The Water Boatman’s Willy

The things you learn, listening to podcasts on a Sunday morning. The Blue Whale the largest mammal is the loudest creature on earth, no great surprise there. But this little […]

Battle of the Sexes

Introduction “Laura has been fascinated by the study of communications or rather miscommunications, since 2007, when she picked up a copy of John Gray’s book entitled Men are from Mars, […]

5-Star Social Proof with Chris Odell

An audience with Chris Odell from Schtore and Zon Coupons who discusses what he does to build trust in his online business models with star ratings and reviews to encourage […]

The Accountability Dichotomy with Debbie Cohen

An audience with Debbie Cohen from Streetwise HR … Debbie explores the accountability dichotomy, the need to delegate responsibilities without creating a blame and shame culture.  She explains how we […]

Screaming!

I’m screaming silently to  be heard, Whenever I pause to collect my thoughts, You fill the silence with buts and oughts, In your opinion or in your word, Too many […]

Making Tax Digital with Stephanie Pettitt

An audience with Stephanie Pettitt from Equation Accountancy … Stephanie explains the what, the why, the who, the when, and (more importantly) the how around the three-letter acronym MTD. Making […]

Escaping the Storm

This is Peter John Cooper’s remarkable play about the life and times of Marie Stopes.  A highly opinionated, yet educated woman so demonly depicted by two actors, Jane McKell and […]

Sowing Seeds for Impromptu Speaking

The level three Pathways ‘Active Listening’ project asks the Table Topics Master to really ‘listen’ to the table topic responses.  Then to make an appropriate comment on the talk as […]

Marketing Fruition …

Four years ago, Boyfriend and two of his kids went to watch England play one of their rugby world cup matches at Trafalgar Square on a wide screen in London.  […]

Christmas Tunes Can Drive You Crackers

Introduction Laura McHarrie was a shop manager, when retailing … took place in bricks and mortar.  There was none of this easy peasy, drop box, ‘clicks and sorta’ kinda stuff; […]

The Rest of the Story (TM Speech #7)

“Our next speaker, Laura McHarrie’s maiden name was Richardson. On the 21st November 1984 (almost 34 years ago), Ray Dukes, a Debenham’s employee wrote … ‘In response to your request […]

How to be Heard (TM Speech #2&3)

Introduction “Here at Toastmasters, we live and die by our presentation successes and failures. The intros can have a massive impact how the audience reacts to the speech. I’m so […]

I’m Not Deaf – You Know …

“Our next speaker is Laura McHarrie.  This speech was inspired by Rachel Knowles.  When Rachel answered Julia Martineau’s table topic question – what invention could you not live without, she […]

Why do you care?

WHY do you care? Why DO you care? Why do YOU care? Why do you CARE? Amazing how the tonality of this small question can have so many nuances … […]

Listen to Learn..

Introduction “The first three months of any Toastmaster year is called the Golden Quarter.  The more that is planned and actioned in the first three months, the smoother the club […]

The Problem with the Pause.

“Laura McHarrie is a master of the strategically placed pause. She has been involved with Toastmasters for 10 years and has completed both the old communication and leadership programme resulting […]

Four Crushing Complacencies

In this book Sur/petition, Edward de Bono asserts that complacency sets in when things seem normal to you because you are used to them.  In business there are four types. Comfortable […]

Distinguished Toastmasters Indeed!

In April 2008, 7.15pm for a strict 7.30 kick off, Steve Graham, Jan Thorpe with much bugging and instance from yours truly, Casterbridge Speakers was launched.  That day, I started […]

The Real Reason to Believe!

I spent half a day working through a client’s marketing collateral last week.  We were looking for the proof that their business did what they claimed.  It was a great […]

Petrol Heads – thanks Mark

There are people that like their cars and there are people that lurve their cars. These are the so called petrol heads.  At first glance at tonight’s meeting theme, I thought […]

Martin Luther-King Jr Day

On this day in history, Martin Luther-King Jr was born (Jan 15th 1929).  He was assassinated before his 40th birthday.  He’d have been 89 today, if he’d have lived this […]

Crowdfunder Training – checked!

your team. On Tuesday, I took a day out to find out how to make the most of Crowdfunder to support the board at AsOne theatre company.  We've all heard about it but how many of us really understand the nuances of this opportunity to raise cash for our business?

Sage, Age & Perspective

As a lady of a certain age, I have a vested interest in ‘Sageism’ – I thought it might be worth confessing this at the start! The thing is there […]

Yuletide – The Longest Night

The title strikes to the deepest fear of any insomniac.  Regardless of the varied reasons for sleep deprivation, the extra hour in bed that we get when the clocks go […]

Ouch! Email?

I’m sure my specialist will be happy to see hand propped up by pillows as he insisted earlier before discharge.  Me? I’m glad to be home and I’m quickly adapting […]

Competitor Analysis

It is worth understanding how urgently your client needs what you can deliver and more importantly whether you can deliver in their timescale and within their budget.  Moreover if you decide to undercut your competitors and take on a client who won't make you any money in the short term you need to know how you do will make money from them in the longer term.  

The Winter Blues

Being a relatively resilient individual – I had always pooh-poohed the idea that something like the changes in the season can affect your ability to cope with life.  Until that […]

Learning from Honks & Hinks

Don’t you think it’s a wonderful sound when a flock of geese fly into Weymouth?  Theirs is not the most attractive sound but it is very distinctive.  For me, it […]