speaking

No Excuses

We’ve all heard speakers, even professional speakers, who make excuses. Everything from my flight was delayed to I didn’t sleep well last night. My first thought when I hear this is, ‘You know your presentation sucks and you’re giving me an excuse in advance so I’ll go easy on you.’ Now that might not be […]

The Eyes Have It

Over the years a lot of bad advice has been given to help people get over their fear of public speaking. One particularly bad piece of advice that I’ve actually heard and, worse yet, seen practiced is to pick a spot above your audience and focus there as you speak. Ostensibly this advice is given […]

Hide ‘n’ Seek

Traditional public speaking has long been associated with the podium. Almost any image related to public speaking from a pastor giving a sermon to the President addressing the media shows the speaker standing behind something. So what I’m about to share flies in the face of generally accepted practice. However, if your goal is to […]

Fillers – Speaker’s Bane and Audience Pain

In my opinion there is no more painful experience than listening to a speaker who can’t tolerate a moment of silence in their presentation. You know what that looks like. Every possible gap is filled with a sound. Ummm, uhhh, ahh, etc. Or, worse yet, senseless words: you know, like, and so on, etc. I […]