I’ve been away a few days in an intensive session helping a team get ready for a high-stakes multi-day presentation. It occurred to me that a blog on how teams can present effectively would be useful, since so much work these days is done in that way. 1. Introduce each other; don’t introduce yourself. Even […]
Jill Bolte Taylor gives one of the most moving talks I’ve ever seen on TED on the subject of her stroke and recovery. The talk is brilliant in spite of some limitations in Jill’s delivery and all serious students of public speaking should study it for an understanding of what makes a talk work – […]
As I’ve blogged before, professional speakers need books in order to sustain a career over the long term. And that means books published by traditional publishing houses for the most part, though there are exceptions. The exceptions are speakers who already have a strong market for their speeches and can sell the books ‘in the […]
A good friend of ours at Public Words, a successful public speaker, recently received a speaking inquiry from a prestigious university in the United Kingdom. The request came via email, and there were a number of indications that it wasn’t on the level. The email address was a Gmail account, not the university’s email. The […]
Continuing with the theme of insights from the Public Words Speaker Forum 2010, one of the standout talks was from Pam Slim. Pam’s generosity and openness made a deep impression on me and everyone else at the conference. Thanks, Pam, for the inspiration! Once again, I welcome guest blogger Sarah Morgan. The title of Pam […]
I'm delighted to welcome a guest blogger to this space: Sarah Morgan, a writer for SmartMoney.com, attended the Public Words Speaker Forum 2010 and is writing up some of the speakers and sessions. (Full disclosure: she's my daughter.) Welcome, Sarah, and thanks for this insightful piece on how to ensure that your book is a […]
We were thrilled to have a great group of speakers at our recent Public Words Speaker Forum. As I continue to blog about takeaways from the event, I thought I’d provide some quick reads on some of the most useful talks. Three are below; I’ll continue with David Meerman Scott and others tomorrow. Esmond Harmsworth […]
I’m taking a day off from the discussion of the Public Words Speaker Forum 2010 to talk about President Obama’s Oil Speech. The speech illustrated both the extent and the limitations of the presidential forum, and it’s worth study in both its rhetorical and non-verbal aspects. The speech divided broadly into 3 parts: first, the […]
(This blog is based on the talk I gave at the opening of the Public Words Speaker Forum, June 11-12, 2010.) Why is most public speaking – especially in the business world – so awful? And how can we raise the bar, which is set distressingly low. I think there are three principal reasons. First, […]
I’m going to do a series of blogs on what we learned from the Public Words Speaker Forum 2010. If you attended, please add your own takeaways! We felt extraordinarily lucky in having a wonderful group of participants. There was a generous vibe in the air, and the conference was memorable for the enthusiasm and […]