Episode 089 — Practice in the Mirror and Meet Andrew “Mecha” Davis

  2-Minute Tip: Practice in a Mirror   The key to success on stage is to practice as much as you can. Prep by using a mirror to give yourself an audience to impress. And often the person in the mirror is the toughest to impress.   Practice with your notes at first, and get good enough so you don’t need them. Once you don’t need your notes, that means…

Episode 088 –Thank Your Host and Tips for Speakers at During the Holidays

  2-Minute Tip: Thank your Hosts   Putting together an event is a lot of work. Sometimes even putting together a short internal company meeting is a lot of work. Coordinating peoples’ schedules and even finding an available conference room is way more complicated than it ought to be. So thank your host for inviting you. They took care of logistics and are giving you the audience’s most valuable assets…

Episode 087 — Choose Your Headline and Meet Scott Charlston

  2-Minute Tip: Choose Your Headline   As you frame your talk, make sure you choose the headline for it.  Flip through a newspaper or magazine and look at the headlines. Their job is to give you a little bit of information in a way that is compelling enough that you want to read more. They have to be short. They can be funny, But when you define the headlines…

Episode 086 — Incorporate Excellence and Brevity

  2-Minute Tip: Incorporate, Don’t Emulate   A movie that’s inspired by a true story takes elements of that story and creates its own thing from it to move the audience. It doesn’t attempt to duplicate the original story itself because that would be a documentary and not a theatrical tale. Both the original story and the entertaining film can be excellent things, but they are different things.   When…

Episode 085 — Take a Beat and Tips on Apologies

  2-Minute Tip: Take a Beat   Have you ever noticed that a speaker will step up to their speaking spot (fancy technical term there), look down, then up, scan the room silently, and then start speaking? They’re taking a moment to prep themselves for the talk they are about to deliver. While that whole ritual may be a little much, there is value in taking a moment to take…

Episode 084 — Control the Lights and 9 Ways to Get More Speaking Time

  2-Minute Tip: Control the Lights   An important part of room setup is the lighting. You want folks to see you and any visual aids you are using without straining them selves so lighting matters. What does good lighting look like? Well, it depends.   If you are using a data projector, you likely need to minimize sunlight and dim the lights near the screen while keeping the rest…

Episode 083 — Note Something Interesting and The Six Ps of Presenting

2-Minute Tip: Note Something interesting Everyday   It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking we are not creative. Or that we have nothing to say beyond the basics of our message. Or that writer’s block is impenetrable. Or that we are just going to bore our audience.   That can happen because we take our own experiences for granted. We think our lives are just boring or normal….

Episode 082 — Act as If and Impostor Syndrome

2-Minute Tip: Act as If   When you are nervous, or think you don’t see,m confident, don’t tell yourself not to be nervous or just be more confident. That rarely works; it usually just makes things worse. Instead, think about other speakers you know who don’t appear nervous (they might actually be). How do the act? Can you adopt some of those behaviors? Try to act like you’re not nervous….

Episode 081 — Be Alive and Meet 16-Year Old Entrepreneur Bilal Moin

  2-Minute Tip: Be Alive   When giving a talk, focus less on scripted words, especially those scripted by someone else. Speak instead from you mind, from your heart, and from your soul. When you do that you can fully engage the ethos, pathos, and logos you need to make a compelling argument. Post Tips Discussion: Meet Bilal Moin   Bilal Moin is a 16-year old student and entrepreneur from…

Episode 080 — Thread a Story Through your Talk and Meet Diana Wink

  2-Minute Tip: Thread a story through your talk   Figure out how to tell a story in your talk. Story telling is a powerful tool and is a great way to engage your audience from the moment you step in front of the crowd. Don’t stop at opening with the story, though. Weave that same story through your talk and keep coming back to it, either to reference it…