Speaking tips blog
Communication matters. What are you saying?
Find Your One Thing — Amidst the Junk You Keep
Find your One Thing BEFORE you create structure, add detail, or create visuals for your speech. We recently traded in the family wagon. After almost a decade of serving us as a baseball team bus, daily commuter, vacation host, carpool waiting room, mobile business...
The Ten Commandments of PowerPoint
The Ten Commandments of PowerPoint Periodically (we last addressed this topic in my article PowerPoint Templates: Great Idea or Pain in the Mouse?), we pile up thoughts on the #1 companion – I sometimes call it the Teddy Bear – of presentations. Our friend,...
Write Effective Emails That Get Results
We are all looking to write and receive more effective emails. I sent my first email in 1991 (I was a graduate student emailing my father, a governmental employee – maybe the only two institutions on earth with easy access to email at the time). I was enamored with...
Three Quick Tips for How to End a Presentation or Speech
One of the most difficult public speaking skills is knowing how to end a presentation or speech. The end of the calendar year is such a whirlwind. There are client engagements to wrap up. Accounting to complete so the tax season (which is a month earlier for...
Four Differences Between Training Online and In-Person
Like much of the rest of the world, we’ve had to pivot our in-person business to a virtually-based business and training online. Unlike most of the rest of the world, we were already doing virtual coaching and training and had established best practices and methods...
Three Secrets to Cracking the Formula for Change
We all want a formula for change. We get a fairly regular request here at MillsWyck Communications, usually initiated from the contact form on our website. (Weirdly enough, the most common times for inquiries are Friday night and Saturday morning!?). It’s usually...
Online Meeting Tips: 3 Easy and Inexpensive Tips for Improvement
We're all in need of online meeting tips since 2020 brought us Covid19. On March 5th, 2020, I spoke at a banquet in north Georgia. On the sixth, I flew from Atlanta to Orlando to see my parents for a few days. I flew home March 9th…and haven’t left the state since....
What are your Training Styles? Rock Star or Street Musician?
Training styles are unique to individuals, but I have created a classification system that represents a big majority of them. With two small hiatuses – one to drive tour busses and one to test software – I’ve been teaching my entire employed life. I taught public high...
Talking About Talking
When we are talking about talking in our presentations, speeches, or video calls, we are distracting from our message. I’ve never been good at predictions. But there is one speaking behavior that is so common I can predict it with amazing accuracy. Watch for it on...
Confessions of a Public Speaking Coach
As a public speaking coach, I have a simple confession to make: When I was learning my way as a communicator, my primary method of improving myself was observation and study. I watched thousands of speakers with one basic discriminating question in mind: What are...
Clarity in Communication: The Power of Iteration in Speaking and Writing
Do you need clarity in communication? There's a lot of power in the clarity you get when you put your thoughts down and have them edited and polished. Clarity that translates to speaking on the stage. In all the hubbub about the risks of COVID-19, graduations and...
Misuse of pronouns in public speaking: Are your I’s too close together?
One of the easiest traps to fall into as a speaker is the misuse of pronouns. We were taught in grade school that pronouns make communication easier by shortening references to characters in a story. They can be viewed as pro-nouns, used by elite communicators. But in...
