John R. Miles

I have been submitting a classmate of mine now, this will be our third year, and I'm trying to make his package as robust as possible.

But in order to do it, we need endorsements.

So I have been calling secretaries of state, secretaries of the Navy, former admirals and generals and Medal of Honor winners.

And it's tough even for me to make

those phone calls, especially to that level of people.

I'm doing it because it's a lot easier to say no in electronic communication than when you get someone on the phone and you can express in your tone and your words, just how important it is that this endorsement is to a package.

And I think that's something that we've grown to not realize.

Well, I want to talk about Brene Brown for a second because I'm a huge fan of her and her work and her podcast and everything else.

But I understand you are too.

And it's actually by listening to her

it moved you into a direction to start really studying awkwardness.

How did that come about?

Before we go to talking about your book, since you brought it up, I want to ask you another question.

You said that you're a professional speaker.

A number of months ago, we launched Passion Struck Speakers, our bureau, and speaking is something that comes easily to some people and more difficult to others.

For sure.

What's your biggest advice for an aspiring keynote speaker who's out there?

Okay.

Well, I have one more question to ask you here.

In order...