Wow, what a way to start the year. I didn’t take my own advice. Mid way through a recent assignment (an event featuring 5 different talks from the same company), I was told that I offended an executive by what I thought was a simple suggestion. The suggestion was, “Have you ever recorded yourself?” I […]
Feedback without a License Read More »
These are calls I’ve gotten recently from clients, concerned about performances of some of their key women. “She is fine when she’s one-on-one with colleagues, but as soon as she goes into a group meeting or presentation, she clams up. We know she has good communication skills, but she refuses to use them.” “During the
Is it really a presentation problem? Read More »
This month I’ve been asked twice to orient / train / tell / brief people on how to coach speakers inside their companies. I’ve struggled with responding as I never like to say no, but in this case, it’s the only answer. I came to appreciate that I haven’t clearly articulated (pun intended) why I
On Coaching Speakers 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 »
We had two goals for this week: to get them to understand (in their left and right brains) what it means to deliver a talk in front of people, standing up and secondly, to articulate the basic idea of their TEDx talk. Each student reviewed this handout – 5 Basics of Speaking – to raise basic awareness about the best
TEDxKids@NBCC Journal Entry #4: Getting on Stage and Jelling the Idea Read More »
Rose Smith, during her highly provocative poetry performance at TEDxColumbus, challenged us all to betools. You know, as in a conduit for helping others, making change or doing good. While my tip this month isn’t as deep, her challenge made me think about the tools that the speakers used during TEDxColumbus in their variety of preparation pathways (and
Tools of the Trade Read More »
They say once is an event, twice is a coincidence and three times is a trend. As we organize the third TEDxColumbus event, we’re definitely feeling the trend. Consider our first year when no one knew what TED or TEDx was. I had to explain, clarify, demonstrate and explain some more. Last year, we had some awareness but still needed to
Three times makes it a trend Read More »
Everyone has their own preparation path toward great speaking, we’re thrilled to see what changes our clients have made in theirs. One of our clients shared with me in an email that her speaking style had improved so much after her sessions with us. I asked her for what strategies were helping HER the most.
One Client’s Pathway to Resonance Read More »
Late last year when we started paying close attention to good opening hooks, we started noting those TED talks that had particularly good ones. In this 3 minute video we produced below, we’ve spliced out 6 really notable ones, and what we consider a represenative sample of the different types of hooks you can deploy. From self-deprecating
Everyone has their pet peeves. I have my pet loves. Among them, really awesome opening hooks. As in, how do you grab your audience from the first words out of your mouth. That means, ‘Thank you for having me,” or, “I’m here to discuss an idea…” are no where to be heard. This week at TEDGlobal, among
