Blog
Your Story Matters: leading and living your creative best
Welcome—so glad you’re here. Do you, like me, want to work more creatively, lead lightly, be productive, and design the life you want to live? Are you curious about how storytelling can help you can engage others and shape meaning? If so, I hope you enjoy these posts and I look forward to hearing from you!
Small talk
Red alert: The holidays are coming! Thanksgiving in the U.S. is followed by Hanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and a ton of holiday parties. Which means you should get ready for small talk.This week, I did a little research for myself and discovered a secret three-step...
When Grief comes to call
Grief is a tough master. When you don’t run from him, he’s can show you a way to your deeper creativity.
What you can and can’t afford to forget
Do you forget things? I do…and it bugs me, although the consequences are often minor. Selective amnesia is not such a bad thing. Think of it as a kind of spring cleaning of the mind, so you can free up some room for stuff that matters. That said, here's what I'd be...
When wonder beats words
After a productive day writing, I was burnt out on words. My brain couldn't string any more together. Because most of my work involves words, "no more words" also meant no more work. I needed a break, but with other events coming up on my schedule, it had to be brief....
Ask a better question…create a better world
Whenever I lose my glasses, which, I'm embarrassed to admit, happens increasingly frequently, my world devolves into a glasses-finding operation. Walking through my house, I stop seeing the art, the dog, or the freshly-picked apples on the counter. Instead, I ask,...
Don’t Photoshop Your Life
Over the past weeks, we’ve been forced to listen to a public biography that was photoshopped and edited to a polished, plasticized, perfection. Viewed through the lens of a storyteller, it was a lousy story. The main arc of the story, as much as I could listen to it,...
The Dummies Guide to Disrespect (15 tips)
Enough!! I hate to add anything to the pantheon of required government trainings, but I figured a little handbook was urgently needed at congressional hearings, so I created something you can keep in front of you at committee meetings, hearings, or public events...
A wedding to remind us what matters
This weekend I went to a wedding that broke my heart apart and made it sing. I don't think I ever, Laughed, cried and cheered so much at a wedding. Been so engulfed in a supportive community. Witnessed a pre-wedding, theatre-worthy performance with songs, story, and...
How to support a friend in need
As I’m writing this, my friend Susan Partnow’s husband is having a laryngectomy, a difficult surgery that will take away his ability to speak, except through devices, and hopefully spare him from the cancer that has been hiding in his vocal cords. Susan and her family...
Want more time? Go slow…
A colleague once shared a Montana saying. Question: How do you make cows move fast? Answer: Slowly It was one of the days. I was not succeeding in fitting life into the time available. Maybe I should have known that my jazzy new Adobe podcast editing software,...
Do you have FOF? (Fear of feedback?)
Turns out a lot of us are feedback phobic. I rarely talk about my affliction (the first step in recovery: acknowledge the problem), because clients know me as someone who has taught others how to give and receive feedback. But it's not hard to tell someone else to be...
How to keep your creative spirit from getting buried
Last week, I received this letter from a dear friend: Dear Sally, I'm a wreck. How many times have I heard someone say, "On your deathbed, you won't wish you spent more time at work." But guess what? Today, I wish I could have even gotten to my work. My new saying is...
12 Great Quotes on Creativity (with a few you haven’t heard)
When I was moving into my fifties, I was consumed by an enormous hunger to express myself creatively. It wasn’t that I hadn’t been creative earlier in my life, but, up until then, creativity had been a byproduct of my work, an interest. Now, it became an intention,...
A question to guide your birthday
I'm writing this on my birthday, pausing to reflect on what it is to grow older. I'm not yet ready to share my age, which is odd because I believe in claiming your age. At Ignite Seattle this past May, I closed my talk by inviting audience members, in one...
Does your work make you better?
In her stunning collection of essays (highly recommended) This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, Ann Patchett offers us this simple, yet profound question about marriage she received from her friend, Edra. Quoting Ann: “Does your husband make you a better person?”...
A little retreat from the heat
Some like it hot. I do not. Or at least, not anymore. When I was a kid, swimming was my passion. Those hot, muggy New Jersey summer days often meant time splashing around at the beach or in the pool. Alas, my thermostat reset after I moved to the Northwest, and I no...
When to invite your heart to think (or, How I got a dog last weekend)
Have you ever been wracked by a decision in which your head and your heart seemed at odds? Perhaps a good friend told you to "follow your heart," offering a nourishing counterweight to ruthless reasonableness in a world that can feel heartlessly over-analytic. The...
Three words that can change your life (they’re not what you think)
If I asked you for the three most powerful words you'd use to change a situation, what would you offer? Maybe: I love you. I forgive you. I trust you. I am OK. I am worthy. Yep. These are magic words that change lives. I want to offer you three more Just stop it....
Let’s Swap the Ladder of Opportunity for an Open Circle
Is freedom, independence, and opportunity only for the privileged? How can we invite and bear witness to the stories at the margins that need to be heard?
How often and when should you take a break?
Who needs a break from work? I do. We all do, probably more than we know. But when should we take those breaks, and for how long, to keep our performance rolling during the day? When you search online you'll find a wealth of expert-sounding opinions, with...
Your blog is an ongoing tonic for the soul, and a reminder of what’s possible.
Stephen SilhaWow! You keep writing the most pertinent, passionate, and clear articles I have the pleasure to read. Bravo!
Doug LipmanAs always, Sally, I am dazzled and inspired by the elegance, eloquence and relevance of your writing…
BIll Veltrop
Meet Sally
She’s an inspiring communicator, an original thinker, she weaves big ideas and practical examples together to help her clients take their next big step forward. She teaches leadership presence by modeling it.
She is visionary and practical, vulnerable and solid, accessible and real. A perpetual learner herself, she’s not afraid to take risks to develop the talents of her clients.
Engaging Presence
