I was sitting in a conference-room meeting with one of our customers just observing. One gentleman did not speak much, but when he did… everyone listened intently. I tried to figure out what he was doing with his responses and I found something! He was using a simple structure for each response. Now, I’m sure there […]
I was not always a reader. Some of my professors in college spoiled me a bit on reading by assigning 200 pages of textbook to read in 2 days. But, now I have an alternate opinion. When I find the right book, I can consume it in a day or two. Below is a list […]
Kevin Karschnik is an amazing teacher and a great friend. I wanted to share his thoughts on visual aid design. We’ve all seen a speaker put every word they’re going to say on a slide and then proceed to read every slide to the audience. This is where the phrase “death by PowerPoint” was born. Please […]
There’s a popular tv show on the Discovery channel called Mythbusters. The premise of the show is to create experiments to test common myths that are not necessarily supported by scientific research. The show is entertaining because it usually involves something blowing up! In communication there are plenty of myths that deserve to be blown up! […]
When I first started speaking in the early ’90s I was flattered to hear from some audience members that I reminded them of Jim Carrey. “You definitely bring the energy!” I loved hearing that. My world crashed back down to earth real quick when former students were tested after class on the content. The organization wanted to […]
When I walked into my training room, one student was already there. He looked up and asked, “Are we gonna cover smartphones? You know when you’re up there speaking and the audience is on their smartphone. Isn’t that just rude? I mean… how do I handle that when I’m the speaker?” I’m waiting for him to […]
“Play it safe.” “Don’t risk too much.” “Don’t let others know you’re struggling. Just act strong.” “Fake it because you know you’ll never make it!” You hear that voice whispering to you? That evil voice? Yes, I said evil. It’s the evil voice that convinced you to wear that mask in the first place. What would the […]
My class asked for an example so I stepped to the front of the room, paused for a moment, and then… “Every day in the Greater Houston area, 300,000 children under the age of 5 go to bed hungry each night because their parents can’t afford to put food on the table.” Then I pause for […]
I’ve heard people say that our keen visual perception dates back to our early ancestors’ need for survival. “What was that movement I saw out of the corner of my eye? Was it a saber-toothed tiger?” Whether it was used for survival eons ago or not, we can all agree, we still use it today. Look […]
My student began her 4-minute-safety-moment presentation… “My sister-in-law was waiting for my brother to come home from work one night. It was getting dark. He must be running late. Finally headlights showed up in the driveway. But they weren’t his headlights. It was his manager and the safety manager. Three days later we buried my brother.” […]
