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Podcast

​2026 Best Mindset & Mental Health Podcast

Real EQ and Communication Tools: Learn How to Handle Hard Conversations at Work and Home

  AS SEEN IN:

Learn to Communicate with Confidence

Hosted by Sandy Gerber — Communication Coach, TEDx Speaker, globally ranked #16 in the World’s Top 30 Communication Professionals, and author of the 24x award-winning book Emotional Magnetism.

Winner of the 2026 Best Mindset & Mental Health Podcast award.

Every Tuesday. Under 12 minutes. One tool you can use the moment a hard conversation shows up — at work, at home, or inside your own head.

Real stories. Proven tools. No fluff.

Emotional Outsourcing: Telling Everyone But Your Partner

Episode #115: Emotional Outsourcing: Why You’re Telling Everyone But Your Partner

Oct 20, 2026

Emotional outsourcing is one of the biggest relationship trends of 2026, and communication and emotional intelligence coach Sandy Gerber says most people are doing it without even realizing it. Emotional outsourcing is when we spread our emotional needs across friends, group chats, co-workers, online connections and even AI chatbots, instead of sharing them with the person we're in a relationship with. In Episode 115 of the Magnetic Communication Podcast, Sandy explains that having more than one person in your corner is healthy. The problem starts when everyone in your life knows how you feel except the person who most needs to hear it. Sandy shares the story of a friend of her daughter's who spent almost six months in a situationship, talking about their feelings with friends and even co-workers, but never finding the courage to have the conversation with the person it was truly about. She explains how situationships make emotional outsourcing even more tempting, because when nobody has defined the relationship, saying how you feel can feel like it might end everything. For anyone in that spot, Sandy brings back the Honest Sandwich from Episode 66, a simple way to share how you feel, what you need and what you'd like next. The research shows how common emotional outsourcing has become. A Dating.com report found 36 percent of people want a platonic online "soulmate" to fill emotional gaps, and a YouGov poll found 13 percent of American adults have told a chatbot something they've never told another person. A 2026 Stanford study published in Science found AI chatbots affirmed people about 49 percent more often than humans, and that one flattering conversation made people less willing to apologize or repair a relationship. Sandy connects emotional outsourcing to drift, the slow distance that grows from all the things couples don't say. She then teaches difficult conversation starters, simple first lines that make it easier to bring the conversation home, and explains why "We need to talk" is the opener to avoid. Emotional outsourcing shows up at work too. Many people vent to co-workers about a boss, or complain at home about a colleague, but never speak to the person who could change things. Sandy explains how that creates drift on teams, and shares difficult conversation starters for talking to a boss or co-worker directly and respectfully. Listeners leave with a handful of conversation starters for home and work and an assignment to use one this week. For anyone wondering whether emotional outsourcing has started to create distance in their relationship, Sandy's free Relationship Connection Quiz as it shows where the gaps are and includes her free guide, Reverse the Drift. Connected conversations start with saying what you feel to the person who needs to hear it. For more support with difficult conversations, explore Sandy's webinars and workshops.

Episode 114: What to Say When Someone Is Being Passive-Aggressive

Episode #114: What to Say When Someone Is Being Passive-Aggressive

Oct 11, 2026

What to say when someone is being passive-aggressive is one of the most common questions people bring to communication and emotional intelligence coach Sandy Gerber. A pointed joke, a backhanded compliment, an "I'm fine" that clearly isn't fine, or a line like "Must be nice to have time for that" can stick with you for the rest of the day. In Episode 114 of the Magnetic Communication Podcast, Sandy explains that a passive-aggressive comment is really a difficult conversation that someone started through the side door. Most people respond in one of two ways. They snap back and escalate it, or they swallow it and carry it around, where it leaks into their next meeting and the way they talk to their family at dinner. Sandy shares the simple question she asks when a salesperson or customer service rep gets snarly with her, and why it almost always leads to an apology, an explanation and a much friendlier conversation. She calls it out kindly and respectfully, shares how she feels and asks how the other person feels. That's a connected conversation, and it helps both people shift their energy. The episode also looks at a 2023 Preply survey of about 1,000 Americans, which found that 83 percent had received passive-aggressive messages at work, 44 percent admitted sending them, and 80 percent don't confront it. Listeners learn what to say when someone is being passive-aggressive, starting with how to calm their own reaction using Sandy's EQ Switch. From there, Sandy teaches the Reflect step from her EARS listening framework, with specific phrases to check whether you've understood someone correctly without accusing them. She explains how those words change with a partner or close friend, a co-worker and a boss, what to say when the behavior becomes a pattern, which common responses backfire, and how to decide when a stray comment isn't worth a conversation. Released just before Canadian Thanksgiving, this episode gives listeners tools they can use at the dinner table, in the office and anywhere a sideways comment shows up. Connected conversations start with knowing yourself and having the right tools. Once you know what to say when someone is being passive-aggressive, communication becomes so much easier. You can get those tools right now with Sandy's workshops and webinars on navigating difficult conversations.

How to Handle Difficult Conversations: The Step Everyone Skips

Episode #113: Handle Difficult Conversations: The Step Everyone Skips

Oct 06, 2026

How to handle difficult conversations is one of the most searched communication questions there is, and most advice starts in the wrong place. People rehearse the perfect words, then walk in, hear one sentence, and lose the script completely. In this episode of the Magnetic Communication Podcast, communication and emotional intelligence coach Sandy Gerber explains the step almost everyone skips. Sandy teaches connected conversations in three levels, and this episode focuses on the first one. She shares why the best opening line in the world comes out sharp when your body is already in fight mode, and what the research on putting feelings into words reveals about calming the part of your brain that sounds the alarm. Then she gets personal. Sandy, whose lowest EQ score happens to be impulse control, was recently tested on her own tool in a conversation with a friend she cares about. She walks listeners through that moment, and how an emotionally intelligent communication tool let her choose her words instead of firing back. Listeners learn the EQ Switch, a quick tool for how to handle difficult conversations at work and at home that helps you respond rather than react. It works before a hard meeting, in the middle of a tense exchange, and in the moments when the emotion shows up faster than you expected. The episode also marks Mental Illness Awareness Week in Canada and World Mental Health Day on October 10th. Sandy talks about how to handle a difficult conversation when you're worried about a coworker, a friend, or yourself, including a simple way to start that conversation and where to turn for support. This episode is for managers, leaders, partners, and anyone carrying a conversation they keep pushing to next week. Listen to the full episode of the Magnetic Communication Podcast to learn how to handle a difficult conversation calmly, starting with the step most people skip. For workshops, courses and webinars on handling difficult conversations, visit sandygerber.com/workplace-communication-training/  

7 AI Writing Tells In One Rejection Email

Episode #111: 7 AI Writing Tells In One Rejection Email

Sep 22, 2026

AI writing tells are showing up everywhere right now, and most people have no idea they're reading one. A perfectly worded apology. A rejection that hits every note except a real one. A performance review that sounds like it was written about someone else's team. If it feels a little too smooth, there's usually a reason. This week's episode of the Magnetic Communication Podcast starts with a story: a genuinely good sales call, followed two hours later by a rejection email so polished it took a second read to notice nothing true was actually in it. Sandy Gerber breaks down exactly what tipped her off, and why catching it mattered more than the no itself. From there, the episode walks through seven specific, learnable signs that separate AI-generated writing from something a real person sat down and wrote, the kind of signs anyone can start spotting immediately, in emails, in feedback, in the messages landing in their own inbox every day. It's not a lecture on being anti-technology. Sandy uses AI herself. It's a lesson in noticing the exact moment a tool starts doing a job it was never built to do, which is showing up for another human being. The episode closes with a single, repeatable tool for making sure your own hard messages never read hollow, tied to the same EQ principles Sandy teaches inside her workshops on emotionally intelligent communication and AI change management. This episode is for managers, leaders, and anyone leaning on AI in their day to day communication who wants their writing to still sound like them. Listen to the full episode of the Magnetic Communication Podcast to learn the seven AI writing tells and the one move that keeps your own messages human.

The One-Sentence Tool for Instant Connection

Episode #110: The One-Sentence Tool for Instant Connection

Sep 15, 2026

How to make instant connection isn't complicated. It comes down to one sentence, and almost nobody says it. Last week, a client introduced Sandy Gerber at a webinar as her "bestie," not her coach, telling a room of a hundred people that Sandy is the person she hears from every week teaching her one new way to have a better conversation. Sandy was speechless, which, as she'll tell you, almost never happens. In this episode of the Magnetic Communication Podcast, Sandy breaks down Impact Out Loud, a tool from her Speak Brave program built specifically for this gap: naming the impact someone had on you, specifically and out loud, instead of filing it away or saying something vague like "thanks, that meant a lot." Sandy shows exactly what the tool sounds like using two real messages she sent that same week, and offers a handful of openers to choose from instead of one fill-in-the-blank formula, so it sounds like the listener talking, not a script. She also shares what happened when she told her husband the story over dinner, and why saying how you feel out loud tends to be contagious. This episode also touches on a testimonial from another attendee at the same webinar, who said being told her emotions are a superpower made her whole day, proof that one honest sentence can cost nothing and change someone's day completely. If you've ever felt the impact someone had on you and never said it to their face, this episode hands you the exact language to change that, starting with one person, this week.

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In the Magnetic Communication Podcast, Sandy delivers every episode with tactical advice, relatable personal stories, and tips you can use right away to connect better in your relationships at work and home.