card that opens doors? It's not just about selling copies; it's about the ripple effects your book creates in your industry and beyond. From attracting the right clients to building a reputation as a thought leader, a book can position you for success in ways you never imagined. But it requires more than just publishing—it needs a plan to engage your audience and amplify your message. That's why I created the Biz Book Pub Hub. Our experts and community members are here to help you navigate every stage, from writing to marketing and beyond. Get started at www.BizBookPubHub.com. I'm excited to introduce today's panelists, who will share their stories of transformation through their books. Bruce Scheer wrote “Inspire Your Buyers: Go to Market with a Story That Sizzles,” to show you how to craft a clear, compelling narrative that gets everyone—from your team to your target buyers—on the same page and fired up to take action, so you can close more deals and grow faster. Emily Crookston wrote “Unwritten: The Thought Leader's Guide to Not Overthinking Your Business Book,” the go-to guide for business owners who want to stop overthinking and finally get their book done—without pausing everything else in their business to make it happen. Karin Freeland wrote “Grab Life by the Dreams: The Essential Guide to Getting Unstuck and Living Your Purpose,” your no-BS guide to ditching autopilot, owning your purpose, and building a life you're actually excited to wake up to—starting now. Please join me in welcoming Bruce, Emily, and Karin.  In this episode, we discuss the following:

 The Art of the Voice with Leslie Gordon   Episode #157   In this episode of The Creative Soulpreneur, host Nick sits down with Leslie Gordon, a dynamic public speaker, coach, and linguist. Leslie, who will soon be stepping into her new role as the president of the National Speakers Association's Atlanta chapter, shares her inspiring journey from a Barbie-loving child who dreamed of being a dancer to a seasoned linguist passionate about the power of language and communication. They dive into her fascinating work, which includes accent and voice training, and discuss the importance of reconnecting with one's authentic voice. Leslie shares valuable insights on maintaining curiosity and breaking away from the "shoulds" that often hinder personal growth and expression. Tune in to explore the transformative nature of language and discover how Leslie's story can inspire you to reclaim your own voice and follow what makes your heart truly happy.   Key takeaways:   Play as a Pathway: Rediscovering the child-like curiosity and playful experimentation can be a gateway to uncovering your authentic self and voice. Whether it's through imaginative play with Barbies as a child or experimenting with new sounds and languages, embracing play leads to creative discovery.   The Power of Curiosity: Maintaining a mindset of curiosity rather than obligation (switching "should" to "could") opens up new possibilities. By asking ourselves what might happen instead of telling ourselves what to do, we access a more expansive and creative mindset.   Aligning Voice and Purpose: Finding your voice isn't just about speech clarity—it's about aligning your physical, mental, and emotional self with your true purpose. Through coaching and reflection, understanding the motivations behind our inner narratives can unlock a more authentic and powerful way of communicating.   Lesliegordonspeech.com Leslie Gordon Instagram     Story Telling Guide!!!   Leslie Gordon is a public speaker, speaker coach, and linguist with over 20 years of experience helping individuals refine their speech, voice, and accents to communicate with clarity and confidence. Armed with a doctorate in linguistics, fluency in Spanish and Portuguese, and specialized teaching of accents, she combines academic expertise with personal insights as a language learner and former unconfident speaker. Leslie's customized approach empowers professionals, performers, and presenters to connect with their authentic voice, achieve their goals, and build lasting skills that foster clarity, connection, and self-assurance.   Nick Demos is a Tony and Olivier Award winning Broadway producer, documentary filmmaker, conscious business coach and manifestation expert. With over 15 years of teaching pranayama (breath work), yoga and creativity as well as thirty years in the entertainment industry, he has travelled from the Tony Awards to ashrams and run a multi-million dollar business in between. Nick helps you clear blocks and tap into your creative intuition so you can tell your stories and manifest the business and life of your dreams creating wealth and impact.  

Writing, publishing, and marketing a business book can feel overwhelming when you go at it alone. But what if you didn't have to? That's where the Biz Book Pub Hub comes in.  We've built a community of experts who support entrepreneurs through every step of their author journey—from the first draft to a fully launched and marketed book. In the Hub, you'll find guidance to help you leverage your book to grow your business. Plus, our free virtual networking events connect you with fellow authors, helping you grow and thrive as a writer. You'll also find archived episodes of this podcast, which releases new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. If you're ready to explore these resources and more, visit www.BizBookPubHub.com. I'm honored to introduce today's panelists, who will share their author experiences. Janice Litvin wrote “Banish Burnout Toolkit,” which offers practical strategies and tools for overcoming burnout and regaining balance in one's life.  Pat Miller is the author of “KICKING Karma's Ass: Unbelievable Stories of Strength, Resilience, and Perseverance, All Told with a Twist of Humor,” a raw and inspiring story of one woman rebuilding her life and business against all odds—proving that strength isn't a choice, it's a necessity.  Wendy Gates Corbett wrote “The Energy of Belonging: 75 Ideas to Spark Workplace Community,” a practical guide filled with 75 simple, research-backed strategies to help employees at all levels foster connection, respect, and a stronger sense of community.  Please join me in welcoming Janice, Pat, and Wendy. In this episode, we discuss the following:

Today's guest is a serial entrepreneur who has started over 30 business ventures. While not all of them took off, he discovered his passion as a mobile notary and loan signing agent—a career that not only brought him financial success but also deep personal fulfillment. Through his work, he has been present for people on both their best and most challenging days, recognizing that true success in this field requires empathy, compassion, and a commitment to service. Understanding that knowledge without consistent implementation is practically worthless, he dedicated himself to helping others build thriving notary businesses. He has also found great success as an author, with two bestselling books that have become go-to resources in the notary industry. Sign & Thrive: How to Make Six Figures as a Mobile Notary and Loan Signing Agent provides a step-by-step guide to building a lucrative notary business, while SuperCharge Your Notary Business with LinkedIn helps professionals leverage social media for growth. His books, combined with his online courses and coaching, have empowered thousands to take control of their financial futures. As the CEO of NotaryCoach.com, author of six books, and former host of the SideHustle Lounge Podcast, he has become a trusted mentor for aspiring notaries looking to create financial freedom and a meaningful career. Please join me in welcoming Bill Soroka.  In this episode, we discuss: ↪ Overcoming Author Demons: Bill unpacks his personal journey from 26 business failures to finally writing and launching "Sign and Thrive," revealing how he conquered self-doubt and leveraged his notary expertise to serve a unique audience. ↪ Niche is Rich: Discover why focusing your business book on a highly specific audience, not the masses, can supercharge your credibility, attract partnerships, and drive organic sales and opportunities you never expected. ↪ The Power of Book-Driven Business: Learn how every book Bill writes acts as a lead magnet for his broader business ecosystem, fueling courses, coaching, speaking gigs, and major industry partnerships (plus why giving away books is sometimes the smartest sales move). ↪ Collaboration Essentials: Thinking about co-authoring? Bill dishes out candid tips on choosing the right partner, setting clear expectations, and navigating the emotional and financial intricacies for a win-win experience. Links LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. www.notarycoach.com “Beyond Loan Signings: The Ultimate Guide to Monetizing Your Notary Commission with Specialty Work” “Dandelions: A Pandemic-Era Writing Adventure With Two Unlikely Friends” “Sign and Thrive: How to Make Six Figures As a Mobile Notary and Loan Signing Agent” “Supercharge Your Notary Business With LinkedIn: How Mobile Notaries and Loan Signing Agents Build Their Brand, Get Known, and Connect With Their Dream Clients” “The Notary Business Building Challenge: 90 Days to More Clients, More Income, and More Confidence” “Your Passport to Apostilles: 116 Tips to Build a Thriving Business as an Apostille Agent” Books mentioned in this episode: “Where Good Ideas Come From” by Steve Johnson “The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World” by Dorie Clark Other Resources Learn more about Laura Biewer. Learn more about Judy Lawrence. Learn more about the National Speakers Association. Learn more about the National Notary Association. Robbie's Resources Schedule a complimentary book launch brainstorming session: www.BookLaunchBrainstorm.com.  Find all the archived podcast episodes, plus an invitation to free virtual networking events for writers and authors, AND Hub Partners ready to help entrepreneurs become successful authors: www.BizBookPubHub.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deanna Jones is a seasoned professional with over 30 years of experience in the technology sector, specializing in sales and operations roles. Her career includes a 25-year tenure at Cisco Systems, where she transitioned to her authentic self in 2019. She serves as the President of the Harmony LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce and is an active member of the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and NC Chamber of Commerce; she is also a member of both the Raleigh Metro and Triangle Society of Human Resource Management. Deanna is a proud member of the National Speakers Association of the Carolinas.Drawing on her personal and professional experience, She helps organizations attract capable candidates, support their growth, and keep them engaged. Deanna shares her insights and advocates for inclusive environments across various platforms. Her transition at Cisco inspired her to become deeply involved with the LGBTQ+ community, leveraging her extensive experience and knowledge to assist companies in creating more diverse workplaces.Deanna has spoken at many companies and conferences in the local area. She holds an MBA from Elon University and a Master's in Instructional Technology from the University of Maryland University Global Campus.Deanna enjoys speaking at the Monti, a storytelling group in Durham, and coaching T-Ball in her spare time.More Info: Deanna JonesSponsors: Master Your Podcast Course: MasterYourSwagFree Coaching Session: Master Leadership 360 CoachingSupport Our Show: Click HereLily's Story: My Trust ManifestoSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/masterleadership. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The Jon Gordon Podcast, I'm excited to welcome the legendary Dr. Nido Qubein. At age 76, Nido is a dynamo of wisdom and transformational leadership, making his journey from an immigrant to word famous author and speaker to the president of High Point University truly inspiring. Join us as we explore Nido's incredible journey—his strategic growth, risk management, and the value-driven leadership that turned High Point University into a premier life skills institution. Nido shares profound life lessons on vision, focus, and embracing “productive failures,” all while upholding the ethos of God, Family, and Country.  Nido's insights offer a masterclass in transformation for anyone aiming to convert vision into lasting impact. Whether you're a business leader, educator, or entrepreneurial spirit, this conversation promises to inspire. Listen in and let's grow together. The best is yet to come!   About Dr. Nido Qubein Dr. Nido Qubein is an accomplished university president and a nationally recognized author, speaker, and leader. He came to the United States with $50 in his pocket and a few words of English in his vocabulary … yet went on to become one of America's most sought-after speakers and consultants.   As a university president, the story of his tenure at High Point University is known to many.  In less than a decade, he led the institution to phenomenal growth (6,000 students) and significant academic advancement, quadrupling its size and moving it to the number one spot among Best Colleges in the South. This year, the Princeton Review named High Point University the #1 Best Run College in the Nation.    As an American citizen, President Qubein has been the recipient of some of the highest national awards, including induction into the Horatio Alger Association for Distinguished Americans with General Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey, and the founder of Starbucks, Howard Schultz.  He is the recipient of DAR's Americanism Award and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, along with four U.S. presidents. He is a member of the International Speakers Hall of Fame and, in fact, has served as president of the National Speakers Association.  As a business leader, he is the executive chairman of Great Harvest Bread Company with 240 stores in 43 states.  He serves or has served on the boards of several national organizations including Truist (a Fortune 500 company with $500 billion in assets), La-Z-Boy, Savista, a leading healthcare company and the Horatio Alger Association Board of Directors.   President Qubein is the author of a dozen books and scores of leadership audio and visual recordings translated into many languages.  The Biography Channel and the Amazon Channel both televised his Emmy-nominated life story titled “A Life of Success and Significance.” And his most recent book, Extraordinary Transformation, is a #1 Amazon Bestseller that chronicles the leadership behind HPU's unparalleled metamorphosis. In his home city of High Point, North Carolina, he has been named both the Citizen of the Year and the Philanthropist of the Year.  His foundation has invested millions in scholarships for deserving young people and his family has been among the largest benefactors to High Point University and other organizations.   Follow me on Instagram: @JonGordon11 Every week, I send out a free Positive Tip newsletter via email. It's advice for your life, work and team. You can sign up now here and catch up on past newsletters. Save your spot for Training Camp Live in Ponte Vedra, Florida, MAY 15th, 2025! Elevate your leadership skills and engage in an experience designed for growth, purpose, and excellence with incredible leaders such as Sean McVay, Eddie George, Dabo Swinney, Chaunte Lowe and Kevin O'Connell. Game-Changing Coaches, Once-in-a-Lifetime Insights! Join me for my Day of Development! You'll learn proven strategies to develop confidence, improve your leadership and build a connected and committed team. You'll leave with an action plan to supercharge your growth and results. It's time to Create your Positive Advantage. Get details and sign up here. Do you feel called to do more? Would you like to impact more people as a leader, writer, speaker, coach and trainer? Get Jon Gordon Certified if you want to be mentored by me and my team to teach my proven frameworks principles, and programs for businesses, sports, education, healthcare