If you work for a company, and your job entails public speaking, you are paid to speak. That’s right, you are a professional speaker–in the same business as Anthony Robbins, Jack Welch, and Malcolm Gladwell. Your company is paying you… Read More »Business Communication: You Are a Professional Speaker
When working on scientific and technical presentations, I am often amazed by the wonders of the science being presented and, at the same time, shocked by the speaker’s lack of awe or appreciation for the mystery and power of his… Read More »Scientific Presentations and the Gettysburg Address
Begin well, end well, and keep the middle nice and short. That’s the secret of good speaking. But ending is the hardest for me. I have collected a number of openings that I use on a regular basis, but constructing… Read More »At the end, light a fire
We never get tired of stories. We read them, watch them, listen to them and tell them every day of our lives. We even tell them to ourselves. I think science has established that we are not the only creatures… Read More »Story, Story, Story!
It’s not often that a business audience will go negative on you, but it happens. Here’s how to stay in control of your listeners and yourself: 1. Prepare key messages for your talk so you can find your way back to… Read More »How to control negative questioners
In 80 BC, Cicero, the great Roman orator and statesman, set off for the Eastern Mediterranean on something like a cross between a gap year and oratory boot camp—showing, again, how he regarded oratory as a physical more than simply… Read More »The Best Way to Lose an Audience