When you receive feedback and advice on how to improve your presentation skills you need to ask yourself: Is the person giving this advice truly qualified to help me improve? Does the person giving me feedback have my best interests at heart? Am I seeking advice or are they motivated to give it to me? […]
Read More...Do You Know How to Develop and Deploy Compelling Content?
Public speaking instruction often focuses on eye contact, voice projection, and what to do with your hands while you’re talking. Equally important to mastering these physical techniques is developing and deploying good and original content. As an executive speech coach people ask me, “What do I talk about?” “How do I start my speech?”
Read More...Be the Audience You Want to Have
What should we do if we find ourselves in an audience listening to someone who has not yet learned how to structure and deliver an engaging presentation? “Every audience has a responsibility,” says my brother, the legendary guitarist Robert Fripp. Bill Gove, the first president of the National Speakers Association taught NSA members, “You are responsible […]
Read More...Are You Practicing to Improve…or to Reinforce Bad Habits?
Are you practicing your public speaking to improve…or to reinforce bad habits? We hear people say, “Practice makes perfect.” In reality, practice makes permanent. It is helpful to get an outside perspective on your presentation to reveal any areas in which you might improve your content or delivery. Practice in front of an audience. Ask […]
Read More...How to Use Visuals So They Support Your Presentation
Use technology to enhance your message, not to eclipse it. Two executives came to me to develop a speech about a new product. They spent some time describing it, but what they said was so complicated that it was challenging for me to even begin to understand what it was that they were selling. I […]
Read More...How to Become a Storyteller…Two Minutes at a Time
More than any words you say in your keynote speech or sales presentation, your audience will remember what they “see” in their minds through your stories. No matter what our culture, we grow up feeling that hearing a story is somehow a reward – this is just one of the factors that make stories the […]
Read More...Speakers Need To Know What Comedian Phyllis Diller Can Teach Them
John Palmer was the founder of the National Speakers Bureau and before that a well-known band leader. Brian Palmer, his son and now the President of the NSB is known as one of the most creative and ethical professionals in our speaking industry. As part of a recent interview with Brian these were his closing […]
Read More...How to Become a Better Public Speaker and Writer – Avoid This Bad Habit
As an executive speech coach I remind clients that though a speech can sound conversational, a speech is not a conversation. I always advise speakers in preparing their presentations to edit out the words that have no meaning. One bad habit in public speaking is starting a sentence with a meaningless “and” or “but”. I […]
Read More...How to Keep Your Audience From Going to Sleep
What to do when you’re losing your audience… Are there a lot of yawns and sleepy eyes in your audience? Use these tactics to pep up your talk and keep your listeners’ attention. Audience members’ attention will fade over time unless you take specific steps to keep them engaged.
Read More...Giving a Speech? What is Your Main Point?
If you follow my blog you probably have heard me mention before that I have spoken at the Ragan Speechwriters Conference in past years. Ragan Communications publications are a wonderful source of information on communication – both in writing and speaking. The first time I spoke at their conference the opening speakers were Bill Clinton’s speechwriters. As […]
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