The Blog / Archive

It’s easy to remember to be grateful when it’s brought to our attention. Thanksgiving? I’m grateful! Close call with illness? Grateful! Unexpected gorgeous day? Oh, yes, grateful! What does it take to cultivate gratitude on the off-days? The times when we’re just chugging along, doing our thing? Or when it feels like nothing is going our way?  What is your practice to cultivate gratitude on the off-days?

Audiences are such interesting creatures. They are, of course, made up of many people with different backgrounds, hopes, reasons to be there, and preoccupations. At the same time, as any actor or public speaker can attest, each audience has a unified personality.  Some audiences are quiet. Some are raucous. Some give off a “I’ll let you know if this is any good” vibe, while others are excited about whatever’s happening onstage. Some audiences come in ready to laugh, and others barely crack a smile. So how can you prepare for this unpredictable entity, the audience? I suggest two complementary actions. … Read more

Even if you’re late to the meeting, don’t look rushed. Even if the speaker before you cut into your time by ten minutes, don’t look rushed. Even if you overcommitted and have two other places to be, don’t look rushed. Looking rushed is a default intention. It’s an effort we’re making to make sure other people know that we’re busy, or that that other guy talked too long, or that we can’t linger here, so don’t ask questions.  What could we do instead? Instead of talking fast, checking the time, and having our mind in the future, we need to … Read more

Recently I got to watch a group of interesting, passionate women tell stories. One woman shared the story of when she started a golf tournament fundraiser for her local Make-A-Wish chapter.  The first section was very deliberately crafted—she used phrases like “And then I turned from my computer and let out a sigh of disappointment.” When she was finished, I asked, “Did you write the first part down world for word?” She said she had. “And then, when you got to the middle, when the woman talks about her son’s Make-A-Wish trip, you didn’t write that part out, right?” She … Read more

Ironically, shooting quick videos to promote our work at Ignite CSP is something I procrastinate about. Even though I spend all day coaching other people to present, give speeches, and yes, show up on camera, it’s still a skill I’m working to improve. Making polished, concise, compelling videos, particularly ones that need to reflect your value and/or your business, is tricky. When the Ignite CSP coaches create videos to support our work, it requires enormous amounts of preparation and many, many takes. (And even then, it’s easy to see what could/should be better!) There are several reasons shooting video is … Read more

“He went up, contorted his body so he could get his hands in position to make the catch, shielded off the defender, caught the ball, tucked it in to protect it from the other defender, and then fell to the ground.” I don’t really know much about football, but this description of what one player did in a span of a few seconds caught my attention. What I love about it is that he couldn’t have been thinking through every movement he had to execute—he was reacting from deep practice and experience to complete the play successfully. Instead of going … Read more

Recently I asked a client, as I often do: How would you like your audience to feel? He answered with a lengthy summary of all the points of his talk, then said, “Of course, they won’t remember everything.” I asked again, “Okay, so putting the elements of your content aside, how do you want them to feel? What kind of experience are you hoping to create?” He paused. Finally he said, “I want them to feel like they’re in the best possible place for them. I want them to feel like, of everywhere they could be in the world at … Read more

Have you ever seen a sports coach argue with a referee? Like, really go after it?  The coach might be really really angry, or she might be…doing it for the team.  I was thinking abut this today when a client and I were talking about whether a default intention is ever productive. My inclination is to say no; a default intention is by definition one that isn’t serving anyone but its owner. But it’s interesting to think about when something that may seem like a default intention is actually in service of another, more productive intention. In this example, the … Read more