Episodes

  • Elizabeth Cottrell Champions the Value of Handwritten Notes

    Elizabeth Cottrell Champions the Value of Handwritten Notes
    Dec 8 2025
    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 ...
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    31 mins
  • Media Master Mike Sammond Gives Guidelines Business Leaders Need

    Media Master Mike Sammond Gives Guidelines Business Leaders Need
    Oct 20 2025
    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...
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    36 mins
  • Darlene Drew Shares Her Keys to Effective Leadership

    Darlene Drew Shares Her Keys to Effective Leadership
    Oct 8 2025
    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...
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    30 mins
  • Kevin Williams Discusses His Business Communication Skills

    Kevin Williams Discusses His Business Communication Skills
    Aug 5 2025
    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...
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    33 mins
  • Website Expert Paul Zanardo Shares Tips You Need to Hear

    Website Expert Paul Zanardo Shares Tips You Need to Hear
    Jul 31 2025
    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 ...
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    31 mins
  • Melinda Marcus Gives Guidelines For Interpreting Body Language

    Melinda Marcus Gives Guidelines For Interpreting Body Language
    Jul 23 2025
    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 ...
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    33 mins
  • “Stacey Reece Tells How Interviewers Can Become More Competent”.

    “Stacey Reece Tells How Interviewers Can Become More Competent”.
    Jul 16 2025
    Hi there and 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 those tips and strategies are not from me alone. They are instead from a lively and highly informative conversation I have with a business communication expert. And today coming to us from Gainesville, Georgia, my home base, my office base, Stacey Reece. He’s a former franchise owner of Sphereon Staffing and Recruiting located in Gainesville, Georgia. Sphereon has served Northeast Georgia since 1997. Reece said he strived during his 28 year tenure as market owner to provide the job seeker with the best interview experience possible through providing individual resume design, pre-interview coaching and post-interview follow up. Prior to opening Sphereon, Stacey Reece was a vice president with First National Bank of Gainesville for over 13 years. During his banking tenure, Reece held several positions, including branch manager as well as consumer division project manager. As division project manager, Reece was charged with creating cost cutting initiatives while improving the customer experience. Stacey Reece received his BBA in 1987 from the University of North Georgia. And in 1992, he graduated from the UGA Georgia Banking School. Reece has served on numerous community boards and civic organizations during the past three decades. Most notably, Stacey Reece is a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives, having served from 2002 to 2007. He had a leadership role that allowed him the privilege to cast votes in 32 standing committees. Stacey Reece continues to remain active in Georgia politics, doing grassroots advocacy for community organizations. Reece and his wife, Dr. Mandy Reece, reside in Gainesville, Georgia. They have two adult children and two grandchildren. So I know that you’ll join me in welcoming Stacey Reece. Hello, Stacey. Hello, Bill. How are you today? I’m absolutely delighted to have another conversation with you. I’ve followed your career, as you know, for three decades. And in addition to that, I’m fortunate to have a friendship with you and your wife, Mandy. So it’s could we call it old home week? Absolutely. Absolutely. And thank you for asking me to come back. I was looking at my notes and realized we were together in 2018. And I’m like, wow, how does time fly? Yes, time does fly for sure. One thing that all of us know is that when we’re talking about job interviewing, there’s been a lot of attention given to the job candidate, what the job candidate should do, how they should dress, how they should sit, how they should walk, how should they talk. And yet you’re in a position to give us some information about the job interviewer. And I see a vast gap there. I know that we need that information. Why, for example, would you say to start with is the job interviewer overlooked or neglected or not talked about? I think, Bill, it goes back many, many decades. It goes back to where when someone was applying for a job, it was viewed that they had a need. That need was they needed a job. So the interviewer didn’t really have to sell themselves to the person that they wereinterviewing. So they could just, in most any case, just do whatever they wanted to do during the interview. But about 10 years ago, that started to change. People started to have options, and if you were fortunate enough as an interviewer to have someone apply for a role that you had open, you needed to be able to impress them as well. Okay. These interviews, unless they are online, which many are, but let’s talk about the interviews that are live and in person, and that has become more the norm since COVID is no longer putting us in isolation. One of the first keys that an interviewer needs to think about and have good tips and strategies about is the setting itself, because we all know that places talk, places give messages just as well as people do. What advice will you give interviewers about the setting so that it will be, let’s say, for example, welcoming and not threatening? What advice do you give along those lines? So we always attempted to create what I call a very comfortable, neutral environment to conduct interviews in. Usually it was done in a conference room. The conference room was well lit. The furniture was modern, and we would always have at least water sitting around that we could offer the candidate that we were interviewing. I like that because then you’re not interviewing from your personal office. And I was taught many years ago in sales classes that when you got the privilege to enter someone’s office to maybe present your services, that you should start reading the room immediately and learning as much as you can about that person. So I always preferred to be in a neutral environment, and that’s why I refer to it, Bill, as a neutral environment. Before that candidate learns about ...
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    34 mins
  • Domenica Davis Describes How She Coaches Other Broadcasters

    Domenica Davis Describes How She Coaches Other Broadcasters
    Jul 9 2025
    Hi there, welcome to the Biz Communication Show. I’m your host, Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication Guy, bringing you tips and strategies about communication that will boost your business. And I don’t do this alone. It’s not just my communication tips and strategies, but you get much more through my conversation with a highly qualified guest. And today our guest is indeed highly qualified, coming to us from the Atlanta metropolitan area, Domenica Davis. Domenica Davis is an experienced broadcast meteorologist, reporter, host, and on-camera coach. She has worked nationally for NBC, Fox, News Channel, MSNBC, and the Weather Channel. And by now, I’ll bet you, Domenica Davis’ name and image rings a bell with you because like me, you probably have watched her for more than two decades. Currently, Domenica freelances as a meteorologist for 11 Live in Atlanta, and she runs On Cam with Domenica, a coaching business dedicated to helping on-air talent elevate their performance, build confidence, and develop the skills needed to succeed in both traditional and digital media. So I know that you join me in welcoming Domenica Davis. Hello, Domenica. Hello. How are you? I’m just doing very well now that I’m going to have a delightful conversation with you that informs, educates, and knowing you, entertains as well. Well, it’s an honor to be here. Thank you. It’s an honor to host you. At the outset, I’m sure there are many people who wonder, those of us who have watched meteorologists for years, we wonder, how did you get there? I mean, some of us are thinking, oh, this is a nice-looking person. I guess they won a talent contest somewhere with their speaking. A talent scout from TV saw them, hired them, and the next thing you know, we’re seeing them pointing at maps. That’s not exactly how it happens, is it, Domenica? No. Not for me, no. I’ve never won any contest. So the way I got into it many moons ago was I went to college knowing that I wanted to be a reporter. So I knew I wanted to be in broadcast news. I thought I wanted to be an anchor and a reporter, and that’s really why I graduated from Boston University. So that’s really what I went to college for. After I graduated college, my very first job was in traffic. I did live traffic, and it included weather, but it was like a rip-and-read weather. You didn’t really do weather. So I got my first agent at the time, and he said, hey, did you ever think of going into meteorology? I said, no, never. And so he said, I think you’d be great. Reporters, anchors are a dime a dozen. Meteorologists, it’s a degree thing. You’d have to go back to school, but they really need women in this field. I think you’d be great at it. And if you have an interest, I mean, I think this is something you should pursue. So I was never caught in a tornado. I don’t have any of those stories. I was kind of introduced to it really in a strategic manner career-wise. Lucky for me, I actually really liked it. So I got into it in a really weird, backwards way that most people don’t. But it really worked out for me, and I went to Mississippi State to get my degree, and I worked while I was doing that. So I’ve always been a reporter and a meteorologist for many years before I just strictly did meteorology on TV. And that’s really how I got in. It’s not that entertaining atall, but it’s my story, and it’s true. I mentioned to you as we were getting acquainted before the program that I’m a Mississippian native. I realized just a few years ago how many people that I see who are meteorologists are graduates of the program at Mississippi State. Something I would like to just throw in here is that there are many of us who’ve been on this earth a while, who lived here before weather forecasting got so scientific and for the most part excellent in accuracy and in forecasting. And at that time, Domenica, I was on the University of Georgia faculty. The only warning we would get about any bad weather coming was probably just somebody interrupting a local radio program. So I remember so well that living in Athens, Georgia, the place you don’t think of necessarily for violent storms, you think of it for the university and football. But this one day my wife was coming home from work. She walked into the house, we looked out back and a tree was swaying in the wind and we said that’s nothing. Next thing we knew the house was shaking. Our neighbor’s roof came off. We had all of this with no warning. And my daughters, I guess it’s one of the few times I ever lied to them. They said, Daddy, are we going to die? And I said, No. It seemed like we would. Amazingly, there were six homes in our subdivision that were destroyed and also in one other subdivision in Athens. And ironically, exactly 60 days later, again without warning, two tornadoes hit those same neighborhoods. So having been around on this earth before we got all the warnings that we get now and ...
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    33 mins