Practical Tips From The Stage

1. Be Easy to Work With

Your emotional presence sets the tone for everything. Everything. To know if you might have a blind spot, take the free 16Personalities test. Be sure to review your weaknesses and look for any references to things like: Arrogant. Socially clueless. Combative. Insensitive. Intolerant. Poor handling of emotions. Stubborn.

I’m not saying you’re a bad person. I am saying your natural wiring might be working against you in ways you don’t see. It’s important to identify these tendencies if you’re going to improve your emotional presence. Use the assessment to inform your level of focus on this specific area.

2. Be Good at Unlearning

Let’s be blunt: when you show up with outdated thinking, people notice. It’s like walking around with an old school haircut. No one says anything. They just smile, nod, and secretly wonder if you peaked in a previous decade.

Same with your ideas. 

And the real danger? They won’t tell you why.

That’s what makes unlearning so hard. When I got zapped by the lawnmower, the feedback was instant and unignorable. At work, there’s no jolt. No scar. No circuit-breaking moment to force us to let go.

So what do you do when no one’s giving you the feedback you need? You create your own signal.

Catch it, Challenge it, and Change it. This is your Unlearning Playbook.

I wrote a newsletter that goes deeper on this topic. (And for you fans of the McArthur Wheeler bank robbery story, you’ll learn a little bit more, too!)

3. Have An Original Take On a Problem

When we’re trying to sell an idea, a product, or a service, we often jump right to the solution. We assume our audience has enough context to understand how our solution can help.

They don’t.

And so, when we’re done pitching or presenting… It’s crickets. Nothing moves forward. They don’t take action. And your amazing idea just dies.

Rather than using a solution-forward pitch, it’s more powerful to use a problem-forward pitch instead.

Use the structure of the “Shouldn’t Have To” formula to do this. It looks like this:

[Target audience] shouldn’t have to [experience what specific pain/inconvenience] in order to [achieve what specific desired outcome.]

Go from: “We built a reporting tool with advanced dashboards and real-time data.” To: “Managers shouldn’t have to wait until next quarter to know if their team is underperforming.”

I wrote a newsletter on this specific topic with practical tips. I also created a downloadable cheat sheet that summarizes the “Shouldn’t Have To” formula for easy reference.

4. Sell Without Slides

We believe PowerPoint makes us look prepared, polished, and professional. We think those 47 slides with perfectly aligned bullet points will convince people we've done our homework.

But here's what PowerPoint actually communicates: My ideas are fully baked. Your input doesn't matter. I've already decided. Now I'm here to tell you about it.

That's the paradox. The very tool we use to appear credible actually builds a wall between us and our audience.

I created a three-part framework for selling your ideas without slides. No 47-page deck. Just story, clarity, and the courage to make people feel what you feel. You can read about it in this back issue of the newsletter.

I also created a downloadable cheat sheet that summarizes the Sell Without Slides flow for easy reference.

5. Be a Serial Wonderer

This isn’t about asking questions for the sake of appearing curious. It’s not about performing interest or pretending to care.

It’s about genuine curiosity.

About what other people think. What they need. What they’re trying to solve. What’s keeping them up at night.

Most people are so focused on being heard that they forget to listen.

They ask questions, but they’re really just waiting for their turn to talk. They nod along, but they’re mentally rehearsing their next point.

And people can tell.

Being a serial wonderer means you’re genuinely interested in understanding others before you try to make them understand you. It means asking better questions. Creating space for honest answers. Listening to learn, not listening to respond.

People trust you when you prove you understand them first.

I provide some actionable ways to do this in a back issue of my newsletter. I also created a downloadable cheat sheet that summarizes the flow for easy reference.