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

 

My Appearance on Houston’s Channel 39 (KIAH-TV) Earlier This Month; The Consequences of Egregiously Bad Grammar During Job Interview

In a post three weeks ago, I wrote that Houston’s Channel 39 had interviewed me with regard to how poor language skills can obliterate one’s chances of success during a job interview or sales call. Well, the station did broadcast segments of that interview a few days later and you can see what they aired by clicking on the one-and-a-half-minute video clip below. Of particular interest to job seekers: My comment on how the use of typical text-messaging lingo during an interview might portray you as someone who is much too cavalier or irresponsible to handle serious tasks and who therefore cannot be entrusted with big-time responsibility.

© Copyright 2011 V. J. Singal

For Foreign-born Executives and Other Professionals: Simple Verbal Techniques to Compensate for Accent; My Interview on Houston’s ABC Channel 13

Ideally, every word uttered by the speaker should be intelligible to the audience. And that, of course, poses a problem for foreign-borns—people like me, who speak with an accent.

Foreign-born professionals should constantly employ verbal strategies and tactics that help compensate for the loss of communication that invariably results from having an accent. This is something that I stress in all of my communication seminars and workshops, particularly when there is at least one foreign-born among the audience (as was the case when I presented in recent months at the USDA’s NRCS unit in Ft. Worth; Rice University’s Jones School of Management; Toastmasters District 56 Conference; and the annual day of Shell Oil’s employees of foreign origin).

The use of synonyms, especially when the presenter is trying to emphasize something, is perhaps the easiest and most effective means of ensuring complete understanding by the audience. I use it all the time, often reflexively!

For instance, last week, when I was interviewed spontaneously at Chicago’s O’Hare airport by a television news reporter, and thus “put to the test,” I automatically used synonyms at the points of emphasis in my replies to the reporter’s questions. On Saturday, May 1, just as I was getting ready to board my flight back home, Kevin Quinn of Houston’s ABC Channel 13 approached me and inquired if he could interview me for my take on the upcoming merger between Chicago-based United and Houston-based Continental. I consented, and Quinn promptly thrust the mike toward me with his first question—“What did you think about the merger?” My indignant response, which you can see in the video clip below: “I think this is a reverse step, a backward step, unquestionably. It’s becoming more and more of an oligopoly. And who gets screwed? The customer does, as there’s less and less choice.”

A quick analysis of the above statement: The word backward acted as a synonym to the previous adjective reverse, and helped achieved two purposes: (i) it reinforced the thrust of reverse; the two adjectives in quick succession worked as a boxer’s left hook followed by a right hook, and (ii) it helped ensure that everyone in the audience would understand my sentiment 100% because of the very highly probability that at least one of those two key adjectives in the first sentence would be fully intelligible to every listener.

© Copyright 2010 V.J. Singal