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Conovision is all about stories — and the storytellers who bring them to life. Stories about art, culture, and philosophy. Stories that inform, entertain, and inspire. Stories that invite us to reflect on who we are and where we’re going.
Hosted by Jim Conrad — a seasoned broadcaster and voice actor with over 40 years of experience, giving voice to the visions of others in film, radio, and television for a global audience — Conovision marks a new chapter: a platform for Jim to share the stories that matter most to him.
On Conovision, you’ll hear stories of success and hard-won truths, love and laughter, and personal histories from people whose lived experiences offer wisdom for the modern age.
At its heart, Conovision is a living archive — a home for spoken-word prose, poetry, and what Jim calls “Aural Intelligence”: a place where sound, storytelling, and meaning come together to spark reflection and connection.
Production and sound design by GGRP Studios in Vancouver, Canada.
Jim Conrad: Welcome to the
Conovision Podcast, episode eight.
I am Jim Conrad, AKA Cono, and
in the spirit of storytelling, we
will hear the story of Connection
Lab, ConnectionLaboratory.com, with
founder Russ Hamilton, and how the
story of human to human engagement
is so crucially important to the
survival of the human species.
That's later.
But first, a story about why
stories, our stories, matter.
Listening to stories, and telling
them, helped our ancestors
to live humanly, to be human.
But somewhere along the way, our ability
to tell and to listen to stories was lost.
And as life speeded up, as the possibility
of both communication and annihilation
became ever more instantaneous,
people came to have less tolerance
for that, which comes only over time.
The demand for perfection and the
craving for evermore control over
a world that paradoxically seemed
evermore out of control, essentially
bred impatience with story.
As time went by, the art of storytelling
fell by the wayside, and those who
went before us gradually lost part of
what had been the human heritage, the
ability to ask the most basic questions.
Mythologist Joseph Campbell observed one
of our problems today is that we are not
well acquainted with the literature of the
spirit, we're more interested in the news
of the day and the problems of the hour.
Thus distracted, we no longer
listen to those who speak of the
eternal values that have to do
with the centering of our lives.
The news of the day and the problems
of the hour, we have inherited a world
that has lost all real sense of time.
Our most common complaint
is that we have no time.
We moderns are problem solvers,
but the demand for answers,
crowds out patience, and perhaps
especially patience with mystery.
And that which we cannot control, we
deny our own ambivalences, searching
for answers to our most anguished
questions in technique, hoping to find
an ultimate healing in technology.
But feelings of dislocation, isolation,
and of off centeredness persist as
they always do, as they always have.
What do we do with this
confusion, this pain?
How do we understand that inevitable
part of life captured in the term angst,
the anxiety and anguish that seem an
essential part of being alive today?
Tradition suggests listen.
Listen to stories.
For spirituality itself is conveyed
by stories which use words in ways
that go beyond words, to speak what's
called the language of the heart.
A spirituality of not having all the
answers, stories convey the mystery and
the miracle, the adventure of being alive.
I am Jim Conrad, joined by Russ Hamilton.
Hello, Russ.
Russ Hamilton: Hello, Jim.
Jim Conrad: You have a
company called Connection Lab.
Russ Hamilton: I do.
Jim Conrad: Gimme a thumbnail
sketch of what Connection Lab does.
Russ Hamilton: Connection Lab provides
workshops and executive coaching for
um, organizations, individuals that
want to get better at communication,
presentation, and leadership development.
It is a methodology that can save
your business, it can save your
community, and it can save the world.
Jim Conrad: How important in
business is communication?
Russ Hamilton: What's the scale?
Jim Conrad: I'd have to answer that
question by asking you the same question.
Russ Hamilton: Yeah.
So if we say one to 10, how important
is communication in helping a
business fulfill its potential?
Jim Conrad: Thrive.
Russ Hamilton: Thrive, I would say 9.8.
Before it's a business crisis, before it's
a healthcare crisis, before it's a climate
crisis, it's a communication crisis.
Jim Conrad: So companies that
recognize this try to then embody or
teach these skills to their workers,
but is that relationship changing
between employer and employee in
the new technological marketplace?
Russ Hamilton: Constantly.
First of all, it's a new technological
marketplace every 15 minutes,
so it's constantly changing.
We joke in our workshops and say,
well, at least that's the last change.
Oh, thank goodness.
Change.
No more changes.
That's the last.
Oh, hang on, I'm getting a text.
Oh, there's a new change.
Oh crap.
It's constantly changing.
Jim Conrad: And that's stressful.
Russ Hamilton: Totally.
Very stressful.
Again, on a scale.
Some companies are very good at adapting,
so they're very good at self-diagnosis.
They're very, you know, but
those are very small companies.
Big ones really struggle with
adaptation and flexibility.
They struggle with, uh, you
know, adopting new technologies.
They struggle with adopting new cultures.
Um, you know, mergers and acquisitions.
There's a new company that we're
bringing in that's bringing a whole
new culture, and while we want all the
benefits of that organization, we're
also bringing their cultural baggage.
And sometimes that can infect a whole part
of our organization or like most of it.
So it's extremely dangerous for some
companies to have poor self-awareness
and have poor self-diagnosis
skills and to kind of reject that
we're in a river that's constantly
changing every few minutes.
'Cause there are companies that would
prefer just to reject that that's true.
And just focus on what we
control and what we're good at.
And those companies are
short-lived and struggle.
Jim Conrad: What is the spark in a
CEO's brain when he decides or what,
what is the information that he gets?
Is it from a consultant?
Is it from internal diagnostics
to say, okay, we need to hire Russ
Hamilton and bring him in with his
connection lab methodology because
we're obviously not communicating.
And how does that manifest itself
in, let's say, the day-to-day
operations of any company?
Russ Hamilton: A company that doesn't
communicate well often has a very
toxic culture, very protective, very
siloed, very internally competitive.
Dominant personalities tend to suppress
introverts and quieter personalities.
Dominant personalities identify
if the company is safe or not.
The loudest person in the room
gets to determine if the company
is safe to communicate in.
Jim Conrad: Right.
Russ Hamilton: Of course it's safe.
Why wouldn't you think it's safe?
Who doesn't think it's safe?
And of course, everybody who's an
introvert and doesn't feel safe is
gonna sit on their hands and not gonna
communicate 'cause they don't feel safe.
So, we want to be careful not to
generalize CEOs because they are as
varied as any other kinds of human beings.
So this idea that a CEO is suddenly,
you know, its own unique thing, I
wanna be careful not to generalize.
Jim Conrad: Because some of those
CEOs are brought in from other
companies with other cultures.
Russ Hamilton: Yep.
Jim Conrad: And now they either try
to force their culture, what they've
learned, upon this new organization
that they're running, and they can
do that because they're the CEO.
Or they have to try to adapt to whatever
the culture that exists in that company.
Now, usually if they're brought in, that
company isn't, as a new CEO, that company
isn't doing well, and so they have to
try to turn things around, quote unquote.
Russ Hamilton: That's one story.
Another story is the company
has grown out of the founder.
That in fact it's been very, very
successful and the founder has helped
it go from four employees to a thousand,
which is overwhelming for this person who
is great at a technology or a service,
and has no experience organizing a
board, organizing funding, organizing
a variety of finance, organizing
shareholders, IPO, um, I mean, this
person has no experience with that.
And so the existing board says, look,
you've done great and we're gonna find a
role for you, but you are not qualified to
bring this organization to the next level.
Would you like to see it
fulfill its potential?
And that CEO, that man or that
woman, is inevitably, you know,
gonna say yes because this is great,
but it's also very hard to let go.
Yeah.
I've seen a lot of varied
experiences in the C-Suite.
Jim Conrad: Sometimes people don't know
if they built, especially if they built
a company, they don't wanna let go.
Because it's so intrinsically
tied to who they are.
Russ Hamilton: Their identity.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
Russ Hamilton: It can be an
excruciating process to convince or
otherwise remove a founder because
they are now harming their company.
And sometimes the founder is right
when they put on the brakes and
say, we don't want another CEO here.
We don't want another C-suite because
it is a culture based organization
and I am the magnet for that
culture, and they can be right.
Getting a new CEO is extremely dangerous.
Have you seen, I forget the film, the
name of it, but it's basically the
story of Apple, Steve Jobs, and the CEO.
And you know, they bring in the, the
Pepsi guy, you know, the CEO of Pepsi
to come and take over Apple, and
he doesn't understand the product.
You know, he's trying to take all
the money from the older computer and
put it in all these new products, and
they don't want to invest in the thing
that's making them the most money.
And Jobs gets removed.
And of course, you know, that's,
that's a pretty delicate story.
But so are all these stories
are enormously sophisticated
and packed with nuance.
And to your earlier question, the
problem is usually communication,
which can take a while to unpack.
What does that mean, communication?
Because it is a galaxy of
definitions and predispositions.
I've been studying epistemology and
linguistics as part of a requirement
to really understand what's going on.
And did you know that there were
6,000 languages in human history?
There have been 6,000 languages
recorded in human history.
And of those 6,000 languages, 5,000
of them are impenetrable to the other.
I've been caught in a winter storm in
Magadan Russia, Northeastern Russia,
and man, there's no Spanish there.
There's no like Latin based languages.
There's no Scandinavian, Germanic English.
You know that, you are looking at symbols.
You have no idea what they mean.
Jim Conrad: Only the locals know.
Russ Hamilton: Only, and they
look at you like, why are you
standing in eight feet of snow?
And it's like, well, we're
trying to find a restaurant.
But you can't have that conversation
'cause nothing I'm saying is
penetrable to the people hearing it.
Jim Conrad: Now that speaks to
what's happening today, where
the universal language is quickly
becoming our mother tongue, English.
Russ Hamilton: Yeah, it's still
a dominant business language.
It's still the language that
pilots use in pretty much every
commercial airline in the world.
They use English.
It's the language most often
in finance, but language is
also used to separate people.
Think of twins in the house,
kids that are born together.
They suddenly come up with
their own language, right?
They can whisper and hum and talk and use
hand signals, and the rest of the family
has no idea what they're talking about.
And they are pretty good with that.
They're pretty good with the fact
that nobody can understand it.
So language becomes a way to
separate ourselves from people
and isolate, and in a way elevate.
We are better than you and now we're
into a territory that is worth exploring
to say, how is this an impediment to
people around the world communicating?
Jim Conrad: How is language and
tribalism, is language part of tribalism?
Russ Hamilton: I feel like
that's what we're describing.
I think language is self-developed.
It's interesting, there's a couple of
schools of thought around how, 'cause
we don't know, communication is one
of the great mysteries of science.
We don't know who was the first
person to actually use language.
We don't, you know, we've seen artwork
on the walls in France and Africa,
um, but we don't know how it began.
There's the Noam Chomsky
argument that says, one day one
person woke up and could do it.
There's also the more
anthropological background, which is,
Jim Conrad: Over time.
Russ Hamilton: Over
time, it was developed.
Jim Conrad: Our guttural grunts
and squawks and squeaks started to
have different meanings if we link
them together in some way or shape.
Russ Hamilton: That's right.
And anthropologically, you know,
we would kind of as chimpanzees
kind of walk on all fours.
And then we started to walk upright
which left our hands free to
communicate, which was a whole new
thing when we started to stand upright.
Jim Conrad: Yep.
Russ Hamilton: And then when we weren't
working as hard to do things, our facial
expressions started to get involved.
And so the grunts with facial
and with hands started to
offer a communication source.
So there's that school of thought.
Those are the two primary
schools of thought.
That it developed over time,
or one person woke up one day
and started teaching everybody.
Jim Conrad: And we are, as human
beings, we are symbol identifying,
meaning seeking creatures, aren't we?
Tie that back into, in one of your
seminars on leadership development, is
meaning and value a part of the equation?
Russ Hamilton: Yeah.
Well, what that, that question
makes me think of is the distinction
between autonomy and community.
Jim Conrad: Autonomy and community.
Russ Hamilton: 'Cause everybody
has their own definitions of value.
Everybody has their own definitions
of who they are and what they
are and what's happening.
Often those definitions are informed
by the what they're fed and what
narratives they're consuming,
and media they're consuming.
But the difference between autonomy
and community, if you think of a
teeter-totter and on each end of the
teeter-totter at one end is autonomy.
The other end is community.
Where do I put myself at any
given moment between autonomy?
Do I, am I like more on the autonomy side?
What does autonomy mean?
Autonomy means my, how I define my
right to self govern, self determine.
My autonomy, my experience, my
senses, my sense of smell, touch,
taste, sound, all these things.
My personal experience in this world.
My right to determine who I am, to
self govern and to self-identify.
That's autonomy.
Community is you and I in a room together
with some friends in the booth out there
and we are a little community doing a
recording right now on what we assume
is a common mission to create some
interesting content for Conovision.
Both things exist simultaneously, so in
a way, this is our approach to duality.
The particle in the wave, that light
itself is both a particle and a wave.
Communication is both
autonomy and community.
Both have to exist simultaneously for a
successful communication to take place.
And we live in a society that tends
to want us to choose, pick a side.
Do you want to be heavy autonomy
and see the world as a threat to
your autonomy or as a benefit to it?
Or do you wanna live in a community
and see the world as a threat to
the community or as a benefit to it?
The call to action is to embrace
autonomy and community as two opposite
things that are existing in the same
place at the same time, duality.
Jim Conrad: When you're doing your
seminars and explaining that concept,
another part of your practice
and methodology is to make people
aware how they react under stress.
Because we act, react differently when
we're relaxed and we have minimal stress.
If we can have certain ideals, certain
ways and practices that we do things.
But then when we are under stress, all
manner of things begin to occur, including
reflexive thinking, thinking that's been
buried back in there for a long time.
But as soon as we become
stressed out, boom.
So your methodology is to identify that.
Identify when you're in a
stressful situation, but more, more
importantly, look at yourself and,
and see how you react under stress.
Russ Hamilton: Yes.
Uh, how do I show up under stress is
the first primary question out of three
primary questions in our six box model.
We have a six box model, three primary
questions, three primary relationships.
The questions we use as lenses to look
through at the three primary relationships
and they can be applied to everything.
The first question in the six box model
is, how do I show up under stress?
And of course, as soon as I introduce
that question in a workshop, people
kind of glaze over and start thinking
about how they show up under stress.
And it's like, the
answer's not great, right?
So I can see their faces starting
to change and they're like, uh,
you know, am I really supposed?
And I'm like, no, that's not
the purpose of the question.
The purpose of the question is a lens
to look through at our three primary
relationships, self content, and audience.
If you wanna check this out, you can do
this on the Connection Laboratory website,
and we have our six box loud and proud
there, and that's the framework that
we step through into all of our work.
Jim Conrad: So the lens
looks at, uh, self, content,
Russ Hamilton: Audience.
Jim Conrad: And the audience.
Russ Hamilton: Right.
Those are our three primary relationships.
How do I show up under
stress is our first lens.
And instead of going, oh, let me
tell you about how I show up under
stress, that's not the purpose
of the question in this context.
Instead, people will say, well,
what do you mean by stress, Russ?
Because what's stressful for you might be
different than what's stressful for me.
And I'm like, fantastic,
let's have that conversation.
And then the next follow up question
might be which of my skills and abilities
disappear first under stress that I have
in abundance when I'm chill and relaxed,
which was a point you were making earlier.
What a lovely thing to explore.
The next follow up question is, can
I notice how I show up under stress
without judgment or correction, or do I
automatically lay the boots into myself
for being such a jerk under stress.
What a bag of fertilizer.
I showed up that way.
I'm supposed to be a pro, a professional.
But here I am, right?
And now I'm supposed to be the
model for all the, no, no, right?
Can I notice how I show up under
stress without judgment or correction?
And the target phrase, anytime I notice
how I'm showing up under stress, the
target phrase is, isn't that interesting.
Because that one phrase means
it's not right, it's not wrong,
it's not good, it's not bad.
It's just how I'm showing up under stress.
Another follow up question we ask
is, does my audience know more about
how I show up under stress than I do?
Jim Conrad: And the
audience could be anybody.
Russ Hamilton: Could be
anybody in front of you.
Could be one person, could be the
person across from you on the bus.
Jim Conrad: And that
speaks to relationship.
You have to be, you have to be in
relationship in order to have an audience.
Russ Hamilton: Right.
But if I have like a tick that I
don't know about, and the person
sitting across from me on the bus
is like, oh, I hope they're okay.
That person knows more about how I'm
showing up under stress than I do, right?
Jim Conrad: Because of our innate
inability to see ourselves.
Russ Hamilton: We, we, I can't
have your experience of me.
I can't have your experience of me.
I can only have, I'm busy in here
trying to manage what's going on.
And the same for you, man.
So, this question, how do I show up under
stress is a place that we can just spend
the rest of our lives, and people do.
In our case, we use that question and
it pivots into the next question, which,
the next primary question, which is,
how do I want to show up under stress?
If I could choose?
I, I can't end stress in my life.
And the fact is I quite
like some forms of stress.
I show up really well under it.
I like deadlines and things.
I show up well in game time situations.
I kind of love that excitement.
Other people are like, oh, some kinds of
stress are just absolutely debilitating.
But how do I want to, if I could choose.
I wanna honor the stress that I'm
under and still find a way, develop
my relationship to stress, to such
a point where I can choose how
I show up in this moment instead
of my stress choosing for me.
'Cause that's what usually happens.
There's a moment where I just shrug
and I step away from the wheel and
my stress takes over and the next
thing you know, I'm throwing furniture
across the room and I'm gonna have to
rebuild relationships or find a new
job or a new spouse, or who knows what,
'cause I show up poorly under stress.
Jim Conrad: And that, sometimes that
reaction is a reflexive response
from something deep inside you.
So, you know, what you're doing
essentially is kind of business therapy.
Russ Hamilton: Yeah.
I mean, if that's language that's
comfortable for you, I, I'm not
sure I would use that language,
but I'm not attached to it.
I, I'm not attached to outcomes so much.
What I'm interested in is introducing
these questions and it's this methodology
and then helping people use it.
So if they start attaching their
own language to it, fantastic.
If that's, if it's business
therapy, fantastic.
Use that.
Jim Conrad: So how does
stress then influence through
with the lens onto content?
Russ Hamilton: Yeah.
So if we finish the six box,
how do I show up under stress?
Question one, how do I wanna show
up under stress, question two.
Question three is, what do
I want to get better at?
Right?
If I'm noticing how I'm showing up under
stress, if there's a gap between how I'm
showing up under stress and how I would
choose to, what do I wanna get better at?
What competencies do I want to get
better at, so I can start choosing
how I show up under stress instead
of my stress choosing for me.
And people will say, well, Russ, can
I put anything on that list that,
uh, I'm trying to get better at?
And the answer is yes.
Can I put my golf swing on the list?
Yes.
If that's what you want to get,
like making Thai food, yes.
If that's what you want to get better at.
But if you find yourself in a team lead
situation, if you find yourself, you
know, uh, leading a team of people or
an organization or a community center
or a family, you might wanna start
identifying competencies that will help
you and your team fulfill your potential.
And I say it like it's easy.
Identifying the outcome is easy,
but identifying the competency
that's gonna lead to that outcome,
oh, that's a good question.
What is the competency?
And when I say competency,
what's the thing I can practice?
The, like piano.
Or saxophone or whatever.
Um, so those are our
three primary questions.
How do I show up under stress?
How do I wanna show up under stress?
What do I want to get better at?
Our three primary relationships
are self, content, and audience.
My relationship to myself.
How's my breathing?
How's my hydration?
How's my fitness?
How's my sleep?
How's my nutrition?
People dedicate their lives to this
relationship, and it's a perfectly
noble way to spend your life.
To your point, what is my content?
That's our second primary relationship.
What am I good at?
How did I get good?
What do I make every day?
What artifacts do I create every day?
And what if I don't make artifacts?
What if I just have conversations?
Does that count?
What value am I bringing
to these conversations?
What experience or ambition?
That's our second primary relationship,
is relationship to content.
Over there in the right hand
corner is relationship to
audience, and this is a big one.
I mean, not that all of
them aren't big, but does my
audience feel seen by me, right?
Well, first of all, who's
watching me at any given moment?
And can I see them?
But does my audience feel seen?
And almost more importantly, who
decides if my audience feels seen.
And this is a lovely moment in the
workshop where people, you know, make
the thinking face and who decides
if my audience feels seen by me.
And people will guess.
But usually it funnels down to,
don't I decide if I feel seen?
If you're the presenter
and I'm the audience.
Yes.
If you are the audience,
you decide if you feel seen.
We all decide if we feel seen.
This is part of autonomy.
Jim Conrad: And how do
we know if we feel seen?
Russ Hamilton: Well,
that's a great question.
Yes.
What is the, and notice the
word, the operative word is feel.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
Russ Hamilton: So it's a sensation
of feeling seen, and usually it has
to do with, you know, actual, well,
people know when they feel seen.
They, they feel seen by their pets.
They feel seen by toddlers.
They feel seen by members of their
family, who kind of accidentally
connect with each other.
There's no methodology involved.
We're just natural connected people, where
we're naturally connected to each other.
Um, but we are increasingly in a
world where that connection is kind of
marginalized and things that happen out of
relationship are emphasized and amplified.
Uh, but does my audience feel seen?
Does my audience feel heard?
Does my audience feel necessary
for this presentation?
Does my audience feel invited to
inform my process and my content?
What is my feedback process?
What's it really in service of?
All of these questions, under the
relationship of audience, imply a set
of competencies that I can practice or
not in service of that relationship.
So now we have three primary questions
and three primary relationships.
How do I show up under stress?
How do I wanna show up under stress?
What do I want to get better at?
Self, content, audience.
Each of these relationships have
their own set of competencies.
It's kind of like playing three
instruments at the same time.
Saxophone, piano, and drums,
which is why people don't
want to give the presentation.
They don't want to stand
up in front of the group.
Jim Conrad: Most people's worst
fear is standing up in front of
an audience and giving a speech.
Public speaking.
Now why is that do you think?
Russ Hamilton: So, I think
there's a few reasons for it.
One is because you're playing
three instruments at the same time.
And the likelihood of failure is high
with at least one of the relationships.
And people hate failing.
They are terrified, one of their greatest
fears is looking stupid, looking foolish.
Jim Conrad: It's not the, the doing, it's
how I will feel if I fail, when I fail.
Russ Hamilton: Not if, when.
Jim Conrad: Yeah, when I fail.
Russ Hamilton: And what that,
what's that gonna look like?
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
Russ Hamilton: We have
nightmares about it.
We have nightmares, you know, the
actor's nightmare of walking out on
stage and not knowing your lines.
It's an enormous primal fear.
Uh, what we do in our workshops is we hold
it up and we say, isn't that interesting?
And then we actually practice.
That, in fact, you can play all
three instruments at the same time.
You can, you can breathe.
What you have to do is slow down.
And in fact prioritize
relationship with the audience.
'Cause once the audience feels seen
and heard and necessary and invited,
now you are no longer carrying the
burden of a perfect presentation.
You are collaborating in the room.
You're carrying this exchange with
everybody who feels seen and heard.
It's a collaborative effort.
Jim Conrad: So the operative phrase then
would be the audience becomes the content.
Russ Hamilton: I would say the audience
co-creates the content with you.
You have your slide deck, you have
your offer, but you've built it
in such a way where you invite the
audience to constantly inform it.
And if the audience feels seen
and heard, they will, even in
silence, they'll lean forward.
They will give, offer you their
energy and their attention.
Jim Conrad: 'Cause the mistake a lot
of people do, uh, making presentation
is if they have enough technology and
fancy gimmicks and slides, they can
somehow perform an amazing, uh, you know,
presentation that will wow everybody.
Yet people glaze over.
Russ Hamilton: Yeah.
Jim Conrad: Because
they're being talked at.
They're not being talked to.
Russ Hamilton: It's a
different instrument.
If we go back to our six box, people
try to improve their relationship
with the audience by investing in
their relationship with the content.
It doesn't work.
If I change the content on
slide 61 of a 90 slide deck,
that's really gonna get 'em.
Yeah.
It's not, it's not gonna get 'em.
It's a different instrument.
Your piano playing is not gonna get
better when you practice the saxophone.
Your saxophone playing is gonna
get better, which is a priority.
It's a primary relationship.
You need good content, but it's different
than your relationship with your audience.
Relationship with the
audience is curiosity.
What color are their eyes?
What color are their eyebrows?
What shapes do you see?
We actually practice
this in our workshops.
And people start raising their
hand when they feel seen because we
get better as audience members and
presenters, and we take turns being both.
And the more we practice,
the easier it gets.
What was I so afraid of?
Are you kidding me?
And people who were convinced that they
were introverts and terrible presenters
and terrible creators and, and just
awful as a contributor, suddenly have
to re-identify themselves and go,
what if I'm actually good at this?
'Cause I just got a bunch of feedback
from an audience, most of whom I
didn't know, or maybe I work with
consistently, telling me that I'm
the best presenter they've ever seen.
And now their world starts to wobble
and shift because their whole world,
their whole identity is rocked.
I am not a good communicator.
I've grown up my whole life knowing
I'm not a good communicator.
I've always felt that I had things to
say, but I, it is never land, I never had
the tools, I've never had the methodology
that's gonna help me close that gap and
make it possible, make it collaborative.
And the moment it becomes collaborative
and they get feedback from the
audience saying, I can't wait to see
every presentation you do, you are so
good at this, that messes people up.
Jim Conrad: And that can be life changing.
Russ Hamilton: Repeatedly.
That's why I have the
best job in the world.
Jim Conrad: If you were to give me an
example of someone who had a breakthrough,
uh, in your personal experience over many
years of doing this, what would it be?
Russ Hamilton: So, I
have many to choose from.
The person I'm thinking of is probably,
2016, 2017, I'm in Boulder, Colorado.
I've been working with an
organization for six years.
We're doing module two of Connection
Lab, demand a call to action.
Uh, we have eight people in the workshop.
One woman gets up on stage.
Uh, I put her in her late fifties, maybe.
She's well dressed.
Um, she looks great.
She's standing on stage, she's breathing,
she's confident, and it's amazing.
And so she's gonna, she's gonna
do her presentation, whatever that
is, and very quietly, she says,
you don't remember me, do you?
And I said, let's assume I don't.
I have a lot of participants in the world.
Can you remind me how we know each other?
And she said, you were here just
about three years ago doing module,
doing a bunch of module work with
Connection Lab, and she said, I looked
very different in that workshop.
And I said, okay.
And she said, I don't know
if you remember me, but I was
wearing dark gray, black clothes.
I was wearing a smock.
I tried to hide in the world all the time.
I had gray long hair.
And I hid behind it.
And I said, I do remember you.
And she said, um, I did
module one of your workshop.
And I wept like a child because
I was facing my worst fears.
And you helped me see that there
were really nothing to be afraid of.
And the more I practiced and the more
I took a breath and just filled my
lungs from the bottom up and sought the
answer in relationship with my audience.
'Cause I felt so alone
and scared on stage.
But when I started to practice
confronting what I thought was my
worst fear, actually connecting
with people, it wasn't so bad there.
People were kind of rooting for me.
And I kind of had this breakthrough
moment, and you asked me to
tie my hair back, and so I did.
I pulled it into a ponytail so people
could see me, and I did my presentation
and I did it with, you know, watery
eyes and snotty nose and, but you
gave me tissues and I cleaned up
and I, I, I, I shared with the group
what I want my leadership legacy to
be, and I got a round of feedback
that I'd never heard in my life.
And she said, I was so deeply
moved by the first experience,
and I took pages of notes and I
stayed in touch with my cohort,
the people I did the training with.
And, um, four months later,
my communication got so
much better I got promoted.
Uh, I was a, I was
suddenly on a team lead.
I, I'm leading 12 people, you
know, in our marketing department.
And she said, I'd never been
promoted like that in my life.
And she said, I felt like, you
know, I was, I didn't belong
there and it wasn't appropriate.
But the more I did it, and I, I became
a communications leader on the team.
Then a year and a half
later, I got promoted again.
And she said, as you see me
today, I'm in charge of 35 people.
And when I say in charge, I just modeled
the practice of communication and
people feel seen and heard and invited.
And when I saw that you were
coming back from module two, I
was the first one to sign up.
And I said, you have come
a beautiful long way.
And she said, I really appreciate all the,
all the things you've introduced me to.
And without your help,
I, I would never be here.
So I just, I just wanna say thanks.
Jim Conrad: That's a great story.
That's a great story, Russ.
Thank you for being here.
Russ Hamilton: Of course.
Jim Conrad: Um, give us a
plug again for Connection Lab.
Russ Hamilton: Connection Lab
is ConnectionLaboratory.com.
Um, that's our website.
We have the podcast Lab Notes and, yeah,
we talk to participants all over the
world who've been through the workshop
and talk about their practice with
the six box model and the six modules.
Um, so I encourage people to check
out the website, check out, I'm
on LinkedIn and social media.
Uh, we're developing the app,
which I'm very excited about.
We're developing the board game,
which I'm very excited about,
and I'm finally writing the book.
Jim Conrad: Nice.
Thank you, Russ.
Russ Hamilton: Thank you, Jim.
Jim Conrad: The evolution of human
language from its ancient roots to
modern complexity reflects the deep
interplay between biological, cognitive,
environmental, and social factors.
The development of syntax and grammar
allowed humans to move beyond simple
communication, while the diversification
of languages into distinct families shows
the adaptability and richness of language.
As humans migrated and adapted to new
environments, their languages evolved
to reflect both their changing needs
and the complexities of their cultures.
Understanding this evolution
provides valuable insights into the
nature of human cognition, social
organization, and cultural development.
The evolution of human language
is a testament to the adaptability
and creativity of human beings.
The invention of writing allowed language
to be preserved and standardized, while
the rise of global languages and the
impact of digital communication have
further shaped the ways in which language
functions in contemporary society.
As the world becomes more interconnected,
language will continue to evolve,
influenced by both technological
advancements and cultural exchanges.
The study of human engagement shows how
humans think, communicate, and interact
with one another, offering a window
into both our past and our future.
That was episode eight of
the Conovision podcast.
We heard a story about stories from
The Spirituality of Imperfection:
Storytelling and The Search for Meaning
by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham.
As well, The Evolution of Human
Language: From Ancient Roots to Modern
Complexity by author Bruce William.
And, of course, Russ Hamilton,
and the story of Connection
Lab and Russ's stories.
Amazing.
Thank you for listening.
And as always, remember, we
are all stories to be told.