Blog Articles

By Diane Ripstein

White Mama

by Diane Ripstein • June 17, 2020

All Mothers Were Summoned when George Floyd died, calling out for his Mama. I can’t write those words without crying. I am a proud White Mama of Black sons. Biracial sons, to be specific. And every day for the past 31 years, I have prayed that they be safe from violence. We All Have a [Read More…]


Just Pick Up the Phone

by Diane Ripstein • May 15, 2020

Nice to See You, But No disrespect, Zoom (Microsoft Teams, WebEx). I appreciate you and I’m using you as much as the next person. But you know what I miss? A phone call. Can We Keep It Simple? A long-time client and I were trying to figure out a time to catch-up. The date settled, [Read More…]


Is It a Doughnut or a Bagel?

by Diane Ripstein • April 15, 2020

Grateful To Be Healthy and now into my fifth week of self-isolating during this pandemic, I’ve enjoyed my share of Netflix, Amazon and HBO binging. But my eyes needed a break, so I turned away from my screens and towards my bookshelves. I Dug Out An Old Classic Originally published in 1989 (yes, the pages [Read More…]


See You On The Screens: Part II

by Diane Ripstein • March 27, 2020

Click below to watch this classic, A Conference Call in Real Life (3:25) and multiply it by many, many orders of magnitude. Our screens are now our daily life. Business conference calls and video meetings (not to mention virtual viewing parties, yoga classes, and cocktail gatherings) are all online. The Wheels of Commerce need to [Read More…]


See You On The Screens

by Diane Ripstein • March 20, 2020

Three Pillows Did you notice the pillow in the photo? About a decade ago, I purchased three of them, all exactly the same. One I am looking at in my office as I type this note to you, one lives in my sister’s meditation room in Toronto, and one lived on my late Mother’s living [Read More…]


I (Heart) You.

by Diane Ripstein • February 12, 2020

Hearts Are Ubiquitous And I don’t mean just because of Valentine’s day. Have you noticed how often hearts pop up in our emoji-laden, shorthand, pop culture? A Little Heart-Based Googling delivers a wondrous abundance of just how vital this organ is to our verbiage. At heart=basically. By heart=from memory. Heavy heart=sadness. Lose heart=discouraged. Big heart=generous. [Read More…]


Dry Spell!

by Diane Ripstein • January 15, 2020

Just Kidding This snowy photo is NOT current. It’s a view of the cars belonging to my condo neighbors and me, during a previous winter. Boston, Chicago, Toronto I have it on good authority (embedded family members) that each of these Northern cities, which one might consider winter cities, is totally dry today. Now we [Read More…]


Going Towards The Light!

by Diane Ripstein • December 18, 2019

It’s Coming The Winter Solstice, that is, and it can’t come a day too soon for me. I’m feeling irrational exuberance about the shift towards more daylight that starts December 21st, always a highlight of my year. We Need Light It’s primal, this need to feel fueled by daylight and the warmth of sunlight on [Read More…]


It’s All About the Connection!

by Diane Ripstein • July 22, 2019

As a Communications Coach, I regularly work with clients who want to connect more successfully with their audiences. But the Bigger Issue Is first connecting with ourselves. Call it the Inner Sell. Or remembering why we care about our topic. Or reminding ourselves why we’re good at what we do. It’s so easy to forget, [Read More…]


Diane in Action:
Wandering in the Desert of Extraneous Verbiage!

by Diane Ripstein • June 14, 2019

Wandering in the Desert is how I describe that feeling you get when you watch a speaker talking and talking, looking for their point, as if it might hopefully arise from the desert sands like a mirage. You know they don’t know where they’re going. You might even see it in their eyes. Not a [Read More…]