Beware Of Experts
By: Etiquette Coach, Patricia Rossi

The second I hear an Expert…

I immediately start sniffing for the nearest escape hatch.

INTERNALLY: I’m in a fight or flight stance ready to launch.

EXTERNALLY: I hold a steady gaze while turning their voice and verbiage into Charlie Brown’s teacher undefined Wa Wa Wa Wa…

So thank you Experts for this coping pattern given to me at the tender age of 10, where I was tested and told about my gift. I was a carrier. The diagnosis of my ‘gift’ wasn’t well received and caused fear, ridicule, and confusion in my pre-Oprah 1970′s working class community.

Another event at age of 10 presented itself to me without warning; the untimely death of my mother. So, here I am trying to balance the news of my gift (that the experts forecasted) would never let me process information in a normal manner and no ‘Mama Duck’ to give me the most basic of survival and thriving skills while I navigated the pond.

As I treaded water; I would try my best to learn from the other ‘Mama Ducks’ and their families. I would approach them at times to be included, to learn, and hopefully grow and graduate myself to the big pond. However, many rejected me; one even telling me that they might catch my gift of dyslexia.

A few… an amazing, beautiful and vital few did give me a peek in… as what to do and I made it out of the little pond. So I latched on to the vital FEW.. and my journey continued. I had the good fortune to find a tutor that taught me how to tame the letters and numbers that gyrated,danced and jumped across the page every time I gazed upon it.

Those early rejections and learning to live with Dyslexia gave me wings I would not have normally sprouted and those wings lifted me up and out to the mecca pond of life where the BIG experts dwelled.

With my pencils sharpened and sitting in the front row of life the experts had one message for me and shared it with me time and time again.

They said Patricia, “You talk too much” and I felt ashamed. But I kept on talking. The Experts would put big red gooey X’s on my report card that highlighted my excessive talking. There it was! Not just in verbal form but in written form as well.  Whew! Did I feel shame. But I kept on talking.

The Experts were right about one thing. They shared with me once, “Patricia you can’t sing undefined you don’t have a singing voice” and you know what? They were 100% right! Even Experts aren’t wrong all the time. So I guess I will just keep talking!

In my present life, I talk on television, I talk on the radio, I talk in magazine and newspapers. I speak to large audiences, business professionals, professional athletes, and everyday moms and dads. I recently just talked 65,000 words into a book that was published by St. Martins press, that just went into it’s 3rd printing in 16 weeks undefined another thing the Experts said was impossible.

I teach people how to build, maintain, and grow social and business relationships by being at ease in any and all situations they might find themselves in.  From the big pond to the small pond our interactions either propel us ahead or hold us back. Whether you are a Rhodes scholar a Mensa member or a little duck trying to make it out of a small pond; your social skills if intact will take you to places unimagined.

To book Patricia Rossi for a speaking engagement, personal appearance, TV, radio, or print media, please contact:

Patricia Rossi
Post Office Box 814
Safety Harbor, FL 34695

Phone: 727-375-0375

Email: patricia@patriciarossi.com