The world has changed. You're no longer going to work and you certainly don't see customers. You're working at home where children, a spouse or partner, dogs, the laundry and endless other distractions intrude at any moment, making it difficult to meet deadlines or even feel a sense of accomplishment. You wear a mask when you leave your home. You avoid other people and are afraid to go to the supermarket. When you do get groceries, you wipe them all down with Clorox and wash your produce in soapy water. This is life in a pandemic, and from what the experts say, it isn't going away anytime soon.

This two-part, Zoom Workshop will help you address these challenges and give you guidelines to manage burnout as well as 8 customer service tools. To address burnout, you'll explore how to: Recognize burnout, Connect with others, Share best practices, Establish a routine, including breaks & rewards, and Be a beginner.

On Day 2, as we look at how to provide excellent customer service in these difficult times, we'll examine: Patience, Empathy, Negotiation skills, Listening/Communications, Self-Control, Depersonalization, Humor and Flexibility. Interactive and fun, this workshop is an investment in you. You'll learn that stopping burnout and improving customer service are intricately connected; these practical skills will help you during the challenges of living through a pandemic.

You're faced with customers all day long. On the phone or in person, some have quick questions, while others may need someone to talk with and take up your time. Still others could have health issues or behavioral problems that are difficult to solve. And you're expected to provide excellent customer service while staying within your organization's guidelines. How can you do this without ending each day with a headache?

In this interactive session, learn specific strategies to help you provide excellent customer service while maintaining a healthy balance of service and self-care. With ten tools, and a creative way to identify types of customers, you’ll discover how to protect yourself while meeting the needs of your customers. Working in pairs and small teams, you’ll share your own best practices and learn from each other. This workshop is offered in three-hour and one-hour versions to make it easy to fit into your busy schedule.

What happens when we have to make a presentation--whether to our staff, the board or a room full of strangers? We get nervous and our message gets lost. In this keynote address or three-hour, interactive workshop, learn the fundamentals of effective presentation skills. Find out how solid eye contact is an anchor, learn about posture and gestures and how to use your voice effectively, and tips on crowd control. You'll also see how good talks are organized and how to use visuals without them upstaging you. And you'll leave with a video of yourself in action. Don't miss the chance to stand out every time you talk!

A three-part series designed for job seekers of all ages and levels. Workshop One covers the basics: resumes and cover emails. Learn what makes an effective resume, how to build accomplishment stories, and the best ways to get and retain your reader's attention in cover and target emails. Workshop Two is about key interviewing skills and the role of social media. What skills do you need to reduce nervousness and be able to sell yourself effectively? Interactive and fun, this session builds interview confidence. Workshop Three focuses on strategy, and what traps to avoid. We explore the unpublished job market, how to reach hiring managers, and how to network effectively.

Technology can be a wonderful help when you're looking for work, but it can also be a trap--a dangerous one where you spend all your efforts where there is the most competition and the least likelihood of success. In this interactive workshop learn to recognize the traps and practice strategies that diversify your search methods and get you to the decision makers. Create a job search schedule that enforces these critical lessons.

Looking for work during a pandemic makes a difficult task almost impossible. You can't go to networking events and interviews are virtual. These additional challenges mean you must search smart and make sure you're using technology to increase your chances. But be careful as technology can also be a trap--a dangerous one where you spend all your efforts where there is the most competition and the least likelihood of success. In this interactive workshop learn to recognize the traps and practice strategies that diversify your search methods and get you to the decision makers. Organizations need new staff during the pandemic--especially people who are good at problem solving and working under pressure. Search smart and get yourself hired.

Jean has worked as a therapy dog handler for eight years--first with Bella, and now with Rudy. She is amazed by the ways these well-trained dogs know exactly what each person needs. Her book about Bella: "Joy Unleashed: The Story of Bella, the Unlikely Therapy Dog," reveals these everyday miracles that took place as Bella and Jean visited nursing and hospital patients, and special needs students in the schools. Bella died in early January, 2018, just shy of her 11th birthday. Rudy, who was certified by Pet Partners as a therapy dog in March of 2018, is also really good at his job. Jean initiated a new program at the local courthouse and Rudy now comforts victims before before they testify in their trials.

Jean's talk incorporates personal experience as well as the results of scientific studies that prove how therapy dogs make a difference. But the best is Rudy himself. He gives audiences a first-hand experience of his grace, humor and power to make us feel connected and comforted. He also does some really neat tricks. Invite Jean and Rudy to your next event if you want an uplifting presentation that illustrates first hand the many gifts of therapy dogs.

Jean and Rudy enthralled a room of about 40 at the Connecticut Library Association Conference in their presentation " Going to the Dogs" on Monday, April 29, 2019. This was Rudy's first conference and he worked as if he'd been doing this all his life. The group loved meeting Jean and Rudy, as she explained all the ways therapy dogs make a difference. Her stories about working in hospitals, schools and libraries inspired and amazed the attendees. Most left ready to explore having therapy dogs come to their libraries to improve customer service and share wonderful animals like Rudy with their communities. Shelley Holley MLS, Head of Circulation Services, Southington Public Library. Rudy also gave a similar presentation at the NELA conference in October, 2019.

Designed for organizations that want a fun way to reinforce the excellent work of their staff, Jean and Rudy created eight tips. Just having a therapy dog attend a staff meeting is a wonderful way to set the tone for fun and celebration, and Rudy helped Jean come up with some cool ways to build morale and take care of yourselves as you serve others.