Confidence is a subject I get asked about a lot. I’m currently working on a mini-book about that very topic – this blog post is an excerpt from the book draft. Nearly everybody I work with believes that confidence is something other people have and they do not. When they try to define confidence,…
Have you ever wondered what people mean when they say ‘be authentic?’ Lord knows I have. Authenticity is a pretty popular buzzword when it comes to speaking and content creation. It comes up over and over as a magic sauce of connection and persuasion (and sales). If you want your audience to like you, to…
I know you’ve been there – sitting in an audience listening to a speaker and wondering “Why am I listening to this and when is it going to end?” Such is the agony of sitting through a terrible speech. But what makes a speech terrible? This is something I get asked a lot. Differences…
“L’état, c’est moi.” -Louis XIV In my blog a couple weeks ago I alluded to writing a post exploring Trump’s use of the Royal “We” in his inauguration speech. And even though we’re all exhausted from the non-stop flurry of news over his every tweet, phone call, and administrative faux-pas, I’ve finally rallied…
Bet you thought I’d be going over the presidential inauguration speeches, eh? Not today! I’ll do a post about it later, as there was some interesting stuff going on. I was live tweeting during the inauguration, though – click here to see my in-the-moment thoughts regarding the rhetoric. Check my tweets from January 20th. Communication…
Improving public speaking means so much more than doing vocal drills, practicing your body language, or even rehearsing your presentation materials.* A big part of it is doing some deep thinking about what “good” public speaking means to you. One of the things that trips many of us up when we decide to work…
Happy 2017, everyone! My New Year’s Eve was relatively sedate. We spent the afternoon with a group of our friends, and after dinner I bundled my little ones home to get them to bed on time, and then sent my husband back to our friends’ place to continue the festivities (he definitely deserved a night…
I’ll admit, at the moment my head is less full of the practices, theories, and philosophies of public speaking and more focused on the giant pile of presents I have yet to wrap. . So instead of my usual post, I’m leveling a challenge your way. . Yes, it’s time for you to take some…
“Fearless,” “bold,” “brave,” and other variations are descriptions lots of people assign to professional speakers. People have called me those things, and I’ve heard lots of other speakers described that way. I’ve just come off the rush of the most incredible conference I’ve ever attended, the annual Canadian Association of Professional Speakers convention. I…
I had the pleasure of being Master of Ceremonies at the Western Sponsorship Congress on November 23 & 24th. MCing is delightful – it really is heaps of fun helping delegates at an event relax, connect, and engage with the program and with each other. It also positions me to meet the interesting, smart…
