When speaking to others, if we truly want to be heard, we need to slow down! I am constantly amazed at the number of people who call my business, with the intent to get me to call them back and leave voice mail messages that require me to listen 4 or 5 times to understand their telephone number. I am not a slow-thinking person. In fact, I have created a career around being effective and efficient, so what’s the deal? Are we in such a hurry to play "tag, you’re it!" that we forget to actually think about how the other person will hear our message or if they will even bother to listen at all? The result is either making our listener frustrated or worse, losing them all together. So, if you are not getting call-backs from your messages, consider how fast you leave your messages and maybe sloooooowwwwww down a bit! HINT: If I notice I have not taken a breath while leaving a message and have to gulp air, at the end, chances are I was talking too fast to get to the end of the message, so I could breathe again. To anyone to whom I have ever left a harried message, my apologies!