Zoe Presenter Spotlight: Avish Parashar

Posted by on May 23, 2011 Comments Off
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Avish Parasharby Zoe Training staff

Did you know that unleashing your creative side helps bring about a new way of looking at life and business? As a speaker, improv teacher, and stand-up comedian, it’s Avish Parashar’s objective to show audiences how they can learn a lot about themselves and their potential for professional excellence – while having fun in a creative format. For Avish, teaching improv is all about helping participants learn how to respond to unplanned challenges, for with all things in life – no matter how well things are planned out – things tend to go wrong or the unexpected usually happens, and it’s good to know how to maintain your sanity and achieve success during those moments the Universe throws you a curve ball.

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

“Ding Happens! How to Deliver Great Leadership, Service, and Teamwork – Even When Things Goes Wrong”

This topic lets me combine everything creative I love – improv comedy, stand-up comedy, and storytelling – with content and a message that resonates with audiences. I get to be funny and creative while helping people do better both professionally and personally. It’s awesome! Read more »

Employee Development: Expense or Investment?

Posted by on May 16, 2011 Comments Off
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text with the word ROI highlightedby Zoe Training staff

Zoe Training was recently featured in a Denver Business Journal article exploring whether employee training and development should be viewed an expense or an investment.

Although it’s easy in theory to say that employee development is an investment, as the report noted, “Despite some obvious advantages of training, some in the field say that in a tepid economy, employee development has been an easy line item to cross off.” According to Manpower’s 2010 Workforce Strategy Survey Global Key Findings (PDF), “Business leaders say they are focused on the professional development of their workforce yet this remains a weak spot for many organizations.  More than a third of employees say their organizations have not made training and development a priority.  A fifth say that training and development opportunity are inadequate for achieving the company’s business strategy–or are not provided at all.” Read more »

Zoe Presenter Spotlight: Paul Unks

Posted by on May 9, 2011 Comments Off
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Paul Unksby Zoe Training staff

With the employment situation in flux in recent years, Paul Unks’ career management expertise has come in handy for many people who need to regain their footing by either clarifying their career objectives or identifying new career options. And because career ups and downs can be the source of so much stress, Paul is also there to help individuals understand how stress impacts our daily lives and what we can do about it to alleviate the potential negative effects. In this interview, Paul talks about the joys of teaching his favorite topics and the mutual benefits that are gained by working together with participants.

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

1) Career Life Transition and Development, 2)Managing Stress and Wellness (“The Joy of Stress”) and 3) Communications and Team Building

I love teaching and facilitating workshops on these three topics.

I get a great deal of satisfaction from helping people to identify and then achieve the career position where they will be: fulfilled, very productive and successful, and in the right environment.  Career Life Development knowledge and skills are increasingly important and needed in our world today. Whether someone has been laid off through no fault of their own, if they are seeking a clearer direction and path to a more rewarding career, or if they want to further advance their career proactively in their current organization, they can benefit greatly from three key areas: Read more »

That Aging Thing

Posted by on May 2, 2011 Comments Off
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Jeff Thredgoldby Jeff Thredgold, CSP

It’s no secret that many economic and financial areas were severely impacted by what we now call the Great Recession, the worst since the Great Depression.  The changing nature of retirement would easily find a place on the list.

Millions of people who judiciously saved during their working years had visions of early retirement, with a view that diligent efforts to save money would help them meet income needs in their Golden Years.  Many people have been able to live their dream.

Unfortunately, millions of others saw their dreams either tarnished or shattered, with loss of employment, sharp declines in the value of retirement funds, and unexpected declines in home values.  Every age group, every generation, every part of the country was hurt by economic and financial developments of the past few years. Read more »

Zoe Presenter Spotlight: Sarah Michel

Posted by on April 25, 2011 Comments Off
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Sarah Michelby Zoe Training staff

Perfecting Connecting© – what Sarah Michel calls her networking strategies to promote personal and professional success – aptly describes her expertise on the art of intentional connecting. And Sarah should know the power of networking: as a cancer survivor, Sarah’s network helped save her life. And now as a speaker, she shares the lessons she learned from her inspirational journey to motivate her audiences to connect not just for the moment, but for life.

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

NetWORTHing™, which is the new way to network if you want to build social capital in today’s reciprocal business climate.  I teach people how to communicate their value proposition to their network to grow their networth.  I’m all about connecting so my topics are focused on ways to improve your connection to your customers, coworkers (team building), and colleagues.  I’m a certified practitioner with Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and help people discover the power in personality differences to encourage innovation, networking, creativity, and problem solving. Read more »

Saying “Thank you” is Rude?

Posted by on April 18, 2011 Comments Off
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Tiffany Dahlbergby Tiffany Dahlberg

With the advent of email and the increasing reliance on this technology, human beings are communicating in person and via phone less often.  This disturbing trend not only impacts our interpersonal relationships, but also our business productivity. Although email is a useful tool, problems arise when email is used inappropriately.  Just as there is etiquette for face-to-face social situations, there is “netiquette” for communicating virtually using technology.

In February, Wells Fargo/Wachovia hosted a global conference for their international bankers in San Francisco.  My organization’s team (Ready2ACT) presented at this three-day conference on the topic of Netiquette.

One of the tips we presented was that email users should not send any replies if the entire message is only “Thanks” or “Thank you” – especially to an entire distribution list. Read more »

Zoe Presenter Spotlight: K.J. McCorry

Posted by on April 12, 2011 Comments Off
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K.J. McCorryby Zoe Training staff

K.J. McCorry thrives on helping people save time, reduce stress, and protect the environment. Upon recognizing the need for organizational help in the workplace,  K.J. founded her own organization in 1996 to offer a wide spectrum of productivity consulting services. Her consulting specialties include increasing efficiency using electronic tools and becoming less paper-based. K.J. has also founded an innovative sister organization called eco-officiency, which offers sustainability consulting to individuals and organizations.

We asked K.J. to divulge some interesting tidbits about herself that go beyond just her consulting background.

Three words to describe her presentation style:

Fun, practical and engaging!

What are your most popular presentation topics?

Email, Time and Task/Priority management. Read more »

Body Talk: What is Your Body Saying?

Posted by on April 4, 2011 Comments Off
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Anna Conradby Anna Conrad

Warning: reading this will make you self conscious for the rest of the day.

There are over 250,000 ways of communicating without words; as a matter of fact, words account for only 5 percent of communication (anyone who is married might even say this number is too high). Can you accurately understand what people are saying to you, even if their words get in the way? More importantly, what are you saying to others? The following are few tips to help you decipher and improve body language: Read more »

Zoe Presenter Spotlight: Debra Fine

Posted by on March 28, 2011 Comments Off
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Debra Fineby Zoe Training staff

A sought-after expert on conversation skills and business social networking techniques for use at networking events and social functions, Debra Fine’s media appearances include: the Today Show, the Early Show, NPR, CNN, Fox Business News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Men’s Health Magazine.

The formerly shy, tongue-tied “enginerd” is the author of the best-selling book, “The Fine Art of Small Talk.”

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

“The Fine Art of Building Relationships: Face to Face Interactions in an Online World.” Every individual and organization is looking to enhance relationships with potential as well as current clients/customers and gain increased visibility in the marketplace. This may mean making the most of out of networking occasions or simply turning every conversation into an opportunity. In addition, skills offered during my presentations benefit internal relationships with teams, mentors, C-Suite, staff and colleagues. This program is my favorite because it supplies tools that can be instantaneously implemented with immediate rewards. Read more »

Three Little Pigs of Customer Service

Posted by on March 21, 2011 Comments Off
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D.J. Vanasby D.J. Vanas

We all know the classic story of the three little pigs.  To protect against the big bad wolf, one pig built a house of bricks, one of sticks and one of straw.  Similarly, we all know the different facets of customer service – the good, the bad and the downright ugly.  Put them together and we have a new twist on a classic tale.  I give you the illustration below, The Three Little Pigs of Customer Service, in hopes that it inspires you to deliver great service to others whether you’re a health care worker, a CEO, a military member, a project director or a dedicated parent.

Once upon a time, in the land of Customer Service, there lived three little pigs…

The First Little Pig – built his house of straw.  This was poor decision making from the start.  This little pig provides the most selfish model of customer service for his own good – whatever is easiest and quickest, requires the least amount of concern, care or effort.  At work, this little pig does just enough to keep his job and is often as crusty as a pork rind to anyone who dares to bother him.  In his mind, customer service is not “in his job description” (even if it actually is). Read more »

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