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Featured Columnist:
Steve Adubato, PhD.

Steve Adubato, PhD., has enjoyed a distinguished career as a broadcaster, author, university professor, and motivational speaker. His book with Theresa Foy DiGeronimo is called "Speak from the Heart: Be Yourself and Get Results" and demonstrates that being a great communicator is about making an authentic connection with people, it is not simply about being "a good talker." What follows is an excerpt from from his book.

Speak from the Heart: Chapter 11 – Offer the Gift of Self-Disclosure

Think back to the last time you had a good heart-to-heart talk with someone. What was it about the conversation that made it different from other conversations? Most people can recall a simple conversation that turned into something “more” or something “memorable” when they allowed themselves to open up and disclose some piece of personal information. This kind of self-disclosure can move a conversation onto a higher level of communication and intimacy because it means giving up a piece of yourself. Sharing information with someone or a group of people paints a clearer picture of who you are and what you believe. It is less about intellect and more about emotion — it is about your hopes, your dreams, your fears; it’s about what motivates you, what frustrates you. Personal sharing opens the doors to great communication and more meaningful relationships.

Self-disclosure is not easily boxed into one type or syle of conversation or communication. It can be as intimate as telling someone “I love you” for the first time or as casual as admitting that you just can’t resist chocolate. But on either an intimate or a casual level, self-disclosure is a tool that you should know how to use appropriately to improve the quality and depth of your conversation.

An Intimate Conversation with Thousands of People
The rules about intimate self-disclosure often change when talking as a presenter to a large group. In this circumstance you don’t have time to build a relationship or test the ground for how your personal information might be received. You don’t have the privilege of talking in confidence. You can’t be sure if you’re on common ground. For all these reasons, self-disclosure to a large group is risky. But it can also be a powerful way to connect on a human, personal level. Unlike a written speech with facts and figures, personal stories and disclosures grab attention, engage interest, and make a greater impact. These are all your for the taking when you know how to appropriately use self-disclosure as a public-speaking tool.

Do It Now
Evaluate how you currently use self-disclosure in your day-to-day conversation. Listen to yourself. How often do you say something about what you believe or how you feel?

If you find that you are overly protective of your personal life and avoid talking about yourself, take the risk to offer a small piece of personal information in your next conversation (depending of course on who you are talking to!). Make it something safe, like your feelings about a current event, and watch how injecting a bit of yourself into the conversation will improve your ability to communicate.

If you find that you are too quick to “tell all,” practice holding back. Make an effort to reveal only what’s appropriate to the situation. How well do you know the person you’re talking to? Who else is affected by your disclosure? How long have you known each other? Does this person have a reason to be interested in your personal life? Think before you disclose.

From SPEAK FROM THE HEART by Steve Adubuto. Copyright (c) 2002 by Steve Adubuto. Published by arrangement with The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., NY.

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Member Spotlight:
Gary Getto, Surveillance Data Inc.

Gary Getto is a longtime research, development and marketing guru in the healthcare industry who is now conducting leading-edge research connecting communications with business outcomes for Surveillance Data Inc.

SDI, based in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., provides a wide range of healthcare data and market research to pharmaceutical, consumer products, and healthcare-related companies. Since 1981, SDI has provided healthcare data products with high business relevance as well as the means and know-how to put this data into action. SDI is the leading provider of real-time localized illness tracking and modeling data to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

Gary Getto began his career and the subsequent 16 years working for Becton Dickinson and Company, a manufacturer of medical supplies and equipment. He progressed through product design and development, global strategic planning, and headed the marketing department for the consumer products division.

Gary left Becton Dickinson to become a founder of Alert Marketing, a medical monitoring company that was later acquired by Surveillance Data, Inc., and which has grown to be a multi-national illness monitoring firm with expertise in influenza, allergy, and other related disease monitoring and forecasting.

For 10 years, Gary was president of the educational publishing division of SDI, where he developed extensive expertise in sales, publishing (via print, broadcast, and special event programs), radio and television syndication, database marketing and direct mail.

Most recently, Gary was tapped by SDI to head their division dealing with a breakthrough text analysis technology, EXOGIN. This technology allows the rapid analysis of text and has found great application in the public relations and marketing universe, especially within health care. This technology has allowed development of unique metrics that help companies understand the vast amount of communication about their industry, categories and brands, and correlate the impact of those communications on key business metrics, such as patient visits.

More information can be found on the web at: www.surveillancedata.com.

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Artist Spotlight
Nadine LaFond

Nadïne LaFond was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1971 of Haïtian descent. She is a painter of dream-like mixed media works on paper with surreal / symbolist moods. Inspired by her mother, a dressmaker, the artist's first attempts at art at age four consisted of sketching dresses on her grandmother's wall with chalk and brittle rock. Later, surrounded by their native Haitian art and influenced by her father's pastel portraiture, at age seven her commitment to the visual arts took root. The highly symbolic figurative images of Nadïne LaFond's works draw from a multicultural well and the tales of the paintings are multi-layered.

She has exhibited at museums, galleries, exhibitions and festivals at various sites such as Dusable Museum of African American History's Art & Crafts Festival, Chicago, IL, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL, Pacifico Fine Arts, NYC, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, City Without Walls, Newark, NJ, CrossRoads Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ and Walter Gallery at Rutgers University as well as The Fringe in Newark, Ellen Ashley Gallery in Newark and Art In The Atrium's Cultural Ribbons group exhibition of Morristown. Nadïne's work was selected for the cover of "In Praise of The Muse Women Artists Datebook 2004" published by Syracuse Cultural Workers, an organization that uses art as activism for a multi-cultural vision and was featured on the cover of Inner Realm Magazine, which centers on spirituality, natural living and eco-friendly practices. Publications include a success story in the 2001 edition of Artists and Graphic Designers' Market, published by FW Publications.

Nadïne LaFond and her work follow a philosophy that she calls simply, "Art Lives" which offers that art is an active force in life. She believes that her art plays an essential, nurturing role in her journey through life and uses it to illustrate the direction of her heart and mind. Some of the artist's work is used to make proceeds donations to organizations doing positive work.

LaFond's work is featured as The Marketing Co-op's July postcard. For more information about Nadine LaFond, the art and artist, visit http://www.artlives.net.

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