Talk About Talk - Executive & Leadership Communication Skills

Yes, you can learn to be funny! Do you appreciate humour? Do you ever imagine what it’s like to be on the stand-up comedy stage? Listen as stand-up comedian Hillary Anger Elfenbein (also a fully tenured business school professor) shares her insights on learning comedy, and compares that experience to her experience teaching in the business school classroom.   References & Links Hillary Anger Elfenbein Washington University faculty page – http://apps.olin.wustl.edu/faculty/elfenbeinh/ 6 minutes of stand-up on YouTube (** note explicit content) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTgRecXW5S4 Recommendations: Travis Bradbury’s Emotional Intelligence – https://www.talentsmart.com/ “Here We Are” podcast with Shane Mauss (Hillary is interviewed in this episode – https://www.herewearepodcast.com/episode/16/hillary-anger-elfenbein   Comedy Resources & References Books: “Mastering Stand-Up” – https://amzn.to/2No4BOo “Don’t Wear Shorts on Stage” – https://amzn.to/2JehoO7 “Do You Talk Funny?” – https://amzn.to/2Jbis5m Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper laughing together: https://www.insideedition.com/gloria-vanderbilt-giggles-anderson-cooper-hospital-bed-death-53739 How to be funny: https://www.wikihow.com/Be-Funny https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/what-s-so-funny/201411/eight-steps-becoming-funnier-person https://www.scienceofpeople.com/how-to-be-funny/ Benefits of laughter: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-relief/art-20044456 https://www.gaiam.com/blogs/discover/7-health-benefits-of-laughter Nervous laughter – Stanley Milgram Experiments – https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html   Talk About Talk Weekly Email Blog – https://talkabouttalk.com/blog/#newsletter-signup Andrea – [email protected] TALKING TO YOUR DOCTOR podcast episode with Dr. Tepper – https://talkabouttalk.com/20s2-talking-to-your-doctor-with-north-york-general-hospital-ceo-dr-joshua-tepper/ COACHING podcast episode with Elite founder Stephanie Rudnick – https://talkabouttalk.com/8-coaching-with-elite-camps-founder-stephanie-rudnick/     Interview Transcript Professor Hillary Anger Elfenbein: Thank you so much for getting me to sit down. I’ve been like so scattered all semester. And that was really a delight to just have this on my calendar. Dr. Andrea Wojnicki: I think the listeners and I would love to hear, because I did not see this on your radar when I knew you. I think of you now as the student that always had a smile on her face. So I’m not surprised…. Oh, there we go. There’s the smile. (laughing). I’m not surprised that you’re a stand-up. But you know, I wouldn’t have seen it coming. So my first question is, when and how did you start doing stand-up? HAE: you know, I didn’t see it coming either. I don’t think growing up I ever thought of myself as particularly funny. And what happened was that I fell in love with the classroom, and then being in front of the room. And I really think of myself as a natural introvert. I felt like I was introverted throughout elementary school. I was definitely the person who didn’t really understand what a party was. Isn’t it just the same people who already see each other, but now they’re in a room? I don’t get it. Right? What’s special about that? And it wasn’t until I started teaching that I started to really come out of that shell more. And, students would laugh a lot and tell me I was funny. And it really was one of these reflected self-moments, where it took other people to reflect that part of me, for me to actually realize it was there. I had it maybe in a little bit in the back of my mind. But never thought I would pursue it until I had this little bit of a …midlife… I don’t want to use the word “crisis,” because crisis makes it sound bad. But I would say a “midlife inflection.” So when I turned 44, I realized that 44 is not for most people a really big inflection point. But for me, so many people in my family… my mother was at the time ailing. And she passed away a year later. And she was in her late 70s. And my great uncle who I was helping to care for, he was actually getting close to 100. But he had had Alzheimer’s since he was 88. So maybe I’m making a short story too long. But there was something about that number 44 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when he was about 88. And I thought, you know what, this is my halfway point. AW: Wow HAE: …in a scary way, but in a really loving way. I thought, Okay, I have as much as I’ve had, I have that much more. AW: So when some people reach that midlife moment or realization, they go off and buy crazy things, or they have an affair. But Hillary turns to stand-up! HAE: There was something else that happened at the same time to which was that I go

How do you know whether to trust someone? How do you communicate that you are trustworthy? Trust is imperative. If you don’t have trust, you have nothing. And that goes for both interpersonal relationships as well as for brands. Baron Manett, marketer and founder of Per Se Brand Experience shares his insights on the significance of trust. References & Links Baron Manett, Per Se Brand Experience, & Ensemble Baron on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/baronmanett/ Per Se Brand Experience – https://www.psbx.co/ Ensemble – https://www.ensembleco.com/ Recommendations: Broken Record podcast – https://brokenrecordpodcast.com/ Non-Obvious by Rohit Bhargava – BOOK – https://amzn.to/2RlIu9J BLOG – https://www.rohitbhargava.com/blog Faris & Rosie – http://geniussteals.co/ TRUST Resources & References TEDTalks on Trust – HBS professor Frances Frei – https://www.ted.com/talks/frances_frei_how_to_build_and_rebuild_trust?language=en NPR Ted Radio Hour on Trust – https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/406238794/trust-and-consequences Rachel Botsman Trust TEDTalk – https://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_botsman_we_ve_stopped_trusting_institutions_and_started_trusting_strangers/transcript#t-46322 Trust and income disparity countries – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Levels_of_trust_are_higher_in_more_equal_rich_countries.jpg states –https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Levels_of_trust_are_higher_in_more_equal_US_states.jpg Body language and trustworthiness – https://www.inc.com/rhett-power/5-simple-ways-to-build-trust-with-your-body-langua.html Edelman’s Trust Barometer – https://www.edelman.com/trust-barometer University of Victoria Gustavson Trust Index – https://www.uvic.ca/gustavson/brandtrust/ Talk About Talk Weekly Email Blog – https://talkabouttalk.com/blog/#newsletter-signup Andrea – [email protected] BODY LANGUAGE podcast episode – https://talkabouttalk.com/1-body-language-with-executive-coach-cynthia-barlow/   Interview Transcript Dr. Andrea Wojnicki: Thank you so much for joining us, Baron. Baron Manett: Great to be here. Thanks for having me. AW: So I’d like to start with definition and context. Talk to me about trust, but in a brand sense. Baron Manett: It’s a timely topic, because there’s a lot of people who are questioning if trust even exists anymore – across spectrums, you know, political environments, even how we treat the foundations of marriage. So there’s a general consensus that somebody needs to step up. I think brands have a role now, because we are looking for entities to trust. The way we that we at Per Se, my company, or the way I like to think about a brand, is: A brand is a promise. That’s all it really is. If you think about the products you use, and really, if you go up a level, for your listeners, the brands that you choose – one brand over another – often brands help us organize why we choose and buy one thing over another. Whether it’s a certain type of car, or certain type of jacket, or a place we travel, …. AW: or even a toothpaste, Baron Manett: Or even a toothpaste, right. Which is why you know, speaking of trust there, you really rarely see a toothpaste ad without an endorsement from some sort of dental council. Four out of five recommend. There was a time when four out of five doctors recommended Camel cigarettes as well, back in the day. So trust changes in the context of the time you live in. But right now, I mean, if we go back to that definition: brand is a promise. But really, we measure brands by our actions and experiences. So if you’ve ever gone to a restaurant that you love with your family, a restaurant that you go to all the time. And then one day, you have a bad service, a bad dish, a bad experience. It changes your thought of the restaurant. Where up until that moment you trusted them. AW: they broke their promise? Baron Manett: And they broke the promise, right. So the interesting thing about brands and trust is a promise for you to a brand and a promise to me for the same brand. Could be different. Right? You might wear a certain type of running shoe because it looks great. Whereas I might wear a certain type of running shoe because I need high performance workout for tennis. AW: Or maybe the other way around. Baron Manett: Yah. I probably have that backwards. It looks great when I put my feet up. But you know, what we’re looking for in a brand is personal. And there’s all kinds of research and surveys, there’s trust surveys, and Edelman has something called the Trust Barometer. The University of Victoria does a trust study. So there’s all kinds of places that monitor and measure how trust sentiment is tracking. Because there’s, there’s good business behind it. AW: And there’s more and more evidence of that. Baron Manett:

Dr. Joshua Tepper, CEO of North York General Hospital, shares advice on how to talk to your doctor, including: come prepared with a list; ask lots of questions; if you’re Googling your symptoms, consider the quality of your sources; and lots more! We have all felt unsure, and some of us have felt awkward around our doctor. Here is our chance to learn how to optimize our communication with our doctors so we can receive the best medical care.   References & Links Dr. Joshua Tepper & North York General Hospital Joshua Tepper – http://www.nygh.on.ca/Default.aspx?cid=4658&lang=1 On Twitter – @DrJoshuaTepper North York General Hospital – http://www.nygh.on.ca North York General Hospital Foundation – https://nyghfoundation.ca/ Newsweek’s 2019 Hospital Ranking – https://www.canhealth.com/2019/04/10/newsweek-ranks-top-canadian-hospitals/ Medical Resources & References Dr. Tepper’s education & past affiliations Medical School – McMaster University Family Medicine – University of Toronto Public Policy – Duke University eMBA – Ivey School of Business Inner-City Health Associates Inner-City Family Health Team Society of Rural Physicians. Health Canada Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI). Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Kaiser (Henry Kaiser Family Foundation) – https://www.kff.org/ Public Health Agency of Canada – https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health.html Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) – https://www.cdc.gov/ Cancer Care Ontario – https://www.cancercareontario.ca/en Other Resources & References Books Atul Gawande, “Being Mortal” – https://amzn.to/2Qa5kRc Tim Ferriss, “The Four Hour Work Week” – https://amzn.to/2WoMPib Marie Kondo, “Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing & Tidying Up” – https://amzn.to/2WeQ5aT Gretchen Rubin, “Outer Order, Inner Calm” – https://amzn.to/2WPuUAu Twitter Christine Elliott (Health Minister, Ontario PC party) – @celliottability Doug Ford – @FordNation France Gelena (Ontario NDP health critic) – @NickelBelt Andrea Horwath – @AndreaHorwath Justin Trudeau – @JustinTrudeau Donald Trump – @realDonaldTrump News Sources Fox – https://www.foxnews.com/ CBC – https://www.cbc.ca/news New York Times – https://www.nytimes.com/ The Washington Post – https://www.washingtonpost.com/ The Huffington Post – https://www.huffpost.com/ PODCASTS NPR Podcasts – https://www.npr.org/podcasts/ Tim Ferriss – https://tim.blog/podcast/ Talk About Talk Weekly Email Blog – https://talkabouttalk.com/blog/#newsletter-signup Andrea – [email protected]   Interview Transcript Dr. Andrea Wojnicki: Thank you very, very much for joining us and sharing your expertise on how to talk to your doctor. Dr. Joshua Tepper: Good morning. Thanks for having me. AW: So I’m going to start with a very basic question. What do doctors wish patients would do in preparation for and during an appointment? JT: First of all, we just want people to come in and see us when they need to. We wouldn’t want people at the end of this to feel deterred, because there’s all this work to do. Ultimately, if you’re not feeling great, or you have questions, just come and see us. But it is helpful if you can give a little bit of thought ahead of time to what you need out of that appointment. What are the important things? I increasingly have patients make lists for me. And those lists are really helpful. And then when you actually come into the appointment, you pull up the list and use it. I’m not upset that you made a list. So pull it out and use it and start with the most important things. AW: Okay. Okay, so you said at the beginning, “don’t hesitate to make an appointment.” And I have to tell you personally, and I’ve heard this from other people, “well, should I make an appointment? No, I’ll be fine. The doctor will think it’s nothing, I’m wasting their time, I’m wasting resources…” How do you know when to make an appointment? JT: You know, I think you have to be your own best judge. And it’s more important to err on the side of caution. And the other thing is, even if it turns out to be physically not important, if it’s emotionally distressing for you, that’s enough reason to come in just for the mental reassurance. I don’t want you at home worrying for three weeks, I want you to come in and have this conversation. AW: Right. So a written list. JT: Yeah, I mean, written on your phone, whatever. AW: Right. JT: But it is helpful because I do that before coming in… like you and I today, you thought ahead of time about the questions to make this process go smoother. And it just makes this interaction

Beyond condolences, how can we best support a grieving friend? Grief counsellor Andrea Warnick tells us what to say and do, and what to avoid. For example: yes, use the “D” word; and do not try to “fix” it. The grieving process is not linear. Rather, it is like a squiggly line. So what should a good friend do? Most importantly, “show up”!   References & Links Andrea Warnick AndreaWarnick.com – Grief counselling – https://andreawarnick.com/ Andrea’s affiliations The Dr. Jay Children’s Grief Program- https://drjaychildrensgriefcentre.ca/ Camp Erin (overnight bereavement camp) – https://drjaychildrensgriefcentre.ca/programs/camp-erin/ SickKids Centre for Community Mental Health – https://www.sickkidscmh.ca/ Ontario’s Children & Youth Grief Network – https://www.childrenandyouthgriefnetwork.com/ The Canadian Virtual Hospice (CVH) – http://www.virtualhospice.ca/en_US/Main+Site+Navigation/Home.aspx KidsGrief.ca- https://kidsgrief.ca/ Other Resources & References BOOKS Atul Gawande, “Being Mortal” – https://amzn.to/2Qa5kRc Megan Devine, ‘It’s OK That You’re Not OK” – https://amzn.to/2QdYgmz Brené Brown, “The Gifts of Imperfection” – https://amzn.to/2wa8ESY TEDTalk – Brené Brown’s “The Power of Vulnerability” – https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability?language=en PODCASTS “Terrible, Thanks for Asking” – https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/american-public-media/terrible-thanks-for-asking Esther Perel, “Where do we begin” – https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/where-should-we-begin-with-esther-perel/id1237931798 OTHER Kenneth Doka & Terry Martin, Instrumental vs Intuitive grieving styles – https://whatsyourgrief.com/grief-and-gender-a-preamble/ and http://www.giftoflifeinstitute.org/instrumental-and-intuitive-grievers/ Megan Devine newsletter – https://www.refugeingrief.com/newsletter-thanks/ Talk About Talk Weekly Email Blog – https://talkabouttalk.com/blog/#newsletter-signup Andrea – [email protected]   Interview Transcript Dr. Andrea Wojnicki: Thank you very much for taking the time. So, I thought I would start by asking you about Elizabeth Kubler Ross’s five stage model, because when I think about a friend or a family member who’s going through grief, my mind goes there. Andrea Warnick: Absolutely. Kubler Ross is a great place to start. So yeah, when Kubler Ross did develop her model, (and there’s even controversy around that and whose model it actually was originally), but, you know, it was designed for people who were dying. And to be honest, I think Kubler Ross did some wonderful things for the field of death and dying. It was at a time when the people who were dying were located very far from the nursing stations. The isolation was profound. We have moved very far from death, being in the home to being highly medicalized event, very isolating. And she really taught people that if you want to learn from people who are dying, you need to talk to people who are dying. And I think there was a lot of great things that came out of that. Okay. The problem with a five-stage model is it’s very simplistic, even for the person who’s dying. Wojnicki: It’s very linear. Warnick: I think that people like it because it neatens grief up. And our brains like that. We want it to be a neat process where we start here, and we end at acceptance. My concern with the five-stage model is that it leaves a lot of people feeling as though they’re failing at grief because it’s not neat and tidy. And one day where maybe they’re feeling a little bit of acceptance or, you know, some joy in their life and the next day is a complete mess and they’re feeling angry. I find that a lot of people end up being very judgmental about their grief process. And they’re judging themselves and other people are judging them, and they know other people are judging him. Yeah. And a lot of people feel like they haven’t done it right. And they didn’t land on acceptance. I think it was far too simplistic and people love the idea. But the reality is like a lot of people in the thanatology community, the death community, are really working hard to make sure it’s erased from textbooks that it’s not showing up anymore, because it is setting up a lot of people to feel like they are failures. In terms of the grief process, well, when I’m teaching, I’ll often reference it. But I’ll show people like a big scribble, have a there’s a whole lot more stages and a whole lot more feelings and everything else. I don’t even know that we should call them stages. Wojnicki: So my objective here is to help the listeners have something in their mind – it could be just a few points that will help them feel better equipped to support their friends or family members who are grieving someone. One of the ot

Fonts are on our screens, on paper, on the products we buy, and on signs everywhere! When used effectively, fonts can significantly improve our communication. Patrick Griffin (“the font guy”) shares his advice about choosing the ideal font, considering the white space, and emojis!   References & Links Patrick Griffin Canada Type – https://canadatype.com Font references – https://typedrawers.com https://slashdot.org Fonts Referenced in this Podcast On Fonts The Unicode Consortium – https://unicode.org Emoji proposals – http://unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html Fonts Researcher Frédéric Gosselin – https://recherche.umontreal.ca/english/our-researchers/professors-directory/researcher/is/in14360/ History of Helvetica (Wired magazine) – https://www.wired.com/2015/04/legendary-redesign-helvetica-reborn-30-years/ History of Fonts (FastCompany magazine) –https://www.fastcompany.com/90322896/who-was-garamond-anyway-the-people-behind-typographys-famous-names Fonts vs. typefaces FastCompany magazine) – https://www.fastcompany.com/3028971/whats-the-difference-between-a-font-and-a-typeface Talk About Talk Fonts BLOG – https://talkabouttalk.com/talk-about-fonts-and-emojis COLOUR Podcast – https://talkabouttalk.com/10-communicating-with-colour-with-daryl-aitken-jenn-purkis-lori-ryerson/ Weekly Email Blog – https://talkabouttalk.com/blog/#newsletter-signup Andrea – [email protected]   Interview Transcript Dr. Andrea Wojnicki: He has a business card, I’m really curious to see what fonts are on the business card. It’s very clean looking. Thank you so much, Patrick for being here. Patrick Griffin: Pleasure. AW: So let’s start if you don’t mind by talking about the font industry Patrick Griffin: Okay, let’s start with what I do. I make fonts on demand; I made fonts for retail and make fonts. I just make fonts. I’d be considered a font designer. And I’ve been doing this for about 19 years now. AW: How many fonts do you think you’ve designed or developed? PG: I stopped counting years ago. It’s quite a few. AW: So who are you designing or developing these font families for? PG: I do fonts for banks, I do fonts for publishers, I do fonts for the five major movie studios are like constantly customers of mine. AW: Really? PG: Yeah. AW: because I assumed that graphic designers or maybe designers of packaging, for example, for consumer-packaged goods or who are creating labels, or maybe even who are designing brand logos would be coming to you. PG: those company as well. Yeah. AW: so you can own a font? PG: Absolutely. Yeah, they pay good money to own a font for the simple reason is that, that they own it, they can do whatever the hell they want with it. And that’s one good way to stand out. AW: So if I have a font on my business card PG: So actually, Okay, I know the guy who designed it. This font was originally published by a company called Font Bureau based in Boston,… AW: you can tell just by looking at it – instantly. PG: Yeah, the shapes are very, very distinct, right. I mean, it’s like, there are people who are so into cars that they can tell, you know, tell which car it is, you know, half a mile down the road. Right. Okay, it’s coming towards you. I’m the same with fonts. When I grew up I had two local heroes in Toronto, and they were both type designers. AW: Really? PG: Yeah. I’m very good friends with them now. I grew up. Basically, I was fascinated by the fact that these guys, they just get to draw letters for a living. AW: Yeah, this is fascinating. I agree. Do you think of it as art? Do you think of yourself as an artist? PG: Not reall.? I don’t. I I’m a functionality guy. I make tools for people – I guess to have an easier time with their project to communicate. Yeah, absolutely. Well, that’s, that’s what I do I make communications. AW: That’s also why you’re here. PG: first and foremost, they are communication tools. Fonts. I mean, there’s a lot of history dates back. The moment we invented the alphabet, and the moment with the to reshape the alphabet, we have in effect decided that we want to change the way we communicate. And they’re everywhere. So they are everywhere. Yeah, they’re everywhere. Magic. Actually, something very interesting. In Sweden seven or eight years ago, one day, Stockholm woke up and their main street, all the signs that not have anything on them, the signs were all blank on one of their main streets. But it turned out to be some sort of stunt, that due to tell people that, okay, we are eliminating communication, try to live with that. Like even the street signs, they didn’t have anything on them to prove a point. Sure enough, everybody who was walking on that street was very, very disoriented. And it’s like, they were not sure if this is the shop that th

What do our possessions say about us? Award-winning marketing professor Russell Belk talks about how our possessions (including our clothing, cars, people, collections, gifts, social media pages,…) become part of our identity –or our extended self. Professor Belk highlights the significance of the sharing economy and de-materialization, cultural differences, and our evolving identities in relation to our possessions.   References & Links Professor Russell Belk Schulich School at York University – http://schulich.yorku.ca/faculty/russell-w-belk/ Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_W._Belk Professor Belk’s scholarly articles – https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=klSyVxYAAAAJ&hl=en “Possessions & the Extended Self” – http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.588.621&rep=rep1&type=pdf “The Extended Self in the Digital World” –https://www.msi.org/uploads/files/ATreview13-Belk.pdf Gift–Giving – https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/3/3/155/1792065 Royal Society of Canada – http://schulich.yorku.ca/news/professor-russell-belk-elected-royal-society-canada/ Papers & Scholars Referenced Ralph Waldo Emerson on a “True Gift” – https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/303 William James on Possessions – https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin10.htm Thorstein Veblen on Conspicuous Consumption – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspicuous_consumption Healthy Avatars – https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2009.0130 “The Gift of the Maji” story by O. Henry – http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/GifMag.shtml Nicholas Carr (Atlantic Monthly) – “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” – https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/ Grant McCracken – clothing as language – https://amzn.to/2LtylZk Jerry Zaltman (Harvard) – https://www.hbs.edu/Pages/faculty-search.aspx?q=zaltman John Deighton (Harvard) – https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=6446 Talk About Talk Possessions BLOG – https://talkabouttalk.com/talk-and-learn-about-our-possessions SOCIAL MEDIA podcast episode – https://talkabouttalk.com/7-social-media-with-volterra-founder-andrew-jenkins/ FASHION Podcast episode – https://talkabouttalk.com/16-s2-talking-fashion-style-with-toronto-fashion-weeks-carolyn-quinn/ STORYTELLING Podcast episode – Weekly Email Blog – https://talkabouttalk.com/blog/#newsletter-signup Andrea – [email protected]   Interview Transcript Russell Belk: Pleasure. Dr. Andrea Wojnicki: I thought it’d be great to start with definitions. So maybe let’s start with self and extended itself. What do we mean when we say self? RB: You picked a difficult topic. No one agrees on what the self is, but I guess a simple way of thinking about it would be is what we think about who we are and what others think about who we are. And so extended itself is how that self is conveyed through the things that we own and the things that we do with them. AW: So I keep thinking the word identity, right? RB: Yeah, self and identity are pretty much interchangeable. AW: Okay. So I read in your paper, this quote that I just pulled out, because I thought it was interesting. The core self is a belief rather than a fact. Can you elaborate on that? RB: Sure. We’d like to think that we have an inner self that is unchanging, that is the same self we had when we were children. When we are old and die. But that’s not true. Our self is continually changing, continually evolving. There may be a few things. If I asked you who you are, you might say your name, where you’re from, what you do. It’s a little bit different in different cultures. In India, people would begin with who their parents and their grandparents were and where they’ve lived. And maybe eventually get around to themselves. But by and large, what we answer to that question is what we think about who we are. And as we think about ourselves, we begin to bring in places people and things as a part of that as well. That’s what I’m calling the extended itself. AW: And so there’s a layering… I don’t know if you want to call it a hierarchy? Does that vary by culture? RB: It does to some degree, some cultures are less materialistic. And some are more into lineage. In Chinese culture, for example, you owe a debt to your parents when you’re born for making the gift of your birth to you. And so you pay that back over a lifetime and even after they’ve died. For example, burning paper goods for them to use an afterlife. AW: Wow, wow. Okay, I want to get into materialism in a minute. But first, let’s shift now to the definition of possessions. If I just think about possessions and the extended self, the first image that comes to my mind actually is someone who’s driving a certain brand o

What’s your personal style? Carolyn Quinn, executive director of Toronto Fashion Week provides us with insights on fashion trends, environmental sustainability in the fashion industry, and tips on purchasing clothing and pulling together a great outfit!   References & Links Carolyn Quinn, executive director Toronto Fashion Week Toronto Fashion Week – https://torontofashionweek.to/ Recommendations: Retail Insider – https://www.retail-insider.com/ The Daily Beast – https://www.thedailybeast.com/ Fashion Talks Podcast – https://fashiontalks.ca/about-fashion-talks Designers Smythe… – https://shopsmythe.ca/ … designers who dressed Meghan Markle – https://whatmeghanwore.net/tag/meghan-markle-smythe-blue-coat/ Rosaria Lamanna – http://www.lifetoolsforwomen.com/b/rosaria-lamanna.htm Supreme – https://www.streetwearofficial.com/collections/supreme TalkAboutTalk Weekly Email Blog – https://talkabouttalk.com/blog/#newsletter-signup Andrea – [email protected]   Interview Transcript Dr. Andrea Wojnicki: Thank you so much for joining us, Carolyn. I really appreciate it. Carolyn Quinn: Happy to be here. I’m excited to talk about all things fashion. AW: So I wanted to start with a question that is a bit of a cliché. And hear your take on this. And the question is, what do you think about the saying, You are what you wear? CQ: I think it is such a true statement. I think that we all have to get dressed in the morning and I think we make a decision based on so many different factors. When it’s mid-February and it’s snowy and it’s cold. I find myself personally, I’m in all-black. And you see everyone sort of in this city and in the world dressed dark and I think it really impacts our feelings and now that it’s starting to get warm out you know, I’m starting to pull out all the bright colors and whites and you can see, you can feel that spring is in the air. We also get dressed in a way, in the mornings, almost like an armor. I think that if there’s something that is happening in our life, or you know, affecting our mood. It’s impacted by what we wear very much. And I think that what’s happening internationally in the world, whether it be economic, wars, whatever. Designers design collections based on what is what is happening globally. And it impacts what we what we wear. And again, it’s like an armor. You know, if there’s something negative happening, or positive, or weather, or economics, we outwardly project ourselves based on what we wear in the mornings. Yeah, yeah, very much so. AW: So armor is an interesting word, right? Because I feel like armor is something you put on to shield yourself from the outside. But you’re saying that may be true. It’s also true that you’re communicating from the inside out. CQ: It’s so much a communication piece, you know. There are designers now that are — and I’m sure everybody’s seen it — on either social or in the city. There are slogans on a lot of clothing, right? So whether it be “I’m a feminist” or equal pay, or don’t ask me to smile, and the whole #MeToo movement has really moved that forward. So again, it’s the armor, it’s the subtle, you know, wearing black or wearing bright colors. But then it’s also very much putting it out to the world, right? You know, your stance, your position on things. AW: Right. So there’s the style of what you’re wearing, there’s the color of what you’re wearing. There are the brands that you’re wearing. And people used to, I think, assume that that was communicating a lot. But now, we’ve really gone a step beyond that. And it’s literally having the sentence or the phrase or your motto or your mantra across your chest or on your toque…. CQ: You’re right, very much so. And there’s also the Make America Great Again. The Red Hat. Obviously, the famous Red Hat by President Trump. I’ve seen a number of different renditions of that with different slogans. Where it’s really a take on that and what’s happening in the politics of the world right now. Right? AW: I’ve seen those too. Basically reversing the message. CQ: exactly, AW: Exactly. There are so many things from what you said in terms of directions that we could go … but I actually think the listeners might be interested to hear what you’re wearing. I would be curious if I was listening to this! So Carolyn’s wearing a white short sleeve v neck t shirt, with no branding on it that I can see. And jeans and a lovely blue blazer that has nice piping on the inside. This strikes me as I love the red and white stripe. CQ: When I got dressed this morning, it’s funny… My husband said to me, “where are you going today?” because I’m dressed sort of differently than I normally am. I always I always wear Canadian s

Are you optimistic about our future with ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE? Avi Goldfarb (professor and author of “Prediction Machines”) shares a brief history of AI, various AI applications that are being used in the marketplace, and specific reasons why we should be optimistic about our future with AI.   References & Links Avi Goldfarb Rotman UofT – http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/Faculty/FacultyBios/Goldfarb.aspx BOOK: “Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence” – https://amzn.to/2GoX6Ac LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/avi-goldfarb-46a7473/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/avicgoldfarb The Organizations Creative Destruction Lab – https://www.creativedestructionlab.com/ Marketing Science – https://pubsonline.informs.org/page/mksc/editorial-board NBER – National Bureau of Economic Research – https://www.nber.org/ AtomWise – https://www.atomwise.com/ OpenAI – https://openai.com/ Articles, Books & Concepts Artificial Intelligence – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence “Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence” –https://amzn.to/2GoX6Ac “It’s Complicated: the social lives of networked teens” by danah boyd – https://amzn.to/2PiorYK Machine Learning – https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/an-executives-guide-to-machine-learning Deep learning – https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/deep-learning.asp Google Search + – https://www.fastcompany.com/90308480/40-incredibly-useful-things-you-didnt-know-google-search-could-do AI impact on trade – https://www.nber.org/papers/w24917 Wikipedia pages impact on travel – http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp12053.pdf AI & Communication – https://becominghuman.ai/how-has-ai-changed-the-way-humans-communicate-10369fc2453a AI & Communication – https://www.quantifiedcommunications.com/blog/artificial-intelligence-in-communication “The Matrix” movie– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix_(franchise) The People Ajay Agrawal – http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/Faculty/FacultyBios/Agrawal Erik Brynjolfsson – http://ebusiness.mit.edu/erik/ Elsa Kania – https://twitter.com/EBKania Joshua Gans – http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/Faculty/FacultyBios/Gans.aspx Geoff Hinton – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Hinton Larry Tesler – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Tesler TalkAboutTalk Weekly Email Blog – https://talkabouttalk.com/blog/#newsletter-signup Andrea – [email protected] COLOUR episode – https://talkabouttalk.com/10-communicating-with-colour-with-daryl-aitken-jenn-purkis-lori-ryerson/   Interview Transcript Professor Avi Goldfarb: Thank you. Dr. Andrea Wojnicki: Let’s start with some context. I think our listeners would love to hear how you came from studying economics and then working as a marketing professor at a business school to writing a best seller on AI. AG: Okay, so I was a graduate student in the late 1990s, in economics. And there was this crazy new technology called the internet. So, my dissertation was about competition between search engines before there was such thing as Google. AW: Just to remind some of us or to provide context for the younger listeners… What were those search engines again? AG: So AOL had its own search engine. There was Lycos, there was HotBot. And the dominant player was Yahoo! AW: right. AG: Yahoo! is still around. And I should say Google was in the final data that I use for my dissertation because it was from 2000. And Google had just come out of beta. And I had 20-something search engines in the data and Google was number 17. So they were there, but they were tiny. My teaching was marketing and statistics. And Ajay Agrawal, my co-author in the book, started this program called the Creative Destruction Lab. And the Creative Destruction Lab is a program to help science-based start-ups scale up. And we started in 2012. And in that first year, there was this company called Atomwise, which called itself an AI company. And we never really heard of AI outside of science fiction. And they were building AI for biotech. And then the next year, there were a couple of AI companies. And then the next year became clear that this was a big new technology, because there was a flood of companies doing AI. And pretty soon at the lab, we had more AI start-ups than anywhere else in the world. Because of some quirky history of Toronto, having an important place in that. AW: So Toronto is an AI cluster? AG: Yes. Or at least it started that way, it still plays an important role. But the core technology underlying current excitement of AI, something called Deep Learning. And the perhaps the core researcher and deep learning is man named Geoff Hinton, who’s a computer science professor emeritus now here at Univer

Are you the bossy eldest? The troubled middle child? The baby of the family? Or an only child? Does your personality fit with your birth order stereotype? What about your kids? Listen as Dr. Andrea and her brother, musician and sound producer Brian Campbell, talk about birth order effects, how the stereotypes fit with their family, and why the research is so inconsistent. References & Links Brian Campbell • Email – [email protected] • LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-r-campbell-2018b9b6/?originalSubdomain=ca • Photos – https://talkabouttalk.com/about/ Siblings • National Siblings Day – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siblings_Day • Qs to ask your siblings – https://www.rootreport.com/sibling-tag-questions/ Sibling Order Effects Communication Skills • https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01755.x • https://www.jstor.org/stable/1128089?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents General • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9280.00193 • https://www.pnas.org/content/112/46/14224.short • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656610001406 • https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED074426.pdf • https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/conscious-communication/201709/sibling-relationships-are-cradle-grave • https://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/the-brother-sister-bond/ • https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/field-guide-families/201210/the-secret-powers-middle-children • https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/how-raise-happy-cooperative-child/201605/the-effect-birth-order-children Explanations for Inconsistencies • Ernst & Angst, 1983 • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019188691100345X TalkAboutTalk • Weekly Email Blog – https://talkabouttalk.com/blog/#newsletter-signup • Andrea – [email protected] • Cynthia Barlow Body Language episode – https://talkabouttalk.com/1-body-language-with-executive-coach-cynthia-barlow/ • Bradley Christensen Using Your Voice episode – https://talkabouttalk.com/2-using-your-voice-with-baritone-opera-singer-bradley-christensen/ Other Resources Mentioned • “Bond with Health” with Vanessa Bond – https://www.bondwithhealth.com/ • “Foothills Famous” with Jonathan Stoddart – http://foothillsfamous.com/ • “Portfolio Career Podcast” with David Nebinski – https://www.portfoliocareerpodcast.com/ • “Prediction Machines” by Avi Goldfarb – https://amzn.to/2X9LO9v • TEDTalks – https://www.ted.com/#/ • Toronto Fashion Week – https://torontofashionweek.to/   Interview Transcript Brian Campbell: Yeah, respect, absolutely. Agree with one another all the time, maybe not so much. Andrea Wojnicki: True. Where are you, Brian? BC: Currently, I’m in Half Moon Lake Alberta, in my cozy home just east of Edmonton. I’m sitting in my basement. This is typically the space where I do all my production work. Although once in a while I do come out of my cave and sit at our kitchen table. But I’m sitting in front of a couple of big KRK speakers with my trusty headphones beside me and my laptop. So and this is typically where I sit and do all the production, whether it’s the Edit notes with you, or the audio edits themselves. Yeah, I spent a great deal of time down here either working on my day job or doing the work for TalkAboutTalk. AW: You know, what I think would be cool would be if you took a photo, and we’ll post it in the show notes so that the listeners can see where the editing and mixing happens for each of the podcast episodes, I’m actually curious as well. BC: Okay, I will get my housekeeper on it. His name is Brian , and he’s gonna clean up the base on before he takes a photo. AW: Excellent. Anyway, as the producer and editor of the 13 podcast that we’ve recorded and released so far, you are intimately familiar with the TalkAboutTalk material. And I was just wondering if you have any comments regarding season one. BC: It’s been a journey and a really good one. When we started off I, I viewed it as an opportunity to support my big sister, it was viewed from my perspective anyway, as kind of the collision of our careers. And I’m really happy with the way it turned out. I’ve always been obsessed with communication and perspective, and to be able to be a part of a production where we’re doing the deep dive into how people affect one another, through their ability to communicate. And to, quote, talk, if they’re interested. The content is interesting. I think we’ve got a lot of great guests as well. And then looking at what we’re rolling into. And season two, I think we’re really just getting my feet under so some, some more taboo topics on the horizon, which I think is really important, because I think it’s important to speak to people and to speak to some of the more difficult topics. AW: Yeah, I agree. I’m really excited about those