494: How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put on the Spot with Matt Abrahams

It’s probably no surprise to you that I appreciate effective communicators. Well, that’s just one of the many reasons I am excited to present to you today’s guest, who’s written a wonderful book on an aspect of presenting not often covered. Impromptu Speaking!

matt abrahams

His name is Matt Abrahams, and his brand new book, out today, is called Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put On the Spot.

In the book, Matt provides tangible, actionable skills to help even the most anxious of speakers succeed when speaking spontaneously.

He also included science-based strategies for managing anxiety, responding to the mood of the room, and making content concise, relevant, compelling, and memorable.

Drawing on stories from his clients and students, Matt offers best practices for navigating Q&A sessions, shining in job interviews, providing effective feedback, making small talk, fixing faux pas, persuading others, and handling other impromptu speaking tasks.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Matt and his work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

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493: The Inner Journey of Leadership with Dan Rockwell

Just about a month ago, I featured a business fable here on the show. Today, I am pleased to feature another. This one is cowritten by an author who’s appeared here before (John David Mann).

dan rockwell

However, my guest today is the other half of that co-author duo. His name is Dan Rockwell. If his name rings a bell, that may be because you’ve heard of his successful Leadership Freak blog.

Dan’s book with John is called The Vagrant: The Inner Journey of Leadership.

The Vagrant is a modern parable for ambitious people on the relationship between success and self-reflection.

The book follows Bob, a bright, up-and-coming leader in the health care business who leads a team of forty at a large city hospital. When he’s called up to the seventh floor one fine spring morning, he fully expects a promotion in line with his C-suite aspirations.

Instead, he’s fired.

Moments after losing his job, Bob has a strange alleyway confrontation with a homeless man rambling about “the four impediments of the Apocalypse.” To Bob, his words are nothing but incoherent ranting, but they soon prove eerily prophetic. In the weeks that follow, Bob loses everything he holds dear—his apartment, possessions, reputation, and health—and ends up living on the street . . . until chance leads him back to that same alley and he crosses paths with the strange man once again.

In this timeless, eye-opening tale of redemption, Bob’s tailspin journey through loss and catastrophic failure invites readers to examine the nature of genuine leadership and embark upon their own story of self-discovery.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Dan and his work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

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492: Amazon, Walmart, and the Battle for Our Wallets with Jason Del Rey

I’m old enough to remember a book from over 30 years ago called, The Late Shift, a chronicling of the wars between David Letterman, Jay Leno, NBC, and who would eventually end up with the Tonight Show Crown.

Jason Del Rey

Our featured book this week reminds of that book in many ways. The difference, however is the players. Instead of Letterman and Leno, we have Amazon and Walmart. And the battle is still raging, and likely will be for some time to come.

That book is called Winner Sells All: Amazon, Walmart, and the Battle for Our Wallets by Jason Del Rey.

For years, Walmart and Amazon operated in separate spheres—one a massive brick-and-mortar retailer, the other an online giant. But in 2016, Walmart aggressively moved into the world of e-commerce, while Amazon made big bets in physical retail.

The resulting rivalry is a bare-knuckle power struggle as each titan tries to outmaneuver the other to become the biggest omni-channel retailer in the world. As the two megacorporations have consolidated power, troubling consequences have also emerged—for consumers and small merchants faced with fewer buying and selling options, and for millions of workers paid meager wages for demanding and sometimes dangerous work.

Winner Sells All is a tale of disruption and big money moves, with legendary executives and fearless entrepreneurs in a battle—between rival corporations and sometimes even within the same company—to invent the future and cement their own legacies.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Jason and his work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

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491: Your Future Self with Hal Hershfield

Today’s feature book is one that I can’t wait to read with others. Yes, I’ve read it myself, but I want to talk about with other people and share insights ASAP. That’s when you know you’ve stumbled across a great book.

hal hershfield

And that book is Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today, and it’s written by Hal Hershfield.

When my mastermind group asks me to recommend our next book we’ll read together, this one will be at the top of my list.

In my course, Note-Making Mastery, we talk at length about the importance of writing notes as if you’re writing for someone else. Why? Because, I argue, Future You is someone else.

In his book, Hal shows us how to connect with our “future selves” so that we can improve our lives right now and achieve our greatest hopes for the future.

Your Future Self presents the science, describes the mental mistakes we make in thinking about the future, and gives us practical advice for imagining our best future so we can make that vision a reality.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Hal and his work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

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490: The Learn-It-All Leader with Damon Lembi

In today’s episode, I make a fairly dramatic statement. It’s a warning to those who may read this week’s featured book. I say, plainly, read it at your own risk. Why do I make such a statement?

damon lembi

Because if you’re anything like me, you’ll immediately want to figure out a way to go work for Learn It CEO Damon Lembi. Yes, his new book is that compelling.

This describes how I felt after reading Damon’s book, and I’ve been gleefully self-employed for ten years, so that’s saying a lot.

In The Learn-It-All Leader, Damon shares the leadership mindset you need to make better decisions, take bolder risks, and build stronger teams. He brings insight from his career in baseball to more than two decades of leadership experience, identifying the traits and techniques that separate the learn-it-alls from the know-it-alls.

And he shows you how learn-it-all leaders think and act differently, and why active leadership attracts-and retains-team members who are adaptable, curious, and committed.

With entertaining anecdotes and inspirational examples, The Learn-It-All Leader is a compelling guide to being your best and playing to win, every time.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Damon and his work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

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