Communication FUNdamentals

Remember Name That Tune?  Well, today is Wordless Wednesday and I’m asking you to Name That Expression!  This picture represents a communication expression.  Can you figure out what it is?

If you can, post your guess as a comment on this blog post. I’ll be back in a few days to give you the answer!  Watch this blog post for everyone’s guesses and my answer!

Name That Communication Expression!

A Communication FUNdamental from your friends at Art of Eloquence.com!

Last week I hosted the Grumpy Men and the Women Who Love Them show on the Communication Comedy Network.  We talked mostly about the men but a little about women: what makes us grumpy, how grumpiness affects those around us, how we can ungrump ourselves and finally how wives can help their husbands ungrump.  I had two friends on the show sharing their experiences and they were such fun!

Well, Greg and Cindy Holman are back this week to talk about the OTHER SIDE of grumpiness!  It’s the women’s turn so I’m hosting the Grumpy Women and the Men Who Don’t Know We’re Changing show!  We’re going to talk about how women going through the change of life can become grumpy, how it affects us and those around us, how we can ungrump ourselves and how our husbands can help!  Men and women are quite different!  Different things make us grumpy, we handle grumpiness differently and we need different things to ungrump ourselves.

Come share your experiences live on the show!  Are you going through menopause?  Is someone you know going through it?  How has it changed their communication with family and friends?  Has it made them GRUMPY?  Come share your thoughts and find out how we can ungrump the meno grump!

When, Where and How?

When: Thursday, October 1st, 8am Pst/11am EST

Where: Join the call live via your computer: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/19736 or join us live via your phone:

How: to join us after the call: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/19736 scroll down to the Past Episodes and click the orange Listen button next to the show title you want to hear!

We receive some wonderful questions and comments from Art of Eloquence customers each month.  Since many of them have incredible insights and bring up quite interesting ideas, I thought I would begin sharing them with you all about once a month or so. Here’s this month’s question:

“Why don’t you sell hard copy books any longer and what are the advantages of an eBook?” -Dianne

Dianne,

In November of 2008, we became aware of the Child Protective Services Initiative Act (CPSIA) that was passed under the radar and remained unknown to most small business owners until that time.  This law made it very difficult and quite expensive for small business owners to continue selling products manufactured for children under 12.  It requires them to test each batch of product (each lot) for lead and other substances which are not normally found in books anyway.  Small business owners who buy inventory in smaller quantities would be hardest hit along with those crafters who produce one of a kind or make inventory one at a time. In addition to this, the rising cost of postage for both domestic and international customers made it difficult for us to continue to offer our hard copy studies, games and other products.

Rather than close our business as some did at that time, we decided to rewrite all of our hard copy studies as eBooks.  It’s taken us several months to complete four out of the five studies.  In addition, we had to discontinue production of our fabric board game, and other hard copy shippable products.

As long as we were rewriting our studies, we thought we’d make them even better by taking advantage of the inherent features of the technology.  Some of these benefits are common to all eBooks and some are unique to Art of Eloquence!

1. We added embedded links to various resources, articles and information that enhances each study, making them clickable and easy to navigate to the additional information that rounds out each eStudy!

2. eBooks are delivered instantaneously upon purchase! No waiting for delivery, even if you are an international customer!

3. No shipping costs! This can be a HUGE savings for our international customers who would now have to pay as much as $54 for shipping in a reasonable time frame.

4. No extra student fees! Art of Eloquence recognizes that times are financially uncertain for so many.  Since Art of Eloquence no longer has to spend money on inventory, we’ve decided to pass along our savings to our customers in a fresh new way by offering them the opportunity to download our eStudies to be used by EVERYONE who lives in their household.  So there is no need to purchase an additional eBook for each of your children or for husband and wife to have their own copy as in the case of our eBooks for adults.  That’s a HUGE SAVINGS for families right there!  Most other publishers will NOT allow you to do this with their eBooks!

5. Lastly, if you are planning to teach a co op class, you can SAVE BIG with the Art of Eloquence license fee for co op classes. Instead of paying full price for each student taking a co op class, Art of Eloquence charges a very small license fee for increments of 10 students.  AND it caps at 30 + students which means you could conceivably teach a co op class of 100 students and pay for only ONE BOOK plus a small license fee!  Think of the savings for each family member there!

So now, not only are Art of Eloquence studies the most fun way to learn Speech Communication, but they offer , embedded links to even more resources and information, instantaneous eDelivery, no charge for additional family members living in your home and an economic way for co ops to teach communication skills the fun way to as many students as they wish with minimal cost!

Homeschoolers and Christian parents love Art of Eloquence products for all ages including adults!  Check out a few of the comments from this month’s Art of Eloquence’s eMailbag!

(Links were added for reference for those who would like more info on what products or free resources the comments are referring to.)

“JoJo!  Your show is HALARIOUS!!!!!  And I learn things too!  What could be better???!!!! Thank you for all you do!  Have a great day!” -Dana

“I have to tell you that my daughter and I are using your FIMMOLOGY as the basis of our communications and creative writing class this year. I can’t begin to express to you just how much she enjoys reading the stories of FIMM. Her assignments center around how she can re-write his difficulties to get and keep him out of trouble. She really, really is enjoying it. Do you offer something like that as a course? Maybe consider doing it as a webinar? Know that she and I are huge fans of yours!!” -Trudy

“By the way, I’m going to recommend your “Play What You Mean” [The Play Book] as therapeutic help for children with RAD.  It contains many attachment type activities.  :>) Communication is mega-helpful in attachment!” -Becky Joie

Thank you Dana, Trudy and Becky Joie for your comments. We are so very happy your families are having fun with Art of Eloquence!  And thank you to Dianne for your question about eBooks!

If you have a question about communication skills or Art of Eloquence products, post them here as a comment on this blog post. I will answer all questions individually and then pick one per month to post here so that my readers can benefit from your question as well!

Another fabulous video from OneTimeBlind.  Their videos really make you think and I love this one because I sometimes struggle with letting Jesus lead me.  I always seem to want to take back control.  I need to give him the stool and let him sit in it.

From your friends at Art of Eloquence.com

“Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.” -Winston Churchill

For more communication FUN, visit Art of Eloquence.com!

Friday Funnies presents Mark Lowry and Bill Gaither in Cool Water.  Mark is so funny and this is also gorgeous harmony.  Enjoy!

For more fun with communication skills, visit Art of Eloquence.com!

An inconspicuous and understated car parked near ours.

Just another Wordless Wednesday from your friends at Art of Eloquence.com

Are you sometimes grumpy?  Is your spouse?  My friend Cindy Holman occasionally talks about Mrs. Grumpy on her blog.  Mrs. Grumpy is someone who kind of takes over her mood when she’s frustrated.  Now you have to know Cindy.  She such an encourager and always seems to be upbeat.  But like all of us, she gets down sometimes.  It’s at those points that Mrs. Grumpy takes over and it affects her husband and family.  Aren’t we all like that at times?

Having grumpy moments can affect not just our mood but our kids’ moods and those around us.  What happens when we get the grumpy habit?  When grumpiness takes over our spouse?  What does that do to the life of those closest to us?  We’re going to investigate this on my podcast over the next two weeks.

The Communication Comedy Network is proud to present the Talk Talk Show with host, JoJo Tabares [That's ME!] in a two part grumpy series!  Tomorrow is part 1: Grumpy Men and the Women Who Love Them!  And just so the women don’t think this is purely a male issue, next week is part 2: Grumpy Women and the Men Who Don’t Know We’re Changing!

Tomorrow, we’ll be discussing the issues that make men grumpy, how that affects their families and how they and their wives can help turn their frown upsidedown!  Next week, it’s the womens’ turn as we discuss menopause. how it makes women grumpy and tips for turning grumpy into Snow White again without passing through Dopey!

Wow!  I was nominated for the Superior Scribbler Award!  My friend Becky Joie from Rather Be Writing has nominated Communication FUNdamentals for this honor.  Thanks so much Becky Joie!  Coming from a fellow writer, this means a great deal!

Now it is my turn to nominate people. Here are the rules:

The Super Scribbler

1. Each Superior Scribbler, must in turn, pass the Award on to 5 most-deserving bloggy buds.

2. Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author and name of the blog from whom he/she has received the Award.

3. Each Superior Scribbler must display the Award on his/her blog and link to this post which explains the Award.

4. Each blogger who wins the Award must visit this post and add his or her name to the Mr. Linky List at the Scholastic-Scribe’s blog. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who wins this prestigious Award! http://scholastic-scribe.blogspot.com/2008/10/200-this-blings-for-you.html

5. Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

Here are my nominations for Superior Scribbler:

1. Becky Joie Thombs of Rather Be Writing!  She has the most amazing insights, tips and creative posts on subject of writing and grammar.  I look forward to her Dr. Wordweilder post each week too.  He is a very colorful old English gentleman who shares his vast knowledge of grammar.

2. Cindy Holman’s blog is a place of inspiration and renewal.  She is a breath of fresh air and also very creative.  She has inspired me and uplifted me so much since I began reading her blog.  She even prompted me to do a two part series on my podcast about grumpiness that was inspired by her adorable Mrs. Grumpy posts!  She also posts the most inspirational and uplifting music videos!

3. Felice Gerwitz has a blog and a podcast called Information in a Nutshell where she gives tips and advice to writers in order to help them market their books or get published traditionally.  She often has guest authors too with some wonderful insights to the process.  Always informative and very supportive, Felice and her guest authors are a must read for aspiring traditional authors and the self-published alike!

4. If you’re a homeschooler, you’ll want to read Gena Suarez’ blog, Home Where they Belong.  She posts both uplifting homeschool stories as well as news every homeschooler should know including important legislation that may threaten homeschoolers or make life difficult for us.  Gena is the publisher of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, a veteran homeschooler, a dear lady of God!

5. Spunky Homeschool is a homeschool icon these days. She began on Homeschool blogger and now blogs for The Old Schoohouse Magazine as well as over on her own blog.  She is one of the most thorough researchers I know!  She brings political information having mostly to do with homeschooling with all the balanced and respectful diligence unheard of in the main stream news media today!  Check her out!

This week’s question of the week is a little communication quiz!  Can you spot the errors?  Grab your kids and see if they can too.  You can either post your answers here as a comment on this blog post OR you can post this same story on YOUR blog, answer it there and post a comment here with a link to your blog post.  Here you go:

Cindy was rite about the cheese grader being on sail at Walmart.  After all, she does oversea the entire Penny Pinching Club for the grater New York area.  For all intensive purposes, Cindy was the reining queen of savings!

Her friend, Mary, was in dyer need of a of an inexpensive vaccum cleaner so she steaked out Cindy’s house and weighted for her to get home from her seminar, Stretch Your Money Saving Mussels.

When Cindy finally got home, it was midnight and Mary had been so tried, she had fallen asleep in her car.  Though she was very tiered after her long day, Cindy invited Mary invited her to stay the night as it was too late for her to drive back to her county house in the woods.  The too ladies spent a few ours talking about everything from appliances to the price of egg yokes until the they were so sleepy they practically stood their like statutes.

In the morning, Mary was so thankful for all the advise Cindy gave her on savings that she pinched in and made breakfast for Cindy’s children before school.

I’ll be back in a few days to post the errors as a comment on this blogpost.  For more fun learning communication skills, check out Art of Eloquence.com!