One of the most enjoyable marketing messages I’ve worked on focused on a huge, old wooden hot tub, high on the snow covered mountains of Falls Creek.I love to ski. And there’s nothing more enjoyable than soothing aching muscles in a hot tub at the end of the day. Particularly if it’s outside where you…
Public speaking is your core opportunity to demonstrate leadership qualities. There were some great speeches in the recent leadership challenge, and some not so great speeches. Overall, they tell a fascinating story. They explain a lot about leadership communication and public speaking. I’m not going to address who’s right or wrong, who lied or betrayed, etc….
Have you ever seen a bad PowerPoint presentation? (Have you ever made one?!) Think about how you use PowerPoint. It can be used to engage, to annoy, to inform or put people to sleep. Many argue that to use PowerPoint itself is bad and should be avoided. But if there is a problem with a PowerPoint…
Have you heard of Prezi? Sometimes called the ‘zooming’ presentation software, Prezi is an online program you can use to create presentations that are considered more dynamic than PowerPoint because of its Zooming User Interface. What does that mean? The presentation or story is laid out on a virtual canvas and the scale of the viewed area…
Team building can be achieved by developing focused, inspirational messages. It’s amazing how much impact these words can have on team motivation. I’ve written before about the importance of strong leadership messages when speaking a in corporate or presentation environment, and great leaders know that effective team building happens when your team is driven by a…
Bill Clinton talked about public speaking mistakes Al Gore made during the 2000 election when I spoke to him at the Global Business Forum in Feb 2006. Victorian Premier Steve Bracks introduced him as the World’s Greatest Communicator, and his speech on the day was compelling, but I was more interested in asking him questions about speaking style. In particular,…
The sports media industry is growing rapidly and sports jobs are increasing in this area. Are you ready to transition from the field to the microphone? Picture the scene for the sportsperson… Microphone in hand, you stand… waiting. The sound guy and cameraperson is milling around while another guy fiddles with cables and lighting. What do you…
The origin of the word hints at how to be persuasive. The latin ‘persuasivus‘ is about being ‘convinced by reasoning’. So even though emotion plays an important part, our focus should be on a compelling argument and reasoning to back it up. You don’t need to employ manipulative tricks to be persuasive, the core skill…
Hawthorn Football Club have used the Vivid Method for Public Speaking and Media Training since 2007. AFL clubs get an incredible amount of media scrutiny and the Hawks are very effective in managing their media messages and building communication skills in their people. Luke Hodge, Hawks Captain. Luke was comfortable when asked questions by journalists and on TV,…
Persuasive speaking techniques can be very simple. And effortlessly make a business presentation more engaging. Everybody has made mistakes, failed to achieve goals and been disappointed. So when you admit a negative, it creates a powerful connection with an audience. It also provides instant credibility that sets up your persuasive point. Admitting a downside helps persuade people…