It's January, so of course, everyone is focused on goal-setting for the year to come.

As you plan your goals out, consider a few things:

• Set SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound)
• Be realistic - lofty goals are fine, but know how you're going to get there
• Communicate your goal(s) clearly to yourself and others
• Check in often and reflect on how the goal is going - make changes if necessary

Going in with a plan helps breed success. Understanding that failure is sometimes part of a goal creates consistency in showing up. Being clear and reflective with yourself allows room for adjustments or getting back on track.

Some people can captivate an audience when they speak. Others, the audience walks away while they're still speaking.

Many factors can influence this, but one key determinant of audience engagement is the speaker's ability to stay on message.

Being clear and concise is a skill. It's important to understand:

1. Why it can be so difficult to accomplish
2. Understanding what your audience wants or needs
3. Knowing what point you're trying to make
4. The ability to practice purposefully

In this episode, you'll hear how you can approach the coming holidays with clear, concise, and on-message conversations.

This month, we're exploring the 'empty boat' mindset parable and how it relates to effective communication and relationship building.

The parable basically states that if an empty boat runs into yours, you navigate around it. But if someone is in that boat, you tend to react negatively, even though the same situation occurred.

We discuss the importance of:

1. Separating intent from impact
2. Responding not reacting
3. Assuming positive (or neutral) intent
4. Focusing on understanding vs. placing blame
5. Creating safety so relationships can thrive

Approaching interactions as if they are "empty boats" allows you to have more control over your reactions and emotions.

Sometimes the hardest people to coach aren’t those who struggle with communication; it's the ones who think they’ve already mastered it. Not because they lack skill, but because their blind spots are often more ingrained.

In this episode, we'll take years of experience and explore:

• The Blind Spots of “Good Communicators” — from dominating conversations to resisting change.
• Coaching Without Clashing with Ego — using rapport, curiosity, and concrete evidence to open minds.
• Common Pitfalls — like over-talking, under-listening, or failing to adapt to different audiences.
• Shifting the Mindset — reframing communication as a lifelong practice, not something you 'complete'.

Whether you lead, manage, or mentor, you’ll learn practical ways to help even your best communicators keep getting better.

Some organizations have excellent communication cultures, while others struggle in this area.

The organizations that have it down tend to do 3 things:

1. They have access to communicate with anyone within the organization, no matter their title or role.
2. They focus on development opportunities.
3. They lead with a growth mindset, and their leaders "walk the talk".

Listen along for more details on each of these topics and what you can do, either as a leader or an individual, to identify opportunities within each space.

The sooner an organization or team can create a culture of good, open communication, the more successful they'll be.

Keeping an audience engaged can feel like an uphill battle some days, but it's of the utmost importance when it comes to being an effective communicator.

In this episode, we'll discuss our top 5 tips for keeping your audience engaged. We recommend:

1. Make the talk about your audience
2. Ask questions
3. Give them something to do
4. Change up your delivery at times
5. Shorten sections

Focusing on these five things will help keep your audience focused, interested, and most importantly, engaged with you and the content.

Have you ever wondered what evidence to bring to the table in your meeting?

Evidence, or forms of influence (FOI), are necessary to engage and persuade your audience. We spend a lot of time talking about the physical and vocal skillset, which are extremely important in how you show up. But FOIs are equally important. As soon as you're done making those first impressions, the evidence and knowledge we provide is what keep people coming back for more.

This month we'll talk about:

1. What we label as evidence or FOIs
2. How to consider the audience when choosing which FOIs are most effective
3. Ways to think about blending stories and data to be impactful and memorable

Skillset and knowledge are necessary to be a successful speaker!

Digital communication is all around us. In our world today, it's very hard, if not impossible, to avoid it. Whether you want to or not, you're a part of it, so we need to understand how to be effective with this medium.

We want to help your digital communication get noticed, read, and engaged with in some way. There are a few ways you can do that:

1. Consider the look of your digital communication: Does it look easy to read? Would you read it? If the answer is no, it's not ready to be shared.
2. Put your key message at the beginning: No one wants to read an entire article or email to find out the purpose at the end.
3. Determine what needs to be shared: Not every detail is important. This ties back to #1, if it's too long or detailed, chances are your reading audience will skim or skip it altogether.

This topic will be in constant movement as it continues to evolve and be used in different ways. We'll continue to talk about digital communication as more recommendations come to light.