Meet Doug

Doug Noll is an award-winning lawyer turned peacemaker, mediator, trainer and author. With over 40 years of professional experience, Doug has dedicated his life to understanding the emotional and biological origins of human conflict. Doug’s specialty is teaching people how to calm an angry person and develop a deep connection in 90 seconds, a unique skill that has captured the attention of a wide range of clients including Fortune 500 executives and maximum-security prisons.

Doug’s book, De-Escalate: How to Calm an Angry Person in 90 Seconds or Less, published by an imprint of Simon & Schuster, received a Book Excellence Award in 2017 in the Leadership category. The book offers a new set of social listening and communication skills to help anyone transform an emotionally volatile situation into a calm, non-aggressive one. Using the latest findings in neuroscience and behavioral economics, the book shares practical tips on how to cultivate healthier relationships and participate in creating a more caring, compassionate future for all.

After realizing that many of his ideas were not in print, Doug wrote his book to serve an unmet need. His objective was to write a simple, easy-to-read explanation of de-escalation techniques and strategies with a summary explanation of the science behind them.

Upon releasing his book, Doug encountered a challenge most authors face – a decision on where to spend his time, be it on writing or marketing. Doug recognized that for his book to be successful, he would have to spend most of his time on marketing.

“98% of your effort will be in marketing and promotion, not the actual creative process.”

To ensure his book was seen as credible and targeted the right audiences, Doug worked with industry professionals to develop a strategic marketing plan. Part of the plan included book awards.

“My agent recommended the Book Excellence Awards and I followed her advice.”

Becoming a Book Excellence Award Winner

Hearing that his book had been named a Book Excellence Award winner, Doug was thrilled.

“I was quite pleased. My agent was ecstatic.”

A book award can add a lot of value in helping build an author’s career. Doug understood the value of his achievement in helping showcase the merits of his work.

“Recognition for a new book…provides a form of social proof that readers look for before making a purchase decision.”

Doug’s Success

Doug’s powerful approach to diffusing conflict and passion for helping others is a key reason he has had such immense success as an author, mediator, speaker and trainer.

His book’s transformative and easy-to-follow principles have led to rave reviews from readers including:

“This book exceeds every expectation I had for it…Should be in every school and home!”

and,

“Excellent book and very practical and immediately usable points. Well written and I highly recommend it ~ whether your angry person is a co-worker, boss or teenage child!”

Doug has been featured in major media including an interview with The Fresh Outlook, The Jenny McCarthy Show and The Kat James Show on Sirius XM radio, iHeart Communities on iHeartRadio, That Business Show on iTunes, CBS Radio and more. He has also hosted his own weekly radio show, The Doug Noll Show, as a way to give a voice to international peacemakers.

Doug is a sought-after keynote speaker with regular invitations to national conferences, international training sessions and workshops. Doug teaches diverse audiences across the Middle East, Asia, Europe and North America, about listening, emotional intelligence, violence-reduction, and relationship building.

In their roles as professional mediator trainers, Doug and his colleague Laurel Kaufer co-founded the Prison of Peace Project, a non-profit organization, designed to reduce violence and promote peaceful conflict resolution among prison inmates. The organization has been launched in 9 California prisons, the McDougal-Walker State Prison in Connecticut, and with a Greek colleague, 4 prisons in Greece. It has engaged over 25,000 inmates and trained 1,100 inmates in the peacemaking and conflict resolution process. For his impact, he was named a Purpose Prize fellow, an award given to social innovators who are dedicated to finding solutions to challenging social problems.

He also piloted an initiative called the Safe Schools and Learning Environments Project to help teachers teach kids how to manage their emotions and feelings, develop empathy, and learn deep listening skills. The project is now expanding nationwide in an effort to reduce school violence and bullying.

To connect with Doug, you can visit his website or send him an email. To purchase his book, visit Amazon.

Doug’s Advice

For authors interested in entering the Book Excellence Awards, Doug shares his advice:

“This is a credible, powerful means of letting people know that your book is, in short, excellent.”