Let me share some snippets of my expertise with you. I hope you find them useful and if you would like to chat more, just…
Your voice carries your message—make sure it’s heard. In this video, I share quick-fire tips to present with confidence and clarity:
Skip the “Can you hear me?”
Speak louder—yes, even if it feels awkward
Keep slides short and punchy
Make it about the audience—always
Your opportunity starts when they hear you. Don’t miss it.
How do you catch your lunch? Fast food, “Good Food Quickly,” pizza slices again? How about making your lunch stops planned as much as your KOL stops? And what if you experimented and made time for a mom-and-pop shop lunch or coffee places? Or bring your own and surprise yourself with where you will enjoy it. A park, the zoo, a quick moment bowling a lane or two. It can help you get out of an unsatisfying routine, and it might even give you something to talk about! Make your day not one full of appointments but rather full of exploration, both professional and personal. Where is your favorite place?
How good of an audience member are we? Presenters often face a sea of faces with few smiles, little emotion, and blank stares…or worse, heads down checking phones and squeezing in one or more emails. They tell us speakers to engage with our audiences and that usually involves a strong opening story, some humor, and our movement around the stage making eye contact with the audience. Online can be a sea of…videos off! They can see us, and we cannot see them. So, as an audience and meeting member consider how you look to the presenter, to your boss, and to your client.
Sharing reflections from a recent post-conference workshop. Attendance was small—just three participants—but the impact was significant. The intimate setting fostered rapid learning, engagement, and meaningful dialogue. When people choose to show up, they’re already invested. As facilitators, our focus shouldn’t be numbers—it should be delivering value. The right people always find their way in.
Watch the video to see how small sessions can lead to big takeaways.
When you get discouraged or lose an account or a job, consider not what happened to you but rather consider your skills, not your fate. What are you best at? And how did you show up regardless of what they thought? How can you use your adaptability at this moment of time? How did you get through tough times before? It is so easy to find yourself in a pit of someone else’s making and begin to sit and stare at the sunlight disappearing. Instead of using a shovel to go deeper, use the shovel to carve out steps. Your shovel is your tool of talents. When we let others define us, even in our grandest successes, we are unknowingly setting ourselves up to be unaware of what got us there. It requires that we have faith in ourselves as others have in us.
As we experiment with Artificial Intelligence, I’ve noticed that many of my colleagues rave about how much “content” they can produce using AI saving them time and, perhaps, creativity. Before the internet, our parents used phone directories. Quite literally books with everyone’s name, address, and phone number. The “Yellow Pages” were the commercial sections where you’d find your doctor, plumber, or gift shop. The advertisement was “Let your fingers do the walking.” I wonder if with AI we let our fingers do the talking, writing, “contenting”… all to our discredit. If our posts are really just you and me telling AI to write something that we allude to but not fully write ourselves, exactly how authentic is it? How authentic will it sound? Would we write a letter to a best friend with terminal cancer using AI? Or a valentine? Or a eulogy? I see uses for AI but I never use them to post, write, or correspond. I want my fingers to help me do my thinking and my connecting.
I’ve sat through many presentations lately and too often presenters save the best for last. But leading with action gives people something to connect with right away.
This video explores why flipping the format helps your message stick. Don’t wait—start strong and let your audience experience the value.
A young Jerry Seinfeld interviewed a much older comedian George Burns about how he came up with new material. “My team of writers and I meet for two hours a day and write.” It seemed to dawn on Seinfeld that comedy is written and worked on, it is not waiting for a spontaneous chuckle to emerge. Some comedians work for years on a “bit” to make sure that it works the way they want it to. Jay Leno said the secret to all comedy is in the editing: less is more. My sister wrote 70 books, not of comedy though some were fun, and she told me she wrote for four hours a day even on days when she had nothing to write! As an MSL, I’m going to suggest you do the same thing. Write every day, maybe not for four hours, and not with a team of writers, but every day. And what to write? Here are some ideas to get you started:
Define your job for a bright ten-year-old… Challenge yourself with a five-year-old.
Tell us about your favorite grad school or professional schoolteacher. Challenge yourself to speak about the worst one with charity in your words.
How would you run the company you now work for? Challenge yourself with your last boss or company without any resentment.
Write some opening paragraphs that will engage your KOL. Challenge yourself to answer back as the physician who loves or hates these encounters with you.
Write your career path even if being a forest ranger is not in the cards right now. Challenge yourself by writing about what you really, really want to do with your life.
It is in the writing that you can be thinking and in the thinking, you will become a more adept listener and storyteller…and listener! One of my doctor friends, an intensely smart person, drops me stories written on his phone. Some long, some short. All somewhat emotional and engaging. Plenty of stories. You have plenty too.
Mary Doria Russell, author of “The Sparrow,” a popular novel among my university classes, said that people who go on and on and on and on should join the support group “On and On Anon”! Whenever you’re giving a short or long presentation and you know that what you just said was it… Stop! You are done, that’s all. Sit. Trust your inner self and let it be. Don’t belabor or repeat the it, just let it linger in the air. You’d made your point, enjoy! Take your applause with humility and grace and sit down. Let whoever is in charge ask for “Any questions?” All you need to do is say that magic of wisdom that came from within you and sit.
Ever walk past an exhibit table where the only thing moving is a scrolling phone screen? I’ve seen it so often, and it got me thinking. In my latest video, I share my take on how to shift from passive to present when you're at an event: how standing, making the first move, and having a clear, personal pitch can make all the difference. It’s not about being flashy—it’s about being approachable and memorable.
Lee Goldberg is the ABC meteorologist in New York and a frequent contributor to ABC World News Tonight with David Muir. If you happen to catch his reporting, he has many distinct things about him that make him, well, distinct! He is immaculately dressed to the 9’s. Different each time but completely put together. His glasses often change too and of course are perfectly paired to the wardrobe. And he reports outside. Who could have thought? A weatherman outside! So what? Well, in a world of reporters, weather and otherwise, he is a distinctive statement. He doesn’t make a statement, he is one. He is his own trademark. And a memorable one at that. And then there’s his smile. He signs on with one and signs off with one. He seems like that guy next door who is nice and seems to have his act together all the time… And is so nice! Makes me wonder when I look in the mirror for a big presentation or meeting, am I distinctive? Is there something memorable about how I look? Am I memorable?
So, this time, let’s turn the tables… You tell me! In a Seinfeld episode, George Costanza relayed that every decision he has ever made in his entire life was wrong. Jerry suggests that if every decision is wrong, what if he did the opposite? He even orders a different lunch (“Goodbye tuna on toast, coleslaw, and a cup of coffee; hello chicken salad on rye, untoasted, and a cup of tea!”) which catches the attention of a certain someone. Of course, George goes on to successfully introduce himself as unemployed and living with his parents to a woman he would have previously considered out of his league. Her response with a warm smile, “Hi I’m Victoria!” So I’d like your thoughts… What makes people (or you!) successfully change? How do people make their diets stick? How do we finally decide to comply with our physician’s recommendations? What makes us change our parenting or spousing way of interacting? How do we stop being arrogant, jerky (same thing I guess!), indecisive, unquestioning, unprepared? What do you think is the key to change? Answers below please!
Ever find yourself cramming too much info on your slides? We've all been there. But here's the thing—if your audience is busy reading, they’re not really hearing you.
Watch my latest video to learn why embracing the “less is more” approach in PowerPoint can transform your message. Fewer words, more impact. Let the visuals support you, not compete with you.
Ever find yourself cramming too much info on your slides? We've all been there. But here's the thing—if your audience is busy reading, they’re not really hearing you.
Watch my latest video to learn why embracing the “less is more” approach in PowerPoint can transform your message. Fewer words, more impact. Let the visuals support you, not compete with you.
I gave my wife an orchid five years ago. Did I say 5? Yes! It bloomed once and then just sat there for the next five years. We watered it a bit and we actually forgot about it most of the time. Well, this year it decided to reward us for our passiveness! I wondered what took it so long, what it was thinking, why it was waiting, did we make it suffer… You know, the usual unanswerable questions of life! Now the obvious meaning here is that it is OK to wait, all good things will come to pass in the right time, don’t hurry nature, etc. And I suppose all of that is true. But the first thing I thought of after my guilt of neglect was gratitude that this little thing didn’t give up on itself. And then the stories started to flood me of people who didn’t give up on themselves. The hero’s journey of sorts. Whenever I meet a PharmD or an MD or a PhD or RN or DNP (or a machine shop operator, teacher, tinker, tailor, soldier, spy) I ask this question: “Was it difficult?” And usually as if by some cosmic thing that unites them, they almost always take a step back to think about it, as if they had never given it much thought. And out comes wisdom and a conversation and a moment of nostalgic connection to a most important part of their life. When they bloomed. How about you?
Thinking is often a good thing. At a recent physician meeting the CEO posed a question to the group that he apparently poses to his inner circle repeatedly, “Do you know? Or do you think that you know?” Two vastly different things. Both can have data behind them, but more importantly, only one has confidence and personal responsibility behind them. My editor says, “I’ve been taught from a young age that “think” isn’t as helpful as we *think* it is.” “I think the parachute will open…I think the harness will hold steady…I think I’m ready…I think I saw a bear….I think I love you.” Confidence and responsibility will win the day. Not enough data yet? Go get it…before you see the bear again!
“Think” is a sometimes not so useful word! Do you know or do you think you know?
Ever been in a presentation where the first few minutes are filled with weather updates and casual chit-chat? It often signals nervousness rather than confidence. But what if you flipped the script?
In my latest video, I share a simple yet powerful strategy: start with dessert first. Watch the video to see how you can transform the way you deliver presentations. Let’s make every word count!
Have you ever said that when asked how your next appointment is going to go? Or perhaps you say it silently entering a physician’s office who has a reputation for dining on MSLs! Hope is not a childhood wish. Hope is nothing to be ashamed of. Hope is a good thing. Of course, you’ll frequently hear (perhaps from your manager) the book title, “Hope is not a strategy!” And hope will not replace a strategy. However, it is a fundamental human emotion of optimism. It indicates a desire and a belief. However, it is often disparaged, so it is likely better as a private emotion rather than an answer to your manager. Someone once said, those who live with hope live differently than those without. Hope, like faith in yourself, is that quiet emotion that steadies us, gives us confidence, and becomes our inner emotional friend during difficult times. Those of you who were gymnasts as a child, how did you do that first successful backflip? Those of you who learned another language for your vacation or mission trip, how did you decide to just have the courage to say it in that language? Yes, these kinds of activities are built on skills, they are also built on our inner emotional life. It’s OK to hope and have faith in yourself. As I tell scientific presenters who are nervous before a big speech, “You know what you are going to say, they don’t. They want you to do well for their sake, and frankly after the first two sentences it is in the hands of a greater power than you!” Have hope and live differently.
I went to a funeral recently—a full house, standing room only. The eulogist took the podium silently, looked down at his notes, looked up at us, even scanned the crowd right to left and back again, down to his notes, then looked up and continued the story he started in silence.
His silent ascent to the podium and the silence continuing could not have been more than a minute or two, but it seemed longer—more reverent, more inclusive. And guess what? The crowd was completely silent. We were ready to hear what he had to say.
You can employ this too.
When I’m with a decision maker—an important person—and they’re looking at their screen, their phone, off in the distance, I simply say, “I’m OK, do you need to answer that?” or “Need to get that email off?” Or I put out a blank piece of 8.5x11 paper and I start drawing on it… usually geometric shapes, a Venn diagram, etc.
I do so slowly. This catches their attention and both of us are now looking down at the paper, and I have a collaborator instead of a judge or an impassive physician staring at PowerPoint slides.
The Venn diagram is a good one because the three interlocking circles create that middle circle. That middle circle need not have a name or anything on it. It often houses the future success or the critical question or the thing that we are researching. And of course, our distracted doctor is now looking at our material—our on-the-spot made material—not the company’s brochures (yet).
Use pauses to make sure that you are giving your physician time to take it all in, to think, and to respond. Coaches use W.A.I.T. as their professional mantra: Why Am I Talking?! You can too.
Slow your speech, allow for pauses, note overt and subtle physician interest (leaning forward, asking questions, brighter eyes, head nodding, guttural sounds, etc.). Like in The Princess Bride, “You let me in, prepare to be engaged!”
Recently, a Maryland toddler fell from the 15th story of an apartment building and survived with a broken leg and some internal injuries. An MIT physicist and mechanical engineering professor, Anette Hosoi, said, “It’s not the fall, it’s the landing.” She then went on to speak about terminal velocity, mass acceleration, and other factors.
Her first quote though about the fall and the landing is the one that sticks. She said it first instead of all the data first. And in plain language that everyone can understand.
Later in a tip for parents in high rise apartments, Katie Donnelly, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, cautioned, “Screens keep bugs out, not keep kids in.” The details of why and how can come later; the wisdom is in the first sentence about screens.
An idea for us all, especially when presenting complicated material, is to find a way to make things very clear to any person at any level of education.
Dr. Rudolf Dreikurs cautioned us not to worry about being “perfect” but rather concern yourself with being “useful.”
Oh, and some interesting ideas here: Joshua Abzug, a pediatric orthopedist at the University of Maryland Medical Center, noted that the child landed in bushes with strong branches, which absorbed the energy. Had the child landed in a soft spot, the injuries could have been much worse, perhaps even fatal.
And one more tidbit: Hosoi mentioned that if a rabbit was dropped from an airplane (do not attempt this at home!), it has a 50/50 chance of survival based on its weight… as long as it isn’t a BIG rabbit!
The point to all of this: make your distinction short and clear and full of wisdom… then pile on the facts, if necessary!
