Sunday, February 22, 2015

My Recent Interview on Russ Capper’s “The BusinessMakers Show”

Click here to view the video version of my recent interview with Russ Capper, a prominent Houstonian and host of “The BusinessMakers Show.” [For an alternate link, click here and scroll down to the middle of the page.] I believe you will be most interested in the following three segments from that conversation:

·         The opening minute: I describe the singular purpose of my company, “The Articulate Professional,” which has been in existence for over 22 years!

·         5 minutes 43 seconds into the interview: The William F. Buckley vs. William Bennett distinction--Why you should emulate the latter when wanting to speak with impact + the vital role of “spontaneous pauses.” Here, I discuss how to use--for impact and indelibility--fresh, evocative, and high caliber words without losing your audience or creating resentment, i.e., how to employ such words without coming across as pompous or pretentious. 

·         11 minutes 50 seconds into the interview: Three brief stories of spectacular communication failures by corporate titans and other luminaries. I briefly cite three anecdotes involving such failures, each of which was a powerful lesson and helped spawn one of the most popular offerings in my repertoire. [The three communication seminars/ coaching topics that were thus created: (i) Conquering the Pervasive Disease of Rambling: How to emphasize your point in Just Three Sentences; (ii) Creating a highly favorable first impression: Some simple verbal and nonverbal techniques; (iii) How to disarm and neutralize your critics and detractors without being offensive or disrespectful.]
 

Call me at 281-463-2500 or email me at vjsingal@verbalenergy.com if you’d like a clarification on any of the above. 


© Copyright 2015  V. J. Singal


 

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Another Tip for my Caucasian Readers on How to Create a High-Impact Attire: Capitalizing on One of the LIGHTER Colors in Your Facial Skin


In my post of February 4, 2014, I showed Sen. Bob Corker, arguably the best dressed of all our current male U.S. senators, donning a tie whose color was at the dark end of the range of natural hues in his face. Well, the clip below, from a recent interview on CBS “Face the Nation” (still my favorite among all the Sunday morning television talk shows), has the senator wearing a tie whose dominant color is somewhere at the mid-point of all the colors visible on his face. And he looks good, just as in all of my previous posts featuring him. 
 
The objective of this post, along with that of last February, is to demonstrate that when picking a tie, a typical Caucasian man has a very wide choice of colors that are (i) intrinsically pleasing, and (ii) will make the person look splendid because that entire range of colors is in keeping with the principle of matching contrasts discussed in my previous posts. Alas, the situation is far less favorable or “colorful” for people of color--men like me--whose relatively dark facial skin seriously limits their choice of neck ties.

© Copyright 2015  V. J. Singal
 

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Vocabulary Expansion Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

Have you looked at the latest edition of Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, which has been online since end-December?  The six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, The Articulate Professional-3rd Edition”) are:

1. sui generis
2. lucre
3. emasculate
4. catalytic
5. rumination
6. placid