Oh, how I love election season! Oh how I love debate night! Granted, I’d love it more if an evening of making pop-up rhetoric videos wasn’t bookended with a cranky, gassy, screaming baby, but such is life. In this Pop-Up Rhetoric video, we get into Red Herrings, Straw Man arguments, and Ad Hominem attacks. That’s…
Despite all best efforts, some people are simply difficult to communicate with. You’ve probably met this person; no matter how hard you try, they seem to miss chunks of conversations. No matter how clear the note, they still twist the message. No matter how explicit the instructions, they still manage to screw them up. It doesn’t seem…
I’ve been doing a fair bit of reading lately of both the print and audiobook variety, and want to share with you some of the more interesting books I’ve come across. So from time to time I’ll be sharing with you reviews for books that have caught my attention. I hope you enjoy them and…
We humans think with our eyes before we think with our brains. Visual information is hugely important for our cave-dweller brains, and when it comes to wooing an audience, how you look matters. Happily, you don’t have to worry about your body type, or your size, or other variables out of your control. Rather,…
Haters. They come in all shapes and sizes, with vocabularies that range from the grunting of cave-dwellers to the bombastic spewing of wanna-be intelligentsia. No matter what form they take, dealing with them can be frustrating and demoralizing. And no matter what you do, what you create, or where you work, they are…
When was the last time you received a hand-written thank you card? When was the last time you sent one? While there are some people who still send these out, they’re few and far between. And their rarity makes getting one every better. Birthday cards come and go, Christmas cards are still hugely popular, but…
I love rhetoric. I love political speeches. This means that election seasons are heaps of fun for me. I stayed up way too late on July 27 to create a new pop-up rhetoric video for you. This one pulls various rhetorical and oratorical devices, strategies, figures, and techniques from Joe Biden’s speech at the July 27…
There it is, glowering at you from your desktop. If a slip of paper could sneer, this one would be sneering. If a web form could roll its eyes, this one would be rolling. Yes, you’ve received nasty feedback. One ugly, trivial snipe among the pile of other people’s helpful or complimentary comments. But that…
The secret isn’t innate confidence. It isn’t a good slide deck, either. It’s not positive, pre-show affirmations. It’s not killer quotes, “life changing” stories, or hilarious content. It definitely isn’t picturing your audience in their underwear.* The above all play a part in great presentations (with the exception of the underwear visualization), but they…
I may love writing, but doing podcasts is a hell of a lot of fun! As I’m off visiting family this week, I’m casting my content line back a couple of months and bringing you a podcast interview I did with the amazing Alison Donaghey from Natural Born Speakers. We chatted about pretty much everything related…
