We exist in a sea of miscommunication. Every day. An avid puzzle solver, I love to analyze communication – when it goes well, and how it can go so horribly wrong.
My love of communication bloomed early in life. A chatty, vivacious child, my parents put me into acting classes. Acting for me wasn’t about standing centre stage and having everyone watch me. No. What I love about acting is the communication between the audience and the actors. The laughter, the gasp, the still silence that can fall over a crowd of people, and the subtle ways that an actor has to adjust to keep the conversation always alive and active.
Almost 20 years ago I met a few powerful women who started a corporate training company. Their mission was to improve communication in business and by extension, improve business. This work inspired me and started me on my own communication journey. At their company, e-roleplay, I became a certified coach. Over the last 20 years I have worked one-on-one with thousands of adults on conflict resolution, objection handling, negotiation strategies, presentation skills, sales skills and strategies, customer service skills, coaching, coaching coaches, professional development, and change management. I have presented to groups of business professionals large and small and inspired action.
How do you learn? How do I learn? How can I share new information with you and expect you to succeed if I don’t answer that simple question first?
Since I can remember, I have been passionate about food, cooking, and baking. In 2015, for my own amusement, I launched a food blog – www.startwithabowl.com – I wasn’t sure what I was trying to create when I began, but I decided to start anyway. What emerged was a narrative aimed at showing my readers the breakdown in communication in the recipe world. Many recipes are written without a thought given to how people learn and understand instructions. Shining a light on this and helping my audience decipher recipes so that success could be achieved was very rewarding. And it pointed me back to my own core message. How we communicate with one another – spoken, written, with visuals and without – is the path to growth and learning.
Nowadays, I practice as much as I preach. Still a professional actor, I work across the country communicating stories to audience. When I am not on stage, I keep my skills honed by managing marketing, sales, and social media for a local business. And because I love to share, I teach and coach individuals and groups on how to communicate effectively, how to navigate difficult conversations, and how to engage an audience through presentations.
I love what I do, figuring out the puzzle of communication and helping people connect more.
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw
