Episode 117 — Understanding Audience Needs with Kim Baillie

2-Minute Tip: Practice Breathing Breathing is, of course, an essential step in speaking. After all, it’s how we make sounds. But it’s more than that. Getting adequate air into our lungs calms us down. It helps us counter act the nerves many speakers experience. It ensures our brain has the oxygen it needs to stay on task. And it enhances the volume and confidence with which we speak. To practice…

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 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 065 — Close to Open and Presentation Translator

  2-Minute Tip: Close to Open   In retail, management coaches employees to Close to Open. That means to get the store clean, stocked and signed at closing time so it’s ready to open up the next day and get right to business.   If you are doing a series of presentations, you can do “Future You” a big favor by taking the same approach. Close to open.   That…

Episode 051 — Event Forms and 5 More Deadly Sins of Public Speaking

2-Minute Tip: Use an Event Form   I used to travel from Seattle to Irvine, CA, quite a bit. It got to the point where I thought I knew where I was going down there. That was a false confidence. I began making wrong turns because I didn’t think I needed a map to help me. As we do more public speaking, we can easily make that same mistake. It’s…

Episode 028 — Confirm Value and Avoid Offensive Language

[podcast src=”https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/5753640/height/0/width/0/theme/standard/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/” height=”” width=””] 2 Minute Tip: Confirm Value At the end of a presentation, I like to ask the audience, “Was this helpful?” or “Was this valuable?”   Usually there is still a lot of energy in the room and folks will answer with an enthusiastic, “Yes!”   Obviously, this is great for my ego, but it also does a couple other things. It gives the audience members a…