Welcome to the guest blog.
As part of the expansion to help more people tap into their unique talents to communicate, connect and come alive, I've decided to include other voices on the website. I hope the ideas here will help you in your business and in your life. Enjoy!
All my best,
Victoria
Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: Ashinine.com
A few weeks ago I wrote about using metaphors to enhance business communications—from negotiating with clients to presentations to managing employees. Colorful language is remembered. It illustrates a point with imagery and analogy, improving understanding. It also improves your image: people who can deftly manipulate language are impressive. But metaphors, similies and other literary devices are only parts of the language whole. In order to build your arsenal of linguistic tools, you have to build your vocabulary.
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Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: Break.com
Timing is a strange beast. Some people seem to have an innate sense, an internal clock of social appropriateness. These people know when to pause and when to speak. They slip easily into a conversation, and slip out with such grace we don’t even blink. They step on stage and hold our attention for exactly as long as they need to. We don’t feel bored. We don’t fantasize about sneaking out to the snack cart. We are edified, entertained, and then released back into the wild. These people are uncommon. We know them when we see them and are invariably impressed. Why can’t we all be so socially adept? Perhaps technology is partly to blame. We’re not as used to face-to-face conversation as we used to be.
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Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: Bookstore.algonquincollege.com
We use language every single day. We can’t imagine living without it and yet few of us truly explore its potential. Words are the glue between two people. They make the ephemeral concrete. Once, I had a dream of a world without language. I was standing in a crowd of silent people. Some were solemn, lonely and bereft, while others shouted noiselessly, overcome by frustration. When I awoke, I felt a flood of relief. I can speak! I can make myself known!
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Posted by
Anni M.
Image source: Flickr.com
When I hear the word “consulting” I think about boring suit-and-tie sit-downs where I have to make eye contact until I get fidgety and uncomfortable. I think about not enjoying myself for $300. A few years ago I was starting a business. I had no experience so I figured I needed a consultant. I probably talked to thirty different people and each one said almost exactly the same thing: social media, blah blah, customer service, blah, networking… It was as if they’d all found the same small business consulting script on a website somewhere. I was not impressed. I’m sure there was good information embedded in those paragraphs of strung together keywords, but my mind was so anesthetized by the doublespeak it didn’t much matter.
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