If you don’t know me, this will sum me up

Several years back, I had the privilege of being interviewed by Denise Brown for a column she writes in the North Star Monthly, a New Hampshire publication.  I thought I might share an excerpt of it with you here. It’ll give you some of my philosophy and background,...

72 slides and a roomful of glazed eyes

I was 36 when I discovered that people fear public speaking more than death. Let that sink in for a minute. People would rather be in the casket than delivering the eulogy. This revelation came during my stint as a sales rep for MacDermid, a chemical manufacturing...

Chum in the water

I’m guessing we’ve all heard the business adage: “People do business with people they know, like, and trust.” It’s practically tattooed on the foreheads of networking gurus and business coaches everywhere. But, after years of coaching...

Step Away From Your Dissertation

I was at a writers’ conference one weekend when a bright-eyed woman approached me during cocktail hour. “I’ve just finished my PhD in organizational psychology,” she told me, “and I think it would make a terrific book.” (Back in the...

Haters are going to hate

I was 26 the first time I realized that what people thought about me had more to do with them than with who I was/am as a person. Such an epiphany should have freed me; unfortunately, it didn’t. When I’d first moved to Iran, I wanted two things more than...