I once had a manager in my sales career that loved to say, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” As a quote junkie, this quote sticks in my head. There have been times when I have not lived by this quote, and I have had to suffer the consequences. As the holidays […]
Speaking Tips
Speaking “Off the Cuff”
A few weeks ago, I was invited to participate on a “Meet the Expert” podcast. Even though I had been given a list of potential questions that would be asked, the interviewer requested that I not write out my answers, as she wanted the interview to sound natural and not scripted. Often in the case […]
Avoiding the Pitfalls of Procrastination
You’re booked for a presentation. The months and weeks pass as your deadline approaches. I’ll work on the presentation tomorrow, you tell yourself. Time doesn’t stand still, yet your progress has stalled. All too often, good presentations fall short of becoming stellar presentations because of a bad habit of procrastination. Why do we procrastinate? There […]
Avoiding the Pitfalls of Procrastination
You’re booked for a presentation. The months and weeks pass as your deadline approaches. I’ll work on the presentation tomorrow, you tell yourself. Time doesn’t stand still, yet your progress has stalled. All too often, good presentations fall short of becoming stellar presentations because of a bad habit of procrastination. Why do we procrastinate? There […]
Lost Your Audience? Ideas to Get them Back when Speaking
You delivered a killer introduction that grabbed your audience’s attention. Now ten minutes into your presentation, you begin to see the tell tale signs that you are losing them. This happened to me when I first starting teaching on the collegiate level many years ago; I would get frustrated. The course material was mostly theory, […]
Keeping Your Instrument Fine-Tuned
Recently, I woke up to a raspy voice on the day after I delivered a full day workshop. Why was my throat so sore and my voice not its usual self? Maybe it had something to do with how I had taken for granted my most valuable asset as a speaker – my voice. With […]