Biz Communication Guy Podcast II

Dr. Bill Lampton Ph. D.
  • 5.0 (3)
  • ENTREPRENEURSHIP
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Every week Bill Lampton, Ph.D.–the “Biz Communication Guy”–interviews renowned communication experts about their areas of expertise. Listeners learn tips, strategies, and guidelines for sales, management, customer service, presentation skills, technology, and persuasion. Catch every lively episode, so you will jet-propel your business communication skills–and profits!

Episodes

  1. MAR 31

    Diana Damron Tells How to Build Trust Through Civiliy

    Dr. Bill Lampton: Hi there! Welcome to the Business Communication Show. I’m your host, Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication Guy, bringing you tips and strategies that are certain to boost your business and mine. And I don’t bring you these tips and strategies solo; I bring them through a conversation with a lively, highly qualified guest. And today, we certainly have that guest coming to us from Montana: Diana Damron. Diana Damron has one goal: help individuals, teams, and organizations build trust from the inside out. She enlists what she calls the 3 Cs: Civility, Communication, and Character, to perform that transformation. Diana is a former television anchor who works with organizations to create, grow, and maintain cultures of trust. Described by her clients as “The Human Whisperer,” Diana has made it her mission to take on the toxic workplace and replace it with a culture of trust. Diana’s latest book, Civility Unleashed: Second Edition, is a “how-to” book for those who want to foster and work in an environment where talented people can thrive. Additionally, Diana provides readers with a transformative 5-step civility tool. And I want to say, a couple of months ago, I read that book, benefited from it greatly, gave it a five-star review on Amazon, and I encourage you to get Civility Unleashed: Second Edition. Along with Diana’s TEDx talk, she’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Southwest Airlines’ LUV Lines, and national television and radio interviews. She’s a former television anchor, co-host, and reporter who studied with nationally and internationally renowned speech experts. Recognized as a mental fitness coach, Diana is certified by the International Board of Certified Trainers and is a certified partner of Everything DiSC. Now, as for her sense of humor, Diana stopped taking herself too seriously the day that she walked off the runway at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel during a national modeling competition and fell right into the laps of shocked audience members. While Diana didn’t take home the Runway Model of the Year award that year, she did leave as National Model of the Year for Television. So, I know you will join me now in welcoming Diana Damron. Hello, Diana! Diana Damron: Hey Bill! It’s so great to be here. I’m laughing because I always think back about walking off the runway. It was a packed house, too. It was absolutely jam-packed. Now, the good thing was, there—the guys who caught me were these two really good-looking gentlemen who were kind of spotters. They were great, but yes, my—I was walking in air for a while. Dr. Bill Lampton: Up in the air, right? Diana Damron: Pop—yeah, up in the air, exactly. Dr. Bill Lampton: Well, I’ve had my “chivi-chays” moments, I call them. I—I think the one that I talk about most often is when I was MCing a college event with about 500 people in the audience, and they were honoring their alumni, giving four alums what they call the Medallion Award. And I had gotten the bios to read about them to introduce them, and I’d read them over very carefully, as you would do as a TV anchor. And when I was in the middle of reading one of the bios, the audience just erupted in laughter, and I couldn’t figure out why. Did I say something profane? So, I sat down, and the person next to me explained that I was supposed to have said that the lady who was being honored had written a play about the college in 1956, but unfortunately, Diana, I said she wrote the play in 1856. Diana Damron: (Laughs) Oh, I gotta tell you, when you do anything live, anything can happen. Absolutely anything can happen. Yep, yep. Dr. Bill Lampton: Yes, and— Diana Damron: She looked great for her age, right? Dr. Bill Lampton: (Laughs) Oh right, I mean she wasn’t that ancient, but—fortunately, we met afterwards and she had a great sense of humor, so it worked out okay. And you and I know, as longtime presenters, whether it’s on radio, TV, a seminar, a keynote speech, we know that we’re going to goof. In fact, one of the things I do when I’m coaching a client about speaking, on the handout I give them, I put “Don’t try to be perfect,” and I misspell “perfect.” I say “P-R-F-F-C-T,” and they say, “Hey, you misspelled that!” I said, “Yes, but you got the point, didn’t you?” And we have to learn from our mistakes, laugh at them, and just move forward, don’t we? Diana Damron: Yes, and it makes us so much more human when we’re not perfect. Dr. Bill Lampton: Yes, I don’t want to hear a mannequin with a mouth, you know? Diana Damron: Right. Dr. Bill Lampton: An absolute robot. We’re getting to your theme of civility. Diana Damron: Mhm, mhm. Dr. Bill Lampton: Was there something in your own work experience that drove you to delve into this topic, to become an expert in it, to write a book about it now in its second edition, to speak on the topic of civility, hold seminars, talk about it in interviews? Take us back to how this started for you. Diana Damron: Two things happened, Bill. First of all, I had gone through something—it’s entitled a modeling school, but it was really a finishing school where you learn, yes, you learn to walk on a runway and you learn to take photographs—or be photographed. But you also learn a lot about manners and speech. And it was so interesting, after I went through the course itself, then—I believe it was during my college years, I came back and during the summer I started teaching. And one of the courses I taught was all about manners and etiquette. I was, I don’t know, 17, 18, 19 years old, and I was teaching women who were about twice my age, who were coming back into the workforce after staying home and raising kids. And they came in and they kind of, you know, you could see they weren’t comfortable, they weren’t confident, they kind of sat back in their chair. Interestingly enough, I noticed as they learned more about manners and more about etiquette, you could see just them sit up, take notice, and there was a confidence. And I always found that was fascinating. What is it about this power of manners, courtesy, etiquette that made these women who, as I say, I was this little kid teaching them, to take notice and to really make this big difference? So, that was always in the back of my mind and I always wanted to do something with that, but at the same time, what I didn’t want to do is teach about knives, forks, and spoons. I—it wasn’t about the—like dining etiquette. So, that was—that was roaming around. And then I ended up in a situation where I was the target in a toxic environment. When I say target, I certainly didn’t know what that word meant in terms of business, but if you imagine having a bullseye on you at—at business, at work, that’s how I felt. And there was no question that I was the target, and it’d been made very obvious to—by the leader. What was interesting to me is I’m a confident woman. I’d been raised by the most amazing parents, so I didn’t have any of that baggage from a childhood. I went home to a supportive family, so I wasn’t going home to some kind of negativity. And yet, Bill, that situation affected me so strongly that I—I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I didn’t know what end was up. And I thought it was a one-off. I—I really thought, oh, this has been unique. And interestingly enough, because I was confident when people talked about toxic environments and all of this before, I actually thought, oh, they must be pretty thin-skinned. I can’t believe it’s that bad. Well, it is. And what I found, Bill, was that increasingly, when I looked at the research, it’s more often you find a toxic work environment than not. Civility was needed. Dr. Bill Lampton: Well, I—I can relate to that in a couple of ways. One is that I’ve been a professional speaker, speech coach, and consultant now for three decades. But prior to that, I was in management positions. And as I read your book and read your illustrations about the lack of civility, one of my bosses came to mind. And I’ll have to say that I really thought Hitler missed a good man. Diana Damron: (Gasps) Oh no! Dr. Bill Lampton: And I endured that for—for five years. And you know yourself, having endured a situation like that, it’s very demoralizing, it saps your strength, it—it takes away your—your desire to serve to your ultimate ability. It—it’s very difficult. And so, your going through that gave you a mission. So, let’s—let’s move next to define civility. Uh, I—I know you’ve been asked this many times, how can you tell when an organization is operating with civility? Diana Damron: So, let me go back one step, Bill, and explain also, and I’m sure this happened to you: one of the lethal aspects of incivility or a toxic work environment is—is when you leave at the end of the day, it doesn’t stay there. You drag all of those emotions home. Dr. Bill Lampton: Yes. Diana Damron: Which—which means the importance of getting this right is invaluable. I mean, because you’re not affecting—you’re not just lonesome and it’s isolated to you, you are just sending out those vibes no matter what. So, to your question: how do you define civility? I think this is—this is where we really have an issue today. I define it—my definition for civility is the consistent communication of respect. What makes that definition hard? The “consistent” piece, right? So, it’s consistently being respectful. Now, we live in a world of conditional civility. In other words, as long as you look like me, maybe you’re the same color as me, or the same age as me, or you live like I do, or you think like I do, or in today’s world, you vote like I do, then I will be civil to you. I will respect you. But if you don’t check off all those “same-as,” you don’t deserve my respect. And that’s what

    33 min

  2. MAR 20

    Kristina Rhoades Discusses Communicating With the Disabled

    Bill Lampton: Hi there. Welcome to the Biz Communication Show. I’m your host Bill Lampton, the biz communication guy, and our eighth year with the Biz Communication Show bringing onto the show business communication experts, and through our conversation, you and I can pick up business communication tips that will be very valuable for us. Today I have a guest, I don’t often know my guest, but I have a guest that I’ve known for a dozen years or so, delighted to bring onto the program today Kristina Rhoades. Kristina Rhoades is a long-time disability consultant and advocate, a writer, motivational speaker, and proud wife and mom. A former Ms. Wheelchair California, she has had a career in the disability industry modeling and marketing for a variety of products that improve accessibility. Kristina has an MS in organizational leadership and a BA in mass communication. She resides in New Mexico with her husband, who’s also her childhood best friend Jacob, and their 14-year-old daughter Cameron. In her spare time, she enjoys making art and jewelry, volunteering in the local community, and supporting live music. So I know you will welcome Kristina Rhoades. Hello Kristina, great to see you. Kristina Rhoades: Hi Bill, it’s so good to be with you again. Bill Lampton: Well I think back Kristina to how we first became acquainted and how I recognized right away as a speech coach and as a professional speaker, what a role model you are for communication. Even today a few minutes ago, you and I were talking about when you were with the radio station WBCX at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia, where I live and where you lived at the time, and I happened to put on Twitter that I had always enjoyed participating on radio, and so you texted me back and next thing I knew, we had a very brief interview, you said let’s get going, and for two years, we had the opportunity to work together co-hosting what we called the Business Communication Corner. And so you are not a novice in the communication business. What I believe our viewers and listeners would like to know first is, how did you develop your presentation skills? I think of your vitality, I think of your diction, I think of your nonverbal messages, it all just comes together so vibrantly and you’re one of the most listenable radio colleagues that I’ve ever associated with. So tell us, I don’t think those things just happen, how did you develop those skills? Kristina Rhoades: Oh well thank you first Bill for the kind words, I appreciate it very much. Um, I think it’s a bit of a two-part answer for me. Um, part of it’s my personality, I’ve always been an outgoing person, um, very social, I enjoy people, I enjoy talking to people, but I do often wonder how much of that came from just my life experience as well. So being somebody in a wheelchair, uh, I often am approached by strangers, um, people ask questions about my situation or about my wheelchair or about my disability. Um, I’ve had when I was young, very many medical appointments and um, situations where I am, you know kind of being interviewed and grilled by um, a therapist or a doctor or a nurse or different people trying to fit me for a wheelchair. So I wonder if um, those experiences growing up helped just build my courage and my comfort in talking with strangers and being kind of in the spotlight or you know going in public and having a whole room of people look at me because I’m in a wheelchair might’ve made me a little more comfortable um, you know being having attention on me. So I wonder that. But I also have to give credit to Brenau University, which is where we met and what you were just referring to where WBCX the radio station was. Um, that’s where I received my BA in mass communication and I stayed there as well to do my MS. Um, and I guess coming in with a natural inclination and interest in public speaking and um, communication, Brenau really helped me hone my skills and develop um, really all the pieces that I need to to properly give a presentation and to put put my thoughts together in a manner um, that are that are easily digestible by my audience. Um, so I have to, yeah, I have to give lots of credit to Brenau. Bill Lampton: I think we could say that uh unlike um many of your younger colleagues, you were basically on stage for for your childhood. Now one one point I know we have talked about before, your disability was at a very young age and your mother had a wonderful way of dealing with that. And she made you feel special in ways that other people might not get the kind of encouragement and support that you did. Uh let’s go back to when you were 18 months old and there was a swim meet that you were engaged in, maybe swim competition, tell tell us about that and your mother’s role in that please. Kristina Rhoades: Oh Bill, thanks. Um, not sure if it was a competition or you know I don’t really know what to call it, but I’ll give a little background to the audience. Um, I got a spinal cord injury when I was just 10 months old, um, and so obviously was in the hospital for a period of time recovering from that. Got out of the hospital a little before I was a year and a half. Um, I come from a family that is a big water family, my grandpa at the time lived on a boat in Marina del Rey, California, all my my mom and my aunts and uncles were all all raised on the ocean, swimming and doing water sports. So uh it was it just kind of part of my family culture, it was really important to my mom that I was able to swim. Now remember that this is 1984, this is before the Americans with Disabilities Act, there weren’t as many resources and programs out there for people like me, especially a baby that young um with a disability. So probably for my mom she was unsure of what um my abilities were going to be as I grew up, but she I think wanted to give me as many opportunities and um experience as she could so I could develop whatever skills and abilities I was able to. Um, so first thing she did after I got out of the hospital and we got settled was enroll me in like one of those mom and baby swim classes. Um, and at the time because again this was before the ADA, the facility that she went to, the pool uh wasn’t wheelchair accessible, and at the time I didn’t even have a wheelchair yet, she was just pushing me around in a stroller um because I couldn’t you know couldn’t push a wheelchair at the time. And so she would just carry me carry me down these steps um just like all the other moms on her hip down to the pool and get me in the pool and we would do the class together and um there was a number of other you know moms and babies teaching their their little babies how to swim. And so she never mentioned that I was in a wheelchair, um the teacher was aware, the instructor, but none of the other parents knew um that I was any different from them. So I went through the whole course and um at the at the last day there was a little event where we did um some exercises and some races um and I was awarded the best little swimmer in the class. And so the instructor presented the award to my mom and then shared with the other parents, I don’t know if anybody’s aware but Kristina doesn’t have use of her legs and she’s been doing all of the activities and all of the lessons the entire time just with her arms. And all of the parents were just very surprised and shocked that that was the case. And I just always thought that that was such a cool um example of how my mom raised me and how she put me in situations where I would have to just do the best I could with the abilities I had, and often times that was just as just as good as my peers, just as good as everybody else if I was given that opportunity to try. Um, and so uh to this day I still love to swim and fancy myself a strong swimmer, but um it’s important to remember that often times the limitations that you put on yourself or that society puts on you can really make a big impact, but if you remove those um you can uh achieve way more than you ever ever could otherwise. Bill Lampton: Your mother deserves a lot of crowns for the that that not only that attitude but that support, I I I know I’ve met your mother I believe once or twice and she is a princess and a queen in my judgment and I’m sure in the judgment of those who are watching and listening. Let’s get back Kristina to what you mentioned about going up and all through not only your childhood but also early adulthood and even on into adulthood where you are now, people will notice your disability because of a wheelchair and as you said many people will stop and talk, strangers, let’s examine first of all what are some of the and we we need your advice on it because you’re the participant here Kristina, what are some of the things that you definitely prefer someone not say? What are some of the words you don’t want them to say and then on the other hand what kind of comments do you welcome in starting a conversation? Kristina Rhoades: Great, yeah, those are great questions Bill. Um, first of all there’s a lot of outdated terms um that have been used in the past and that were very common in the past and for past generations that some people with disabilities just find to be offensive because of just the nature of the word and the definition of the word. So if we’re talking about words like crippled or handicapped or lame um, if you use those words to describe anything else, you’re not that’s not a positive um description that you’re using. Bill Lampton: They’re too they’re too limiting aren’t they? Kristina Rhoades: They are. And so if you’re talking about anything, an inanimate object, and you you know call it lame or crippled, that means it doesn’t work or that it’s not good enough. Bill Lampton: It’s not up to standard, yeah. Kristina Rhoades: It is, you know, so if you’re a human being and being

    35 min

  3. MAR 9

    Gloria Russell Gives Steps to LinkedIn Clarity, Confidence, and Credibility

    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 bala

    33 min

  4. JAN 7

    Deb Krier Doesn’t Let Cancer Get the Final Word

    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 wit

    33 min

  5. 12/08/2025

    Elizabeth Cottrell Champions the Value of Handwritten Notes

    Bill Lampton: Hi there. Welcome to The Biz Communication Show. I’m your host, Bill Lampton, the biz communication guy, bringing you business communication tips and strategies that will elevate your business. And I don’t do this solo. I do it through a lively conversation with a communication expert who has excelled in business. And I’m very happy today to welcome Elizabeth Cottrell from Woodstock, Virginia. Elizabeth’s career path has been, I’ll definitely underscore this, anything but straight. With a graduate degree in human anatomy, she has been a leprosy researcher, published scientist, wife, mother, grandmother, community leader, and yes, there’s more. Freelance writer, desktop publisher, musician, and amateur radio operator. Since 2016, she has also served as the first woman to chair First National Corporation and First Bank in its 118-year history. Elizabeth is the author of Heartspoken: How to Write Notes that Connect, Comfort, Encourage, and Inspire. And it’s a terrific book. I’ve given it a five-star review on Amazon and I encourage everyone to order that book. Elizabeth speaks and writes widely about the lost art of personal notes through her Heartspoken movement. She encourages people to use note writing as a powerful way to strengthen relationships with family, friends, clients, employees, and donors alike. So I know that you will join me in welcoming Elizabeth Cottrell. Hello Elizabeth. Elizabeth Cottrell: Hello Dr. Bill. What a treat to be here. I’ve been looking forward to this. Bill Lampton: So have I and I know in the meantime you’ve been writing a lot of meaningful notes. Elizabeth Cottrell: I I do my best. I do try to practice what I preach. Bill Lampton: I want to ask you with that, yes, not a straight path career, with all that I just described, it certainly takes strong business communication skills. So I’m curious, where did you and how did you develop the communication skills that have put you even as a as an image breaker in the banking industry? Did you have courses? Did you have coaches or explore on your own? What what was the your path to the incredible wide range of business success that you’ve had? Elizabeth Cottrell: What a great question and and it took me um I’m I’m going down memory lane here but I mean I have to give my father tremendous credit, Jim Herbert, who lived to age 95. Um I’m the oldest of five, uh, and he came from a family of strong women, so he believed in me and my sister and that we could do anything our brothers could do. And, um, and Bill, he taught us, and I hope nobody thinks this is trivial because I think it’s extremely important, he taught us to hop up when somebody came in the room, to shake, shake their hand with a firm handshake, and look them in the eye. And he made us practice handshake because how often have all of us in business scenarios shaken hands with somebody who either had a very unimpressive handshake or broke our hand because it was so strong? So, um, I I think those are the those are the two things that immediately come to mind. But, um, I think he also had a philosophy which I think is really interesting for all of us children. He believed, he said, you don’t need I don’t need to teach you to be the best at anything, but I want to teach you how to do a lot of different things so that if somebody invites you to go water skiing, to go hiking, to go canoeing, you won’t have to say, oh, I don’t know how, I don’t want to do that. And so he gave us confidence in a whole wide range of things that I think then I took that into my later life. Bill Lampton: That’s a blessing and and so you had 96 years of valuable advice from your father. Elizabeth Cottrell: Absolutely. And and then I would have to say in terms of applying, um, that confidence later on to anybody I would any young person I would say is be yourself. We talked about this before we went live. Be yourself, um, show up, and be prepared. And those who have served me well. Bill Lampton: You remind me so much of my childhood because my father managed a department store. And he taught me, and he taught my brother, that when we came back from out of town when we’d become adults even, that it and we came into the store, we were to shake hands with every employee. Elizabeth Cottrell: Ah. Bill Lampton: We were to talk with them about what was going on with them, not what was going on with us. And early in my 20s, that was at first a little bit challenging and maybe awkward, but it it became something after a while. It was so rewarding to to renew contact with people in that store. Maybe if I hadn’t seen some of them in a couple of years, I’ve lived away. So, the the initial contact is is so valuable, and it’s as you say, the handshake is important because Elizabeth Cottrell: It is. Bill Lampton: just walking by and waving or but the handshake and and the right firmness of the handshake, that is that’s a signal of a closer relationship that you want, a closer interaction that Elizabeth Cottrell: It is. And I will add that I also, in a networking situation, will always say my name, even if I’m pretty sure they know it already, because we all have been in situations where um it just slips our mind what the other person’s name is. And my my dad again used to say, well you know you you know your name, usually they know theirs, but not always. Bill Lampton: Well, yes, I’ve I’ve uh of course in the last three decades I’ve been an entrepreneur. I’ve been to many, many networking events. And sometimes when you’ve been going to the same networking event, say a chamber of commerce for a year or so, you’ve met a good number of people. But when you walk into the room of all 100 or 150 at a reception, you just might not remember every name. Elizabeth Cottrell: That’s exactly right. Bill Lampton: But if you walk up and say, “Hi, I’m Elizabeth Cottrell,” or “Hi, I’m Bill Lampton,” they almost automatically will give their name. Elizabeth Cottrell: Yeah. Yeah. That’s a great a great tip. Bill Lampton: There’s something that I came across, I believe it was in your book, where you talked about there was a surprise incident that you had that really led to what I would call your mission that you’ve been engaged in so actively, not just writing a book but speaking and leading seminars and coaching people. And that’s your mission about our writing handwritten notes and letters. What was that event that got you on this track, Elizabeth? Elizabeth Cottrell: Oh, it it makes me emotional just thinking about it. Um, so Dr. Bill, I am of an age that I was taught to write notes. It was it was considered good manners and it was considered um it was expected. And I always thought of it that way, but um the day that I got a letter from a stranger was the day that it shifted my whole thinking. And that letter came from a woman who had lost her son to suicide. And I didn’t know the woman, I didn’t know her son, but I knew her son’s fiancée and had been so um saddened to learn about it and had written to the fiancée a note. Dr. Bill, if I had $100 to know what I said, I’d like to know, because I but I don’t. But whatever it was, the the young woman shared it with her fiancée’s mother. And that woman wrote to me and she said, “I’ve read your note over 25 times and it has helped me through the toughest time in my whole life.” And and like a light bulb going off in my head, it or a lightning bolt, it made me realize that a handwritten note has the potential to be so much more than just good manners. And that really was the beginning. It planted the seed. It was a while before some of the other things happened, but that planted the seed that put me on the trajectory of where I am now. Bill Lampton: It’s a marvelous impact. And I I often I write about all types of business communication, and of course, business people are going to face the loss by death of some of their associates. It might be people they work with, it might be people they work for. And I’ve often heard people say, “Well, I would go to that reception at the funeral. I would but I wouldn’t know what to say.” And I use an illustration. There was a friend of mine who died uh about two years ago and there were over, I would imagine, there were over 400 people at his funeral. And the reception went on two and a half hours with the family greeting people. Now, did the family remember anyone thing that anybody said? No. It didn’t matter what they said because these are cases where your your presence means so much. Elizabeth Cottrell: Absolutely. Bill Lampton: And then again, in those cases, a week or two later, writing what that person meant to you, that’s that’s a great reinforcement, isn’t it? Elizabeth Cottrell: It absolutely is. And and Dr. Bill, I’ll tell you another story that is on a happier end of things, but it’s a kind of a note that some people don’t think about. My husband is a retired physician, and, um, when we first came, when he was a young physician, there was a pharmacist, um, who had been in the area for ages. And about 10 years after we my husband started his practice, that pharmacist retired. And my husband wrote him a note to congratulate him on his retirement. And he also mentioned in it, um, and it was actually a letter, um, rather than a note. But he said, um, “And I want you to know that I I know from from my patients how often you would deliver medicine to them at night and on the weekends and I and I also want you to know that I remember the time that I made a mistake writing a prescription and you called me and said, ‘Doc, is this I just wanted to check and make sure this was something that you meant to do.'” Well, fortunately, that pharmacist had many years of happy retirement before he passed. And, um, my husband and I went to the funeral home and barely walked in the door

    31 min

  6. 10/20/2025

    Media Master Mike Sammond Gives Guidelines Business Leaders Need

    Hi there. Welcome to the Biz Communication Show. I’m your host Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication Guy. In our eighth season of hosting outstanding business communication professionals who share tips and strategies that will boost your business. And today it’s an extreme pleasure and privilege to welcome Mike Sammond from the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. For the past 13 years, Mike Sammond has been the President and CEO of Gwinnett Business RadioX, a company that produces, distributes and markets online radio shows and professional podcasts for businesses of all sizes in the Atlanta area. Mike Sammond is an award-winning radio and television sportscaster. It’s impossible to mention all the places he has been a headliner. I can mention CNN Headline News, ESPN, he’s been a sports highlight reporter and broadcaster, announcer for Olympic Broadcasting services, and they have heard his voice and his expertise in faraway places like Vancouver, London, Rio, Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, Singapore. In fact, there are quite a few people who say that they have worked internationally, but they may have crossed the border once. Here’s a guy who has been an international voice and presence for 13 years. Mike Sammond’s play-by-play experience, uh, covers all sports, baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. He’s announced games for Major League Baseball, Arena Football, International Hockey League, Southeastern Conference, and the list, as they say, could go on. Additionally, Mike has been a minority owner in professional minor league sports, such as hockey and Arena Football while serving as a top executive in sports management. So, I know you will be excited as I am to welcome Mike Sammond. Hello, Mike, how are you doin’? Hey there, Dr. Bill. How are you? You know, it would have probably been a lot easier just to say, he’s a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none. Uh, that would have been inaccurate, sir, because you are a master of many. I’ve had the wonderful privilege of being with you when you first started Business Radio X. I remember very well, a Gwinnett Business Radio X. I remember very well a reception that was held after your first year or so, and it was so impressive, the number of leaders that you had brought into that program, and many of them now have their own network of listeners and admirers. The the first thought that comes to me today, Mike, is with all of this and looking at the fact that at the University of Georgia, where I once taught speech communication, your bio on LinkedIn shows that you were a broadcast journalism major. So, the thought comes to my mind, and I’m sure to our viewers and listeners, exactly when did you start getting interested in journalism as a professional? I sometimes wonder if maybe in your baby crib there was a camera and a microphone. What what really stirred your interest? Was it maybe watching some highly competent broadcasters or sensing the impact of the media? What what really got you into this exciting and dramatic business? It’s it’s funny, Dr. Bill, because you see people today and like my my kids, you know, and they’re in their 20s now and, you know, when they were going to college, they didn’t know what they wanted to do or had no idea. I I didn’t have a a microphone or a TV camera with me in the crib, but I kind of knew at a very early age, growing up, uh, outside of Boston. I was a big-time hockey fan, and so back then, I used to watch the Boston Bruins. And this was back when they had, uh, the great Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito and the big bad Bruins. And then, and then I I played hockey every single day, and I loved it. And for some reason, you would think a young kid in New England, uh, who loves hockey, would wanna grow up and be a professional hockey player. But for me, watching the telecasts on TV, I wanted to be Fred Cusick and Johnny Pierson. Those were the announcers for the Boston Bruins back then. And I thought, “How cool is it to have a job where you’re paid to go see hockey or paid to go see sports?” And so, for whatever reason, I just decided as a young kid, now going back and knowing how much they get paid these days, I probably should have gone that route, but I, you know, I never had the big size or anything like that, and I was a decent hockey player, but I wasn’t good enough. Uh, so from the age of six, seven, eight, nine years old, I knew I wanted to be a sportscaster of of some way. And when I was a sophomore in high school, my dad took a job in Atlanta, so we moved, uh, down south to the Atlanta metropolitan area, Alpharetta. I’m a graduate of Milton High School. And it turns out, I didn’t know at the time, but I was very fortunate that to move down here because UGA and I’m sure you know this, had one of the top journalism schools in the the country. Uh, back in the day, back in the the late 80s, if you wanted to be a broadcaster, you would go to Syracuse was the number one school. That’s where Bob Costas and all the great announcers came from. But the other top schools were Missouri and the uh, Henry Grady School of Journalism at UGA. So I was very fortunate to move to this area with Georgia right down the road. And so I went there, got my broadcast degree. As soon as I started college there, I worked at the campus radio station, and I did as much as I could. Um, got to call a lot of sports at the campus radio station. That turned into a job with a commercial radio station in Athens, and I’ve been in sports broadcasting in some form or fashion, uh, ever since. Every time I host someone, I I find some common ties that that I didn’t know about. Mike, when I was at, um, on the speech communication faculty at the University of Georgia, my first year there, uh, they launched WWOOG, the campus radio station. So I listened to it for a year, and after a year, I went to the station manager, who was a student, and I said to him, “You’ve called this a campus radio station, but you’re leaving out a significant factor. It’s all students who are doing the broadcasting. I think they’re doing a fine job, but what about having a faculty program?” And so they agreed, and for a couple of years, I started hosting a weekly one-hour interview show. And I interviewed students, I interviewed faculty members, I interviewed some of the star football players of the time. The name of the program was “Dialogue,” because that’s what I wanted. It was it was a wonderful experience. And in those days, maybe not later on for your era, but in those days, to continue in broadcasting, we had to get a broadcasting license. I remember having to study for that and go to downtown Atlanta and take a um a written test, and I had no idea what what some of the terminology was, but I had had to learn, did did you have any entrance uh, qualifications like that into radio? We didn’t need any kind of a license or anything like that to be a broadcaster back then. Um, yes, our days of WWOOG, uh, so you’re familiar with walking up all the stairs to the top of Memorial Hall. Oh yeah. Yeah. And and and I I was fortunate as a freshman, I I came in and again it was it was a student-run station. So what a great benefit, uh, for the students that wanna be broadcast majors. And I started in news, I got to work sports. Uh, my senior year, I was the station manager of of the campus radio station, and my only goal was not to screw it up and to make sure we stayed on the air. I probably wasn’t the best general manager. Um, but I got so much great experience that when I left UGA, I was able to get a job right out of school, uh, as a sports director at a TV station, uh, because of the experience I had, the hands-on experience. So, you know, my advice to anybody that wants to get into the field of broadcasting is take any job, whether it’s news or sports, it doesn’t matter, you want to get your foot in the door and just get on air as much as you can. And it’s okay if you’re not good. You’re not supposed to be good when you start. Don’t, you know, I I we were on a campus radio station. I also worked on some AM radio stations, so a lot of people probably didn’t hear a lot of the things I did, which is probably a good thing. But the more reps you can get, the better. So you always want to do as much as possible. And, uh, it’s it’s been a great experience at my my my four years at UGA were a lot of fun, and it laid the groundwork for the rest of my career. It reminds me of a um of a subsequent radio show that that I was privileged to host. I I moved to uh, professionally, to a small town in Kansas, McPherson, Kansas. And they had a very small population. They had one radio station. So after I’d been there a couple of months, I decided that there wasn’t much else to do on weekends, and I loved radio. So I went to, um, a friend who took me to the station manager. The station manager interviewed me and we talked a little about my radio experience, and he wanted to find out, of course, how I would sound on the air. So, this was maybe on a Wednesday, and I can still remember him saying at station KINX, “Okay, you’ll start Saturday morning. Be here at 5:30.” And, uh, like many of us who start in the media, I ran the AM and FM station from for 12 hours on on Saturdays, and that was in the days of reel-to-reel tape. One of the fun things about it is thinking back to some of the early mistakes we made, not you, of course, but I I can remember some that I made, but like in any profession, we learn from our mistakes, don’t we? You’re going to make mistakes. We’re human, and that’s fine. Uh, I make mistakes to this day, but you’re you’re never going to be perfect. If you shoot for perfection, you’re you’re going to fail. Um, but those are the fun days. Uh, you know, I I did, you know, when I was at UGA, we learned how to do reel-to-reel, cutting the actual tape with a razor blade. Yeah. Yeah. At U

    36 min

  7. 10/08/2025

    Darlene Drew Shares Her Keys to Effective Leadership

    Hello. Hello. How are you? Well, I’m just thinking what a privilege and pleasure it is to host you for the second time on the Biz Communication Show. And I’d like to start with what I I consider a great illustration of persistence when you want something. And I’m referring to the fact that when you first applied for a position major position with the Corrections Bureau, you received a letter stating that you were not selected. Eventually, you received notification that you were accepted for that position. It will help us to know what happened in the meantime. How did you transition from being rejected to being accepted and oh my gosh, how many people in the job market today want to hear that. How did that happen? What happened? Well, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Bill. Um, that’s a wonderful question, and I love answering that. Um, having received a letter, I asked each person for you to think about a time when you applied for a position and you were so excited about it and anticipating after that great interview as you saw it, that you would be receiving a call or a letter. I certainly, if you’re saying, “Yes, that’s me,” I’m with you because that was me as well. And so I waited with anticipation for that letter, and finally, after waiting and waiting, it it was delivered to me by my dad who used to work for the post office, that made it that much sweeter to me. And anxiously, I I got the envelope, and I opened it up, excited to to read the letter, and it said this is notification that you were not selected. So, to your question, how did it go from not selected to being selected? I believe it started with my disbelief, my disbelief. I did not believe that what it said in that letter, me not being selected, could anyway possibly be accurate. I read the letter. I paused and contemplated it, I thought about it, and I did what naturally came to me at that time, and that was quite some time ago, and I would imagine in this age and time, it would certainly be what comes to younger people. I didn’t believe it, and so I picked up the phone. I picked up the phone doing what I believe millennials, Zoomers today would do. Instead of texting, we want texting then, I called the person, the Human Resources Administrator’s name who was on the letter. I called him and said, “I believe this is a mistake.” I believe it’s a mistake, and I ask you to please re-evaluate my interview packet, give it another look, and please call me later to notify me that I’ve been selected. And oddly enough, he listened to me, and later, some weeks later, I received another letter. And that other letter was the right letter that said, “Congratulations, you’re hired.” That is a marvelous lesson for each one of us in in believing first of all in ourselves, believing in our credentials, believing that we are the right person, that we can do the job. And then taking that next step, which so many of us probably would be reluctant or reticent to take, but you took it and then began an incredible career in corrections. You’re reminding me, Darlene, of an instant where there was a client that I really wanted to serve. I went to high school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I went to McCallie school, a secondary school there. And that’s the home of Crystal. And so naturally, I loved Crystal Burgers. Well, eventually, I thought since I love Crystal and the company so much, I would love to present one or more seminars for them. So, I got the phone number of their trainer. I had an initial conversation, and while he was courteous, he said, “Nothing now.” So, a year later, I called again, “Nothing now.” And then because he lived rather close by my location in Gainesville, Georgia, I said, “Well, all right, you’re, you’re not going to hire me now, but I would like to have a few minutes visit with you to find out more about what your training program aims to accomplish with your employees.” And he said, “Okay, we can do that.” So, I I went to his home office here near Gainesville, Georgia. We sat, and I mostly asked questions, but every now and then when he would say, “Here’s one segment of our training,” I would say, “You know, I I’ve got something similar to that.” And without being pushy, I described my approach. And this happened for about 20 or 30 minutes. I didn’t dominate, but when there was an opportunity, I said, “Well, here’s what I would be doing if I were doing that program.” And at the end of our conversation, he looked at me and he said, “You know, I believe we need to hire you.” So, I was able then to go back to my home home high school home base and work with the Crystal company for half a day. It it all of us who are in either service or products business, I suppose the underlying lesson here is the first no should not be the final word. And you’ve illustrated that so well. Have you had any other instances such as the one I just described where you of course, you were once you got into the system, did you have any instances similar to mine or not? No. I I would say that that initial no, uh, and because once I started working there, I literally worked uh through all three decades of my life. Um, and uh, and so that disbelief, you know, changed everything. Of course, as an entrepreneur, uh, I’ve I’ve heard no or the delay in it, and my approach to it is pretty much the same. Um, I recognize the words “not now” could mean later, and so now it’s a matter of nurturing the relationship, but not being a stalker if you will, uh, giving people time, um, but still keeping the possibility, uh, top of mind for me. Let’s get to your experience now as Warden of the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. I’ve mentioned to you before that I had an opportunity when I was on the faculty of the University of Georgia, I had the opportunity of teaching their extension course one summer in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. So I know the territory we’re talking about. In our conversations off camera, I have heard you say several things about your initial uh stint there as as the warden. And one that I like very much is where they ask, “What do we call you?” What was your answer to that? Oh, what a lovely question, lovely question. Um, my response to, “So, what do we call you?” was a pretty short, clear response. And it was a question to the question. My question to that question was, “What did you call the guy before me?” And it was like an aha moment. “Oh.” And the staff member said, “Warden.” And I said, “That works.” That simple. Yes, if that’s what they called your predecessor, that’s what they should call you. That settled that pretty quickly. Yes. Yes, a lot of it was um, the the idea that this, this CEO, uh, this warden, in the world of corrections, is a girl. It’s a woman. So what do we do? Call me what you called the guy. And that cleared it up. It was clear ever since. Good strategy. Good strategy. Darlene, in in just a minute or so, I’m am going to get you to share with our viewers and our listeners what might be some of the greatest leadership challenges that you have faced during your career and what was your solution to them. We’ll be back for that in just a few seconds. 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. We’re here on the Biz Communication Show. I’m Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication Guy, your host for the show on video and on podcast. And our guest is Darlene Drew. Darlene, I noticed, of course, in the bio that you provided that you teach leaders and you teach leaders how to teach other leaders. And of course you have the credibility to do this because of your gosh, 32 years in the correctional system. What would you say were a couple of, maybe huge challenges that you faced in leadership in your career and how did you handle these one or two challenges that would come to mind? Sure, thank you for that question. Um, the biggest challenge was uh, with actually my last assignment, uh, before I retired. And the challenge came in the reason of staff being very concerned about this leader coming in, which is, which is common. And the concern was the incoming leader, one is a woman. So that was their challenge. It made it, it was a challenge for them, and it was something that I had to educate uh, staff on, so that they could understand that this will be okay, uh, with a woman serving in the position of a CEO, a woman serving in the position of warden. Uh, it was two parts, it was actually three parts to it. The second part of the concern of staff and the challenge uh, for me was staff understanding that it’s a process, so they had a fear of the big word “change.” Uh, there’s a new leader who’s a woman, and she might change something. Uh, and that ties to the third part of it uh, because there was a mindset and there was a practice that’s employed in so many different organizations, and that mindset and practice was, “But we’ve always done it this way.” So therein, what do you, what did I do in terms of the awareness of the fears, the concerns, the objections uh, that staff had for those particular things? Um, it was about how I led. And I embraced a leadership philosophy and practice of accessibility. So we have staff members who have these fears and concerns and in some cases, uh, misgivings. Uh, how do you debunk that as a leader? Uh, one, it’s all about being accessible. It was about me being accessible to the staff, me being visible to the staff, so they cou

    30 min

  8. 08/05/2025

    Kevin Williams Discusses His Business Communication Skills

    Hi there. Welcome to the Biz Communication Show. I’m your host, Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication Guy. The Biz Communication Show is now in its eighth season. And during that time I’ve had the opportunity to interview, and I really like to say have conversations with outstanding business professionals who share with us the communication keys and skills that have given them that success. And as we talk over those tips and strategies, you and I can benefit from them. Today, our guest is one that I happen to know, I’m acquainted with. Often the people that I interview globally, I don’t know, but I met Kevin Williams several years ago when we were members for a while at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce near Atlanta, and we formed a professional affiliation and friendship, which is still going. This is his second appearance on the show, and we’re delighted, delighted to have him back. Kevin Williams is a seasoned global executive and franchise consultant with a career that spans continents and industries. Kevin has held leadership roles at some of the world’s most respected companies, including President of a German manufacturing firm in Mexico, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing for a Japanese enterprise, and a pivotal role at Eastman Kodak during its time as the top global brand. Now, Kevin serves as a trusted advisor in the world of commercial real estate and franchise consulting, helping entrepreneurs and investors navigate opportunities with precision and integrity. His expertise bridges franchise development, consumer goods, healthcare, capital equipment, and startup strategy. He’s worked in 10 countries. His expertise is known worldwide, and he comes to us now from the greater Greensboro Winston Salem High Point area in North Carolina. He’s worked directly with powerhouse retailers like Walmart, Target, CVS, and Costco, giving him a unique edge in helping clients grow even in the midst of the most challenging markets. Kevin brings a sharp business mind, a love for problem solving, and a commitment to surrounding himself with like-minded individuals. So I know that you will join me in welcoming Kevin Williams. Hello, Kevin. Bill, how are you? Good to see you again today. It’s good to see you. And I again thank of how I our association performed several years ago. Sometimes those introductions at networking meetings and chambers, sometimes they happen and they disappear, but I have the good fortune that ours has continued. To begin with today, Kevin, I know that I have watched, of course, your intro video on LinkedIn, which I encourage our viewers and listeners to watch and to get connected with you on LinkedIn. And in that video, you talk about your humble beginnings in life. And you say that uh a mop and a broom were quite familiar to you early in life. With what you call that humble beginning, you have used that as a springboard to worldwide prominence as a an executive and a leader. What do you think are early lessons that you learned in your boyhood and early manhood that really equipped you to succeed later on as you have? Well, Bill, you know, you talked about uh working for Kodak as a number one brand. Um, really we are our own brand. and a mop in the bucket is uh where it all starts. If you want uh people to know who you really are, uh you demonstrate even at the level of uh cleaning floors, a sweeping floors, a mopping, dusting, all those different components. Uh when the job is done, that’s your brand. You want something that looks like you want to put your name on it. you want to put your picture on it and you want to say job well done and for others to come along and really do the bragging on you. but that that’s your brand from the very beginning. And it’s kind of like, you know, when you own a a restaurant and uh as a guest, you’re walking in and you see fingerprints and smudges all over the door and they’re dirty and you go to the restroom and uh the restrooms are are not clean or kept. And your first thought is, oh my, I know kind of at this point what the kitchen looks like and they’re about to prepare my food. So, you know, it’s uh mop and bucket, It’s uh my wife used to tell me, you know, how how do you know how to run a business if you’ve not done the jobs in it? And I’ll tell you if you start with a mop and bucket, uh you really understand it. You might see somebody uh sitting down taking a break and you as a senior level uh manager might want to go, you know, why why are they resting? Well, if you’ve been there done that, you might clearly know it is a break, you know, a back breaking job and um, you have a different perspective on it from that perspective. Uh you need to protect your brand. Mop and the bucket is is your brand and how you stamp it is uh how the world sees you. You know, even your car. You know, I uh I’m in commercial real estate as you you mentioned, and I walk by people’s cars and I look in them as the car clean on the outside, is the car clean on the inside. Uh if I work with this other broker, is he going to take care of me? That’s his brand. So mop and bucket, cars, houses, cutting grass, be your brand, be the best brand you can be. and that’s what I get out of the mop and bucket. That’s great for a theme, a logo, a brand. Thank you for that. Reminds me of a couple of things, Kevin. I remember so well that my earliest job as a kid was working in a grocery store, stocking the shelves and loading the shelves and unloading them. And I I think one or two times I tried the cash register. I was a little too clumsy for that. But in in doing those jobs of that sort, and what comes to mind instantly as a kid, I remember so well I’d been working there for uh maybe close to a year. The manager called me in and you never know as a kid is it good or bad. The manager called me in and he said, you have done such a good job that we’re going to give you a raise. And he did, Kevin, he raised me from 35 cents an hour to 50 cents an hour. Oh, the good old days, right? So, uh, and and those those lessons that we learn even in the most menial task, do we form the habits for success then? Do we form the attitude for success? Another comment I’d like to make in response to your excellent contribution there, you reminded me of a book I read years ago. I can’t remember the title of it, but the book was about the most successful Cadillac business in Dallas, Texas. And the a Cadillac business had several locations, and the manager had one major point that he insisted with with his employees and it didn’t have to do with the showroom or the cars displayed there. He said the restrooms must be absolutely impeccable. They have to be spotless because as you say, um, if you’re not going to keep that okay, then what else are you going to do with the rest of the place? Right. So, so our our early beginnings and in both our cases taught us some valuable lessons and I think our viewers on YouTube and our listeners on the podcast are able now to think back, okay, what did I learn early that was valuable for me. I also want to move along to mention that your wide geographical span of your occupation, that’s, that once was quite rare, but now I’m noticing I’ve got a granddaughter who’s a senior at University of Georgia, and I’m noticing with her and her classmates that many times by the time a student gets to be a junior or a senior in a college or university now, they have been several places abroad. Sometimes as a part of their study, their curriculum they can continue there. Sometimes as pleasure trips. But international interactions are vastly different from when I was a college student, if we went a hundred miles, that was a pretty long trip. You have adjusted successfully to some of the countries we mentioned and since they’re 10 that you’ve worked in some that we haven’t. Looking at people now who for the first time are going to be living and working internationally, what would be some of the tips that you could give us on how you adjust and learn what you need to learn and say what you need to say and behave as you need to behave. How do you do those things? So early on, I uh I struggle with that very topic. And I wanted to know before I went to a country how best to uh work within that country. And I would travel with uh Walmart a lot of times uh in in doing those. But I found a book. It’s a little different now. We’ll talk about that in a moment. But the book was called, uh, Kiss Bow Shake hands. And in that book, it talked about culture. Uh you don’t want to offend anybody by a particular color. Uh you wanted to know their behavioral styles. So uh when you sat in a room, you wanted to know uh which person in the room had the authority. You wanted to go know how to uh negotiate best with that particular culture. You wanted to know the protocol for doing that. And really some of the business practices for doing it. So that book became a valuable tool to me before I took any trip. Uh I pulled it out. I looked at the particular country that I was going to. I studied it and I was better well versed um for that culture once I arrived. We live in a a different day now and we have AI at our fingertips. I love that by the way. I’m a chat GBT guy and just love what all it can deliver in seconds um using that format. But I would recommend to anybody uh traveling abroad, uh business or pleasure, just go into it and start uh you know, digging into what exactly takes place in the culture, what’s accepted, what is not, what can offend someone, and just be ready. uh, you know, and and it’s much easier nowadays than than it was back when I uh I first started that adventure. but Kiss Bower shake hands was my uh my life blood to making sure I didn’t mess it up when uh when the plane landed. As long ago, Kevin, as when I was teaching at the University of Georgia, I remember so well reading a book about internati

    33 min

  9. 07/31/2025

    Website Expert Paul Zanardo Shares Tips You Need to Hear

    Hi there. Welcome to the Biz Communication Show. I’m your host, Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication Guy once again, bringing you and myself tips and strategies from a highly qualified guest who’s a communication expert. And as a result of these tips and strategies, you and I will be able to boost our business. It’s a great pleasure today to bring from the Atlanta metropolitan area, Paul Zanardo. Paul is the CEO and founder of Zanardo Designs. He has been implementing award-winning website design, SEO, graphic design, and video marketing since 2015. So his team is celebrating 10 years of service with their successful clients nationwide. And his achievements and the quality of his work have not gone unrecognized. The North Fulton Chamber of Commerce has honored him as the Solopreneur of the Year in 2024. And I guess Paul and his wife Amy were celebrating that when they were seen dancing at a North Fulton Chamber of Commerce. And we celebrate Paul being with us today. So welcome, Paul, to the Biz Communication Show. It’s a privilege to host you. Thank you, Dr. Bill. I’m very excited and honored to be here. Paul, as I’ve watched you on social media and on LinkedIn, I’ve noticed a marketing device that you implemented a couple of years ago, which definitely is eye-catching. And that’s what’s called your runaround marketing. Now, the room you’re in now isn’t big enough to fully illustrate that, but you can do it vocally. Describe for us that system of run-by marketing, how you came up with the idea, what did you want to accomplish, and what have been the responses to that? Absolutely. I’d love to share that with you. And I don’t believe this is going to be an exclusive. I don’t believe I’ve shared this before. So this one’s special for your show, Dr. Bill. But run-by marketing came to me as a vision, like some other business ideas. Actually, starting my business vision from, I believe, God through prayer. I was working on a lot of social media for other businesses, and it was taking up so much time. And it was becoming stressful for me to do our companies as well, because I manage ours as well, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, all the platforms. And it was just becoming daunting and too much. And I was losing interest and losing the creativity aspect of it. And you need that in content. So I was praying to God, actually, I need some help with this. What do you have in mind? Just help me to add value to other people, not to puff me up, but to serve. And I kind of had a moment, like an aha moment, sat up actually in bed, and I had run-by marketing. I knew the name. I knew how I was going to film it. And I used – it’s very simple because I’m a runner in the afternoons to stay healthy. So I’m already active that way. And I’ve implemented my exercise into our marketing strategy to save time, and it’s gone over really well. I’ll use a ring light similar to this and some audio to mic myself up and say something real funny and run by the camera. And, you know, it’s been amazing. Well, it seems to me in watching you run at a pretty good clip for, what, 50 or 75 yards, and then you wind up at the camera and you give a rapid-fire one-sentence description of the message you want to get across. Here we go. Call Dr. Bill. He’s the best communicator. I’ve got to stand up desk so I can do that foryou. I’ll vote for that one, yes. Go ahead, I’m sorry. One of the things, of course, we are invariably viewers who want motion. And one of the things I do as a speech coach, I look at some often even experienced speakers who are so afraid to move around. And I put it this way that some of them are holding on to that podium so tightly that they resemble somebody trying to survive the sinking of the Titanic. They just can’t let go of it. So you are implementing in a highly dramatic way what I teach. And that is that motion is impossible. Excuse me, motion is necessary. And we can reverse that in saying staying still is a great way to cure insomnia with your audience, whether it’s a video audience or whether it’s a speaking audience. So I really applaud you on that. About how many of those segments have you done? I’ve been doing it for about two years now. And, oh, my gosh, that’s a good question. I’ll have to go back and count. But I average maybe one or two a month. Would those be available on your YouTube channel? You can find them on YouTube. I’ll put them on LinkedIn and Instagram. Yes. Great. Well, go ahead. I was just going to mention sometimes about the nervousness, to your point, what you were saying. You know, when I was first starting this and, you know, I’m out in public at the park and so people are seeing me as I’m setting up and running by and they’re naturally curious and start asking questions. And, you know, I need to start doing this on construction sites because that’s one of our niches. That might be dangerous. Have you by any chance gotten any inquiries from some of those people who watch you do it in person? We actually have, which came to me as a surprise and was really exciting. And that’s when you know you’re reaching your market and you’re reaching people. Absolutely. You mentioned LinkedIn and so many of our business professionals who are watching and listening use LinkedIn. I would imagine there have been times, Paul, when you are talking with somebody about developing a website. They don’t have one yet. And they say to you, well, Paul, I don’t need a website. I’m on LinkedIn. I’m very active there. I post a good bit. Not only that, I comment on what other people are doing. I even post videos on there. So explain to us, Paul, if we’re doing all that, why do we need a website? Yes. So we get this question a lot. People say, well, my business is word of mouth or I do have a great LinkedIn presence. So what’s going to happen is even if you’re connected with someone and you’re building those relationships on LinkedIn, they’re going to research you online. They’re going to do an online search. They’re going to go to your website, your Google business, your other social media profiles, and all of those need to be buttoned up and up to date. And you want cohesive branding across the board. So the website, you know, is another way to another tool to sell and to engage your audience, build trust and help them contact you, hopefully even sooner. Now, when you talk about websites, I know that you talk about SEO, search engine optimization. Let’s say I come to you and I say, Paul, I’ve got a website. And you respond and you say, well, what’s your SEO? And I say, I have no idea. I don’t even know what that means and had no way of testing it. What steps would you take with me as a client then? Absolutely. So SEO is the acronym for search engine optimization. And I usually find from potential clients that there’s two ends of the spectrum. Like you’re talking about, they have no idea what it is or they have misinformation about SEO being the one-stop shop and solve everything. So SEO is extremely important. And it is how your website ranks against competitors. And also first, before it even does that, you need your website’s content to be able to be found and seen online. There’s something I believe we need to cover here in relationto that. And that’s keywords. How does that fit in? What’s the relevance there? So keywords are a very important part of SEO. When people are searching a certain speech coach. or presenter, you’re going to want those keywords kind of reverse engineer from a psychological standpoint, what your potential client is looking for. And to have those keywords strategically placed on your website makes a big difference. And the algorithm picks up on that and helps your website show up in search results. Now, keywords are just one part of the equation. There’s many parts of SEO. And like I mentioned, SEO is not the solve all. It’s very important, but it’s very helpful. So keywords do play a big part in SEO. You’ve been in the website business very intensely and also very successfully. Years ago, I remember when websites started and it was at that time largely print and maybe some photographs and eventually some audio. But then we’ve advanced to the video age. So when you’re working with clients, what would you tell a client who comes to you and wants to improve their website, make it more contemporary and more appealing? And they say, maybe, Paul, I should be doing something with video. How would you respond to that? Video content is king. Even on LinkedIn, as you scroll, you’ve noticed some don’t like this, but that’s with our age of we want it now and lower attention spans. Video is taking over social media and for content as well. So hiring a professional to do video is very important. You need good lighting. You need audio. Like I mentioned this, even if you’re doing something quick like my run by marketings, these right here, here’s a microphone I can clip on here very quickly. And this clips into my phone and you get the audio straight in through your phone. Professional lighting. And if you’re doing, say, filming a speech or a presentation, you need professional video editing. And we do a lot of that and it’s very helpful. And that type of content to go on to your website shows your potential client that you’re the expert in your field and that you’re solving the problems that they need to be solved. To me, as I mentioned, we’ve progressed from print to audio to video. And in fact, we still have all of them still have great value. But in my observation, there are many people who have not quite moved into the video arena. There’s an old saying, well, I’ve got a face for radio. But in essence, having the I guess I would say the courage and the initiative to get into video is not as daunting once you get sort of like getting you

    31 min

  10. 07/23/2025

    Melinda Marcus Gives Guidelines For Interpreting Body Language

    Hi there, welcome to the Biz Communication Show. I’m your host, Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication Guy, bringing you tips and strategies that will boost your business. And these tips and strategies come from my conversation with a very qualified guest and what we share will, as I said, benefit you when you apply these tips and strategies. Coming to us today from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Melinda Marcus. Melinda Marcus is a body language expert who shows leaders how to speed read people. That sounds interesting. And influence decisions. As a result, our clients have won top career positions, improved team dynamics, and closed multimillion dollar deals. Melinda trained directly with a former special agent who trained the FBI. And she is only one of five people globally who attained the highest body language certification in his master program. She also earned a master’s in communication from SMU and a psychology degree with honors from Northwestern University. Melinda Marcus is in demand as a keynote speaker at national events and is an award winning writer. Her book, Read the Zoom, shows you how to read people in your next meeting. So I know you will join me in welcoming Melinda Marcus. Hello, Melinda. Hey, Bill. Thanks for having me. Oh, absolutely delighted to host you. And at the end of that introduction, and it’s a brief introduction because I know there’s much more that you have qualified in and we could go over, but we needed to get to this instead. At the conclusion of the introduction, we mentioned your book, Read the Zoom. And ironically, it was just this morning I was talking with an executive recruiter friend who’s been an executive recruiter for about three decades. And he was pointing out to me that so many, a large proportion of job interviews now are not taking place on site, but they’re taking place on Zoom, which means that we need to know how to come across in this way that it still remains fairly new. And some of the people who are applying for jobs or who want to host Zoom really have no specialized training in it. So we’re relying on you today for some tips. Tell us how to read the Zoom, please. Okay. Well, first of all, part of reading the Zoom is that we have this real estate, right, sort of from chest up. And that’s the exact same view we have in person if you’re looking across a conference room table, a desk, or a restaurant table where a lot of business deals and relationships are developed as well. So everything that you’ll learn in the book also applies in person. But the key is, is that there’s a lot of information that’s beyond the words. And that has to do with the nonverbals that will be with what’s going on facial expression, body language, position, whether somebody’s here, here, and what you notice in terms of what triggers the changes. So that can give you a lot of information that they may not volunteer with their words. And those insights can make the difference between if it’s a job interview, gaining consideration, which is what we all want, right, and being tossed aside as not somebody who fits. So it’s a critical piece to pick up how people are responding to what you have to say. So you know when you have buy-in and you know when you have maybe a stress point or objection that you need to overcome. When you’retraining someone on this, what steps do you take them through? So the first step is I do an assessment by, generally I have not met them before, we may have had just a phone call, and I do an interview with them. And then I do the assessment on what they’re saying in terms of their messaging, their nonverbals, their storytelling, all of those things so that I can help them and we can customize how we do the coaching. Now I will tell you something kind of exciting: since, obviously, there’s a limit to how many people I can personally coach one-on-one, I’m getting ready to launch an online course that will be modules that’ll take people about 85% of the way there and help a lot more people get jobs than I could touch if I was doing actual engagements with each one of them individually. Ah, well tell us two things, please. Tell us, first of all, how to access the book, and then also how can we register for this online Zoom training session that you’re talking about? Okay, well the book, it’s called Read the Zoom. You’ll notice it says Read the Room and Room is crossed out because when I started writing this book, it was before 2020 and COVID, and all of a sudden nobody was in the room. So it became Read the Zoom and you can get it at readthezoom.com. So that’s the only place to buy it. Or if you go to my website, which is influenceadvisors.com, you can also, there’s a link there if you want to go that way. So either of those work. The course has not launched yet, but I’ve done all the recordings on role-playing with real people who are being interviewed by me, and then I give what they could do to improve and you see the before and after. So that’ll probably launch in, if you’re on LinkedIn, be sure to connect with me because I’m going to probably mainly launch that there and then there’ll be other things, ways to get to it. But that’s the main one I’ll be using is LinkedIn. You can find me under Melinda Marcus and just let me know that you heard me with Bill so that I’ll know who you are. That sounds fascinating. And one of the items, of course, that you and I have to work with, I’m a speech coach and you’re helping people prepare for presentations of different kinds. One of the items we nearly always have to work with is fear of the camera. People I’ve dealt with, many people on stage fright where we’re facing audiences, but now we have a new fear that has come in and that’s fear of the camera. And there are a couple of points I make and I’m curious to know how you feel about them: I say that the camera doesn’t lie so that it’s a good training device. If you were to say to me, if I’d given you a presentation, you say, well, Bill, you did this, this, and this, and I would be thinking or saying, oh, no, I didn’t, but there’s the camera. That’s a different thing. The camera does not lie. The second point I make is that because the camera does not lie, it also can become reassuring for us because there are so many times that we’re before a camera and we’re thinking, oh, gosh, I’m really blowing it. I’m really goofing it. I’ve made all these mistakes. And then when you play it back, it’s almost benign compared to all the fears that you had. And, of course, I’ll give another example here. Sometimes when we are on camera, we’re trying to think of what to say, we pause. That pause just seems endless to us. But when we play it back, guess what? It was a couple of seconds and it looked quite natural. So reflect on those points for me and for us, please. The camera doesn’t lie and it also can have some very positive feedback for us. I totally agree with that. And that’s particularly if you have permission to record it. Otherwise, while the camera is on you, if it’s not recording, you can’t go back and look at what you did. So I think it’s a great tool. And particularly if you’re going to give a presentation, it’s a nice thing to have a meeting just with yourself and record it so that youcan see what you’re doing and how you’re sounding. And nobody sees it but you. So it’s a great training tool. So I think that’s great. I will say that one of the things that I think is somewhat problematic is since we’ve all been using virtual meetings now for probably since 2020, so we’re going on close to six years, right, in 2026. I think people are a little too casual with what they’re doing on camera. They forgot about the camera, and sometimes they’re just unaware that they’re doing things that are not leaving the best impression because they’re not as, I would say, self-conscious about how they’re coming across as they would be if they were in person in the room. So you see a lot of times on Zoom, and I’m going to illustrate it for you, where when people are listening, they’re just kind of like, and they don’t realize they’re listening, but it looks like they’re not engaged. It’s not necessarily the most flattering expression on their face. So I like people to be more self-conscious about how they’re coming across. And in virtual meetings, you can see at least a small screen of what you look like. So you want to show engagement. You want to show interest. And those are things that I think are incredibly important. I also think you need to pay attention to nonverbals, which are not just your face and body. They are also your vocal pattern and what you’re wearing, how your hair looks. All of those things that are appearance-related make a very big impression before you ever open your mouth. And people are at least subconsciously making decisions on whether they can trust you or whether you’re an authority or a leader based on that appearance piece. And I think that you can be a little too casual with that and unnecessarily hurt your image. Sometimes today I’m thinking you anticipate my questions because you bring up something I know that our audience wants guidance on. We’re all aware of how clothing styles have changed dramatically. I can still remember so well, Melinda, the first time probably 20 or so years ago, the first time I boarded a commercial flight as a passenger and I was not wearing a tie. Because up until that time, practically every professional male was wearing a coat and tie. The trend became so obvious that I said, well, I might as well go with the flow. And even though I had convinced myself that this was the norm now, I felt quite awkward the first few times I did that. Okay, so here we are talking now about being on Zoom. And there has to be a happy medium there sometime. Y

    33 min
  • 10 Episodes

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Every week Bill Lampton, Ph.D.–the “Biz Communication Guy”–interviews renowned communication experts about their areas of expertise. Listeners learn tips, strategies, and guidelines for sales, management, customer service, presentation skills, technology, and persuasion. Catch every lively episode, so you will jet-propel your business communication skills–and profits!

Information