In Columbus, we have an awesome business (mainly tech) accelerator called 10x. I was invited to help these 10 companies prepare their final presentations/ demonstrations pitches to investors at the end of their, yep you guessed it, 10th week. Below is advice I sent to each of them as the entered the final stretch and […]
Make the Voice Memo your friend. Read More »
So a few years ago I wrote this blog post on how I thought the Pecha Kucha (Japanese for Chit-Chat) was a fun format for an audience but a really tough one for a speaker. It dictates you deliver a talk with 20 slides on a timer for 20 seconds a slide. MXLLS So last summer when I
How Kit Kat led to TED, told ala Pecha Kucha. Read More »
As we close out 2012, I have produced another ‘best clips’ video (you may remember the first one on opening hooks), this time, on great closings. As a speechwriter friend of mine told me once, the hardest part for her clients was “Getting into and getting out of the talk.” So here’s some inspiration to
Bringing closure to the year, and your talk. Read More »
I just finished a six week assignment with a major health corporation in town, helping them to cascade their 10 year vision into a repeatable resonant story for their 16,000 associates to understand. The experience was a familiar one — take two years worth of strategic planning work and find a way to get it
Yesterday morning I delivered a keynote address on influential storytelling to 80 executives at the company DSW, headquartered in Columbus. They sell shoes and lots of them. In attempting to find the perfect metaphor to begin my talk, I made them each take off their right shoes. To a group of shoe execs, the energy
It takes both sides. Read More »
Last week, we suggested an outrageous idea to a client who was addicted to PowerPoint (as in she had sent at least 200 pages of slides in 4 decks). While we were helping her to narrow down a presentation to 15 slides, we also suggested they use a black slide when one of the 5
Dare to fade to black Read More »
Last week we re-launched our Influential Storytelling class. Like all good motors, it needed a tune up, and just in time too. These 15 participants came together from 7 different organizations to get down to the business of “story.” One of the attendees in his evaluation said: “It is rare that one experiences something
Our Influential Storytelling Class Read More »
My favorite quote from the TED Conference this year was from the (now former) head of DARPA, the defense agency that plans our strategic responses on surprise attacks, Regina Dugan. She said: “If you want to learn to fly, you have to FLY.” It seemed so simple. But for an agency that fails all the time in its
Every car has four wheels, a radiator and glove compartment. It is not those things that make a car fancy, fast or memorable. But without those things it would not be a car. After attending my second TED conference and beginning to preparing our 5th TEDx event, I thought it was time to take a stab at my interpretation
The arc, or rather petals of a TED talk Read More »
(Live from TEDActive 2012) I was asked to play Bob Costas, or rather Mary Corillo, by a fellow TEDactive attendee during session 8 at TED2012. In other words, sit next to me and give me a play by play of what these speakers are doing to rock the house or in contrast, find a way
How not to give a TED talk Read More »
