Episode 29 - How to communicate “out of the box” with Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon

Communications — particularly professional, technical, and educational materials — can easily become boring, unrelatable, or stiff.

How do you write, speak, and educate in ways that other people will actually enjoy?

And, how do you make the process more meaningful, engaging, and interesting for yourself? 

These are the kinds of questions I explore with Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon.

Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon is an expert coach, communicator, and thought leader in the fitness and health industry. She has more than 20 years in fitness and health coaching under her belt, and 10 years of university teaching and course direction.

Krista is currently the Product Director at Simple, a nutrition app with global reach. Previously she served as Director of Curriculum at Precision Nutrition, leading the development of the PN Academy and PN Certifications. 

She is the author of several books and co-author of textbooks, many of which we worked on together,  plus she has an extensive portfolio of academic publications, book chapters, articles, and reports, not to mention own self-published book Why Me Want Eat.

Before working with Precision Nutrition, Krista was a researcher and faculty member at York University in Toronto. In the mid-1990s, her website Stumptuous.com was one of the first to promote women's weight training, and since then she's focused on helping people make meaningful change. She has lectured and taught internationally across North America as well as in the UK, Ireland, China, Australia, and Southeast Asia. 

Krista is undoubtedly a professional communicator, but she has also built her career around making her communications relatable, playful, interesting, and fun (even funny) — even when they cover technical, educational, and/or “serious” material.

In our conversation, I dig into Krista’s process, sifting through her childhood experiences, her personal beliefs and habits, and some of the methods she uses in her own life and work as both a coach and communicator.

Through our conversation, we explore how we can all communicate better by employing humor, empathy, curiosity, experimentation, collaboration, play, and getting out of our own boxes.

We cover:

→ The value of letting your freak flag fly.

→ Why empathy is non-negotiable for all communicators, and how to cultivate it. 

→ Why interest, curiosity, and skill are such a powerful combination, and how to nurture them. 

→ The danger of waiting for someone else to give you permission to create your thing. 

→ Where good ideas ACTUALLY come from, and the problem with “The Great Man” theory.

→ The role of practice, rigor, feedback, experimentation, and collaboration in developing and refining your ideas and knowledge… and why you should never try to develop good ideas in isolation.

→ How to get out of your own box or comfort zone, and why you should seek out unfamiliar and deeply uncomfortable experiences.

→ The role of play in communications and creative work, and some unusual ways to make your work more playful.

→ The difference between Creator Brain vs Editor Brain, and why (and how) you need to put the Creator Brain in the driver’s seat.

→ Plus, a fun assignment to challenge writer’s block. 

Follow Krista on Instagram (@stumptuous) on Facebook (www.facebook.com/coach.krista.scottdixon) or  Linkedin.