The universe has no end. Doesn’t that blow your mind a little? When you look up in the sky, it doesn’t end. Ever. This is difficult for humans to fathom. Our brain can’t process things that don’t end. It causes overwhelm, which shuts down our processing and recall faculties. This, however, creates a unique opportunity. More…
Speech outline example: Steve Jobs Stanford address
How does Steve Jobs plan a speech? The structure of Steve Jobs speeches varied depending on his goals for the communication event. But he always had 2 things; a clear take-home message and an engaging structure. For example, this speech tells an amazing story and shares unique life lessons, but it’s also a wonderful example of More…
4 ways to start a speech strongly
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…
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…
Focus on the gaps, not just your words
I recently attended a conference where two of the speakers raced through their talk without pausing. It was so exhausting. And their ideas seemed less important with the speaker racing through them. We all crave a START and/or an END: The human mind responds instinctively to the start or the end of anything so when More…
