“Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Mastering communication is one of the most important building blocks for reaching your full potential. We are fortunate to have many brilliant communicators in our community and we asked some of them to share their lessons and advice below.

Parke Ballantine

My relationship with communication has been shaped by contrast—growing up as an intensely shy, isolated child with a deep inner world but no real language to express it. I was raised in rural New Jersey, where social interaction was sparse, and for much of my early life, I struggled to speak, to connect, to be understood. I think people who meet me today—who see me as articulate, expressive, and even gregarious—would never guess that I once found words nearly impossible to access. Read More>>

Hailey Mccoy

It’s funny— refining my communication skills is actually one of the reasons I started creating content! I knew this was an area I needed to improve. I noticed that when I watched a movie, I had a lot of thoughts but had a hard time effectively communicating them. I started making videos and writing reviews and analyses to help better sort out my thoughts and improve my ability to express what I wanted to say. I love the community I’m in, and since I started making videos, I feel so much more comfortable including myself in these conversations. Read More>>

Karlil Wilson

My ability to communicate effectively is something that I haven’t always been able to do. As I got older, having different experiences within my career, friendships, and relationships, I learned how to communicate my wants, needs, and opinions effectively, but it also helped me to listen to understand instead of just listening to respond. Read More>>

Will Reusch

I developed my ability to communicate by being a classroom teacher, podcast host, and by growing a social media presence. I needed to meet my audience where they were at and keep their attention. I found that understanding them well allowed me to use the best language and strategies available to convey my ideas effectively Read More>>

Glenn Gissler

I grew up with a father who was a skilled communicator; he was a newspaper journalist with deep curiosity, broad interests and a rich vocabulary. Read More>>

De’lon Dixon

From a young age, my mom made sure I was comfortable speaking in front of people. I grew up participating in church, where I helped with communion and led prayers in front of hundreds of people by the time I was 10. That early exposure gave me a strong foundation in public speaking and confidence. Read More>>

Sami Kinnison

I learned to communicate effectively through a mix of experience, curiosity, and trial and error. In eighth grade, I asked my friend Meg why people didn’t take me seriously, and she told me that the way I wrote, even in text messages, impacted how others perceived me. That moment flipped a switch for me. I immediately stopped using text slang, even though I was paying per text at the time, because I wanted to be intentional about how I presented myself. That was the first time I realized that small changes in communication could shift the way people responded to me. Read More>>

Miranda Deblauwe

Connecting with others brings so much joy and purpose to my life. When I was little, I talked to everyone. A true social butterfly, my family had a running joke that we couldn’t go anywhere without seeing someone I knew. Even on a family trip to San Jose, Costa Rica, I managed to connect with a friend who had grown up there but was only briefly in town. It came naturally to me. Read More>>