Trafcom News Podcast

Do you know why a green apple can be essential before you start recording your podcast? In this interview, Stephanie Ciccarelli, co-author of Voice Acting for Dummies and co-founder of Voices.com, shares some voice actors’ secrets that are helpful to podcasters. Stephanie, who was classically trained in voice, piano, violin and music theatre, today applies her education to the field of voice acting. Here are the show notes: 00:01 Introduction and welcome; about Stephanie Ciccarelli 01:40 Donna’s brief voiceover career 02:18 Voice acting is not “just reading”; it’s a creative process, and harder than you think 03:30 Voice Acting for Dummies is a comprehensive guide to the business of voice acting as well as a great resource for vocal and audio techniques 03:14 The publishing process for the book 04:48 Stephanie’s view of the voiceover market today; the role of Voices.com 06:45 Stephanie shares voiceover tips for podcasters, including: Warming up your voice Getting familiar with your material Being prepared Knowing your equipment The importance of a good cable Finding the sweet spot on your microphone The role of good posture; standing while speaking Why you need a pop filter to reduce plosives A smile is a low-tech way to stop plosives A green apple or lemon water to help prevent mouth noises 21:52 Interview ends 21:57 Donna’s two upcoming workshops: Twitter Deep Dive on August 14, 2013, and Content Marketing on September 27, 2013. 22:18 Where to send comments; email donna at trafcom dot com or comment here on the show blog. Theme music for Trafcom News Podcast is “Beneath Your Surface” by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley.

What do The Fugitive and Saturday Night Live have to do with business communications? Find out in this interview with Rob Biesenbach, author of the book Act Like You Mean Business. Rob is a Chicago-based communications strategist,  actor and writer. During his 20-plus years in communications and PR, he has counseled clients from Fortune 500 companies to startups, and he has managed a successful solo practice for more than a decade. Rob and I had great fun discussing the idea of integrating both storytelling and acting techniques into communications. Here are the show notes: 00:01 Introduction and welcome; about Rob Biesenbach 01:20 Interview with Rob Biesenbach includes: Why this book? Uses of stories related to movies, TV and theatre; “cutting to the chase” example from The Fugitive Why do we add needless exposition? We do not need to convey everything we know! Trying to be perfect – the Saturday Night Live story Premise of the book is not about being a phony; true acting is about honesty and human connection Speaking tips; TED Talks have raised the bar; Steve Jobs as a master showman Get your script off the slides; notes are fine during a presentation; Rob uses iPhone as a remote and for notes Preparation is key for speaking; links to interviews with Shel Israel and Eric Bergman on speaking Match.com syndrome; show, don’t tell Storytelling saves the day for a candy company Rob recommends improv classes for everyone Treating every communications opportunity as a performance, and apply proven techniques of actors 20:41 Where to send comments; email donna at trafcom dot com or comment here on the show blog. Get more info on the book on Rob's website. Theme music for Trafcom News Podcast is “Beneath Your Surface” by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley.

According to digital marketing rock star Mitch Joel, business has changed. Forever. So, what are you going to do about it? In his new book, Ctrl Alt Delete, Mitch says we have to reboot and rebuild our business models. If we fail to do this, not only will our businesses begin to slide backwards, but we may find ourselves unemployable within five years. Mitch outlines five key movements as well as seven triggers that can help us to take advantage of the seismic shift in the world so we can thrive and prosper. In our conversation for this podcast, we focus on the second half of the book, about “rebooting your life.” Be sure to check out this cool, information-rich website for the book as well as Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation blog and Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation podcast. Last but not least, here is the Slideshare deck that Mitch mentions in the podcast. Here are the show notes: 00:01 Introduction and welcome; about Mitch Joel of Twist Image 01:25 Interview with Mitch Joel includes: Why this book at this time? The movements in the book How can we think differently? Everyone feels they are falling behind! The “squiggly” career path, today’s reality Individuals entering the workforce today will probably have five to seven careers in their lifetimes Work/life balance or blend? The concept of being a “startup of one” 14:48 Question from Dan York about using various social media platforms to promote the book 20:38 Where to send comments; email donna at trafcom dot com or comment here on the show blog. Theme music for Trafcom News Podcast is “Beneath Your Surface” by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley.

Following close on the heels of Trafcom News Podcast 118, which was an interview with Jarrod Gingras about successful enterprise collaboration, comes this chat with Gordon Ross. When I met Gordon at the IntraTeam Event in Copenhagen, I was intrigued by his workshop on archetypes for intranets. Since Gordon’s topic meshes so nicely with Jarrod’s, I’m publishing them rather close together. [Note: The first speaker I interviewed from the IntraTeam Event was Paolo Tosolini, on enterprise social video.] The interview with Gordon explains the use of archetypes in internal communications, and the benefits of taking the time to do this work up front. Gordon is a vice president and a partner at Open Road, a company in British Columbia that designs and develops websites and custom Web applications. He has worked on some interesting projects recently, including a customer portal for BC Hydro, Web strategy for the City of Vancouver, the redesign of Mountain Equipment Coop’s e-commerce website, and many others. Gordon provides strategic input for Open Road’s well-respected social intranet product, Thought Farmer. Here are the show notes: 00:01 Introduction and welcome; about Gordon Ross, Open Road and Thought Farmer 01:30 Interview with Gordon Ross includes: Definition of archetypes as “a typical example of a person or a thing” An archetype is not a stereotype, but rather describes characters we recognize in the corporate world. An archetype differs from audience segmentation. The “average” user is not of interest; Gordon shares an excellent example of two males born in 1948 in Great Britain, married, successful … Why archetypes? Consensus building; common focus gives us insights into the audience. Personas are more functional, while archetypes are more related to the culture of an organization. A walk through the process of developing archetypes. Examples of negative consequences of not doing archetype work up front; the danger of self-referential design. 17:25 Where to send comments; email donna at trafcom dot com or comment here on the show blog. Helpful links from Gordon Ross: Archetype Extraction method, Cognitive Edge Perfecting your Personas, Kim Goodwin - Cooper Design An introduction to personas – Step Two Designs Service Design for Intranets – PebbleRoad Making the Most of Story Work, Anecdote User Matricies – Steph Troeth Theme music for Trafcom News Podcast is “Beneath Your Surface” by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley.

Choosing software for enterprise collaboration is no easy feat, with all the options available today. In this edition of the Trafcom News Podcast, Jarrod Gingras of Real Story Group discusses some of the steps you need to take to navigate this process successfully. Jarrod is an analyst at Real Story Group, covering technology across the enterprise information landscape, including Web content management and enterprise content management. He has more than 10 years of experience in the content technology industry, after starting his career as a Web developer and information architect. I met him at the IntraTeam Event in Copenhagen this spring. Here are the show notes: 00:01 Introduction and welcome 01:33 Interview with Jarrod Gingras begins. Steps suggested by Jarrod: Start with the problem you want to solve, not a list of technical requirements. Test vendors from both a technical and a partner perspective. Don’t fall in love with a slick demo! Negotiate a deal throughout the section process. Do your homework. 16:04 Discussion of trends in enterprise collaboration; not needing to “go” somewhere else to be social; no walled gardens. 21:10  Comments from Kurt Kragh Sorenson, Pawel Banaszak and Ivalo Andreassen 23:44 Where to send comments; email donna at trafcom dot com or comment here on the show blog. Theme music for Trafcom News Podcast is “Beneath Your Surface” by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley.

Are you using video within your organization in a social context? What about video produced on smartphones? In this episode of the Trafcom News Podcast you’ll hear an interview with Paolo Tosolini, Director of Digital and Emerging Media at Run Studios, a video production agency in Seattle, Washington. Paolo consults with organizations looking to embrace social media, online video and mobility as part of their internal communications and knowledge-sharing strategy. In his former job as New Media Business Manager at Microsoft, Paolo launched and managed the company internal YouTube platform, "Academy Mobile," which now hosts more than 35,000 employee-generated videos. Here are the show notes: 00:01 Welcome and intro; about Paolo Tosolini of Run Studios 01:26 Paolo’s definition of enterprise social video 02:20 Creating video today quickly and easily with smartphones, especially the iPhone 04:40 Scenario 1: Digital reporting; Filmic Pro app 06:40 Value of editing your video 08:20 Scenario 2: Collaboration; people sharing ideas in rich media format: Google+ Hangouts 10:02 Scenario 3: Webinars to a mobile audience 10:50 Scenario 4: Augmented reality; adding a layer of information on top of the real view 12:12 Scenario 5: Multimedia eBooks; Book Creator app 13:10 The power to create content without a computer 16:00 Managing video content; need a strategy and a structure 16:50 Three pillars: the platform, business processes, spreading the word to employees 18:10 Are Android users out in the cold? No. The Apple ecosystem is more mature, but Android will close the gap. 18:45 Interview ends Paolo’s presentations at the IntraTeam Event Copenhagen: Mobile video prezi Enterprise social video prezi 20:01 Next Trafcom News Podcast features an interview with Jarrod Gingras of Real Story Group 20:20 Technical note about how this episode was produced 21:48 Promo code for Donna’s Hands-on Social Media Workshop in Oakville April 13 22:19 Where to send comments; email donna at trafcom dot com or comment here on the show blog. Theme music for Trafcom News Podcast is “Beneath Your Surface” by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley.

I’m happy to share my discussion with Andrea Weckerle about her new book, Civility in The Digital Age: How Companies and People Can Triumph Over Haters, Trolls, Bullies and Other Jerks. Andrea is founder and president of CiviliNation, a nonprofit that takes a stand against online hostility and cyberbullying. She earned her law degree at the University of Richmond, and underwent extensive mediation training. She also holds a Master of Arts degree in Public Relations/Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University. After law school, Andrea worked within the Legal division of Ernst & Young, where she helped design alternative dispute resolution systems for Fortune 500 companies. Before founding CiviliNation, she ran her own boutique communications consultancy. Read more about Andrea here. Here are the show notes: 00:01 Welcome and introduction 01:50 Interview begins with a discussion of why Andrea wrote this book and how she approached the topic. 02:55 Andrea Weckerle’s definition of civility 04:22 Situations where civility is absent; bullying for sport. Andrea discusses content-based conflict; personality-based conflict; power-based conflict and identity-based conflict. 07:30 Recognizing and managing anger; best practices for civility and for protecting ourselves against those who aren’t civil online; problem has to be approached from various angles, including digital literacy; value of knowing your own conflict style. 11:00 Knowing what your goal is; don’t feed the trolls; what to do when someone says something untrue about you online 12:35 How you take corrective action matters; if, when, how 15:45 The value of saying “I’m sorry.” 18:25 The importance of digital literacy; we should be teaching this to our children 21:20 Checking our biases and beliefs 22:15 Donna believes those who most need this book will not read it; Andrea wants to help ensure that we are equipped to deal with them. 23:45 Holding people accountable online; helping friends when they are attacked 24:55 Andrea encourages comments by those who’ve read the book. 25:34 Podcast promo by Max Christian Hansen for Word Shots 27:42 Donna recently returned from IntraTeam Event Copenhagen; will be producing podcasts with some speakers from this conference. 28:05 Promo code for Donna’s Hands-on Social Media Workshop in Oakville April 13 28:50 Where to send comments; email donna at trafcom dot com or comment here on the show blog. Theme music for Trafcom News Podcast is “Beneath Your Surface” by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley.  

A discussion with Roshan Grossman about “experience communications” A few weeks ago a blog post caught my eye, and  sparked this conversation with Roshan Grossman about “experience communications.” The idea is this: Storytelling is a great way to grab attention and influence people, but a key ingredient is missing if we focus on the story itself. What about the experience behind it? In this conversation, Roshan shares some examples of experience communications in action. Formerly a senior communications consultant and then manager of internal communications for Sun Life Financial Canada, Roshan now owns Hot Quill Communications. Look for her blog at QuillandCurio.com. Here are the show notes: 00:01 Welcome and introduction; about Roshan Grossman 02:45 What is experience communications? 03:20 An example of experience communications within an organization: do and don’t 11:50 Would experience communications work in any kind of organization? Yes; a big budget is not required. 13:30 Examples of experience communications from retail and the automotive industry 16:45 Understanding your goal is essential 19:40 Interview ends 19:45 Discount promo code for Donna’s upcoming Hands-On Social Media workshop 20:00 Donna speaking at IntraTeam conference in Copenhagen about podcasting and storytelling 21:12 Comment from Peter West about microphone used to record Trafcom News Podcast; now using the Blue Yeti 20:45   Send comments to Donna at Trafcom dot com or post your comment below. Theme music for Trafcom News Podcast is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley

Advice for nonprofits getting started with podcasting: An interview with Joe Carleo, APR If you work or volunteer for a nonprofit organization, you’ll want to hear this conversation with Joe Carleo, APR, the founder and executive producer of Advanced Language and Media Services, based in North Carolina. In this 26-minute podcast, we talk about how nonprofits can get started in podcasting. Here are the shownotes: 00:01 Welcome and introduction of Joe Carleo, APR 01:15 Interview begins with discussion of benefits of podcasting for nonprofits 02:50 Example of podcast Joe produced for PRSA (Public Relations Society of America); measures of podcast success 05:01 Benefits of limited series of podcasts for nonprofit organizations 05:35 Value of upfront research and planning; tips from Joe on measurement. What do you want your audience to say, do or think differently? 07:28 Importance of good production values in your podcast; many low-cost tools make podcasting accessible for nonprofits 12:30 Engaging with podcast listeners; asking for feedback 15:20 Using Google Analytics to learn about listeners and demonstrate value of your podcast to board of directors or others 16:50 Tweaking your podcast based on listener feedback 18:07 What’s the ideal length of a podcast? Example of For Immediate Release, a one-hour podcast; most nonprofits will start with shorter shows 21:40 Detailed audience analysis is essential 22:00 How a podcast can help with fundraising 23:00 Appreciating the power of Web 2.0; tools constantly evolving 25:14 Interview ends 25:25 Send comments to Donna at Trafcom dot com or post your comment on the Trafcom News Podcast show blog Find Joe Carleo, APR online on Twitter at @JoeCarleoAPR or on LinkedIn Theme music for Trafcom News Podcast is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley  

In this episode of the Trafcom News Podcast, I share the five communication trends I think we’ll be seeing in 2013. Using the player above this post, you can listen right now or download the MP3 file to listen later. Or subscribe to the Trafcom News Podcast in iTunes using the link at the top of the page. Here are the show notes: 00:01 Intro and welcome 01:12 Trend #1: Responsive web sites; no more pinching and squeezing the screen! 02:28 Trend #2: More storytelling in our communications; Donna’s interview with Donna Messer on storytelling; blog post about “boring” businesses succeeding in storytelling. 04:18 Trend #3: The ubiquity of authorship; is everyone writing a book? Guy Kawasaki’s new book, Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur. 04:50 Trend #4: Curation – finding, selecting, organizing and sharing the best of relevant content; Donna’s session at the IABC world conference in Chicago in June 2012; short interview with Rosanne Belczak on how she curates content. 07:05 Trend #5: The rising tide of content crap. Brilliant Slideshare on how to avoid getting soaked, by Doug Kessler at Velocity Partners; raise your game, build great content for successful content marketing in 2013. 08:42 Recap of five main trends 09:05 Would you like to be part of the Trafcom News Podcast? Contact Donna via her website at Trafalgar Communications. 09:40 Hands-on social media workshop in Toronto, February 16, 2013; information and registration here. 09:55 Have a comment? Add your comment on the podcast blog or email Donna via her website at Trafalgar Communications. Theme music  for Trafcom News Podcast is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley.    

In this 10-minute podcast, I explore some social media crimes and misdemeanors spotted in the wild recently. Which ones have  you seen? You can listen to the podcast now with the player above or download it to listen later. Or subscribe to this podcast in iTunes using the link at the top of this page. Here are the show notes: 00:01 Welcome and intro; Trafcom News is a podcast about communications tactics – tactics for people who care about communicating in person, in print and online. This episode is about what NOT to do when using social media.  Thanks to Sue Horner for this idea, which started when I told her I was working on a client project that included doing a survey of their competitors' efforts in the social media world. 01:52 It’s a crime for a business to start using social media without a strategy in place. 02:45 Bad practice: Using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. and NOT linking to any of your social media properties from your website.  Why would you want to keep your social media accounts a secret? 03:15 How about companies that don’t fill in their Twitter bio? Twitter gives you 160 characters for a bio, that’s 20 more than you get for a Tweet. Use them! Be sure to include a link to your main website. 03:30 And then we have the Twitter account that’s updated once a month, with a link to a news release. Boring boring boring. Why bother using Twitter if you are not communicating, sharing, entertaining, doing SOMETHING? 03:48 Yet another faux pas: The Twitter account or the Facebook page where customers are lodging complaints and sometimes sharing compliments too. What does the owner of the account do? Ignore the criticisms from customers. Or delete them. They ignore the kudos as well. If you’re putting yourself out there, you have to step up to the plate and engage. Certainly you can take certain conversations offline – directing customers to a toll-free number or support email address but don’t be absent. 04:23 What about businesses that use Hootsuite or TweetDeck to routinely cross post to Facebook and Twitter, using Twitter hashtags and other lingo? This can be confusing to Facebook followers. They will think you’re not communicating clearly. They may also think you’re lazy. 05:01 Remember that Facebook penalizes business pages that use third-party apps to post updates, so people are less likely to see your so-called news in their feeds anyway. 05:30 Here’s another crime: Using a Facebook personal profile page instead of a business page – in other words, Acme Engineering masquerading as a human being with the first name of Acme and the last name of Engineering. 06:15 Social media crimes and misdemeanors mentioned by some of my Twitter and Facebook friends: Amanda Laird –  auto DMs or auto direct messages on Twitter. Barb Sawyers – Facebook business pages that send you too many messages. Know your audience, and don’t over load them with content. Olivia Gadd – people who “collect” people they don’t know on LinkedIn. Peter West – people not using a lapel mic when recording video; messy backgrounds in videos. 08:01 Recap of social media crimes and misdemeanors, this time with a  more positive approach (as social media best practices): Have a clear strategy before using social media as a business. Link to your social media sites from your website. Fill in your Twitter bio completely; be sure to include a link to your website. Publish interesting content, not just links to dull press releases. Be sure all of your content is not self-promotional. Engage. Respect the idiosyncrasies of each social media platform; don’t blindly post Twitter updates to your Facebook page. Please don’t use automatic direct messages (DMs) on Twitter. Use LinkedIn wisely as a business-networking tool, not to collect people like trophies. Set up a proper business page on Facebook; do not use a personal profile page for your business page.

Have you snored through one presentation too many? Or worse, given a snooze-worthy talk? In this interview, Eric Bergman describes his cure for death by PowerPoint (or other slideware used badly). Author of the recently published book Five Steps to Conquer ‘Death by PowerPoint,” Eric gives us tools that offer a fresh new way of looking at presentations. Specifically, he shares these five steps: Put your audience first Structure the conversation Minimize visual aids Convey your message and personality Answer questions throughout You can listen to the podcast now with the player above or download it to listen later. Or subscribe to this podcast in iTunes using the link at the top of this page. Have a comment? Add your thoughts below or email donna AT Trafcom DOT com. Theme music  for Trafcom News Podcast is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley.  

In this podcast you’ll get some practical tips to help you produce useful, relevant and engaging content that meets your target market’s needs and, in the end, your business goals. You can listen to the podcast now with the player above or download it to listen later. Or subscribe to this podcast in iTunes using the link at the top of this page. Some of this material was first presented at a seminar at HalTech. You’ll find the slides at the end of these show notes. 00:01 Intro and welcome 00:45 Some of this material was first presented at HalTech in Oakville 01:10 Many organizations are interested in content marketing because they want to focus more on inbound marketing and less on traditional push marketing. Some of us were doing content marketing before it was called content marketing! 02:14 A main benefit of content marketing: search engine optimization (SEO). 03:12 There’s always a place for sales literature, but that’s not content marketing. 03:38 Content marketing should attract people to your business; people get to know you in a genuine way, with mutual benefit. 04:50 Content marketing is not like a broadcast medium; you’re not talking AT your audience. 04:58 If the main content on your home page is your mission statement, you have a problem. No one cares about your mission statement but you. It’s an internally focused statement more relevant to your employees. What customers want to know: How you can help them. 05:40 Trend today: A lot of websites publish useful information up front, not just info about the company. 06:00 Example of CMO.com, which features useful curated content. If you visit the site, you’ll notice it’s sponsored by Adobe, but it’s a vendor-neutral site with minimal presence by Adobe. 06:50 Various ways to share content: text, audio, video, photos, blog, podcast, e-newsletter, webinar, infographic, white paper, e-book, survey, case study, how-to guide. 08:00 To find out what your target market wants: ask them, and look at your analytics to figure out what keywords people are searching for. 08:45 Be aware of the buying cycle in your industry; at which point is content marketing most useful? 09:38 Other benefits besides SEO: word-of-mouth buzz, getting known as a thought leader, to get leads and business; use social media to amplify content. 10:15 After you create a blog post or other content, tweet about it and mention it elsewhere via social media; be careful not to talk only about your own content. 10:42 Example: Liquor Control Board of Ontario Food and Drink magazine; this is content marketing (print). 11:21 Example: Great video by F-Secure to tell the story about the origins of the Brain virus; watch the video and see the F-Secure guy travel to Pakistan to meet the men behind the virus. See Home Depot’s various how-to videos; these are content marketing. 12:50 You can do content marketing even if your product isn’t sexy. Indium Corporation is blogging and using content marketing very successfully. They manufacture solder paste! 14:00 Be interesting, relevant, consistent to get results. 14:09 Best practices: Know your audience, look at your analytics, create content on a regular basis (editorial calendar can help), think like a publisher, use social media to amplify content, add curation as a tactic so you publish others’ content and not just your own. 15:18 Steal content, but only from YOURSELF. In other words, reuse your own content, repurpose and repackage into a different format. Turn a blog post into a presentation. Turn survey results into tweets, etc. Package your popular blog posts into a newsletter. 16:30 Do not overtly sell your services; be useful and relevant; don’t be dull; curate as well as create. Keep your end goal in mind. Just do it. 17:33 Where to send comments; email donna AT Trafcom DOT com or comment below. Theme music is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley.

  Or: Why you should not try to present like Steve Jobs. In this 26-minute audio podcast, consultant, speaker and author Shel Israel discusses his latest book, Stellar Presentations: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Giving Great Talks. You can listen to the podcast now with the player above or download it to listen later. Or subscribe to this podcast in iTunes using the link at the top of this page. Here are the show notes: 00:01 Intro and welcome; about Shel 1:10 Interview begins; Shel was the first speaker at Third Tuesday Toronto in 2006 02:09 Shel’s background as a storyteller 02:50 People retain and appreciate stories more than information 03:12 Storytelling vs. PowerPoint? Shel uses PPT. Claim to fame: he launched PowerPoint. And we forgive him for it. 03:50 Humans have craved stories forever 05:13 PowerPoint is a means to enhance your presentation’s key points; it should not BE your presentation 06:20 Shel also uses PowerPoint to help him stay on track 07:45 Why you should not try to present like Steve Jobs 10:12 Look inside yourself; what are you good at? 14:00 Last thing the audience wants to hear from an entrepreneur is his business model. Some info is better in a handout, not in your presentation. 17:00 Why Stellar Presentations is aimed at a niche market of tech startup people; how it is useful to many others who speak Interview ends 23:44 Donna’s Podcaster’s Checklist recently updated 24:11 Series of recent posts on Trafcom News blog about content marketing 24:30 IABC/Toronto Professional Independent Communicators meeting on Secrets of Successful Independents March 7 25:00 Audio and podcasting workshop for PWAC Toronto March 24 Where to send comments: Email donna AT Trafcom DOT Com or comment below. Theme music is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley  

In edition 108 of the Trafcom News Podcast, you’ll hear an interview with Sue Johnston of Waterloo-based It’s Understood, who explains how she categorizes communication styles into four personas: artisan, guardian, idealist and rational. Both in the workplace and in your personal life, it pays to know your type! And speaking of workplace, Sue’s new book, Talk to Me: A User’s Guide to Workplace Communication, will be published in February 2012. For now, you can listen to the podcast now with the player above or download it to listen later. Or subscribe to this podcast in iTunes using the link at the top of this page. Here are the show notes: 00:01 Introduction and welcome 01:20 Why communication styles are important 03:00 Sue Johnston’s explanations of the four communication style personas: artisan, guardian, idealist, rational; see her website for more information and tools 09:55 After you’ve discovered your own style, how can you determine someone else’s style? 16:40 About Sue’s book, Talk to Me: A User’s Guide to Workplace Communication 18:01 Send comments to donna AT trafcom DOT com. Theme music is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley.