I usually do my annual round of doctor visits in the fall. As kids go back to school and the air gets crisp, I head to the land of needles and scales.

It was at my annual gynecological exam the good doctor said:

“You don’t usually get to feel one this big.”

He was teaching a young doctor in training how to do a thyroid exam. Then I felt the slightly chillier hands of the younger doctor give my neck a good squeeze before she gave an answering:

“Hmmmmm.”

I left the office with a script for an ultrasound. A…

Interviews rely on hiring managers to develop a connection with a job candidate over the course of 25–45 minutes.

This is difficult enough when you meet each other for the first or second time in person. Now, double the difficulty factor when you’re both virtual.

Regardless of the interview format, one thing has continued to serve me well: My magical question.

This is the very same question I have asked, in every, single interview I’ve conducted for more than 10 years. Are you ready?

“If I gave you an elephant, what would you do with it?”

What is your answer…

During these divisive times, I decided to take a hard approach to some easy listening. My plan was to enjoy 80s tunes with the 2020 filter applied. Here’s how it went for the first seven songs:

#1: “Get Out of My Dreams, Get Into My Car” performed by Billy Ocean

Song Premise: Man sees his dream woman and waxes poetic about taking her on a drive.

With 2020 Filter Applied: A stalker threatens the kidnapping and sexual assault of an unsuspecting woman. He wants her to touch his bumper while they “beep, beep yeah.” Where will their theoretical car ride end — an isolated mountain cabin, somewhere involving a ravine? …

Last year, I set the goal to write a book in under a year. Mission accomplished. This year, I set my sights on finding a publisher in a lot less time. Here are the strategies I used to meet that goal and lessons learned along the way.

#1: Know and follow the publishing conventions of your book’s genre.

Expectations vary about how much of a work a publisher will want to see. For some genres, like fiction, a few sample chapters and a robust outline is expected. …

For a long time, God and I got along just fine.

I stopped by and visited on the holidays. I sent up the occasional good word. I made the occasional ask.

God would then do what God did. He granted the occasional favor. He occasionally wiped a loved one out of earthly existence. (I assumed what immediately followed was a Heaven mansion invite.) It was all your typical deity-type stuff.

While He and I didn’t always agree, I never called His existence into question. But then, things happened.

I always believed in the orderliness of life’s milestones. It begins with…

Who hasn’t asked themselves at least once: Should I start a podcast?

Today a podcast has become almost as common as a Twitter account. It’s something celebrities do when they’re not making other forms of entertainment. It’s something we regular people do to pass the time. Businesses have embraced podcasting, with varying levels of success.

With an estimated 1 million different podcasts out there and with roughly 30 million episodes, there are listener options aplenty. With more than half (55%) of the U.S. …

There are many thousandaire stories on Medium. This one goes out to the rest of us.

Here are my top 6 can’t fail strategies for how to make $1.73 on Medium in a single month:

#1: I write about personal interests I’m passionate about.

I’m interested in a bunch of different stuff — from organ transplants and productivity strategies, to communication and caregiving. Articles on hot and/or controversial topics get a lot of clicks. But, I firmly believe there’s an audience out there for every writer, on every conceivable topic. …

The state of the world has made me a Trash Panda. I should probably qualify this.

A few weeks ago, my friend and I did what creative people do during a pandemic — we started a podcast. One week’s topic was baseball.

The behind-the-scenes here is that I know absolutely nothing about baseball or sports anything, really. I don’t even know how to ride a bike.

Predictably, my questions were not for sports sophisticates or even all that related to baseball (case in point: “Whatever Lola wants, should Lola get?”). So, I thought I was both clever and on-topic when…