Get your hands out of your pockets! Make a hand gesture every time you state a point! And for God’s sake, don’t forget to pause every seven and a half seconds! It’s all a bit much, isn’t it? Public speaking is so often dominated by rules: What to wear When to speak When not More…
Hillary Clinton’s election loss was a messaging failure
Public speaking gets better results when it’s built on great messaging. Vivid messages can be the deciding factor in the success of a person, a business or an idea. The 2016 Presidential election is an example. If you look at the Trump vs Clinton election through a Messaging Lens, you see a clear winner. Donald Trump. Trump’s More…
10 Reasons You’ll Improve Your Next Presentation By Using The ‘B’ Key
Business Insider interviewed me last week on the best way to avoid ‘death by PowerPoint’ and improve public speaking and presentation skills. I talked about the simplest and most powerful technique – the ‘B’ key. Otherwise known as blanking the screen during a slide show. They published the piece on Friday as ’10 Reasons You’ll More…
Ashton Kutcher speech uses Steve Jobs’ Structure
I love writing about Steve Jobs and his incredible communication skills. And this Ashton Kutcher speech let’s me do it again. For example, How Steve Jobs’ messaging changed the world, Steve Jobs top 5 leadership messages and particularly the speech outline of his famous Stanford graduation speech. Jobs’ ability to leverage message and structure helped Apple More…
How to make a ‘save’. Update on Michael Bay meltdown
Wow. I’ve had a lot of questions on Michael Bay’s public speaking meltdown at CES and the article I wrote about it. It’s painful to watch because many of us have either had public-speaking-anxiety-driven experience – or worried about one. So I thought we’d focus on how to make a ‘Save’ when there is a More…
How to avoid a Michael Bay presentation meltdown
Michael Bay, one of hollywood’s hottest directors (eg: Transformers movies) and worth $400 million, had a public speaking meltdown yesterday and abruptly walked off stage mid presentation. It started with Bay joining Joe Stinziano, Executive VP of Samsung, on stage at CES (Consumer Electronics Show). After a minute or so, he lost his place, panicked and More…
Cam Barber Public Speaking interview on ‘Big Marketing’
Here’s how Tim Reid opens the interview: Cam Barber developed The Vivid Method to help you overcome the fear of public speaking. And thank God! I mean who doesn’t (you know what) themselves when they have the opportunity to get up on a stage or present to an audience of more than one?! But here’s More…
Kevin Rudd ‘caught’ shuffling speaker notes in debate – how important are notes?
Sunday night was the first Election debate with Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott. There’s plenty of commentary on who won and why. My view is below. However, I thought I’d use this opportunity to address a side story: Kevin Rudd’s use of speaker notes. The first headline I saw on Monday morning was: CAUGHT RUDD More…
The Power of the Pause in public speaking
I paused to speak with a friend this week, a legend in radio, who shared with me what Graham Kennedy believed was his secret to success in connecting with an audience. The pause. Now, some of you will be asking; ‘Who the hell is Graham Kennedy? He was a pioneer – an award-winning entertainer, movie More…
My chat with Bill Clinton about Public Speaking
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, More…