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....
There’s an old story of a man walking down a country road. He comes across a farmer, who’s repairing a fence. “Excuse me, sir” says the traveller “I’m curious what the folks are like in the town up ahead?” “Well…” the farmer replies, as he turns to face the stranger....
For some speakers, memorizing a speech and delivering it word for word, exactly as planned, is the highest form of delivery. Frankly, I find that type of delivery is demeaning to the audience, lazy and, at best, boring. If a speaker is reading from their notes it...
I love speaking. And I hate packing for speaking. So, it really helps to have the right gear and a packing list. In this post I’m sharing what gear is in my bag when I hit the road. There’s lots of options out there, but these are what have worked for me - so I’ve put...
We’ve all been there - cringing in our seats - thinking “Will this ever end?”. Yes, it’s the speaker from hell. Maybe they’ve got great content - even lessons we haven’t heard before. But their delivery is so finger-nails-on-chalkboard bad we’re missing it all. I had...