Are you among the many (MANY) people who like to “take the edge off” before giving a speech with a drink or two? Whether you’re giving a speech at a corporate gala, acting as emcee for an event, or making a toast at a wedding, a quick drink before taking the microphone is a common…
Holiday party season is upon us! Once the ides of November hit, so to the holiday festivities, and you may find your calendar packed full of events that require schmoozing and small talk. Whether you love or dread these events, they’re important to go to – especially if you see them as an opportunity to polish…
Is your office embroiled in email warfare, with people sending passive-aggressive messages or getting worked up into a froth after taking an email the wrong way? Email can be a hotbed of miscommunication, but there are ways to ensure your emails are clear, effective, and are interpreted the way you intended. In today’s Communication Q&A…
Ethos train wrecks are pretty entertaining. I’ve been delivering a lot of training and talks over the last few weeks that involve the rhetorical appeals (those are Logos, Ethos, and Pathos, for the uninitiated)*. These are three different ways your argument will appeal to someone’s sensibilities. There’s no perfect translation, but roughly it’s this: Logos…
Do you ever find yourself struggling to hit a decent balance between all the activities and responsibilities you have on your plate and the energy you have to actually do all those things? Heavens knows I do, and I know plenty of others who do as well. The frustration we experience creeps into our language – we…
Is your speech plagued by umms, ahs, and other pointless filler words like “so, like, y’know,” etc? I’ve got a question from Tamara on this very common issue: Hi Lauren – I find myself saying “um” and “ah” a lot when I give a presentation, and I hate it! It’s distracting and makes me…
The first few minutes of your speech or talk are critical. Putting together a really solid opener can be tricky, and Ian is looking for advice on how to create stronger openers will grab his audience’s attention from the start: Hi Lauren, My name is Ian, and I’m in the financial sector. I give lots…
Communication is all about connection. If you want to get people to want to genuinely connect with you, then you have to figure out how to engage them first. Engagement can be something of a buzzword, especially in today’s corporate environment. But to help us deconstruct exactly what engagement is, what it does and…
So you made a mistake during your presentation. Even if the rest of the presentation goes great, it’s the mistakes that get burned into our brain. Yes, everyone makes mistakes, but how to you get over a mistake when the memory of it makes you want to hide with shame? It’s important to figure this…
What does your pre-presentation stress look like? I’ve been speaking for many years. I’ve spoken to big audience and small, for teeny local associations and big international corporations. And I still get stressed. Somewhere between T-20 hours and the time I arrive at the venue, I morph from my usual energetic, cheerful self into…