Welcome to my blog. My goal for the entries that follow is to offer you an ongoing resource of both strategic and tactical (practical) tips on how to engage and connect with any audience on an emotional level – the only level or place that will have meaningful and lasting impact.

The communication marketplace is full of advice on what to say and how to say it, but there is little if any advice that does the following:

1. Offers a theory of communication to hold all the parts together
2. Uses empirically validated science to back up that theory
3. Delivers an integrated approach to communication skills building that makes the learning more practical, self-sustaining, and effective.

At RheemMedia, LLC, we define good communication as “the accurate and effective exchange of meaning,” not the simple conveyance of information and data. As you might agree, taking the original intent and meaning of the source (you for example), and then using language and visual aids to get others to hear, interpret, and understand exactly what the source intended is a serious and difficult process. Getting it right, or at least doing it better, is critical whether you are the CEO of a company trying to create a corporate culture, head of marketing trying to convey the value proposition of a product or service, or an entrepreneur trying to capture the passion and purpose of a new idea.

So, stay tuned and visit us often to learn new, practical and proven techniques to become an even better communicator than you are right now. We promise to deliver a new approach that will make you more effective as a leader, mentor, manager, salesperson, advocator, and relationship builder. We communicate all day and every day, even when we are not talking. Our effectiveness as a communicator is the most critical part of our overall skill set in determining our success in life (no matter how you define it). So let’s get started.

How did I get here? I have been in the communication field for several decades in positions ranging from a cabinet-level speechwriter and science advisor (for the Secretary of Health and Human Services), a full-time consultant to the House Science Committee, a White House correspondent for a national daily, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief of a television news operation, and an award-winning PR executive for a top agency based in New York.

More recently, as President and CEO of RheemMedia, LLC, I have spent the last nine years consulting on communication and media strategy for literally hundreds of CEO’s in the United States and Canada. Assignments have ranged from managing the response to the largest consumer product recall in history, running the national roll-out of a new retail chain, media and presentation training hundreds of CEO’s, and working with over a hundred scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on how to more effectively engage audiences on important science and health related issues. I have consulted for U.S. Senators, Royalty, and non-profits. In all these experiences, my clients have all wanted the same thing – “how can I better convey my message to those I want to reach most?” That is now my full time occupation.

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