Zoe Presenter Spotlight: Matt Baca

Posted by on September 20, 2011 Comments Off
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Matt Bacaby Zoe Training staff

Matt Baca is not only an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Colorado, he also likes to call himself a “Corporate Trainer with a Humorist Twist,” providing high-energy, highly participatory training sessions for international business students and professionals in universities and businesses spanning the globe, including Latin America, Europe, and Central and Far East Asia. Matt answers some of our interview questions about his life as a worldwide trainer.

What are your most popular presentation topics?

How to Use Humor in the Workplace, Effective Presentation Skills, Effective Writing in the Workforce, Organizational Development Strategies for SMBs, How to Create a Learning Organization, and Learning with Cases. Read more »

Five Steps to Designing a Training Environment That Gets Results

Posted by on September 13, 2011 Comments Off
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Tara Powersby Tara Powers

How many times have you spent time and money on a training program that under-delivered? Maybe you’ve heard yourself say “everyone loved the facilitator but we haven’t seen any measurable results.” The problem usually isn’t the facilitator, the learners, the topic, or the material. The problem is usually due to the learning environment prior to, during, and following the training event.

Over the past 10 years I’ve had the pleasure of training over thousands of people in various organizations across the country. I know what makes training stick and I know what doesn’t. I can recognize when there is a high probability for change and impact and when a training initiative will fail. What it boils down to is a very simple equation:

Training + Environment = Results Read more »

Zoe Presenter Spotlight: Eleanor Hubbard

Posted by on August 29, 2011 Comments Off
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Eleanor Hubbardby Zoe Training staff

Retired from her position as Senior Instructor Emerita from the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Eleanor Hubbard, PhD, is passionate about teaching adults the varied subtopics of diversity, including gender, race/ethnicity, social class, age, and sexual orientation, with a special emphasis on workplace diversity.

What’s your favorite topic(s) to present on and why did you become a speaker/trainer?

My favorite topic to present is diversity and that is why I became a trainer.  I am passionate about diversity, and I love discussions with other adults about race/ethnicity, gender/transgender, social class, age, and sexual orientation. When marginalization occurs, spaces opens up for lively, interesting, practical and sometimes even life-changing discussions.  There is no room for guilt, only opportunities to change.  That’s why I do it. Read more »

Six “Getting Started” Tips

Posted by on August 16, 2011 Comments Off
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Julie Millerby Julie Miller

A survey was recently conducted in which over 1,000 professional people were asked what they were most bothered about when it came to writing. The overwhelming answer: Getting started and getting organized. Here are some tips to getting started and getting organized with any document you have to write:

1.     Consider your audience first and foremost. You can be a brilliant writer but if your words do not connect with the reader, you’re (or, I should say, they are…) lost. Think who is my reader and what do they need to know (rather than, what do I want to tell them)? Keep an image of your reader in your mind’s eye. How does your reader feel or think about your topic? Read more »

Zoe Presenter Spotlight: Christina Haxton

Posted by on August 8, 2011 Comments Off
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Christina Haxtonby Zoe Training staff

Would you believe part of the Zoe cadre is a team of horses? According to Christina Haxton, who occasionally integrates them into her training sessions, horses are ideal teachers: they are responsive beings with acute awareness of and sensitivity to their surroundings. Like people, horses have individual personalities as well as physical abilities and limitations. And horses very accurately sense a person’s level of trust, confidence, awareness, and interpersonal skills.

In one of her team-building courses called “Lessons from the Herd,” participants have an opportunity to get in an arena with two to three horses – without having to ride them – to learn team-building skills directly from the animals. With more than 20 years of experience owning, training, and showing her own horses, Christina incorporates her management experience and expertise as a marriage and family therapist with knowledge of equine behavior to offer a unique perspective to businesses and organizations.

Following are Christina’s responses to our interview questions.

What are your most popular presentation topics?

“How to Avoid ‘Lizard Brain’ and Turn Conflict into Opportunity” and “Lessons from the Horse: The Art & Science of Building Trust with Your Herd.” Read more »

Money, Money, Money

Posted by on August 1, 2011 Comments Off
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D.J. Vanasby D.J. Vanas

I often hear people say that money is the root of all evil.  However, this oft-misquoted biblical text actually says it’s the “love of money” that can be our undoing.  Few subjects are as emotionally charged as the concept of money – earning it, spending it, investing it, losing it, dreaming about it, wanting it… needing it.

We live in a society that is oftentimes contradictory, and at other times absurd, in the way we view money. If we pay a person $25 million a year to play a game, we don’t bat an eye.  But if a teacher gets more than $50k a year, they are accused of being in it for the money.  We love it, we hate others with it, we get inspired by it, we dream about it, fear for a lack of it, and yet have problems we could have never imagined when we suddenly get lots of it (study the Lottery effect and how many families are torn apart through feuding and fighting once a family member wins the lottery). Read more »

Do as I Say, AND as I Do!

Posted by on July 25, 2011 Comments Off
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Avish Parasharby Avish Parashar

Have you ever heard the expression, “do as I say, not as I do?”

Well, as in most cases, that’s a pretty stupid way to go. Let’s look at an example…

I went to my local library the other day (which I love) hoping to find some material to broaden my mind – or at least a good novel to get lost in. As I perused the new releases, I noticed an interesting thing: the library was quite loud.

I had always assumed the library was supposed to be quiet, like a morgue, or an audience at a John Cage Concert. This day the library sounded more like a coffee shop or small cocktail party. I could hear at least three distinct conversations echoing through the large room.

I was confused. Why hadn’t the staff quieted these warblers? I looked up to see who these vociferous windbags were… Read more »

Zoe Presenter Spotlight: Anna Conrad

Posted by on July 17, 2011 Comments Off
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Anna Conradby Zoe Training staff

Have you ever had the feeling that what someone is saying is not what they mean? Is this just intuition, or are you noticing micro-expressions? What are you saying to people by the way you use your hands, position your body, and move your eyes? Anna Conrad, an expert in organizational effectiveness and leadership development, answers these questions and more in her highly interactive Body Language workshop, and helps participants explore the true meaning behind their words and the people with whom they communicate. Anna explains in our latest Zoe interview why this is her favorite training topic, and she also shares some important wisdom she’s gathered along the way.

What’s your favorite topic(s) to present on? Why?

I love Body Language because this is something that everyone is interested in, and no matter who you are or what you do, this is a topic that affects every relationship and every area of your life. Read more »

Breaking the Ice

Posted by on July 11, 2011 Comments Off
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Sarah Michelby Sarah Michel

Recently a brilliant friend and colleague described to me how she felt attending a professional meeting where she didn’t know anyone sitting around her as being, “awkward and painful,” when she found herself at a loss for how to break the ice with someone she doesn’t know.  Here was someone who has so much to offer anyone lucky enough to engage in conversation with her but her reluctance to initiate interaction caused her to avoid eye contact and retreat inward and miss out on the potential network relationships sitting around her.  These are the people that keep me up at nights.

I have had a life-long fascination with people who have a natural preference for introversion and think that they’re really bad at breaking the ice and talking to people they don’t know.  These people (you know who you are) also think they’re bad at networking, which couldn’t be farther from the truth.  In my experience, they may not work the room and come away with the most business cards but the few people they do meet they will make a meaningful connection with that actually has a high chance of continuing on after the first meeting.  That is how you build a great network – one relationship at a time. Read more »

Zoe Presenter Spotlight: Traci Brown

Posted by on July 5, 2011 Comments Off
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Traci Brownby Zoe Training staff

A body language expert and teacher of unconscious persuasion skills, Traci Brown shows participants how to use her techniques in all sorts of business negotiations and in interactions with personal clients, and has even adapted the skills to talk herself out of an embarrassing number of traffic tickets. Traci shares some personal insights and words of wisdom in our latest Zoe Spotlight interview.

Words that describe your presentation style:

Engaging and laugh-out-loud funny.

What’s the most unusual way you’ve been paid to speak?

When I first started out and was just getting my feet wet, once I was paid for a speech with fireworks.  It was a nonprofit group and they didn’t have cash, so I took them and had lots of fun. Read more »

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