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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...
Nick Morgan - Public Speaking Advice and Commentary
How to develop a paid speaking career
I shared a ‘Core Conversation’ yesterday afternoon at SXSW with the consummate professional speaker Tim Sanders, author of Love is the Killer App, The Likeability Factor, and Saving the World at Work. Aided by some great comments, suggestions and questions......
How to write, sell, and market a business book – III: The Proposal
So I’ve talked you out of writing the book (yet) and you’re thinking about a proposal. Let’s take the essential sections of one in turn and expand on each a bit. Introduction Begin with the most important section – the......
How to write, sell, and market a business book – II
OK, so you’ve got enough passion for a subject to write a book, and you get that it takes a long time – maybe two years or more. You’re prepared for the long haul. What’s the next step? Don’t write......
How to write, sell, and market a business book - I
I’m going to start a series of blogs on writing, selling, and marketing a business book. A book is still the ticket to a successful public speaking career – and a bestseller the ticket to a very successful public speaking......
Current Speakers and their Books – X: Bishop T. D. Jakes
IN THIS SERIES 1. David Meerman-Scott 2. Sally Hogshead 3. Seth Godin 4. Daniel Pink 5. Chip and Dan Heath 6. Michael Mauboussin 7. Keith Ferrazzi 8. Greg Mortenson 9. Chris Brogan 10. Bishop T.D. Jakes I’m closing out my......
Current Speakers and their Books – IX: Chris Brogan
Chris Brogan is a giant in the field of social media. He’s a blogger extraordinaire (http://www.chrisbrogan.com/), an author, a speaker, and he runs a company called New Marketing Labs, a “new media marketing agency.” His big book, written with Julien......
Angela DeFinis Blog; Best Public Speaking Blogs; DeFinis Communications Blog; Top Blogs;
Great Public Speaking – Right in Your Own Backyard
One of the many reasons why I enjoy living in the Bay Area is the seemingly endless opportunities to hear good speakers. I am a member of Left Coast Writers (LCW), and recently attended our monthly Literary Salon held at Book Passage Independent bookstore in Corte Madera, CA. Under the...
Public Speaking and the New Year
For many, 2009 was a struggle. Fortunately, the worst of the economic downturn seems to have passed. In its wake, many people were left wondering what had just happened and what they could have done differently. But as we enter the new calendar year, most of us switch from reflection...
Content Tips: How Much is Too Much?
I’ve been working with a group of technical professionals this week and am running into a familiar techie issue. My technical guys love monologue. And the longer, more data packed and deeply obscure the better. They make the case that if they are speaking to a technical audience, a complex...
Sorry to have to ask. Will you please stop apologizing?
I recently had lunch with a friend who I haven’t seen in a long time. It was a wonderful reunion and great to catch up with her. As we sat and talked I realized that my friend spent a great deal of time apologizing. Once I heard this pattern emerge...
I got a call today from a woman who owns a bakery that specializes in selling gluten free products—cookies, biscotti, scones and other wonderful wheat free foods. She has a good niche market but wants to grow her business—and someone told her to look into public speaking as an avenue...
Speaking of Telling Stories in the Executive Suite
I have been working with a client in our Executive Immersion program and am once again reminded of the critical role that stories play in executive effectiveness. My client is working hard to develop a communication approach that balances IQ and EQ—that is, using intellectual, analytical, problem solving tactics combined...
Sticky Slides
This ad is a good example of how your brain adjusts reality to what it thinks it should look like. I read this sentence the first time as "Don't drink if you drive", a familiar slogan.I find myself doing the same thing when reading headlines full of buzz words and...
If you can't explain it, you don't understand it
The best way to prepare a presentation is to practice on a complete (but intelligent) outsider. Even (maybe especially) if your audience consists of industry experts. You see this often in pitches of technology startups to venture capitalists for fund raising. The entrepreneur is an expert. The VC audience knows a...
Powerful graphics software is enabling a wave of font art. While each of these images might be digital artistic master pieces, I am not convinced of how effective they are in communicating the message. They catch attention, but do they stick? What do you think? See a list of 150+ of...
One of my investor presentations in the public domain
Almost all presentations I design are highly confidential. Presentations of publicly traded companies to stock analysts are an exception. Recently I supported Psion in designing their 2009 preliminary results presentation.Most of you will remember Psion as one of the pioneers of PDAs and the Symbian operating system. After some M&A...
VC pitch: don't spend time/slides on the obvious
Time is precious when pitching to a venture capitalist (VC) for funding your startup. Don't waste it on things the VC is already convinced of. Examples:Common beliefs, i.e., in 5 years from now people will be downloading dramatically more data to their mobile devices than they do today. This can...
Beyond images that just show things
Most stock images are descriptive: search for "ice cream truck" and you get what you asked for. The position the image puts the audience in, is at least as important (maybe even more important) than the object it represents. Look at this image of the inside of the Notre Dame...
PRESENTability
Dilbert fun about PowerPoint Presentation
Over the years, Dilbert’s characters have been dealing with lots of PowerPoint Presentation (should I say BAD presentation?). Thanks to PowerPoint Ninja for collecting those strip. If you want more, you can see the entire collection on PowerPoint Ninja post. Share with me: Have you good cartoons about PowerPoint or presentation? Posted by: Denis...
Save the Date – Incredible Wedding Invitation
This is an awesome wedding invitation. This couple made a short movie to invite their friends and family to their wedding. As I wrote in: Be memorable by being different & surprising, “To stand out from the crowd, we need to be different, unique.” If you want to see something truly different, watch...
I Present Naked to the Board of Directors
New stunning campaign from Citrix for is GoToMeeting solution. A true eyes catching ad, with an intriguing message. How can you be naked to present to the board or to collaborate with coworkers? (see picture beside from Los Angeles Airport). You have to use GoToMeeting. It is a solution for online meeting. The...
Creative ad – A Bus Stop with a Tuque
A bus stop wearing a tuque!! I saw one on twitpic today, I know it is cold in Quebec City (I leave there), but this is really funny. It is real creativity. Thanks to @LaGeeke for the information and the picture. As you can see the tuque is related to the milk ad....
Conseils de Nicolas Roberge pour les gestionnaires en TI face aux médias sociaux
This post is only available in French Joueur très actif des médias sociaux de la région de Québec (et individu extrêmement sympathique), Nicolas Roberge a contribué à l’article du journal Les Affaires intitulé : Quatre conseils aux gestionnaires TI indécis face aux médias sociaux La version en ligne sur le site LesAffaires.com ayant...
Speaking Pro Central
Troubles Talk: Has The Great Recession Doomed It
Way back in 1994, linguist Deborah Tannen brought "troubles talk" to the surface. 0160; In her book TALKING FROM 9 to 5: WOMEN AND MEN AT WORK, Tannen brought out how this tended to be a bonding device for women, even professional ones, at work. 0160; An increasing number of...
There's are signs of economic recovery. 0160; It hasn't snowed for a while here in New Haven, Connecticut. 0160; But today I realized many in the complex where I live are in emotional lockdown, still. 0160; Remember how we used to remind everyone about those time changes, twice a year? Brought...
"Desperate Housewives" - That truth behind the shadows
Tonight was a time when reality struggled out from illusion and closely kept secrets. 0160; Angie reveals to Gabby, on their way back from Manhattan, that Danny's father was a a bad man who involved her in another person's death. 0160; By accident, Gabby reveals to the wrong person in...
How to develop a paid speaking career
I shared a ‘Core Conversation’ yesterday afternoon at SXSW with the consummate professional speaker Tim Sanders , author of Love is the Killer App , The Likeability Factor , and Saving the World at Work . Aided by some great comments, suggestions and...
We learn from stories and experience
When it comes to learning and genuinely retaining something, nothing beats experiences. Formal educational or speaking settings don't always allow for actual hands-on experience with the content, but almost every learning situation — including presentation in various forms — does permit the use of stories. Stories, that is, that illustrate...
DocVerse is a company Google purchased last week that aims at making it's online Google Apps more appealing to MS Office users. DocVerse is ironically a startup founded by two former Microsoft key employees. Colaboration (having multiple people work on a document seamlessly)...
Professionally Speaking...
Volumes have been written about the skills needed for successful sales presentations. Advice abounds about how to present benefits, not features; how to conduct product demos; how to use influencing techniques; how to establish rapport; how to close; and more.......
Strengthen Your Presentation with Word Pictures
As presenters, we should always be searching for ways to make our presentations more memorable, more impactful, more sticky. Word pictures are an excellent way to accomplish this. The term 'word picture' sounds like a dichotomy or a contradiction. Is......
Teleprompters are a relatively recent addition to the field of oratory. The producer of the I Love Lucy TV show claimed credit in the 1950s for the idea and was awarded a U.S. patent for its invention [see below for......
The Don't Miss This List, Edition 6
The blogosphere -- fascinating world that it is -- consists of blather, banality and some brilliance. Luckily, when it comes to presentation advice, examples of brilliance aren't hard to find: KATE PETERS, in Who Let the Frogs Out, shares practical......
Distill Your Message for a More Impactful Presentation
Distill. It has such a nice sound. It suggests that something is being made purer or more concentrated or more essential. It is a word and activity presenters should learn to embrace. Most presentations sound as though their creators never......
I'm the first one to advise against reading a speech. It usually is tricky to maintain decent eye contact, a struggle to sound authentic, challenging to create any kind of connection with the audience...and just plain boring to listen to.......
The Campaign Spot on National Review Online
Looking at This Year's House Races in California... -- By: Jim Geraghty
Today is the filing deadline for federal candidates in California.Despite having a gargantuan 53 House seats, you don't usually see that many competitive House races in California, thanks to gerrymandering. The result is that lots and lots of House members have no real competition, and a bothersome amount - 15!...
I Don't Think Obama Thought He Would Have Wavering Illinois Democrats -- By: Jim Geraghty
Bits of news like this would seem to make passage of Obamacare through the House near-impossible, but I don't know how much of this is real opposition and how much of this is posturing to win concessions elsewhere. "[The restrictions on illegal immigrants] are enough to say I can't support this...
Pat Quinn, Hell-Bent on Taxing Illinois Into Prosperity -- By: Jim Geraghty
There hasn't been a ton of polling in Illinois governor's race, and the two that have been conducted show strikingly different results. Rasmussen puts Republican Bill Brady up 10; Daily Kos's Research2000 poll puts Democrat Pat Quinn up 15. I wonder how Quinn will poll if he manages to enact his...
Jon Corzine Funded a Terrorist. Kind of. -- By: Jim Geraghty
CentristNet calls our attention to this fascinating bit of news: Back in 2005, a gentleman by the name of Sharif Mobley received $75 as an election-day worker for the campaign of Jon Corzine, Democrat running for governor of New Jersey. Corzine won. What's Mobley up to these days? FBI spokesman Rich Wolf...
Competitive Fire Sparked in Burns -- By: Jim Geraghty
Last night, Pennsylvania Republicans picked their candidate to try to win the special election for the remainder of 2010 in the seat once occupied by John Murtha: Tim Burns. Burns won 85 votes; Bill Russell won 46. He'll take on longtime Murtha aide Mark Critz....
So Does the Senate Parliamentarian Have a Brother Who Would Like to Be a Judge? -- By: Jim Geraghty
From the last Jolt of the week: How Long Until the Daily Show Starts Mocking the Senate Parliamentarian? We’ve all had to get our PhDs in congressional procedure lately, haven’t we? In Schoolhouse Rock, it all seemed so simple: I'm just a bill, yes, I'm only a bill, and I'm sitting here...
Persuasions Blog Public Speaking, Persuasive Speech Tips, Word Illustrations, Latest Public Speaking News and Speechmastery Updates
Mar 10, Informative speech topics: A Comprehensive List of Information Speech Topics
Informative speech topics: A list and links to even more....
Mar 7, How to Copyright Something: An Overview of the Copyright Process
how to copyright something...
Mar 7, Three Pillars Crossover
The three pillars of dynamic public speaking cross over to other genres. So in the case of websites and their voice, the three pillars apply. What you write, how you write it and how the site is presented all play a part in building confidence. Check out one of my latest...
Feb 26, Pausing in Public Speaking: Pit Stop for Emphasis, Transitions & Circumstances.
Pausing in public speaking to punctuate, for transitions, for emphasis & drama, for audience to mentally respond, for circumstances. Why, When, Where, & How...
How can your dress and grooming help with your public speech success? The right clothing and apparel can actually assist you two different ways....
Feb 22, Becoming a Public Speaking Nurse, Patient Teaching Meets Public Speaking
Becoming a public speaking nurse, my journey from patient teaching to public speaking. How I did and how you can too....
Jane Atkinson, Speaker Launcher Blog, Speaker Coach, Presentation Skills, Speakers Bureaus
In case you’ve been living under a rock, the 2010 Olympics just wrapped up in Vancouver. Team Canada’s theme was “Own The Podium”. Now, I wasn’t 100% in favor of that message as I thought an athlete’s journey was important too, but in the end it was effective. 14 golds,...
Are You Asking for the Business?
Whether it be from the platform, or in follow up with clients, most of us are lousy at asking for the business. And, if you were to do a quick calculation, you’d see the cost. Just imagine if every audience could provide spin off to 3 more engagements…. And if each of those...
Whenever people find out that I am a coach for professional speakers, they always want to tell me about a speaker that they experienced. It’s rare that they remember the speaker’s name. But frequently they will tell me a story that the speaker told and we’ll be able to piece together the...
Where are You on Your “S Curve”?
There’s that old saying, what goes up must come down. And if you believe the philosophy behind the S curve in business, you’ll understand why. In last months Voice of Experience (NSA’s monthly audio) Mike Rayburn talked about the S curve and how you need to re-engineer your business before you get...
Yesterday during my workout, I was watching “So You Think You Can Dance”. There was a section where they stopped the auditions and told the dancers what the do’s and dont’s for this year were. First thing to go? The male booty shake. No surprise there – who...
Fire, Without Shooting Yourself in the Foot
How is next year going to be different for you? As we start to wind down for the holidays, you’ll no doubt be thinking about how you want to start off the New Year in your business. And, of course, you want to start it right. Right? Remember in The...
PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques
"Pimp Your PowerPoint" - 8 Tips from Experts on YourBusinessChannel
From YourBusinessChannel as found on MarketingByMouth.com....
PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques Resource Guide Rev 11
The PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques Resource Guide has been updated and is now in its 11th revision. Additions and deletions to the Resource Guide make this a current version for your reference to tools and resources to improve your presentation and PowerPoint skills. Call on Paul J...
Twitter more fully integrated into PPT - Powerful Presentation Techiques
I haven't been posting to this blog as frequently as I like due to spending more time with Twitter. I've found that Twitter allows me to quickly share articles and resources that I've come across without spending quite as much......
A dramatic reading from one of the books in the PPT Reference Listing
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Photo Editing Tools - Alternatives to Photoshop
As presenters, we're often using photographs in our presentations. There are many free and fee tools to enhance or modify our photographs to better convey our message or engage our audience. Read Write Web had an article reviewing 7 free......
How Twitter is Being Used at Conferences
Academic paper on how Twitter is being used at conferences and meetings....
Executive Speaking Weblog
Political Speak: We believe vs. the Facts
With elections in South Australia and Tasmania this coming weekend, as well as a Federal election and Victorian election due sometime this year, it is appropriate to look at political language – and I’m not talking about politically correct language. In election mode you will hear speakers from all sides of politics telling...
Why the Fear of Public Speaking?
Why do people fear Public Speaking? There are many statistics that state public speaking is our greatest fear. Apparently it is higher than the fear of spiders, snakes, flying and even death itself (though there are not stats on the fear of dieing from a snake or spider bite while flying) Why...
How Will You be Different for Your Clients in 2010?
If you want different results in 2010 you haev to be different to 2009...
The 5 minute Annual Sales Conference
Make this next sales conference interesting....
being comfortable at public speaking is not good. Here's why....
How Westpac got their Ads wrong...