http://www.millswyck.com/blog Thoughts on things, communications and otherwise Mon, 15 Sep 2008 02:33:42 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Had a student suggest a fourth 'F' when we were discussing the question, "What do you do when something out of the ordinary or bad happens while you are speaking?" (see last post for the other three Fs answer). He responded, "Freak out!" Of course, I don't advocate that course of action, ... http://www.millswyck.com/blog/index.php/2008/09/14/the-fourth-f/ Got a bad haircut yesterday. It looks pretty weird. But in my world, the difference between a bad haircut and a good haircut is about 2 weeks. It'll be fine.But I hate it. It bothers me. I want so much to make sure everyone knows ... http://www.millswyck.com/blog/index.php/2008/08/21/the-three-fs/ With the folks I coach, it seems that many believe looking at notes is a bad thing for a speaker to do. People try all sorts of sly ways to get around pausing to look at their notes: from furtive glances to drive bys to strategic placement of cue ... http://www.millswyck.com/blog/index.php/2008/08/20/just-look-at-the-notes/ I heard a speaker the other day open his talk with a joke. Jokes aren't inherently bad, but I definitely counsel my clients to avoid them when natural humor or stories are available. But here it came. The punchline of the joke involved a disgraced public figure. ... http://www.millswyck.com/blog/index.php/2008/08/18/gracious-response/ Talking with a friend yesterday and he made the comment, "Comfort is the kiss of death."While this might overstate the point a bit too much for my tastes, it underscores an important point -- in ANYTHING we want to improve.When we are comfortable:we don't feel any great needwe stop noticing ... http://www.millswyck.com/blog/index.php/2008/08/16/the-kiss-of-death/ I attended a local Business Networking International meeting today as a guest of a new friend. Part of the meeting is giving everyone a chance to speak for 45 seconds about what they do. It's a chance to practice the elevator speech among friends. Members repeat this ... http://www.millswyck.com/blog/index.php/2008/08/14/what-floor/ Just got off the phone with my friend Jeff. We have about a weekly discussion about what works and what doesn't when it comes to presentations. The theme was present at my lunch, as well. My meeting with a sales guy discussed why folks don't do things ... http://www.millswyck.com/blog/index.php/2008/08/13/no-risk-no-reward/ Was teaching today and came to the instruction on PowerPoint. Had a pretty interested group and was going through some more advanced things like the presenter's view on a second monitor and some cheap tricks on using blank slides. Was (not) surprised that most of the folks hadn't ... http://www.millswyck.com/blog/index.php/2008/07/31/my-wireless-computer/