Difficult Conversations

It’s never easy to have a tough conversations, and they never go away. I see a better way.

This talk is a practical course on the triad of human psychology: language, physiology and focus. I’ll walk through simple strategies that lower stress, create empathy and manage emotions.

This talk is not an instructional guide on how to ‘handle’ people; nor is it about ‘taking your power’ and reinforcing the notion that “shitty people exist… and don’t let them affect you.”

This talk is about the true-to-form psychology of human need (which can both inspire empathy and drives adversity).

This talk is practical and will be interactive. To engage both kinesthetic, auditory and visual learners (which is part of the lesson), each section uses a combination of live-action, recorded video presentation, or short/simple written exercise. You’ll be on your feet - literally :)

The talk is broken into five parts:

• The six human needs (basic and spiritual)
• The triad (physiology, language and focus)
• Stacking not distracting (“and” not “but” and other conditional language)
• Gaining leverage without force
• Changing “state” to drive change

Also, while it may sound like too much content for a 45 minute session, I’ve timed it out, and I’ll be able to manage. Alternatively, it could be a workshop, but that would require more space than the average workshop room.

If you would like more details, I can provide plenty of resources :)

Like I’ve mentioned, I’ve been a professional actor for more than 20 years. Understanding the physical side of human emotion is part of the craft. Further, I studied NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) over the last 10 years and run workshops with teams of as little as 4 and as large as a few hundred. For the last four years, I’ve been a business owner of a team close to 20.

Why this talk, now?

I see/talk/listen to so many people that are afraid to connect, out of the fear for confrontation. We text/Slack/email all in place of face-to-face conversation. We allow “introvert” to explain why we’re not comfortable asking for what we need, when most of time it just comes down to being afraid of saying why we need it.

Anyone - and I do mean anyone - can be exactly who they are, changing nothing about themselves, and foster a more heartfelt connection to those around them. Contrary to popular belief: Empathy is not earned - it’s created.