Don’t Just Create Your Presentation . . . Create an Experience!
You want to create an experience for your audience, one that engages and makes a difference, right? One way you can do that is to create a tailored experience for your audience. This does require a little extra work than giving the same canned presentation to every group. The good news is that you don’t […]
Sample Professional Speaker Marketing Letter to Associations
Have you ever thought about sending out a mailing to associations to market your speaking? Yesterday, I sent a mailing out, marketing my speaking business to about 65 professional associations/association management companies in the state. I decided to go bold and included the “Easy Button” graphic in the cover letter (my mailing included a cover […]
Moving and Combining Shapes in PowerPoint (Video)
Creating (or re-creating) a graphic in PowerPoint is a way to use simple images to create images, icons or other shapes that get your point across, without having to pay a graphic artist, or using someone else’s copyrighted picture. In this 5-minute Jing video, I show how I created the above image. The “combine shapes” feature […]
Release Your Story with Right-Placed Details
How many triangles are there in the illustration below? Don’t read further until you answer that question. Two? Eight? More? Note that I didn’t ask, “How many triangles do you see in the illustration?” How many are there actually? The correct answer is “zero.” There are only V shapes and 3 Pac-Men type figures. At […]
How to Make a Boring Topic More Interesting
“You can talk about ‘Succession Planning’” said the person in charge of the conference. My first thought was Ugh! That sounds boring! Fortunately, the allotted time for the topic was only 5-7 minutes early in the morning and the audience was a couple hundred positive Toastmaster club officers. I challenged myself to deliver useful content, […]
The Best Self-Evaluation Tool in Speaking
You probably already have the best self-evaluation tool in speaking . . . your cell phone (or tablet), assuming you can use it to take videos.Last week, I held a presentation skills workshop for a small group, in which each of the six participants gave a 5-7 minute speech, which I video-recorded on my iPad. Immediately […]
Pinch Hitting in Speaking
I was about to enter the meeting, when Jennifer walked up to me and said, “I can’t believe this, but I have to go home. My cat had a seizure and my boyfriend can’t handle it. I was supposed to give this educational presentation tonight.” Jennifer showed me her typed speech notes and extensive handouts […]
Speaking at Funerals and Memorials
The older you get, the more opportunities you will have to attend and speak at memorials and funerals. A heart-felt tribute to the deceased is a compassionate gift to the bereaved. I recently had the opportunity, on December 28, 2014, of speaking at my father-in-law’s funeral. My short memorial speech will follow a few tips […]
Presentation Skills from a Tour Guide in Mexico
I just returned from a vacation to Cancun, Mexico, where I enjoyed fun, food and . . . learning presentation skills from unlikely sources: timeshare sellers, tour promoters, street vendors, restaurant servers and a tour guide! It was the tour guide at the Mayan ruins, Chichen Itza (the picture above, using an app called Waterlogue) […]
Have You Updated Your Head Shot?
Have you updated your professional head shot? If your head shot is more than two to three years old, I urge you to gift yourself some new business pictures! This is doubly true if you are the image of your business, such as is the case for professional speakers. Above I have the 4 main […]