Conversations About Conversations

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The first wealth is health". The Roman poet Virgil said, "The greatest wealth is health" and Mahatma Gandhi said, "It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold or silver".    In the spirit of these three greats, I recorded a podcast and YouTube video about my health journey called: "How I Lost 40 Pounds of Fat While Putting on 10 Pounds of Muscle."   I've spen...

The concepts in this class are from Chapter 8 of the book Conversations: How to Manage Your Business Relationships One Conversation at a Time. Conversations is available on Amazon , Audible and Kindle.   In this class we teach you how to: 1. Use questions strategically 2. Ask tactical and calibrated questions 3. Integrate the FBI's Behavior Change Stairway Model   Watch this episode and more on ou...

The content in this class is from Chapter 7 of the book Conversations: How to Manage Your Business Relationships One Conversation at a Time. (Conversations is available on Amazon, Audible and Kindle .) In this class we teach you how to: Prepare an agenda Use a consultative opener Read the defense Check for acceptance Watch this episode and more on our YouTube Channel:  https://youtu.be/0TKKZ-0Opr8...

To celebrate the 5 th birthday of the book Conversations: How to Manage Your Business Relationships One Conversation at a Time, I unveiled—for the first time ever—ten more lessons from 10,000 more conversations.   WATCH the presentation YouTube: https://youtu.be/gAuc18yTayU   Conversations About Conversations – Episode 312 #ConversationsAboutConversations #ConversationsAcademy

Conversations: How to Manage Your Business Relationships One Conversation at a Time was launched into the world 5 years ago.   In preparation for celebrating the book's 5th birthday, we went back to the beginning and are now pleased to share with you never before seen footage.    If you have to influence others through conversations, you will benefit from the ten important lessons in the book. Con...

Conversation Lab — How to Disagree Effectively   If you want to learn how to get people to agree with you, this episode is for you.   In this Conversation Lab, we discussed and then practiced 4 concepts: 1. Straw Man Arguments, 2. Steel Man Arguments, 3. The Socratic Method and 4. Rapoport's Rules   Conversations About Conversations is available on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, YouTube and iHeartRadio....

Being an extraordinary relationship manager means being extraordinary at using questions skillfully.   In this Conversation Lab, we introduced 14 types of calibrated questions: Leads, Assessors, Motivators, Clarifiers, Continuers, Journalist (W's), Greasers, Hypotheticals, Sub-decisions, Confirms, Hooks/Engagers, Isolators, Interjectors and Helping Verbs (be, do and have).   These concepts are fro...

In this Conversation Lab, we discussed the formula for handling people who are upset. We discussed the distinction 'upset' and then we role played handling upset people with a game I created called, "That's right."   If you're committed to improving your skills in conversation leadership and management, I recommend listening to it.   LISTEN to the podcast on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Google or iHear...

In this Conversation Lab, we discussed how to address the five generic objections: drawbacks, indifference, misunderstandings, excuses and skepticism. We distinguished how they are handled similarly and what needs to happen differently in order to overcome them. As is customary in Conversation Labs, we experimented with the techniques in a role play. We role played a small business owner talking t...

In this Conversation Lab, we discussed some of what goes into formulating a rapport plan for a difficult or relatively new relationship.   LISTEN to the podcast on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Google, or iHeartRadio.   WATCH the podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@conversationleaders   Conversations About Conversations – Episode 306 #ConversationsAboutConversations

In my 30-year career, I've had about 30,000 professional conversations with clients, prospects and colleagues. I've considered many of those conversations as a "laboratory" where I've been able to experiment with different strategies and approaches. Essentially, my focus has been on researching a unified theory on conversations. I endeavored to find the formula for effective conversations.   In ad...

This episode is for you if you want to learn an approach to have better and more effective conversations—both  professionally and  personally.   In addition to a conversation with the first student of Conversations Academy, you'll hear my lecture on the ten lessons I learned from the first 10,000 conversations I studied in my Conversation Lab.   WATCH the episode on YouTube: The First Class at Con...

This episode is for salespeople. If you want to learn how to close more business, more predictably and more effectively, this conversation is for you.   60%-80% of all opportunities result in a no-decision outcome. Our guest, Michael Farber, has a proven solution to increase your close rate.   Farber is the founder of The ROI Shop, a company that helps salespeople articulate their value in dollars...

If happiness is important to you, this episode is for you.    Our guest was Happiness Coach, Robert Mack. Robert is one of the most exciting, engaging, and extraordinary coaches and speakers in the world today. He is a positive psychology expert with a Master's Degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Applied Positive Psychology.   He's the author of Happiness from the Inside Out: The Art and...

Our guest on this episode was Rebecca Rolland. Rebecca is the author of The Art of Talking with Children: The Simple Keys to Nurturing Kindness, Creativity, and Confidence in Kids.  She calls the construct she developed the ABCs of Rich Talk. A stands for adaptive, B stands for back-and-forth and C stands for child driven but could also stand for centric. Rebecca is on the faculty of the Harvard G...

Our guest on this episode was Karen Grill. Karen is a Certified Master Persuader and Strategist. She's a business coach and speaker. She's trained in the science of persuasion and sales psychology. One of her areas of expertise is funnels. Her formula is funnel strategy + persuasive copy = profitable business.   WATCH the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/eJ374q1wIe4   LISTEN to the podcast on...

The Two Biggest Game Changers for me in the Past Two Years are: 1. The Question of the Day:   Questions steer our thoughts. Ask an empowering question every day.   2. Listening to Positive Life Scripts: Three quarters of your automatic thoughts are negative. Change your self-talk. Change your experience of being alive. WATCH the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zVc-wPBwN14 LISTEN to the podcas...

Our guest on this episode was Meredith Lee. Meredith is the Program Director of the Russ Berrie Making a Difference Awards. Not only is she a difference maker herself, but she is surrounded by difference-makers. In addition to discussing the awards program, we discussed ten traits of difference makers.   The Russ Berrie Making a Difference Award is a prestigious awards program that honors "unsung...

1. Have a reason, purpose or objective(s) for your conversations. 2. Set an agenda and check for acceptance of it. Make sure it's mutual. 3. Use active listening to confirm understanding. 4. Establish and maintain rapport. 5. Unless this is a completely new relationship, reference or connect to past conversations and shared understandings. 6. Learn and explore.     a) Elicit thoughts, feelings, ne...

Our guest on this episode was Brian Ahearn. Brian is the Chief Influence Officer at a company called Influence PEOPLE. He's an author, TEDx speaker, international trainer, coach, and consultant. His LinkedIn courses on persuasive selling and coaching have been viewed by more than a half a million people around the world. His first book, Influence PEOPLE, was named one of the 100 Best Influence Boo...

This episode's conversation leader is Jane Stoller. Jane is an author, speaker, and business and life organizer whose passion is decluttering spaces and organizing business processes.    She's the founder of Organized Jane and the author of two books: Organizing for Your Lifestyle and Decluttering for Dummies. Her goal is to help you reduce stress, overcome overwhelm while simultaneously accomplis...

In this video book report, I discuss the five major choices Vaden highlights when you are deciding how to approach the tasks and items on your to-do list:   1. Eliminate 2. Automate 3. Delegate 4. Procrastinate 5. Concentrate I found this framework to be a game changer for me and I hope it's helpful to you as well.

Michael is a game-changing motivational speaker and author of four books: ·         The Mount of Olives: 11 Declarations to an Extraordinary Life ·         The Traveler's Secret: Ancient Proverbs for Better Living ·         The Servant With One Talent: Five Success Principles from the Greatest Parable Ever Told ·         The Cabin at the End of the Train: a Story About Pursuing Dreams   You can le...

Our guest was Susan Murphy. Susan is a voice coach for broadcasters. We discussed the kind of situations she can help with.   Susan spent 40 years on-air and in production learning what works and what doesn't work. She's been a shadow traffic reporter, program director, and New York radio personality. Her clients benefit tremendously from her experience.   Broadcasters aren't the only ones who nee...

Our guest on this episode was Dr. Thomas Jordan. Dr. Jordan specializes in the treatment of unhealthy love lives and has been studying them for over 30 years. Dr. Thomas Jordan is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. He is on the faculty of NYU's Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis, author of Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life...