One of the easiest traps to fall into as a speaker is the misuse of pronouns. We were taught in grade school that pronouns make communication easier by shortening references to characters in a story. They can be viewed as pro-nouns, used by elite communicators. But in...
Engage your audience without using verbal polls How many of you use verbal polls in your presentations? OK, that was a set-up. In our workshops, one of the most popular ways for people to get started (we’re usually prompting them with a topic they have not prepared)...
In a series of Public Speaking Don’ts, I wrote last month’s article, The Graduation Speech No One Wants to Hear. I got a number of notes (which I love getting!) giving me first-person accounts of various graduations. “The student speaker was amazing!” “The...
The one thing a speaker should never mention A speaker should never mention TIME when giving a presentation. I was coaching a group presentation the other day and (predictably) one of the presenters ran over their allotted time. While we know a presenter should NEVER...
Sound Like You Feel Expressing passion in public speaking is critical in all aspects of our daily communication. When it comes to selling – your product, your ideas, your goals – we often fail to convince others of the passion and commitment we feel inside. Since...
