As I headed to the Kennedy Center last night for a show, I began thinking about the preparation involved in stage production and what an immense undertaking it is. The behind the scenes work takes months to produce a seemingly effortless result; the performance. I was always taught that the trick to acting is to... Read More →

Do marketers avoid being persuaded by their own art? Or do marketers love the hypnosis that comes from their own craft? Over the past 3 years I’ve worked with a lot of marketing and PR professionals. As a result of the work I see happening around me I have become much more aware of my... Read More →

Money, Money, Money. Do I get any part of this $700 billion bailout? NO?! Why NOT? Money’s tight. We all are feeling the crunch that our government and our banks have us in. Part of me wishes the U.S. had just left the banks to their own devices. Let ‘em fail. I know, I know,... Read More →

Welcome to the totally redesigned MikeToner.com! This is the third redesign I’ve been through. The first website I created back in June 2002 was a static iWeb site hosted via godaddy with a blog that was really hard to update. I was having to manually update blog posts to my site via FTP. This made... Read More →

I believe that humans associate peace with individual responsibility and with equality. With all the talk of social media being about conversations, why not talk about something other than the medium itself. Why not peace? There is no doubt that we must turn to grass roots efforts and cultural understanding to define peace. Most would... Read More →

In preparation for my presentation at Virginia Tech’s annual PRSSA Symposium this Saturday I have gathered some tips I hope to pass along to the seniors at VT about to enter the working world. If you have any other words of wisdom, interview tips, or hard lessons learned please let me know. 1) The importance... Read More →

The United States implemented the No Child Left Behind Act to help counteract a decline in education among today’s students. States are required to test and analyze elementary, middle and high school students on their academic achievement in every  subject The legislation calls for stronger accountability for results more freedom for states and communities proven... Read More →

It is a part of wisdom that allows individuals to view their life at different stages along their path. Our paradigms change, our values shift. Things that seem important now may not always be important to us later. Leaders must be willing to live their lives along the continuum of change and always be willing... Read More →

Any good magician will tell you that the method employed during a trick will ultimately change how the audience views the overall performance. This is true for most aspects of life. The vocabulary you use during a discussion will change how your message is interpreted by the receiver. Politicians are one of the best examples... Read More →

“First seek to understand, then seek to be understood.” Interpersonal communication is the process of sending and receiving information or more easily described as: communicating with another person. This communication can be verbal or nonverbal. The idea is simple, but the implications are monstrous. It seems so easy to say, “I communicate well with others.” But how... Read More →