When you deliver a presentation, have a conversation with senior management, or network in your professional community do you sound intelligent, powerful, polished, articulate, and confident? To sound more intelligent: Pace your words, speaking just a bit more slowly to allow yourself time to select the most appropriate vocabulary and to give the impression of […]

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𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 said, “𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟.” Patricia Fripp (that’s me!) says, “Put your words under the magnifying glass.” 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞 all of 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, just follow these simple steps. If you have a video of a presentation that you felt went really well, sit down and watch it. However, change your perspective. Imagine you […]

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Congratulations! You’ve been asked to moderate a panel. This is a great opportunity to build your reputation and add value to your customers. Moderating a panel can be more challenging than delivering a keynote speech. As you probably realize, when you moderate a panel discussion, you have multiple responsibilities and many more elements to stay […]

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The Importance of the Pause in Public Speaking and Executive Presentations can not be over estimated. Continuing my comparison with Hollywood..

Alan Alda says, “It is the stuff between the lines that makes it a great performance.”

(I know I hate that word stuff. However, it is an actual quote.)

When you pause the audience has time to digest what you have just said. The faster you speak, the more you have to open up your talk with silence.

Consider where you have a comma, period, paragraph, and exclamation mark, an underline or … Use this as a guide for pauses.

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When you open your presentation, you have just thirty seconds to command your audience’s attention. Don’t waste your opening words. Prepare a winning opening and give it extra attention as you rehearse your presentation. A relevant and compelling quote is one way to open a presentation and engage your audience. General Eisenhower said, “Leadership is […]

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The National Speakers Associations’ first president Bill Gove told me, “Fripp, the written word is for the eye. The spoken word is for the rhythm.” Understanding the difference between the written word and the spoken word was just one sign of Bill’s brilliance as a speaker. Imagine you are having a conversation with a friend, […]

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How to Prepare and Present Powerful Talks 2001 Back in 2001, at the Toastmasters International Convention, I was invited to deliver the opening keynote speech. In this 10-segment series, you will view the anatomy of a keynote presentation. You will notice I have made comments about how I would give advice to the 2001 speaker, […]

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Clarifying Your Central Theme or Premise (Part 2) Your first step in creating your speech structure is to answer this question: “Based on my subject, what is my premise or central theme?” This is the big idea you want to get across. Every TV show, movie, and book has a clear premise. So does your […]

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