Just Saying - The BRIEF Lab

According to “Shark Tank’s” and entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk had incredibly high signal-to-noise ratios. In other words, they could maintain high levels of clarity without succumbing to distractions, disruptions or low-level chatter. In this episode, I share some practical ways to manage your noise and increase your ratio. The post Ep. 373 – What’s your signal-to-noise rati...

Call Back Episode 209 : Tech Timeouts, originally recorded  on October  18, 2021. When you are always on, that means you’re never off. Living in a 24/7 world of pervasive connectivity, we are challenged to find rewarding moments during the day to disconnect. The post Call Back Episode – 209 Tech Timeouts appeared first on Just Saying .

A 1980’s self-help guru predicted that if you “go into the silence” for 30-60 minutes, you will get clarity 100% of the time. In an environment that doesn’t allow even a few minutes alone, we may find this hard to believe or impossible to achieve. Well, in times that are highly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA), we need to follow the advice of the Brian Tracy’s of the world. The po...

Think about being in a meeting and seeing someone who has no vital role and nothing to say. They just fill a chair and add no immediate value. Like a potted plant, they may be there to fill a space. In this week’s episode, I challenge conventions about not inviting people that don’t need to be there. The post Ep. 371 – Meeting participants (and potted plants) appeared first on Just Saying .

Whether it’s an important conversation or a very difficult one, we need to be ready. In this week’s episode, I will walk you through six different considerations to put you in a frame of mind that improves your chances that the exchange will go better than planned. The post Ep. 370 – Making key conversations count (the 6 T’s) appeared first on Just Saying .

Watching someone communicate with no purpose and no plan is brutal. It’s like seeing a poor farmer scatter seed blindly into the wind. If this is how you show up, it’s going to take a toll. Many people communicate like this, with little or no plan with what they want to say. This is where ideas, attention and reputation all perish. The post Ep. 369 – You’re all over the place appeared first on Jus...

Great leaders are authentic and willing to share when they’ve struggled, been tested and have failed. Success is often the result of severe challenges, stupid mistakes and painful losses. By being able to open up and share these personal stories, leaders can connect with people more deeply than by barking orders and giving speeches. The post Ep. 368 – Sharing crucible stories appeared first on Jus...

Many professionals aspire to be thought leaders, yet few have what it takes. If this is what you (or someone you might know) feel compelled to pursue, be warned that with this role comes responsibilities. Not only do you need to be experienced, knowledgeable and respected, but you also must be a clear communicator who has some humility and lots of generosity. The post Ep. 367 – Becoming a thought...

If you can’t sit still for a moment, it will be hard to extract the real value AI. As these mind-bending developments increasingly take root, we may be too busy to even take notice. The irony – harsh reality, actually – is that we absolutely must embrace quiet time to slow down, learn and embrace it so that we can advance. The post Ep. 366 – Working with AI slowly and quietly appeared first on Jus...

Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z all think they’re somehow superior. When it comes to communication, there are definitely differences but people share more in common than they’d like to admit. In this episode, I provide an limited overview that gets you thinking more about what we all value. The post Ep. 365 – An imperfect guide to generational communication differences appeared first on Just...

Professionals may worry too much about their presentation skills and fail to improve their daily conversations. Whether it’s calling someone, providing an update or having a side-bar discussion, these moments happen far more than standing at a podium and wowing an audience. The post Ep. 364 – Botching your day-to-day conversations appeared first on Just Saying .

A subject matter expert (SME) can be both a source of knowledge and suffering. Without realizing it, they can dive into the weeds and pull you in deep with them. In this episode, I share some practical considerations to help curb your tendency to become a say-it-all. The post Ep. 363 – Know-it-alls appeared first on Just Saying .

Imagine taking one day a month and setting it aside as a “Quiet Workday” that’s dedicated to deep work. In this challenge, I provide recommendations for you to schedule a day where more than half is spent in silence, there’s a specific focal point and an agenda designed deliberately for you to go much deeper in time primarily spent alone. By avoiding tech, distractions and the rhythm of a typical...

Running around can be depleting and choosing to stop can energize and empower us. After taking a pause myself for several weeks, I have chosen to continue the podcast into our 9 th season In this episode, I share five different moments where we can pause three to five seconds and gain great power when doing it. Link to Instagram Reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEVPNUQusw5/?igsh=dTNvYjRtZGt3Mm...

Do you think that this podcast should continue for another season? I have mixed feelings and would like to hear directly from you. I can go either way. In what might be the last episode, I share some possible adjustments to the format that might make the content more relevant. It’s time for my listeners (you) to speak up (just saying). The post Ep. 360 – Giving my audience a voice (is this our las...

We can all degree that most salespeople talk too much and aren’t great listeners. Learning from an accomplished sales trainer, I recently was inspired to create a new training program called “Quiet Selling” to teach professionals to listen more and talk less. In this episode, I share five moments that can help you slow down enough to be more deliberate and give your client’s a voice. The post Ep....

Thanksgiving in the U.S. is one of my favorite holidays of the year. To keep up with the tradition, I’d like to share how gratitude is a powerful way to ground me and lower the noise in my personal and professional life. In this episode, I also share a short list (in no specific order) of what I am grateful for this year. The post Ep. 358 – Why gratitude is so grounding appeared first on Just Sayi...

You may want to start a podcast, go to be a guest on one, or are just curious about how people prepare for them. After eight seasons doing this podcast and numerous guest appearances on other shows, I thought it might be helpful to provide some behind-the-scenes insights on how I do this podcast to shed some light on the production process. The post Ep. 357 – How I prepare for a podcast appeared f...

Almost everybody does it and nobody likes it. The adage is when you’re early, you’re on time; and when you’re on time, you’re late. In this episode, I share some simple, yet practical advice on how to be early, be quiet, and be ready – and avoid the domino-effect of being late. The post Ep. 356 – Showing up late and unprepared appeared first on Just Saying .

Can you imagine being on a flight and nobody gave any notice that you were going to land? After hitting the runway unprepared, many passengers would feel it. In meetings, getting ready to wrap it up is as important as getting started and setting the tone up front. In this episode, I provide a short list of best practices that meeting owners, leaders and participants need to follow to end every mee...

To me, clarity is what matters, not selling books, doing a podcast, or making appearances. After a decade publishing books on brevity and clarity, I want to remind listeners that communication is mostly about preparation (not delivery), that your audience has a voice (and we need to hear it more), and noise is the real villain that we need to face (and defeat) every day. The post Ep. 354 – Why it’...

If change is the only constant, why aren’t professionals, teams and organizations keeping their message up to date? Whether it’s economic, political, technical or strategic change, organizations must keep their messaging current, yet many keep falling far behind. In this episode, I provide some guidance on how to stay current and avoid having their mission frequently miss the mark. The post Ep. 35...

As the release of my third book “Quiet Works: Make silence the secret ingredient of the workday” approaches, I take time to field some questions on each chapter.  In this episode, I focus specifically on Part Four: Quiet Places and Programs (chapters 14-17) and Part Five: Quiet Challenges (chapters 21-22). The post Ep. 352 – Q&A on the book “Quiet Works” (part 3) appeared first on Just Saying...

As the release of my third book “Quiet Works: Make silence the secret ingredient of the workday” approaches, I take time to field some questions on each chapter.  In this episode, I focus specifically on Part Three: Quiet Practices at Work (chapters 9-13). The post Ep. 351 – Q&A on the Book “Quiet Works” (part 2) appeared first on Just Saying .

As the release of my third book “Quiet Works: Make silence the secret ingredient of the workday” approaches, I take time to field some questions on each chapter.  In this episode, I focus specifically on Part One: Our Noisy World Just Gets Noisier (chapters 1-5) and Part Two: Quiet Isn’t What You Think” (chapters 6-8). The post Ep. 350 – Q&A on the Book “Quiet Works” (part 1) appeared first o...