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The Impact of Public Speaking on Top Sales Performance
by Chuck Kuglen If you can get more comfortable speaking, your authenticity comes out and your sales "performance" becomes more like a dialogue where you are really just trying to understand and connect. Oddly, sales can go up because you put your client (the audience) more at ease with how you...
Art of Presentation, May 6-7, San Francisco
Once a quarter The Henderson Group holds a "By Invitation Only" Art of Presentation workshop in San Francisco, led by our VP of Services, Terry Gault. The next one is scheduled for May 6-7, 2010. (...)...
Why doing good is good for business…
By Terry Gault A recent article that I read in Fortune magazine fits nicely with previous posts about transparency, our ethos as a company and the skills that we teach in our Complete Communicator, Consultative Sales, Consultative Communication, TeleSales Mastery, and Conflict Resolution workshops. There are several excerpts that I wanted to...
How to Tell if You Work in a Fear-Ridden Environment
Editor's Note: This is a guest post by BrillianceInc Check any that apply: “cya” by email is an evolved and widely practiced art. (...)...
Storytelling: Super Bowl 2010 Commercials
by Terry Gault We saw some great Super Bowl commercials this year! My personal favorite was the Google Parisian Love Story ad. Google nailed it – telling a powerful and moving story with video screen captures entirely with the Google search platform and simple music and sound effects. (...)...
by Terry Gault January 31: that's a good question A phrase usually indicating that the speaker has absolutely no idea how to answer said question. Often used to stall for time. (...)...
Nick R Thomas - A Public Speaker's Blog
One new audience, one new venue
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Full Marx for this speaker's timing!
New Forest Past Rotarians and Associates I gave my third talk to the New Forest Past Rotarians and Associates on 15 September, this time about Groucho Marx. They now meet at the South Lawn Hotel in Milford-on-Sea and, as I sat outside this venue on a very warm morning while they had their business...
Can you lose a visual aid but keep your audience's attention?
Bitterne Park Pensioners Club, SouthamptonMy fellow public speaking blogger Lisa Braithwaite recently posted about a presentation which was very successful despite some major problems with the power supply.Her post reminded me of an evening back in the late 90s when I was booked to speak to a large group of...
I am speaking to you again and here's why...
Lyndhurst Probus, HampshireOn 3 September I was back at the Forest Lodge Hotel in Lyndhurst for my second talk to the town's Probus Club, this time about Patrick Campbell.The nature of a speaker's presentations to the same organisation can vary. For example, the last time I spoke to this club...
Happy New Year to readers of this blog. I still have a number of speaking engagements from late 2009 to tell you about, starting with a repeat booking forThe Probus Club of the New ForestOn 1 September I spoke for the second time to the Probus Club of the New...
Fordingbridge 93 Club, HampshireOn 20 August I spoke for the third time to Fordingbridge 93 Club, a men's group similar to a Probus and named after the year of its formation.This is a popular club (they have to limit the attendance at their meetings to 80) and their morning talks...
Twitter / KevinEikenberry
KevinEikenberry: @evantheshow Thanks for the inspiration this morning - http://blog.kevineikenberry.com/leadership/the-quickest-way-to-build-your-team/...
KevinEikenberry: @LeaderTalk we will be ready - still doing promotion of course :) 3 pre-recorded interviews all GREAT http://bit.ly/brqlKU...
KevinEikenberry: RT @LeaderTalk: @KevinEikenberry Are you ready for Tuesday? I plan to stop by but I haven't registered yet... go! http://bit.ly/brqlKU...
KevinEikenberry: "The best way to revive a team (or organization) is to build a fire in leadership." - from my post - http://bit.ly/bJgGvl (thx @evantheshow...
KevinEikenberry: If you want higher performance for yourself and those you lead, join me Tuesday - http://bit.ly/brqlKU please share!...
KevinEikenberry: Boilers Win!!! :) http://myloc.me/4JO2j
KevinEikenberry: Boilers Win!!! :) http://myloc.me/4JO2j...
SpeakerSue Says...
How not to ruin your business reputation: Part 2
What are the most obnoxious things co-workers do when they email? Are you the one they talk about in the break room? Here are some pet peeves and what you can do to avoid annoying the world: 1. Thoughtless responses If, for instance, a co-worker asks if April 1 at 1p is...
How not to ruin your business reputation: Part 1
You open an email and form an opinion of the writer. Bam! It takes what… maybe a nanosecond. Whether it’s a co-worker, colleague in another division or a vendor prospecting for your business, all of us make immediate judgment calls about people – about their credibility and the value of...
What speakers know about twitter that will help you succeed
Doyle Slayton (@SalesBlogcast) turned me on to the Harvard Business Review post about Vancouver’s Twitter Lesson. It’s an interesting and funny (Don’t fault us for not getting the torch up in time, Canadians invented insulin not viagra. #van2010 #olympics) article about how organizations should focus on positive tweets and ignore the...
Why cold calling is dead and what you can do to prospect anyway
In an association LinkedIn discussion, Christa Haberstock asked if cold calling was dead. At last count, there were over 90 responses to her question. I’ll save you the time of scrolling the comments to find an answer you may like. It is. And then again, it isn’t. The concept of prospecting for...
Why your “elevator speech” may be so 2009
“So what do you do?” they ask. You’re prepared (or at least you think you are). You know this “elevator speech” shouldn’t be more than 30 seconds. You even practiced the skill at some workshop you attended last year. I‘m a sales manager for ABC, you start off. With seconds left, you...
What’s the most outrageous statement you’ve ever made…
A friend of mine, a minister, used to love starting his presentations with: “There are no Christians anymore (pause, pause, pause) according to The Christian Science Monitor. (pause) I am here to disprove that.” Mort Utley was his name and if he were still alive, I’m certain he’d still be...
Dahle Communication
Logorama - an experiment in Brand Recognition
If you were watching the Oscars last night or the coverage of them on a variety of shows throughout the past month, you've probably at least seen or heard of the animated short film 'Logorama.' If you haven't, don't worry, you'll want to follow along. The video places you in...
Saw this cartoon today and had to share it. If you read Dilbert you know that Scott Adams has been spending several years lampooning the business world and all that is wrong with it. Here, he takes a humorous look at PowerPoint presentations and how bad they can be. Enjoy....
Piano Stairs - Why messaging is important
If you look at almost any statistic out there, America is not a very healthy nation. The Obesity Society's research shows that 49 out of 50 states have over 20% of residents listed as obese and 3 states have over 30% of their residents are obese - needless to say,...
Smart, Well Dressed Teenagers - Our Future is in Good Hands
This coming weekend is a pretty big weekend for a lot of students in the Rushmore District of the National Forensics League. It is the tournament that determines who gets to go to the National Debate Tournament in June. Officially it is called the District Qualifying Tournament, but to debaters,...
Are Super Bowl Ads Worth The Cost? Maybe, but what can we learn from them?
This year if you wanted to advertise during the Super Bowl, you had to pay CBS almost $3 Million dollars for 30 seconds worth of time. That's a lot of money for only 30 seconds - but you do get to advertise to almost 100 million viewers. However, with only...
Before giving a presentation try to get an idea of what they want
Next week I am going to be giving a presentation to Sioux Falls Up & Coming - a group of young professionals that meet weekly to "pursue common goals and inspire great change." Luckily, I know most of the members of Sioux Falls Up & Coming and follow them on...
Thoughts On Presenting And Design
Posted via web from Mike Pulsifer’s posterous...
via youtube.com The last few years, I’ve made an effort to manage my allocation of time better as it comes to games. I used to be a core member of a serious World of Warcraft guild. The hours spent each night is just not a commitment I’m prepared to...
I’m sure by now, you’ve read enough about the iPad to think, “oh, come on, not another article about that thing.” Granted, the hype and rumors got completely out of hand. Contrary to the Windows zealots around me, they weren’t all fed by Apple. I can’t blame them too much,...
As we design more and more slide decks, we inevitably create or consume an ever greater number of images, whether they’re photographs, icons, or whatever. The problem is, however, it becomes a problem keeping track of them all on your hard drive. Whether you’re using Windows or the Mac, this...
YouTube Launches Limited HTML5 Support
via techcrunch.com Hopefully, this is the opening salvo in what will mean the end of plug-in driven sites using Flash and Silverlight. Flash leaks memory like a colander and Silverlight is just another means for Microsoft to try to turn the web into its own proprietary playground. ENOUGH!!! I signed...
via flickr.com Took these a while ago and recently fixed up, knowing what I know now and didn’t then. Posted via web from Mike Pulsifer’s posterous...
Digital Roam
The Bonus Battle (Or: How to make the world mad at you without really trying.)
A couple weeks ago I met with potential clients at an investment bank in New York. President Obama had just announced that he was going to levy a $120 billion fee on Wall Street Banks to recoup money lost in......
March conference sold out: but more are coming!
My March 4-5 "Back of the Napkin" Training Conference in San Francisco has sold out. Thank you everyone who signed up; I'm looking forward to meeting you all in a couple weeks. If you missed this conference, I will be......
My first public "back of the napkin" training conference March 4-5 in San Francisco. 10 seats left.
Over the past two years, I've had the opportunity to share live my "back of the napkin" visual thinking approach with somewhere around 10,000 people in 20 states. (That's not including dozens of webinars reaching a dozen countries.) Now for......
Unfolding the Napkin is available!
After 18 months of effort on the part of many people (Adrian, Ted, Courtney, Will, Amanda, Mark, Tom, Les, Isabelle, Sophie, Celeste, and everyone who provided feedback along the way -- you know who you are!) I am overjoyed to......
Delta airlines flight attendant Jewel Van Valin found a unique way to help passengers relax on long flights following the bleak days of 9-11. She gave them crayons and asked them to draw. She found that the mood of passengers......
This holiday season has officially started at our house: I just received the first box of copies of my new book from Portfolio. Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems with Simple Pictures is here. (Well, almost.......
The Next Meeting
Major Inclinations In Making Improvements At Home
Though we live in a hard hit economy, surprisingly there are still a lot of people improving their homes. Sure there isn’t as many as there was during the boom of the real estate. But there are still enough people who would want to have better homes. So in this...
The ABC’s In Pop Up Trade Show Display Making
Trade shows are great venues by which you can promote your business and introduce your marketing to achieve higher consumer awareness. Most people with successful businesses are focusing on their advertisement and marketing of their products and services. One of the best equipment which you can utilize to promote your...
Deep Penetrating Light Therapy ? A Closer Look at This Up-And-Coming Therapy and Industry?
I recently began investigating a new (to me) tool for both pain relief and beauty. This is not in my realm of expertise, but I am learning more about it. I first heard about this therapy via a customer of mine who asked if I carried a particular device. In the...
Facts about Commercial Shredder
Most jobs nowadays could be done away from the traditional four corners and walls of the office. And this includes paper shredding. Outsourcing is not a fresh new thing since it has been in the business industry for quite some time. Shredding could be done on-site with the use of...
Sports Uniforms of 2010 Winter Olympics
Sports uniforms are usually designed to rev up the excitement among the spectators and the athletes themselves. We can clearly see that with how much sports teams put effort in creating and redesigning their uniforms. Football surely gives us the idea on how pressured they are while it comes to...
If you are about to start up a business then the first thing I have to say is congratulations, starting a business up straight after a recession is certainly something that is worthy of a pat on the back. You have done well to get this far. Location, Location, Location There...
George Torok's Blogs
Gutfeeling: Instinct and Spirituality@Work
Gutfeeling, Gut instinct, intuition, subconcious thinking, emotional intellegience, emotion - the sometimes unexplainable feelings that help us to make decisions. Exerpts from the book by Peter Urs Bender, "Gutfeeling: Instinct and Spirituallity @ Work"...
Executive Speech Coach - Business Presentations
Business presentations tips for executives, sales presenters, managers, technical experts and professionals from the "Speech Coach for Executives" George Torok. Transform your business presentations into effective conversations. George Torok is a Toronto based presentation coach and presentation skills trainer....
Business in Motion: Insights from Business Leaders
Business in Motion is the weekly radio show started in 1995 with host George Torok. He interviews business leaders from small to large business. This blog is an extension of the business insights, perspectives and secrets to success. Topics include entrepreneurship, leadership, success, management, innovation......
Marketing Expert & Author, George Torok
Marketing expert & bestselling author, George Torok, offers marketing insights, tips, and strategies on branding, networking and personal marketing to business owners, marketing professionals and the marketing challenged. Your comments are welcomed....
Insights and excerpts from the national bestselling book, Secrets of Power Marketing: Promote Brand You! This is the first guide to personal marketing for the non-marketer. Packed with key marketing principles, creative marketing ideas and hundreds of powerful marketing techniqes....
tellingpeople
Presentation Dos and Don’ts lists
Okay, we’ve all seen lists like this before but we all ignore them. Why? Because we don’t want to believe that the things on them are sensible, in terms of our time; perhaps we don’t think we need to do what is being suggested – or perhaps we...
Cameron’s political presentation
So then, today, David Cameron delivered a speech to his party conference without notes. Isn’t it sad that this fact it ranked pretty highly on the list of ‘important things to report’ about this speech? Opinions about how effective the speech will be appear to be divided (pretty much along...
TED talks – presentations at their best
Normally I like to create something new in these posts – after all, any fool can cut, paste and hack at other people’s work. This time, however, I’m going to break my own ‘rule’. Take a look at this talk from TED on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y. It’s a guy called Daniel...
Trains, planes and automobiles – traveling to presentations
I’ve trained a lot of speakers and I know a lot of people who speak as part of their work (or for fun!). I barely know any who don’t have to travel to get to their presentations – certainly it’s not unknown for me to be up at the...
Someone else’s work used for my presentations…
I was doing a half day’s training this morning in one of the Local Authorities near us. As I walked into their training room I noticed that the flipchart still had the notes from yesterday’s training hanging over the back… that’s too good an opportunity to miss for someone...
The world’s most simple analogy for a decent presentation… The presentation is the tip of the spear. Sure, it’s the bit people notice and are frightened of (the spear-tip, not the presentation!) but it’s useless without the shaft – the backup in terms of designing and researching your presentation;...
Rhett's Laubach Authenticity Rules Blog
The question every professor, teacher, lecturer, speaker and corporate trainer should be asking is, “How do I turn a boring topic into an engaging presentation?” The reason for asking this question is simple: just because the data is inherently dull doesn’t mean the...
How you dress and act (body language) before you begin to speak is sending thousands of messages to your audience. One of the most important thoughts your audience is thinking when they first see you that dramatically impacts the first moments of your presentation is:Who do you remind me of?They...
Keeping an Auditorium Audience Engaged
Pack ‘em in! Rope off the back rows if you need to, but do whatever it takes to get the audience seated in the middle/front. The closer you have the audience to one another, the more you can do with them and the more...
"All good public speaking is based on good private thinking."Scott Berkun (from his new book Confessions of a Public Speaker)Get it today to get your 2010 reading started right. Caution: it is a complicated, layered, opinionated, clearly written work. If you are not interested in growing or being challenged as...
It is said that the amount of energy in the universe is constant. Energy is neither created nor destroyed. It is only changed from one form to another. The fat in your body is potential energy waiting to be turned into kinetic energy. A lump of coal is waiting to...
One Way to Help People Believe You (And Believe In You)
"If you don't have confidence in your take, then we don't want to hear it."Jim Rome, Professional Sports Talk GuyPlease visit www.YourNextSpeaker.com to learn more about our leadership keynotes and workshops and our Presentation Coaching services. ...
Pivotal Public Speaking
Engage your audience when you speak
From one of my favourite “gurus” …. How do you make your presentation more interesting to your audience? Perhaps the most important technique is to include them when you speak. You can choose your words to engage your listeners — or leave them out. If you leave them out, boredom is...
Is Twitter a Presenter’s Nightmare or a Dream Come True?
with Cliff Atkinson Armed with laptops and smartphones, audiences are no longer sitting quietly while speakers are talking — instead they’re using Twitter and other tools to create a backchannel where they chat with one another, make comments about your presentation and broadcast their thoughts to people all over the world. If...
Instantly improve your public speaking dramatically
Interesting article on 7 “little things that will instantly improve your public speaking dramatically.” I really love SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST and undoubtedly certain people need to be told TALK TWICE AS SLOW TALK TWICE AS LOUD … a very useful list to print out and read just before presenting. 7 Easy Ways To Instantly Improve...
Positioning Yourself For More Speaking Engagements
12 essential Steps to Attract Your Ideal Customers With all due respect, love and admiration, why do you, some of our planet’s best teachers (professional speakers) think that all you have to do is throw up a website to get invitations to speak? What’s with the trend to try to build...
The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause. — Mark Twain … or as powerful, or as useful at keeping audience attention. Do you remember a time in school when a child or maybe a pair of children were chatting when the...
Robert Graham has written a great post based on the value of simplicity. He makes a powerful point. The theme also proved to be a useful hook for hanging some very basic but vital tips … on any sort of communication, not just public speaking. You can read his...
Les Posen's Presentation Magic
Did you catch the TED talk given last month, and posted just recently, by Temple Grandin, left? I first came across her life and work several years ago in a documentary, and since then have listened to her being interviewed several times whenever she has published a new book. In her TED...
We are approaching the end of March, three months into the new year, and a few weeks before the release of the first iPad variants in the US. This is fifteen months out from the last iWork upgrade, taking one of its apps, Keynote, from version 4 to version 5. And...
Because I’m not placing my Powertools file on the Macworld website for attendees to review (I used several Keynote files, the main one being more than 2GB in size), I thought I’d share some of the Presentation Magic workshop here on my blog. One of the changes I made from last...
Presentation Magic at Macworld 2010
Just a brief update about the Presentation Magic workshop at Macworld this past week; evaluations are in and it looks after talking to Macworld MD Paul Kent that we’ll be back in 2011, January 25-29 for Macworld 2011. Here’s a brief Fox News report broadcast February 9 featuring a glimpse of...
Why the iPad will change Apple users’ skepticism for its version 1 products
I’m preparing a rather lengthy (even for me) blog post about the iPad which I’ll publish once I complete my Presentation Magic workshop at Macworld next week. Curiously, the dust has yet to settle on the iPad, even though more than a week has passed. Can you recall a product in...
On the eve of the Apple special event, and considerably more information dribbling out from sources that we are looking at a tablet-format device, spare a moment for those naysayers asking why the world “needs” another tablet, when the models before (powered by flavours of Windows) have all but failed...
Professionally Speaking
I once had the best job in America!
Sociological Images reports that, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data rating the best jobs in America, an I.T. industry Systems Engineer (SE) comes out in first place! (Click to enlarge) Who woulda thunk. I spent six years as an SE with Sun Microsystems from 1992 - 1998 working...
50 great examples of data vizualization
Thanks to Scott for sharing this link to 50 great examples of data visualization and tools for creating your own visualizations, covering everything from Digg activity to network connectivity to what’s currently happening on Twitter. Another source that I blogged about back in 2006 is Gapminder. As I said at...
Interview: Vickie Sullivan - Branding Queen
Vickie Sullivan is internationally recognized as a top market strategist for experts. Specializing in branding for high-fee professional speaker markets, she has launched thousands of thought leaders since 1987. Vickie’s groundbreaking work has earned her an appointment on the Women’s Leadership Board for the Kennedy School of Government at...
Toastmasters Speech: You Say Tomato
Here’s a speech I gave at the Speakers Forum - an advanced Toastmasters Club that meets on the 4th Saturday of each month at the Concord Police Station, Concord, California. In this 5-7 minute presentation I discuss the differences in pronunciation and meaning between English and American uses of the...
What will be socially acceptable 100 years from now?
Thanks to Sociological Images for an eye-opening display of vintage ads for cocaine and opium products. This is normal today That was normal back then They note that what is considered socially “acceptable” changes over time: ..it’s no secret that products with cocaine, marijuana, opium, and other now-banned substances were at one...
Interview: Jack Sramek - Land Banker
Jack Sramek is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a former Marine Corps Fighter Pilot. He flew 125 combat missions in Vietnam as a member of the famous “Blacksheep Squadron” and served as the personal aide to Lt. General Lewis W. Walt, commander of all Marines...
Six Minutes: A Public Speaking and Presentation Skills blog
What is Pathos and Why is it Critical for Speakers?
American psychologist William James wrote: The emotions aren’t always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action. Emotions — whether fear or love, pity or anger — are powerful motivators for your audience. An audience emotionally stimulated in the right way is more likely to accept your claims...
Public Speaking Tips: Weekend Review [2010-03-06]
Six Minutes weekend reviews bring the best public speaking articles to you. This review features topics including: PowerPoint and the Rule of Thirds; new public speaking books; persuasive techniques; training session tips; creating memorable story characters; effective use of pauses; new features in PowerPoint 2010; dealing with hecklers; and more! From the Six Minutes Archives One Year Ago from Six Minutes… How to...
Public Speaking Tips: Weekend Review [2010-02-20]
Six Minutes weekend reviews bring the best public speaking articles to you. This review features topics including: frequently asked questions about Toastmasters; tactics for persuasive speaking; speechwriting tips; storytelling help from a Google ad; Obama’s State of the Union address; hands in the pockets; visual clichés; Sarah Palin and notes on her hands; the believability of Tiger Woods’ apology; and more! From...
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die packs powerful wisdom that will help you express your message so that your audience remembers it and acts on it. This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes. What’s Inside? The Price What I Loved How...
Which College Textbook for Public Speaking is Best?
Have you taken a college course in public speaking? Have you taught a college course in public speaking? Which textbook did you use, and would you recommend it? I’m interested to hear all your recommendations, the good and the bad. In particular, perhaps you can help out a Six Minutes subscriber from Switzerland who...
Average Speakers Suck. Don’t be Average.
If you are an average speaker, you suck. So do all of your colleagues with average presentation skills. Let’s see why this is so… Cookies and the Cookie Police Suppose you are baking cookies. After mixing up the dough, you scoop up a bit with your fingers, roll it into a ball, and plop...
Can You Hear Me Up the Back?
The TED Commandments: lose hustle, win friends.
There’s a time and a place for a sales presentation, and conferences aren’t it. People pay good money to go to conferences. In return, they want to learn amazing new things, discover future trends, and learn how others in the same industry have solved problems. They don’t want a blatant sales hustle...
Secret Men’s Presentation Tips
Are you a man? Do you present to women? Did you know there’s a single, vital element of your presentation that you’ve probably never considered? One that’s never mentioned in the presentation tips books. And if you get it wrong, it can cancel out all the good work you’ve done with graphics, scriptwriting and...
Death of A Pitch: Lessons From Mickey Mouse Man
‘Creativity is my middle name!’ Researching your audience is probably the most important element of your presentation. Doom awaits those who neglect this. Over the weekend I had dinner with another school parent, a man who built a sizable fortune from selling domestic appliances. Let’s call him Jim. He did it with decades...
If you present with numbers, you know how hard it is to bring them to life. Not all of us can be as riveting as maths lecture wizard Matthew Weathers. Here are some useful tips from Lizzie O’Leary of Bloomberg News, an organisation that faces a daily challenge of presenting endless...
New MICE.net article: Question Everything
When most companies plan an event, they’re focused on the ‘how?‘ rather than the ‘why?‘ So there are endless meetings about what brand of wine to serve, and whether the delegates should be arranged theatre style or classroom style. Where should the off-site dinner be? These are all important questions, but few...
Practice Twitter To Cut The Blather
All presenters should Twitter, to practice compressing an idea into 140 characters. More clarity, more impact. End of post. Blather....
The Accidental Communicator
Get It Done: Thinking On Your Feet And Building A Speech Real Quick
If I asked you to give a speech, how much time would you need to get ready to give the speech (including writing it)? Could you do it if I gave you half as much time? How about if I gave you 5 minutes? We don’t always control the...
AccComm Life Just Got Better For iPhone/Andriod/BB Users
Loyal Readers, It has been brought to my attention that the AccComm blog’s appearance on touch-based smart phones was, shall we say, poor at best. I think that I may have found a way to solve this problem. I’ve installed some new software that should change the AccComm into an...
Counterstrike: How To Deal With Hecklers
Fighting Back Nothing makes me more angry than when someone is rude enough to interrupt me when I’m giving a speech. I mean come on, I’ve worked hard to prepare to give this speech and here I am dealing with all of the nerves, logistics, etc. that a speaker needs to...
It’s All About Control If you could wish for just one thing before you give your next speech in public, what would it be? Sure we’d all like to be able to talk like Tony Robbins, move a crowd like Zig Ziglar, or even have a powerful story to tell like...
How To Rig A Speech To Get The Outcome You Want Every Time
You can’t always do it all by yourself. If you want to make a lasting impression on your audience, then sometimes you just gotta bring in some help to pull it off. Speakers who are ready to move up to the next level in their speaking often come to me...
What Is Your Body Telling Your Audience?
What You Know About Body Language Is All Wrong Did you know that when you are delivering a speech, there is always another conversation going on? No, I’m not talking about your rude audience (although they may be talking also), instead I’m talking about your body – it’s having its own...
My Toastmasters Blog
Toastmasters International has been the most influential organization in my personal and professional development. Over the years I have been a member, I have become more confident, more action orientated, and better able to accomplish the goals I have established for myself. With that being said, there is one trap...
I have noticed a disturbing trend in the Toastmasters clubs that I am active. A new member will join, give a speech or two, and then send an e-mail that says, “I am sorry, but I just don’t have the time for Toastmasters anymore.” The irony of these e-mails is that...
Vote for Chris to Speak at SXSW
I Have a Dream I dream of traveling the world to speak to audiences about technology, leadership, and personal development. The past five years, I have worked hard at becoming an excellent speaker. However, being a great speaker is only part of the equation. What it Takes to be a Professional Speaker In...
Club Coaches: Life Support For Dying Toastmaster Clubs
Today’s guest post is from Bob Jensen, a fellow Champions’ EDGE Member. In his post, Bob discusses Club Coaches and how a coach can assist struggling Toastmasters clubs. Bob’s article is a great overview of the club coach program and I am grateful for his contribution. Toastmasters International recognizes that there...
An Engaging Opening is Necessary for Long Presentations
Sitting in a training class, I found myself starting to wonder about the point of the class. We had an agenda, workbooks, and trainers but the point was slipping away. You could see the attention of the audience slip and the trainers begin to go on to autopilot. What was...
If you are like most Toastmasters, you get a copy of the agenda for the next meeting and take whatever open role that you are comfortable. For many Toastmasters, that means you will be the timer, grammarian, or ah counter. Those roles are important on the agenda, but they don’t...