And here we are, a week into October. Where did the summer go? Where did the year go? Did you hear the whoosh? Whoosh is a fun sound. It’s also an onomatopoeia – a word that sounds like what it’s intended to mean. These words can often help us communicate an idea with clarity. (Isn’t that […]

No, the current crisis is not over. Actually, there are several current crises and none of them is over. Another soapbox for another day. For now, let’s be optimistic and plan for what you will do after the crisis passes – any crisis. Many businesses have crisis communication plans that guide them through the midst […]

Respect is the cornerstone of REAL Communications. When you show respect, the empathy, attention, and listening follow naturally. How do you show respect? And, as many people ask, how do you earn respect? One very effective way of showing – and earning – respect – is to be consistent and honest in your message. If […]

What’s that? Were you talking to me? I have a new digital camera. It zooms out so I can capture a great photo just by pushing a button. However, I have to learn to wait until the camera adjusts its focus before pushing that button. These days, those are two very difficult things to command […]

Words are like toothpaste. Once out, they can never be squeezed back into the tube. That’s actually pretty much the whole story. Watch your words. Once they’re out, they’re out forever. Even if you think you’ve deleted them off social media, someone still has them, still remembers them. Even when you realize you’ve said the […]

One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world. (Malala Yousafzai) Ok, so it’s not news that just about everything in our lives has changed over the past few months. The way we conduct business has changed. The way we interact with other people has definitely changed. The need to communicate […]

Respect is literally the first step in REAL communications, so desperately needed right now. In 2015, Inc magazine published 99 simple ways to gain respect, which you’ll see by the first step is intricately connected to being able to show respect to others. I’ll spare you the entire list (you can read it here), but the […]

**Bonus points if you see what I did there.** Words are more virtual now, which means a lot more of our words appear in print. Kind of ironic, right? That also means that typos, word misuse, or other “issues” are seen and recorded digitally for all of time. (You didn’t really think you could delete […]

The headlines are disturbing. Owner closes Massachusetts ice cream shop rather than serve rude customers Security guard shot and killed after telling customer to put on mask Park ranger pushed into lake after telling crowd to social distance Somewhere along the line, we have forgotten that these are all humans. For weeks, we saw other people […]

When we don’t communicate well – or at all – it can lead to misinterpretion, mistakes, and sometimes serious consequences. When we are not careful about the words we use and they lead to negative results, we might find ourselves wanting to take them back. As the saying goes, you can’t put that toothpaste back […]