I was working from home yesterday and my 3-year old convinced me to go with him to Story Time at our local library. He’s so cute, I couldn’t resist. I hadn’t been to Story Time in years. In fact, the last time I was at Story Time was back in the early 90′s when I was a regular guest reader at the New York City Public Library. I went to Story Time thinking this’ll be a great half-hour with my little guy. I never thought I’d walk away thinking that I learned some valuable lessons myself. Ah, the expert mind…it always convinces us that we can’t learn from “simple” experiences. But after it was over, and I reflected a bit on Story Time, I realized that there were valuable lessons to take away from it that we can all use in our presentations. Believe it or not, librarians and others who read to children at Story Time may be some of the best presenters in the world, and we’ll never see them on TED or hear much about them (plus they have some of the toughest audiences in the world). If you really want to get your presentation game on, maybe you should start reading books to the itty-bitties at your local library. In any case, here’s what I learned from my trip to the library with my 3-year old:  Read the rest of this post

My friend Andrew Warner from Mixergy.com recently sat down with Seth Godin to talk about his latest book Tribes. The interview was originally condensed to a few short minutes on Mashable.com. Andrew has graciously guest posted the entire 45-minute interview here on EdgeHopper.com. It’s a great interview that dives into how and more importantly why to create a Tribe. Andrew does a great job of letting Seth just riff not only on Tribes but many other really interesting topics. My two favorite Seth quotes from the interview are: “Every single person who works with me is better at what they do than I am” and “If no one read my blog, I’d still write it”.

Seth is an amazing guy and it’s statements like these that make him so likable and so successful at what he does. He’s a great storyteller and has been an absolute inspiration to me. So, please, enjoy the video, and if you read yesterday’s blog post, take my advice and listen. Thanks for the great interview Andrew.

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“Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Maybe we can learn an awful lot from Emerson’s words. And maybe we can apply these words on a less ethereal level. Let us be silent that we may hear each other. As executives, managers, mentors, and team members our silence can be an incredibly powerful tool. Sure, I like to write a lot about presentations and speaking, but sometimes, allowing silence to fill the room allows for other voices to be heard. Important voices. Those of your staff, your peers, your teammates.  Read the rest of this post

According to Webster’s Dictionary the word improvise means

“to compose, recite, play, or sing extemporaneously; to make, invent, or arrange offhand; to make or fabricate out of what is conveniently on hand”.

I actually prefer the definition of improvisation that Wikipedia provides though. According to Wikipedia, improvisation is

“the practice of acting and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of ones immediate environment. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols and/or new ways to act. This invention cycle occurs most effectively when the practitioner has a thorough intuitive or technical understanding of the necessary skills and concerns within the improvised domain.”  Read the rest of this post