Signature Programs
The goals of these programs are many; to bring a level of comfort to the business person who never had a chance to learn the basics of human nature and the social and interpersonal skills of the basics of etiquette. They are designed to provide a refresher course for those who did, to equate good manners with good business sense, and to instill the self-confidence that sets you on the road to success and to earn the kind of recognition you so richly desire.
There is a magic about developing character leadership. Whether through the spoken word, respectful behavior, a commanding presence, written word or the use of gesture, it speakes to us in elegant spare language that connects, inspires and moves us into the future. The vision it holds for us embraces us. By renewing the foundations of character leadership, people, at the point of choice, can become more politically savvy about human nature in any environment, enabling them to be consistently civil and dignified decision makers, and better prepared to face the challenges of daily life. Your life is your message. Learn to choose well.
Signature Programs, Workshops and Speaking Topics:
- Personal Branding – The Ultimate Currency in Career Success ™
The choices you make as you create your own image can, if well chosen, transmit a very positive statement about you and what you think about yourself. The goal of this program is to equate good manners with good business sense, and to instill the self-confidence that sets you on the road to success, and to earn the kind of recognition you so richly desire. The program will make a difference for employees and executives everywhere; a helpmate that grounds people in the timeless fundamentals as they work their way through a fast-changing world while still maintaining their own personal styles that sets them apart from the crowd.
- Welcome to the Experience Economy When Work is Theater and Every Business a Stage™
What do your customers really value? Better yet, for what would they pay a premium? If you're competing solely on the basis of price, then you've been commoditized, offering little or no true differentiation. What your premium customers want, and expect every time, are Premium Experiences. When work is theater and every business a stage, and your workers are the actors and the production crew, the curtain is rising higher then ever before. This economic era in which every business is a stage, companies must design memorable events, promotions, marketing and products or services for which they charge admission.
This program explores how successful companies - using goods as props and services as the stage - create experiences that engage customers in an inherently personal way. Why does a cup of coffee cost more at a trendy cafe than it does at the corner diner or when brewed at home? It's the value that the experience holds for the individual that determines the worth of the offering and the work of the business. From online communities to airport parking, we'll draw from a rich and varied mix of examples that showcase businesses in the midst of creating engaging experiences for both consumers and corporate customers.
To become a brand with a competitive edge, we'll showcase an insightful, highly original, and yet eminently practical approach for companies to script and stage compelling experiences that will turn your customers into fans. In doing so, all workers become actors, intentionally creating specific effects for their customers. And it's the experiences they stage that create memorable and lasting impressions that ultimately create transformation within individuals.
Make no mistake, goods and services are no longer enough. Apple is a great example of a memorable and distinctive brand that rocks. Experiences are the foundation for future economic growth, and the guidelines for the Experience Economy form the playbook from which managers can begin to direct new performances.
- It’s Not What You Eat That Makes You Sick, It’s What’s Eating You™
Do you want a more alert, more focused, more productive mind? Do you want to be able to calm down, unwind, and relax at will...even get to sleep on demand? Do you want to ease feelings of stress or anxiety and enhance your overall sense of well-being? Whether you are striving for personal or professional excellence or both, I'm going to assume that your answer to all of the questions above is an enthusiastic, unqualified yes! Then this program is for you.
You will learn how food can help you bounce back when mental lethargy or a loss of enthusiasm dampens your ability to get things done, and how to compose yourself when edginess or distractibility threatens to interfere at work, at play, or in your relationships with others. You will learn how food can help you focus your mind when the situation calls for clear thinking and creative problem-solving and how to quicken your responses when speed is of the essence. You will learn how food can help you ward off "brain fatigue" so you can stay up late to finish a report or study for an exam, and still perform at your peak the following morning. And you will also learn how the right food can help you deal with the feelings of frustration and anxiety that lead to overeating and weight gain!
You already know from personal experience that whether you are up or down, calm or agitated, focused or distracted, the way you feel can make all the differrrence in how successfully you work, study, create, play and interact with others. But you may not have been aware of how many of the foods you eat affect those moods and behaviors. You can learn to make these mood changes occur almost instantly, without investing in long hours of therapy and without drugs - infact, with practically no effort on your part other than learning some easy to remember guidelines and the will to believe and succeed, you can manage your mind and mood with food.
- Failing to Disconnect – Technorealism: an Overview™
In this heady age of rapid technological change, we all struggle to maintain our bearings. The developments that unfold each day in communications and computing can be thrilling and disorienting. One understandable reaction is to wonder: Are these changes good or bad? Should we welcome or fear them?
The answer is both. Technology is making life more convenient and enjoyable, and many of us healthier, wealthier, and wiser. But it is also affecting work, family, and the economy in unpredictable ways, introducing new forms of tension and distraction, and posing new threats to the cohesion of our physical communities.
Despite the complicated and often contradictory implications of technology, the conventional wisdom is woefully simplistic. Pundits, politicians, and self-appointed visionaries do us a disservice when they try to reduce these complexities to breathless tales of either high-tech doom or cyber-elation. Such polarized thinking leads to dashed hopes and unneccessary anxiety, and prevents us from understanding our own culture.
To articulate some of the shared beliefs behind this debate, we have come to a new term - technorealism. Technorealism demands that we think critically about the role that tools and interfaces play in human evolution and everyday life. Integral to this perspective is our understanding that the current tide of technological transformation, while important and powerful, is actually a continuation of waves of change that have taken place throughout history. Looking, for example, at the history of the automobile, television, or the telephone - not just the devices but the institutions they became - we see profound benefits as well as substantial costs. Similarly, we anticipate mixed blessings from today's emerging technologies, and expect to forever be on guard for unexpected consequences which must be addressed by thoughtful design and appropriate use.
As technorealists, we seek to expand the fertile middle ground between techno-utopianism and neo-Luddism. We are technology "critics" in the same way, and for the same reasons, that otheres are food critics, art critics, or literrary critics. We can be passionately optimistic about some technologies, skeptical and disdainful of others. Still, our goal is neither to champion nor to dismiss technology, but rather to understand it and apply it in a manner more consistent with basic human values. This program will discuss 8 basic principles of technorealism, how these tools affect our lives and articulate the trade-offs that people make in choosing one technology over another.
- Leading Ladies Don’t Walk the Red Carpet, They Make Strides in Their Industry
If you want to be outstanding, you have to stand out. Women who define the art of living well and the fine art of personal brand leadership are the most stylish women of their time, setting the standards for the world of fashion, marketing, business and grace. They understand the Power of Style.
The Femme Fatales of personal branding market themselves and their contributions to the world, knock out the competition by making their brand irresistible and their customers starry-eyed with devotion. And they do it all with verve and flair. In short, they are the originals, the women who use style to propel themselves out of anonymity and into the limelight.- Text Neck - Cautionary Tales of Digital Maladies from Our Addictive Use of Smart Devices™
Face it, we're all addicted to our electronic devices. You might know a few lonely holdouts, determined to stay detached and live off the grid, but their numbers are diminishing. Most of us are living in an ever more wired world, dependent on instantaneous communication and information, and at a panicly loss when we can't find our smart phones.
No one wants to hear it, but we're paying a steep price for this behavior. Our tech habits are laying ruin to our physical and mental health and abilities. Being aware of the possible pitfalls is your first line of defense against premature aging, aches and diminished brain capacity. That and unplugging more often. Here are five digital maladies you should be aware of that we'll debut in this program.
Text Neck - You see them everywhere. Teenagers, middle-aged commuters, grocery shoppers of all ages, hunched over small objects they gaze at like little miracles, their necks jutting forward and down at an oddly excruciating angle. And they just stay there, seemingly frozen, unaware.
Hearing Loss - Hearing loss is not just for the elderly anymore. Most of us are very likely to have diminished hearing at younger and younger ages. If you're not already having trouble hearing normal everyday speech, that day is probably coming, and sooner than you think.
Brain Scramble - What constant digital media use does to our brains is a big, seemingly speculative topic. But science is beginning to catch up, and it's not pretty. Simply put, overuse of smartphones makes us less productive, less rested, more likely to forget things, and in a word, dumber.
Computer Face - Okay, enough about the brain. Spending inordinate amounts of time in front of a computer is ruining people's looks! Cosmetic surgeons are reporting that more people are developing the dreaded "computer face," a combination of permanent frown lines, wrinkles around the eyes from squinting, jowls and double necks from looking down for long periods of time.
Computer vision Syndrome - The bad news, perhaps unsurprising, is that sitting in front of a computer screen hour after hour, week after week, year after year as many jobs require you to do can cause pain and discomfort to the eyes, blurred vision and headaches.
- Too Busy to Love, Too Tired to Care - The Heart Breaking Reality of Lost Souls Coping With Life in an Artifically Intelligent World™
Many, many people are hurting in our society today. Despite their families, good jobs, health, and numerous possessions, they feel isolated, alienated, and ignored. Some have been chronically angry for so long they don't know how to let go of it, and they're afraid of what might happen if they do. Too many people are living on the edge today, stretched beyond their means, mentally, physically, spiritually and financially.
What is true is that we are awash in things: in information, in news, in the old rubble and shiny new toys of our complex civilization, and strange, perhaps, stuff means speed. The wave patterns of all these facts and choices flow and crash about us at a heightened frequency. We live in a buzz. We wish to live intensely. Technology has been a rapid heartbeat, compressing house work, travel, entertainment, and squeezing more and more into an allotted span.
Yet we have made our choices and are still making them. We humans have chosen speed and we thrive on it - more than we generally admit. Our ability to work fast and play fast gives us power. It thrills us. If we have learned the name of just one hormone, it is adrenaline. No wonder we call sudden exhilaration a rush. We love the pace, the giddy, continual acceleration.
Still, we have not truly explored the consequences of haste in our culture. We’ve allowed our unrelenting schedules to leave us too busy to love and just plain too tired to care. Instantaneous rules in the network and in our emotional lives: instant coffee, instant food, instant replay, and instant gratification, etc. Pollsters use electronic devices during political speeches to measure opinions on the wing before they have been fully formed. Like missiles, fast food restaurants add express lanes. If we do not understand time, we become its victims.
"Time is a gentle deity," said Sophocles. Perhaps it was for him. These days it cracks the whip. Now it is time to discover why we are so rude, too busy to love and too tired to care. My goal is that you'll take some small but significant steps to help turn the tide from chronic social ineptness toward a more civil and loving society. It's time to explore some of the individual and organizational social diseases, the culprits of our times...so let's take a look at why and how we have gotten ourselves so out of balance in such a short amount of time.
