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The Latest from Speak Schmeak
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Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Before I go reinventing the wheel, I'd like to point you to a blog post by Rowan Manahan about handshakes. He links to studies from the University of Iowa and the University of Alabama that confirm the importance of a good handshake. What exactly is a good handshake?
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Monday, March 15, 2010
In the documentary, "Comedian," Jerry Seinfeld has decided to scrap all his previous material from decades of success as a standup comedian and TV star, and start over with a new standup act. This film shows the challenges of this monumentally successful performer as he makes his rounds from comedy club to comedy club, trying out first five minutes of material, then ten, then twenty, attempting to work his way up to a full hour of material worthy of a one-man show.
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Thursday, March 11, 2010
For about a month, I had been hearing from one reader or another that they couldn't access this blog due to a malware warning. The IT people I talked to suggested that the problem might be on the users' computers or that there was actually a bad link on my blog. I was tearing out my hair over how to resolve this, and the following Google diagnostics page did nothing to help.
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The Best from Speak Schmeak
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Monday, December 22, 2008
During a session with a client the other day, we talked about the delivery of his company's new employee orientation. He was looking for ways to make his message more clear and to keep his diverse audience's attention through a day-long training. The orientation is typical in its length, in the fact that there are various untrained speakers involved (sexual harassment, fire safety, benefits, etc.)
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Tuesday, April 8, 2008
We talk a lot about organizing our content, main points, opening and closing, but we rarely talk about how to get from one segment to the next. How do you handle the spaces in between your points, stories, examples, and exercises? These are your transitions .
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Monday, September 7, 2009
BPS Research Digest recently published an article on how the facial expression of a listener affects the way the speaker uses language. Here's an excerpt: "Audiences differ. Talk to one person and your words are welcomed by a smile and nod of acknowledgment. Speak to another, less winsome
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Wednesday, August 12, 2009
I've written before about my own experiences with panic attacks , about thought traps that mistake emotions for reality , dealing with setbacks , and letting go of the negative . All of those articles include helpful tips for dealing with anxiety, but here's the most valuable of all: Avoiding the thing that triggers your anxiety is the best way to keep it hanging over your head and controlling you. And the
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Friday, July 24, 2009
The first PresentationCampLA video has been posted! Watch Olivia Mitchell speak on how to incorporate Twitter into your presentations! I hope to get all the videos on the PresentationCampLA site, so stay tuned. The video is blurry in places; we were experimenting
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The Latest from the Speaking Pro Central Community
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Friday, March 19, 2010
Thanks to Ray Strackbein for posting to SpeakerNet News details of a fascinating free visual online dictionary.
SnappyWords.com SnappyWords.com might well replace your dictionary and Thesaurus in ways you could never imagine. It packs a lot of information on one easy-to-navigate page.
Look
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Friday, March 19, 2010
Public Speaking: Adding a Lower Third to Your Video Public speakers who produce and sell videos have extra opportunities to draw people to their websites. By adding a feature call “lower thirds” to your public speaking video, you can publicize your web presence to your viewers. What is a lower third?
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Friday, March 19, 2010
I had lunch with a colleague last week and we had a rousing discussion about two different approaches to teaching public speaking and presentation skills.
My company, DeFinis Communications , approaches the training process from a skills perspective. We teach the techniques, behaviors and skills that are associated with powerful and effective public speaking —and we do it with a proprietary coaching approach that
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The Best from the Speaking Pro Central Community
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Monday, May 11, 2009
TED has earned a lot of attention over the years for many reasons, including the nature and quality of its short-form conference presentations. All presenters lucky enough to be asked to speak at TED are given 18-minute slots maximum (some are for even less time such as 3- and 6-minute slots). Some who present at TED are not used to speaking on a large stage, or are at least not used to speaking on their topic with strict time restraints.
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Monday, September 7, 2009
Exposing ourselves to traditional Japanese aesthetic ideas — notions that may seem quite foreign to most of us — is a good exercise in lateral thinking, a term coined by Edward de Bono in 1967. "Lateral Lateral Thinking is for changing concepts and perception," says de Bono. Beginning to think about design by exploring the tenets of the Zen aesthetic may not be an example of Lateral Thinking
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Monday, August 10, 2009
Most people do not really think about design and designers, let alone think of themselves as designers. But what, if anything, can regular people — teachers, students, business people of all types — learn from designers and from thinking like a designer? And what of more specialized professions?
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Presenting while people are tweeting is challenging – but also adds a new dimension to the presentation experience for your audience. Gradually tools are being developed to make it easier for you as the presenter to manage the backchannel.
I
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Monday, June 29, 2009
People often ask if technical or science-related presentations can be as compelling as presentations covering other less technical topics. Now, not every presentation has earth-shattering, Nobel-Prize winning significance, but I assume if you are talking about your research or current issues in your field, etc. that your words have a benefit for someone else.
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