About Your Soft Skills

Soft Skills Tips and Coaching

Who You Are - Your Success

Soft Skills pull all your facets together to build your confidence and make you competent, skilled, dynamic, versatile and overall complete. TDKtalks Soft Skills is where I give you soft skills tips and coaching for your personal growth success.

I began working as an engineering technologist 30+ years ago. The path I took was contrary to a secure government 9 to 5 job. I wanted to learn more and faster, trying to maintain that pace of a college program I had just graduated from. Little did I know, I set myself on a course of turbulent water. "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage" would not come quickly or easily. Sometimes it felt like I had to learn "the hard way".

Over the years, this led to several job losses, plant closures, contract positions, and the like. Many interviews and resumes I have orchestrated and participated in. I began realizing the importance of soft skills; those intangible skills that are not always easy and quick to learn. Then I began public speaking in a volunteer role and while learning myself, I began giving back helping others do the same.

Eventually, the dots began to connect and upon another job loss, I decided to slow down, take a deep breath, and create a "master resume". This is a resume no employer would ever see. All jobs were included, including job breaks, segways and non-related jobs. Fortunately, I wasn't in those that long and soon bounced back into the engineering and design track. Viewing that master resume, I realized I had collected and honed a multitude of soft skills that helped me survive and lead me to better positions.

After joining and participating in Toastmasters International for many years, I launched my podcast site in 2011, focusing on storytelling. It was the first version of TDKtalks.com. In 2014 I began expanding and transitioning into 3D storytelling, using video because "Nothing Brands You Better Than Video" offering video marketing and branding services to small to medium companies along with charities and startups. Two charity missions to Vietnam in 2014 and 2015 with a children's charity, brought me to launching Video-Connects.com. I could now use video to do the same storytelling and sharing my early podcast was doing.

Now I write articles, speak on and post videos to share and coach you along in case we cannot meet for a live or in-person session.

Terry using his soft skills growth as a Videographer with No Ordinary Journey Foundation — Terry as Videographer for No Ordinary Journey Mission of March 2014

Many of my articles and video posts on my EPISODES page are based on my experiences, both good and bad. Sometimes the best and only way to learn is to go through the bumps, in the trenches, and the like.

Today, you are reading this at my current offering