At the core of everything we do is the why. Why do we pursue the career, focus on our new initiatives, and make major life decisions? The incidents and circumstances that drive us to do just that inform our #FireStory.
What is a Fire Story, and how can it help your #PublicSpeaking? Jason Jordan tells us about that and so much more at http://2MinuteTalkTips.com/FireStory.
2-Minute Tip — Remove Filler Words Filler or crutch words are the bane of many a speaker’s existence. The ums, ahs, likes, verys, you knows, and more clutter up our talks and conversation so much we don’t even notice them. They waste time, annoy the audience and distract from your message. So get rid of them. Easier said than done. One technique is to have a friend or colleague listen…
2-Minute Tip: Identify Your Biggest Take Away To deliver an effective presentation, first identify the biggest take away for the audience. If they remember only one thing, this is the thing it should be. To figure that out, start by doing a brain dump on a piece of paper or whiteboard. Then go through all theses random ideas that are in someway related to your topic. What…
2-Minute Tip: Focus on how you make your audience feel Hilary tells us about her experience interviewing mega-star interviewer, host, and generally larger-than-life character Ryan Seacrest. It’s intimidating to talk to someone that big for the first time. An experience like that can overwhelm the content of the actual conversation. But when she described her experience, the main thing Ryan did was help her feel at ease. He…
2-Minute Tip: Slides are not Time How many slides should be in a 15-minute presentation? How long is a 10-slide presentation? I don’t know because the number of slides is a poor proxy for presentation length. I would rather see a presenter add more slides than to use a small font. Splitting one slide into multiple slides doesn’t lengthen your presentation. It just makes content more legible….
2-Minute Tip: Play Your Videos Full Screen Including short videos in your presentation can be a great way to illustrate your points. They can be videos you shot of people, stock video, animations, or illustrations. If it’s valuable enough to include, make sure your audience can see it. Play it in full screen. The default for PowerPoint when you embed a video is for it to appear…
[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…
[podcast src=”https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/5731696/height/0/width/0/theme/standard/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/” height=”” width=””] 2 Minute Tip: Purge Stale Material If you do a lot of public speaking, it’s likely you have some go-to lines or jokes that you like. Eventually the can stop resonating with your audience. Times change. Technology changes. Speakers grow and change. It’s important to periodically step back and maker sure your quips and comments are still relevant and getting the reaction you want….
[podcast src=”https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/5681934/height/0/width/0/theme/standard/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/” height=”” width=””] 2 Minute Tip: Sit Up Straight Generally it’s best to stand while you speak. If you’re running a webinar, presenting on a conference call, or going through a phone screen interview for a new job, st6anding may not be feasible. In that case, it’s important to sit up straight, just like your kindergarten teacher told you. When you slouch or lean back in…