Joanne Tombrakos

When Fastest Is Not Always The Best Route

Early in the summer, I heard Andrew McCarthy speak about his latest book, Who Needs Friends, at Little City Books in Hoboken. The book centers around a road trip he took. It was that conversation that inspired me to take one of my own, which is what I did in August. I rented a Chevy Trax and headed […]

The Push To AI May Be Ruining Your Personal Brand

Marketing, whether that brand is a product, service, or you, is about differentiating yourself. AI literacy is an important career skill to hone. But sounding like AI is not proving you’re AI literate. It’s not engaging. It sounds the same as everyone else sounds.

It’s demonstrating you aren’t thinking for yourself.

The Distraction Addiction And What To Do About It (hint: it’s not eating more chocolate!)

Not that long ago, I began to start my classes by taking a moment to collectively turn our devices to Do Not Disturb. This is paired with a slide image of where to find the Do Not Disturb function on the phone (in case one is not sure). From time to time, it also includes […]

The Cost Of Overpromising And Underdelivering

One of the negotiating tips I received in my neophyte days of selling was to always underpromise and overdeliver. I was told it was a much easier way to keep a client happy. Overpromising was a surefire way to get yourself in trouble – especially when it came to advertising sales where the actual delivery […]

Thinking – the Underrated Skill AI Is Trying To Make Obsolete

I often tell my students that if they want to stand out from the crowd they need to take a moment to pause and think because most people don’t. And now we stand on the precipice of a new world order in which LLMs (Large Language Models) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity want to do the thinking for us.

When There Is No Skipping To The End: Learning To Live In The Middle Of The Story

For many years I had the habit of being so anxious to see how things were going to end in whatever novel I was reading that I would skip to the last pages to find out. I’d like to say it got in the way of my enjoyment of the story line but it didn’t. […]