The most important thing when starting a speech or presentation is to make it clear to the audience where you are taking them. Think about a typical person in your audience. Their mind is full of to-do lists and daydreams; and you walk on stage. They’ve sat through boring presentations in the past and More…
Communication Coaching: Using standup comedy for book publicity
Amy Doering is releasing a book and wanted book publicity and media promotion. We decided on a unique approach; we would create a 5 minute standup comedy routine using the stories in the book. Here’s Amy talking about the Coaching Project; how she was able to control nerves by refining the material and using a More…
Instructions for VividOutline iPhone App.
First, create your speech Outlines at SpeechOutline.com (See bottom of page for a refresher on how to do this). Step 1, open the iPhone app! Type in your Username and Password. Or simply use the ‘Demo Account’ which has 4 Outlines to play with. Scroll through your List of Outlines (they are automatically downloaded from More…
Instructions for Vivid iPad App
First, create your Speech Outlines at SpeechOutline.com (see bottom of page for a refresher on how to do this). Type in your Username and Password Or simply use the ’Demo Account’ which has 4 Outlines to play with. Scroll through your List of Outlines (which were created at SpeechOutline.com) Choose one by touching it on the left More…
How much to tell the media? (AFL football example)
There was an interesting comparison of media management at the recent Hawks v Western Bulldogs match at the MCG. The Bulldogs President (Smorgan) and the Hawks President (Kennett) were sitting opposite each other on the head table at the President’s lunch. When I started consulting for the Hawks as their Communication Advisor in More…
Jeff’s final speech as Hawks President
I was lucky enough to be invited to the President’s Lunch for the Hawks game against the Western Bulldogs last week. Jeff Kennett spoke for the last time at this event as Hawks President. His stint ends at the club’s AGM on December 14, when Andrew Newbold takes over. The room was full with 600 More…
Groundbreaking new app – VividOutline for iPad
Is this app really groundbreaking? Well, if you want a quick, easy way to prepare a speech or presentation – and then rehearse the structure and key messages in just a few minutes, then it is groundbreaking. There’s been nothing like this before. Most software innovation in the area of public speaking and presentations is around More…
iPhone app for Speech Outlines updated to 1.3
An updated version of VividOutline for iPhone was recently released. It now takes advantage of multitasking so you will always come back to the same place in your Outline. We also tweaked the user interface and added clearer section headings. How to use the iPhone app: Step 1: Create your Speech Outlines at SpeechOutline.com Step More…
The Daily Show: The power of Chunking
The July 28 episode of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart had author Peter Tomsen talking about his 900 page(!) book “The Wars of Afghanistan”. Throughout, he summarized his key points using elements of Chunk Theory – for example, the numbering of points before explaining them. In response to one question, he said “there are two More…
Why a Great Explanation is the best cure for addiction
I’ve never been a smoker, but some family and friends have. Most have stopped (or want to). No ‘quit’ method seems to work for everyone, however, the most successful method stands out for an interesting reason. Not only is ‘The EasyWay to stop smoking’ considered the most successful; in a world of gum, patches and More…
