Some people are incredibly persuasive.  They have a gift. Other people are learned persuaders—marketers for example, who know things like the 5 most persuasive words in the English language. Or why removing ‘is’ from your vocabulary is going to make you a more powerful communicator.

Luckily we can all be taught. 

This week was the annual round of Apple's fall announcements, where the s model iPhone is released and all the other goodies they have been developing in their secret compound for the past 12+ months.

But we don’t care.  We are tired of Apple and all their coolness… their 97% satisfaction rates and crazy stock price. We want something raw, different… from a technology provider that makes beautiful devices that aren’t so ridiculously mainstream.

Ok, ok, ok we do care. 

Here’s the low down on what is new from Apple:

There are lots of reasons to live in London.  The culture, the diversity of people, the energy, the sheer number of things to do—and of course, job opportunities that simply aren’t available outside the city.

Our brains magically single out language from any other sound.  They then port it to the right “department” in order to give it meaning.  In fact they port it to two different departments of the brain – one that comprehends the meaning of the words, and the other that comprehends meaning through melody.

You are probably familiar with the feeling of having too many things to read. There is a deluge of interesting content flowing through your phone, tablet and television these days... blogs, newsletters, e-books, tweets, videos on every topic under the sun, with thousands more being produced each minute. Whether you are into digital marketing or sea anemones, there are endless ways you can stay up to date with the latest information, research and trends. 

 Most PA’s are worth their weight in gold.  Truly irreplaceable. 

But the majority of us can’t afford a full-time PA, or a part-time one for that matter.  Even if you calculate the savings from having someone there to take calls, check your diary and schedule meetings so that you didn’t have to, the numbers probably just don’t add up.  Moreover, teaching and managing a PA would likely take just as many hours as any that would be saved.

The idea of a robot greeting a customer, bringing someone a cup of coffee or delivering the mail for tenants at a business centre seems incredibly far-fetched.  Most of us think that a genuinely useful office robot requires technology (and indeed wizardry) simply beyond our current abilities.  For a robot to behave like a human it would need to think like a human—a seemingly impossible task. Plus who wants to work with a bunch of robots!  We enjoy the sense of humour, emotional understanding and humanoid depth of our real-life colleagues. 

You may have heard that Google paid a whooping £2.1bn last year to buy Tony Fadell's start-up Nest, a widely applauded internet-connected thermostat and smoke detector.  [Get one here]

Fibre optic technology, fibre leased lines, and fibre connectivity are terms thrown around a lot these days.  Most of us associate them with faster internet.  But what does ‘fibre optic’ really mean, how does it work and what do we use it for? 

Experienced sales people know that what a prospect says may be different than what they are thinking. Some people keep a poker face as a negotiating technique, while others may just be trying to politely hide their disinterest. If you want to figure out what the person sitting across from you is really thinking, learning the meaning of a few common body gestures will help.