As a performer, the worst directors or coaches I ever had barked out a result and expected me to fulfill it. “Be more angry,” they’d say.  Or  “I need you to be more vulnerable.”  And I’d scratch my head, wondering, “how the heck do I do that? Give me something to DO?”   Because, as my [...]

“First it takes your money. Then it takes your freedom. Then it takes your life.” The words were, raw, bare, and gritty with feeling.  Behind him, pale, still, tattooed, and in a brown wooden casket, lay his son, Andy.  Dead at 24 from a two-year dance with heroin. The mourners–snuffling, sobbing, shifting– listened, devastated but [...]

You strike a match, and light a sputtering candle.  Around you, the wind whips, threatening the flame as it struggles to take hold. Instinctively, you cup your hand protectively around the tiny tongue of fire, feeling its warmth grow against your palm.  It wouldn’t take much to squelch this dancing flame—one well placed breath, one [...]

I see it all the time:  Amazing, capable women who choose to give their power away by disowning or belittling their considerable accomplishments.  It happened just this weekend, at a public speaking workshop that I facilitated.  Not one but two women stood up, gave presentations about their life’s work, and essentially pooh-poohed the astonishing evidence [...]

I can’t tell you how many speaking clients complain to me about their inability to hold people’s attention while they’re giving a presentation.  I tell them, “You get back what you put out.””  And then I turn on my trusty camera and videotape them doing their thing.  During playback, my clients get to see themselves as they actually [...]

The other day, Mark Le Blanc, my wonderful business coach, reminded me that, as a motivational speaker and presentation skills coach and trainer, I am always and only one big toe ahead of the clients and audience members I’m trying to inspire to greater fulfillment. He’s right of course. Every day I try to motivate [...]