Vinny Farris runs Link Systems International. He has been the president of that company for 25 years. He has more titles, credentials, and earned authority than most people accumulate in a career. And he signs his emails 'Just Vinny.' That detail tells you almost everything you need to know about how he approaches leadership communication , and why his company is still growing after a quarter century. This was one of my favorite conversations from the first season of Conversa

Savanna Smith returned for a second conversation, and this one went somewhere I didn't expect. We started talking about her music career and ended up in a conversation about identity, fear, and the communication skill of knowing how to introduce yourself in a way that tells the truth about who you actually are. At 20, she's figured out something that takes most people a decade longer to work out. If you heard Episode 2, you know Savanna as a model who books clients by being

52% of realtors wait four to eight hours before calling a fresh lead. By the time they pick up the phone, someone else already answered it. Business communication is not just about what you say. It's about when you say it. And when you're slow, you're not just late. You're invisible. You've already lost. This episode is about speed to lead. Not as a sales tactic but as a communication principle. The speed at which you respond to people tells them exactly how much you value t

You didn't choose where you started. You didn't choose your family, your neighborhood, your economic situation, the injuries that happened, or the doors that closed before you were old enough to know they were open. None of that is your fault. But the rest of your life? That part is entirely on you. And the sooner you accept that, the faster your communication, your leadership, and your career start to move. This episode comes from a very personal place. I want to talk about

If you want people to find you interesting, stop talking. That sounds counterintuitive, but it's one of the most important communication skills I've built over 20 years of leading teams and having real conversations. The person who talks the most at dinner, in the meeting, at the networking event, is almost never the one people remember most. The one people remember is the one who listened. This episode is about silence as strategy. Not awkward silence. Not passive silence.

The best hitters in baseball miss the ball seven out of ten times. A .300 batting average. That number gets you into the Hall of Fame. It's not a consolation prize, it's the definition of excellence in that sport. And when I think about building real communication skills , that statistic tells me everything. Most people treat a failed conversation like evidence that they're bad at communication. I want to argue the opposite. Every time a conversation goes sideways, every time

Most people who start a communication podcast do it because they studied communication in school or built a speaking career. That's not my story. I started Conversations That Count because a car accident put me flat on my back for months, took away every conversation I relied on, and forced me to see something I had been missing: most people stop communicating long before anything dramatic happens to them. My name is David Shaft. I'm a director at a bank. I lead a team of 40

Walk into any modeling agency open call and you will see the same thing: a room full of beautiful people. Everyone is tall. Everyone is photogenic. Everyone has the look. So what separates the one who books from the one who goes home? Communication skills. Savanna Smith figured that out before most people her age figure out what they want for lunch. And it changed everything about how she works. This episode is one I keep coming back to. Not because Savanna is a model, but b

97% of Americans do not have real goals. They have wishes. There is a difference, and most people spend years confusing the two before they figure out why nothing is changing. A goal has a deadline, a plan, and a feedback mechanism. A wish is something you want to be true. Communication skills and leadership development require the same rigor you would apply to a business plan. Your life deserves the same structure. Why Resolutions Fail Every Year The resolution model is bui