Speaking tips blog
Communication matters. What are you saying?
7 Types of Public Speakers
Public speakers have many names. I was recently invited to speak at a conference. Like I normally do, I had a discovery call with the client to understand the audience and uncover connect points and common language, and to make sure that we were creating outcomes and...
Four Tactics that Engage Your Audience Better than Verbal Polls
Engage your audience without using verbal polls How many of you use verbal polls in your presentations? OK, that was a set-up. In our workshops, one of the most popular ways for people to get started (we’re usually prompting them with a topic they have not prepared)...
Using Notes in Public Speaking–Three Tips
Using notes in public speaking seems simple, but using them well sets good speakers apart. There are three changes you can make to your notes that will make you a better presenter. It’s August, and that means back-to-school time. The stores are already prepared. ...
Become an expert in your field
To become an expert in your field, you must have an attitude of excellence. I’ve just finished a few seasons of life that are the kind that cause you to reflect, reminisce, and regret. First, we moved. The house that was Home for 15 years is someone else’s now; a...
Public Speaking Don’ts: What NOT to Say
In a series of Public Speaking Don'ts, I wrote last month’s article, The Graduation Speech No One Wants to Hear. I got a number of notes (which I love getting!) giving me first-person accounts of various graduations. “The student speaker was amazing!” “The invited...
The Graduation Speech No One Wants to Hear
The Top Ten Tips for giving a graduation speech people will talk about for years to come.
How does Culture affect communication?
How does Culture affect communication? Last fall I was privileged to travel for clients to far-away lands: South Africa, Egypt, and the Philippines, with a travel layover in Paris thrown in as a bonus. As an infrequent international traveler (although that seems to be...
Four Steps to Become Great at Anything
There are four steps to becoming great at anything. This includes learning how to drive. It’s my second (and last!) experience training a teen driver. Driver #2 has a different outlook, a few challenges (a few months off due to a surgery which equated to less...
Storytelling in public speaking: Match your story to a moral
How do you match your story to a moral? And how do you use it in public speaking? Match your story to a moral... I had a dream. Not a Martin Luther King, Jr. dream. A real dream. One while I was sleeping. I suppose that I have lots of dreams, but I don’t...
The worst compliment ever
Worst compliment ever? When I first heard this worst compliment ever at one of my high school reunions, it struck me hard. “You haven’t changed a bit.” I’m sure it was meant as a compliment. I wish they were applying it to my weight, physique, innocence, or maybe even...
Community: Connecting with your audience is key!
The word community has a new meaning in my life. I was in the audience of a presentation where the word community (for reasons of space on a PowerPoint slide) was hyphenated and split across lines, like this: comm- unity I made a mental note that the presenter had...
How Can I Become a Professional Speaker?
It’s starting to be a common call here at MillsWyck Communications. “How can I become a professional speaker?” or maybe the more tentative, “Do you think anyone would pay me to speak?” Usually it’s a person with an amazing story that’s been told repeatedly they...
