The Day I Stopped Shouting

Do you know that feeling when Black Friday ads scream at you from every screen? BIGGEST SALE EVER! DON’T MISS OUT! LIMITED TIME ONLY!

My response? Ugh!!!

It’s exhausting, isn’t it? Like being trapped in a room with a thousand desperate salespeople all trying to out-yell each other.

It’s no wonder we don’t listen anymore. We’ve developed selective deafness to the noise. The louder the marketing, the more we tune it out.

I learned this not through marketing but through my dogs.

Muttley (to the left) and I went for a walk down my country road. It’s a dead-end road at one end with almost never any cars. He was off leash and got distracted by a smell. I called him back. He didn’t come. I yelled him back, he still didn’t come. It felt like the more I yelled, the deafer he became, and before I knew it, he disappeared around the corner. All my screaming was getting me nowhere. So, I just stopped. Everything went quiet. The thing about Muttley is he has separation anxiety from his life before me. So, the second he couldn’t hear me yelling at him anymore, he came trotting around the corner, wondering where I was.

That reminds me of the time I went down that country road with my other dog, Bowie (to the right), a maremma (they are born with selective hearing). He also took off up the road (I know, I’m a slow learner). The trick with him was to throw myself on the ground and pretend I’d hurt myself. He was back in a flash — he’s a guardian dog, you see.

We don’t have to shout but need to understand ourselves and the relationships we have in our world.

Think about the people you really listen to. Not the ones you have to listen to – your boss, that overeager salesperson, the guy mansplaining your own job to you. I mean the ones you want to listen to. The ones whose words stick with you long after they’ve finished speaking.

What do they all have in common?

They’re real. Authentic. True to themselves.

That’s what my latest 21-day course, Finding Your Voice, is about. Not just another course on “10 ways to win friends blah, blah blah”. There are no tricks. No formulas. No shouting over the noise.

Instead, we’re going to dig deep. Find your truth. Your story. Your voice.

Because here’s what I know: When you speak from that place of authenticity, people lean in. They want to hear more. Not because you’re loud or clever or following some rulebook, but because you’re real.

And in a world of endless Black Friday promotions and manufactured urgency, real is revolutionary.

So, if you’re tired of not being heard…
If you’re exhausted from trying to sound like everyone else…
If you’re ready to stop shouting and start connecting…

Join me. Let’s find your energetic voice together. You need it in every life situation.

Not because I have all the answers, but because I’m working on it. I’ve felt the frustration of being drowned out by the noise. And I’ve discovered something beautiful on the other side of that struggle. Just ask my dogs.

Your voice matters. Not the voice you think you should have. Not the voice others expect from you. Your voice. Raw, real, and uniquely yours.