2-Minute Tip: Make Eye Connection Look them in the eye and make strong eye contact. It helps to make the audience feel more comfortable. To make that connection, though you need to hold the eye connection for 4-6 seconds. They will feel you are conversing with them rather than talking at them. Pure Mind Magic A few months back, German podcaster, magician, and mindset expert…
2-Minute Tip: Describe your Audience Back in 2008, Best Buy described 4 personae who represented their target customers. The even started designing different stores to appeal to Buzz, Barry, Ray, or Jill. They had detailed descriptions for theses archetypes. I’m not sure if it’s the best approach for a big-box retailer, but it can help your talks. It’s important to understand your target audience. Start by…
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….
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….
2-Minute Tip: Avoid Dairy Before Speaking I love a big bowl of sugary cereal or a nice cheesy pizza. I used to drink mochas like water before I decided to switch to Americanos for weight loss (by the way, switching from mochas to Americanos will NOT make 30 pounds just fall off). So I like my milky, cheesy goodness. But not right before speaking. Dairy consumption…
2-Minute Tip: Know Your Gear Whether its a projector, TV, laptop, audio hookup, or slide clicker, get to know your gear before you conduct your presentation. Figure out in advance how everything works so you’re not scrambling at the last minute to figure out why something doesn’t work the way you thought it would. If there is a problem making something work, you want to know about…
[podcast src=”https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/5966693/height/0/width/0/theme/standard/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/” height=”” width=”” placement=”bottom” theme=””] 2-Minute Tip: Be Thankful As we begin Thanksgiving week here in the US, it’s a good time to think about being thankful as speakers. And not just to the universe or deity(ies) of your choice. While speaki9ng may seem like a solitary activity where we are on stage or at the front of a conference room by ourselves, there are a lot of…