Communication Tip: 

Bypass templates. 

You are the message. 

Work on your communication skills. 

Encourage and mentor your team so they are effective at networking events. 

And shortlisted interviews. 

Give staff the tools they need (and want) to feel comfortable, clear, and confident with decisionmakers.

Humans build trust and relationships.

Not templates. 

Not jargon. 

Real people grow business.

The one desire most people overlook is clarity.

Yes, we wish for a winning lottery ticket, good health, and peace in the world.

When thoughts, ideas, and minds are clear, life becomes easy.

Here's what I mean.

We confuse ourselves.

We overthink.

One of my former coaches calls it the Illusion of Confusion.

When your internal chatter is all over the map, your communication suffers.

Clarity and simplicity bring business and personal growth.

Clarity brings a sense of peace, internally and externally.

Clarity brings peace of mind.

Clarity brings confidence, clients, and exciting opportunities.

Confusion = Zilch.

Get clear on your expectations and the results you want.

Amazing things will begin to unfold.

I've been there more than once. I know.

The most important four-letter word in business and life is CARE.

For me, CARE is an acronym.

• Your Communication is based on what you pay Attention to.
• Your Attention (focus) determines your Results.
• Your Results can be Excellent.

How do your prospects, clients, and fellow human beings know you care about them?

Are you focusing on the correct problems your prospects are experiencing? Do you know how to improve your presentations and conversations? 

Notice your communication patterns and habits. It's all about self-awareness.

If you want better results, it's time to CARE in a new way.

A/E/C = Processes.

Networking and business growth = People.

Then processes.

First, you metaphorically nudge the door open.

Focus your 30-second elevator pitch on the other person.

Processes take more than 30 seconds and are cumbersome.

Your job in business development and shortlisted meetings is to avoid cumbersome.

Instead, pique people's curiosity. There's no need to be a walking bid package.

Nudge the door open.

Be interesting so they are interested.

When a prospect invites you to a meeting or coffee, ease into the process. But only if asked.

Soft skills can be hard to learn, especially if you're analytical and logical. These left-brain thinkers have careers in science, math, and the trades.

Many work in architecture, engineering, and construction.

A lack of communication and people skills translates into lost revenue and relationships.

This week, I was featured on Forbes.com. The article covers leadership and the three essential soft skills for business growth.

Storytelling is one of the communication tactics I talk about.

Read the Forbes.com post here for all three tips.

We all get stuck from time to time. 

Usually, from my experience, we get stuck in our own heads.

We get in our own way. 

In this 1 minute video, I'll show you how to break the habit so you can reach whatever goal you're wanting. 

Click to watch the video.

And reach out if you want the step-by-step process so you can truly claim your power!  

No one-off sales or discovery calls. No weird scripts or pitches. No “pick your brain” peeps who won't hire you anyway.    

I’ve had these calls before too. You know, first, you meditate, rock out to a favorite song to get energized (Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road for me), recite mantras…blah blah blah. 

What if instead of talking with one prospect at a time, you could speak to 20 prospects…or 200?

And they're all warm leads coming to YOU at one time. #Stopthechase 

Sweet, right? 

This is the business and marketing strategy of successful (paid) speakers. 

• It’s what I learned in 2000 when I started my PR company and joined the National Speakers Association. 
• It’s what I’ve been teaching to entrepreneurs, coaches, and business leaders for years.
• It's the business of speaking.
• It's a sales funnel before I knew what a sales funnel was. 

Here’s how it works. 

When...

If we took our own advice, the world would be a very different place.

I was finishing a post about our willingness to stare down the truth and "go there."

To go deep and say what truly needs to be said.

Scratching the surface helps no one.

I was ready to hit PUBLISH, but something happened.

I threw up a little in my mouth.

Lots of words that scratch the Sue Young surface.

Even the Grammarly app I use deemed the engagement as “Bland.”

Ugh.

So I followed my own advice to "go there." 

This is the real deal, Take 2.

I'm days away from finishing a year-long Mastermind program.

I'm a firm believer in learning from people who are 5-10 steps ahead of me.

To do this, I plunked down $30,000 to join Emily's Mastermind.

And I'm not even close to reaching my business goals. 

Surprisingly, I am OK with this.

Because Emily's group turned me upside down and inside out. Not so much as an entrepreneur but as a human being.

As the program wraps up, I’ve done a lot of reflecting.

I'm a...

Speaker Rant Here:

You wanna become a paid speaker so you can share your stories and change lives.

That's wonderful.

There's a huge mistake that beginners make that I want you to avoid at all costs.

This is the 3rd time in a few weeks I've heard something like this.

A connection on LinkedIn posted this today and I cringed. You should never experience this!

Look, a keynote is VERY different than a breakout session.

In how you craft your...

Stories and the flow of your talk

Slides

Activities

Handouts

And your mindset!

A true professional speaker who gets paid to present time and time again asks the right questions from the moment they are hired so that they are absolutely in their power and can blow the doors off their presentation!!

My coaching clients know that walking into a surprise is not professional.

If you're wanting to get serious about becoming a paid speaker, let's hop on a free Story Power Session strategy call. Click this link to apply.