#professional-communication
33 episodes
#4764: The Art of the Distant Relative Lunch
How to turn a family lunch into a master class in social craft without crossing into cruelty.
#4708: Creative Comebacks for "What Do You Do?
Tired of the dreaded job question? Learn witty, passable, and confusing ways to answer "What do you do?" when you're between gigs.
#4617: The Where-Are-You-From Answer System
A three-tier system for answering "where are you from?" without improvising, without evading, and without looking shifty.
#4323: Customer Service Speak as Social Trolling
A practical field manual for weaponizing call center scripts at the dinner table — and why it works.
#4304: Rhetoric for Interviews and Pitches
Three persuasion techniques from political speech, applied ethically to job interviews and client pitches.
#4251: How to Run a Job Interview Like a Spy
Three elicitation techniques that reveal what a company is really like — without sounding like an audit.
#4125: How to Kill a Conversation on Purpose
The art of weaponizing social awkwardness at high-achiever gatherings.
#4009: When Manifestos Actually Work for Voters
Three parties that reimagined the voter manifesto — and what they teach us about political communication.
#3851: When "Let's Discuss" Means Very Different Things
How the same email gets decoded three different ways in Berlin, Tokyo, and São Paulo.
#3598: Why Your Consulting Rate Is Too Low
The contract is the same whether it's $5K or $5M. What changes is your willingness to ask.
#3356: The Low-Touch Discount: B2B Pricing Secrets
How small buyers can get enterprise-level pricing by structuring quote requests that sales reps love.
#3316: How to Support a Friend Without Playing Therapist
Practical scripts and research-backed strategies for being helpful without overstepping.
#3291: The 80% Job Spec Gap: Why You Should Apply Anyway
68% of recruiters accept 70% matches. Only 22% of candidates believe it. The data changes everything.
#3290: The Four-Sentence Cold Pitch That Actually Works
How to structure cold outreach that survives a recruiter's seven-second scan and actually gets replies.
#2832: The Two-Tiered World of Support
How technical account managers and premium SLAs create a support tier that’s almost a different product from consumer chatbots.
#2675: When AI Makes Documentation Effortless
The key documents every consultant needs—and how AI makes them effortless to create and maintain.
#2669: Low-Touch Lead Qualification for Solo Consultants
Stop wasting hours on calls with unqualified leads. Learn low-touch vetting that filters bad fits without sounding hostile.
#2648: The Art of the Brief: Writing What Busy People Actually Need
Why a crisp 600-word brief is harder than a 10-page report—and how AI changes the game.
#2644: Crafting Agendas That Actually Work (With AI)
Stop writing table-of-contents agendas. Learn the diplomat’s method for crafting meetings that actually achieve their goals.
#2636: Take Notes Like a Diplomat
What WikiLeaks cables teach us about capturing meetings: judgment over transcription, context over completeness.
#2607: Life Coaching vs Therapy: How to Choose
Life coaching, therapy, or something else? A practical framework for navigating the confusing world of helping professions.
#2281: Startup Funding Decoded: Stages, Dilution, and Exit Realities
Unpacking how startup funding works, from seed to exit, and why most equity grants don’t deliver as expected.
#1378: The Power of Professional Dissent: Why Being Wrong is Right
Stop being a "yes-man" and start being a risk architect. Discover how professional dissent is becoming a high-value skill in the age of AI.
#1307: Digital Protocols: Why Modern Manners Feel Like Software
Manners aren't disappearing—they're becoming context-aware. Learn why a "Hey" might be more polite than a "Dear Sir" in the digital age.