Communication

A grade school teacher once told my mom, "Kery just wants things to be fair."

In college, I gravitated toward classes like Intercultural Communication, Women's Studies and Rhetoric. I appreciate the differences in people. It just hurt my heart when I saw injustice in the world. And I had a desire to do something about it. What? I didn't know... but something. 

So, while I was in college I looked for ways to further the cause of fairness. In one such instance I volunteered for the Anti Defama…

Maybe you've heard that it's less expensive to retain existing customers than it is to acquire new customers. But did you know it can 5 times MORE EXPENSIVE to gain new customers? 

Furthermore, increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. This is why creating an excellent customer experience is so important.

Now, a story...

When I was a marketing director I had to rely on staff that were not my direct reports to carry out customer service. I was often reassured b…

When it comes to professional service-based businesses, what's with asking for an hourly rate? 

Because if I'm hiring a professional service business like a CPA for example, I'm not asking "what is your hourly rate?" Rather, I'm asking about results of effective tax knowledge and expertise in navigating the process correctly. Perhaps, I'm asking for client results but definitely not hourly rate. 

Hourly is what you pay when there is an exchange of time for money. Professional service-based bus…

I once went to a chiropractor who had a very impressive onboarding process. As soon as I said "yes" to his services, the onboarding process began.

First, I had an evening orientation event to attend. I recall them having a few rows of chairs set up in their small lobby. We watched a video --  likely about value of chiropractic. They shared testimonials about results they've seen in their patients. We got our paperwork and scheduled first appointments.  

Next, at my first appointment I learned …

"I'm afraid we are going to bore them to death!" That was what one business development manager told me about her CEO, who has a big speech to give soon.  

When you have an opportunity to speak in front of a group, you have the opportunity to build trust, provide value and establish authority. If the CEO presents a boring, long, dry presentation how will the audience respond? 

Chances are they'll walk away thinking, "YAWN! What a snooze fest!" Creating that perception misses the goal completel…

I'm fascinated with human behavior. When I go out into the world and have an experience, I typically end up with a story about it.

Sometimes it's a nugget of inspiration like the other night when I witnessed some amazing performances at an open mic night. Ah, such courage and dedication, I thought as I watched the varied performances. Then there's the head-scratching moments, like when I recently told someone I create animated story video and they said, "I'm not sure who really needs that." Um,…

If you own a business, you have an obligation to tell good stories. As a business owner you, quite frequently, talk to an audience. Whether that's an audience of one or many, it's an audience.

On a daily basis you speak with customers, employees and prospects. Think of the last person you spoke to about work. What category did the conversation fall into?

• Were you in a training conversation?
• Were you in a selling conversation?
• Maybe it was a networking conversation?
  

Because of your posi…

Not one of us is immune. It's just too easy. We need a crutch. After all, the stakes are high when you stand up in front of a group to pitch your passion. 

Judging Your Pitch Deck 

I once had the honor to be a part of a tech entrepreneur incubator pitch competition. Since I had previously taught public speaking for college students, I was chosen to be a judge of the competition. There were a number of great business business ideas. The concepts covered various sectors of society from nonprofit…

“If a picture is worth a thousand words
then a story is worth a thousand assurances.”
–  Annette Simmons, The Story Factor

 
Once upon a time a young woman worked as a marketing professional. Her career spanned 15 years before she found herself working for a toxic boss. The boss regularly verbally attacked members of the team. As a result, eventually a full, 22-person department turn over occurred under that person’s leadership (or lack thereof). The woman in marketing decided that if ever there…

I'm a big fan of assessments. It's not that I believe assessment tools are 100% true or because I'm certified in the DISC assessment. I like them because they provide us with a framework for discussing things we normally don't talk about. Things like: 

• How are you being perceived? 
  
• What stresses you out?  
• What matters to you the most?

Assessment tools don't make us more intelligent in terms of I.Q but they do make us more aware and that awareness helps us deal with people more effective…