As you may already know, authenticity is kind of a big deal to me.

It’s the cornerstone of my work in the world. As a communication coach, I’m NEVER interested in “polishing” someone as a communicator. I’m interested in revealing someone in their truest most beautiful form.

And I’ve been doing this for a LONG time. The good thing about being devoted to a practice, to a craft, is that you feel quite confident, and quite sure of yourself. The bad thing about being devoted to a craft is that sometimes you think "What could this person possibly teach me? I do this for a living."

But that’s exactly what my guest today did, she taught me to see a blind spot in my own pursuit of authenticity.

My friends, I’d like to you meet Jessica Zweig, most of the SimplyBe podcast, author of Be. - A No Bullsh*t Guide to Increasing Your Self Worth and Net Worth By Simply Being Yourself

She is an award-winning entrepreneur, personal branding expert, the founder and CEO of SimplyBe. Agency where she works with entrepreneurs, creatives CEOs and the companies they lead to help them grow on and offline by leveraging the most powerful marketing tool on the planet: authenticity.

This episode is dedicated 100% to pulling back the curtain of my journaling practice, not because I think it’s unique or special, but because it is probably the single most important ritual I have. My journaling practice is more important to me than therapy. Exercise. Diet. Even church. Truly, if you asked me to sacrifice any of my rituals, you would have to pry journaling from my cold dead hands.

Why? Because my journaling practice is the “room of one’s own” that Virginia Wolf talked about … a place out beyond the voices of my family of origin, friends, children, husband, clients, partners, neighbors, and anyone else I come into contact with. It is the engine of my productivity, creativity, and frankly spirituality and I'm here to tell you how to get this engine fired up in your own life.

June of 2014, for the first time in its history, a trans woman—the luminous Laverne Cox— was featured on the cover of Time Magazine, with the headline: The Transgender Tipping Point. Just this April, Elliot Page became the first trans man to grace the cover of the magazine.

Whether 2014 marked the “tipping point” for popular culture’s reckoning with the transgender community is debatable … because here we are 7 years later, still trying to tip. Still trying to understand.

In 2014, I would say that the experience of knowing someone trans was still fairly unusual. But in 2021? It seems like all of us are 1 degree separated from someone going through the experience of reconciling identity and gender.

My guest today is the incredible Sean Garcia, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, working in private practice in San Jose. Sean is passionate about serving the needs of transgender/gender variant persons and their families as well as the neurodiverse population. He is currently the only transgender-identified licensed therapist in Silicon Valley who facilitates a monthly transgender group for adolescents and teens. Sean's story, insights and wisdom *changed* the way I see the world. My hope is that he will do the same for you.

In a post-vaccinated population, it's open season for socializing and it's ... awkward. Wonderful. Exhausting. And also terribly anxiety producing for some of us. As a communication coach, I’m fascinated by all of it, and have been taking field notes on what is the most challenging, the most excruciating parts of "peopling," and why.

In this episode I offer solutions to the three biggest communication problems I've encountered post vaccination, and I offer three solutions to make it all a bit less tortured, and more nourishing.

We talk a lot on this show about the power of story. But what we haven’t yet covered is storytelling in the context of how we talk about our businesses.

If you are an entrepreneur running a startup, or trying to raise money in the venture capital community ... If you are a solo-preneur or coach building your business ... If you are someone trying to create momentum and generate more revenue in your business, this is the episode for you. My guest today has some words of wisdom that could just change the trajectory of your business.

Our capacity to handle tough moments at work can mean the difference between upward mobility and infuriating stagnation. But for too many of us, conflict is our kryptonite. In this episode, I will walk you through my favorite exercise for transforming our relationship to conflict.

There are some stories that stop us in our tracks. That make us forget our own dramas and traumas long enough to feel into someone else’s experience. My guest today is Ana Jones, and she has exactly that kind of story.

Ana is the founder of Plex65, which is a labor market for caregivers of older adults. It is the first of its kind to use technology as a hiring platform for caregivers using “Rydeshare for Homecare” or the Uber for caregiving concept.

But we are here today to talk about Ana NOT as an entrepreneur (though she is).

We are here to talk about Ana as an activist. As the mother of two black sons. As someone working to change the way we talk about race, and more specifically, how we teach our children history in school.

As a word of caution: Ana is about to share her heartbreak with us. She lost her son, Maasai Jones, to suicide on June 14, 2018 … something that would leave most of us catatonic and incapacitated. But Ana’s story is hardly one of withdrawal.

Her story is about transmuting pain into power. About carrying on Maasai’s story, because it has the power to create change. And friends? If there’s anything we learned in 2020 it was this: things need to change.

I first met Ana during a virtual Village Well session (google it “Village Well San Jose” … very powerful Saturday morning medicine!), I knew I had to have her on to talk with you.

Friends, meet the marvelous Ana Jones.

Fun fact: I would rather give a speech to thousands of people than say "no" to someone. Seriously.

But the better I get at saying NO, the better my life gets.

With a high quality NO, comes the opportunity to say YES to the invitations and adventures that add up to the life I want vs. the life that just kinda happened to me.

And in case you can relate, and in case you’re curious to see how your life might improve with the development and cultivation of your Highest Quality “No,” I want to offer you three strategies to strengthen your No-saying game.

If you were to ask me: What is the single most important skill to have as a communicator? I wouldn’t hesitate to answer.

The single most important skill to have as a communicator is storytelling.

Here’s the thing: Facts are important. The ability to make a cogent argument is important.

But STORY is what changes people. STORY is probably the ONLY thing that can get someone to see the world through a different lens.

And this is as true in business as it is in politics, academia, and science. We are hardwired to remember, repeat, and be moved by a story well told.

My guest today is a champion storyteller, and his name is Corey Rosen. He has a new book coming out that will be a powerful guide for us as communicators: Your Story Well Told: Creative Strategies to Develop and Perform Stories that Wow an Audience. Join us, and learn how you can become a better storyteller.

I am a BIG believer in personal development. And, many self-help proponents equate personal power with accepting full responsibility for one’s own life. I don’t disagree.

But there’s something missing there. Acceptance is not enough.

Authentic personal power must include the capacity to articulate what we need and what we want.

And yet, too many of us avoid doing the work of owning and articulating what it is we need because we are AFRAID of what we will discover ...

About ourselves, about our partners, our families, or our workplaces.

But, Amen, I say unto you: If you want to become your most powerful self and SPEAK from your place of power, this is the work.

This is a path I have been walking all my life. If it’s a path you’d like to walk, or a journey you’d like to better understand, this week’s episode is for you.