by cstrauss | Dec 20, 2025 | Business
I just spent the weekend at the CSP Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, surrounded by 150 Certified Speaking Professionals, some of the best speakers in the world…. And I couldn’t speak. Not a whisper. Not a croak. Nothing. I arrived with a perfectly normal voice the night before the Summit. Woke up the first morning with acute laryngitis, and by breakfast had officially been rebranded as a Certified Silent Professional. Which, as you can imagine, is not a designation the National Speakers Association currently offers. Yet.
For a group of people whose professional identity revolves around ideas, delivery, nuance, timing, and the ability to land a point with precision, being silent turns out to be a fascinating social experiment. (And for my colleagues who know me well… especially for me!) For the entire time I had fully formed responses running through my head, insightful, well-timed, hilarious (IMHO) with absolutely no way to express them. It was like participating in an important Zoom meeting in my head with my mic on mute. I nodded. I smiled. I gestured. I typed notes into my laptop and according to some of my group members, communicated like a less intelligent Stephen Hawking. At one point, I seriously considered making cue cards using my television background resources.
During lunch on day 2, I sat next to a speaker I’d never met before. He didn’t know me, my work, or my background. And he talked. He talked about his business. What was working. What wasn’t. What he was wrestling with. And I listened. Fully. Intentionally. Without interruption, not by choice, but by medical necessity. When the conversation wound down, he paused, looked at me, and said: “I just love you.” Which was a surprise, especially since I didn’t say a word.
My dad used to say, “Keep your mouth shut and smile and people will wonder what you’re up to.” This weekend, I realized he wasn’t being funny. He was being strategic. I went to the CSP Summit expecting ideas, connection, and professional elevation. I didn’t expect laryngitis to be the teacher. But it reminded me that communication isn’t just about speaking, it’s about impact. And impact doesn’t always require sound. That said, I am very much looking forward to getting my voice back. Because at least for me, the world is slightly more entertaining when I can talk.
by cstrauss | Mar 13, 2025 | Business
It’s the end of Winter…. not quite Spring. We’re officially in the stretch between now and Memorial Day — the no-holiday zone. It’s that time of year when the days start blending together, and even the most motivated teams can feel like they’re on autopilot.The work gets done. The deadlines are “hopefully” met. But… where’s the fun?
Here’s the thing: people don’t burn out from doing too much. They burn out from doing too much of what drains them. That’s why this is the perfect time to take a step back and ask:
What kind of work feels exciting and easy?
What tasks drain energy faster than a dead battery?
Where do conversations flow, and where do they stall?
When teams know their strengths and how to communicate them, it doesn’t just make the grind easier—it makes the work more meaningful (and even a little fun).
Here are two ideas to play with:
- Discover your team’s Working Genius: What parts of work feel energizing? Which parts feel heavy? It’s amazing what happens when you figure out how to spend more time in your area of genius.
- Words matter: The way we say things changes everything. Try experimenting with simple phrases to see what sparks better conversations. Sometimes the smallest shifts make the biggest difference.
And here’s the challenge— Do something to make the next stretch of work matter to you, your team and your entire company. I can help! Reach out if you want to bounce some ideas around.
Because even when the grind is real, the fun doesn’t have to be missing.
by cstrauss | Dec 21, 2023 | Life
The Pause:
“The Winter Solstice, a moment in time
When the Earth and the Sun work together to find
A moment of stopping to shift from it’s track
And roll into a new phase moving forward not back
So today as we experience a collective global shift
Take a moment to stop and send love into the rift
Where we all share this planet and contribute our light
I wish you peace, love and calm on this longest of nights.”
written by Carolyn Strauss to celebrate Winter Solstice at 10:57 pm 12/21/23
by cstrauss | Apr 6, 2023 | How to, Life
Everyone is talking about AI. Some people are incredibly excited about it while others have dread. I was kind of mixed about it until I realized all of the things that AI can’t do.
*AI cannot replace any of the things that make us unique, human or valuable to other people.
*AI is not creative. It is just compiling information that other people have already put out there.
*AI is not compassionate,. It cannot tell how you’re feeling and give you a hug to make you feel better. It can’t tell how your family member is feeling when they just want to be with you in the silence until they feel better.
*AI is not designed to create connection. It does not facilitate humans connecting with other humans in a way that they feel the physical emotional and spiritual energies that each human carries with them whereever they go.
As human beings we are designed to create a tribe. To surround ourselves with people who love, appreciate and acknowledge us for our strengths our weaknesses, our geniuses and our faults.
So with all of this “Artificial Intelligence”, I invite you to dig even deeper into your “Actual Human-ness”. Lean into your desire to be creative, to form teams, tribes, groups, families, friends, and organizations that lift each other up. AI can’t do that.
by cstrauss | Sep 6, 2022 | Life
Remember the first day of school? “What did you do on your Summer Vacation?” was the question we all got when we went back to school after summer vacation.
When I grew up, school started the day after Labor Day. That’s today. And the first question the teacher would ask is, “what did you do over your summer vacation?”, sometimes we had to write an essay. The challenge was to pick the one stand out experience that would help influence who we would become moving forward.
Thinking about that now is not a bad exercise. Can you think of one thing you did during this past 3 months- summer time that will have an influence on you moving forward? Was it a place you went, a person you met, or was it something you learned or did that changes the way you look at the world?
For me this was my summer of bucket list moments. I got to zipline over a waterfall in Alaska and try hang gliding in California. The results of both are mixed and I’ll touch on that later…. But I can say, I don’t regret it, any of it.
As my birthday approaches later this month… I now look forward to what I will do on my next summer vacation. How about you? What did you do this Summer that will make a difference in your life? I’d love to hear all about it!
