I asked my workshop students what they wanted to gain from the class. The first student responded with, “I want to be a more engaging speaker!” My initial response was delivered with a smile and a wink, “Don’t we all!” Of course, we certainly covered that topic in our class. To many peoples’ surprise, it’s […]
You’ve heard it plenty of times, “It’s not WHAT you say that’s most important, it’s HOW you say it.” I disagree with that statement. I don’t think the WHAT or the HOW is most important. What’s most important is “what they HEAR!” Too often I feel like the emphasis we put on speaking skills is […]
The audience began to shift in their seats at the 5 minute mark of the presentation. So far the presenter had successfully bored the audience with 6 slides of solid text and a mouthful of insincere pleasantries. After 10 more minutes of words on slides and a presenter reading the slides, two people walked out […]
After the conference one of your friends poses the question, “Which keynote speaker did you like the best?” As soon as one person answers everyone else immediately jumps in and says, “YES! Me too! She was so good. Why do you suppose we all loved her so much more than the others?” I can tell […]
“So how was the new restaurant you tried?” As soon as I ask you the question you immediately begin to access the memory of the experience. For some reason, before you recall anything from the experience you feel agitated and disturbed. Then one side of your mouth tightens while one eye brow is lifted with […]
Picture this… We’re watching a movie where our hero is trapped and facing absolute doom with no obvious way out. We begin to feel anxiety and a deep sense of urgency for an escape. We also do something else… our brains are working fast on a solution for the hero. This can’t be the end! […]
It’s no secret some people interpret disagreement as a sure sign you’re an enemy combatant. How do I know? Because I’m as guilty as the rest of us. When somebody disagrees with me (e.g. business, politics, religion, etc.) my brain jumps into battle stations, “Shields up! Divert all power to the forward cannons! Fire when […]
I was on a video chat with Paul Slattery, iSpeak Certified Master Instructor based in Dublin, Ireland, and he told me about the sparkler and the comet. He said, “Russ, did you use any sparklers when you celebrated American Independence Day on the 4th of July?” With my two kids at college-age now, the answer […]
My student entered the workshop and told me he’d taken courses like this in the past. I asked him what he learned in the other class. “Well, I learned I need to stop fidgeting with my hands so much and stop saying filler words.” He waited for my response. “Okay. What did the coach say […]
“Well, uhh… that’s all I got folks. Thanks for coming… Oh WAIT! … Any questions? No? Okay then yeah, that’s all I got.” That’s word for word how he ended his presentation. While we’re probably all guilty of this at one time in our career, that doesn’t sound good. How do I know? Because I […]
