The hardest part of getting better at speaking and presenting is to persist in the face of discouragement. A talent is a latent ability, something that is dormant inside you. When you work at it, it becomes a skill. Public… Read More »Fall Down Seven Times; Get Up Eight
A revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I opened recently at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. Yul Brynner, the great actor who devoted much of his career to The King and I, was known to prepare for each performance… Read More »Get Your Act Together
I have been looking at various presentation websites. I am impressed and not impressed, and I am concerned about the distinction between making a convincing argument to serious people with serious decisions to make, vs. giving an entertaining performance to people who need… Read More »My Kind of Champion Speaker
Persuading someone to buy a commodity requires a microscope. Let me explain. Suppose you sell pencils. Your buyer sees your pencil as a commodity because it looks like every other pencil he’s ever seen. But that’s because he’s not a pencil specialist. He’s looking at… Read More »Drill down. Dig deep. Zoom in.
When you need to use powerpoint slides, keep it simple, and use images to help you tell a story. Often, clients ask me to help them knit together a talk with some slides. Once, I was asked to develop a… Read More »Put Power Point to Work for You
We’re winding up our series on how to keep your listeners attentive, keep yourself energetic, and make the most of your time in the spotlight. We’ve covered 6 tips in our first two parts. Here’s the last 4: 7. Get… Read More »How Not to Bore an Audience (3 of 3)