Have you ever stopped to think about how much learning has changed over the years? 

Society has come a long way from the days of needing to sit in a stuffy classroom, scribbling notes while trying to keep your eyes open during a lecture. With the rise of the digital age, learning has become more accessible and more convenient.

One of the biggest advantages of digital learning is the ability to take self-paced courses. As a working professional, there’s no doubt you have a busy schedule and limited free time. With self-paced courses, you can learn at your own pace – meaning there’s no more rushing around to make it to a particular location on time or sacrificing your evenings and weekends to attend a course. You can learn when it's convenient for you, whether that's early in the morning, late at night, or even on your lunch break.

At Connect To The Core, we are big advocates for being able to learn at your own pace and on the go. Fun fact: there was...

Email is one of the most widely used forms of communication today, and it's not always easy to get your message across effectively. Whether you're communicating with colleagues, your customers, clients, or friends and family, it's important to make sure that your emails are clear, concise, and easy to understand. 

If you’re communicating with your customers via an email list, this opens a whole new can of communication worms in terms of the design and flow of your emails. To truly engage with your clients, customers and supporters put the emphasis on both the design and copy of your emails in order to stand out.

In this blog post, I’ll share some email tips that I’ve learned after over 35 years as a communication coach that can be applied to any email conversation, and some design/copy considerations you should make when you’re emailing a list of subscribers to cut through the noise of their inbox.

Tips For More Effective Everyday Email...

Are you tired of feeling nervous and unprepared before giving a presentation at work? Do you want to boost your confidence and skills when delivering important information? Group workshops can be a great place to start. The thing is, convincing your boss to sign you up and pay for a workshop or program can feel like a daunting task, and with the right approach, it can be done. 

Encore Communication Coaching is a six-session live program that helps you deliver more powerful presentations, and is a wildly valuable investment for anyone looking to improve their public speaking and communication skills. In this blog post, we’ll explore how to convince your boss to let you participate in Encore. 

After walking them through the benefits of Encore and following the steps in this post, your manager will be more than happy to invest in your personal development and anyone else on your team looking to elevate their communication skills.

What are some of the benefits of...

After being an entrepreneur for over 35 years and growing an incredible team of like-minded people, I’ve learned a few things along the way about what it takes to run a successful business.

Having a strong mindset is at the top of my list. 

My mindset is something I’ve been developing my entire life and career, and I still find that it’s something I work on every day. And today I will share with you a few tools and perspectives that have helped along the way. 

In this blog post, I’ll cover what a business vision looks like and how to create one, a perspective shift for a more resilient mindset, why tracking your habits is such a powerful tool within entrepreneurship, and more.  

Have a Clear Vision 

This is something common we hear when starting a business – that we should have a ‘vision’ of what our business will look like. And what does having a vision actually mean?  

I’ve coached dozens of...

You know the expression “charity begins at home”? Well, I’m a firm believer that the same thing applies in communication, specifically within romantic partnerships. The people we date often act as our mirrors, showing us parts of ourselves that we wouldn’t be able to see otherwise. Relationships give us key insights into areas of our communication where we’re excelling, and areas that could use some work. 

I’ve always been fascinated by relationship dynamics. Specifically the question of, why do some marriages last while others don't? And, what are some of the qualities and practices that go into fostering a successful, happy marriage that stands the test of time? 

The truth is, so much can be learned about communication through our relationships. In this blog post, we’ll dive into some of the tools spoken about by leading relationship experts that can help foster life-long romantic partnerships, and how the same...

It’s no secret that the communication landscape has changed drastically in the last few years.

Back in 2020, we all had to figure out our new normal when it came to communication – which mostly involved online platforms. Whether it was phone calls, video calls or emails – it became clear that our days of communicating with others in person were behind us for the foreseeable future. We had to adjust.

After all, there’s a different energy communicating over Zoom compared to face-to-face communication. I don’t know about you, everything felt different and disconnected.

Fast forward to 2023 and things are looking hopeful again. Social and business gatherings are becoming more of a reality and presentations can be held in-person. As a Communication Coach, I’ve found that there are a lot of differences when it comes to in-person communication vs. video communication, and there are also some similarities.

If we’ve learned anything over the...

Visualization is a powerful tool that I’ve used over the course of my career to reach some of my biggest goals.

In case you’re new to the Connect To The Core Blog, I often speak about mindfulness and how I use tools like meditation, yoga and journaling to bring me into the present moment. Visualization is another important piece to that puzzle that I have yet to dedicate a full post to – until now.

In this blog I’m covering what visualization is and why I believe it’s critical for success, some easy ways to implement visualization into your life, and why visualization is only the first (yet extremely important) step to conquering your goals.

What is visualization and why is it so important for success?

In the context of goal-setting, visualization is a practice that can be used to help visually motivate or stimulate someone to take action. It can also be used to relieve anxiety, rehearse a presentation, enhance confidence and gratitude, and so much...

Have you ever made a decision that went against your intuition? If you have, you’re not alone.

Some people call intuition a gut feeling, other times it’s more complicated than that. I like to call my intuition my “inner knowing”.

Every time I’ve acted in a way that conflicted with my intuition, it hasn’t worked out in my favour. With that said, I also don’t regret any choices I’ve made because I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. It’s hard to make a “wrong” decision if you recognize that every choice leads to a lesson, and I find a lot of comfort in that. Your intuition is there to guide you, and it shouldn’t be the only deciding factor (1).

Intuition is a powerful tool to hone not only within the decisions in your life – also in your communication. It can help you think quicker on your feet, be more authentic, cultivate more natural stage presence and so much more.

Before we...

Have you ever been stuck wondering how to move during a presentation? Maybe you’ve asked the famous, What do I do with my hands?! question before.

Body language is an important element to any kind of public speaking delivery. When you’re more conscious of how and when you move, it will make your presentation that much more effective.

Here are five of my top tips for body language during a presentation, and how to leverage things like natural movement, stage setup, clothing and more so you can deliver your best presentation yet.

1. Avoid using a podium

One of the first things I always consider before giving a presentation is what my setup will be like. Will there be a podium? A screen for my slides? Am I on a stage or on Zoom? There are a lot of factors that can affect the way we deliver information.

In general, I always recommend that it’s best to avoid using a podium where possible. Even though podiums can be a tempting and “easy” setup for your...

Are you someone who loves quizzes? You know, those famous Buzzfeed ones that tell you what kind of bread you would be based on questions about your personality? Or the old Cosmopolitan quizzes that reveal who your celebrity boyfriend or girlfriend would be?

Personally, I’m a big fan of quizzes like these. Even if most of them aren’t overly intellectual, they’re a lot of fun and have the potential to be quite revealing – even if you don’t take them too seriously.

Interactive Content Is the New Way

I’m not the only one who finds themselves drawn to these types of quizzes. Thousands and thousands of people engage in interactive content every single day. It was found that 96% of users who start Buzzfeed quizzes finish them, and there’s a quiz on their website called “What City Should You Actually Live In?” that’s been viewed over 22 million times (1).

Knowing statistics like these, it’s clear that people love quizzes and...