Speaking tips blog
Communication matters. What are you saying?
Misc on mics
Observing another presentation today. Presenter well above average both in content and delivery. But... There's always a but.Large audience so there had to be a mic (or at least, someone convinced them there had to be a mic). Presenter had clearly gone to trouble of...
Get help.
I don't often run with the big dogs. Most often I don't even qualify to shovel their... wood chips. And I figure most of the time there's a reason the big dogs are in the front. So I was a bit surprised when I was directed to an archive of Bill Gates' presentations. I...
That’s interesting
I don't know when I started noticing it, but the phrase "You know what's really interesting..." begins an awful lot of sentences, and most of the time that I find people using it, I'd be inclined to disagree with them. I'd rate it in my top ten pet peeves at the...
The last day
If you've got things left to do this year, now would be a great time to do them. In fact, there's no better time.It's a peculiar time -- the end of the year and the beginning of the year. But this is the cyclical nature of life. As you end one job, you begin another....
It ain’t over’til it’s over
Enjoyed a few days of vacation with extended family. Had the "pleasure" of sitting in on an infomercial for one of those resort presentations -- a very soft sell intended to raise awareness of the "opportunity". I'm always a little wary of such things, and I have the...
Christmas programs
Having sat through this year's quota of Christmas programs, I'll weigh in on the communication principles of such events.For the sake of argument, let's assume that the people in attendance are there for the same reasons as the people putting on the program. I know...
Only one shopping day left
Saw a headline today: "Procrastinators Important To Retailers". Glad to know that I'm of value. Seems that everyone always has something to do at the last minute. And it becomes hectic and rushed, with limited results. I know of very few people who shop December 24...
Call me
Have had what seems like a zillion business and personal calls that I had to make in the past week. In most cases, the burden was on me to get information or a response -- in other words, it's my hide that gets burnt if details aren't ironed out and the return call...
Get help
Heard a story today of an athlete back in the day who was set for accolades, and when his Sports Information Department realized that meant lots of interviews and exposure, they set about to get him some interviewing help. Seems he leaned a lot more to the second half...
Early bird gets the worm
At a "mandatory" meeting the other day. On the way to the meeting, I remarked to my travelling companion that I didn't think we'd start on time, attendance would be light, and the message predictable. The message predictability was the least accurate of my...
Now I want to hear from you…
Reminded today of something I see quite often (twice in the last four days). Speakers who apparently intend to include their audiences, but never do. Today's quote was, "OK, now I want to hear from you. What do you think about...", followed by a rhetorical question....
Going on the offensive
Evidently one of my attempts at humor has offended someone (surprise, surprise). Seems that an acronym I was using to draw attention to a program -- and I knew going in it was just a ploy for attention -- drew the ire of a politically correct reader. Doesn't matter...
