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…
Leaders love the word ‘excellence’. It’s used to set high standards and encourage a team to greatness. But is it overused? (Hint: Yes!). Could it even point people in the wrong direction? When should you and your team stop pursuing excellence? Steve Waugh, one of Australia’s greatest sporting leaders with strong opinions on leadership style, explained the problems he observed with…
** This article was recently published on Business Insider. Great leaders, like legendary cricket captain Steve Waugh, are associated with great leadership messages. This is no coincidence. Vivid messages help position people as great leaders. Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs, Anita Roddick, Richard Branson, Bill Clinton, Janine Allis and Howard Schultz are some great examples of this….
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…
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…
We all need to be persuasive. We need a vivid message to convey the true value of our idea or it will be lost to the world. I coached a scientist who’s pitch for funding wasn’t getting anywhere. His newly developed technology was groundbreaking. He was a likeable and energetic presenter, but explained his technology…
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…
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…