Notable Speakers

Archive for ‘Notable Speakers’

Energize a Cold Audience

By Tom Nixon

Many times a speaker, through no fault of their own, steps to the front of the room and faces a cold audience. It could be the time of day, the meal before or after the session, the previous speaker, an organization-wide situation, or even the temperature, setup, and/or lighting of the room. It could be anything. The energy and the expectations are bottomed out. You may well have to struggle to get the power level up.

A presenter can use a number of techniques to open their time and energize …

Monday, December 18th, 2017 Tags: audience engagement, audience participation, energize an audience
Category: Audience Interaction, Conference Presentations, Notable Speakers, Presentation Coaching, Public Speaking as a Leader, Speech & Presentation Coaching No Comments

A Rhyme is Sublime

By Bob Goodyear

Several years ago, I sat in a conference where Craig Valentine (www.craigvalentine.com) spoke. While I don’t remember everything he said, he used a phrase that has stuck with me. While talking about goals and achieving them, he said “If you can view it, you can do it.” His point was that you have to visualize the goal, see yourself actually doing what you want, and then you will accomplish it.

I’ve studied with Craig since then and today I realize that he used a couple of …

Monday, June 12th, 2017 Tags: foundational phrase, phrase to remember, public speaking, rhyme, speaking techniques, speaking tips
Category: Notable Speakers, Public Speaking as a Leader, Speech & Presentation Coaching No Comments

Chop, Chop: Tips for Ruthless Speech Editing

By Natalie Gallagher

Dear Fellow Speakers,

It’s time for some tough love about how we spend our time on the stage. Too often we get so wrapped up in thinking we are saying the most important thing ever, that we abuse the time allotted and end up boring our audience; or worse, we speak for so long that they become agitated and even feel trapped.

Consider this: The worst speech I ever had the displeasure of being in the audience for was given by an experienced, vibrant, energetic speaker. She was a leader in …

Monday, December 5th, 2016 Category: Annoying Public Speaking Habits, Notable Speakers, Speech & Presentation Coaching No Comments

Why Speakers Do Well To Learn About Brain-Post

Image source: FLICKR – JohnDiew0107

By Claudia Brogan

I have always been captivated with the connection between public speaking skills and how the brain works. Learning about brain and cognitive science is quite intriguing, and can provide illuminating topics for public speakers.
Why include visual, auditory, and kinesthetic elements in your speech?
Knowing that audience members use their visual, auditory, and kinesthetic senses throughout the presentation helps the speaker address each of those senses.

Speakers can insert visual illustrations via PowerPoint, objects and props, expressive facial gestures, or hand movements which amplify the speech.

Auditory …

Monday, October 3rd, 2016 Category: Audience, Audience Interaction, Notable Speakers, Presentation Coaching 1 Comment

Finding That Topic in the ‘Sweet Spot’ of Your Venn Diagram

By Claudia Brogan

One of my very favorite bloggers in the arena of communication is Andrew Dlugan (“Six Minutes”). Heaven only knows where he comes up with the excellent topics and resources that he shares for teachers, speakers and trainers. Oh wait…it’s not just Heaven that knows. Actually, Andrew generously divulges a great tool for coming up with good speaking subjects.

He calls this the “Secret of choosing successful speech topics” and I highly recommend to you his thorough, thought-provoking blog piece linked below.

Consider finding that “sweet spot” right in the …

Monday, August 29th, 2016 Category: Audience, Audience Interaction, Business Presentations, Leadership in Presentations, Notable Speakers, Speech & Presentation Coaching No Comments

How to Create TED-Quality Visuals for Your Next Speech

Ron Finley delivered a brilliant TED speech by mixing sharp attitude, a passion for urban gardening and simple, powerful visuals.
By Tom Nixon

In February 2013, Ron Finley stepped to the center of the TED stage in Long Beach, California and delivered a masterful presentation describing his mission to bring gardening and healthy foods to South Central Los Angeles. Ron has a lot of rough edges to him — especially by the standards of a typical TED audience. His voice and gestures have the attitude and cadence of a hip-hop performer. His …

Monday, July 18th, 2016 Category: Notable Speakers, PowerPoint Slides, Presentation Tips 4 Comments

The 10 Most Popular Speaking Practically Blog Posts of 2015

by Kelly Vandever

As the year draws to a close, it’s time once again to recap the top 10 most visited blog posts of the year.

As you reflect over the last year and begin planning for 2016, we hope you’ll find these topics and thoughts helpful.

Thanks for a great 2015!

Kelly

#1 – What If I Don’t Like the Default Size 16:9 in PowerPoint 2013?

Currently, when opening a new slide …

Monday, January 4th, 2016 Category: Business Presentations, Conference Presentations, Leadership in Presentations, Notable Speakers, PowerPoint Slides, Presentation Coaching, Presentation Structure, Presentation Tips, Presentation Tools, Sales Presentations, Speech & Presentation Coaching, Technical Presentations, Training Tips 5 Comments

Anchor Your Presentation

by Bob Goodyear

Have you ever sat in on a presentation or speech and couldn’t remember the points the speaker was making just 10 minutes after it was done? Maybe you remember that you felt good about what was being said but you just couldn’t talk about specifics to anyone afterwards. That is incredibly frustrating to me as an audience member. It’s even MORE frustrating, however, to me as the speaker because that tells me that I didn’t do a good job making my points memorable.

How can we …

Monday, November 23rd, 2015 Category: Analogies, Audience, Audience Interaction, Business Presentations, Conference Presentations, Notable Speakers, Presentation Structure, Presentation Tips, Presentation Tools, Sales Presentations, Storytelling in Presentations 1 Comment

“Word-A-Pa-Looza”

by Claudia Brogan

Making the effort to continually improve and stretch your vocabulary is likely to pay off in spades.

When a speaker uses strong, descriptive words — and uses them correctly! — credibility is strengthened and audience members sit up and take notice.

Here are two specific reasons for using strong, descriptive words:

First, studies show that it is good for our own brains to increase brain capacity by stretching to learn new things. No need to do rote memorization of 20 random words, over and over. But more realistically and effectively, it works …

Monday, November 2nd, 2015 Category: Audience Interaction, Business Presentations, Leadership in Presentations, Notable Speakers, Presentation Tips, Presentation Tools, Speech & Presentation Coaching No Comments

When A Speaker’s Mind Goes (Completely) Blank

by Claudia Brogan

When working with aspiring speakers, I have found out at least one secret fear that we all have about public speaking.

What will I do if my mind goes blank?

Even more than the fear that there is a trap door in the center of that speaking area, it’s like we WISH there would be a trap door, once our mind has gone blank!

The truth is that this happens to most speakers. The second truth is that –though gulp-inducing— this occurrence is quite survivable, by employing one …

Monday, October 5th, 2015 Category: Audience Interaction, Conference Presentations, Leadership in Presentations, Notable Speakers, Other Stuff, Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking, Presentation Tips 7 Comments

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