Dean Brenner

Most people think of their communication as a tangible and clear output: words on the page, images and messages on a slide, words coming out of the mouth. And there is truth in that belief. Strong communication is a series of clear outputs. We spend a ton of energy here at The Latimer Group helping […]

I spoke at a professional networking group last week, with a room full of CIOs and IT Leaders. It was a wonderful event, with tons of great questions, stories and discussions. But one story really resonated with me, and I have not stopped thinking about it since. One of the leaders in the room took […]

“Music is the space between the notes.” ~Claude DeBussy In many workshops, we see two parallel fears come up over and over. People fear silence when they’re speaking. Silence makes them uncomfortable. Therefore, they often fill the silence with more sound — extra words and non-words (we call them “verbal pauses’). And at the same time, people fear […]

We spend a ton of time helping our participants make the most persuasive argument possible, and are constantly hearing presentations seeking approvals, alignment, resources or a sale of some kind. And in many cases, we are helping our youngest clients advocate for themselves in a job interview. All of us need to be good advocates […]

The world is moving fast, the information and the content are coming at us as if from a fire hose… time is precious… organizations are leaner… attention spans have dropped… and everyone is being socially conditioned to “change the channel” very quickly. In other words, there is a world of opportunity for the person (and […]

How often do you sit in a meeting, or on a conference call, or listen to a presentation, and feel disengaged within the first two to three minutes? Yep… me too. It usually takes speakers forever to simply get to the point, and find ways to engage the audience. And by the time they do, […]

Good morning friends! A very quick post today. We talk a LOT here at The Latimer Group about message development. It is central to almost everything we teach and coach. And one element of message development that is often overlooked, or at a minimum underestimated, is the process of figuring out what NOT say in […]

One of the most frequent debates that comes up in our workshops and coaching is this: “Sometimes I am not asking for anything, so there is no persuasion. Sometimes, it IS just an update.“ And The Latimer Group’s standard reply to that question is this: “We politely, but emphatically, disagree.“ Sometimes our ask is tangible […]

Keeping your energy level up all the time is hard. We all get tired. We all get frustrated. We all get sick of our work/colleagues/friends/selves. And when we are any of these things, our productivity suffers. One of the best quotes I have ever heard (well… more of an attitude than a quote) is that “positivity […]

There are a few questions we frequently hear from our workshop participants. And perhaps the most vexing is the question of detail: how much do I need, where do I put it, how much is too much? Without exception, it comes up and is a major topic of conversation in every workshop. Why? For two simple, […]