Alignment

Yesterday I wrote about the classic three-point talk and its benefits. Today I’m going to give you a technique to use to deliver your next three-point talk. It’s the Overlapping Circles technique, beautifully sketched by me below: One way to help your audience follow your talk is to physically locate the different elements in different … Read more

A good friend and reader of this blog texted me the following (edited for clarity): “Listening to a talk to get [continuing education credits]… The speaker keeps ending sentences with ‘…right?’ It makes me feel like she either feels insecure about what she’s saying, or she’s using a cheap way to be persuasive. It’s like … Read more

Audiences are strange animals. With no prior planning or verbal communication, they decide, in an instant, how to respond to what’s going on in front of them. Rarely, there are outliers who laugh when no one else does, or fail to rise for a standing ovation, but for the most part, an audience acts as … Read more

The first few seconds of your speech or presentation are setting the tone for the rest of what you’re going to say. Unfortunately, many speakers rush through the first few sentences, in a hurry to get to the main point of their talk. The beginning of your speech is crucial time for the audience to … Read more

Our bodies and voices are the vectors for our thoughts and messages. When we talk to other people in person, we use our bodies to do it. And generally, we know exactly what to do without really thinking about it—we angle ourselves toward someone we’re interested in talking to, we make eye contact, we modulate … Read more

Typically, I don’t like my clients to present while standing behind a podium. It constricts their ability to connect with the audience, it literally places furniture in front of the speaker, and it limits their movement, making them stiff. However.  I had occasion recently to watch a video one client sent me of a presentation … Read more

Typically, our coaching philosophy is what I would call inside-out. Start with the “why” of the communication, and that will influence the “how.” But sometimes outside-in works better. By standing up straighter, you can feel more confident. By making eye contact, you can generate connection. By slowing down, you can gain more control over your … Read more

I saw a tweet recently in which the poster expressed concern that many of her students prefer communicating via text to speaking face to face. Many of the responses to her tweet said, in essence, “I am more comfortable texting, so that’s how I do it.” We all have preferences about all kinds of things. … Read more

Um. Uh. Ah. These are the classic filler words that pepper almost everyone’s speech from time to time. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I’m not that bothered by filler words. Research has shown that most people use them at least occasionally, and that people listening aren’t put off … Read more