In almost 25 years of training and coaching, I have compiled over 20,000 hours in front of challenging audiences, in two dozen countries and across numerous industries. If you’ve got a question, need a real-life example or help with a challenging situation, chances are pretty good that I’ve faced it before.

When you’re teaching personal communication skills, your own are constantly on display, and busy people simply will not tolerate an instructor with no credibility. I personally model the key skills taught in all my courses. As an example, I’m the first volunteer in the “thinking on your feet” exercise, and I have a standing offer to pay $20 to anyone who hears an “um” come out of my mouth while training.

Although my non-sales audiences have a mostly negative view of selling, they also realize that everyone “sells.” I show them how to apply sales concepts such as how to be “outside-in” focused, to figure out the most powerful persuasive approaches and to confidently express the value of their ideas and proposals.

My 20,000 hours of training and speaking experience have still left me enough time to read 75-80 books per year and scour them for new ideas and approaches. I apply kaizen to my courses, constantly improving a little bit here and there. My wide range of reading allows me to create a unique and interesting blend of classical rhetorical approaches and modern research in persuasion, behavioral economics and cognitive science.