The business of public speaking is a strange one. There’s no real “product” - not much to measure – and nothing you can put in a box or weigh in your hands. Just you talking. Your client wants to make the “perfect” decision and will often run you through a gauntlet of...
“When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt.” —Honore de Balzac Take my advice…I’m not using it. That old joke comes to mind every time I step on stage feeling completely void of a single thought worth sharing. Or when I sit down to write this...
It happened four years ago and I never saw it coming. I was listening to another speaker, waiting my turn to present, when I witnessed an otherwise boring topic being delivered brilliantly. In fact, it was done so masterfully I’ve been using his advice every day...
There’s lots of opinions about how to start a speech. Some say start with a joke. Some with a story. Some with a confession. Some even use video to break the ice. All of those can work, but in this post I’m more talking about what comes next—how do you hook your...
It took me 10 years to discover - completely by accident - the one secret to public speaking that not only saved my bacon countless times, but actually made every speech better. Today, I’m going to tell you what that secret is. But I’m getting ahead of myself. When I...
Congratulations - you’re about to give a speech! Or maybe you’re speaking at your bi-weekly team meeting, or it’s a presentation at your company’s annual dinner. The problem is you’re boring. To be fair, it’s not so much you that’s the problem - it’s your audience....
I don’t know if I was more scared or excited. I’d been invited to speak to over 1,000 Rotarians - my biggest speech yet (by an order of 100). I had just under a month to prepare. Every evening I hammered away at a script—adding, deleting, moving notes around until I...