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How to Be a Stronger Listener and Elevate Your Connection With Others

Nov 04, 2021

Listening is essential to strong communication. We know this. And yet so many of us don’t actively work on our listening skills like we do on our verbal communication skills.

In reality, listening is an equally (if not more) important piece of the communication puzzle. When you’re an active listener and are able to effectively understand the other person, ask questions, be interested instead of interesting – you’re well on your way to a successful life and career.

In this blog post I’m going to cover exactly why listening is so important in communication, what listening is and what it is not, the distinction between being interested vs. interesting, and three practical and easy exercises you can start practicing today to elevate your listening skills.

Let’s dive in.

Why listening is so important in communication

You might be thinking, “Okay, I know listening is important, and being a strong communicator and getting my message across...

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7 Powerful Rules To Help You Give More Effective Feedback

Apr 06, 2021

As a company that specializes in communication coaching, we have a big responsibility to give important feedback to people who are often in vulnerable positions (one of the things we do is presentation coaching after all). It’s always been our intention to give this feedback in a way that’s empowering while providing practical ways to improve.

We’ve been asked many times by our clients, how is it that you can give this feedback and keep the recipient feeling whole? How is it that you can have these tough and uncomfortable conversations and they end up thanking you?

So, here’s the deal – we follow a specific set of rules and if we don’t deviate from them, it ends up being a positive interaction. 

If you’re a team leader, manager, or head honcho, it’s guaranteed that you’ll be required to give some feedback to an employee at some point, and it might not be easy. If you follow these suggestions, it’ll go a lot smoother...

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The #1 Way to Improve Your Services and Elevate Client Relationships

Mar 17, 2021

One of the most under-used resources in business is our existing client base.

We tend to get into the routine of daily or weekly workflow with clients where there’s recurring revenue and possibly even testimonials and referrals. Yet once they settle in as clients, most of us don’t tap into the market and sales intelligence within our own client base.

Often the missed opportunity is to find out and understand why our clients decided to do business with us in the first place and why they continue to work with us and send new business our way. 

This may seem like an obvious thing to do, but I have noticed that very, very, very few (did I mention almost no one does this?) companies actually have talked to their clients about why they love them!

When my company creates go-to-market messages for organizations (also known as The Message Blueprint™), one of the first things we do is uncover what their clients love about them and why they continue to buy. 

We...

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The Proven 6 Step Process for Coming to an Agreement

Mar 11, 2021

Last week, there was a theme in my conversations and workshops with various clients. That theme was in the arena of agreements, or more accurately, the lack of them.

Whether you’re feeling frustrated due to last-minute requests from co-workers, suppliers not meeting expectations, or clients who don’t follow through on their commitments, the issues can frequently be resolved by setting up agreements and managing them well.

Here’s a 6-step framework to follow so more of your expectations are met on a regular basis. As an exciting side note, these steps will work just as well in your personal life as they do in business situations.

1.   Set clear expectations

The starting point is for you to be clear about what your expectations are. For the most part, we operate with misspoken or unspoken expectations and then we wonder why we don’t get what we want.

What are your conditions of satisfaction? What has to happen for you to feel your expectations have been...

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5 Easy Steps to Enhance Your Leadership Presence

Feb 17, 2021

Enhancing your leadership presence is important to do at any stage of your career.

Many people think that you either have what it takes to be a great leader, or you don’t. This actually couldn’t be further from the truth. Like anything, being a great leader takes practice, determination, and an understanding that you will probably make some mistakes along the way. 

The good news is that every great leader started exactly where you are. And even if you don’t feel confident in your abilities just yet, there are steps you can take right now to get to where you want to be in your leadership journey.

In this post, we’re sharing how to enhance and develop your leadership presence in a few simple steps.

1. Develop your communication and listening skills

The first step in becoming a better leader is developing both your communication and listening skills. As I’m sure you can imagine, there are a number of ways to go about this depending on your current...

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What We Learned From the Pandemic as a Small Business

Jan 27, 2021

There’s no doubt that this pandemic has been challenging for everyone, and especially small businesses. Connect To The Core was one of countless small businesses that experienced the economic impact of covid 19 first-hand. 

As a communication coaching firm whose primary business model was in-person communication coaching workshops and business strategy we knew we had to pivot when the pandemic came to fruition back in March 2020. 

It was up to us to find new ways to continue “business as usual” while experiencing the mental and economic toll of the pandemic. 

Our resilience as a team and network of incredible clients were the main things that were able to get us through one of the toughest years we’ve had since the 2008 economic recession. We could never express our gratitude enough for a team that was able to come together and push through despite the many challenges.

The question was never, “Can our company survive this?”...

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