To be powerful and persuasive, you must connect with your audience both intellectually and emotionally. Enhance your connection with your audience by customizing or personalizing your message for each specific audience.  Customization is indispensable for professional speakers. However, even if you’re not a professional speaker, you will find that taking the time to tailor your […]

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Seven strategies to become a great speaker: 1. Consider learning to speak to be a long-term goal, not a one-day seminar. 2. Learn from someone who knows more than you do on this subject. 3. Practice with safe people – your supportive friends or others with the same goals. 4. Use web-based training for repetition […]

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Last summer, I was honored to deliver the opening keynote at the annual Toastmasters International Convention in Las Vegas. In case you aren’t already familiar with Toastmasters International, Toastmasters is a non-profit educational organization teaching public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network. I share Toastmasters’ roundup of the most buzzworthy speeches of 2015. […]

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As an executive speech coach, people often ask me, “How do I come up with original stories to illustrate my key points?” Fortunately, you don’t have to have survived an avalanche, founded a pioneering tech company, or won a Nobel Prize to tell a good story – because audiences identify with and delight in stories […]

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A powerful, persuasive, professional presentation may appear effortless to an audience… but even an “effortless” presentation requires that you first devote time and energy to organizing your content around a strong basic structure. Presentations are comprised of content, structure, and delivery. The more you clarify your content and organize your structure, the easier it will […]

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While you might already know my brother, Robert Fripp as one of Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists,” you may not know him as a superb and entertaining speaker. When we deliver presentations together, it’s always a delight – both for us and for our audiences. Robert has an extraordinary ability to connect with an audience […]

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Join me November 19, 2015 for complimentary live training. Learn the five most important techniques that make a good presentation great. As an in-demand speech coach and Hall of Fame speaker, I share my secrets and resources with you. Let me simplify and demystify the process of effectively designing and delivering any formal or informal […]

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“It is simply impossible to become a great leader without being a great communicator,” observes leadership writer, Mike Myatt in Forbes magazine. As a leader, the responsibility of communicating effectively rests squarely on your own shoulders. This is true even if you are fortunate enough to have a communications department or team of speechwriters at […]

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Are your presentations persuasive? Powerful? Subtle differences in language can make an enormous difference. Maybe you’ve already edited a script of your speech. This is a great first step, but I recommend you also record yourself and listen carefully. Then, fine-tune your words and phrases to maximize your impact. Consider both your word choices and […]

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I am honored to speak this month at the 2015 Toastmasters International Convention in Las Vegas. The semifinalists in the 2015 Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking competition have just been announced. Those who make it to this international speech competition have won competitions, beginning with club contests and continuing through area, division, and district […]

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