Men. Yup. Even before there was a word for this, the conference circuit has been dominated by manels. I think of the Roman Senate as the first official manel. Followed by centuries of governing bodies made up of manels. Our US Supreme Court’s manel lasted almost two centuries before Sandra Day O’Connor made it a plain old panel. Who first recognized and named this phenomenon? It’s a mystery. But Valeria McFarren first started using the term in 2016 with her clients “across the world to bring awareness to this and make changes in their respective organizations.” The president of Chaski Global and co-founder of The She Lab, had been asked, one too many times, to moderate a panel of men, aka, a “manel.” In one egregious example, she sat watching a panel of six men talk about how to solve oppression of women and gender-based violence. Note that Valeria uses the term, “to make changes.” Language can change how we see things, giving us the choice to make changes in our organizations and in our lives. If you’ve heard this term before, it was probably in Elisa Loehnen’s* blog post where you can read Val’s story. I recently looked up an organization and found that it has four employees—all of them…Read on.

I’ve often regaled you with the ways and reasons to know your audience, from reading the local news paper to mingling with the audience before events. This week, we go back to step one: ask the organizers these quick questions the moment we are asked to speak…Read on.

I recently had to fill out a donation form offering a few sessions to a fundraiser. When it came to describing my offering, I realized I had never written up a description of what it’s like to work with me! Usually, I offer a 20 minute chat to see how I can help, make a first connection, and see if this feels like a good fit for both of us. For this non-profit gala, the “client” bids on sessions without having the benefit of hearing my voice, sharing their challenges, learning about how I work, making a personal connection. So this is what I wrote…Read on.

Most of us feel at least a few butterflies before we speak in public. Sometimes the butterflies are more like hammers in our chest. Some actors think they need a little anxiety to do their best and will “pump themselves up” before a performance. Some of us go straight into panic mode. One study suggests a strategy that reframes anxiety as excitement, as both have similar physiological manifestations. However we view or experience anxiety, as speakers, we want to make sure that we are in control, rather than being controlled by our anxiety. Simply doing the…Read on.