Taking the Stage: How Women Can Speak Up, Stand Out, and Succeed

Chapter ThirteenCraft Career Conversations

One of my own defining career conversations took place at lunch with an actor, Marshall Bell, who was in Toronto to coach our bank's executives in how to deliver their remarks. As the firm's speech writer, I was hosting him at a quaint little seafood restaurant. It would have been easy to sit back and let Marshall regale me with stories about his roles in Stand by Me, Twins, Total Recall, Digstown, and Star Troopers. But because I had been thinking about launching a firm that would teach executives how to speak, the coaching he was providing to the bank's executives greatly interested me—so I probed. As I listened, the thought flashed through my mind that we would make a good team. So I said to Marshall, ...