Why I Spent $10,000 Learning How to Talk

My 3 Biggest Lessons from $10,000 in Communication Coaching.

I’ve spent nearly $10,000 in the last two years learning how to talk.

It sounds absurd, but it’s one of the highest-ROI investments I’ve ever made.

When I was at Amazon, I thought I was a great communicator. I survived and thrived in their famous writing culture. To get anything done, you have to be able to write a clear, six-page memo. I got good at writing. My career depended on it.

Then I quit to become a YouTuber. When I pointed a camera at my face and hit record, I realized my 20-year corporate career didn’t mean much. I was wooden. I was awkward. I sounded like a robot reading a script.

My written communication was strong, but my verbal communication was terrible. Being the person I am, I couldn’t stand being bad at something I had chosen to do. So I decided to engineer a solution.

I treated communication not as a “soft skill” but as a hard, technical skill. A system to be built, debugged, and optimized.

I’ve since spent nearly $10,000 on camera-confidence courses, diction coaches,…