Right now, I’m writing this post from a hospital waiting room while my best friend is in surgery. Sitting with her in pre-op and listening to the doctors and nurses running through their “checklists” and explaining how her procedure would go, reminded me of this blog post I wrote in 2015. It’s as applicable now […]
Truman Capote once said, “A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That’s why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.” As someone who speaks for a living, I can talk . . . a lot . . . about a lot of things. However, the difference between […]
Gossip is one of the many things that can lower workplace productivity. It can also create an environment of mistrust and can damage working relationships. Even if we don’t start the gossip, listening to it, passing it on, or standing idly by while it’s happening, makes us part of the gossip and helps perpetuate it. When […]
This week, I thought I’d share a short video with you on the power of positive phrasing. It’s based on a segment in my “Customer Service Survival Skills” workshop where I always say, “Don’t tell people what you CAN’T do for them, just tell them what you CAN. Don’t tell customers they CAN’T do, offer […]
The other day I was sitting at lunch with a group of people, when a woman I just met asked for my business card. She glanced down at it, looked at me, and said, “Can I give you some FEEDBACK on your business card photo?” My response? “Hell no you can’t give me feedback on my photo!” […]
When you read what the most dangerous word in the world is, I’ll bet you’ll be surprised. When you saw the subject of this email, you probably thought about words like: Hate, no, or can’t, and I agree those are dangerous words. However, I think the most dangerous word in the world is SHOULD. Here’s […]
Like many of you, I hate losing. When I was a child, I cried when I didn’t win a game. As an adult, I don’t like buying raffle tickets or lottery tickets because I get mad when I don’t win and angry at myself for wasting my money on a one-in-a-million chance at something. Another […]
In my 22 years in the training and speaking business, I’ve presented A LOT of customer service and customer communication programs. In these programs, I teach many different skills that enhance the customer experience and make the customer service provider’s job easier and less stressful. However, before I take a customer service “gig” I always […]
The other morning I was up early and hoping to catch some cute video of the 10 foster puppies who currently reside in my dining room, of all places. We all know puppy videos can be really cute, especially with older puppies who are up and about, running, and playing. However, I never thought the […]
The other day I was at the animal shelter where I volunteer and I was very impressed with how super clean our cat room was, so I asked a staff member, “Who cleaned the adoptable cat room today?” It seemed a simple enough question, so I didn’t understand why the response was a somewhat fearful, […]
