howtoshare – Page 5 – Surprised By Joy

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

Twenty-five years ago, long before there was MailChimp, one of my projects for Microsoft was to email out their program offers to their 60,000 partners on a quarterly basis. I remember it as one of the most nerve-racking tasks of my job at the time. Not because of the technology, which was no problem, but because if something was wrong with the message we sent out, it had such visibility.

It really is amazing to think about the potential impact that technology has given us. But it also puts a lot of stress on how we share to a wider audience. Whether it’s work-related, part of volunteering on a committee, or a personal appeal to friends to join a cause, we have the ability to reach a broad group. Like my email project, that puts a lot of pressure on how we do it.

That’s why I love this latest episode of the How To Share podcast with corporate communications professional, Brian Hannon.

Brian and I talk about the nuances of professional communication. We explore the importance of understanding the audience, the timing of messages, and the need for authenticity in sharing information. Brian shares insights from his 30 years in corporate communications and journalism, emphasizing the significance of clarity, repetition, and empathy in effective messaging. The conversation highlights the evolution of communication formats and the challenges of simplifying messages for better understanding.

Here are some key takeaways:

Understanding your audience is crucial for effective communication.
Timing can significantly impact how messages are received.
Repetition helps ensure that important messages are not lost.
Segmenting your audience allows for more targeted communication.
Authenticity builds trust in corporate messaging.
Clear and concise messaging is essential in today’s fast-paced environment.
Empathy plays a key role in understanding how messages are perceived.
Feedback loops enhance the effectiveness of communication.
The evolution of communication formats requires adaptation in messaging strategies.
Effective communication is about sharing ideas, not just delivering information.

And a short clip from the episode to whet your appetite:

I’d be honored if you’d listen, watch, provide feedback and subscribe. Here are some ways you can listen and watch to the full episode:

The podcast player embedded below
Click this link to watch in a browser: How To Share Personal Stories
Subscribe to How To Share on Spotify, Amazon Music, or Apple Podcasts
Subscribing to the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@howtosharepodcast

48-How to Get Unstuck: Michael Yang on Saying Yes, Resilience, and Coming Alive – The Life of Try: Personal growth, one try at a time.

What happens when you say “yes” to an adventure? Host Wynne Leon talks with tech entrepreneur and author Michael Yang about his memoir Coming Alive on the Ride and the way motorcycle travel became both a literal journey and a powerful metaphor for personal growth. Michael shares how stepping outside your familiar environment can help you hear “life’s invitation” to dream, venture, and rediscover what makes you feel fully awake.Together they explore resilience through the Korean concept of han—the accumulated weight of difficult circumstances—and how setbacks can become fuel for perseverance. Michael reflects on immigrating from Korea at 14, building a life through gratitude and hard work, and learning (again and again) that rejection doesn’t have to be the end of the story.From riding thousands of miles with a lifelong friend to a memorable run-in with Steve Jobs at Macy’s in 1982, Michael’s stories remind us that courage grows through companionship and curiosity. They also discuss the Korean guiding philosophy of Hongik—living in a way that benefits all humankind—and how our bravest tries can ripple outward in ways we may not expect.In this episode, we cover:Why “accepting the invitation” is simple—but the road rarely runs straightHow to tell the difference between healthy risk and avoidable dangerHan, perseverance, and turning setbacks into strengthThe immigrant mindset: gratitude, effort, and going for opportunityFriendship as a confidence builder—on the road and in lifeCuriosity, rejection, and holding onto a vision (plus the Steve Jobs story)Hongik: living for the wider benefit and making a positive dent in the worldWhether you’re craving a literal road trip or a fresh start at home, this conversation will nudge you toward your next brave yes.The Life of Try is a personal growth and self‑help podcast about getting unstuck, navigating uncertainty, and choosing to try—even when it’s uncomfortable, inconvenient, or not your idea.Hosted by Wynne Leon, the show explores how real growth, reinvention, and discovery often begin not with confidence or clarity—but with a single attempt. Through thoughtful interviews, reflective conversations, and real‑world case studies, each episode examines what it looks like to keep going when doubt shows up, plans fall apart, or life forces a change you didn’t ask for.This podcast is for anyone who:Feels stuck or uncertain about what’s nextIs navigating change, burnout, or reinventionWants to live more intentionally without pretending growth is easyBelieves progress starts by trying—again and againThe Life of Try isn’t about hustle or perfection. It’s about learning as you go, surfacing what matters, and sharing what you discover along the way.If you’re ready to surf the uncertainty, outlast the doubts, and step into your own try‑cycle, you’re in the right place.Links for this episode:48-How to Get Unstuck: Michael Yang on Saying Yes, Resilience, and Coming Alive transcriptMichael Yang's websiteComing Alive on the Ride at Barnes & Noble, Amazon

Links for this episode:

Brian’s blog: Writing from the heart with Brian

Brian Hannon on LinkedIn

Next up!

Stay tuned for next week’s episode when we get great guidance from Dr. Vicki Atkinson on how to receive when others share. A fantastic episode that comes with many great tips about how to deepen our ability to listen.

“Everyone has a talent. What’s rare is to follow it to the dark places where it leads.” – Erica Jong

Do you have a solid idea of what you know? Not what your jobs have been or what roles you have played but the overarching talent, wisdom, and perspective that is uniquely you?

I ask because I’ve spent the last five months trying to figure out what I know. Believe me, I understand that seems like a long time to try to answer what is a seemingly straightforward question. But I found it to be harder than I expected.

Here’s why. I’m bound by a non-compete so that I can’t fall back to the technical expertise that I’ve cultivated for my career, at least not for a few more months. But that has been an incredible opportunity for me to figure out the bigger picture. Instead of just treading the same path I’ve been walking with Microsoft SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, and the other technologies, I’ve had to examine what mountain I’ve been climbing the whole time.

Here’s what I discovered. In the 25 years I’ve been helping people with their collaboration software, I’ve learned a whole lot about how to share.

Not just what buttons to push to share a file, a photo or a calendar, but what makes groups do it well – and also do it poorly.

One of the more stark examples was a team that was so good at sharing not only files but also ideas, contacts, and worries about what could go wrong, they seemed to be able to nimbly handle challenges.

And then the leadership changed to someone who criticized that they talked too much, wanted people to focus on their own tasks instead of helping others, and berated team members for anything shared before it was polished. The leader thought they were “whipping the team into shape” but one of the side effects was that they were squelching vulnerability and sharing.

A couple of months into the new leadership, the team lost a key client. In the debriefing, it became clear that team members had picked up some little warning signs. If they’d shared them, it would have helped put together the big picture that the client was at risk.

While this example is in a professional context, it happens again and again in writing groups, schools, between friends, and more.

We have to share and it’s vulnerable. So we are continually evaluating who the audience is, what are the right permissions and how to identify the right time. That applies to files as well as personal stories, social media, wisdom, and more.

This period of introspection about what I know has pushed me to launch a new podcast, How to Share. It draws not only from my interest and experience but also applicable research and wisdom. My incredible and insightful first season guests will lend their expertise on how to share things such as credit and feedback, passwords, corporate communications, as well as how to receive when others share.

Here’s a short clip from the first episode, Why We Share:

Based on recent technology changes, we learned that embedding the full YouTube video reduces listens and views. Here are some ways you can listen and watch:

The podcast player embedded below
Click this link to watch in a browser: Why We Share
Subscribe to How To Share on Spotify, Amazon Music, or Apple Podcasts
Subscribing to the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@howtosharepodcast

I’d be honored if you’d listen, watch, provide feedback and subscribe.

On the Sharing the Heart of the Matter podcast, Vicki and I also had a fascinating podcast conversation with author Mark Wukas about his incredible debut novel The Kiss of The Night. Please check out this fantastic author and hear how he cultivated his dream to write a book and this plot for almost 40 years!