What personal stories have you locked away in the secret vault of your mind, vowing never to share them publicly? What would shame you terribly if it were ever posted on the Internet and connected with your real name for anyone to see? What events or habits from your past or present would you feel [...]

I’ve been doing a lot of radio and podcast interviews in conjunction with my book’s release. Many of these interviews have been recorded and are available online, so I’m happy to share those with you if you care to listen to some interesting audio content for free. While many of these interviews discuss my book [...]

On Sunday, October 5th, I’ll be speaking in Tampa, Florida at Hay House’s I Can Do It! conference. This will be the same presentation I did in June at their Las Vegas conference, with improvements based on audience feedback. ICDI is a very popular self-help conference with thousands of attendees. I’ve been attending ICDI Vegas [...]

On Thursday a good friend and fellow Toastmaster named Ron Lewison was in a serious car accident. He was rushed to the hospital, but his injuries were too severe, including a broken pelvis and a punctured lung. Shortly after his family arrived, he passed away. He was 69 years old and is survived by his [...]

Erin and I had a wonderful time at the Las Vegas I Can Do It! conference this past weekend. Although the conference was only 20 minutes from our home, we stayed at the Venetian Hotel, mainly so Erin would have a quiet place to do her readings. This is the 4th ICDI conference I’ve attended. [...]

I announced this upcoming speaking engagement in my March newsletter, but I want to mention it here too in case any non-subscribers are interested. Hay House is the publisher of my upcoming book, Personal Development for Smart People, and they’ve invited me to speak at their I Can Do It! Conference at the Sands Expo in Las [...]

Personal branding is basically the way you market yourself to the world. Your personal brand is what other people think of you. In some ways it’s outside your control, but you obviously have some influence over it. Personal branding is unavoidable. As others interact with you, they’ll automatically form mental associations that connect you with certain labels, often within [...]

Starting a blog is very easy these days. You can start your own blog in a matter of minutes if you want. Many web hosts will even install a blog for you or provide an easy installation process. And of course you can always use a hosted service like WordPress.com or Blogger to get started. [...]

Recently I competed in Toastmasters International’s annual humor speech contest.  I wrote and delivered a speech titled “39-1/2 Winks,” which was based on my polyphasic sleep experiment. The Toastmasters humor speech contest has 4 levels:  club, area, division, and district.  I won at the club level but lost the area contest.  Technically I came in last place because I was disqualified for running [...]

Authenticity has become the modern currency of blogging. Unlike traditional media sources, most bloggers aren’t beholden to any puppeteers.  To some people this is a whole different kind of problem, but it’s also clearly a key strength of the new media.  With 175,000 new blogs launching every day, blogging is becoming a popular alternative to the filtered, agenda-driven drivel that passes as [...]