beckysue 
If you want to see the lessons from my book presented live and you can’t spring for a trip to Denver next week (where I’ll be keynoting PRSA’s Western District Conference), you can check out a free webinar I’m doing the week after next. It’s being done through Georgetown University’s Alumni Career Services office, but … Read more
To paraphrase another president: there he goes again! The Obama administration putting a prop to good use, this time upping the ante by having the CIC himself wield it. So glad to see it. I’ve wondered in the past why Obama and other chief executives don’t make better use of three-dimensional visuals in their speeches … Read more
Facebook Timeline for brands is the latest hysteria-inducing development in social media. Its introduction has been accompanied by the usual how-to articles screaming TEN THINGS YOU MUST KNOW and FIVE HIDDEN TIMELINE SECRETS THE EXPERTS WON’T TELL YOU and YOU’RE NOT ON TIMELINE YET? YOU HOPELESS RUBE! I actually think the timeline is cool. I … Read more
The worst kind of client is the one who sees the cost of everything and the value of nothing. The second worst is a client who treats you like a vendor instead of a partner. Combine those two and you’ve truly got the client from hell. Consider these two experiences. Totally hypothetical. Client A: The … Read more
Google+ is the weirdest social network there is. When it was launched last summer the Internet world was atwitter (so to speak). Afraid of being left behind, people rushed to get on board the new new thing. So it grew at a ridiculously fast rate. And it now has 90 million users. But how many … Read more
There’s plenty of advice to be found on how to prepare for a TV interview. Talk in concise soundbites. Look at the interviewer, not the camera. Don’t wear crazy patterns. But sometimes it’s the little things they don’t tell you that can make or break the interview. Here are seven practical lessons I’ve learned from my … Read more
From finding the perfect mate online to delivering a killer presentation to nailing a job interview — it’s all about “show/don’t tell.” Here I break it down for Stefan Holt on NBC Chicago this past weekend. With references to The Office, Ricky Gervais, Steve Jobs, match.com, Second City, and more. All packed into three minutes, … Read more
A job interview, like every other interaction, is a performance. If you want to succeed, you need to put your heart and soul into it. As usual, Hollywood provides a lesson in how to do that. Among the many classes I took at Second City’s training center was a course on writing for TV and … Read more
Can speechwriting be taught? To an extent, yes. But the key ingredient that separates a good speech from a great speech will always be elusive. I was reminded of this by an NPR story this morning. It described a concept called appoggiatura, which one expert says is the secret to writing a hit song that tugs at the … Read more
All week the message of the Chrysler “Clint Eastwood” commercial has been drowned out by politics, something that took the car company by total surprise. And the criticism offended the dealers, too, who took the step of releasing a statement, denying that there was any political agenda behind it. Now comes this story from today’s … Read more