Dean Brenner

Simply get to the point. I write about this topic a lot… and I keep writing about it, because every day we see people speak who take their sweet time getting to the point. We are all busy, we are all suffering from reduced attention spans, and we all hate sitting in meetings, presentations or […]

We spend an incredible amount of time speaking with our clients about capturing attention right up front when we speak. In a hyper-speed, over-scheduled, attention-starved world, it is critical that we have the skills to capture our audience’s attention right away. Otherwise, they will never engage, they won’t be listening, and they won’t absorb anything […]

I had a great chat this morning with a partner of The Latimer Group’s. She and I discussed a number of components of great leadership in the 21st century, and one of the ideas we kicked around was the concept of leadership “vulnerability.” I was struck by the idea enough to write a quick post […]

We’ve reached a tipping point, I believe, in the use of mobile devices. These tools have had a wildly successful positive impact on our efficiency and ability to communicate. But too much of any good thing can eventually become a bad thing, and that is where we are with mobile devices. And we’re hearing it […]

Just about a year ago, I wrote this short piece around the time of Robin Williams’ passing… For me, the words still ring true, and I refer back to them fairly often. The original post follows below. Hope you find it helpful. ~Dean No matter how certain you are, you never really know what another […]

Today’s post was written by Brett Slater, Chief Social Media Officer at The Latimer Group. As you may know from my last post, I also do morning radio in my home state of Maine. Phone calls from listeners are a big part of our show every morning, and the topics vary widely, from local politics […]

In all of our workshops, we always ask participants their goals for the session. We get lots of great answers to that query. The participants in our workshops almost always come with ambitious and lofty goals. And one theme we frequently hear is that the people we work with want to have great communication skills […]

So many people are always thinking about “what’s next” or “what’s new.” Everyone likes to think about how to get bigger, better, stronger, especially from a business perspective. Where will the growth come from? How do I reach new potential customers or clients? I was at a party on Saturday night, and the event was […]

We work all the time with people who want to improve their speaking skills. But like any coaching situation, you need to determine what the root cause of the speaking problem is, before you can solve for or eliminate the problem. Does the speaking problem manifest itself with poor delivery and little projected confidence? Well, […]

My wife recently gave birth to our second child, a baby girl born in May. What a blessing… we are grateful every single day to have our new little one with us. Over the course of the last two months, I’ve been thinking a lot (obviously) about family, and when you spend time every day […]