Thank You
I stumbled on a blog in the Huffington Post this week. It was a spiritual column written by a Buddhist. That’s all I can remember and despite thirty minutes of online searching, I can NOT find it anywhere. I don’t even remember what most of the blog was about except...
Funny Words
I went to a workshop several years ago led by an “award-winning” comedian. I remember that his topic was about how to use humor in the workplace, and that his audience WIIFM (what’s in it for me) was that every one of us works with a fun-sucker – that person whose...
Going Postal
You do not have to read the papers to know that things are bad at the U.S. Post Office. Lines are ridiculously long. The one postal clerk at the service desk is trying desperately to ignore the line of fuming customers. I have been to three different post offices in...
Your Mother Was Right: You Should Stand Up Straight
One of my clients asked me to be straight with him and not to sugarcoat my feedback. He said, “I don’t want Paula Abdul, I want Simon Cowell.” OK, then. I offered this response: “When you slouch like that you add ten years to your age and you look unsure of...
Stepping Into The Fire
I would prefer to write my blog posts from the distant perspective of offering insight, encouragement and strategies to others for public speaking preparation and performance. But life isn’t always so neat and I walked into the fire of my own performance anxiety this...
The Valley Girl Syndrome: Speaking With Conviction
I remember standing at an Avis checkout counter in Charleston, South Carolina on my umpteenth business trip. I was bleary-eyed from the flight and I was hoping to sleepwalk through the transaction. The clerk handed me the keys to a car that was no bigger than a...
The True Test of Character
In 1976, I spent a fairly miserable freshman year at Penn State University. This had everything do with me and not so much with the University; we were a clear mismatch. I was unhappy in ‘Happy Valley’ and this was never more apparent than on those autumn Saturdays...
When Words Fail
Every Saturday during football season, when there’s a home game, 105,000 spectators pack Beaver Stadium in sleepy State College, Pennsylvania. Faces are flush with anticipation, the band is playing a peppy tune, and everyone is happy in Happy Valley. A few minutes...
The “I Hate Change and Feedback” Post
My kids and I have a standing joke. As soon as someone says, "No offense, but…" that is pretty much a guarantee that you are about to be very offended. In the same way, when a sales person says, "trust me" twenty times in a half hour meeting, the one thing I am deeply...
The Most Important Skill You Can Only Learn by Doing
Have you ever been in a presentation in which the speaker seemed like they were on another planet? You stop listening because you’re thinking, “Hellooo…earth to speaker…come in please.” Your neighbor turns to you and says, “Does she know she was supposed to finish...
The Elephant in the Closet (and other malaprops)
I often get humorous emails from friends and family about presenters who mangle the spoken word. Some are hysterical, others are groan-inducing, and still others are not fit for polite company (Freudian slips are the worst). My sister Marianne sent me the one in the...
Do you Watch the Soccer Player or the Ball?
Continuing this week’s theme of PowerPoint and how much it generally irks me, I would like to talk about the game of soccer. I know that sounds confusing, but let me explain. In the last few years, I have worked with a multitude of South American doctors presenting...
Your Slides Are Not Your Handout
“At a minimum, a presentation format should do no harm.Yet PowerPoint routinely disrupts, dominates, and trivializes content.Thus PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play – very loud, very slow, and very simple.” - Edward Tufte There’s a popular...
Goodbye Crutches, Hello Props
I started practicing yoga in my mid-twenties and fell instantly in love. It was all soul and heart and joy for me. I relished the challenging poses that demanded balance, strength and courage, because my youthful, supple, body could do them. I was a bit of a show off....
Weaving the Thread: Lessons from Two Master Comedians
I was invited to a comedy show last night featuring Wanda Sykes and Keith Robinson. I admit that I accepted the invitation in the hopes that I would bring home some new insights that I could use with my clients. Wanda and Keith did not disappoint. Here are a few...
TEDX New England
I have easily spent hundreds of hours being amazed, moved, and delighted by TED Talks: the gold standard of presentation and speaker nirvana. I watch for inspiration and information. I forward them to clients for ideas, strategies and stylistic standards. Jill Bolte...