Speaking tips blog
Communication matters. What are you saying?
Gracious response
I heard a speaker the other day open his talk with a joke. Jokes aren't inherently bad, but I definitely counsel my clients to avoid them when natural humor or stories are available. But here it came. The punchline of the joke involved a disgraced public figure. Not...
The kiss of death
Talking with a friend yesterday and he made the comment, "Comfort is the kiss of death."While this might overstate the point a bit too much for my tastes, it underscores an important point -- in ANYTHING we want to improve.When we are comfortable:we don't feel any...
What floor?
I attended a local Business Networking International meeting today as a guest of a new friend. Part of the meeting is giving everyone a chance to speak for 45 seconds about what they do. It's a chance to practice the elevator speech among friends. Members repeat this...
No risk, no reward
Just got off the phone with my friend Jeff. We have about a weekly discussion about what works and what doesn't when it comes to presentations. The theme was present at my lunch, as well. My meeting with a sales guy discussed why folks don't do things that make them...
My wireless computer
Was teaching today and came to the instruction on PowerPoint. Had a pretty interested group and was going through some more advanced things like the presenter's view on a second monitor and some cheap tricks on using blank slides. Was (not) surprised that most of the...
test post from ScribeFire
This is a test from Firefox's add-in, Scribefire.And a blockquote.
A good experience
Had a customer experience story with a major electronics manufacturer. First, I noted that the 800 number was just for the class of equipment I owned. Second, I got a real (English-speaking) person with only two phone menus and 30 seconds. Third, they seemed genuinely...
Any questions?
Answering Questions When Speaking As part of my coaching, one of the areas we almost always touch on is how to answer questions. In my experience, a large majority of people who can competently share information fall flat on their face when asked a direct question....
Peers vs. strangers
Coaching a group the other day and was faced with the comment, "This is a lot easier when we're on the road in front of strangers. It's harder doing it in front of your peers. They know the material and the pressure is greater." While I don't think any of the skills I...
Blog back up?
I think I've got the blog back up, on a new and improved version of Wordpress. I suppose that's a good thing. My cursory glance shows it to be working, although the admin interface is a bit different and my categories appear to have disappeared.Sorry mom and my other...
Do you really want my business?
Trying to book a flight for an upcoming trip. Against my better judgment, the nonstop flight woos me and I try to book on an anonymous airline108 that tries to parade as the airline of the country.When I get to "purchase ticket", it tells me to be careful and not...
Blog troubles
Thanks to my ISP 'improving' the offering to me (without my choice, notification, or approval), the blog has been down for four days. I finally did my own research to at least get it to where it is, but there's a bug with the version of mySQL that they have...
