2006 January | Your message and other things you say

Choice of words

Browsing about the web today and ran across a calendar that had a scheduled class labeled “disorientation”. Turns out it was a seminar for graduating seniors as they leave school to prepare them for the “real” world. I had to laugh out loud. While it was cute and caught my eye, did [...]

The Dark Side of presentation skills

Good vs. evil is a story line that is a hit regardless of the format. Garr Reynolds posted a comparison of the presentation styles of Darth Vader vs. Yoda . I’m seeing references to it in several blogs I read, for instance, Chris Brogan. It’s always fun to compare anything (we like [...]

What’d you get out of that?

In the height of basketball season, and if we can get this Super Bowl thing over with, we can concentrate on what’s really important — March madness (which starts in October and ends in April). A group of buddies from my alma mater discuss the week’s highs and lows and all things athletic via [...]

Hey, any indication what the problem is?

Went flying this morning (gorgeous day for it — pressure of 30.50 is probably the highest I’ve ever flown in). Had an unprecedented delay out of my local Class C airport. There were 10 planes in queue just to taxi, several at the end of both runways, and it was almost a 10 [...]

Don’t worry about it

At the dentist today. Still cavity-free (thanks, dad!).

Had the most-unusual habit glitch where I left my wallet at home. Can’t recall doing that in recent memory. That left me at the dentist with no ID, no money, no credit cards, and no checkbook. They file my insurance, but require $2 to [...]

If you’ll leave a message

I’m sure that you, like me, leave and get tons of voice mail messages. It’s often a waste of time, especially in the business world, as you frequently don’t get a call back and the information will be shared again if you do actually speak with the person. But I always try to [...]

Say it, don’t spray it

I’m not talking about saliva. I’m talking about eye contact.

A common mistake of speakers in front of large audiences is to “spray” their eye contact back and forth — passing over their audience instead of connecting. Many also let that head movement translate to their whole body and sway back and forth. [...]

Let me urge you to consider

Be careful what you ask for… you may get it. And, in the world of sales and business, you may not. But it’s very rare to get what you want if you don’t ask for it. And, unless you are a military commander (or a parent), you can’t just tell them what [...]

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