Diana Morris

Who We Are For the last 25 years, we’ve helped thousands of people create the work of their dreams. Our one-of-a-kind books, workbooks, ebooks, flashcards, and hands-on coaching will help you build the communication skills you need to break through and reach the highest heights of success. You know you've got a great future ahead of you. We know it too, and we're serious about helping you.

Diana Morris

My absolute passion is to help people communicate powerfully, listen, lead, and get results. I've worked with thousands of people at companies like American Express, Roche Pharmaceuticals, Rockport, Pfizer, Dun & Bradstreet, Reebok, Tommy Bahama, Ralph Lauren Footwear, Novartis Oncology, Novartis Consumer Health, New York Life, and The Prudential to strengthen their skills in success-critical areas like confident communication, business writing, conflict management, negotiation and persuasion skill, and personal and team leadership. I'm an honors graduate of Harvard University and coauthor of nine books on breakthrough communication and positive change, including:

• Words that Work: Business Writing at Its Best
• Step Out of the Box with a Bang! The Positive Proactive and Excuse-free Work Life
• Hot Situations, Cool Heads: How to Thrive When Conflict Arrives
• Simply Irresistible: How to Speak So People Will Listen, Every Time! (January 2010).

I'm a member of the National Speakers Association, the American Society for Training and Development, the Council of Communication Management, the Society for Human Resources Management, and the International Association of Business Communicators.

In the last 25 years, I’ve done it all. As a writer/editor, my articles have been featured in business magazines around the world. As a speaker and workshop leader, I’ve given talks to hundreds of business people. I’ve coached CEOs and managers, mentored business owners and workers, and advised company officers. I’ve been hired and fired, praised and criticized. I’ve waited months for calls from prospects that never came. Spoken to audiences of 300 and audiences of 3. I’ve put myself in impossible situations, sometimes rising to the occasion, sometimes…well, not. I tell you all this so you know that wherever you are in your career, I get where you’re coming from.

I’ve worn almost every hat in business: employee, salesperson, manager, business owner, clerk, programmer, administrator, author, speaker, event coordinator, chief cook and bottle washer. I know what it’s like to struggle with communication skills. I understand the itch for what’s next and the feeling that it's just around the corner if I can just meet the right people, say the right thing, ask the right questions. And I’m determined to use everything I know about communication to help you reach new heights of success and enjoyment—yes, enjoyment—in your work.

Doug Davin

I have a Masters Degree in English Literature from NYU, and more than 20 years experience building and managing a team of communications experts in a corporate setting. I built and rebuilt a staff that grew to 14 incredibly talented people who earned many awards for editorial and design excellence, including a Gold Quill. Of course, I also made my share of mistakes and learned lots of leadership and business lessons the hard way. But by far the biggest breakthrough of my work life came five years ago when I learned about Appreciative Inquiry, way of working that zeros-in on positive change. At Breakthrough Skills, we always say that your most valuable asset is your ability to change for the better. Appreciative Inquiry is all about changing for the better, and we go about it in a very specific way.

Rather than asking “What’s wrong?” we ask “What’s right?” and “How can we get more of that?” This is the experience I poured into the books Diana and I have written, especially Words that Work and The THINK! Workbook (my personal favorite). I think it’s also what makes resources like Simply Irresistible so real and powerful for people. Every word is based on real life experience and comes from the heart. For me, as both a manager and a partner in a small business, what makes work fun always comes down to enjoying the people I work with.

I also want to know that I’m doing something that helps my coaching clients, short and long term, break through to the highest heights of success. I’ll get you thinking about when you’re at your best and doing your greatest work so we can build on those successes. Nothing matters more to me than helping people see that’s possible for themselves…and then enabling them to bring it to life!