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Time to Shine Podcast : Public speaking | Communication skills | Storytelling
Be inspired to speak
Jaksot
Yhteensä 200 jaksoa, joista ensimmäinen julkaistu 14.11.2014.
204. Paul Logue: Demos Are Like Rock Concerts
Paul Logue hails from near Glasgow in Scotland and boasts a 25-year career as a professional bass guitarist in a heavy rock band alongside a career in IT. He spent 21 years at IBM with half of that dedicated to Travel & Expense Management Software. Paul moved to Emburse five years ago and rose from the first Solutions Consultant in the UK to leading the International Team as Director of Solutions Consulting. He is also known as The Pre-Sales Rockstar.
The way to became a presales rockstar
A musician at heart, Paul chased his musical dreams in his early twenties while working a bank job. His father, however, pushed him towards a stable IT career which led him to IBM. Despite starting a family and rising in IT, music remained a constant passion as he played gigs on weekends. His most successful band, Eden’s Curse, emerged alongside fatherhood, but the realization that music couldn’t fully support his family led him to prioritize his flourishing IT career. Although his band continued for another 15 years, he ultimately focused on IT, becoming a top sales presentation performer.
Mastering the rock musician skills
Rock musicians aren’t inherently distinct from other performers. Musicians, actors, dancers, or even athletes, share key skills. These skills are built through dedication, refining their craft in private before ever reaching a stage. Paul highlights the importance of practice using Lady Gaga as an example. Stage presence, the ability to captivate an audience, is another shared skill that develops through experience. Finally, improvisation is also crucial for performers, Paul concludes by emphasizing the importance of authenticity, bringing your whole self to the table, even if it includes a passion for music.
The rock musician model for presenters
As a rock musician, Paul emphasizes the importance of practice and preparation. Here are the key points:
* Practice makes perfect: Just like musicians rehearse their songs countless times, presenters and salespeople should thoroughly prepare their material. This ensures a smooth delivery and allows for audience engagement.
* Eye contact is crucial: Connecting with the audience through eye contact is essential for both performers and presenters. It builds rapport and helps gauge audience reaction.
* Learn from improvisation: The ability to adapt on the fly is valuable. Just as a musician might have to adjust their performance based on audience response,
203. Sally Z: Persuasion and Emotions
Sally Z is an award-winning speaker, author, coach and expert on the art of bravery because she knows personally what being brave requires. Sally’s mission is to empower people to move from the sidelines to the spotlight – at work, on stage, and in life – and unleash the power of #showupanyway. Sally has spoken in front of thousands of people – coached hundreds of leaders – and empowered countless ‘moving moments’ in that powerful connection between speaker and audience. Sally is also the host of This Moved Me, a top 2% podcast about the art of public speaking, best-selling author of the book Speaking Story, and producer & host of the beloved Permission Slip Conference.
Persuasion and Emotions
In this wonderful and amusing interview Sally Z exposed different points related to persuasion, emotions and the power of storytelling, from which we can highlight the following:
* What persuasion is and why do people often confuse it with manipulation.
* Why storytelling is the best and most underrated tool for persuasion.
* Sally explained her personal approach to storytelling, in which a story comes first: Moment, Meaning, and Move.
* Sally shared with us some recent examples of the effective use of storytelling. From the speakers Sally has seen recently, she was impressed with Jade Simmons‘ storytelling onstage.
* Finally, she shared an advanced tactic for improving your storytelling: the use of dialogue in telling stories.
Related: Danja Bauer and Sally Z Fireside chat: How to Structure Your Talk
Favorite quotation
“Great stories happen to those who can tell them.” — Ira Glass
Recommended book
10X growth is easier than going for 2X by Dan Sullivan, Dr. Benjamin Hardy
Routine to Shine
Sally recommends a routine called “Walk and Talk“. This technique is a powerful rehearsal stage for content development. By walking and talking, it helps you unlock new ideas, making it effective for clarifying your thoughts and generating insights early in the content creation process. It’s a recommended tool for both speakers and self-content development.
Links
202. Elena Paweta and Greg Gazin fireside chat: What Makes a Great Podcast Host
Dr. Elena Paweta is an executive communication coach, speaker, TEDx organizer and university professor. As a professor at SGH Warsaw School of Economics, she specializes in international business, startup development and entrepreneurship. Dr Elena has been organizing TEDx conferences for the last 10 years. She has hosted the IDEAS+LEADERS podcast for over 3 years.
Greg Gazin, a.k.a “The Gadget Guy / Gadget Greg,” is a syndicated veteran Tech Columnist, speaker, author, podcaster and Distinguished Toastmaster. Since 2006 he’s produced the award-winning ToastCaster: Communication & Leadership Learning Lab, and co-hosts the Official Toastmasters Podcast. He’s also authored, Corey OutSMARTS the Butterflies, helping readers 8-80 learn the secrets of building confidence, leadership & communication skills.
What Makes a Great Podcast Host
In this fabulous fireside chat, Elena and Greg talked about:
• Who inspired them to become a podcast host. Some podcasters who inspired our guests were Roy Coughlan, Denise Duffield-Thomas, Amy Porterfield, Matt Abrahams, and surprise surprise: Oscar Santolalla himself. Thank you my friends!
• What are the top skills that will make you a great podcast host. Listening carefully to the guests was at the top, and changing your script on the fly was among the other skills that make a great podcast host.
• Finally, our guests shared some underrated skills or aspects that every new podcast host should master in order to succeed.
Related: Heather Flanagan and Greg Gazin fireside chat: How to give a tech talk successfully
Our guests’ links
https://elenapaweta.com
https://podcasts.apple.com/pl/podcast/ideas-leaders/id1531433083
https://www.toastmasterspodcast.com/posts/index.
201. Karen Eber: Amplify your Impact with Storytelling
Karen Eber is an author, international leadership consultant and keynote speaker. Her TED talk, “How your brain responds to stories – and why they’re crucial for leaders”, continues to be the source of inspiration for millions. As the CEO and Chief Storyteller of Eber Leadership Group, Karen helps companies build leaders, teams, and culture one story at a time. She is a guest lecturer at universities including the London School of Business, Stanford, and MIT. Now she’s the author of the book THE PERFECT STORY. How to Tell Stories that Inform, Influence, and Inspire.
Amplify your Impact with Storytelling
In this informative and practical interview, Karen shares with us her insights into the transformative power of storytelling, its scientific fundamentals, common pitfalls to avoid, and practical advice for effective storytelling. We’ll hear:
* Her journey from a corporate career at companies like General Electric to becoming a consultant, speaker, and author.
* The Science of Storytelling, Karen contrasts traditional models like Joseph Campbell’s with recent scientific insights and how the brain processes information emotionally.
* Two common mistakes in storytelling.
* Why aspiring storytellers must tell stories regularly, emphasizing that the more stories one tells, the better they become, and share practical advice and tips for individuals looking to enhance their storytelling skills.
Related: Leon Conrad and Emily Edgeley Fireside chat on Storytelling
Favorite quotation
“Stories are the basic unit of understanding.” — A doctor from Doctors Without Borders.
Recommended book
A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life by Brian Grazer & Charles Fishman
Routine to Shine
Every week spend some time curating a list of stories. Make sure to think about things you’ve experienced, meetings you’ve attended, questions you’ve been asked, documentaries you’ve watched and add it to your list of ideas.
Links
Karen’s website
Book: The Perfect ...
200. André Noël Chaker: A More Impactful Speaker with AI
André Noël Chaker is one of Finland’s leading business speakers and writers. Over the past ten years André has spoken at over 1000 business events in Finland and abroad. His more recent books, The Finnish Miracle and Santa’s Dream are national bestsellers and form the foundation for André’s highly successful keynotes on transformation and change. He is currently the Chairman and co-founder of MySpeaker, the fastest growing speaker bureau and speech communication technology company in Europe. He is the co-inventor and patent holder of the company’s revolutionary Artificial Intelligence platform that develops speaking skills at work.
A more impactful speaker with AI
In this fabulous interview, André talked about:
* The criteria we had about what an impactful speaker was 20 years ago is very different from what an impactful speaker is today.
* How speaking is one of the most valued skills for the future.
* Key ideas of Rhetorich, how it uses both Generative AI and Predictive AI.
* The big six: credibility, likeability, authenticity, presence, persuasiveness, storytelling.
Related: Speakers Shine With Pathos
Favorite quotation
“Be yourself; everyone else is taken.” — Oscar Wilde
Recommended book
Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo
Winning Minds by Simon Lancaster
Routine to Shine
Make it a habit to record yourself speaking, video and audio, then listen to it carefully, look at your expression, listen to your voice, the tone.
Links
MySpeaker Rhetorich
André at Twitter
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P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also, I’d appreciate if you write a review in 199. Shailvi Wakhlu: Speaking on Self-Advocacy
Shailvi Wakhlu is a Technology Leader and International Keynote Speaker. She is the former Head of Data & Analytics at Strava and Komodo Health. Every year, Wakhlu speaks at 25+ global conferences and Fortune 500 corporate events on Self-Advocacy and Data. Her sixteen-year career has included companies such as Salesforce, Fitbit, and a software startup she co-founded. Wakhlu’s self-advocacy expertise comes from being a practitioner at startups and large companies across three continents. Wakhlu grew up in India and studied engineering at Illinois Tech, Chicago
Speaking on Self-Advocacy
In this fabulous interview, Shailvi talked about:
* What self-advocacy is
* How Shailvi used her speaking experience to publish a book on self-advocacy
* Key ideas of the book “Self-Advocacy: Your Guide to Getting What You Deserve at Work.”
Related: How to Give a Successful Tech Talk
Favorite quotation
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
Recommended book
The Speaker Author by Cathy Fyock and Lois Creamer
Routine to Shine
Constantly seek opportunities to speak. Set yourself specific goals on what you want to improve as a speaker, and make sure you put feedback into action next opportunities you speak.
Links
Shailvi Wakhlu at LinkedIn
The book “Self-Advocacy: Your Guide to Getting What You Deserve at Work.”
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also, I’d appreciate if you write a review in iTunes or Stitcher. Your reviews will encourage me and will help other people to find the podcast. Thank you!
198. Jacqueline Farrington: Being An Inclusive Speaker
Jacqueline Farrington has over 20 years’ experience as a change maker, empowering leaders and their teams to spark transformation and innovation through communications. Known for her refreshingly direct yet supportive and science-backed approach, Jacqueline works with senior and board-level leaders as the founder and president of Farrington Partners. She blends her experience in the performing arts, vocal pedagogy, communications, psychology, and organizational and executive coaching to help her clients find unique communication solutions around challenges such as digital transformations, organizational cultural change, the “Great Resignation,” or engaging in conversations on social justice.
Her clients include multinationals such as Amazon and Microsoft, as well as startups and nonprofits. She proudly served for many years as TEDxSeattle’s Senior Speaker Coach, where she sourced, vetted, and prepared speakers for yearly sold-out audiences of 3,000. She was thrilled to see several speakers from that event move on to the global TED stage. In addition to teaching at Yale, she has lectured and taught at the London Business School, Rutgers University, Imperial College, and other institutions.
Being an inclusive speaker
In this fabulous interview, Jacqueline talked about:
* Why Jacqueline wrote the book The Non-Obvious Guide to Better Presentations
* How to be an inclusive speaker
* Clear signs that a speaker is not inclusive with her audience
* How to create a more inclusive presentation
* Rehearsal: the key is that you internalize (not memorize) your presentation
Related: Effective Stage Presence
Favorite quotation
“The only exercise I get lately is running off at the mouth & jumping to conclusions.” — Carrie Fisher
Recommended book
Poetry books, especially by authors Seamus Heaney and E. E. Cummings
Routine to Shine
Think about your off-stage moment. Rehearse what happens in the moment before you walk on the stage in front of the audience. Use those 30-60 seconds to create the presence you need.
Links
The Non-Obvious Guide to Better Presentations
Jacqueline at LinkedIn
P.S.
197. Valerie Fridland: Can Bad English Make You A Better Speaker?
Valerie Fridland is a professor of linguistics in the English Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. She writes a popular language blog on Psychology Today called “Language in the Wild,” and is also a professor for The Great Courses series. Valerie is author of the recent book “Like, Literally, Dude. Arguing for the Good in Bad English”
Can Bad English Make You A Better Speaker?
In this fabulous interview, Valerie talked about:
• Why Valerie wrote “Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English”
• The difference between ‘um’ and ‘uh’ and why they are speaking superpowers.
• What is vocal fry and why it is used today.
• How intensifiers communicates intensity, and persuade.
• Discourse markers: like, you know.
Related: How to Be Unforgettable in What You Do and Say
Routine to shine
Nobody is naturally amazing without practice. Always spend time on preparation.
Favorite quotation
“Nothing so much needs reforming as other people’s habits” -Mark Twain
Recommended book
Rebel with a Clause by Ellen Jovin’s
Links
https://www.valeriefridland.com
New Book: Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English
Psychology Today Blog: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/language-in-the-wild
Other links
Rock the Tech Stage On-demand
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also, I’d appreciate if you write a review in 196. Heather Flanagan and Greg Gazin fireside chat: How to give a tech talk successfully
How to Give a Tech Talk Successfully
In this fireside chat Heather and Greg talked about:
• How Heather and Greg started their careers speaking tech.
• Their best piece of advice on how to give a tech talk successfully.
• How to speak tech to wider, non-technical audiences.
• How to get accepted to speak at tech conferences (and to be interviewed in a podcast).
https://rockthetechstage.com/ondemand/
195. Danja Bauer and Sally Z Fireside chat: How to Structure Your Talk
Danja Bauer is an award-winning international speaker, singer and public speaking trainer. The lively woman from Vienna, Austria, knows how to use her and also your voice to rock the stage! With her profound 27 years of stage experience, Danja empowers corporates and entrepreneurs to give speeches that are as memorable, entertaining and impactful as music.
Sally Z is an award-winning speaker and speaker coach whose mission is to create talks that move the world. She empowers entrepreneurs and thought leaders to leverage the power of speaking to grow their impact, authority and revenue using a story-based message. Sally is also the host of This Moved Me, a podcast in the top 2% of podcasts in the world, where she’s had the privilege of interviewing some of the foremost speakers in the industry
How to Structure Your Talk
In this fireside chat Danja and Sally talked about:
• How often Danja and Sally have seen well-structured talks professional events they have attended, and what have been their observations from both well and non-well structured talks.
• Their own formula and top tactics to structure a talk.
• How to make sure all the pieces of a talk blend cohesively before the event arrives.
Related: Fireside chat on Storytelling
Danja’s favorite quotation
“Speak like music.” — Danja Bauer
Sally’s recommended book
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Our guests’ links
Danja’s Speech Preparation Checklist
www.speaklikemusic.com (In German)
www.danjabauer.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danjabauer/
Sally’s Simple Story Framework
Sally Z website
Other links
194. Cyril Junior Dim: Being Coachable Will Make You a Champion
Cyril Junior Dim is Zimbabwean by descent and was educated as a Software Engineer in Wrocław, Poland. He has spent the past 13 years mastering the art of Public Speaking. Cyril’s exploits have taken him across all avenues of the spoken word, including theatre, Stand-Up Comedy, TEDx, Sports Commentary, and Events Hosting. He is most recognized as an achieved Competitive Public Speaker, having won 2 National Championships in 2 countries in 2 languages. Cyril also holds all 4 District Titles, is a 2 time Continental Champion, and Toastmasters International’s 2022 World Champion of Public Speaking. Cyril reveres Public Speaking as a force for inspiration, growth and self-discovery.
Being Coachable Will Make You a Champion
In this interview, Cyril shared his stories and ideas about:
* How he became a speaker since he was a child
* His preparation to win the World Championship of Public Speaking 2022
* The top skills Cyril mastered and that allowed him to become a champion
Cyril’s winning speech Ndini
Cyril won the World Championship of Public Speaking 2022 with his inspirational Ndini speech.
Related: Being Myself Made Me a Champion
Favorite quotation
“The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing .” — unknown
Recommended book
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Routine to Shine
Every night before going to sleep, write down your most story-worthy moments of your day.
Links
https://www.cyriljuniordim.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cyril-junior-dim/
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also, I’d appreciate if you write a review in 193. Leon Conrad and Emily Edgeley Fireside chat on Storytelling
Emily Edgeley is a Public Speaking Coach for the Technology industry. Since 2017 she’s run over 250 Group Coaching sessions, coached more than 200 people privately and formally supported first-time and experienced speakers at 16 Conferences, covering 1000+ people across the globe. She helps people in Tech learn how to speak with clarity, impact and confidence – to boost their influence, brand & career.
Leon Conrad is a Story Structure Consultant, Storyteller, Writer, Poet, and Tutor based in London UK. He is author of “Story and Structure: A complete guide” (shortlisted for The People’s Book Prize, and winner of a Firebird Award), History Riddles, “Odyssey: Dynamic Learning Journey” (with David Pinto) and “Aesop the Storyteller.”
Fireside chat on Storytelling
Ideas discussed in this fireside chat on storytelling:
* The most unusual thoughts, ideas to make someone’s story succeed
* What is the preparation a speaker needs before a great story appears in her talk
* How to craft an effective story for a business or tech talk
Note from Leon: The two storytellers I talk about between 12’50” and 17’20” are not the same person – the first was an Egyptian storyteller from an Islamic tradition of the Arabian Nights; the second is a Jewish storyteller (Drut’syla Shonaleigh Cumbers) who is based in the UK. What they both share (and this is what I was responding to in terms of Emily’s question around 15’50”) is a connection to a living tradition of oral storytelling – the two storytellers come from very different cultural backgrounds, but they both share a rare quality of being part of unique oral storytelling traditions that are extremely rare to find these days.
Related: Crafting Extraordinary Stories From Ordinary Life
Leon’s favorite quotation
“Story shapes the story spinner. Story shapes the story spinner’s story,
192. Andrea Pacini and Jason Thomson Fireside chat: Has Zoom changed the way we communicate?
Andrea Pacini is a presentation coach and Head of Ideas on Stage UK. He specialises in working with business owners, leaders and their teams who want to become more confident presenters. In the last 12 years Ideas on Stage has worked with thousands of clients around the world, including companies like Microsoft, Lacoste, The World Bank and over 500 TEDx speakers.
Marjo Hellman is an Executive Communication Coach dedicated to helping leaders become the powerful leaders they want to be. Marjo is the creator of the Magnetic Executive signature programme, that helps high-achieving executives and organizations become the #1 leaders in their field. Marjo’s previous work includes “Finland Emojis” which is the most successful global PR campaign for Finland to date. An avid tennis fan. She’s the host of Esiintymisklinikka podcast (in Finnish), the first Finnish podcast dedicated to performance and communications.
Simone Heng is a human connections specialist and former international broadcaster for the likes of Virgin Radio Dubai, HBO Asia, and CNBC, among others. With over fifteen years of experience as a communicator on air, on stage, and one-on-one in different countries, connection has always been her life’s work. As a speaker, Simone inspires people to connect in a world thirsty for connection. She has spoken to thousands and often for Fortune 500 organizations. Her clients include Salesforce, SAP, L’Oréal, TEDx, the United Nations, and many more. Simone and her work have been featured on CNN and in Vogue, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar, among others. Simone is based and was born in Singapore but has also studied in Switzerland, was raised in Australia, and worked in the United Arab Emirates.
Mina Guli from Melbourne, Australia is the founder and CEO of Thirst Foundation and a global leader committed to protecting the world’s water resources. Following a successful 15-year career in law, finance and climate change, in 2012 Mina established Thirst Foundation, a non-profit organisation focussed on raising awareness, creating urgency and driving action on water. Mina is a self-confessed “non-runner” who has run 100s of marathons on every continent of the planet including Antarctica, leveraging the power of the media to connect us to the water crisis, and building a global movement of passionate water advocates in over 190 countries around the world. Mina has been widely recognised for her leadership on water, including being recognised by Fortune as one of the greatest leaders in the world. She has spoken at the United Nations, and has been regularly featured in major global, local and regional media outlets around the world. Mina has committed her life to the water crisis because she believes we can be the solution.
Ulrike Seminati is a communication executive, coach and author who empowers her clients to lead authentically and with charisma. Prior to starting her own company in 2019, she worked in corporate communications for over 20 years in the auto, life science and pharma industry. She designed award-winning global engagement programs and successfully implemented numerous leadership, change and corporate culture initiatives. However, she often felt that the benefit was not as sustainable as it could have been.
Boris Hristov is a speaker and trainer from Bulgaria. He is the Founder of presentation agency 356labs and a PowerPoint MVP. His agency is the company behind the industry-leading presentation skills conference – Present to Succeed. Boris has years of experience as a trainer and his only mission is to help you achieve more with your presentations.
AlexAnndra Ontra is changing the way the enterprise world thinks about its most undervalued asset — the presentation. As President and co-founder of Shufflr, AlexAnndra is blazing a trail in the emerging new discipline of presentation management. The technology she helped create is already powering the presentation strategies of hundreds of Fortune-level companies, helping them save millions of dollars by transforming humble PowerPoint slides into invaluable business assets.
Pedro Morillas is a successful Peruvian businessman, founder of important companies and decorated by the government of his country with the “Gold medal for industrial merit”. Self-taught and a tireless globetrotter, he has traveled the world and lived in different countries. Now retired, he has written books such as: “What Now?”, “Bicentennial”, “Impunity”, “Innovate and enjoy by creating Wealth”, “País Combi,” books that became bestsellers by being agents provocateurs of change.
Patricia Fripp is a Hall of Fame keynote speaker, executive speech coach, sales presentation, and online learning expert. In Patricia’s career, she has delivered more than 3,500 presentations as well as hundreds of virtual presentations. Clients of her speech coaching include corporate leaders, technical and sales professionals, and seasoned professional speakers.
Steve Donofrio is a former Non Commissioned officer (NCO) in the US Army with deployments to Iraq and Kuwait for the first Gulf war as well as other real-world missions. As an international motivational speaker and leadership trainer, Steve utilizes his 20 years of speaking and training to help leaders move things to done through and with others. Steve is passionate about helping leaders unite people in harmony and move them to action. He believes, the true measure of a leader is defined within the actions and accomplishments of those they inspire.
Devapriya Khanna is a Leadership Brand Strategist, an internationally certified Executive Coach, business mentor and a global speaker. Through her venture, 212 Degrees Brand Lab, she works closely with entrepreneurs, executives and enterprises to create memorable personal brands that deliver business results and grow influence and impact.
Asta Pipiraitė is a public speaking coach with six years of public speaking experience, TEDx Kaunas 2021 host and mentor for speakers since TEDx Kaunas conference started four years ago. Facilitator and coordinator of various projects, a member of an improvisation theater Impro Kaunas for two years now, she recently started her career as an actor.
Heather Hansen O’Neill is an international speaker, author, adventurer, and entrepreneur using her action-packed experience to Fire Up audiences. She stimulates vibrant energy, focus, and action for those who want to collaborate effectively, lead change, and achieve massive results. With expertise in virtual, hybrid, and live events, as well as her focus on helping individuals and companies’ breakthrough fears, judgments, and blocks to reach sales and leadership success, Heather’s innovative keynotes are in high demand during these changing times.
Maria Tecce is an actress, singer, keynote speaker and Voice & Speech Coach. She uses all her experience and techniques as a performer and Voice and Speech Coach to empower business professionals and performers to take their public speaking and performance to the next level.
A note for our English-speaking listeners: this week’s episode is in Spanish, talking about Speakers of the Bicentennial of Peru with Jaime Lértora. So that’s the theme of this episode.
Neil Thompson is a speaker, writer, and entrepreneur. He started out his career as a product development engineer, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He started his journey in public speaking out of necessity. After one too many failed presentations in front of management, he knew that he had to work on his public speaking skills. His job depended on it! Currently Neil has his own ideas on what makes an effective speaker, specifically for STEM professionals like himself. Neil is the host of the “Teach the Geek Podcast” and the creator of a course on public speaking for STEM professionals.
Katja Schleicher knew already at an early stage that talking is gold and silence the beginning of all troubles. After her studies (German & English language & Literature. Linguistics & psychology) she pursued an international career in PR, Advertising and Corporate Communications for Media & HiTech Companies. For more than a decade she now passionately enables effective & empathic communication with all the clients she works with. From big banking, conservative pharma to ambitious startups. From 1:1 dialogues to the big stages. With three languages, two passports and an European heart, Katja works across borders constantly to bring people and ideas closer through communication. She speaks at conferences about communicative misunderstandings and how to initiate change through communication.
Kevlin Henney is an independent consultant, trainer, reviewer, speaker and writer. His development interests, contributions and work with companies covers programming, people and practice. Lately he became and expert in advanced techniques for online presentations. He has been a columnist for various magazines and web sites, a contributor to open- and closed-source software and a member of more committees than is probably healthy (it has been said that “a committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled”). He is co-author of two volumes in the Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture series, editor of 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know and co-editor of 97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know.
Brett Hill is an expert on mindfulness and coach, creator of The Language of Mindfulness, soon to be a book, training, and TEDx talk (2021). Brett has spent many years studying and practicing mindfulness in many forms. He studied Hakomi, a mindfulness-based somatic psychology with founder Ron Kurtz and he also trained as a facilitator in Matrix Leadership group dynamics with founder Amina Knowlan, before establishing the Quest institute meditation center in Dallas. He is also a published technologist having worked as a technical storyteller and international speaker for Microsoft and others. Microsoft named him as a “Most Valuable Professional” for 9 years.
In this episode I’m the one on the hotseat.
Camilla Tuominen (M.Econ., Psychology basic studies) is a surprising combination of many things: a speaker, author, illustrator and startup founder. Her mission is to teach everyone how to lead and understanding emotions which she realized to be the core skill of the future when she worked for years as management consultant. She has worked with hundreds of organizations in Finland and abroad and is one of the most popular female keynote speakers in Finland. She is the author and illustrator of three books on how to lead emotions. She also works with companies as a ‘business illustrator’ making illustrations of otherwise complex concepts, such as values, goals and emotions.
As Conscious Leadership Shaman, Rodolfo has developed the powerful SER model for achieving leadership of the fullest potential as well as, deep-sustainable personal mastery and business growth. As an MBA graduate, Rodolfo has been involved in mentoring transformational leaders, business consulting and training for more than 15 years and has participated as an independent director in more than 25 business boards. Rodolfo has a very interesting and unique combination of business skills, experience and spiritual wisdom that triggers profound transformation through his work, which is motivated by his purpose to raise consciousness in the world so all beings can live in harmony and greater well-being.
Unna Lehtipuu is a Communications and Media professional with extensive experience in international communication, media, investing and corporate responsibility issues. Currently CEO of the Communications Agency Framilla Finland, she is also a journalist, an author of 7 non-fiction books and a keynote speaker.
Kamilla Sultanova is a Speaker, Mentor and Cultural architect. Born in Uzbekistan, has lived in USA, Denmark, and now based in Finland for 6.5 years. She is a networking powerhouse, uniting voice for change, equality and empowerment.
Boris Hristov is the Founder of presentation agency 356labs and a PowerPoint MVP. Boris has years of experience as a trainer, mentor and consultant and he and his team are working with companies like Deutsche Telekom, KPMG, Renault, VMWARE, adidas and a many more to help them write, design and deliver truly effective tech talks and presentations. His agency is also the only presentation agency in the world speaking at Microsoft Ignite – the biggest yearly event of Microsoft, and this year they are the company behind the industry-leading presentation skills conference – Present to Succeed.
One of the best ever guests we had is back. But today for a new topic: Getting competitive advantage in 2021. Companies hire Patricia Fripp to help them drive sales by improving their important conversations and presentations. She is a Hall of Fame keynote speaker, executive speech coach, sales presentation skills, and on-line learning expert.
Elena Herdieckerhoff is an award-winning serial entrepreneur and successful TEDx Speaker with over 3 million views on YouTube. Elena is the CEO of Red Dot Stage, a TEDx speaker coaching company that specialises in helping visionaries land, craft and deliver viral TEDx talks. She is a storyteller at heart and firmly believes that great TEDx Talks can shape our conscious awareness and create a foundation for progress, change, and innovation.
Sandra Zimmer is a Coach for Public Speaking, Presentation, Voice, Accent Reduction and Executive Presence. Her degrees in psychology, acting, voice, esoteric philosophy and meditation gave her the perfect background to discover how to transform the #1 fear. Sandra translated her struggles with her own fears into the Sandra Zimmer Method which is a holistic mind/body/emotion system to overcome stage fright and fear of public speaking. She coaches individuals and groups live at her company Self-Expression Center in Houston, Texas and virtually via video conferencing. She’s author of the book It’s Your Time to Shine: How to Overcome Fear of Public Speaking, Develop Authentic Presence and Speak from Your Heart.
Patti Dobrowolski is author of “9 Tips to Up Your Creative Genius” and “DRAWING SOLUTIONS: How Visual Goal Setting Will Change Your Life”. She is founder of Up Your Creative Genius, a consulting firm that uses visuals and creative processes to help companies and individuals around the world accelerate growth and change.
Danja Bauer is the Melody Speaker. The lively singer and speaker from Vienna, Austria, gives speeches, which are as impactful and heart-touching as music. In the year 2020, she won a European-wide digital speaking competition. With her profound 25 years of stage experience, she helps business owners to become outstanding presenters on the real and digital stage.
Sam Liebowitz, known as The Conscious Consultant, is a mentor, coach, speaker, healer, serial entrepreneur and author of the upcoming book, Everyday Awakening. He has been in business since 1993 and has owned several successful businesses. His current ventures include Talking Alternative Broadcasting, and Double Diamond Wellness in Manhattan. Sam has lectured in several venues in New York City, including being a featured speaker at TEDxUpperWestSide in 2016.
As the Founder of Get Speaking Gigs Now, Leisa Reid mentors business professionals and entrepreneurs who want to make an impact and ultimately attract their ideal clients through speaking. As a speaker herself, Leisa has successfully booked and delivered over 500 speaking engagements. In her book, Get Speaking Gigs Now, she shares her 7 Step System to Getting Booked, Staying Booked and Attracting Your Ideal Clients Through Speaking.
Monique Blokzyl is the founder of HeartPowered Business, helping entrepreneurs around the globe to build scalable businesses, so they stop selling their time, earn a 6-figure income and more, and impact the world. She is an awarded international speaker, published author, podcaster and pitching expert. Monique also runs a vibrant global community to uplift professional speakers. Her business mantra is: Speak up. Scale up. Impact the world!
Ivan Wanis Ruiz is a communications expert and a guest lecturer at several top universities across Canada including both Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia and the Rotman School at University of Toronto. When he is not teaching how to speak, he is doing it. He has travelled across Canada twice as the official spokesperson for both the PanAm Games Toronto 2015 and The Invictus Games 2017. Ivan is also author of the book “They Don’t Have to be Naked: A new approach to public speaking.”
Michael Tranmer is a professional speaker and the author of satori ananda–awaken to happiness, a memoir about the life transformation he experienced following the sudden end of his marriage. Michael also works as an engineer in the highly specialized field of coastal engineering, where he designs and builds infrastructure along the British Columbia coast. Michael embodies and speaks on Transcendent Leadership, drawing on experiences from his personal and professional life.
Arvee Robinson is The Master Speaker Trainer, international speaker, author of “Speak Up, Get Clients.” She teaches business owners and entrepreneurs how to use public speaking as a marketing strategy so they can attract more clients, generate unlimited leads, grow their business, and make a difference with their words. Arvee is the top “How to” trainer in public speaking today.
Heather Wilde is CTO of ROCeteer, and is also known as the Unicorn Whisperer because of her special focus on entrepreneurs. She is a personal and professional growth expert, executive coach, author, and speaker. As a founding employee of Evernote, she oversaw the company’s growth from thousands to 100 million customers. Among Wilde’s other awards, she was commended by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid for her work as a 2016 High Tech Women Mentor in increasing STEM education.
Amira Alvarez is the founder and CEO of The Unstoppable Woman, a global coaching company helping entrepreneurs, empire builders, athletes, creatives, and rising stars in all fields achieve their dreams and goals in record time. As someone who has made a quantum leap (going from barely making 6-figures to making $700k in one year, then onto 7-figures) and has lived to tell about it, she knows exactly what tactical strategies and mindset shifts are required to get out of your own way, live life on your own terms, and master the art of achieving any goal you set your mind to.
Christoffer Weiss is The World’s Premiere Audiovisual Alchemist. He has produced over 300 events, in +30 countries on 6 continents. (Since 2002). He works exclusively with the world’s top speakers and trainers and runs multiple businesses in multiple countries. Christoffer trains professional speakers in how to create top-notch presentations. He is a classically educated actor with over 25 years of stage and film experience. Now an expert in voice control, event production, stage presence and keynote creation.
Jean Marie DiGiovanna is an international keynote speaker, leadership trainer and certified executive coach who is passionate about helping people think and lead differently. She has run large-scale live training and E-learning programs across the globe training as many as 100 employees per month and has facilitated team-norming and team intervention sessions to hundreds of project teams across the globe. Jean Marie was named a “Top 10 Coach of Boston,” by Women’s Business Boston and is a published author of “Stop Talking Start Asking: 27 Questions to Shift the Culture of Your Organization. In true Renaissance Spirit, when Jean Marie isn’t working, she is busy traveling the world, working in her art studio, skiing fast or dancing to live Latin music.
Walid O. El Cheikh is a coach, speaker and mentor about pitching and entrepreneurship. He has coached thousands of people since 2016. His coaching style is: learn by doing, build confidence and do exercises. Walid is Author of the book “Pitching For Life.” He is a Lebanese and Ukrainian living in Helsinki, Finland.
Karl Lillrud is an entrepreneur and keynote speaker from Stockholm, Sweden. He inspires and educates on subjects related to Internet-based businesses. Being an entrepreneur for 21 years and growing with experience every day, Karl loves sharing his experience and the many tools and workarounds he developed to force forward in complex situations. He has delivered 2 TEDx talks and has written the book “Hacking Your Destiny.”
Caroline Goyder’s global reputation as a speaker and voice coach is built on her warm, engaging, relaxed and highly practical style, and her expertise honed by her work with actors, teachers, broadcasters and the corporate sector. She worked for many years at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama as a voice coach. Her skill is to take ideas previously known by performers and broadcasters and to make them immediately usable for the audience in their personal and professional challenges. She is regularly sought after by the media as an expert in her field and her work has featured on television and in numerous national and international newspaper articles. Her TEDx Talk on speaking with confidence has had many millions of views. She has just released a new book “Find Your Voice” (2020).
Elisa Di Napoli has been a full time integrative clinical hypnotherapist since 2001, her practice expanding across New Zealand and Scotland. Her work places a great deal of importance on positive mental health, Neurolinguistic Psychology, and Holistic Coaching. She studied hypnotherapy at the prestigious Hypnotherapy Training Institute of Northern California, training with world-renowned teachers Randal Churchill and Ormond McGill. She is among the first practitioners to embrace the innovative discipline of hypnotic coaching. She is a drummer and an accomplished singer-songwriter with 20 years of performance experience and eleven albums under her belt. Her background includes philosophy, art, comparative religion, music performance, and acting.
For over 20 years, Vasi Huntalas has innovatively engaged groups as a speaker, transformational workshop facilitator, and intuitive leadership coach. She inspires entrepreneurs and other visionary leaders to think differently so they can navigate changing times with greater ease, calm, and momentum. Also an artist, she believes everyone is creative once they befriend their inner critic and embrace their inner child. She has guided hundreds of people in amplifying their intuition, creativity, and vision using an innovative process she pioneered. With a background in experiential learning and whole systems design, Vasi engages the mind, body, and heart of her audiences so they can align with a greater vision for their life and business.
Simone Heng is a professional keynote speaker, sought-after international MC and former broadcaster. Over her one and a half decade-long career in the entertainment industry, Simone’s job was to build memorable connections with audiences on stage, on air, online and one-to-one. Hopping countries from the age of 17, Simone has lived and either worked or studied in Dubai, Australia, Switzerland and now is back in Singapore where she was born. It is her cross-continental adventures which have allowed her to become a true student of Human Connection. In 2019 she was awarded Asia’s Top Youth Marketeer 2019 at the Asia Youth Women Netizen Marketing Excellence Awards.
Tim Pollard is the founder and CEO of Oratium, a leading messaging consulting firm. He is a sought-after speaker and author of the acclaimed book The Compelling Communicator: Mastering the Art and Science of Exceptional Presentation Design. Pollard draws insights from a long career in sales, marketing, and communications for companies such as Unilever, Barclays Bank and the Corporate Executive Board. He just has released a new book “Mastering the Moment: Perfecting the Skills and Processes of Exceptional Presentation Delivery.”
After his American Idol audition, William Hung’s rendition of “She Bangs” became famous for all the wrong reasons. Despite a humbling start, William redeemed himself. He has since appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Ellen DeGeneres Show and even performed live with Ricky Martin in Las Vegas. William has spent the last few years studying the world’s top performers and public speakers to uncover their secrets to success. Using what he discovered, he skyrocketed his first studio album “Inspiration” to #1 on the independent Billboard charts. His latest TEDx talk has already been viewed by over 35,000 people in less than a month. He now helps purpose-driven business owners go from hidden gem to industry rockstars by leveraging public speaking. He helps them uncover their unique message and leverage it to get booked and sell out their stages, webinars, and livestreams.
Fernando Jiménez Motte PhD is a Global Senior Executive, Professor, Research Scientist and Consultant with successful 34 years experience, managing and leading Advanced Technology, Information Technology and Product Divisions. He speaks internationally about science and innovation in topics such as artificial intelligence to both technical and non-technical audiences. Currently he is Chair of Manufacturing of Asgardia Aerospace.
Jill Lublin is an international speaker on the topics of Radical Influence, Publicity, Networking, Kindness and Referrals. She is the author of 4 Best Selling books including “Get Noticed…Get Referrals” and co-author of Guerrilla Publicity and Networking Magic. Her latest book is Profit of Kindness. She is CEO of a strategic consulting firm and has over 20 years experience working with over 100,000 people plus national and international media. Jill teaches Publicity Crash Courses as both live events and live webinars and consults and speaks all over the world.
As well as being the co-founder and CEO of Speaker Nation, 10X Speaker, and 10X Digital, Chris Baldwin is recognized as the fastest-growing speaker in the Netherlands, an international keynote speaker, TEDx speaker, event host and serial entrepreneur. His mission is to enable you and your organization to “free your story” and achieve abundant results through the power of effective storytelling and powerful communication. Chris has delivered hundreds of keynotes on how to build meaningful connections with brands such as Microsoft, Accenture, Liferay, Rabobank, T-Mobile, Patagonia, the Dutch Police and Dutch Government. In his upcoming book, he will describe his journey to becoming co-founder and CEO of Speaker Nation with world-renowned serial entrepreneur, business speaker and founder of Wildfit, Eric Edmeades.
Jamie Smart is a number 1 bestselling author, coach and consultant. He shows individuals and organizations the unexpected keys to clarity; the ultimate leverage point for creating profound transformation and meaningful results. Jamie’s primary focus is in showing transformation professionals and business leaders how to bring the principles behind clarity into their work with clients, into their own businesses and into every aspect of their lives. In addition, he works with a handful of 1:1 coaching clients and leads selected corporate programmes. Jamie’s corporate clients range from an SME ranked as one of The Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For to a Fortune 500 business designated by Ethisphere as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. He has appeared on Sky TV and on the BBC, as well as in numerous publications including The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Huffington Post and Psychologies Magazine. He is also the author of the books CLARITY: Clear Mind, Better Performance, Bigger Results and The Little Book of Clarity.
Kristina Vahvaselkä is a Finnish–Canadian coach on presentation skills, actress and voice over talent. She has worked on voice overs since 2003. Her works consist of commercial, informative and character voice overs for corporations, television, radio and social media. She also dubs children’s cartoons into Finnish.
Arthur Samuel Joseph is founder and chairman of the Vocal Awareness Institute. Arthur is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost communication strategists and authorities on the human voice. His voice and leadership training program, Vocal Awareness, teaches Communication Mastery through a disciplined regimen of specific techniques designed to cultivate an embodied and enhanced leadership presence and personal presence. He’s coached Angelina Jolie, Sean Connery, Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Jerry Rice, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and many more.
Elena Paweta is an academic lecturer and a business trainer in communication, leadership and presentation skills. Born in beautiful Saint Petersburg in Russia, she is currently living in Poland. She has a PhD degree in economics field specializing in entrepreneurship. She is the organizer of TEDx conferences in Poland and an active member of Toastmasters International.
Rosemarie Barnes is a Professional Speaker and Presentation Trainer, founder of Confident Stages Executive Presentation Academy, and international best-selling author. Whether from stage or page, Rosemarie champions others to strive for excellence in personal, professional, and leadership roles through respectful and clear communication, through team leadership strategies, and by cultivating increasing confidence in all areas of our lives. She lives in Ladysmith, British Columbia.
Pacelle van Goethem MSc is a writer and a highly sought-after international speaker and executive coach on the subjects of persuasion, charisma and exerting influence. Her clients include influential companies and people from the highest levels of government and the corporate world. She helps people to use all of their charismatic potential. After her exhaustive research into true persuasion and the best practices of charismatic people, Van Goethem has cracked the magic code and now wishes to share the secrets with everyone whose ideas deserve a platform. She has developed a revolutionary model of the psychology of persuasion and a compelling method that can instantly improve your charisma.
As a voice coach Barbara invites people to find their voices, whatever that means to them. Her book, Full Voice: The Art and Practice of Vocal Presence, presents what she has learned from decades of “midwifing voices.” Since 2013 she has been training other Full Voice Coaches. Barbara’s singing keynotes explore themes of leadership, meaning, voice and community for people in a wide variety of professions: training, health care, law, education, nonprofits and industry. Her twelve years as an organizational development consultant helps keep things real and relevant. Barbara is also a singer/songwriter with eight albums of mostly original music. The lyric-rich songs tap into jazz, gospel and folk roots. She lives across the street from the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Elisa Heikura is a communications specialist and a coach who wants to make the life of developers and other tech-oriented people so much better – or even easier. She’s deeply interested in understanding the human interaction. She keeps on learning about it from books as well as from continuous trial and error.
Martin Shovel is a speechwriter, speechwriter trainer, communications adviser and cartoonist. He writes speeches for leaders working in many different fields, including trade unionists, lawyers, academics, business leaders and doctors.
Kate Jurva is a communicator, speechwriter and speaker coach specialised in making science and research not only understandable, but also relatable for diverse audiences. A Finnish-Canadian, Kate has worked for the Government of Canada and the United Nations University, she has created the lineup and speaker training program for a TEDx event, and is currently based at Aalto University where she is building the international strategy for science and research communications.
Jay Heinrichs is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion.” As a persuasion and conflict consultant, he has conducted influence strategy and training for clients as varied as Kaiser Permanente, Harvard, Professional Speechwriters Association, the Pentagon, and NASA.
Deepak Menon, of New Delhi, India, is a chartered accountant at J.P., Kapur & Uberai in New Delhi, where he is one of nine partners. A Toastmaster since 2002, Menon’s home club is Central Delhi Toastmasters. He has held a number of high-profile leadership positions within Toastmasters and has attained the Distinguished Toastmaster designation—the highest level of educational achievement in the organization. Today Deepak is an officer of the Toastmasters International Board of Directors, the International President-Elect, where he is a “working ambassador” for the organization.
Karen Leong is an influence thought leader and sought-after global keynote speaker. A TEDx speaker, a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) and the author of the book ‘Win People Over’, she was featured as one of the ten influential professional speakers in Singapore by the Singapore Business Review. Karen is the co-founder of Influence Solutions, a leading learning and development organization, headquartered in Singapore with offices in USA and India. She is also the co-founder and host of Rise Through the Ranks summit, a global online leadership summit launching on 12-18 November.
Mikael Hugg is a public speaker, author and serial entrepreneur. Currently, he is the founder and CEO of Supersold Helsinki, a sales hacking company based in Helsinki, Finland. He just published the book “Crushing the Fear of Public Speaking.” Mikael believes that we all have unused talent that just waits us to put it into use and to take us to next level.
Siim Land is an author, public speaker, online entrepreneur and a high performance coach. He creates content about biohacking, human optimization, and body mind empowerment. During college he studied anthropology and started writing about increasing one’s physical and mental potential on his blog siimland.com.
Ramona J.Smith, is the 2018 World Champion of Public Speaking. She is an educator, speaker, author, blogger and poet. As an award-winning internationally known public speaker, Ramona’s captivating speeches inspire audiences around the world. She is a dynamic powerhouse on stage, and her ability to connect with an audience is unmatched. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Public Relations with a minor in Marketing, graduating Magna Cum Laude from the prestigious Baldwin Wallace University in northeast Ohio. Ramona is the mother of miracle boy Ryan, and they reside in the Magnolia City, Houston, Texas.
Mark Black is a heart and double-lung transplant recipient – turned -4-time marathon runner, speaker and coach. He has been speaking professionally since 2005 and has earned the Certified Speaking Professional designation – a designation held by less than 2000 speakers around the world. He is here today to help you raise your fees so you can make have a greater impact and earn a bigger income.
Bernadette Butler has 20 years experience in advertising working with some of the greatest brands of our time. With 2 ads on the world’s funniest reel, Bernadette is the CEO and co-founder of StoryTap, a DIY video platform for marketers to direct, own, and micro-influence authentic video stories at scale.
Jim Love is 27 years old and was born and raised in the south side of Chicago. Jim attended Marquette University, graduated in 2013 with degrees in Corporate Communications and Marketing, and currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After years of exploring leadership development, Jim decided to follow a calling and spread his message of authenticity and positivity. He has spoken to several thousand high school students both in Illinois and Wisconsin. Jim shares his life experiences and connects with you on a personal and real level. As a lifelong stutterer, he understands what it takes to overcome obstacles and adversity and motivates the crowd to take on their own obstacles in a real way.
Joel Schwartzberg is the senior director of strategic and executive communications for a major American nonprofit, a professional speech coach since 2006, and the author of “Get to the Point! Sharpen Your Message and Make Your Words Matter“. A former national champion public speaker, Joel has also written for Fast Company, Toastmaster Magazine, and The New York Times Magazine.
Mette Højen is a Business Rhetorician and keynote speaker based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is author of “Business Rhetoric. How to turn your words into gold.” She trains top leaders and entire business groups in composing and delivering melodious presentations and meetings that are engaging, win customers, create growth –and bigger black figures on the bottom line.
Adam Markel is a speaker, author and entrepreneur, who inspires, empowers and guides people to achieve massive and lasting personal and professional growth. A recognized expert in the integration of business and personal development, Adam speaks and mentors around the globe in the areas of business, entrepreneurship, leadership, and transformation. His latest book is the best selling PIVOT: The Art and Science of Reinventing Your Career and Life. Adam also hosts The Conscious PIVOT podcast, where he shares his insights on pivoting in today’s fast paced market and interviews experts, innovators and influencers to share their stories and wisdom in the areas of business and life.
Dr. Laura Sicola is a leadership communication expert and the founder of Vocal Impact Productions in Philadelphia, PA. Her mission is to turn leaders into master influencers who get to “yes” and make a positive impact by helping them master the 3Cs of “Vocal Executive Presence”: Command the room, Connect with the audience, and Close the deal. She has spent over 20 years in language, culture and education, and has done coaching, trainings and keynote addresses across five continents. She is a coach for the TED Fellows program and works with clients such as Comcast, Wikimedia, the US Department of Commerce, IBM, and Women Against Abuse. She earned her PhD in educational linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania where she was faculty from 2001-2013.
11 years ago Alexei Kapterev made a presentation called “Death by PowerPoint” which since then has gathered around 11 million views. In 2012 it was followed by the book called ”Presentation Secrets” and in 2017 — by the Coursera specialization. Alexei teaches at the Moscow State University’s Higher School of Business Administration, SKOLKOVO Moscow School of Management and works for a multitude of Russian and international clients.
Chris Schoenwald is a Japan-based globally awarded entrepreneur with wide-ranging experiences including helping Japanese firms develop effective international sales skills, right on through to running his own Tokyo based advertising media production company and working with clients like Disney, Vogue, Suntory and Legoland Discovery Center, amongst others. Chris has served time on planning committees for major events such as Global Entrepreneurship Week, whilst also capturing prestigious business awards and honors from the likes EY, United Airlines and the American Chamber of Commerce Japan. Presently, he is intensely focused on reaching and empowering business professionals and bloggers through his presentation skills website: “The Passion Fashioned Presenter.”
Tim Pollard is author of The Compelling Communicator: Mastering the Art and Science of Exceptional Presentation Design (Conder House Press, 2016). He is the founder and CEO of Oratium, a communications firm helping organizations from Fortune 500 companies to law offices hone their presentation and messaging skills. In his decades-long marketing career, Tim has held senior marketing and sales positions with Unilever and Barclays Bank. He contributes regularly to Forbes.com.
Ronnie Grandell is a clinical psychologist, coach and non-fiction author who specializes in compassion focused therapy. His expertise is helping people end the struggle with stress and burnout, anxiety, shame or self-criticism. He has also worked extensively with leaders, athletes and artists, with a focus on enhancing people’s performance and enjoying life while doing so. Ronnie has written two books on these topics in Finnish, “Itsemyötätunto” (self-compassion) and “Irti itsekritiikistä” (free yourself from self-criticism).
Kelly Swanson is a motivational keynote speaker, comedian, award-winning storyteller, Huffington Post Contributor, and cast member of “The Fashion Hero” television show airing on Amazon Prime. She is also author of “Who Hijacked My Fairy Tale” and “The Story Formula.” Kelly’s wacky wit and powerful stories have charmed hearts and tickled funny bones for over 15 years.
Dr. Ira A. Virtanen is a researcher in communication. She specializes in interpersonal relationships and supportive communication, in particular in the friendships of boys and men. Ira trains companies, nonprofit organizations and the research community in effective public speaking and interview skills. She is also known for reciting poems –a hobby she took on as young child and in which she has even competed. For the past decade Ira has been an artistic member of the Finnish Poem Readers Association (Suomen Lausujain Liitto) and a founding member of the poem reading group Siitä pitäen. She has worked as a university lecturer in communication at the Universities of Tampere and Helsinki (Finland), and as an ASLA-Fulbright Scholar at Purdue University (USA). Ira is passionate about opera and sports so you can spot her at any major volleyball tournament or opera house such as La Scala and the Metropolitan.
Marija Mikalauskiene helps people share ideas more effectively and turn their fears into strengths. During the last 7 years she has trained countless business leaders, politicians and conference speakers to find their authentic, unique, powerful speaking style and to unleash their oratory potential on stage. The biggest obstacle in unleashing our full potential is fear. Therefore, Marija focuses on helping people understand their fears and unleash the energy behind it. She is also a coach at one of the world’s leading public speaking organizations “Own the Room”, which enjoys the privilege of working with such leaders as Sheryl Sandberg; Jimmy Wales; Reid Hoffman and many more. This summer Marija walked 850 km on foot, alone, in silence, which gave her inner peace, confidence and a few stories to share.
Dr. Drumm McNaughton is CEO of The Change Leader, an organization change and management consultancy who helps education and non-profit organizations implement strategic and programmatic change. Drumm holds a PhD and MA in Human and Organizational Systems from the Fielding Graduate Institute, and a BS in Physics from the US Naval Academy. He and his wife live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Peter Ivanov is Manager, Entrepreneur, Author and Virtual teams Expert with over 25 years of international experience. Born in Bulgaria he graduated in Mathematics. After working as IT Services Manager for Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Peter recognized the growing importance of the teams in multiple locations and developed an innovative method for leading Virtual teams. In 2013 Peter founded “Virtual Power Teams” and started new career as Keynote speaker and Executive coach on New Leadership. Peter is a passionate athlete and World Senior Champion in Discus. In his dynamic keynote speeches and master classes, held in English, German, Bulgarian and Russian, Peter uses the experience he has gained as Manager, Athlete, Entrepreneur and, yes, the father of five little girls, to show you how to build up and lead your own successful Virtual Power Teams.
Lee LeFever is the co-founder of Common Craft and author of The Art of Explanation. Since 2007, Common Craft has won numerous awards, created explanations for the world’s most respected brands and created explainer videos that have earned over 50 million online video views. Today, Common Craft produces educational guides, ready-made videos and visuals that are used by educators in over 50 countries. Lee and his wife Sachi are Common Craft’s only employees and live in Seattle where they both love the rain.
Dustin Mathews is the founder of Speaking Empire, which teaches entrepreneurs how to scale up their business using selling from presentations and stages. He authored a book with Dan Kennedy that teaches how to do it called NO B.S. Guide To Powerful Presentations: How To Sell ANYTHING With Webinars & Online Media, Speeches & Seminars.
Robert MacPhee is the Founder and President of Heart Set, Inc. in San Diego California. He provides interactive, experiential and fun workshops to organizations faced with significant changes, helping their people maximize their productivity in spite of those changes. He is the author and partner journal of the book “Manifesting for Non-Gurus, How to Quickly and Easily Attract Lasting Results.” Robert is a Founding Member of the Transformational Leadership Council and the Southern California Association of Transformational Leaders, and he is the former Director of Training for Jack Canfield.
Tulia Lopes believes communication and collaboration are the keys to develop and expand any kind of business, and excel in whatever areas you want to achieve in your life. To support women’s professional growth, next September she will be launching a new venture – Speak Up & Lead Academy. A platform focused on developing Female Global Leaders by fostering and honing their communication and leadership skills. She is also an author, and her book, Leading in High Heels, is a step-by-step guidebook to help women to assess their leadership skills and find the techniques to improve further. Tulia is an award winning speaker at the European level within Toastmasters International and she is frequently invited to speak in several different platforms throughout Europe on topics of communication, leadership, women’s impact and empowerment.
Nancy Duarte is a communication expert who has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Wired, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, LA Times and on CNN. Her firm, Duarte, Inc., is the global leader behind some of the most influential visual messages in business and culture, and has created more than a quarter of a million presentations. As a persuasion expert, she cracked the code for effectively incorporating story patterns into business communications. She’s written five best-selling books.
Carol Fleming is a Communication Coach in private practice in San Francisco. Carol has a PhD from Northwestern University, and is the author of “The Sound of Your Voice” and “It’s the Way You Say It.” She is currently engaged in a new book, “The Serious Business of Small Talk: Becoming Fluent, Comfortable and Charming.”
Lin Klaassen is an internationally renowned expert in face reading, an ancient science practiced by such visionaries as Aristotle and Da Vinci, that correlates facial features to character traits. She is lectured internationally for more than 24 years, presenting workshops and providing answers as a consultant for business, relationships, juries and poker players. With more than 20 years’ prior experience in business management, Klaassen’s unique analytical perspectives render her in demand by the corporate world, particularly Fortune 500 companies.
Doug Lawrence is the founder of TalentC® a Human Resources solution provider focused on effective mentoring. Doug is an International Certified Mentor Practitioner (ICMP) and an International Certified Mentor Facilitator (ICMF). He has over 30 years of mentoring and leadership experience in federal, provincial and private sector environments and is recognized as a thought leader in the mentoring space. Doug authored the book entitled, “The Gift of Mentoring”. Doug was instrumental in developing a curriculum to train people on how to become effective mentors. He has also created the International Certification for Mentors in partnership with Acquiros.
Janne V. Korhonen has been working in technical sales roles within multiple organisations in IT industry for over last 10 years. He has founded Sales Engineering Finland, world’s first and largest meetup group focusing on technical sales and marketing. In his book “Sales Fundamentals for Technical Specialists” Janne has been able to summarize sales fundamentals in an easily consumable way for technical specialists.
Laura Baxter, the American opera singer and performance coach has studied the effects of the voice and body on non-verbal communication and leadership for over 25 years, and she brings this experience together to help her clients perform and communicate better. In addition to her many stage performances, Laura was the singing voice of Faye Dunaway in the feature film A Handmade’s Tale. She was on the faculty at Duke University prior to her move to Germany, and she has been on the faculty of the Friedrich-Alexander-University in Erlangen since 1999. A recipient of the prestigious Louis Sudler Award for the Arts from Emory University, Laura is coauthor of several German books, and her new book Dealing with Divas and other Difficult Personalities: A Mindful Approach to Improving Relationships in Your Business or Organization will be released June 2017!
Motivational Keynote Speaker and coach, Sangbreeta Moitra works with corporates across the world on discovering their true potential and delivering them with power and impact. A renowned speaker on corporate storytelling, leadership communication and public speaking, Sangbreeta has the honour of winning top awards in European Public Speaking Championships in 2013 & 2014, and was a speaker at TEDxUtrecht Red Dot in 2015.
Vanessa Van Edwards is the lead investigator at Science of People, a human behavior research lab. She is a Huffington Post columnist and published author. Her innovative work has been featured on NPR, Business Week and USA Today. She regularly gives keynotes and appears in the media to talk about her research. She has written for CNN, Fast Company and Forbes. Her latest book, Captivate, was chosen as one of Apple’s Most Anticipated Books of 2017.
Kaisa Osola is a public speaking coach who is a teacher in speech communication, speech art and radio journalism at Kallio Upper Secondary School of Performing Arts in Helsinki, Finland. Her latest joy on the coaching side has been training altogether 60 journalists of Helsingin Sanomat to give a live speech on the stages of the Finnish National Theatre. The concept, HS Musta laatikko, consists of previously unpublished journalistic stories told to a live audience.
Dr. Stephanie Evergreen is an internationally-recognized speaker, designer, and researcher. She is best known for bringing a research-based approach to helping researchers better communicate their work through more effective graphs, slides, and reports. She holds a PhD from Western Michigan University in interdisciplinary evaluation. Dr. Evergreen has trained researchers worldwide through keynote presentations and workshops, for clients including Time, Verizon, Head Start, American Institutes for Research, Rockefeller Foundation, Brookings Institute, and the United Nations. She writes a popular blog on data presentation, and she has written two books: The first “Presenting Data Effectively: Communicating Your Findings for Maximum Impact” (2013), and the second “Effective Data Visualization” (2016).
After working in PR and communication, William Roy decided to embrace his passion for public speaking and coaching. After years of training, he finally launched his practice in France. He now works with speakers from all around the world to help them deliver the best possible talk. As his NLP training kicked in, he finally modelized some of his coaching into a game called Pitch Cards.
Tim Pollard is author of The Compelling Communicator: Mastering the Art and Science of Exceptional Presentation Design (2016). He is the founder and CEO of Oratium, a communications firm helping organizations from Fortune 500 companies to law offices hone their presentation and messaging skills. In his decades-long marketing career, Tim has held key positions with Barclays Bank, Corporate Executive Board and Peacemaker Ministries – a nonprofit specializing in conflict resolution. Originally from the U.K., Tim lives in Montana with his wife and four children.
Lisa Evans, Director of Speaking Savvy and Stories From Heart is an award winning speaker, a World-class Certified Speaking and Storytelling coach and a TEDx speaker coach who helps people globally, to use their voice as a powerful tool to share their message, as we all have stories worth sharing. Having spent over 20 years as a Midwife prior to a life-changing event that led her to leave that career, Lisa is now known as The Story Midwife. Lisa is from Perth, Australia.
Laura Penn, Ph.D., is passionate about public speaking. As a Toastmasters European champion of public speaking, author of the book How to Enhance the Performance of Public Speaking: A Pocket Coach and the Founding Director of The Public Speaking School.com, she helps individuals become effective public speakers. Based in Switzerland, she provides custom-tailored, interactive training in public speaking for clients and organizations in the academic, not-for-profit and private sectors. She also serves as a speaker coach for a wide variety of TEDx events.
Jim Harvey has built three consulting businesses from startup to sale since 1992. Jim works with Blue-Chip firms from all sectors of the economy, and all over the world, though he is English and based near London for which he often apologizes. He is a regular speaker and commentator on consulting, presenting and pitching for business, writes speeches for presenters, politicians and salespeople, coaches speakers and runs training courses all over the world. He loves his work and is a proud husband, and father of 3 boys.
When your message must be memorable, your presentation powerful, and your sales successful, in-person or online Patricia Fripp can help. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance wrote that the sixth best way to add to your success is to learn presentation skills from Patricia Fripp. She is a Hall of Fame keynote speaker, executive speech coach, sales presentation skills and an on-line training expert. To improve your speaking and sales presentations easily, conveniently and quickly your best option is to learn from Patricia in her interactive online training www.frippVT.com and have her available 24/7.
Born in Israel, Ariel Halevi is a founding partner of VAYOMAR – a leading solution provider for interpersonal communication related challenges. VAYOMAR specializes in areas of persuasion and influence without authority in large enterprises. VAYOMAR’s vision is to map the “Human Communication Gnome” in a way that allows for quantifiably measuring an individual’s Communication Skills Intelligence. Ariel holds a Master’s degree in Government specializing in Homeland Security and Counter-Terrorism from the prestigious IDC in Israel. During his academic studies, Ariel was the president of the competitive Debate Club and was the Debate champion in Israel for two consecutive years and in Oxford, England.
Florian Mueck from Germany, based in Barcelona, worked as a consultant and business development manager for almost a decade for KPMG, the global advisory firm. Since 2009 he has dedicated himself to helping companies improve their team performances and staff retention by teaching them the power of persuasive communication and memorable presentations. His specialty is moving people to action in a fun, pragmatic, energetic way. Florian is the co-creator of the world’s first public speaking board game RHETORIC. A collaborator of IESE Business School Barcelona and author of three books, Florian offers transformational communication seminars, keynote speeches and presentation coaching, in English, German and Spanish mainly to international brands like Banco Santander, Panasonic or King.com.
Lasse Rouhiainen is an international leading authority on video marketing and social media. He is an in-demand speaker and trainer for business schools and universities on Social Media and new emerging technologies. Lasse has written four books several of which are best sellers on Amazon and offers training in three different languages (English, Spanish and Finnish). Lasse has spoken in more than 14 countries in over 4 continents.
Tracy Lipp is originally from Los Angeles, California. Tracy grew up around the entertainment industry and made a living playing guitar. He met a Finnish girl in 1999 which caused a pivot in his professional career. He moved to Helsinki, Finland and got a publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing. He has multiple gold and platinum records as a songwriter and a Finnish Grammy (EMMA) for song of the year.
Matthew Turner is an author and storyteller who works with entrepreneurs, founders and creative thinkers build thriving businesses that light a fire within them. His latest book is The Successful Mistake. After interviewing 163 authority figures, Matthew’s unearthed how successful people overcome failure and adversity, not only ensuring they don’t end ruin their livelihood but form the basis of their greatest idea yet. Matthew is an English Writer who loves a good story and a rich black coffee.
Timo Sorri is a presentation designer and the founder and CEO of Havain. He is an engineer by training and presentations are his passion. Timo’s background is in IT management consulting, and marketing and sales. Today he helps his clients—from small ones to global corporates and public institutions—turn their ideas into compelling and coherent visual stories and automated marketing campaigns. He is a husband, father of three and a big fan of basketball.
Julie Kertesz is today a storyteller, keynote speaker, photographer and stand-up comedian. She started stand-up comedy at 77 years old. Julie writes her diary since she was 10.
John Bates is in business to bring out what is awesome inside of you so it can live in the world and make a real difference. Executives from organizations like Accenture, Boston Scientific, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, NASA, and more recommend him to their colleagues as the best leadership communication trainer working today. John’s training is based in human evolutionary biology and human neurophysiology so you learn not only what works, but why it works. John has trained hundreds of TED and TEDx speakers all over the world. John also works with C level executives at top companies to make their communications “TED-Worthy.” John is a co-author of “World Class Speaking in Action” an Amazon best seller. He is passionate about people and loves making a difference for those who make a difference.
Caroline Goyder is a leading voice coach, trainer and keynote speaker. Caroline is the Founder and Creator of “The Gravitas Method”, and author of the revolutionary book, GRAVITAS, in which she reveals how to speak so others will listen. Her work has featured on BBC TV’s The Speaker and The Voice, and BBC Radio 4’s Word of Mouth, as well as in the FT, Telegraph, The Times, The Sunday Times and CNN. Her TEDx talk “The surprising secret to speaking with confidence” has been watched almost 2 million times.
Emma Bannister is Australia’s leading Presentation Expert. Like you, Emma has seen the shift in the culture of presentations over the years: endless bullet points don’t engage audiences. With over two decades of Visual Design experience, and ten years as founder and CEO at Presentation Studio, Bannister’s view is radically different. Passionate that powerful presentations consist of more than just visual design – she teaches a new way of thinking – Visual Thinking.
Geoff Owen is a professionally trained actor who left the theatre because he was crippled by his fear. In the 20+ years since his acting career ended and after many trainings, much research and experience working with people to overcome their fear, Geoff has worked to create the New Paradigm for Public Speaking – a completely new way to approach public speaking that eliminates fear, removes the stress of presenting and allows people to discover their natural self-expression. He lives in London UK.
Isabella Clivilez-Wu is an alumna of the internationally acclaimed Fashion Institute of Technology, a certified member of the NeuroLeadership Institute, and a regular contributor to ForbesUnder30 blog. Isabella also holds dual certifications in both Personal Branding and Menswear from the Studio of Image Professionals. Isabella is an innovator and ‘thought-leader’ in her field, the first to merge a passion for neuroscience and art to create a comprehensive approach to impression management. In addition to working with private clients, Isabella also lectures and conducts workshops for large organizations and Ivy League universities.
Kristin Arnold is a high stakes meeting facilitator, professional panel moderator, teamwork trainer and keynote speaker. Kristin has worked with thousands of senior executives, project managers and team leaders in North America, challenging their traditional notions about teamwork. Kristin is the author of several books including: “Powerful Panels: A Step-By-Step Guide to Moderating Lively & Informative Panel Discussions at Meetings, Conferences & Conventions” and “Boring to Bravo: Proven Presentation Techniques to Engage, Involve, and Inspire Your Audiences to Action.” Kristin divides her time between Scottsdale, Arizona, and Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Petri Rajaniemi is founding partner at Future Works, a professional collective of frontline thinkers on the future of work and the ever-changing business landscape. Mr. Rajaniemi started his professional career as Secretary General of the Finnish Student’s Alliance and has since worked as the head of development at Finnish Education Providers and later as the head of development at the Federation of Finnish Enterprises. He has personal background in a research-based biotech startup that was “a complete and utter failure”. Currently, he helps publicly listed and medium-sized companies, as well as public organizations and NGOs, to find a credible future in these turbulent times. When speaking, his aim is to say at least something that no one else says.
On this episode I am interviewed by Nando Miranda, who was one of our previous guests in the show. I talk about my coming book “Create and Deliver a Killer Product Demo.” EDIT: The book is now available on Apress and other bookshops.
Boris Hristov is a speaker, trainer and author from Bulgaria. He is Co-Founder and the Operations Head of 356labs. Boris was rated numerous times as the top speaker at events across 20+ countries and has delivered an insane number of trainings, workshops, seminars, webinars, you name it. His only mission is to help you achieve more with your presentations and make you part of that 1% of presenters who make a difference.
Gerd Leonhard is a Futurist, Keynote Speaker, Author and CEO of The Futures Agency. Listed by Wired Magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in Europe (2015), Gerd Leonhard’s work focuses on the future of humanity and technology, digital transformation, big data, automation, AI and robotics, media, content, marketing and advertising, telecommunications, culture and tourism, banking and financial services and leadership. His presentations are renowned for a hard-hitting and provocative yet inspiring, humorous and motivating style. Gerd is a much sought-after speaker, having presented at more than 1500 events in 40+ countries since 2005. He resides in Zürich, Switzerland.
Holland Haiis is The Connectivity Expert. She is a dynamic speaker and trainer who speaks on the value of connection to women and entrepreneurs. As the author of “Consciously Connecting” Holland believes it is time to reconnect to ourselves and each other, while learning to disconnect from technology. Holland has also been named one of 100 Global Thought Leaders by Hay House and will be a speaker at the Hay House World Summit 2016.
Jan Schultink is an internationally recognized designer of high-stakes presentations (investors, conferences, sales). His background is actually not in graphics design; he worked for almost a decade with McKinsey & Company advising Fortune 500 CEOs about strategy. This makes him one of the few people in the world with the rare combination of skills: visualization talent and business understanding. Jan also created SlideMagic, a presentation design tool.
Deb Chaney is a Contemporary Abstract Artist, Author, and Speaker. Her life’s work is to inspire people. She does this in a variety of ways: she gives talks, writes books, and she facilitates workshops. She also passionately paints contemporary abstract paintings which add beauty and healing energy to people’s work and living spaces. What Deb deeply believes in, is that we are all artists, and that each of us is in the process of creating our own masterpiece – our life. With the work she does, she inspires and empowers people on that creative journey.
Florida native, Sarah Chapman, joined Sarasota’s Sailor Circus at age twelve. She married Danny Chapman in 1965 and performed balancing trapeze until early retirement in 1979. Her career highlight was the Ringling Blue Unit Centennial show. In 1968, Danny, Sarah, and Mel Miller conceptualized Ringling’s Clown College. Sarah authored and published four editions of “A Circus Girl’s Cookbook.” Her memoir is “Balancing Act ~ Memoir of a Florida Youth.” A Toastmaster and personal chef, Sarah lives in northern Minnesota.
Joel Boggess is the host of the “ReLaunch” show and the author of the #1 Amazon bestselling book “Finding your Voice.” Because of his childhood trauma and life experience, Joel is passionate about helping people starting over with confidence. Over the years he has helped hundreds of clients discover who they are, find their passion and clarity of direction. He is a “natural” with broadcasting, and he enjoys teaching podcast and radio show hosts on how to book great guests and have engaging interviews.
Gerry Lewis is President and Owner of Gerry Lewis Inc., an internal communications organization specializing in employee engagement and change management communication. Gerry Lewis has led training workshops, conferences and employee events in over 50 countries. Gerry is also an award-winning author. SHINE: Communicate Your Way to a Brighter Career won first place in the 2015 Small Business Trends Book Awards.
Dianna Booher is the bestselling author of 46 books, published in 26 languages, with nearly 4 million copies sold. Her personal development topics include leadership communication, executive presence, writing, and life balance. She has been inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame by the National Speakers Association. Success Magazine has named her to its list of “21 Top Speakers for the 21st Century.”
Sally Koering Zimney is a presentation coach and consultant, an award-winning speaker and a writer whose mission is to create talks that move audiences and the world. She has 15+ years of experience coaching speakers and creating impactful experiences that open minds and hearts. Sally is also the host of This Moved Me, a podcast and blog about the art of public speaking. She has interviewed beloved TED speakers like Julian Treasure, storytelling experts like Michael Margolis, and brilliant undiscovered talent, while sharing insight and inspiration so that our talks can move the world.
Roger Love is recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on voice. No other vocal coach in history has been more commercially successful in both the speaking and singing fields. Love has vocally produced more than 100 million CD sales worldwide, written 3 top selling books, created numerous bestselling audio and video programs, and appeared as a regular in 3 major network TV shows. He lectures around the world on vocal transformations for both speaking and singing.
John Zimmer is a speaker and presentation skills trainer based in Geneva. He is a seven-time European champion of public speaking. John is the editor of Manner of Speaking, a popular blog about public speaking followed by readers worldwide. John is also the co-creator of Rhetoric — The Public Speaking Game™, and a TEDxLausanne speaker in 2014.
Oscar Clark is a speaker and author with passion for games and online entertainment. Today, he is Evangelist at Unity Technologies. Oscar is a regular columnist with such sites as PocketGamer.biz and Develop-Online.net and can often be found speaking at countless gaming conferences around the world. In 2014, Oscar wrote the book “Game as a Service”.
Dr Sarah McKay is a neuroscientist turned science writer who translates mind and brain research into simple strategies for health and wellbeing. Sarah blogs about neuroscience, and speaks and writes about the brain to help others discover, understand, and implement the latest findings from the world of neurobiology. She has delivered her first TEDx talk last May 2015 in Sydney.
Lea Pica is a seasoned digital analytics practitioner, social media marketer and blogger with over 11 years of experience building search marketing and digital analytics practices for companies like Scholastic, Victoria’s Secret and Prudential. Her greatest passion is the stage, her platform for empowering digital practitioners and analytics consultants to present information in a way that gets remembered and inspires action. She is Host of a podcast, the Present Beyond Measure show.
Adam Tuffnell is a Motivational, Leadership and Keynote speaker from the UK. Throughout his 20-year sailing career, Adam has sailed in some of the most hostile environments on the planet, ranging from the freezing wilderness of the Southern Ocean to the debilitating humidity of the tropics. As a graduate in Psychology and Philosophy, Adam has unique insight into the practical applications of effective leadership and team development within the challenging environments of open water and the corporate office.
Jill Douka, MBA, PCC, is the highly sought after internationally-renowned speaker, awarded #1 bestselling author of “Create Love: 7 Secrets to Manifest Your Perfect Match”, awarded business mentor by the European Union, and one of the first European speakers at 2 TEDx events in Asia and Europe. She is Greek and Canadian, and has trained, coached, and mentored thousands of people in Europe, the USA, and Asia. Jill has worked with numerous Fortune 500 clients like Microsoft, Kraft, Iberdrola. She travels extensively throughout the world with her husband, Nikolas Ouranos, founder of Academy of Relationships. Jill is one of the founding members of the European Evolutionary Council and an active philanthropist.
Mona Moisala is a Brain Researcher with a passion for Public Speaking. She is now working at the University of Helsinki as a doctoral candidate specializing in cognitive neuroscience. In her most recent research she has been focusing on how the brain deals with information overload, and what happens in the brain when, for example, people are trying to multitask. She believes that presenters can benefit a great deal from understanding how the brain absorbs and processes information.
Viki Winterton is founder of Expert Insights Publishing, home of best-selling and award winning books and magazines, where visionaries and those on the rise come together to create immediate impact. Viki is also a speaker, multiple #1 International Best-Selling Author and Award-Winning Publisher, founder of Bestselling Authors International Organization, Write Now! broadcast and Write Away, Write Now!, the global community where writers find everything they need at each stage of their journey!
Through his training and networking organization, Speaker Venture, since 2011 Jon Block has personally mentored over 500 entrepreneurs to use public speaking to dramatically increase their revenue and social impact. Jon has spoken on 100+ stages, sharing the stage with the biggest leaders in the entrepreneur and human potential movement. Jon was named 1 of the Top 20 Conscious Entrepreneurs of 2013.
Dananjaya Hettiarachchi is a speaker, corporate trainer, public speaking coach, and human resources development consultant from Sri Lanka. He is the CEO of Standard & Stellar Consulting, a highly specialized Human Resource Development (HRD) and Communications consulting firm. Dananjaya was awarded the World Champion of Public Speaking 2014 by Toastmasters International.
Brian Jenner is a professional speechwriter from the UK with 15 years of experience. In 2009, he launched the UK Speechwriters’ Guild to bring together the nation’s speechwriters. Brian is Winner of the prestigious Cicero Prize for Speechwriting 2010. He is also founder of the European Speechwriter Network.
Efrosyni Adamides is an entrepreneur, speaker, success coach and trainer. In her current business, she has generated $40 million in revenue in 6 years and has coached and mentored 5 individuals to become self-made millionaires. Her most powerful topics to speak on are Leadership and “Overcoming adversity having built business in Cyprus and Greece especially during the crisis and creating the winning mindset.”
Dubbed ‘The Secret Weapon’, Narges Nirumvala is a world renowned leadership communication expert, international speaker and author of the book ‘Capture the Spotlight’. One of the Top 100 Leadership Experts to Follow on Twitter, she is the CEO of ExecutiveSpeak Coaching International. A trusted advisor to CEOs, Narges works with executives and leadership teams to help them find their authentic voice.
Teresa de Grosbois is an international speaker and 3-time best selling author. She teaches corporations and entrepreneurs how to create massively successful word of mouth campaigns by tapping into the top leaders, promoters, networkers and influencers in their industries. Teresa heads the Evolutionary Business Council of speakers and influencers dedicated to teaching the principles of success. She is soon launching the book “Mass Influence – the key habits to becoming highly influential in your field”
Garry Parker has over twenty years of experience as a public speaker. He is trainer, coach and mentor to politicians, plus private and public sector personalities in Finland. Garry is Chairman of the British and Commonwealth Chamber of Commerce in Finland (B3CF), an institution he founded in 2008.
Tom Dowd, also known as Transformation Tom, is a prize-winning speaker, an award-winning and Amazon best-selling author, trainer, coach, and radio host. In 2012 he published the book “From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide”. Tom is a member of Toastmasters International and the National Speakers Association.
Gustavo Reis is a mathematics teacher, entrepreneur and speaker from Brazil. In his studies and presentations, he explores the intersection of education, design, technology and communication. His talk at TEDxUnisinos 2012 is one of the most watched of all TEDx talks from events that took place in Latin America, adding up to more than 270,000 views.
Pamela Thompson is a certified life and business coach, speaker, facilitator and consultant. She is passionate about supporting women to thrive in life and in business. She has a diverse background and experience in North America, Asia, Africa, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. Pam has created two successful management consulting businesses since the early 1990s. She is author of the soon to be launched book Learning to Dance with Life: A Guide for High Achieving Women.
Clark Gaither is a writer, speaker, podcast producer and a personal coach for physicians and other professionals who suffer from burnout. He has enjoyed a career in medicine for the past 22 years as part of an office-based family practice in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Also known as Dr. Burnout, Clark is author of the book Powerful Words: Discover Your Secret Language for Personal Success and Maximizing Impact Through Emotional Connections.
Reagan Pugh is a young speaker who works as Raconteur for Kalypso, an innovation consulting firm. Reagan speaks regularly to student groups about leadership, branding and individual ownership. He has also been involved in film making, video production and theater.
Laura Baxter is an American opera singer, trainer and international keynote speaker who has been rocking the stage in Europe with examples of how to take the stage and own the room! She lives in Germany and works with executives and speakers worldwide to help them exude presence. Laura is currently writing the book “Dealing with Divas”.
Fabiola León is an International Business Coach and Speaker, born in Venezuela and currently based in Zürich, Switzerland. She works mainly with Women Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners. She helps them Bridge the Gap from where they are now to where they want to be in their Business.
Robert Clancy is an entrepreneur, inspirational speaker and author living in the heart of Tech Valley, in upstate New York. He has written the books The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Soul and Daily Download and Fortune Cookies from the Universe. Robert is also a dedicated volunteer who completely embodies the spirit of service.
Alicia Dattner is a Comedian based in Oakland, CA. Alicia started dreaming of being a comedian at the age of 8, and “wasted” 10 years “growing up” before she finally started performing at 18. She graduated from Hampshire College with a degree in stand-up comedy–yes, comedy. Alicia has received numerous awards and she has appeared on NPR, The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, Integral Yoga Magazine, The Mindful Word, Awaken.com, Taoish.com, and more. She incorporates all her experience into her one-on-one coaching process and workshops.
Diane Allen is a Speaking Coach who specializes in Peak Performance. She inspires people to speak out (without freaking out) and step into their full potential. A professional violinist turned Speaker, Author, and Speaking Coach, Diane’s professional violin career featured performances on stages in front of thousands. That experience provided the atmosphere for her to hone the techniques necessary for mastering performance under intense pressure.
Sam Horn, the Intrigue Expert, is a positioning, messaging and branding expert whose work has been featured in the New York Times, Fast Company, the Washington Post and on NPR and MSNCBC. Her speaking clients include KPMG, Cisco, ASAE, Boeing, Inc. 500, Intel, NASA, and Capital One, and she has served as the pitch coach for Springboard Enterprises, which has helped entrepreneurs receive $6.6 billion in funding. Sam was also 2-time TEDx speaker.
Andy Bassuday is a Canadian based in Helsinki. He is a very experienced Realtor, Speaker, Entrepreneur, and more recently, a Certified Asahi Instructor. Currently, he also serves as President of Northern Stars, the only Advanced Toastmasters club in Finland.
Katriina Haikala is a visual artist, public speaker and corporate trainer. She has made a successful career as an international artist by creating such art projects as Monokini 2.0, The Dresscode and Hairy Underwear Collection. Katriina has exhibited and spoke about her work in e.g. New York City, Washington DC (USA), Tokyo (Japan), Berlin (Germany), Oslo (Norway), Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic). She is also a well-regarded corporate trainer, giving high-end organizational development trainings at Nordic companies. Her playfulness, creativity and controversial combination of careers creates an expertise hard to find.
Julie Austin is a speaker, author, entrepreneur and inventor based in Los Angeles. She is one of the very few women innovator speakers. Her patented product, Swiggies (wrist water bottles), have sold in 24 countries. Julie is author of the book “The Money Garden: How to Plant the Seeds for a Lifetime of Income”. Currently she is the CEO of Speaker Sponsor.
Born in the South Bronx in New York City, Troy Woodson arrived in Finland 5 years ago with over 20 years of sales and public speaking experience with large multinational corporations. Trained by Pfizer and Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals, Troy has presented to hundreds of doctors throughout NYC. Bringing his expertise to Finland, he embarked on a career as a corporate trainer helping Finnish business people master the skills associated with using English to present a product or service to large audiences.
Laura Penn, PhD is an experienced and well-rounded public speaking coach. As a Toastmasters European champion of public speaking, author of the book How to Enhance the Performance of Public Speaking: A Pocket Coach and a trained performer in theater and dance, she helps individuals become effective public speakers. Based in Switzerland, she provides custom-tailored, interactive training in public speaking for clients and organizations in the academic, not-for-profit and private sectors. She also serves as a speaker coach for a wide variety of TEDx events.
Mike Richards is the Brand Manager at Amcham Finland, a business network serving over 300+ companies to grow their business in the New North region. Prior to Amcham, Mike was the Executive Director of UNO in El Paso, Texas, a non-profit organization designed to help young people succeed in life. During this time, Mike’s podcast was featured on iTunes as a top trending podcast. He also traveled through Mexico and the Southern United States speaking to more than 100,000 young people and college students as a motivational speaker.
Mahima Lucille Klinge is a very charismatic speaker, personal coach and author. Originally from Zimbawe and now living in Switzerland, she has published the book “The Inner Peace Formula”. She is the founder of Love Silence, a company that organizes events to bring meditation to both individuals and companies.
Mikko Hyppönen is a worldwide expert in Internet Security who works as the Chief Research Officer at F-Secure. Thanks to his extraordinary skills and unique style, he successfully advocates the importance of privacy and other security topics to the whole world. He has delivered several TED and TEDx talks, some of them have been watched more than a million times.
Alex Sozonoff has more than 40 years of international business experience and industry knowledge in both Europe and the US, 35 of them spent at Hewlett-Packard. Among his accolades, in 1997 Sozonoff was named Executive of the Year by the North American National Account Management Association (NAMA) for his leadership and vision in guiding HP’s global sales operations through the rapidly changing IT industry. Last year, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate’s degree from the Kaunas University of Technology for his contribution to the Entrepreneurship program in Lithuania.
Adam Tratt is the co-founder and CEO of Haiku Deck, a software company based in Seattle. Haiku Deck’s motto is “Presentation software that inspires.” Adam has years of experience in marketing, business development, startups, and of course, he is an outstanding speaker who loves storytelling.
Christine Clapp is a Communication Consultant and Coach based in Washington D.C. In 2014, she published a co-authored book, “Presenting at Work: A Guide to Public Speaking in Professional Contexts”. She is a Lecturer of Public Speaking at George Washington University. She has been awarded as a Distinguished Toastmaster and is a regular contributor to Toastmaster Magazine.
Jack Vincent is an author, award-winning speaker and sales trainer who divides his time between Woodstock, NY and Luzern, Switzerland. His book, “A Sale Is A Love Affair – Seduce, Engage & Win Customers’ Hearts” was the Number 1 New Release in Sales on amazon.com in February. Jack is also the 2006 European Champion of the Toastmasters Humorous Speech Contest and a TEDx Speaker.
Craig Senior is a Canadian Business Consultant based in Ottawa. He has been Consultant in computer systems since 1988. Married with two cats, he has two grown children from his first marriage. He enjoys cycling and rode across Canada in 2009 to support the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride. He is a very active Toastmaster.
Nando Miranda is an American based in Helsinki. He has more than 15 years of business experience in Marketing, Advertising and Sales. He is a very active member of Toastmasters International. He is often asked to be the Master of Ceremonies at several types of events.
Martti Vannas is a Finnish magician with more than 20 years of experience in corporate entertainment. Medical doctor by profession, Martti also does memory training, performs as MC (master of ceremonies), and coaches public speakers. Multifaceted and all-terrain, he spends most of his time between Europe and Dubai.
Nienke van Bezooijen is a Dutch Keynote speaker, International Master–Trainer and Coach for CEOs, entrepreneurs, teams and individuals. Nienke is an established TEDx Speaker Coach in the Netherlands. She is also member of the Public Speakers University in London.
Jeekeshen Chinnappen is a multifaceted young man from beautiful Mauritius. He is member of Mensa, the high IQ society. Jeeks has an educational background in Law, Applied Finance and Psychology. He also has mastered Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and works as coach. Jeeks is author of two books: “A World In Another Dimension – 69 Minutes NLP” and more recently “Psychic Gang: The Men of Knowledge”.
Aleksi Litovaara is an accomplished public speaker based in Helsinki. He is a former professional snowboarder and TV host. Nowadays a certified coach (ACC), Aleksi coaches for both business and sports, passionately helping people to reach their potential.
Will Cardwell is an American, based in Helsinki. He has spent 17 years in the Finnish high-tech environment in several roles including: venture capitalist, CEO and board member of a number of companies, researcher, lecturer, and–needless to say–public speaker.
Tulia Lopes is a Brazilian based in Zurich. She is a multifaceted entrepreneur, public speaker, a natural leader, and very active member of Toastmasters International since 2009. She is soon publishing a book “Leading in high heels”.
Alessandra Cimatti is a Marketing Consultant, Presentation Designer, and Social Media Coach. Based in Milano, Italy, she has 25+ years of experience in a variety of management roles in multinational IT companies such as IBM, 3Com and USRobotics.
Kin Tue-Fee is a very experienced speaker, coach and author, originally from beautiful Mauritius and based in Ottawa, Canada. Kin is author of two books: “Become your best – Principles of personal management and development” and “Putting People First – A personal approach to management and leadership”. Long time member of Toastmasters International.
André Noel Chaker is an award-winning public speaker, writer, entrepreneur and business executive. Canadian born based in Helsinki, he has published five books, and his latest one–“The Finnish Miracle”–has become a best-seller in Finland. TEDxSemesteratSea speaker 2014.
Antonio Meza is a consultant, trainer and coach, specialized in Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and therefore in storytelling. He is also a cartoonist and illustrator, currently involved in live sketching. Member of Toastmasters International since 2012. He is lately organizing webinars too.
“As a professional thinker, copywriter, and speaker, Jason Thomson has fueled the trajectory of some of the world’s most important and smartest brands, helping leaders explore, develop and sell with engaging and clear presentations that inspire action. His powerful perspective on what it takes to imagine, develop and sell an idea transforms audiences, leaving them prepared to think faster, better, and brighter.”
Has Zoom changed the way we present?
Ideas discussed in this fireside chat:
* Has Zoom (Teams and other online tools) changed the way we present?
* Andrea’s and Jason’s best learnings from these last 2 years of heavily having online presentations
* How to ensure a successful day-to-day presentation in 2022
Related: Successful Online Conferences
Andrea’s favorite quotation
“Just do it”
Jason’s recommended book
Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini
Links
Andrea Pacini’s Ideas on Stage https://www.ideasonstage.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/apacini/
Take the Confident Presenter Scorecard to assess your presentation skills in less than 3 mins (for free): https://ideasonstage.com/score
Jason Thomson’s SpeakUp Get Results https://www.speakupgetresults.com/
191. Marjo Hellman: Becoming a Magnetic Communicator
The Coach’s journey
Marjo’s journey began very young. Since she was a child she started doing various activities related to the stage, from ballet when she was 5 years old, to studying acting and Theatre at University. When she moved back to Finland she started doing radio journalism and later stayed doing TV for many years. In 2009 she shifted to working in a communications agency and there she realized she could coach people and started doing it. Sometime later she left her work and started his own entrepreneurship until today.
Magnetic communication: The Key for any leader
Communication is just skill. It is something we can all learn, but magnetic communication starts from the basics: being true to yourself and being an authentic self. This means not forcing people to follow you and listen to you, but actually be worth listening and to be worth following. The result is having a great communication power.
So ask yourself: How will you communicate with people? How good your interaction skills are? and How you present yourself?
Magnetic leaders of our times
As an example of magnetic leaders, Marjo shows us the Obamas, Michelle and Barack. Michelle is a powerfull storyteller, has a strong personality and is not afraid to show her feelings. Barack, beside being charismatic as well, is also a master using his tone of voice for enfatizing his message. Each one has its own skills and abilities but they both radiate magnetism.
A trick to make a great first impression.
Marjo’s advice for making a great first impression is: Breathe, that is essential. Take a deep breath in and when you start speaking, breathe out and connect with the person. Look people in the eye directly, shake hands and start speaking while you smile. You instantly will appear truly confident. That is the key for making a great first impression.
Related:
190. Simone Heng: Creating Human Connections in a Digital World
A short briefing of two years
After two years, Simone is back in Time to Shine. Last time we talked with her was pre-pandemic and the world was quite different. During pandemic she had to reinvent herself and to adapt, as many of us, to a new perspective and a new way of communication: virtual communication.
Briefly she told us how after organizing and putting their businesses in order, for instance she has now a full virtual studio in her home and does lots of international Keynotes there. Last year she did start with her ambitious project “Secret Pandemic“, a new book that just released.
Secret Pandemic’s insight
The main key for Simones’s book is to connect with middle-age women through stories with large societal issues about: social distancing, loneliness and disconnection, which are very common in women that grow up in Asian families.
Each chapter starts with a basic story or topic and by the end of the chapter you can find “connection challenges” so people can go to the action just after reading.
Communicating with video
Using video is quite different from face to face communication. It is an art that everyone should learn from now on. So these are Simone’s best tips for you:
* Build connection over the lens of a camera. Not only look at the camera lens, that is cold. Imagine that camera lens is the eye or the face of someone you love or someone that is your biggest fan. That will create this beautiful warmth and sincerity that other human beings perceive as authentic connection.
189. Mina Guli: Communicate a Good Cause and Inspire
A journey to become an ambassador of water
Mina started her journey about 2012 when launched a nonprofit organization, that is now called Thirst Foundation, wich was created to raise awareness and create a sense of urgency towards action on freshwater shortness.
She realized back in 2012 that most media was not getting attention about the fact that our wetlands are disappearing three times faster than our forest and that by 2030 experts forecast that there will be a 40% greater demand for water than the supply of water available.
So she started on this journey to educate kids across the world about their links to the Water Crisis and how they could through sustained promotion of sustainable consumption patterns try to shift the way we were using and consuming water.
Her proudest achievement
Despite having rised a lot of media and community attention based on his global sports and awareness activities, what Mina is most proud of is not those accomplishments, but the people, the communities and stories they share online and the commitment they make to address the problems related to water shortages in different parts of the world. While there is still much work to be done,188. Ulrike Seminati: Impactful Communication Starts on the Inside
Today, she combines some of the most effective self-development techniques with her own experience to give leaders tools to communicate with charisma, lead with authenticity and arrive in a zone of lasting high performance and happiness.
A Long and almost despair journey
Ulrike has been working in the corporate world for 23 years, and has worked a lot to develop leadership, which has a lot to do with communication. Each and every time she realized in all these years that most leaders really struggle with communication. For them, communications is an annoying piece of their daily job. And despite she was was also managing and organizing leadership trainings around enhancing communication skills, shaping their message, it just did’t seem to work.
So three years ago she decided she had to do something about it. Ulrike stepped out of the corporate world and shaped her own business with personal development techniques and coaching techniques.
The goal was that people actually change their inner game and realize who they truly are, what kind of leader they are and based on that develop their own and better way of communication.
Impactful Communication. What is that?
When talking about communicating with impact, it takes more than acquiring solid communication and presentation skills, wich of course are basic, but it also takes charisma. That is what Ulrike calls communication “from the inside out.”
To become inspiring and charismatic leaders that take people on their journey because they speak from their innermost convictions, embrace who they really are, and thus stand in their full power.
Being a leader with Impact
A leader has to hold the team together and needs to be able to convey a certain presence, a certain motivation, a certain emotion. And to do this, the leader has to be very clear around the goals of the team, their priorities.187. Boris Hristov: Successful Online Conferences
Awarded as PowerPoint MVP
If you follow this podcast you might have heard that Boris was awarded PowerPoint MVP by Microsoft for the third consecutive year.
How to plan a successful online conference
In Boris’ opinion something basic you had to do is to create awareness about you and your project or job. This as a basis for developing all the machinery. Very important factors are:
Sponsors. No event can happen without sponsors. Beyond sending a typical three sponsorship packages slide, ask your potential sponsor: what can we give you value in exchange for sponsorship?
Customers. Your current customers are your prime source of attendees for your event. It’s something you have to use. Get some tips about how to give your customers the best offer they can get for their employees and executives.
Finally, the use of feedback is highly important for planning and enhancing any event you may plan. If you collect feedback, from previous experiences, that is something invaluable you must use.
Help your speakers shine
One of the most important aspects before the event is to check and verify that all presenters have a clear idea about what is expected, not only about the presentation itself but about the technical aspects.
Boris gave us precious advice from his own experience with the last year’s Present to Succeed event: technical aspects, sound and microphones, lights, reviewing presentation slides, video recordings that can be used as backups, etc. The event organizer should be prepared for anything.
Related: How to Improve your Tech Talks
Favorite quotations
“One biggest issue is that people take online presentations, as an excuse for lower standards” — David Kerrigan
“Once you see a good presentation you cannot unsee it.186. AlexAnndra Ontra: Transform Presentation Slides Into Your Best Business Assets
Making of presentations a career
AlexAnndra’s journey started about 30 years ago in Advertising. And at that time as today, a big part of advertising is pitching, pitching new clients, campaigns, creative concepts, you are always selling. As time passed by and technology move on she started creating interactive presentations for clients with his partner and brother James. And as sales people are neither copywriters nor graphic designers but do need good presentations, some time later they started working as consultants. In time they were able to integrate changing technology with his work in order to make all the process much easier.
A simple process for creating a business presentation
There are two aspects to this: the individual that has to make the presentation or has to give the meeting, and the company that has to manage presentations.
For the individual
1. Close your slides and go through your pitch. Get the story inside your head and play it as a conversation with your customer.
2. Get an idea of what you want to say and how you want it to be said. What would you tell your client about your product or service? Once you have it, write down the main points of the conversation.
3. Give that conversation have structure: a beginning, middle and an end. With that framework now adjust your story or conversation to that framework.
4. Now you can open up PowerPoint and start to put your slides together, write it up and attach images where appropriate.
For the Company
The goal is to make resentations better for everyone in the company.
1 Create a Slide Library. Create a folder on a centralized drive, where all your slides and your corporate stories exist.
2.185. Pedro Morillas: Communication and Stories Around the Globe
A journey of almost half a century
About 40 years ago Pedro’s family decided to leave Peru, because of the security crisis originated by terrorism groups. After relocated in the United States he had enough free time to think and give form to his ideas as a book. In his book he tried to give an optimistic way of seeing the crisis, in a country with thousands of years of history, that for sure would pass soon and people will survive as always did before.
Years later Pedro returned to Peru and his business and he stopped writing. Only many years later he would be able to have time for writing, after his retirement.
Use of storytelling and influences
Storytelling is the most important part of Pedro’s books in order to keep the reader entertained while he develops his ideas, because he writes non-fiction books.
His last book “What now? After the Pandemic and the end of the savage capitalism” is based on his last travel to China and presents his ideas about great changes that will take place in future’s society, the rise of a society that combines the best of capitalism and socialism as well as the return of women to rule the society.
These themes are developed in the book, but all of this lavishly peppered with several stories to hook-up the reader.
Pedro’s model and big influence is James Michener, a distinguished American fiction and non-fiction writer, whose style and use of the stories are very similar to Pedro’s.
Fake News and best forms to combat them
Pedro is a deep believer about the necessity of being well informed in order to combat fake news. We have to know everything about everything and have to read from both sides.
Cross-check,184. Patricia Fripp: How to Be Unforgettable in What You Do and Say
She is the author or co-author of five books and the creator of FrippVT. Fripp Virtual Training, Powerful, Persuasive Presentations is a multimillion-dollar, state-of-the-art, web-based training platform that emulates live training and coaching.
The Last 12 months in brief
While the rest of the world has been perfecting their virtual presentations and people have started to get comfortable with virtual meetings, Patricia has been very busy this last months mainly coaching people for her corporate clients and getting them ready for their presentations.
She has also written a book with Darren Lacroix and Mark Brown it’s called How to deliver Unforgettable presentations and will be available next year.
Mistakes that will make your audience forget you
We are living in a world where everybody is very busy. We are stimulation junkies with short attention spans that whether you are reporting to your boss, whether you’re leading a team meeting or delivering presentations.
Some mistakes that will not make you memorable at all can be:
* To not learn a simple process to put together a presentation. Whatever it is you think, who is your audience? What is the big idea? If you had one sentence rather than 30 minutes, what would you say? Just Make it simple.
* To talk too much. You have to focus. Make it as focused as possible. Get a list of your focused phrases that you could put in presentations.
* To not Improve. People just prepare a presentation, they deliver it. Even if it is recorded, they don’t watch it. And we cannot improve what we’re not aware of.
* To not rehearse. You have to rehearse the most important parts of you present...183. Steve Donofrio: Crafting Extraordinary Stories From Ordinary Life
He is the lead author of the book Mama Manual and former contributing writer for Japan’s leading professional security journal, Security Research Magazine.
Steve has appeared and spoken live and virtual as a subject matter expert on local, regional, and national media platforms on 3 different Continents.
From trainer to speaker
Steve’s journey started after he returned to America in 2015, after many years living in Japan being a trainer. He was figuring out what to do and someone recommended him to be a speaker. So even without knowing that there was an industry and without knowing what it was to be a professional speaker. His background of speaking and training for so many years helped him to start a career that lasts until now.
Storytelling and its importance today
According to Steve, storytelling is just as important as it has always been. Humans used storytelling to pass information long before writing and technology. Even today we educate children with stories. Sometimes we forget the importance of these stories and how even today our societies are built upon stories that were told from one generation to the next no matter the format we use. The most powerful words ever still are: “Once upon a time …”
Top Mistakes in Telling Stories
#1 Trying too hard. Sometimes we try to force and fill up stories where they don’t fit.
#2 Always making the story personal. This means the story is always about the speaker.
#3 The stories about you have to be always amazing. Most of the time, simple stories and even our own mistakes are the best stories of all.
#4 Not understanding the narrative arcs. This is not knowing the protagonists, when the story starts,182. Devapriya Khanna: Create Your Powerful Personal Brand
As a strategist, coach and mentor, Devapriya has delivered several hours of transformative interventions for corporates, business houses, startups, educational institutes and impacted over 2500+ corporate and business leaders.
Her clients include organizations and institutions such as Mastercard, Yes Bank, Bain, Dell, Maruti Suzuki, Xerox India and Astra Zeneca.
During her pre-entrepreneurial corporate career, Devapriya has dedicated 18 years to global organizations such as Nestle, GE, ICICI Prudential, Carlsberg and has helped launch, build and nurture powerful global brands that have won consumer confidence & delivered outstanding business results. Her current practice leans heavily on the real-life experience that she has garnered during these 18 years.
From corporate world to entrepreneurship
Devapriya started her journey with a successful corporate career and, for years, with no plans to become an entrepreneur. All that changed in 2013 when she took a sabbatical year and during it she tasted the magic of entrepreneurial life, so she decided to launch her own brand consultancy firm and never looked back to corporate world. Shortly after she started to get invited to speak to spread the message of her entrepreneurial journey on different stages and this way her speaker career begun.
What is Personal Branding?
For Devapriya personal branding is the sum total of the perceptions and the experiences that you live in the minds of your target audience. She resumes this with an equation:
Your personal brand = Your reputation + Your credibility + Your visibility
Thus personal branding is nothing but the act of building your personal brand, making it visible and relatable to those that you need to connect with.
Three Big Mistakes in Personal Branding
1. Thinking that you don’t have a personal brand. Everyone has a personal brand even if you are conscious of this or not.
2. Being invisible on social media. Choose the platform where your target audience is present and focus on it.
3. Being inconsistent. Consistency breeds trust,181. Asta Pipiraitė: Dress Up Your Confidence. How to Elevate Your Energy Before a Public Speech
Boosting your energy before the stage
As preparation for being on stage Asta uses multiple steps, some of them even starting the day before the speech. You can ask yourself how do you feel. If necessary boost yourself with some scents for clearing your senses (Asta uses Citrus scent).
Think about what will you wear a day before or even some weeks before if it is a very important conference. It would be great if you can check the stage, recognize the space, the lighting, the background. All this in order to pick the right colors for your outfit. You have to check what color suits you and of course what kind of clothes suit you best.
The importance of colors and the outfit for the stage
Choosing the right outfit and the right colors are important decisions to make. Wear clothes that are comfortable and give you freedom on the stage and at the same time allow you to stand out. About colors you can get ideas from a friend, family member, co-worker, etc. Play with different colors and see how they are reflected on your face, use pieces of paper, tissues, etc. Just put them next to you and see how the change affects your skin and your hair.
The pre-stage minutes. How to get ready
Something really important is the mental preparation. Ask yourself about your energy and how do you feel. Focus on the value that you bring to audience and not in yourself. Think about how many people will benefit from your speech, and this mental position will give you self confidence. But you also have to enjoy yourself. If you enjoy yourself, then the audience will feel your energy and enjoy your performance. Finally, just before going to the stage do some short meditation, clear your mind or say a pray, all this things help you to balance your energy and your thoughts. Something to be aware is about breathing exercises. Sometimes strong breathing exercises can have a different effect on you and make you be more nervous befo...180. Heather Hansen O’Neill: Light the Fire in Your Speaking Career
A long journey on the stage
Heather has been on the stage for almost 25 years, since she started his coaching business. Before that she was in advertising sales and prior to this she was a professional dancer. Dancing helped her to be familiar with the stage but all begun with a suggestion she got from a mentor, who told her not only she should start her own business but offered to become her first paid client. The rest is history.
Light the fire in your speaker career
Heather gives 3 pieces of advice:
First, and one of the most important things, is having curiosity. We should never stop learning new things about everything! Has to be learning and growing all the time. If you’re a speaker, you have to always be on the edge.
Second, use you body to keep you going. Not only the mind can energize you by staying focus on new things, your body is also a tool you can use to refill up your energy. Move your body.
Third, make it bigger than you. It’s really important that we don’t look at our speaking careers only being about us. In order for us to keep that fire burning has to be bigger than us, some bigger purpose.
Dealing with our believes
We are often unaware of the power of our beliefs and how they guide our thought processes and our actions every day.
That’s why it’s really important to be conscious to uncover and release them. There are a lot of different ways that these beliefs manifest and they could come from many different places.
The most important part is to take time to look at the beliefs and at some point ask yourself is this belief mine? Is it serving me? And if they don’t,179. Maria Tecce: 5 Top Strategies for Managing Nerves and Performing At Your Best
Maria has coached for companies like KPMG, Ulster Bank, Bank of Ireland, Ericsson, Novartis, Trinity College, Smurfit Business School, Volkswagen, and Johnson & Johnson. Instead of fear or dread, you’ll feel powerful, excited, and joyful when you think of that presentation, meeting, or upcoming TED talk. Your voice is your body, and your body is your voice. Start working the work and let your light shine!
From Performer to Voice Coach
Coaching started on a natural way for Maria, since she had a long career in performing arts. After some time it was natural for her to share all the knowledge she has been gathering. About 10 years ago she started coaching actors and singers but recently she expanded her services to business and the corporate sector, so she created a program to help people conquer their nerves and use their voice to gain confidence and transmit successfully their message.
Managing Nerves at Stage. Don’t Panic
Some time ago Maria had direct experience with panic attacks on stage. Short after that she started getting help to overcome and leave behind those episodes.
All these experiences taught her not only how to deal with nerves on stage but to create and develop her “Nerves Masterclasses” in which she gives her clients a nice run up and all the steps that they need to take to prepare themselves for the situation.
Top 5 Strategies for Communication Situations
* Breathing. Breathing is the Cornerstone for all great communication. But we talk about breathing down into the lower belly. Keep the breath deep and you’ll get out of your head where all those fear thoughts are going on.
* Practicing, Prep and Making a Plan. We’re talking vocal skills, your physical presence skills. And it’s also warming up and getting in the zone.178. Oradores del Bicentenario con Jaime Lértora
Jaime Lértora es consultor en comunicaciones, Ingeniero egresado de la Universidad Nacional Agraria, La Molina. Él es consultor en proyectos de comunicación, laboró para el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo – BID, con el Fondo de las Naciones Unidas para la Infancia – UNICEF y para la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura – UNESCO. Jaime es Profesor asociado de Educación Ejecutiva de la Universidad de Lima y de la Universidad del Pacífico. Dirige su empresa consultora Lértora Consultores. Es conocido como actor y director de teatro, presentador de radio y televisión. Jaime es también autor bajo el sello Aguilar de la Editorial Pengüin Random House de los libros “Habla” – Guía para una comunicación exitosa, “Presenta” – Guía para presentaciones eficaces, “Responde” – Guía para entrevistas ganadoras, “El Servicio que nos merecemos” (Coautoría con Guido Bravo), “Comunícate +” y “Comunicación en el trabajo”.
Jaime Lértora
Jaime se define como una persona querendona y amable con los demás, considera que su propósito de vida es lograr que la gente pueda transmitir y comunicarse de manera apropiada y a eso ha dedicado tanto desde la enseñanza como desde la consultoría tanto en instituciones públicas como privadas.
La voz de Jaime es una de las más reconocidas a nivel local en Perú, una voz que considera fruto del azar, con la que nació y que ha venido desarrollando y haciendo conocida a través de una intensa actividad como actor de teatro y televisión. Una voz auténtica e impulsiva, pero con la práctica y el tiempo más modulada sin perder fuerza y entonación.
Oradores del Bicentenario
A inicios de Julio de este año 2021, el Presidente de la República de Irlanda, Sr. Michael D.Higgins dio un discurso con motivo del Bicentenario de la Independencia del Perú. Lo curioso de éste es que fue íntegramente en español.
A raíz justamente del Bicentenario, Jaime nos comparte su opinión respecto a lo poco que realmente tenemos para festejar en esta fecha, puesto que su visión del país es que poco se ha avanzado a nivel de desarrollo e integración de la sociedad. Y opina que deberíamos trasladar el Bicentenario a 2024 para tener tres años aprendiendo lo que...177. Neil Thompson: When STEM People Speak to Non-Technical Audiences
From Engineer to STEM Speaker
Neil’s journey started after finishing engineering and having a master’s degree, when he was working as a product developer for a company in California. One day he was asked to start giving project progress updates to senior management on a monthly basis. At first, it didn’t go so well but with practice and repetition, he went better over time. With time, he took everything he learned about public speaking and converted it into the course “Teach the Geek to Speak”. Early this year he also launched a membership called: “Teach the Geek to Speak Society” when people besides the course, also get access to monthly calls, private Facebook Group, and other perks.
When STEM people speak to non-technical audiences
Neil’s first rule for public speaking is knowing your audience. This way you have to adapt your language according to the public is listening to you. It’s no the same to speak for a bunch of engineers as to do it for a senior management group. If you use techie jargon this last won’t understand so the engagement could be low or nothing at all. And you probably will get a lot of questions at the end of your presentation, questions you may not be prepared to answer. Prepare your audience from the beginning if you have to use specific technical concepts. And the best way to do this is to know to who you are talking.
Top Advice for Talking to Non-Technical Audiences
1. Know your audience. And speak according to it.2. Control your timing. Don’t exceed your quota.3. Don’t fill your slides with text. Use images.4. Join Toastmasters International
176. Katja Schleicher: How Techies Can Succeed in Any Media Interview
Communication as a walk of life
Communication came very early in Katja’s life, it was quite a natural thing for her. After finishing her studies she started her career in corporate communication, in PR and media.
In 1993 she had her first encounter with Tech when she took part on Microsoft Windows 95 launch. That started a fascination with technology that led Katja to a long career with different positions in many IT companies.
Later in 2006, she started her own company for training and coaching people in communications, in storytelling, how to bring narratives across, and intercultural communication as well.
The Challenges of media interviews for techies
Unlike the corporate world in the tech world one of the important points is that you get out the news into the world, so think that anytime you give a speech, a presentation or whatever it is very probably the press will attend and not every time you are going to be aware of this. This means you have to be prepared for the unexpected as good as it gets. You have to know how to manage properly this kind of situation: keep your nerves and be the master of your own message.
How Techies can succeed in any media interview
* Set Key Messages
* Use stories, pictures and analogies to connect emotionally with your audience
* Always have in mind how to return to you Key message in case you get lost<...175. Kevlin Henney: Advanced Techniques for Online Presentations
Kevlin’s beginnings
Kevlin started his professional career as a software developer and instead of giving speeches he started writing articles for user group magazines being motivated for sharing the knowledge and explaining things. One day he was asked to do a presentation in a user group event, that was at 90’s so he did create slides, printing and putting them in acetate for projectors. A whole different process but really a great experience.
After that Kevlin started to talk in front of more people and later being invited to conferences but more importantly he enjoyed every experience more than writing because of the interaction with audience.
The challenge of speaking online
Kevlin is a very physical speaker, in the sense he uses a lot the space on stage. So the change to online presentations and webinars have been a little hard.
For him the more challenging aspect is to make a connection with the audience.
Some few things he learned that helped him to improve this are:
You need to respect breaks
Use your hands to speak. Move them.
Use the frame, use visual feedback to identify the frame and use your hands to fill it
Be punctual and control your time. You may not be the only speaker in an online event.
Finally, make mistakes. Do practice as much as you can to learn fast and improve.
Kevlin’s best pieces of advice for not usual presenters
First of all, just make sure your lighting is reasonable, do not sit in front of a window. Natural light on you is helpful but the idea is ...174. Brett Hill: Become A Better Speaker with Mindfulness
The Language of Mindfulness, a life journey
Since very young Brett started his journey. At high school he used to do debating, public speaking and drama, and at college he was actually a performer, singer and songwriter.
He discovered to have a knack for technology and explaining things to people in ways that they could understand. After graduating he established his own consultancy, and helped small businesses learn how to use computers. Shortly after he decided that he wanted to be a teacher of technology. Some time after he got hired as a technology evangelist for Microsoft. This allowed him to be on stages all over the world, teaching about how technology helps people do their work better.
He was also very interested in the inner world like what makes people tick so he studied with people that were very good at this. That led him to this journey to exploring more about mindfulness and communications. By now, he is in practice to help people get more conscious with their use of language.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness means paying attention on purpose. It means you make a decision to pay attention in a particular way. Brett explains that the practice starts usually with mindfulness meditation. The common practice is to sit down, like paying attention to your breath, and doing that for 10 minutes, 20 minutes. Finally, when you create the capacity to be present with you, it changes the way you feel about what you are doing. It also changes the conversation that you’re having with other people.
Become a better speaker with mindfulness
173. Oscar Santolalla: Rock the Tech Stage (Interviewed by Emily Edgeley)
Many of you already know me because of the podcast and today you will know a little more about me but the most important, you are going to know about my new book: Rock the Tech Stage. And the host today is our former guest Emily Edgeley, thank you very much for joining!
What’s Rock The Tech Stage about?
Today brilliant people are creating technologies to solve the most important problems in society: the climate crisis, healthcare, education for everybody, mobility, etc. But many will fail. Not due to wrong or inferior technologies. They’re going to fail to spread their ideas and obtain supporters: buyers, partners, investors, governments that partner with them, etc. Presenting technology has to be not only effective but inspiring.
And this book presents success stories from the technology industry, plus the tactical advice that you and anybody can put in practice to give tech talks.
My favorite section or piece of advice from the book
I think it could stand out passion, because as a speaker you need to find the topics you are passionate about. For instance great tech speakers are passionate for the products their present.
Also interaction with your audience, a very important skill we all have to develop nowadays for the virtual tech meetings and talks.
Finally, the importance of metaphors for connect with the audience. You have to link your speech with something familiar in order to reach and engage with your audiences, especially with the non-technical ones.
The biggest misconceptions about rocking the tech stage
* Speaking too abstract, which comes from the education, from engineering, when a typical assignment is writing research papers. Most of technical people will go in the abstract way because they haven’t realized of a better way to communicate for a wider audience.
* Another one is the extended use of acronyms and buzzwords, some of them you have to use because they are completely widespread that everybody understand. All in all it’s better to use simple language.
Related:
172. Camilla Tuominen: Understanding Emotions Is Key for Communication
A journey led by illustrations
As Camilla says it wasn’t planned. Almost 10 years ago she was in the tech business founded a startup and was trying to sell an Emotion Tracker app. For this she started giving lectures using some illustrations made by herself. That worked so well that after the lectures and presentations people used to come and ask her to teach them about emotions because they felt very identified with the pictures she showed. Some time later she decided to switch from businesses to consulting and becoming a full-time speaker about understanding and dealing with emotions.
Leaders and emotions
There are many different cultures and emotional environments, but most are concentrated in the facts and logical things. Camilla thinks that the more we develop Artificial Intelligence and smart machines the more we have to focus in being more creative dealing with emotions. Leaders should help to create an environment more tolerant and emotionally intelligent. They have to become aware on how we behave as an individual because the emotional climate depends on all of us.
Understanding emotions is key for communication
When talking of speakers and emotions we talk about being nervous. Before you start speaking you are full of energy because your body prepares for something threatening but unknown. Later when you’re already speaking it’s your own mind creating threats. And how to deal with this?171. Rodolfo Carrillo: Speakers Shine through Self-Awareness
The road of the shaman
Rodolfo started with meditation since was a little kid. His mother showed him and kept him on this path since he was seven years old. Years later he went to study business and started his consulting business. Finally, eight years ago he started mixing both paths and this lead to what he is doing nowadays: Developing conscious leadership.
BE-ing Leadership
The book “BE-ing Leadership” is the result of those two paths Rodolfo has going through his entire life, recognizing how all those things that happen within us are going to influence those around us. We want to be able to acknowledge and deal with the whole complexity of being humans. It’s a roadmap to recognizing what is going on within us in order to put into practice the style of leadership needed for every situation.
Speakers Shine through Self-Awareness
When we do Public speaking we are actually doing leadership, because we are trying to influence the audience into taking action about something or an objective. So BE-ing a public speaker is about acknowledge and recognize how I’m showing up on stage. Because our thoughts, ideas and feelings are going to influence the way we show to our audiences. The more aware and conscious we are about it we can learn and find a way how to deal with it.
Communication skills for post-pandemic leaders
According to Rodolfo the most important skills that leaders need nowadays are three:Self-awareness: I have to be able to understand what is going on within me and how I’m showing it up.Vulnerability: Being able to acknowledge what’s going on and be open about it to adjust to it and use it o...170. Unna Lehtipuu & Antti Mustakallio: The Best Speech of Your Life
Antti Mustakallio is a public speaking coach, one of Finland’s few professional speechwriters, and a media commentator on persuasive communication. He is also the brains behind the annual Summer School of Rhetoric conference (Retoriikan kesäkoulu), featuring some of the world’s most influential speechwriters and other international experts on persuasive communication.
The Best Speech Of Your Life
The world is everyday more and more connected. This brings more opportunities for people to interact. And due to the pandemics most of this interaction occurs on a digital way (events, meetings, etc.) where time is very limited.
So a growing number of persons need to use that short time to express their message in a effective way.
ELÄMÄSI PARAS PUHE (The Best Speech of your Life) was written to fill that need.
The book covers speaking theory, classic rhetoric and how to build the content and the structure of your business speech, but it’s also a guide that helps you in a practical way such as social speeches. It also covers analysis and examples from recent speeches especially during 2020. Not surprisingly, the most remarkable speeches leaders gave in 2020 fell into the “crisis speech” category.
Related: Charisma and Persuasion
Favorite quotations
“Vir bonus dicendi peritus.” — Marcus Portius Cato
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
Recommended book
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Routine to Shine
169. Kamilla Sultanova: Effective Stage Presence
Kamilla is a vibrant speaker and award-winning community leader helping advance the importance of diversity and inclusion, community building to build resilient and enriching workplaces that work for everyone.
She is known for her TEDx Talk titled “Volunteering: Empowering Others, Empowering Yourself” at Helsinki University and her award-winning work through ConnectUz, a culturally responsive workforce consulting initiative.
She is now also leading diversity initiative, talent management programme at Hanken School of Economics to focus on diverse and inclusive recruitment of Finnish companies and integration of international students into business and social life in Finland.
Volunteering to become a speaker
Kamilla’s story as a speaker started in Denmark where she was an activist who used to speak on behalf of students and immigrants helping them to become integrated. She is a strong believer that everyone has the right to find and integrate into a community of like-minded persons where we can own our own-voice.
Thanks to her job in the shipping industry and her own studies in communications she had the possibility of sharing experiences and connect with people (ship officers, crew and clients) from different countries and cultures. This gave her a solid base about how to be a speaker, communicate with people, inspire and motivate them.
Stage Presence: The Key to connect
Every speaking experience is an opportunity to create an impact through your presence. The main reason to use stage presence is to give a speech that really connects with the audience.
For this we need to adapt our style of speaking through all ways so you can embody your delivery on stage: through voice, through gestures, moving around, etc. This make people listen to you and catch the attention.
Some tips: Prepare your way on the stage, own the space. Express yourself through eye contact, movements of the eyebrows, the nose. Your expression matters. Control your posture. In online presentations engage the audience through curiosity using objects, movements or actions that call attention to the screen.
Related: 168. Boris Hristov: How to Improve Your Tech Talks
From an IT Person to a Presentation guru
Boris started his journey very young by attending presentations in the tech industry. But soon his curiosity and passion for presentations lead him to analyze and replicate the techniques he saw on stage and to develop and improve his own methodology for creating presentations. Shortly after that he started making workshops for groups of people and that lead to the next step by creating his own business: the presentation agency 356Labs.
How to improve your Tech talks
Boris’ top piece of advice to improve your tech talks is: Develop and build outstanding Presentation Design skills. Besides all the rehearsals an preparations about delivering the talk one of the lowest points is still the design of the slides. To take time to create a great design for your slides makes the difference between an average and an outstanding talk. One of the most important senses of human beings is the visual sense. Use it on your favor!
Challenges of presenting virtually. How to deal with it.
Presenting virtually and presenting in person is very different. And doing it virtually is more difficult, believe it or not. The first thing you have to do is improve your hardware. Invest in the best microphone or camera for using in presentations. The way you look and the way you sound is your first impression. Second, you have to improve the engagement. As you cannot see your audience, getting feedback is really hard. In a Tech Talk prepare your delivery for making questions, ask for reactions via chat, ask people to raise hands and share their opinion. You have to plan the right way to incorporate all this to your presentation in a natural form. Third, take care of the design, your slides have to be able to fit many different fo...167. Patricia Fripp: How You Can Gain a Competitive Advantage – In 2021 and Beyond
Patricia was the first woman president of the National Speaker Association. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine wrote, “One of the best ways to invest in your success is to learn presentation skills from Patricia Fripp.” She was named one of the “Top 25 Women in Sales” and of the “Top 30 Coaching Gurus.”
She is the author or co-author of five books and the creator of FrippVT. Fripp Virtual Training, Powerful, Persuasive Presentations is a multimillion-dollar, state-of-the-art, web-based training platform that emulates live training and coaching.
Opportunities knock your door all the time
Patricia started her career as a hairstylist in her 20s. And her first experiences as speaker were promoting her business, talking at her customers meetings and clubs.
After that she joined Toastmasters and that gave her later the possibility to join the National Speakers Association. Seven years later she was the first woman President of the NSA and a full time speaker.
The secret for gaining competitive advantage is to listen to the people and evolve. When you evolve, and go in certain direction, opportunities will open up you just have to wait and recognize them.
Everybody is a great speaker that has not been trained
According to Patricia the best way to improve your skills as speaker is to learn from somebody else who knows more than you do.
The challenges of changing times. How to succeed.
First you have to accept the reality you live. Business are going to be different, so it’s necessary to embrace new technologies: streaming, web conferences, online meetings, etc.
166. Elena Herdieckerhoff: The Power of TEDx Talks
How TEDx can start a career on public speaking
Elena used to run a cosmetics business. But one day, at some point, she decided to leave that behind and start doing business coaching in order to help her fellow entrepreneurs to succeed. As a coach one of her wishes was to do a TEDx talk. And following that wish she finally decided to apply for a TEDx event in Paris. And she made it. On May 21, 2016 she gave her talk “The gentle power of highly sensitive people” and did it basically without any previuos preparation as speaker. This way she accomplished her dream and, just speaking from the heart, she started a successful career that continues until these days. That shows the power of TEDx talks.
Who is good a TEDx speaker
Elena believes that the best TEDx speaker is that one who shows true authenticity and passion to their audience. It’s that one ready and willing to show who really is and that is able to take people into a journey and make them feel interested and excited about her talk or story. Even without having any previous training or experience.
TEDx in times of covid-19 pandemic
As a consequence of the pandemic around the world, TEDx had been in a pause for several months. But it came back. Elena tells us a little about how, with the use of new technologies, TEDx is getting ready to launch new formats of talks all around the world. In this way, in 2021 TEDx will show us a new and more sophisticated facet in its conferences around the world. The times forced all of us to change and to adapt and TEDx is no exception.
The power of TEDx talks
Who should speak in a TEDx Talk? Contrary to what most people think, Elena’s philosophy is that everybody has an idea or story that is worth sharing to the world. No matter if you’re an entrepreneur, if you’re done or not any speaking gig in your life, you can speak in TEDx. It’s about believing in yourself and that your idea is meaning...165. Sandra Zimmer: Five Steps to Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking, and Shine!
Sandra’s beginnings
Sandra started her journey being an actress. One night during a performance she had an amazing experience that led her to try to figure out, over the next four years, a way to transform his background, knowledge and experience into a method to help people to overcome their fears and shine when they speak in front of groups.
Beating the fear of public speaking
Sandra’s mastery is about overcoming fear of public speaking, not by mechanical speaking skills, but by guiding people to become comfortable in their skin and confident to be who they are in front of other people. She learned how to facilitate people in front of groups to release what she calls the tension of being the center of attention so they feel safe to be themselves, and speak from their hearts, and shine.
In Sandra’s knowledge, people who have the most stage fright have the potential to be stars at speaking because they have the feelings and emotions up to the surface where they can be used to create genuine emotional connection with listeners.
About feeling frightened to speak
For most people fear of public speaking is about fear of speaking in front of people, but Sandra’s experience has taught her that fear of public speaking is really about not being comfortable to be who you are at the center of the attention....164. Patti Dobrowolski: From a simple drawing of my future to paid speaking gigs in 6 months
Patti holds an Masters in Psychology with an emphasis in Drama Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
From a simple drawing of my future to paid speaking gigs in 6 months
Patti started just to do small speaking in her area, doing some writing, and one day she met with an agent that asked her if she could draw and talk at the same time. Without hesitation Patti said “Yes” and one thing led to the other: she got her first TED talk “Draw your Future” in 2011 and after that it went from 45000 to 6 million people watching that conference on the media by 2016.
The Creative Genius is inside you
Your creative genius is this little voice inside, that is always guiding you to do certain things. It’s that intuitive knowledge, that sense of the right decision, it’s strategic thinking!
And that creative genius is just waiting around for you to get it together and start listening.
Related: Cartoon thinking is essential for communicators
Favorite quotation
“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love” — Maya Angelou
Recommended book
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Routine to Shine
Patti recommends us to draw! Specially when you are goal setting. Draw a picture of whatever you want to become or achieve. Put words and pictures if you like but be sure to color it. Fill your brain with it. Imagine yourself doing it. Visualize yourself accomplishing your goal and how it looks and feels getting that. To colorize Patti uses color pencils,163. Danja Bauer: Speak like Music
What is to speak Like Music?
A good song gives you emotion and feelings, and also is easy to remember. When you speak like music you produce emotions in order to make your speech and yourself memorable. A great example of a speaker that speaks like music is Oprah Winfrey.
Six elements to speak like music
1. Creative Start. The first minutes of your speech are the most important for your audience. Do it amazing.
2. The Hook. A catchy part that keeps in the memory of your audience. It can be music, a phrase or an image/video.
3. Storytelling. Your audience can feel the emotion of a story. Try to connect using metaphors.
4. Melody. Don’t be boring, produce melody with your voice. Use your voice, and silences, to reach your audience.
5. Energy. Get involved with your audience. Make them interact. Use quizzes, questions, claps, etc. Make a dialog with your audience.
6. Shine on stage like a star. It’s time to shine. Impress! Have good and great energy, eye contact. Master the stage and show yourself!
Danja’s best piece of advice for becoming an exceptional Moderator
Let other people shine: it’s all about them not you. Get to the point and don’t speak too much. You have to be always learning, because as a moderator you will be related to a wide range of different industries, people and knowledge.
Related: How to Master Compelling Storytelling
Favorite quotation
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel” — Maya Angelou
Recommended books
The 5am club – Own your morning elevate your life by Robin Sharma
Building a story brand – Clarify your message so customers will listen by Donald Miller
162. Sam Liebowitz: With Presence You Win Any Audience
With presence you win any audience
When we’re really present with another person (or a group such as our audience), we can feel things, hear things, and notice things that we don’t when we’re not present. And that is essential for communication.
How to notice presence in the audience
As a speaker you can notice subtle body language signs that give you indication that you need to change something. Notice a few people in different parts of the room, 3 to 5 people. That will give you an overall indication of the audience presence.
Energy management is important. Notice where they are and adjust your talk to where you want to take them to.
How to make sure the speaker is present
Just before the talk, sit down or stand up. Take a deep breathe, notice the feelings you have, and let it all go. Leave everything else aside, your worries, and show up in service to your audience.
Related: A Disengaged Audience? Adjust on the Fly!
Favorite quotation
“True power is presence. The person who is most present has the most power in the room.”
Recommended book
Mastering the Art of Public Speaking by Michael Gelb
Routine to Shine
At the end of the day, mentally give up everything you have (wealth, business, relationships) to the universe. Then when you wake up next day and you see you still have them, you will have a new appreciation that life gave you everything back, with a feeling of gratitude.
Links
“Everyday Awakening” book
161. Leisa Reid: Attract Your Clients Through Speaking
Attract Your Clients Through Speaking
One of the main misconceptions about getting paid to speak is that a speaker fee is the only way to get paid. Instead, if you can give an offer on your talk, you can get a bigger income out of that talk.
How to get business today
Today you can target any area, country as you don’t need to travel to. Leisa has found more opportunities now than before.
Traveling all the time was never suitable for every speaker.
Strategies to attract clients
* Have your talk ready to rock. It’s not only about what you know, but how you offer value to the right audience.
* Figure out who are your ideal clients: associations, clubs, events. Find where they are so you compete in the right “race.”
* You must have your bio, talk description, learning points, headshot, ready to send over.
Related: How to Attract Business on The Virtual Stage
Favorite quotation
“Someday is not a day in the calendar.”
Recommended book
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Routine to Shine
Have a CRM (Customer relationship management software) that tracks your clients, opportunities. Use it every day to track, take notes and do follow-ups.
Links
GetSpeakingGigsNow.com
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also, I’d appreciate if you write a review in iTunes or 160. Monique Blokzyl: The Art of Pitching
The art of Pitching
The art of pitching is how you convince anyone of anything (almost) every time. Pitching is not only about investor pitches or an elevator pitch, we are pitching at all times.
The 7 Power Steps to your irresistible pitch
Monique has developed the HYPSTAR formula for crafting a pitch. The seven steps are:
* Hook. A powerful opening.
* You. Say why you care about what you do.
* Problem. Make them feel the problem.
* Solution. Present your solution, and in simple words.
* Trust. Tell how the solution has worked for you and your clients, to build trust.
* Action. Place a call to action right away.
* Run off. Choose an ending that sparks passion and brings energy.
Pitching in the virtual world
Pitching in the virtual world also follows the 7 steps, but the biggest difference is the delivery. In audio, people don’t see our body language. So you need to put effort into your voice. Also, make your content more entertaining, shorter, and even easier to understand.
Related: Passion for Pitching
Favorite quotation
“Jump Off the Cliff and Build Your Wings on the Way Down.” —Ray Bradbury
Recommended book
The Breakthrough Speaker by Smiley Poswolsky
Routine to Shine
* Make sure you’re in good shape, good mood.
* Have unique speech material for your talks. Be observant, write down what is happening in your life, the lessons you learned.
* Record one little video of you every day.
Links
Pitch Video Series
MoniqueBlokzyl.com
Monique at LinkedIn
P.S. If you liked this episode,159. Ivan Wanis Ruiz: Unconventional Ways To Practice Your Talk
Unconventional ways to practice your talk
Ivan claims that nobody gives you strategies on how to practice a talk. He thinks that you have to practice to build the calluses. Stand up comedians practice a lot, even in almost-empty bars, that’s how they build calluses. A few ways to do this:
* Run part of your next presentation sneaked into a conversation with your friends.
* Go to the busiest intersection in your downtown and practice your talk in front of every passerby.
Tactics from wrestling to public speaking
In wrestling there are faces (the good guys) and heels (the bad guys). Before introducing a new face the show hosts introduced a heel. They made the audience dislike a heel a lot, and they introduced the new face right after. People liked anybody who would come next to beat the heel. You can use the same tactic to convince people on an idea.
Present a series from alternatives, each one with pros and cons. The first solutions have largely more cons than pros. The third one (your idea) has more pros and very few cons. Thus you make people believe the other ideas are bad.
Phrases to put speaking ideas into practice
Ivan recommends using the Goal Opportunity Statement to present an idea: By doing [ACTION] we achieve [BENEFIT] in [TIME]
Ivan believes that the goal of a presentation is not to inform, convince, or sell. It’s curiosity. You make your audience curious about something, so they think where can I find more?
Related: Bring Humor to Your Talks
Favorite quotation
“The two words ‘information’ and ‘communication’ are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is gettin...158. Michael Tranmer: Open Up To Connect with Any Audience
Open up to connect with any audience
Michael learned that when you open up and show your vulnerability you become an effective speaker. Michael used to post photos of landscapes on Instagram, but after his hardship he started posting photos of himself telling his feelings. That resonated with many people. Now Michael applies this principle for public speaking: open up to connect with any audience.
Transcendent leadership
Transcendent leadership is about overcoming fears and hardships as leaders, and then help other leaders do the same. We transcend beyond our limitations and fears, and evolve those around us.
Related: Emotion Gets Connection Into Motion
Favorite quotation
“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.” —Lao Tzu
Recommended book
The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer
Routine to Shine
Meditate every day.
Links
satori ananda (book)
Michael Tranmer’s site
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also, I’d appreciate if you write a review in iTunes or
157. Arvee Robinson: How to Attract Business on The Virtual Stage
Benefits of speaking for business owners
* Get leads
* Gain visibility in the market
* Sell directly from the stage
Tips for speaking in the virtual world
* Be more concise. As time is shorter your talks have to be about half of the normal length. Over-deliver without overwhelming.
* Bring on the energy. When you sit down you’re more relaxed so make sure you are energetic when you speaks. Arvee prefers to stand up.
* Have good lighting. Invest in some lighting equipment otherwise you will be speaking in the dark.
* Invest in a good microphone.
* Have a good background. Arvee doesn’t recommend a virtual background unless you have a green screen.
How to Attract Business on the Virtual Stage
The close (or invitation) comes when you have a great talk and the audience feels “I want more.” Put a link in the chat, or in the PowerPoint slides. When you sell something you have to over-deliver first. Arvee closes by offering a big bonus, overwhelming value. Finally, tell them your offer is valid only in that moment: give them ten minutes to buy.
Interaction in the virtual world
* Use the chat. But don’t let people chat privately
* Quizzes in PowerPoint
* In a meeting, ask for a hand raise when everybody is in gallery view
* Encourage to use reactions, thumbs up from the video conferencing tool
* Have hot seats, in which you put a person in speaker view
* Panels
* Breakout rooms. These virtual private rooms are a great tool for networking. Give clear instructions: length, pick a facilitator, what is the task.
Related: Speaking in the Virtual World
Favorite quotation
“Everything you want is outside your comfort zone or you would already have it!156. Heather Wilde: Speaking in the Virtual World
What is the hardest thing when speaking in virtual events?
Not getting feedback from the audience. As a speaker, Heather always does call and response, and that is harder to do with a virtual audience. To mitigate this, Heather recommends:
* Don’t sit down, walk around as in a real stage.
* Use polling to get instant response, with tools such as Poll Everywhere.
Her top piece of advice for speaking in the virtual world
Improvise. Don’t be afraid to play. People are bored of seating so they will interact with you if you make them play.
Other actions to do and skills to learn for speaking in the virtual world are:
* Don’t be afraid of being in front of the camera.
* People will judge from your background. People want to see the real world behind you. Arrange your background to show your personality.
* Wear professional.
* Just start speaking.
Virtual conferences
Conference organizers are arranging virtual trade shows with virtual booths where attendees can see a demo with the latest technologies, and even sign contracts. Virtual reality booths go a step farther.
Organizers have to make sure the speakers have everything they need: lights, sound, all the right tech to shine in the virtual stage.
Speakers now can speak anywhere in the world, even to places where organizers never had the budget to fly you out. All in all, there are new opportunities to speak.
Related: Storytelling in the Tech Industry
Favorite quotation
“The goal is not to be better than the other man, but your previous self.” —Dalai Lama
Recommended book
Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams
(its 155. Miracle Olatunji: Speak About Your Life Purpose
Miracle Olatunji is a university student, entrepreneur, public speaker, and best-selling author of Purpose: How To Live and Lead With Impact. She began her professional public speaking career at the age of 17. Now, at 20 years old, she has spoken at various national and international conferences and her work as an entrepreneur and leader has been featured in Forbes, Thrive Global, Technical.ly, The Female Lead, and other publications. Miracle was also recently part of Barbie’s #YouCanBeAnything #MoreRoleModels global campaign aimed at closing the dream gap and inspiring women and girls around the world.
Purpose: How To Live and Lead With Impact
Since very young Miracle met entrepreneurs who made impact and lived life with purpose. Soon she realized we all have a purpose, and she decided to write a book, to inspire people to reconnect with their purpose. Miracle’s book “Purpose: How To Live and Lead With Impact” was published in 2019.
Speak About Your Life Purpose
Miracle encourages you speak about your life purpose. Her best piece of advice for speakers is:
* Find the topics you are passionate about.
* It’s all about the audience, engage as much as you can.
* Know your story well and the message you want to share; that will help you pitch yourself and find places to speak.
Speakers that influenced Miracle
Many speakers have influenced Miracle, and among all her top are:
Oprah Winfrey
Mel Robbins
Related: Great Leaders are Great Speakers
Favorite quotation
154. Emily Edgeley: Storytelling in the Tech Industry
Emily Edgeley is a Public Speaking Coach, working with people from the Tech industry. She helps people give more interesting talks and enjoy themselves while doing it. Her favorite thing to teach others about is storytelling.
The biggest storytelling mistake in the tech industry
The biggest mistake is not telling stories. People tend to tell just information and facts.
Storytelling in the tech industry
A story has to connect the dots for people and humanize technology. Take people on a journey from what is prior to where people will be taken once the technology is introduced. You just have to explain how technology interacts with humans.
An example is how Emily used to introduce herself: “I coach people 1-on-1 and also provide group workshops and I do speaking engagements.” And now using storytelling she says “I take people in the tech industry who either don’t like presenting or don’t think they’re very good and I take them to a place where they can be much more relatable, much more engaging, much more memorable.”
If you’re talking in a conference, two types of stories:
* Connect with the topic. Share your origin story with the audience. Share why this technology called your attention.
* Talk about your experience with the technology. Have you struggled an learned a lesson?
Your storytelling toolbox
Emily recommends the following tools for storytelling in the tech industry:
* Watch TED talks for inspiration.
* Write a story file. Four main different types of stories: stories that happened to you, that you heard, famous story, hypothetical story.
* Understand that storytelling doesn’t need to be complicated.
Differences between telling stories inside your company and in conferences
* Inside your company, you have more resistance to change, and less time to speak. Tell a short story.
* In conferences people are more open to your stories, and you can use more time. Inspire people.
Related: How to Create Your Best Stories
Favorite quotation
“Tell the story of the mountain you climbed. Your words could become a page on someone else’s survival guide.” — Morgan Harper Nichols
Recommended book
153. Amira Alvarez: Use The Impression of Increase to Make an Impact On Stage and Off
What the impression of increase is
Amira read the early 20th century book The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles. The book was part of New Thought philosophy, and says having money and making money is a good thing. We are here to live of full potential, to expand, and money is an essential resource. How do you achieve what you want to achieve?
The impression of increase in short: you must interact with others in this world as if you can help them have more life. You can increase good in this world, more increase of their lives.
Use The Impression of Increase to Make an Impact On Stage and Off
As a speaker aiming to speak in a big event, you need to let the decision maker know that you can help them have more life. How? An event organizer wants to have a successful event, they want their audience to come back next year.
When you sell from the stage or speak to share an idea, the audience must feel that your idea will help them to have more in life.
All big names speaking on stages, YouTube are doing this. For instance, Gary Vee says “don’t just you wanna be happy?” “I can help you be happy, this is what I’m doing.”
How you show up will match the people, people will tune in.
In speaking,152. Christoffer Weiss: Becoming an Audiovisual Alchemist
Becoming an audiovisual alchemist
Christoffer wanted be an actor, so graduated from acting school, went to Hollywood but things didn’t go as well as planned. Shortly later he got involved with the personal development industry, so he attended conferences. A first A-ha moment came when he saw Les Brown live on a first row and stroke him how Brown looked at Christoffer’s eyes and answered a question. Another day he analyzed the room and asked himself: which is the best job in the house? It was the event producer managing the audiovisuals. By using the storytelling and music knowledge from his acting background, Christoffer developed the skills and a system to create emotions so information sticks better. That’s how he became an audiovisual alchemist.
How speakers must work with event producers and technicians
* Send your presentation well in advance. This is the number one issue event producers have with speakers.
* Start and end your talk on time.
* Be humble with the technicians, appreciate their work. Don’t behave like a diva.
* Inform in advance if you’re going to do something else except just speaking, such as singing, asking the lights to be switched off, bringing someone from the audience to the stage, using Internet connection, etc.
Trends in conferences
Top three:
* Much bigger surfaces, blending several displays together to create a huge screen.
* Interactivity, such as a Twitter feed. Also, people can use an app to ask questions during the presentation so the moderator can pick them up.
* Ability to send presentations live to your device. If you’re in the audience,151. Jean Marie DiGiovanna: Questions Successful Speakers Make
Questions successful speakers make
Jean Marie’s book has 27 key questions. Among those, these are excellent questions successful speakers make:
* To book a gig, you have to understand customers’ needs, and distinguish the needs from the wants: What would success look like at the end of my talk? What would you love people to leave with? What are the top 3 biggest challenges the audience is facing now? What would most surprise an outsider looking into from your organization?
* Start your talk with an impressive fact, statistic, great story and after that, ask a question: Who on your team fits these qualities? How many people are you working with like these?
* Rhetorical questions. Share a story and highlight a lesson learned, and then ask a “What if …?” question. Example: What would be possible if you can experience this yourself?
* Powerful questions either move you forward or down. Start with a “what” or “how.” Encourage your audience to think, so they either take action or deepen their learning.
“Imagine”
Another tactic is using the phrase “Imagine.” Example: Keep your mailbox to zero (you gave a fact). Imagine you have just 10 emails, all you can see is page 1 of your mailbox.
Others ways to use questions
* End with a question. An example Jean Marie uses in her talks about renaissance leadership is “Will you left in the dark ages or will you be the next renaissance leader?”
* If you ask too many questions,150. Walid O. El Cheikh: Passion for Pitching
What a pitch is
A pitch is a presentation in which you ask something. Typically pitches are 2-5 minutes but nowadays they are even shorter. You have 8 seconds to raise the interest of your audience. At the other end, pitches can be up to one hour depending on your role and audience.
When crafting your pitch: use simple language and be concise.
Passion for pitching
Walid truly has a passion for pitching. He got inspired to write a book, when he started giving many workshops. He was saying the same things all over again so he developed the book to give a reference to people before they came to his workshops. The book has 25 cases, different situations and how to write a pitch for each of them. Today Walid uses the book as his slides.
Elements of a pitch
A pitch has three elements: (1) message, (2) argumentation, and (3) ask.
Depending on the audience, you will know which is the main argumentation point for your pitch: technology, price, aesthetics, team, etc. For instance, investors care about profitability.
Steve Jobs is an exceptional example of pitching. He pitched internally and externally, to Apple employees, to developers, to investors, to customers, to the media, etc.
Related: Pitching Your Ideas With a Serious Game
Favorite quotation
“When you want something, all the Universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” — Paulo Coelho (from “The Alchemist”)
Recommended books
“Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman
“Start With Why” by Simon Sinek
“Camels, Tigers & Unicorns” by Uday Phadke & Shai Vyakarnam
Routine to Shine
149. Karl Lillrud: How Speakers Do the Impossible
Karl’s TEDx talks
Karl has delivered 2 TEDx talks: How to do the impossible (TEDxKedgeBS, 2018) and Training Your Subconscious Mind for Entrepreneurial Success (TEDxPiotrkowskaStreet, 2019). One more is coming in 2020.
Hacking Your Destiny
The book started with complex questions Karl thought all the time. One day he wrote down all these questions. Then he realized he had the answers already. In the book he wrote a process for everybody to use, so you can convert the book’s questions into your own questions and find your answers.
How to become a better speaker
* Know your topic. That will make you confident, the audience will trust you and your energy will enthuse them.
* Don’t worry about anybody telling you’re wrong. That will almost never happen. Too many people are worried about it.
* Be yourself, don’t read from a script or teleprompter.
Related: Growing Your Business Through Speaking
Favorite quotation
“Find your new horizon. Find out that there are no new horizons, only endless possibilities.” — Karl Lillrud
Recommended book
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Routine to Shine
Do one new thing every day, learn one new thing every day.
Links
KarlLillrud.com
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also,148. Caroline Goyder: Find Your Voice
Find Your Voice
Caroline wrote this book on her own experience, how having been a voice coach she struggled for many years: her voice didn’t have enough resonance, she was “in her head.” She spent time to learn in depth how the voice really works and with more and more practice she found her voice.
How the voice works
As in her TEDx talk, Caroline used the analogy with a guitar to explain how the voice works. The human voice is an instrument. The strings are your vocal folds; the hitter is the air/breath that comes out of your lungs (primarily pushed by the diaphragm); and the resonator is your body.
When people are in “text neck” position (leaning towards their phones), they don’t allow the diaphragm to bring the force and push air. If you want a good voice, hold a good posture.
How to get a deeper voice
It’s not about lowering the notes at the bottom of your range, it’s about getting the body aligned and relaxed so the sound drops to the body. Think of a yawn or laugh, those are natural deep voices. Getting a deeper voice is about having resonance on your voice, and being at ease (relaxed).
If your voice gets dry
The most important thing is that you warm up before the event, both your voice and body. Also, make sure you’re breathing through your nose, as breathing from the mouth dries your throat. As a warmup, singing is good too.
Related: 5 Quotes About Your Powerful Voice
Favorite quotation
“Fear is excitement without the breath.” — Fritz Perls
Recommended book
Voice and the Actor ...147. Elisa Di Napoli: Fear of Speaking? Hypnosis Is Your Cure
What hypnosis is
Hypnosis is a natural state of deep relaxation and inner focus that we experience more often than we realize. When we fall asleep when we are engrossed in a movie, when we are involved in long distance running or when we experience a deeply emotional or traumatic event we are in a state of non-guided hypnosis.
Fear of Speaking? Hypnosis Is Your Cure
Elisa uses hypnotherapy to help speakers and performers to beat fear or anxiety. As a singer and performer herself, Elisa found her own cure in hypnosis and now she has a coaching method for anybody. Hypnosis helps you address negative conditioning created by past experiences, and coaching helps you move on and create the life you want in the present.
A good practice is called mental rehearsal. Being relaxed and concentrated, imagine you are doing the real performance with all details: your feelings, senses, your mood, the lights, the audience, etc. The advantage of doing it before a real rehearsal is that it will force you to eliminate negative feelings of failure that will interfere with your performance.
Related: Can We Overcome Impostor Syndrome?
Favorite quotation
“You are enough not because you did or said or thought or bought or became or created something special, but because you always were.” —Marisa Peer
Recommended book
Awaken The Giant Within by Tony Robbins
Routine to Shine
A breathing exercise called alternate nostril breathing.
146. Vasi Huntalas: How to Creatively Inspire Your Audience
How to creatively inspire your audience
Based on experiential learning and her experience as abstract paintings artist, Vasi recommends the following best practices to creatively inspire your audience:
After you tell a story or give an example, encourage your audience to think “Imagine if you were to…” or ask “What would that look like for you to…?” This gives people a way to tap into their powers of imagination, vision, and intuition so they can expand their thinking. It also engages their hearts which makes the presentation personally relevant to them so they begin to listen differently.
Provoke curiosity. Ask them to briefly journal to a question that deepens their self-reflection on the ideas or tips you are presenting. A question like “Which of your situations or challenges could benefit from using these ideas?” motivates people to solve a problem in a new way by opening their mind to different perspectives and behaviors.
Guide them in creating a one-sentence takeaway on an index card. Prompt them by asking “How will you use what you learned today?” They can post it in their workspace or take a photo on their phone so they can reinforce the action and create momentum in the days ahead.
How speakers can keep being creative
Add your unique creative twist to your talk, look at what makes you creative and find a way to use it. Creativity is not about being technically skilled. Everyone is creative in some way because creativity is about expressing your individuality. To Vasi, the best way to keep being creative is to connect with your inner child.
Related: 145. Simone Heng: Emotion Gets Connection Into Motion
Emotion gets connection into motion
Simone’s mission is to spread to the world the message of human connection. One of the key pillars of human connection is: You have to emote. You have to show emotions in your face. For instance in many Asians cultures, people aren’t used to show emotions, but to put emotions into delay. That works well for negotiating a business deal, but not very well for connecting quickly with people. We have to show the faces behind us. If we emote, other people perceive us with a lack of suspicion and they trust more easily. You can’t have connection without trust.
Using self-filmed videos in a TEDx talk
Last September 2019, Simone had her TEDx talk “How to connect authentically to anyone.” One element that made this talk memorable was the use of a few short videos that Simone filmed with her own mobile phone. Simone is constantly capturing videos when she interacts with people and finds “human connection superheroes.” Indeed, showing real moments of people’s lives is a powerful way to communicate the importance of human connection.
How can we unite people?
In the last years the world feels more polarized. How can we unite people? Simone reiterates that commonality connects, that common human experiences are the threads that bind everybody. If you are debating with a person of opposing views, remember: “that person is not their views.” Humanize the other person in front of you: they are a mother, a daughter, etc.
Related: Connect With an Audience in the 21st Century, and Motivate!
Favorite quotation
144. Tim Pollard: What Really Matters in Presentation Delivery
What Really Matters in Presentation Delivery
Tim emphasizes that a lot of what is taught about delivery is either wrong or not focused on the points that matter. There are three main things you have to get right:
* How you prepare for the day
* What you do on the day
* Who you are on the day
Why venue is crucial for your delivery
Many things at the venue can negatively affect your presentation: temperature can be too hot, noise from inside (servers clearing dinner) or from outside (a leaf blower), lights can be disturbing, etc. A speaker can and should control this. Come the night before to inspect the venue, and if not possible arrive at least one hour before your talk.
Muscular language
Instead of common words, use less common but still generally understood words. Instead of “the changes of achieving this goal is small,” replace small with “minuscule.” That’s muscular language.
Be yourself
Everybody has a natural (default) presentation style. However we have different personas that we can use at different situations. Yes you have to be yourself, but the idea of “yourself” is more flexible than we think.
Related: Charisma and Persuasion
Favorite quotation
“There is no more important element in the technique of rhetoric than the continual employment of the best possible word.” — Winston Churchill
Recommended book
The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge
Routine to Shine
Get rid of clichés.143. William Hung: Don’t Build a Talk Nobody Wants to Hear
Don’t build a talk nobody wants to hear
William believes that to be a great speaker you must create the right talk for the right audience at the right time. To do it, solve a specific problem, specific challenges you audience has.
In his second TEDx talk he customized the message for the organizer’s audience and it became a great success. William’s advice is “Don’t build a talk nobody wants to hear.”
Business advice for speakers
* Every professional speaker needs a sales system that controls marketing, follow ups, etc.
* You have to be a salesperson of your own brand
Related: Growing Your Business Through Speaking
Favorite quotation
“The only way you can fail is if you stop trying.”
Recommended book
Stories That Stick by Kindra Hall
Routine to Shine
Make sales calls every weekday.
Links
William Hung’s website
4 Pillars For Becoming Speaker Superstar
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our 142. Fernando Jimenez Motte: Become a Multi-professional Communication Hub
Become a Multi-professional Communication Hub
In his role as Product Manager in a multinational enterprise Fernando had to communicate with top executives, lawyers, accountants, salespeople, economists and different professionals. He learned to translate technology to all audiences and became a multi-professional communication hub.
In order to become a multi-professional communication hub Fernando recommends:
* Find the background a specific audience has.
* When speaking to business decision makers, speak to them using financial indicators: EBITDA, capex, opex. Share information slowly and only when they’re comfortable with what you said, give them more detail.
* Use storytelling to create in people an emotional connection with your product.
Related: Speaking on the Future of Humans and Technology
Favorite quotation
“Passion is the fuel of success.”
Recommended book
The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder
Routine to Shine
Join a Toastmasters International club in your city, and practice speaking in public as much as you can.
Links
Fernando’s website
Neuromorphic Technologies
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our 141. Jill Lublin: Get Media Attention with Guerrilla Publicity
Biggest mistakes people make when they want to get media attention for their book, blog, cause, event
* Not doing anything.
* Lack of clarity. Ask yourself what is your message.
* Focusing on their own interests or what they like. Instead, focus on what is the problem today out there. Ask yourself “why should they care?”
What is guerilla publicity
Use time and imagination and not a ton of money to get media attention.
Press releases
Press releases are still useful today. First, find the press that is interested in what you offer (e.g. real estate editors, business editors). Then, make the message relevant to them.
Related: How to Become Highly Influential in Your Field
Favorite quotation
“Whatever you are, be a good one.” — Abraham Lincoln
Recommended book
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Routine to Shine
Look at your message every 30 days. What’s the problem out there. This free gift can help you.
Links
Publicity Crash Course Special offer: use coupon code SUPERDUPER and get a great discount on the course.
Jill’s website
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also, I’d appreciate if you write a review in 140. Chris Baldwin: Growing Your Business Through Speaking
7 mindsets that allowed Chris to become professional speaker in record time
Chris uses these 7 mindsets to make any decision:
* Make event managers life as easy as possible.
* Empower your speaker agent, make her successful.
* Have a “No problems” attitude.
* Always go for the emotional connection.
* Live an interesting life. A great speaker is a great storyteller.
* Always finish on time.
* Be so good they can’t ignore you.
Growing your business through speaking
Chris recommends to stand up and speak internally in your organization.
Chris’ top piece of advice for growing your business through speaking is: Have strategic objectives. Know why you’re speaking, have a plan, know how you will achieve your objectives.
If you give a really good TEDx talk you can leverage in interviews, build credibility, and as an entrepreneur you will get your story out.
Related: Increasing Your Fee. When and Why it Makes Sense to Charge More for What you Do
Favorite quotation
“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” – William A. Feather
Recommended book
Essentialism by Greg McKeown
Routine to Shine
Get up early.
Links
Chris website
139. Jamie Smart: Connect Quickly with a Challenging Audience
Connect Quickly with a Challenging Audience
Any audience is challenging if they don’t feel connected to you. A speaker must understand her audience’s world.
Key ideas:
* Meet people where they live. Listen to their world.
* Your mind is a self-correcting system, a self-clearing system.
* People pick up where you’re coming from. The feeling of challenge is coming from you.
A Jamie’s experience with a challenging audience
Jamie Smart keynoted a strategy workshop for the council of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Jamie wrote about this experience in Chapter 16 of his book RESULTS: Think Less, Achieve More. In this audio recording, you can hear the entire keynote speech for yourself, and discover the ‘strategy equation’ used by many of the world’s greatest strategists (including Napoleon, Steve Jobs, Microsoft and Netflix).
Related: Can We Overcome Impostor Syndrome?
Favorite quotation
“The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” — Mark Weiser
Recommended book
138. Kristina Vahvaselkä: The Fascinating World of Voiceovers
What voiceover is
The recorded voice of an unseen narrator or commentator that we hear in commercials, documentaries, audio books, video games, corporate films, etc. We hear them nearly every day.
What makes a voiceover really good
* Match the tempo, mood, pitch, tone to the message of the voice over. Often you have to try and record a few times with different tempo, mood and then compare them or let the customer decide the best.
* Avoid clicks and other distractions. They are produced by several reasons: lack of water, poor voice techniques. Always do vocal warmups before recording.
* In the case of audio books, the type of voice must really match the book otherwise it can sound irritating.
The most demanding projects in voiceover
For Kristina, the most demanding projects are dubbing a film to another language. The biggest challenge is to synchronize the mouth’s movements with the words in the other language.
Related: Empowerment Through Voice
Favorite quotation
“Ideas, effectively packaged and delivered, can change the world” — Carmine Gallo
Recommended book
You Were Born to Speak by Richard Newman
Routine to Shine
Exercise that helps relax the diaphragm:
Long breath out, hold your breath, open your mouth and let the air flow back into your lungs. Repeat 3-5 times. You can do this sitting down while waiting your turn to speak.
The most important thing to remember is not to pull the air in, because it will cause the diaphragm to tense up.
Links
Kristina’s website
Kristina at LinkedIn
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also,137. Arthur Samuel Joseph: Empowerment Through Voice
Empowerment Through Voice
The basic foundation is “voice is power.” When you own your voice, you own your power.
Empowerment through voice consists in creating a persona, which starts with an exercise:
* How do I believe I’m presently perceived? Followed by making a drawing
* How I want to be known? Followed by making a drawing
Change mastery in any discipline is only achieved when integrating mind, body and spirit.
Athletes and artists use hubris all the time.
What Arthur learned working with Angelina Jolie, Sean Connery and sports’ world champions
Their extraordinary commitment to excellence: a champion does it differently.
Joseph teaches them that everything in life costs something, and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to be at world stage the highest level.
Related: Unleashing Your Full Voice
Favorite quotations
“Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous – to poetry.” — Thomas Mann
“I rhyme, to see myself, to set the darkness echoing.” — Seamus Heaney
Recommended book
Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Routine to Shine
Write down in a piece of paper “Stature”
* Embody ourselves in stature
* Say “thank you”
* Create our persona statement (how do I want to be known?)
* Write our vision statement
* Attach a goal statement and timeline
More details on Arthur’s TEDx talk
Links
Special offer: Use coupon code 100OFFVVP and get 100 USD off for Visual ...136. Elena Paweta: TEDx 10th Anniversary, Time to Organize Your Own?
What TEDx is
TEDx are independently organized events by curious individuals under a free license granted by TED. In TEDx, speakers—usually not well-know people—share new ideas worth spreading.
TEDx 10th Anniversary, Time to Organize Your Own?
This year 2019, TEDx celebrates its 10th anniversary. If you want to organize a TEDx event on your own town, get the license, create your team, and then Elena recommends focusing on four key areas:
* Speakers
* Marketing
* Partners
* Logistics
Related: Success Stories from Coaching Hundreds of TEDx Talks
Favorite quotation
“If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.” — unknown
Recommended book
Game Changers by Dave Asprey
Routine to Shine
Be with smart people, great people. If you want to be a great speaker, be where great speakers are. Learn from them and become better and better.
Links
Elena at LinkedIn
TEDx Warsaw Women
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also, I’d appreciate if you write a review in iTunes or 135. Rosemarie Barnes: Powerful Beginnings, Memorable Endings
Powerful beginnings
Rosemarie’s best advice for powerful beginnings are:
* Open with a bold statement
* Ask an engaging question, that can’t be answered with a yes or no
* Don’t waste time “thanking to be there”
Memorable Endings
Rosemarie’s best advice for memorable endings are:
* A takeaway, an actionable item, a call to action.
* Just before ending, she does a step back and says “My name is Rosemarie Barnes, my company is Confident Stages. I champion leaders to speak to succeed, speak to engage, speak to share, and I am at your service”
* End with a smile
* Do not ignore applause, acknowledge it.
Voice variety is important for both beginnings and endings. Change pace, tonality, and use pauses.
Related: Unleashing Your Full Voice
Favorite quotation
“No one can give you confidence because confidence comes from your assessment of yourself; only you can bestow trust in your own abilities.” — Rosemarie herself
Recommended book
Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman
Routine to Shine
“Making Diamonds”
The recipe for making diamonds requires a carbon substance, time, and pressure. We are the carbon substance, and time is supplied via practice sessions. We supply the pressure by squeezing our cheeks, but not the ones on our faces. By compressing our backsides, our posteriors, the backs of our fronts, we engage our core muscles. When the core is engaged, we stand taller, prouder, and breathe more deeply. We can think more clearly because more oxygen is routed to our higher thinking functions and all that higher thinking results in diamonds of wisdom. When the core is engaged in this way,134. Pacelle Van Goethem: Charisma and Persuasion
What charisma is
Charisma is the power to persuade others. In order to be persuaded, three things need to happen in the brain:
* The prefrontal cortex has to recognize the message or person as normal or expected.
* The Hipocampus has to recognize the message or person as familiar or pleasant.
* The Amigdala should not be alarmed.
The trick of persuasion is to find out what the other person thinks is normal, as this varies accross cultures.
Three styles of persuasion
* Authority. Examples: A general practitioner, doctor, and among well-know people: Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin.
* Friend. Examples: Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey , Michele Obama.
* Role model. Examples: Elon Musk, Serena Williams.
It’s a good idea you combine the three styles.
Related: Persuasion Lessons from Cats and Pop Culture
Favorite quotations
“All my life I wanted to be me, and I’ve never been myself more than in the last six months.” — Karen Budel
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” — Henry Ford
Recommended book
Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Routine to Shine
The Obama voice exercise. Use lower pitch voice to sound authoritative.
Links
Book: True Persuasion
Email to Pacelle: [email protected]
Summer School of Rhetoric 2019
133. Barbara McAfee: Unleashing Your Full Voice
Unleashing your full voice
In late 80s Barbara participated in workshops about sounds by Roy Hart Centre. That opened her voice and changed her life to become a voice coach.
Barbara believes that for unleashing your full voice:
* You must start paying attention to your voice.
* Find the different five elements in your voice (earth, fire, water, metal, air), and learn how to use them in different situations.
The most common problem found in voices
Many people are stuck in one or two ways of speaking, stuck in a habit. It works well in only part of their lives.
Barbara’s TEDx talks
Barbara has done two excellent TEDx talks:
* Bringing Your Full Voice to Life
* How Oral Tradition Singing Helps Us Live & Work Better Together
Related: Let Your Leadership Voice Shine Through
Favorite quotations
“To free the voice is to free the person.” — Kristin Linklater
“The voice is the muscle of the soul.” — Alfred Wolfsohn
Recommended books
The Human Voice by Anne Karpf
Full Voice: The Art and Practice of Vocal Presence by Barbara McAfee
Routine to Shine
Practice the 5 voices (earth, 132. Elisa Heikura: Can We Overcome Impostor Syndrome?
What impostor syndrome is
A deep fear that makes you feel you will be revealed as a fraud. Feeling that people will realize that you have no idea what you are doing, and you’re not as competent as you are.
Elisa discovered that every single developer suffers from impostor syndrome. They are always in constant change: everything is changing.
From a public speaking perspective, impostor syndrome prevents people getting onstage, prevents you from starting.
Can we overcome impostor syndrome?
Not completely, but good things to do are:
* Switch the focus to how can I serve, help others.
* Share your own stories, especially a struggle story.
Elisa also believes that meditating and writing a journal are good habits that help you prevent impostor syndrome.
Related: Free Yourself from Self-Criticism
Favorite quotation
“‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’
‘That is the only time a man can be brave,’ his father told him.”
— George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
Recommended book
The Power of Vulnerability (audiobook) by Brené Brown
Routine to Shine
Look yourself at the mirror and say “I love you, I accept you as you are.”
Links
Elisa at Twitter
Developerhood
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also, I’d appreciate if you write a review in iTunes or Stitcher.131. Martin Shovel: Cartoon Thinking is Essential for Communicators
Martin becomes a cartoonist
Martin became both cartoonist and speechwriter by accident. Martin’s first cartoonist work was the book Making Sense of Phrasal Verbs when he was an English teacher in Brighton back in the mid-80s.
Martin becomes a speechwriter
After more than 20 years as a full-time cartoonist, Martha (his wife) and Martin decided to make an animation to promote their company. The animation was Busting the Mehrabian Myth which became viral and made Martha and Martin well-know in the speech-writing community.
Cartoon thinking is essential for communicators
To Martin, it’s essential for a speaker or speechwriter to be visual.
Great examples of cartoon thinking are:
* “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” by Winston Churchill.
* “Tear down this wall” phrase that Reagan said to Gorbachev.
* A successful probe put into a meteor achievement was described as “like trying to land a fly on a speeding bullet.”
Martin also believes that everybody can draw a cartoon.
Related: When Subject Matter Experts Speak to Wide Audiences
Favorite quotation
“Keep typing until it turns into writing.” — David Carr
Recommended book
Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff
Routine to Shine
Every time you hear or read a striking metaphor, jot it down. Keep a record of them.
Links
Martin at Twitter
130. Kate Jurva: When Subject Matter Experts Speak to Wide Audiences
Main challenges subject matter experts face in terms of effective communication
When subject matter experts speak to wide audiences, they have these main challenges:
* A contradiction between what experts want to say and what the audience wants to hear.
* A wider audience wants to hear something relatable.
Most common situations subject matter experts have to face
* Talks and panels, especially talking to their peers.
* Media interviews from time to time.
* Social media, personal accounts. Getting involved in societal conversations or talking about their research. On institutional accounts, there will be more videos.
Kate’s best piece of advice for an expert in communicating effectively to wide audiences
* Check your education and experience at the door. Drop jargon. Ask the event organizer who is the audience, and work from there.
* Step into the world and the audience’s world too.
* Let yourself be excited about the topic, the event, the occasion, or the audience.
Some great examples
* Aalto University’s new sustainable method to develop fabrics used in Jenni Haukio’s gown, an innovation for the fashion industry.
* Bill Nye Saves the World
* Justin Troudeau describing what quantum computing is.
Related: Scientist to Speaker.129. Jay Heinrichs: Persuasion Lessons from Cats and Pop Culture
Inspiration to write books
In a section of semi-abandoned books of a library, Jay found a thick book with notes handwritten by John Quincy Adams (6th President of the USA) who recommended to his students a long list of books about rhetoric and persuasion. During many years Jay read everything John Quincy Adams recommended. Since Jay became a persuasion expert, he has written three books. “Thank You for Arguing” has had immense international success and has become the de facto book on rhetoric for high schools students in the USA. It was followed by “Word Hero.” For his very latest book “How to Argue with a Cat” Jay partnered with illustrator Natalie Palmer-Sutton which converted the book in a non-conventional artwork.
Persuasion lessons from cats and pop culture
While writing the book “Thank You for Arguing” Jay struggled to find real and engaging examples of rhetorical logic that would not bore the readers, and to explain concepts such as fallacy. Jay’s son suggested to watch The Simpson on TV, and that was where he found numerous examples as Simpsons’ humor is largely based on fallacies.
From the book How to Argue with a CAT, Jay shared three ideas with us:
* When people disagree, the one who generally wins is the one who seems to be arguing less.
* Posture is extremely important, and cats have amazing posture. The eyes are the windows to the soul.
* Cats are extraordinary at fitting in small places, they can squeeze in any box. Your success depends on your ability to convince your audience that you fit in. The cat changes itself, and that’s what you need to do with your audience.
Related: Business Rhetoric
Favorite quotation
“We shape our houses and then they shape us.” — Winston Churchill
* The quote was written as a “chiasmus” figure...128. Michael Davis: How to Create Your Best Stories
Your ability to tell meaningful stories may be your most important business skill. It can help you become known as an expert, create opportunities, save you time and make you more money. Today’s guest should know. He has used this skill to build a speaking and speech coaching business. He is the author of ‘THE Book on Storytelling’ and the Kindle series ‘Sell More With Stories.’ Additionally, he coaches TEDx speakers, CEOs and entrepreneurs, and speakers all over the world. Let’s welcome Michael Davis.
Top mistakes speakers make when telling stories
There are two main mistakes:
* Not telling the internal conflict of their stories. People might not relate to your external conflict but will definitely relate to the internal conflict: not having confidence, feeling afraid, not having the courage to take a step, etc. Those are all relatable.
* Too many stories are in monologue. Instead, use dialogue so the audience feels is in the scene with you. “Don’t retell the story, re-live it.”
Sailing the 7Cs to Sensational Storytelling
These seven steps will help you to create your best stories:
* Character
* Circumstances
* Conflict
* Cure
* Change
* Carryout Message
* Conversations
The most important is change.
How long a story can be?
A good story with these seven elements can be just 2-3 minutes long. Most business stories have to be very short.
Related: The Power of Story in Business
Favorite quotation
“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.” — Muhammad Ali
Recommended book
Storytelling Made Easy by Michael Hauge
Routine to Shine
Practice silence, practice pausing. The biggest contradiction of speaking is that the best speakers know how to use silence. When you ask a question in your rehearsals be silent for 5, 6, 7 seconds.
Links
SpeakingCPR
52 Storytelling Tips
127. Deepak Menon: Great Leaders are Great Speakers
The world needs more effective leaders
The world needs effective leaders, not just leaders. An effective leader really cares about the people around, is willing to go out and do whatever is required for the betterment of society, has a clear vision, and is completely selfless.
How you become a great speaker
Practice, practice, practice. That’s the key element to become better at anything in life. The key is that you implement the feedback you receive. Transfer what you learned in Toastmasters to your professional life. Deepak has delivered speeches at least a thousand times and has received an evaluation in around 80% of them.
Great leaders are great speakers
Without great communication skills leaders won’t be able to communicate their vision and how their goals need to be implemented. Examples of great leaders and speakers are:
* Abraham Lincoln who is remembered for his speeches.
* Martin Luther King Jr who became a leader only because he had great communication skills and show his vision of tomorrow.
Related: Being Myself Made Me a Champion
Favorite quotation
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” — John C. Maxwell
“The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose.” — Deepak Menon
Recommended book
Drive by Daniel Pink
Routine to Shine
Walk one hour per day. Meditate while walking.
Links
Toastmasters International
Deepak at LinkedIn
P.S. If you liked this episode,126. Karen Leong: The Two Pillars of Influence
What influence is
Influence is the ability to change the way people think, feel and to inspire action.
The two pillars of influence
Karen discovered that influence has two pillars: Like and Respect.
Like opens the door to influence, and Respect holds it open.
Likeability has two core points:
* People like people who like them.
* People like people who are like themselves.
How to close the gap with people? Find the common. When you speak, the best way is to talk about shared values among your audience and you.
Mistakes people make in building influence
* Some people when increase respect, they decrease likeability. An example is someone that once becomes a boss creates a distance with the others. The opposite is a mistake too.
* Selling all the time, talking great about yourself all the time.
Can we measure influence?
You can measure social media influence, such as the number of engagements.
Influence per se is hard to measure. It’s about taking action where people can actually see. Actions must be: simple, repetitive, and visible. Even a smile can get results.
Related: How to Become Highly Influential in Your Field
Favorite quotation
“The quality of the conversations you have with anyone dictates the quality of our relationship.” — Karen Leong
Recommended book
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Routine to Shine
Schedule 15 minutes to spend time with your creativity every single day: write, read fiction, speak for free, share a post on LinkedIn with an idea you really love, write in your journal, etc.
Links
125. Mikael Hugg: Action Matters Most to Crush the Fear of Speaking
Why a book on the fear of public speaking?
People are not trained to control their feelings, so the natural “butterflies in the stomach” becomes a negative snowball effect. When you learn how to deal with it, these feelings empower you and help you to do your best.
Mikael once was on the stage pitching his startup. After a minute or so, the judge said “I’m going to stop you right now. I have zero idea what you’re talking about. Get out of the stage.” That was a devastating moment and a crossroad in life: either I quit speaking in public or I become better. Mikael chose to become better.
Mikael’s top piece of advice on public speaking
Some people fear being on stage, others fear before going onstage.
* Rationalize “why I’m feeling like this?” Then realize that someone believes in you, that you’re there for a reason, and believe you have something worth sharing.
* To become a charismatic speaker, you must be a rock star version of you. Maximize your persona onstage. Don’t try to be someone else as you will look fake. Figure out what are the key things on your persona that make you unique, and enhance them.
* You have to practice, to go onstage. If you want to learn to ride a bike, you can read a book, watch tutorials YouTube videos, hear advice. But if you don’t touch the pedals you will never learn. You need the field experience.
Bad piece of advice on the fear of public speaking
There is a lot of bad piece of advice, Mikael says, for example:
* “When you rehearse, record yourself with a camera.” This might be counterproductive unless you’ve been trained to appear on TV.
* But the worst is: “Imagine your audience naked.”
Related: 124. Siim Land: Communication Secrets from a YouTuber and Coach
The skills that make a successful YouTuber
The skills foll into four groups:
* Communication skills. Unlike giving a talk, on YouTube you can take several takes until you sound polished. In a talk you don’t have a second chance. You have to be good communicator, presenter, to have some charismatic skills and uniqueness in your personality.
* Video editing skills, how YouTube algorithm works, create thumbnails, etc.
* Understand psychology of humans: what to do so they want to subscribe, watch more of your videos.
* Business, marketing, sales skills in order to make your YouTube channel a business. YouTube wants that people stays in YouTube, watch more videos, subscribe. YouTube penalizes you if you add a link on the video that directs to other pages. YouTube wants your session time to be long (the time a watcher spends on your video or other videos in the platform).
How to be eloquent in videos
You might not be interested in becoming a YouTuber but occasionally you will appear in a video, let’s say on an interview.
Get out of your own head. Don’t focus on the aspect of being in front of a camera or that you will be watched by thousands of people. Free yourself and focus in the interaction with the other person (e.g. the interviewer). Focus on how you explain this to a single person.
Related: Authentic Video Stories on Internet
Favorite quotation
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom” — Viktor Frankl
Recommended book
A Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Routine to Shine
Have periods when you’re practicing for at least 10-15 minutes without interruptions. Do it frequently.
Links
Siim’s YouTube channel
123. Ramona J. Smith: Being Myself Made Me a Champion
Ramona’s journey to become a world champion of public speaking
It all started when she joined Toastmasters International in 2010. In 2015 she won the District level of speech contests, just one step behind the world semifinals. Later that year she attended the final live in Las Vegas and visualized herself winning one day. At that time she set the goal to become a world champion of public speaking and posted it on Facebook.
Her winning speech
Ramona wrote her speech “Still standing” just the night before the finals. She had one speech prepared but once she was speaking in the semifinals and engaging with the audience, she felt it wasn’t a winning speech. The title of the planned speech was “Keep living”, and she threw it away. In her new speech she was talking about failures and overcoming them, and the idea of boxing came to her mind: the champion is the last one still standing.
Recommended: Special Promotion
Being myself made me a champion
For Ramona, the most impactful tool was just being herself, confident in her own uniqueness. She was making a fool of herself by doing box movements but that was what made her a champion.
The importance of coaching and mentoring
In her winning speech, Ramona also talks about how a coach can help someone who has been knocked by life. She strongly believes in the importance of coaching and mentoring. “Times are gonna get hard and if you don’t have anybody, you might just give up and throw the towel.”
Ramona’s ultimate piece of advice to become world champion
Speak. Make sure someone gives you feedback.122. Mark Black: Increasing Your Fee. When and Why it Makes Sense to Charge More for What you Do
Increasing your fee
Once you have had your first paid speaking gigs and you’re thinking about raising your fees, there are two main ways to know if it’s the right time to do it:
* If you’re struggling to fill your calendar, that’s probably not the right time to increase your fees. If you’re too busy, that’s the right time.
* The other good time to raise your fee is when you’re doing well but you don’t want to be that busy. For instance, you don’t want to be traveling too much anymore. Charge higher and you’ll have less engagements with a similar income per year.
Most common mistakes in setting your speaking fees
* Charging a high fee because “it looks good.” If you don’t have enough happy customers, you might be charging too high for now.
* Waiting too long to raise fee. Some speakers are afraid that they will lose clients and will not get booked again. The truth is that demanding customers (big corporations) will never hire you if your fees are low because they judge how good you are based on your fees.
What to invest in to become a more highly valued speaker
* Improve your material continuously. Invest your time improving your speech, script, presentation slides, etc. Hire a speaking coach. If your style is more educational, do more research.
* Invest in the business side. Figure out your weaknesses and hire someone to help you: marketing, video production, accounting, web design, etc. You can always upgrade as you go.
121. Bernadette Butler: Authentic Video Stories on Internet
StoryTap story
Bernadette believes that everybody has a story, and that one of the best ways a company can use for influence people today is with real life stories in videos. In US, companies spend 135 billion dollars a year just producing digital video ads. It takes 10 weeks to produce a really good video. StoryTap was created to fill this gap, how to give a brand a volume of videos, while being authentic by telling stories.
StoryTap was built for marketers, a DIY tool in which the marketer directs the story. The customer fills the blanks of “story guides.” Also, StoryTap can redo sections as many times as wished.
How to use storytelling in an effective way
Three are the worst common scenarios when someone is asked to make a video review (or testimonial) for a company:
* Putting it off repeatedly because of not knowing how to start.
* Writing a script and reading it.
* Rambling.
An example of a story guide is: “My favorite thing about [this product] is …”
The best channels for spreading digital videos today
Facebook is the first because of its reach.
Instagram is good but it has its own restrictions: mobile-only, short videos (60 seconds), and videos are shot vertically.
LinkedIn is the one Bernadette was impressed the most, specially because of the large targeted audience you can reach and the interaction of the videos.
Authentic video stories on Internet
Bernadette’s best piece of advice for creating authentic video stories on Internet is:
* Less is more. Say in a sentence first, instead of a paragraph. Keep the video under 2 minutes.
* Lighting and sound. Don’t be in front of a window as you’ll look dark. Speak loud enough, don’t whisper.
* Smile. Use facial expressions.
* Do several versions of the video. Do A/B tests.
Related: The Art of Explanation
Favorite quotation
“Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.” — David Ogilvy
Recommended books
120. Jim Love: Speaking to Young Audiences
Authentic leadership
Few words describe what authentic leadership is: Love who you are and what you became. Who I am is exactly who I am called to be. The most important thing is that you accept yourself.
Jim particularly admires the following people as authentic leaders of today:
Chris Pratt (movie star, gave a speech at the MTV Movie Awards recently)
Erika Nardini (CEO of Barstool Sports-influential woman in journalism)
Ellen Degeneres (talk show host, comedian and all around positive influence)
Speaking to Young Audiences
Jim gives us a few ideas to pay attention when speaking to high school and young college students:
* Don’t be something you’re not. Be yourself.
* Don’t think you’re so different from them. We all want to be part of something bigger. The main difference is that they’re in Instagram, Snapchat a lot and that pulls them away from where they want to be.
* Relate to them and listen.
* They don’t want to be lectured at. Have a dialog.
Related: Let Your Leadership Voice Shine Through
Favorite quotation
“Your imperfections are marks of authenticity, and that is the beauty of you.” —Isaac King Fowler
Recommended book
The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle (How to become a servant leader) by James C Hunter
Routine to Shine
* Practice gratitude on a weekly basis. Thank for something that a person has done for you in the past: write a letter, call, send a sms.
119. Joel Schwartzberg: Get to the Point!
Get to the point!
The most fundamental part of a successful communication is the point. If you don’t have one, you become pointless, you’re virtually useless.
A point is an argument, a proposal of value. It has to be very clear, very specific.
For instance:
* “Podcasting” is not a point.
* “The importance of podcasting” is not a point.
* “Podcasting is the best way to reach middle-level managers” is a point.
How do you know if you have a point?
Do the “I believe that” test: Take what you think your point is and add “I believe that” in front of it. If you have a complete sentence, you have a point.
How to communicate your point effectively
Three steps:
* First, take the “I believe that test” to your talk.
* Look for “Badjectives.” Replace “great,” “amazing,” “awesome” for concrete, real words.
* Look for “Split ends.” People digest only one idea at a time. Choose which one is the most relevant for that audience.
People who speak to the point
There has been good point makers in the recent college commencement speeches.
Rex Tillerson at the Virginia Military Institute. His point was: A good leader preserves his integrity by surrounding himself with those who exemplify integrity.
Sen. Jeff Flake at Harvard Law School. His point was: Resisting following the herd blindly will result in more fulfillment and success.
You can find more examples from this commencement speeches’ season in Joel’s blog article.
Taylor Swift also made a great point back in 2016 when she received the Grammy for “Album of the Year.118. Mette Højen: Business Rhetoric
Business Rhetoric
Business rhetoric is the art of speaking and behaving convincingly in your daily business life. Classical rhetoric was not suited for business. The concept came from Mette’s daily work, working with business people and recognizing their needs and situations.
Training zone vs Performance zone
In business we perform a lot but we don’t set much time aside for practice. Very few business people do. In contrast, musicians and athletes spend many hours in the “training zone.”
Mette suggests us to pick one thing at a time to practice, a little achievable goal.
At some point you need a coach to point you in the right direction. Later you can use exercises that you practice yourself. The power circle is a good exercise created by Mette that helps you get to the point.
Rhetorical strategy
Inspired by Cicero. Mette believes that the main problem in business communication is that we inform people too much.
We have to activate people so they will feel more motivated. When they are motivated they will understand more. You must decide in advance the percentage of time that will go to Inform, Motivate, and Activate.
Time is also very important. When do we need to speak about the past, when do we need to speak about the present and when do we need to speak about the future? People often talk too much about the past.
The 3 channels of communication
We must gain control of the 3 channels of communication (verbal, para-verbal, non-verbal). Beyond what you say, it’s also important how your voice sounds and what the body language says. How your voice sounds and how you look needs to match the content of your speech or conversation.
The Speaker Spots
People are often wandering as mad lions in a cage. Instead, match your speech outline with spots in the stage, in the following sequence:
* Spot 1. You start in the middle of the stage
* Spot 2. You are in one of the two sides (e.g. left)
* Spot 3. You are in the other side (e.g. right)
* Spot 4. You are just behind the Spot 1
* Back to Spot 1 to tell the action part of your speech
117. Adam Markel: Enrollment is Never Leaving Your Audience Behind
Enrollment is Never Leaving Your Audience Behind
Enrollment = relationship. In context of sales, people talk about “closing” sales. Enrollment is opening relationships with no end in mind, and never leaving people behind. Relationship is something that you open and don’t close it.
Common mistakes speakers and trainers do in enrollment
* The number one mistake is: Not Pausing. A speaker keeps speaking without noticing that some people could not follow you and were left behind, not asking questions to the audience.
* Speaking from your head only. Make sure you speak from your heart too, keeping a balance.
* Being too ego-centered, talking about things you are interested in but not listening to your audience very well.
* Not recognizing different learning styles. Everybody learns differently, that is why a trainer should involve the audience in talking, writing, even touching.
Great examples of enrollment
There are trainers and organizations doing enrollment. Look for “accelerated learning,” “superlearning.” Often NLP trainers are great examples too. In particular trainers such as Jay Abraham, Ken Honda, and Jack Canfield.
Finally, the best TED talks do fabulous at enrolling.
Related: Great Speakers are Great Facilitators
Favorite quotation
“I love my life”
Recommended book
116. Laura Sicola: Let Your Leadership Voice Shine Through
How today’s leaders are
Leaders know that establishing their speaking voice is more important than ever. They are already on the spotlight: appearing in podcasts, on the TV, magazines, etc. Without soft skills and critical communication skills, leaders will not achieve the desired level of influence.
Some leaders are more aware of the need, whereas others think they are “good enough.” Laura says that being “good enough” is the kiss of death, because in the best case it will make you “average.”
The most common mistakes that leaders make in communication is the lack of alignment between the message, body language, and voice. Credibility is built on the coherence of these three elements. Oftentimes leaders put a lot of effort in the content but neglect the voice, delivery.
Let your leadership voice shine through
If you want let your leadership shine through, the first thing you must think of is: Plan.
Plan your talk. Before any talk, meeting, presentation, ask yourself: How do I want to be heard? Which leadership qualities I want to project? Do I want to come across as being confident, charismatic? Approachable and Easy going? Or rather strong and determined?
Don’t just plan your content, plan your body language and voice. Take control and create your leadership image.
Great examples of leaders are Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs. Winfrey speaks with a warm tone but her passion comes out. Steve Jobs was low key not high energy, but you could feel his intensity and he sounded very sure about everything he said. In their own different styles, both are equally powerful and influential.
Related: 115. Alexei Kapterev: Structure Your Presentation
Structure Your Presentation
A presentation is like a building: without a solid structure it will collapse. Alexei recommends us to start organizing information in a logical way. There are four things you can do with the audience:
* Inform people
* Entertain people
* Influence people’s decision making
* Be in a dialog, give them options
The goal is to mix these four building blocks together, in a logical sequence. If you are just informing, it’s boring. If you are just entertaining, it is funny but pointless. If you are just selling, you are pushing too much. If you are just in a dialog, you are not achieving any goal. You must mix all four according to your audience’s needs and expectations.
Related: How to Master Compelling Storytelling
Favorite quotation
“Never write a speech which is not part of a campaign.”
Recommended book
Anatomy of a story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller by John Truby
Routine to Shine
Do this weekly. Take a chapter of a fiction book. Read and record it. Listen to it. You hear that sometimes you understand, sometimes you don’t. You shouldn’t say anything unless you have a clear picture of what you’re trying to say. Do it again.
Links
Death by PowerPoint
“Presentation Secrets” book
Alexei at Coursera
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also, I’d appreciate if you write a review in 114. Chris Schoenwald: Speak with Passion
What passion is
A textbook definition of passion usually relates back to the following: “A strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something.” Passion is the emotion that drives people forward. Especially when things become challenging or all together dreadful. In essence, it is a rocket fuel that helps people rise to the top.
Who is speaking with passion today?
The people who are atop their professions, businesses, industries are those speaking with passion. Those who don’t speak with passion consistently are the ones that are more than likely still struggling to achieve success.
For reference, some of the biggest names who speak with passion include: Anthony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk and Susan Cain. Although their styles of presentation may be different, the connection between the three is that they all truly stand behind their words and beliefs.
Speak with passion
Chris thinks it is essential to step back, reflect and ask yourself some poignant questions. What deeper motivations do you have as a person? And how could they be reflected in your presentation or talk?
Other mental exercises include asking yourself questions like: How would you like to be defined as professionally speaking ten years from now? How would you like to be remembered?
Finally, study yourself when you are speaking about something you have passion for. Notice how you change when speaking about something you love. This is now your gold standard of you speaking with passion.
Any time you veer off that path or notice your passion levels dropping, stop, reflect and find ways to further wire your passions into your presentation objectives.
Related: As a Speaker, What Makes You Unique?113. Tim Pollard: Five Tools for Becoming a Compelling Communicator
Five tools for becoming a compelling communicator
* Big ideas matter. Figure out your big ideas by asking the question – “what does my audience need to BELIEVE in order to take the action I want them to take?” The answer to that question gives you your big ideas. In life, action is preceded by belief.
* It’s important than an argument be well sequenced. To get your sequence right, for each point you make, ask “what question will this raise in my audience’s mind…?” Then answer that question. This will show you the importance of a logical sequence of ideas.
* Export your insights. Make sure you draw the conclusions coming out of your data and illustrations for the audience. If you don’t they will draw the (likely wrong) conclusions for themselves. Unfortunately, the reality is that 90% of presenters leave the audience to draw their conclusion.
* Engage the right brain. Most communication is forgotten. The way to make your argument truly sticky is to plant it in the right brain by using powerful stories, visuals and – especially – physical artifacts.
* Craft the ‘leave-behind’. Ultimately the biggest key to the stickiness and “retellability” of an argument is the document you leave behind. Dump your PowerPoint decks. People won’t re-present those. Build a document designed for retelling and watch the virus of your message spread. In practice, create a handout in one page with four or five key elements. InDesign is a great tool for this.
Related: Tell Big Ideas or Be Forgotten
Favorite quotation
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” — Ernest Hemingway
Recommended book
112. Ronnie Grandell: Free Yourself from Self-Criticism
His TEDx experiences
Ronnie has given two TEDx talks. First Ronnie talked about self compassion: what means treating yourself as you would treat a good friend, especially during hard times. His second TEDx talk was about self-criticism.
What is self-criticism
Self-criticism is an aggressive, hostile and condemning way of relating to oneself that pushes us down instead of forward, or pushes us forward with fear and pressure.
Self-criticism for speakers and performers
It’s important to distinguish harsh self-criticism from constructive feedback and self-correction. Harsh inner self-criticism will wear us down, while constructive self-correction builds us up.
Self-criticism can impact you as a performer in a few different ways.
* Turn you down from applying for an audition, trying, beginning a project.
* During the preparation stage the inner voice can tell you “you’ve got to do it perfect” and the result is avoiding practice.
* Right before or during the event itself, it can trigger a negative emotion that will sabotage the performance.
Once Barbra Streisand forgot her lyrics in a big concert, and her self-criticism stopped her from performing live for 27 years.
Free yourself from self-criticism
There are two important questions to ask ourselves after a performance in order to stay constructive and stay out of the self-criticism trap: 1) What worked, what went well. 2) What didn’t go so well, what can be improved and can be used it for the next time. Answering these questions will keep you in a growth mindset.
Some suggestions for freeing yourself from self-criticism: 1) Recognize it. 2) Give it a name. 3) Be assertive towards the inner critic. 4) Do what you want, not what your self-criticism suggests.
111. Kelly Swanson: The Power of Story in Business
Why stories are important in business?
We’re all in the business of persuasion. No matter what you’re selling and whom you’re selling to, people buy from people they like, trust, and feel they know. Stories are the best tool to take facts and data into people’s hearts. In business this is strategic storytelling.
The Power of Story in Business
A story is a tool, a strategic tool. Stories are about real life situations: people with problems that are solved, and the lesson on it.
A effective story in business should be made in five minutes or less, with just three paragraphs:
* Context
* What happened
* What you learned from it
Additionally, in every story you have three stories in one. These three stories or perspectives are:
* About me (the speaker)
* About the brand
* About you (the customer)
What is the most difficult thing when crafting stories for a business?
People get stuck before they ever sit down to start a story. People are just looking for a good story without knowing why they are telling it and what the tool needs to do. Stop looking for the best story.
Related: How to Master Compelling Storytelling
Favorite quotation
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Recommended book
The Story Factor by Annette Simmons
Routine to Shine
Make yourself write: do journal, write articles, write every day.
Links
Kelly Swanson YouTube channel
Kelly Swanson website
110. Pres Vasilev: How to Master Compelling Storytelling
Pres Vasilev rose above 30,000 competitive speakers from 122 countries to become the 2013 World Champion of Public Speaking. He is the author of the popular virtual training program “How to Master Compelling Storytelling.” As a sales expert and professional speaker, Pres delivers sales trainings and motivational keynotes. His award-winning speech coaching program has helped hundreds of people from around the world deliver compelling presentations and win speech contests. When you join his coaching program, you easily become a better speaker – quicker!
How Pres prepared to win the World Championship of Public Speaking
Ever since winning the World Championship of Public Speaking, Pres has been coaching other speakers how to find, craft and deliver compelling stories that win.
Here are seven preparation secrets that will help you on your journey to the top:
1. Practice, practice, practice in front of different audiences.
2. Be proactive about getting feedback.
3. Get focused feedback with your customized evaluation form.
4. Hand out your evaluation form AFTER your speech.
5. Video record every speech and evaluate your delivery.
6. Be open to ideas.
7. Look for patterns in the feedback.
The 6 powers of a compelling story
In his award-winning speech coaching program, Pres helps his clients master the six powers of a compelling story:
1. The Power of Attention
2. The Power of Imagination
3. The Power of Emotion
4. The Power of Memory
5. The Power of Meaning
6. The Power of Influence
The 5 key elements of a compelling story
In his virtual training program “How to Master Compelling Storytelling,” Pres breaks down the storytelling process step by step and takes you by the hand from brainstorm to platform.
To help you craft winning speeches, here is his simple storytelling formula:
Setting – transport your audience to a specific time and place.
The Hero – connect with your audience through your weakness.
Obstacle – share your external and internal obstacles.
Resolution – show how you overcame the obstacles.
Your Point – make one simple, clear point.
Related:
109. Ira Virtanen: The Power of Poetry Reading for Public Speakers
The power of poetry reading for public speakers
Ira believes that poetry can greatly enhance one’s public speaking. Why? A great speech speaks to the minds and the hearts of the listener. When the goals of the speaker and the listener are met, the speech can be considered to be a success.
You need to choose the content of the speech in a way that it addresses the concerns that the listener has and to use words that the listener understands, that speak to the many layers of who we are as people. Finding common ground, finding a space in which the speaker and the listener are equal or recognize the similarities in each other is most beneficial. Poetry is such a vessel: Poems describe experience that we all can relate to.
The following three things are useful:
* Imagery
Use language that stimulates the senses of the listener because words carry meaning, they carry emotions, they raise emotions and heighten our senses.
* Comparison
Use similes or metaphors. Reading poetry gives you a ton of unusual, fresh, accurate, surprising metaphors and imagery. In sum, you can happily bid farewell to clichés.
* Music
Poetry teaches you about assonance and alliteration, rhyme, and rhythm.
How to be great at reading poetry
A person is great at reading poetry when they become the experience that the poem describes. This means that you become aware of your own story,108. Marija Mikalauskiene: Fear Can Make You Stronger
What fear is
When Marija was at school, she loved reciting poems and participating in rhetoric contests. Once, just two minutes before going to the stage, her teacher told Marija all the things that were wrong with her. That caused a fearful experience that made her to develop fear of speaking, which lasted for many years. But Marija came back years later to overcome it and make a career in public speaking. To Marija, fear is nature’s energy to make us powerful.
Fear can make you stronger
Marija is convinced that fear can make you stronger, and that fear doesn’t mean you’re a coward. Her approach to unleash this power has three elements: physiology, psychology and focus.
1. Physiology
* Shake your body. Just before going to the stage, shake your body. Try this Qi Gong exercise.
* Breathe deeply. We tend to contract our upper body and that causes the breath to become shallow.
* Power pose. Adopt a body posture that will make you feel powerful. Pretend to be courageous until you become one.
2. Psychology
* Redefine what you associate with fear. If you associate fear with your mistakes and failures, you turn all that power against you. Accept fear and redirect this energy.
* Forgive your mistakes. Redefine a mistake into a lesson.
3. Focus
* Mission. Today most of people can’t focus in anything–including your speech–unless the mission is huge and very important for them. People with a strong belief in their mission are less prone to lose focus when speaking.107. Drumm McNaughton: Communicating Change. Stories from a Pilot
What change management is
Change management is the process, tools and techniques to prepare and support individuals, teams and organizations in making change.
Communicating change
The top-down approach of communicating has drastically changed. Traditionally, the CEO was the one communicating change in a company.
But if you collaborate with stakeholders, communicate with them why the change is coming, engage them to work on this together, and how we should work this, the results are different. With a shared vision, you don’t get resistance to change. This approach is called referent leadership. To put it in a few words, people support what they help create. Jack Welch (former CEO at GE) was known to be good at this approach.
Stories from a pilot
In his experience, Drumm discovered that flying and change management had a lot in common. Once Drumm was flying along the coast of Italy, he faced fire warning and heard the loud alarm horn. He felt his heartbeat raising. But he knew that pilots were trained to “handle a problem, deal with your emotions later” and that is how he proceeded in this and other similar situations.
Related: Leaders Have to Illuminate the Path
Favorite quotations
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” — Albert Einstein
“Everybody is a Genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” — Albert Einstein
Recommended books
Leading Change by John P. Kotter
The Living Company by Arie De Geus
Power vs. Force by David R. Hawkins
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
Routine to Shine
Every good speaker should meditate.106. Peter Ivanov: Leadership Challenges in the Digital Age
Leadership challenges in the digital age
According to Forrester Research, today 81% of all teams globally are already virtual teams. A virtual team is like an atom, in which members have gravity towards the goal. Poorly managed teams lose gravity over time. During his 20 years of international managerial experience, Peter has developed a highly effective method: The 10 Big Rocks.
* Personality focus
* Strengths matrix
* Interdependence goals
* Forums and agenda
* Knowledge management
* Regular feedback
* Recognition
* Diversity
* How to establish a winning spirit
* Generation of team leaders
Virtual Power Teams book
Virtual Power Teams is a book written in a dramatic narrative, a business novel. As of today, the book is available in Bulgarian, English and German.
Communication challenges in virtual teams
A typical communication challenge is problems with accents. To mitigate this, put your questions in the chat, speak slowly, use less idioms.
Everyone must have a weekly slot to tell something personal, such as: I just ran a marathon, I am doing this new hobby, etc. Do it once deep in the initial workshop, and then only two minutes every week. The members will feel like they are spending time together.
It’s key to have a moderator who makes an agenda and keeps track of the time.
Tools for virtual power teams
Peter’s book covers several tools for virtual power teams. These best practices must be complemented with technology tools such as:
105. Lee LeFever: The Art of Explanation
The first “explainer” of the YouTube era
Lee started creating explainer videos in 2003. At that time, social media was very new and was getting popular but people couldn’t explain why it mattered. He created a series of 3-minute videos such as “RSS in plain English.” In these videos, Lee explained using paper cuts how new technologies worked. These videos went viral in 2007, and due to all this pioneering work someone by Wiley approached him about the idea of writing a book.
The art of explanation
Explanation is a skill, but you do it so often that you don’t recognize that you can improve it. It’s like thinking that “running is just running.” Explanation and communication are like running, skills that can be improved.
The art of explanation has three steps: Plan, Prepare, and Perform. One of the big ideas in the book is “the curse of knowledge”. The more you know about a subject, the harder it is to imagine what is not knowing it. In order to counter the curse of knowledge, take your time to know your audience very well.
Work as educators
Many of Common Craft videos have been used to promote products and companies (e.g. Dropbox, Twitter). However, Lee and Sachi consider themselves educators, they don’t want to be marketers. Many people in the educational world (teachers, lecturers, trainers) benefit with Common Craft’s work.
Related: Why Every Specialist Must Learn to Sell
Favorite quotation
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” — Richard Feyman
Recommended book
Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
Routine to Shine
104. Dustin Mathews: Choreograph Your Webinars and Online Presentations
Why to run a webinar?
The ultimate reason of running a webinar is to establish a relationship. Think of this: in a webinar you can engage with people an average of 45 to 60 minutes. Where else you get an hour of someone’s attention?
Choreograph your webinars and online presentations
Dustin has discovered that there are a lot of things you can do before your presentation and there are a lot of things you can do after your presentation. This consistent effort is what he calls “choreography.” In an entertainment show (e.g. opera, circus) the performers practice ad practice, and try every single element beforehand. And as some salespeople say: “the fortune is in the follow up.”
Similarly what you can do ahead of time is: engage in social media, ask people’s opinion’s, offer some gift, etc. Before the webinar, release a video so people are excited. And after the event, do the followup.
Best practices for webinars and online presentations
On a webinar, people are busy and you don’t see them. It’s harder to get their attention. Some of the best practices are:
* Sell them why they should join, attend the webinar. If people sign up but don’t attend is because the organizer didn’t sell people on showing up. Do send a video ahead on time, give them a gift, start building a relationship.
* Slideshows are the norm in webinars, but try the following performance trick. At the start of the webinar, pop up briefly at the camera to engage: encourage them to type in the chat box, ask questions, do polls, etc.
* Educate, bring value, give actionable things. Give them tools and resources, not only quotes or inspiration. Ask yourself: “How can I build value in this situation for my audience?”
Related: Speaking Internationally with Success
103. Robert MacPhee: Great Speakers are Great Facilitators
What is a facilitator?
A facilitator engages her audience in a deeper way than a typical speaker or trainer. A facilitator first shares an idea, and then has the group interacting with an exercise: talking to each other, doing a physical activity, a game, mingling in the room, etc. The goal is to take the idea or concept and make people experience the concept. The final step, and Robert’s favorite, is the “de-brief.” Individually, the participants will say what the experience was like and what they learned. With this, people get the concept at a much deeper level.
Facilitation works the best in long-format talks or sessions. If you have only 15 or 20 minutes, it’s going to be very hard to use facilitation.
Great speakers are great facilitators
Great speakers truly want a lasting impact in their audiences. Facilitation helps speakers to make the learning experience really fun and engaging.
Speakers who want to stand out of the crowd can promote themselves as qualified to add effective facilitation skills in their gigs, besides the informative and entertaining elements. This will be an advantage in the competitive speaking arena.
Useful skills for facilitation
* Know how to control the audience. Be clear with the process. The best way to learn this is by observing how other great facilitators do.
* Create smooth transitions between the sections of a training session.
* Bring a bell. Tell people ahead of time “you’re going to interact until the bell rings.” Bear in mind the importance of setting this ahead of time to avoid confusions.
Examples of great facilitators
Jack Canfield
Scott Coady
102. Tulia Lopes: Speak Up and Lead!
Why we don’t see many female speakers?
Tulia believes that there are three main reasons why we don’t see many female speakers in most of conferences:
* The biggest and most popular conferences are focused in areas where women are not well represented: innovation, technology, IT, etc.
* There is a bias when selecting the speakers for a conference. Additionally, there are fewer women than men listed as speakers or with online presence so event planners can’t remember her names.
* Some female professionals are just not well prepared.
Speak up and lead!
Tulia’s best piece of advice for speaking with confidence is:
* Pay attention to your body language and voice. Women have the handicap that when nervous, their pitch goes high. Instead, a strong deep voice gives authority and transmits confidence.
* Know your audience.
* Shape your message to fit your audience. A great idea or message can have a weak impact if it hasn’t been customized to the actual audience.
Some great female speakers to watch
Kristen Pressner
Jane Frankland
Sheryl Sandberg
Related: Body Language for Winning an Important Meeting
Favorite quotation
“Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.” — Pablo Picasso
Recommended book
Lean In: Women, Work,101. Nancy Duarte: Leaders Have to Illuminate the Path
Duarte, Inc., is the largest design firm in Silicon Valley, as well as one of the top woman-owned businesses in the area. Nancy has won several prestigious awards for communications, entrepreneurship, and her success as a female executive. On the list of top 250 Women in Leadership, Duarte ranks #67 and on World’s Top 30 Communication Professionals for 2017, Duarte ranks #1. Nancy has spoken at numerous conferences and her TEDx talk has had over a million views.
Nancy’s inspiration to write “Illuminate”
Once you begin to write a presentation well, visualize it well and deliver it well, people want you to become a leader. When Patty Sánchez (co-author of “Illuminate”) joined Duarte, Nancy told her she had a hypothesis: “businesses follow a story plot.” Nancy and Patty decided to write a new book and started to draw in wall-sized papers the innovation journey of the major firms in Silicon Valley. This put in evidence the story plots of these businesses and how these companies’ leaders had to communicate the right message at the right time.
Leaders have to illuminate the path
The metaphor of “illuminate” is that leaders must enlighten the path where the employees, investors and customers must walk through. Leaders have to illuminate the path.
Nancy as the leader (CEO) of her own company has also used the book to re-orient herself what are the right steps to take.
Examples of leaders and companies
Most successful companies have reinvented themselves, even many times. Some remarkable examples of compelling leaders who were instrumental in these reinventions were: Mary Barra (General Motors), Steve Jobs (Apple), and Howard Schultz (Starbucks).
The rites of passage
One of the elements of leadership rarely mentioned before “Illuminate” is the rite of passage.100. Carol Fleming: The Serious Business of Small Talk
The serious business of small talk
Carol stared her career as a voice pathologist. She helped professionals in all types of voice issues, and she often heard phrases such as “What I really hate is small talk.” After years Carol got curious about these comments and did some research. That’s how she noticed how important small talk is for everybody.
The word “small” gave small talk a bad rep. The truth is that small talk is as important as “big talk” (presentations, speeches, etc), if not more important. This is why we must take it very seriously.
All new relationships start with small talk. Small talk creates the space for people to get to know each other in a safe way and make the decision whether they want to continue this contact or not. It’s a buffer zone.
Carol’s best piece of advice on small talk
When we talk about the weather, a common mistake many people make is thinking that we are really talking about the weather. We’re not. That’s code language for “can we be friends?”
If you’re going to answer “how is the weather?”, add some free information that gives possible paths for continuing the conversation.
Never answer a question with an orphan, a single-word answer.
Your ordinary self is enough. Don’t be phony, be the real you.
If the place you are is too noisy and people can’t hear you, pay special attention to showing your facial expressions. Thus, the person in front of you will read your lips and face expressions to understand you better.
Related: How to Perfect Your Speaking Voice
Favorite quotation
“Everyone you meet knows something that you don’t.” — Carol Fleming
Recommended book
The De-Voicing of Society. Why We Don’t Talk To Each Other Anymore by John Locke
Routine to Shine
Say “Hello” to as many people as you can.Lin Klaassen: Face Reading Can Bridge Communication Gaps
What face reading is
People often confuse Face Reading with Body Language. Face Reading is reading the physical structure, features on a face. Body language instead is reading the body’s reactions and it is harder to read as many micro expressions last only 2/3 of a second. According to Lin, western face reading has up to 92% accuracy.
Each part of the face has a special feature that affects different areas of our lives. Noses are about decisions, jaw is a bout personal power, chin is about being grounded, ears is about how we take information, and eyebrows tell more about a person than anything else.
Face reading can bridge communication gaps
A lot of companies are funding diversity programs today. Face reading helps to bridge the gaps between different ages and different cultures. Within companies, people from management and HR are using face reading for interviewing new personnel, for understanding other parts of the world they’re not familiar with, etc.
Related: Body Language for Winning an Important Meeting
Favorite quotation
“We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are.” — Anaïs Nin
Recommended book
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
Routine to Shine
Start the day being grateful. Type all the things you’re grateful from the last 24 hours. Share it with your mastermind partner every day.
Links
Face reading by Lin
Lin at Facebook
Lin at Twitter
P.Doug Lawrence: A Paradigm Shift in Mentoring
A paradigm shift in mentoring
There is a paradigm shift in mentoring. Traditional mentoring was something like “this is what you need to do because this what I’ve done for years.” Today mentoring is a two-way trusted relationship, an exchange between a mentor and a mentee. People want to be mentored, not managed.
Mentoring certification
Mentoring certification has been for a while, however every company offered self-credited training. Doug took the next step and partnered with Acquiros to develop an accredited mentoring program, backed by ISO standards.
Today, people from a broad range of industries take mentoring training: independent consultants, people from the training industry, startups, customer service, etc.
Examples of mentors who influenced Doug
* Oprah Winfrey’s mentor: Maya Angelou
* Mother Teresa’s mentor: Father Michael van der Peet
* Doug’s mentor: Jack Canfield
Mentoring in jobs that didn’t exist few years ago
Doug believes that having industry-specific experience is a Nice to Have, but it’s not a Need to Have. Effective mentoring helps professionals to develop transferable skills. A mentor who possesses solid training in mentoring will be able to mentor people even in jobs that are completely new.
Related: Become the Speaker You Want to Be
Favorite quotation
“When we stop learning, we stop leading.” — Ken Blanchard
Recommended book
Janne Korhonen: Why Every Specialist Must Learn to Sell
Why every specialist must learn to sell
There is a saying “Nobody is as bad in selling as a Finnish engineer.” To make a contribution to the Finnish technology companies, Janne founded Sales Engineering Finland meetup and he gradually started to write his book.
Today there is a paradigm shift. Customers find a lot of information on Internet without contacting any salesperson. When they talk with companies, they expect a subject matter expert to guide them, consult them and give them technical advice.
How to enable a specialist as a “star” salesperson
Top management has their power from the owners of a company. Salespeople get power from their relationship with the customers. Specialists get power from being the ones who can do the real work.
For a specialist to learn to sell, they must also get some power from the customers. Top management must enable this shift. Only after that, with some coaching and practice specialists can become good at selling.
Related: Effective Sales Conversations and Presentations
Favorite quotation
“Analyze the results, not the actions you have not yet taken.” — Jani Aaltonen
Recommended book
The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict by The Arbinger Institute
Routine to Shine
* Take a cold shower in the morning.
* Read children books aloud. Express the emotions with your voice and body language.
Links
Janne’s book “Sales Fundamentals for Technical Specialists”
Janne at Twitter
Laura Baxter: How to Communicate with Divas and Difficult Personalities
Why is so important to learn how to deal with divas and difficult personalities?
If you really want to reach your goals, you can’t always choose the people you’re going to work with. A diva–who can be woman or man–is literally a person you can’t get along with.
Laura’s book and approach has two main goals:
* Remain center and focused.
* Getting your goals done.
How to communicate with divas and difficult personalities
Laura’s framework to dealing with divas has the acronym DIVA:
* Defining your the situation with the “diva”,
* Creating and maintaining a strong, positive Inner State,
* Valuing both yourself and the “diva” by learning about your and their personality structures and needs, and
* Associating with the “diva”, the ability to interact with the “diva” in a way that helps you and them achieve your goals.
The 4 most powerful states are: the state of gratitude, the state of love, the state of forgiveness and the state of play.
Related: Body Language for Winning an Important Meeting
Favorite quotation
“Life is a state of consciousness.” — Emmet Fox
Recommended book
Sangbreeta Moitra: Corporate Storytelling
Sangbreeta’s core message
Sangbreeta always says that she has an “ordinary life with extraordinary values.” And that is the core message that she tells people around the world: you may have an ordinary life but is filled with extraordinary values, and that makes you unique.
Corporate storytelling
Sangbreeta finds corporate storytelling dynamic. One the one hand is the story of an individual within an organization, and on the other hand is the story of that organization. This should answer the question: Who am I in that organization?
In practice, there are two main steps to craft your own corporate story:
* Every company has their core values. Sit down, study those core values, the history and the company’s vision.
* When you write the story of you working for a corporation, connect the organization values with your own personal story and values.
Corporate storytelling across geographical regions
In every country there are certain things (e.g. stories) that appeal to the sense of identity of a group of people. It’s important to tell examples that belong to their own cultures. The same applies to values. For instance, in the Netherlands people focuses on transparency, on being direct. In South Asia respect and humility are more important values. Other countries in Asia will value discipline.
When you travel you can tell the same keynote, presentation, workshop but you will have to change the stories, examples, exercises to match the values of each country.
Related: Tell Big Ideas or Be Forgotten
Favorite quotation
“A ship in harbor is safe — but that is not what ships are built for.” — John A. Shedd
Recommended books
Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
My family and other animals by Gerald Durrell
Routine to Shine
Do gardening as a hobby. You will learn to be more patient.
Links
Vanessa Van Edwards: Body Language for Winning an Important Meeting
Most common body language mistakes people make in business meetings
They are very similar to mistakes most people make at most interactions. We focus a lot on the verbal, we don’t focus on how we say things.
People show up to a meeting and don’t care about the first impression. It’s important to know how to leverage the first seven seconds. What’s more, your first impression doesn’t start when you say your first words or show your first presentation slide, it starts the moment someone first sees you.
What to pay attention in others’ body language
In meetings, as we’re mostly sitting around a table we can’t see others’ legs and hands. Do focus on facial expressions. Vanessa’s mentor Dr. Paul Ekman did research and discovered that facial expressions are genetic, coded. There are 7 universal facial expressions. You can learn how to decode these micro-expressions in this article written at Vanessa’s blog. A facial expression that is difficult to catch is contempt.
The body language for winning an important meeting
Pay attention three moments that people remember of any meeting:
* First few seconds. Say “Good morning”, or a sincere “How are you?” Give a good handshake. If handshake is not possible, wave your hands to greet people.
* Last few seconds. Have a big call to action, with the right energy. Shake hands to say goodbye.
* The peak moments. Craft a peak moment or highlight that people will remember. Otherwise what they will remember of you is a “low” moment.
Have an open body, nothing block your torso, not papers, not crossing your arms.
Instead, the worst people skills’ advice Vanessa has heard is: be the bubbly extrovert.
Kaisa Osola: Anxiety of Speaking Is a Subjective Experience
What is the anxiety of speaking?
The anxiety of speaking is a subjective experience both mental and physical. It’s subjective because different people have different thoughts. However, anxiety is not a synonym for failure. The more challenging we estimate a situation to be, the more energy our body autonomously evolves: our adrenaline starts to flow, our heart rate doubles or triples in order to make our blood to circulate.
Kaisa’s piece of advice for dealing with anxiety of speaking
Before you start your preparation for an important speech or talk, shift your mindset from the speaker’s perspective to your subject and your audience.
Step 1: Accept it. Understand the phenomenon and challenge all negative beliefs.
Step 2: Rehearse and rehearse. You get confidence so when you’re at the stage you will feel “I’ve already done this.”
Step 3: Prepare your body and take care of your body. Take the adrenaline out and be in control of it. You can do it with some physical exercise, listening to calm music or with some breathing exercise.
Related: You Do Not Have a Fear of Public Speaking
Favorite quotation
“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” — Leonard Cohen
Recommended book
The Compelling Communicator by Tim Pollard
Routine to Shine
Take care of your body and know your body, so you know how it reacts.
Links
Kaisa at LinkedIn
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also, I’d appreciate if you write a review in Stephanie Evergreen: What’s Your Point? The Key to Presenting Data Effectively
The biggest mistake in presenting data
There are so many mistakes but the biggest is that people don’t know the points they want to make.
What’s your point? The key to presenting data effectively
First, think what your point is. Many people don’t start there. Finding what your point is takes a lot of work and thinking. Once you know it, the next steps are easier: making better choices in titles, colors, etc.
Great tools for presenting data
In terms of software tools, Stephanie sticks to MS Excel as it is ubiquitous and most of the people already know how to use it.
Besides the software tools, Stephanie has compiled some of the best practices in data visualization in two tools: the Data visualization checklist and the Chart Chooser (available in her second book).
Another big mistake people make is thinking that the software will solve their problems for them, just with pushing a button that will generate graphs. The software can’t do the thinking for us and will never know where the story is.
Looking for inspiration?
If you want to give a personal touch to your data, the William Roy: Pitching Your Ideas With a Serious Game
What Pitching Is
Pitch is a very short presentation of who you are, what you’re doing and what’s your company or project. It’s a short presentation that can be re-told later by anyone who heard it. Typically a pitch lasts 5 minutes. Guy Kawasaki created the perfect structure for pitching to an investor in 10 slides. Pitching can be also used as a networking tool.
The biggest problems people face when trying to pitch
The most common mistake is: You think people know about you and that they’re interested in you. Instead, assume that nobody knows you and people know nothing about you.
The second mistake is: Using negative words, terms, or expressions. An example is saying “I have this little idea.” The truth is that nobody cares about little ideas. We want to hear and get inspired by big ideas. Do always say that you’re doing things, not “trying” to do things.
Pitching Your Ideas With a Serious Game: Pitch Cards
The idea started at Startup Weekend. William and the other organizers arranged a pre-event to train pitching skills. William created a simple cards game that allowed participants to pitch basic and crazy ideas, instead of their real projects. The exercise was a success and the game continued being used and developed further.
Pitch Cards is a creative way to train people to improve their pubic speaking skills. William believes that serious games are essential for any kind of training.
Related: The Type of Feedback That Really Helps
Favorite quotation
“There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.” —Dale Carnegie
Recommended book
Convince Them in 90 Seconds or Less by Nicholas Boothman
Tim Pollard: Tell Big Ideas or Be Forgotten
Tell Big Ideas or Be Forgotten
The human brain operates at the level of ideas. It does not operate at the level of facts and data.
Research tells that 80% of the content of most presentations is lost in 24-48 hours. It’s crucial that your key big ideas can be retold later. The standard we should aim as communicators is re-tellability, it’s not good enough to be understood.
An extraordinary example of this is Eva Kor, a speaker who is a holocaust survivor. Kor usually speaks up to two or three hours, just sitting down, without eye contact, and without visual aids. But she’s the most instinctively brilliant communicator Tim has ever seen. This is because her entire lecture is organized around three ideas, the lessons she learned from being in the holocaust.
The neuroscience behind being a compelling communicator
First of all, the brain is reductionist. It stores just a few big ideas out of any presentation, talk or conversation.
The brain stores information contextually. However, the overwhelming majority of presentations have no narrative structure. They don’t create context for each idea. A story is what creates context.
How to deliver big ideas
Imagine you have a presentation that is architecturally brilliant. You’re not done yet: your delivery requires precision. Rehearsal is the key to precision. Otherwise your words will have less clear narrative.
Always find the best possible language for your idea.
Related: Creating Brain-Friendly Presentations
Favorite quotation
“Every argument should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” — Albert Einstein
Recommended books
Why Don’t Students Like School? by Daniel T. Willingham
Lisa Evans: A Disengaged Audience? Adjust on the Fly!
The biggest mistakes that cause audience disengagement
The biggest mistakes are:
* Lack of planning. When a speaker delivers a copycat speech, without meeting with the client to find out what they really want. Know and analyze your audience beforehand.
* Overload the audience with too much information. If you cram in too much information you push your audience out. And they switch off. Also, as a speaker you will speed up in order to cover all the information, and you will lose them too.
* Speakers that read from notes. Reading from notes or slides kills the attention.
A Disengaged Audience? Adjust on the Fly!
Lisa’s best piece of advice for engaging with your audience is:
* Plan effectively. Create an audience-centric presentation.
* Read the cues you get from the audience, the little signals.
* If you feel you’re losing people, adjust the material on the fly. You have to take action: introduce a quick energizer, take a break, a physical stretch, aim to mix up your material, etc.
Always read the very subtle signs so you will know if they are following you.
Related: Connect With an Audience in the 21st Century, and Motivate!
Favorite quotation
“Actually the best thing you could have given her was a lifetime of adventure” – Lewis Carol (from “Alice in Wonderland”)
Recommended book
Presence by Patsy Rodenburg
Routine to Shine
Self-care is so important. Do yoga. It helps with breathing, posture, being grounded and grateful.
Links
Lisa’s website
Lisa at Twitter
Laura Penn: Speakers Must Become Students of Body Language
Why we should care about body language?
Body language has been around longer than spoken language. It has had more time to develop and evolve. Body language is to public speaking what wheels are to cars: it drives the message forward.
The biggest mistakes speakers make with their body language
The two biggest mistakes are:
* People don’t know what to do with their hands, people often put their hands in their pockets. Laura tells the people who she coaches to: “Just let your hands do what they want to do. Release them and let them speak with you.”
* Leaking energy from the feet. When people walk around the stage aimlessly without purpose, it is distracting for the audience and it makes them appear nervous.
Laura enjoys teaching participants in her workshops about the secret body language of feet. She says that the farther our body parts are from our brain, the less control we have over them, thus that is why, feet usually tell “the truth”.
Speakers must become Students of Body Language
Laura’s best piece of advice for effective body language is:
* You need to become a student of body language. Learn the vocabulary as you would learn French, Swahili or any other language. Read books, watch videos, and observe the people around you.
* Study yourself. Have a buddy watch your performances and give you feedback. Video yourself and watch yourself in action.
* Study others. Watch what other people are doing. At that point you are understanding and “speaking the language.” Observe people you admire and emulate their gestures.
Related: Success Stories from Coaching Hundreds of ...Jim Harvey: Brexit, Trump and The Post-truth Era. What We Can Learn About Rhetoric from 2016’s Lessons
The best speech of 2016
To Jim, the best speech of 2016 was given by Boris Johnson two days before the Brexit Referendum’s vote. Johnson was supporting “Vote Leave” campaign and the main message of his speech was “Take back control.”
Brexit, Trump and The Post-truth Era
Aristotle defined the type of rhetoric “sophistry,” as a speech without credibility and logic that appeals to emotions. This old concept was used in 2016.
Post-truth is a concept that was prevalent during 2016. It’s an interesting concept as you must first ask “What is truth?” Jim’s view is that truth is a very difficult political concept but facts are provable. In 2016 political campaigns people have used the same facts in completely opposite ways, creating different truths out of the same fact.
What we can learn about rhetoric from 2016’s lessons
The change equation (a.k.a. formula for change) was created by psychologists Beckhard, Harris and Gleicher who researched in organizational change, and it can illustrate 2016’s lessons.
There are three factors in the equation: dissatisfaction (D), vision of what is possible (V), and first steps towards the vision(F). If these three factors multiplied are bigger than the resistance to change (R), then change is possible.
D x V x F > R
In both Brexit and US elections there was a massive ...Patricia Fripp: Effective Sales Conversations and Presentations
How Patricia helps salespeople to have effective sales conversations and presentations
Patricia helps salespeople on what to do once they are in front of a prospect. She helps salespeople with the structure, the scripting and the stories in the presentations.
Most salespeople don’t know what words to use. The quality of the information you receive depends on the quality of your questions. A good example of the importance of word choice is: say “thank you for the opportunity” instead of “thank you for your time.”
In summary:
* Open with impact.
* Focus on structuring your presentation all around them. First congratulate for their website, stock prices going up, or something else about them.
* Give stories and examples of satisfied clients.
* Review and answer their questions.
* Close with: “If this is of your interest, our next logical step is to do this …”
Some of the mistakes sales teams make
* Winging it. Especially senior salespeople do this.
* Not asking enough questions.
* Not confirming the scheduled calls. Do it two days in advance.
* Not using stories effectively.
* Using too much “I” language. Use “You”-focused language instead.
* Not driving what is the next logical step.
* Not being specific. Remember that “Specificity builds credibility.” Be clear and concise.
How to make your stories better
Companies don’t sell. Individuals who represent companies sell to individuals or teams from another company.
You must tell a story, with a dialog, make it dramatic. You need a character and a conversation. Reported speech is not effective.
Ariel Halevi: The Link Between Persuasion and Delayed Gratification
Persuasion in the 21st century
Most people associate the word persuasion with manipulation. The two key challenges today are: get people’s attention and create trust.
The link between persuasion and delayed gratification
Gratification is the process of satisfying yourself. Instant gratification is the need of having it now.
Think of how many opportunities there are for instant gratification in a conversation: you make a mistake, and I immediately jump to correct you.
Instead, the best is to delay gratification. Give instant gratification to others. The more you delay gratification, the more opportunity you have to have a lasting impact in people and the more persuasive you will be.
How we can apply delayed gratification in our daily life
* Break persuasion into a process. Avoid the urgency of persuading in the first conversation.
* Make it easy, in small steps.
* In the beginning, spend more time listening and getting to know the other person before speaking.
Related: What More Can I Say? Counter-Intuitive Tips on Persuasion
Favorite quotation
“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Recommended books
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Y...Florian Mueck: Aristotle’s Seven Golden Rules of Storytelling
Aristotle’s Seven Golden Rules of Storytelling
Florian likes Aristotle’s Seven Golden Rules of Storytelling, which can be applied to business in the 21st century.
* Plot. Stories need a plot. One of the best plots for any type of presentation is the hero’s journey, which was illustrated by Joseph Campbell in his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” The hero’s journey can be simplified in three steps: CSI (Challenge, Struggle, Introspection). Other elements of a great plot are: the Mentor, appealing to all senses, and having twists. Mark Hunter’s speech “A Sink Full of Green Tomatoes” at the World Championship of Public Speaking has an excellent twist.
* Characters. Remember that all characters must have a name, a very defined look and a personality.
* Dialog. Don’t tell stories, re-live stories. As Craig Valentine said: go into your re-living room.
* Theme. Choose a theme: Christmas, love, perseverance, etc. Your story will be framed into that theme.
* Decor. It’s the stage design, which comes from old Greek theater. Good examples are: flying E.T. in front of the the huge moon, holograms, and Hans Rosling‘s props.
* Chorus.Lasse Rouhiainen: Speaking Internationally with Success
Common mistakes of speakers who fail to engage in international contexts
* Apologizing for not speaking the language so well. Speakers should focus on sharing valuable things. Use humor that is related to the audience, even telling a self-deprecating joke with your accent. If you start with something interesting, they will forget your accent.
* Don’t start talking about your trip or other bland things. Get their attention quickly, open with questions.
Lasse’s best piece of advice for speaking internationally with success
* Make your topic relevant. Use Google News to find news related to both the topic and the country.
* Ask to a friend or follower how things are in the country. Then share something that even the locals don’t know yet.
* Before your talk, chat with local people in the venue (e.g. the organizer, the first attendees) and put examples at the beginning of your presentation.
* Show statistics relevant for the country. For instance “the 10 biggest companies that use Facebook in the country.”
Video and Internet are amplifying public speaking
Lasse believes that “giving presentations is still the number one way of impacting and communicating with people.” Internet is amplifying public speaking. In the future, live streaming will be everywhere.
Related: Speaking on the Future of Humans and Technology
Favorite quotations
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
“Artificial Intelligence will be the New Electricity.” —Andrew Ng
Recommended book
Technology vs. Humanity by Gerd Leonhard
Routine to Shine
Start your mornings the right way. Have a morning routine, such as having some exercise. Visualize your talk while exercising.
Links
Tracy Lipp: What Speakers Can Learn from Songwriters
How professional songwriters write a song
Professional songwriters developed a method using visualization in which a song is like a small movie. In the first verse you set the scenes, you describe where things are, who is there, what is happening, etc. The pre-chorus moves to the chorus with a statement. Then the chorus sums up the first verse with a hook line, easy to remember, and usually conversational. The second verse moves the story forward. The second pre-chorus has usually the same lyrics, sometimes not. Then the chorus comes: same words but with a new twist as the story has changed in the second verse. A great example is Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a prayer“.
Tracy’s experience and thoughts on public speaking
Tracy uses improvisation in his talks, especially when unexpected things happens (e.g. a prop not working). Improvisation is something he learned by performing as a musician. When Tracy sees a talk, he likes to hear phrasing: when you pause, for how long, the cadence, etc. That is how great speakers do. Actors and stand up comedians are good at it (e.g. Borat class on telling jokes).
What Speakers Can Learn from Songwriters
1. You need a great hook line, like successful songs have.
2. Start with a great hook, to grab the audience. Craft the beginning a lot.
3. Craft the closer too. The best closers don’t even sound crafted.
4. Get the audience into “flow for listening.”
Related: The Power of Storytelling from Movies
Favorite quotation
“An amateur practices until he can get it right. A professional practices until he can’t get it wrong.” —Anonymous
Recommended books
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
The Talent Code by Daniel Coyl...Matthew Turner: Sharing Your Failure Stories
Matthew’s motivation to write “The Successful Mistake”
“It was a book that I needed and didn’t exist.” That motivated Matthew to create his very first non-fiction and business book, after having written several fiction books.
How Matthew used storytelling throughout the book
Matthew used a few different layers of storytelling throughout the book. First, the 7 stages of failure that fall his own personal story, and then he backs his own story with stories from the featured entrepreneurs. To make it easier for the reader, Matthew divided every stage in chapters and sections, and he approached every section as a blog post.
Sharing your failure stories
Sharing your failures builds trust with your audience. Nobody wants to hear just your success stories.
However, at the time of writing a compelling story, failure stories are harder to write. The reason is that we feel doubts and fears, especially if in the present we don’t feel we are successful. Matthew suggests to ask yourself two questions before sharing a specific failure story: (1) is it going to help me grow? and (2) is it going to help them grow from my mistakes? Both answers must be “Yes.”
Related: Success Stories from Coaching Hundreds of TEDx Talks
Favorite quotation
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we do fall.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Recommended book
Mindset by Carol S. Dweck
Routine to Shine
A four-step morning routine: (1) Wake up early and use two minutes to recalibrate your mind, think what you’re going to do today. (2) Do some exercise. (3) Take a cold bath. (4) Drink a glass of water with lemon.
Links
The Successful MistakeTimo Sorri: Resources for Evolving as a Presenter
The best ways to know where you are today as a presenter
There are so many types of presenters, so it’s important to find the right benchmark for you. If you work in sales, benchmarking yourself with TED speakers might be the wrong way.
Your slides say a lot where you are today, how much you already value the use of visuals and how far you moved from the dated slides full of text.
One of the best ways is that you ask someone knowledgeable you know who can give you honest and constructive feedback.
Top resources for evolving as a presenter
Timo has three main types of resources that help him to evolve as a presenter:
1. Blogs
Slidemagic Blog by Jan Schultnik
Ethos3 Blog by Scott Schwertly
Presentation Guru
SlideShare Blog
Presentation Xpert (good webinars)
Presentation Guild (a community led by Sandra Johnson and Tony Ramos)
2) Sites with curated slide decks. You can see nice-looking slides and you can try to imitate. Do it yourself and you will improve your design skills.
note & point
SlideShare
3) YouTube channels.
PowerPoint Spice It has exercises, tutorials. For example: how to make Pokemon Go effect.
The best way to improve yourself is to imitate great slides, beyond absorbing knowledge.
Related: The Latest Trends in Presentation Design
Favorite quotation
“Be tough with yourself in the morning; bu...Julie Kertesz & Svetlana Rakhimova (from Witty Storytellers): Everybody Can Learn Storytelling Online
Svetlana Rakhimova is a translator, interpreter, e-learning specialist and entrepreneur. Svetlana is President of Witty Storytellers Online. Both Julie and Svetlana are advanced members of Toastmasters International.
Witty Storytellers Online
Witty Storytellers Online is the first specialty international public speaking club that is 100% online. The club holds meetings every second and fourth Thursday at 6:00am London time.
Svetlana had been working online for a while: e-learning, online coaching, webinars, etc. Meanwhile Julie had been making stand up comedy and storytelling. One day they met and Julie said “I have a dream of an online club for storytelling.”
“What is wonderful in our club is that we meet together through miles and miles, even if it’s afternoon in China and Hong Kong, mid-morning in Dubai, early morning in London, and still late night in Ottawa.”
The main tool that Witty Storytellers Online uses is GoToMeeting, which allows to see the faces of every single participant.
Everybody can learn storytelling online
Storytelling is a hot topic, especially in business. Personal storytelling and humor are used in very different situations. Julie’s father used storytelling in business meetings. Her grand mother transmitted her wisdom via storytelling to tell Julie about the family. Today Julie uses storytelling in her stand up comedy. Everybody can learn storytelling online, just has to put time, energy and practice.
Related: Never too old to learn something new
Favorite quotations
“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers,John Bates: Success Stories from Coaching Hundreds of TEDx Talks
How John became a speaking coach
“I became a speaking coach because I failed at everything else.” John had been working as a founder or early employee at several Dot-com companies. Even though nay-sayers told him “there are thousands of speaking coaches, don’t be one”, John thought “it’s the thing I’m good at, it’s what I have to offer, and I’m just going to do it.” He became one of the first TED/TEDx speaking coaches when TED became publicly available on Internet and Chris Anderson created TEDx to allow organizing these events across the world.
John’s own mistakes in his first TED talk
John was invited to a TED event for a 4-minute talk. He decided to speak about virtual worlds and virtual goods, as at that time he was working for Entropia Universe. John made two mistakes: (1) he tried to cram everything he could in 4 minutes, and (2) he tried to promote himself.
John’s best advice for TEDx talks
If the whole world would listen to you for just a few minutes, what is the most important thing (the one idea) that you could tell them? The best TED talks make you feel you’re an insider. Another thing to think about: what is that special thing that you don’t talk to anybody else?
How to get started for your TED/TEDx talk:
* Take yellow sticky notes and write down one idea, story or point on each note. Stick it to the wall.
Caroline Goyder: How to Have Confidence Under Pressure
Her journey to become a voice and speaking coach
A big principle in Caroline’s life is “We teach what we need.” Early in her career in Literature and Theater, she wasn’t great at speaking because of physical tension. Her body couldn’t express fully. When Caroline discovered The Alexander Technique, she unlocked her full expression. That was her epiphany and now she can teach others from her experience.
How to have confidence under pressure
Caroline says the situations we feel more under pressure is when we are in front of our peers. Example: a voice coach in front of an audience of voice coaches. In Caroline’s book “The Star Qualities” there is a story in which Ewan McGregor was under pressure and forgot his line. From that experience he learned that “in performance there is no perfect.”
The TED talk The science of stage fright (and how to overcome it) by Mikael Cho teaches us that the main thing that helps overcome fear is practice. Practice creates a “back up drive” in your brain that happens when you’ve done enough rehearsal. If during a performance the pressure hits and you go blank, that back up drive (your memory) kicks and you know you will be OK.
Her TEDx talk experience
In Caroline’s TEDx talk “The surprising secret to speaking with confidence” (2014), she used a very unique prop: a human-shaped chest of drawers used as a metaphor for breathing. That prop was key in her talk’s success. Caroline suggests that we skip Prezi or PowerPoint and we bring a unique prop.Emma Bannister: The Latest Trends in Presentation Design
How presentations used to be
The focus has been in “Listen to me, I am the expert, I am the hero.” Now the audience is the hero, the speaker is there to inform and drive action from the audience.
Latest trends in presentation design
There are two core trends:
* Content. Storytelling is a major trend and very fashionable, there is a lot of research about it. For instance, Emma often shares her own story how she created Presentation Studio. The best is when you are very authentic and genuine in your story, you’re passionate, and your story links back to the point you’re making.
* Visual. A few years ago design moved from traditional images to flat design. More recently flat design has evolved with shadows and gradient effects, with more details creating more depth. Another trend is the use of geometric shapes, angular design, “polygon” shapes. There is also a risk to get too trendy that the audience has to work to understand you. Yet another trend is moving from perfect stock photos with models towards much more personal Instagram-like photos. Finally, you can integrate video into the presentations in the way we use photos, for example: a picture of a face and suddenly the face will blink.
Great tools to get started
You can learn the basic tools (PowerPoint, Illustrator, Photoshop) at Lynda.com
Canva.com is a simple design tool and has fantastic resources
The new site Presentation Guru has articles, tools and resources
Related: SlideMagic and Business Presentations
Favorite quotation
“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.Geoff Owen: You Do Not Have a Fear of Public Speaking
You Do Not Have a Fear of Public Speaking
Geoff believes that people don’t have a fear of public speaking because we don’t have fear of the event (of speaking in public). What some have a fear of is the meaning they are attaching to. People have a response to the event of speaking in public. Geoff starts his coaching sessions by explaining this.
Geoff approaches two domains:
* Eliminate beliefs. Most of us have the beliefs such as “I’m not good enough”, “I’m not worthy”, “Mistakes and failures are bad”, etc. It takes time to remove these beliefs.
* New paradigm for public speaking. Geoff points out that people try to follow the “old paradigm of public speaking” in which we think we have to be professional at public speaking and follow a few other rules. With this, people start being who they think they need to be instead of being who they are. Geoff encourages us that instead we focus on what we want to achieve in the audience, what we want them feel.
Related: How to Turn Fear of Speaking into Success
Favorite quotation
“No one has ever grown any taller as a result of being measured.” — Unknown
Recommended book
The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff
Routine to Shine
Speak out loud. Do it every day. Speak out loud to the nothingness.
Links
Geoff Owen’s website
Ask Geoff for a free consultation
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also, I’d appreciate if you write a review in Isabella Clivilez-Wu: What Should a Speaker Wear On Stage?
What is your personal brand
Your personal brand encompasses four elements: your behavior, your communication, your online or digital presence, as well as your appearance.
Image is an integral part of your brand. It’s not about being the most attractive person in the room, it’s about being polished and neat. If you are the best version of yourself then you will make a wonderful impression.
What you should avoid wearing on stage
* You shouldn’t wear a size that is not your size. Women sometimes wear a size that they used to be or an “aspirational size”. You will feel uncomfortable, you will be very self conscious on stage and your audience will sense your discomfort. For men, the best is a suit that has been tailored. Not necessarily bespoke as it can be too expensive, but tailored.
* In terms of color, you can’t go wrong with blue. Some of the best shades of blue are royal blue or cobalt blue. Blue instills trust, instills confidence and makes you more likeable. Studies have shown the following colors are perceived as universally flattering: soft white, periwinkle, taupe, bright navy, purple, turquoise and emerald. Be very careful about red. Orange and yellow can be perceived as loud too. Use red, orange and yellow in accessories, not as the main color such as in a blazer.
* Never be overly casual. For instance if you speak to undergraduate students, you should be not dressing at their level but a notch up. Your image should project “I know what I’m talking about.”
External factors
The best thing to do is to communicate with the meeting organizer in advance so you will know what to expect at the venue. Be prepared for the following external factors:
* If the speakers will use clip-on microphones instead of h...Kristin Arnold: Creative Panel Discussions
What is a panel discussion
A panel discussion is when you bring two or more experts together to have a lively conversation about a specific topic that is of interest to the audience.
Common mistakes panel moderators make
* They think they are panelists: they tell their ideas and opinions, make some shameless promotions and don’t keep everything on track. If they’re friends with a panelist, they are not objective.
* Sometimes panel moderators are not able to intervene and to cut someone who doesn’t stop talking.
* Just doing a traditional panel format: a long table with a microphone for each panelist. Instead, be creative.
A good example of creative panel discussions
A great example is Scott McKain . He speaks on distinction in the marketplace. Scott likes Real Time with Bill Maher. He did a mockup of Maher’s show called “Real Time with Scott McKain.” One of the panelists brought a bottle of Jägermeister and a few shot glasses. That called the attention and made the panel format distinctive and creative.
How to prepare as a panelist
* Be clear of the objectives of the panel.
* Come prepared with the 3 points you want to get across and have a story that illuminates these 3 points. If possible, make your points tweetable.
* Research the other panelists so you will have something different to say.
Related: Run Effective Meetings, Engage and Shine!
Favorite quotation
“Never do for your audience what they can do for themselves.” — Bob Pike
Recommended book
Petri Rajaniemi: Becoming a Speaker is a Process of Unlearning
Becoming a Speaker is a Process of Unlearning
Once Petri started to take public speaking professionally, he felt that becoming a speaker is not a process of learning but a process of unlearning. The more you let go, the more of you comes visible, the best you are. A lot of people says that “when a child is born, the child is a canvas that life paints the picture on.” Petri has heard and agrees with another version that says “when a child is born, the child is a beautiful painting and life colors it with black paint.” Unlearning is removing the black paint, and as a speaker you must unlearn to remove the black.
“When speaking, my aim is to say at least something that no one else says”
Before becoming a speaker, Petri sat in front of hundreds of seminars. Everybody was saying the same thing, you saw the same type of expert just with a different tie. Petri is not trying to change the way people see the world, but to add something new. When he gives a presentation, he focuses on trying to find something that no-one else has said previously. He is not trying the speak the truth but trying to speak some truths.
Petri’s TEDx experience
This was a dear experience for Petri because it was where it all started. In 2013, he applied for TEDxTurku’s casting and was selected. There is a huge difference between speaking as an organization and speaking as yourself. Petri realized that it was his first ever time speaking as himself, just 3 minutes before the talk started. He felt very nervous, but the talk became a success.Oscar Santolalla: Create and Deliver a Killer Product Demo (Interviewed by Nando Miranda)
What a product demo is
A product demo is a promotional demonstration of what your product does. Beyond words or slides, show your product live in a way that makes impact.
The main elements of a product demo
The main elements of a product demo are: pre-demo, demo, and wrap-up.
* Pre-demo is a short introduction that (1) introduces you as the presenter (why you are the best person to do this), and (2) gives the context to your customers or audience about what the demo is going to show.
* Demo. The demo itself has two important things: (1) a script, and (2) a WOW moment. A great example of a WOW moment is when Steve Jobs unveiled the MacBook Air from a manila envelope in 2008.
* Wrap-up is a final section that allows you to (1) reiterate what you had demonstrated, and (2) give a Call-to-Action.
Things to consider when doing product demos
Preparation is very important. Once the demo is created, rehearse a lot. As many thing still can go wrong, the following is a list of things to consider when doing product demos:
* Test everything in the real setting at least once in the place where you will do your demo, if possible.
* Have backups of everything you have: devices, cables, accessories, etc.
* Make a list of known issues on both your products and anything else involved (hardware, operating systems, etc.)
* Disable applications that show notifications, disable alarms, etc.
The main trends in product demos nowadays
Among the trends, the following two are especially worth mentioning:
1. Augmented reality effects, as used during Minecraft on Microsoft HoloLens demo.
2.Boris Hristov: The Type of Feedback That Really Helps
The type of feedback that really helps
Boris has been conducting “Train the Trainer” courses for years. From this experience, he knows that feedback is the most crucial thing, especially when you are beginning. You have to always be asking for feedback. It’s the only way you are going to improve. He believes that the type of feedback that really helps is real, honest feedback. In these “Train the Trainer” sessions, the participants give feedback to each other, and they are encouraged to accept feedback.
Some type of feedback is pointless too
After one event, Boris asked a colleague to give him honest feedback. Some of the feedback he received was right. However, this colleague told Boris that in the session (which was in Bulgarian) he used too many English words that he should have translated into Bulgarian. When you become a presenter you will have your own style and you don’t want to change them. In these cases, think about: is this something I really have to change? Is this something crucial? or is this just part of your style?
The use of feedback forms
Feedback forms are always a reference. The best feedback forms have a text box in which the participant can write down honest feedback, in sentences. Instead, feedback forms that just allow participants to mark “3 out of 5” are less useful. What can I do to improve if I know I am a “3 out of 5”?
The best way to give effective feedback
To Boris, the best way to give effective feedback is:
* Be honest with the speaker
* If possible, talk in person
Newest trends to give feedback
Boris is a tech-savvy person, and he recommends to use new platforms such as Zeetings.Com to give feedback as well. Zeetings allows users to comment and discuss any of your slides from their mobile phones.
Related: Gerd Leonhard: Speaking on the Future of Humans and Technology
How Gerd became a futurist
Gerd started as a musician and producer, and later he got involved in the early digital music business. However, he realized that his calling was helping others to understand the future instead of monetizing and doing startups. His book The Future of Music (2005) became a big success and that skyrocketed his career as a futurist. Today Gerd spends 95% of his time looking at what it might be (in the future) rather than what is. He helps companies and organizations to take strategies to be ready for future scenarios.
Speaking on the future of humans and technology
In November 2014, Gerd spoke at TEDx Brussels, in front of 2000 people. In this talk, titled “Digital ethics and the future of humans in a connected world,” Gerd challenged people to pay attention to the ethical consequences of technology, as today there are some people adoring and being obsessed with technology. Gerd often says that technology is “HellVen” (hell and heaven). During his presentations, Gerd uses many visuals and photos which in many cases are created by his art director. Unlike what many TEDx speakers do, Gerd strives to go deeper than the intellectual or purely entertainment, by giving people a wake up call but also making them feel positive. Gerd has licensed over 20,000 images for his work and he admits that looking for visuals assets and stories is a big part of his job.Holland Haiis: Connect With an Audience in the 21st Century, and Motivate!
What a connectivity expert is
Holland, as a connectivity expert, helps either an individual or a business to reconnect to their areas of disconnect in their life and business. For speakers, she helps them to clarify their message and how to really connect to what they are trying to say. This involves working on stage presence, body language, so they can engage an audience.
Connect with an audience in the 21st century
To be connected you have to listen to others, not just hearing what they say. It means that you’re present and you connect at the deepest level.
As a speaker, nobody wants to be in front of a disengaged audience. However, we must be aware of false signs of being disconnected. Today in conferences, 50-70% of people take notes with a tablet or phone instead of with pen and a notebook, which looks as they’re disconnected but they are not. That is just part of the 21st century.
What great speakers do to be always connected
As speakers we must be 100% connected to our message and material. We have to believe in what we say and preparation is key.
Unexpected things happen (e.g. the slides don’t work, a phone rings) and you can be thrown by those surprises. Only the preparation can help you to overcome the situation and continue the talk with ease.
Some examples of people who always look connected are: Jack Canfield, Tony Robbins and Oprah Winfrey. They don’t get thrown off if some distraction happe...Jan Schultink: SlideMagic and Business Presentations
Writing “Pitch It!”
There were already good books on presentations but there was not a practical guide on how to design a presentation step by step. Jan wrote “Pitch It!”, originally for iPad but nowadays available as a webpage. The book is also focused in specific and very practical business contexts: how to raise money from investors, getting an idea approved by the board, etc. Pitch It! is Jan’s own notebook which he continuously keeps updating.
SlideMagic and business presentations
PowerPoint was created in the 90s and is a tool that always gave people far too much freedom to design slides. But as very few people understand design, the result is that people end up doing bullet points. Jan created a tool to make slide design easier and quicker. Also, there were no tools focused in business presentations design. SlideMagic has a different philosophy.
Top Benefits of SlideMagic:
* Zero-learning curve to create a slide even if you’re an awful designer.
* The templates are easy to customize and they don’t break down.
* The templates are based on proven, useful, real-life business situations.
Recent trends in presentations
People are investing a lot in collaboration. The other trend some apps are focusing on is how to design slides on mobile devices. However, Jan doesn’t believe that the presentation design should be done on a mobile device which has a small screen and limited user interface.
Jan believes that something is missing in any presentation app. This involves going one step before designing the slides: a tool to design the story flow that will help you afterwards with the selection of the slide template. Just a concept today, but it could become part of SlideMagic in the future.
Related: Deb Chaney: Inspiring and Empowering People in Their Creative Journey
Illuminate the artist within
Deb attended a workshop held by Tony Robbins. Her main dream at that time was to have a big art opening for her own artwork. During the workshop she got inspired by Robbins’ life of contribution. She had a visualization of contributing to other artists, and she made the decision to share how she found inspiration and stayed inspired. That is how “Illuminate the Artist Within” started.
Masterpieces and speeches
Deb admires Taylor Swift, who has written every song on each of her albums. Through her songs Taylor articulates with words what she is feeling, especially with storytelling. Deb considers the song “Back to December” a masterpiece.
Deb also finds three similarities between paintings and speeches:
* A good speech has voice variation. A good painting has variation in colors and hues.
* In a speech, the speaker uses the stage, hand gestures, to bring energy. In paintings, artists also want to add gestures and energies.
* A good painting tells a story. The same happens with a speech.
Empowering people in their creative journey
Deb empowers and inspires people in their own creative process in three ways:
* She lives her own journey. She does art with passion, and that inspires people.
* Deb wrote “68 Secrets of an Illuminated Artist“, in which each card has an idea to support people’s own creative process. This is the product of 10 years’ Deb journaling on her artwork.
Sarah Chapman: Go for It. Aerialist to Speaker
Her motivation to write her books
Her first book was fun and simple: “A Circus Girl’s Cookbook.” Yes, a cookbook with 170 recipes in a circus format. Her second book “Balancing Act” was a memoir. It wasn’t meant as a memoir but it ended that way when an editor said “the story is about Sarah and her courage to stand up to abuse.” Her original motivation was writing a documentary recording six years on the Ringling Circus.
The thing that Sarah learned in the circus that helps her the most as a speaker
Three words: “Go for it.” It’s a circus term that means: once you started a trick you cannot stop in the middle. As a speaker, you can pause to regroup your thoughts, but you cannot just walk out of the stage. A show is made up of elements or steps. Going for it means you followed through with what you started.
Her aerialist and speaker persona
There is a big difference between her aerialist persona and her speaking persona, and it has to be with position. Her speaker persona uses her voice and facial expressions. Individual eye contact is critical. Her aerialist persona used her body to relate to the audience. There is a big emptiness between her and the audience.
Related: The Magic of Memory
Favorite quotation
“Know Thyself.”
Recommended book
Yes I Can by Sammy Davis, Jr.
Routine to Shine
Grooming and exercise. Just as in the circus, the audience likes to see beauty. Look the best you can, act the best you can, say the best you can.
Links
Sarah at Facebo...Joel Boggess: Spontaneity. The Key Thing that Speakers Can Learn from Radio DJs
Joel’s motivation to start his career as a Radio DJ
As a little kid, at one Christmas, he grabbed the biggest gift box that was for him. He unwrapped the box and inside was boombox with two big speakers and radio. From that moment he got the spark for radio. That spark became a flame when he became radio DJ, TV presenter, and ultimately a podcast host.
The best of radio life
You’ve got to be entertaining your audience first. A mistake that a lot of podcasters and broadcasters make is that they start teaching. You have to earn the right to tell anyone anything. Entertain people first, with a good story or a joke, etc. Then you can inform, educate, and empower.
Joel misses radio life a lot. However, there is something that Joel doesn’t miss from radio: on interview shows, a lot of times his guests will not make it to the live show and will cancel at the last minute. That was stressful.
The key thing that speakers can learn from radio DJs
To Joel, the key thing that speakers can learn from radio DJs is spontaneity. If something happens onstage, you have to address it. Even if the speaker is well-prepared, sometimes the unexpected happens. Did a dog walk through the room? A big mistake is to ignore it, which in less experienced speakers causes to tense up, get nervous. Instead, say something funny, play with it. On radio you learn to be spontaneous, live the moment, and think on your feet.
Related: Gerry Lewis: Run Effective Meetings, Engage and Shine!
Avoid the Four Sins of Meetings
Gerry has defined the “four sins of meetings”, problems that are experienced in meetings that go wrong:
* Wastefulness. Far too many meetings that don’t need to be held.
* Disorderly conduct. The case of a meeting that went out of control. People are having their own meetings and not focusing on the person leading the meeting. This shows how important an agenda is. Not having a clear agenda is the start of disorderly conduct.
* Lateness. Sometimes people arrive late, it’s inevitable. A common mistake is to say to everyone: “James just joined us, let me update you in everything we talked about.” Good for James, but the others will start doing something else. It’s better to say: “James, we’re in this item of the agenda, and at the end of the meeting I can brief you.” and continue with the meeting without delays.
* Disengagement. It’s when you look around the meeting room, and everyone looks so bored. If you want an engaged audience, you have to ask for people to participate instead of doing yourself all the talk.
Gerry’s Top 3 strategies to run effective meetings
* Know exactly what you want the outcome of the meeting to be. The objective has to be very clear such as “making a decision to invest on this” or “approve this proposal”, otherwise don’t hold the meeting.
* Have the right people in the room. “The more people the better” is usually a mistake. If the decision maker is not in the room, you are not going to reach the objective.
* Be able to manage your time. It shows that you’re in control, and that you have a sense of direction for where this meeting needs to go.
The mindset for engaging meetings
As a meeting leader, the mindset you need to run engaging meetings includes:
* You have to add value.Dianna Booher: What More Can I Say? Counter-Intuitive Tips on Persuasion
Her motivation to write “What More Can I Say?”
Everybody has to persuade somebody to do something: you want to change how somebody thinks or feels, you want people to contribute to a cause, to change a bad habit or improve performance, or to close a deal. This book is written for the individual but also for someone working at a corporation. It’s full of persuasion tips, strategies and techniques.
The challenge of this century is to communicate complex ideas with clarity and civility
Because of Internet, we are more connected and everybody is saying something. What a CEO says in one part of the world can all of the sudden drop stock prices in the other side of the world. Another thing is that if you want to get the attention of people for your cause, you have to communicate better to stand out. For example: LinkedIn posts have exploded and views of every article have gone down exponentially. There are millions of people writing. The bar just keeps rising.
Distrust is a big cause of communication failures
If you don’t trust someone, you can’t get to first base because they will look at everything you say and twist it. Without trust, a neutral comment can be interpreted as negative. It depends how you trust and like a person. Inconsistency causes distrust. In order to build trust: talk the truth, explain your reasons behind your decision.
The mistake of talking very generally
This is depicted in Dianna’s “Law of Generalization Versus Specificity.” If a CEO or another leader talks too general, the message doesn’t stick and it’s confusing. The message passes through one person to another, and they all interpret it differently. The more specific, the chances are that people will all be in the same page....Sally Koering Zimney: The Balance of Aristotle’s Appeals
What are the Aristotle’s appeals?
Aristotle developed the three appeals or three ways how speakers can persuade people. The 3 appeals are: ethos (using your character, who you are), logos (using your logic) and pathos (using emotions).
The balance of Aristotle’s appeals: ethos, logos and pathos
The emotional appeal (pathos) is essential but it needs to be balanced with logos and ethos. The balance comes down to a sense of authenticity. TED speakers such as Brené Brown and Ben Saunders show the balance because their topics are grounded and logical, but the talks are also emotionally compelling, and they share who they are.
Strategies to achieve the balance of Aristotle’s appeals
Sally recommends three clear strategies to achieve the balance:
* Focus on stories. Stories allow you a pathway to pathos and ethos, it opens up people’s willingness to hear.
* Check that you are taking some personal risk. Are you personalizing your talk?
* Give yourself the time for a creative process. It starts with Preparation, follows with Incubation (sleeping, taking a walk), then comes the Illumination (Aha-moment), and ends with Verification (getting feedback). The creative process starts again in a cycle.
Related: 4 Easy Rhetorical Devices for Any Talk
Favorite quotation
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.Roger Love: How to Perfect Your Speaking Voice
From teaching singers to coaching speakers
As a musician himself, Roger started teaching only singers during the 17 first years of his career. But after these 17 years, speaking celebrities such as John Gray, Suze Orman and Tony Robbins started to ask him how to perfect their speaking voices. Today Roger spends 50% of his time coaching speakers in live events, and lately he is very active in Periscope.
Why you really need to learn how to speak better
The audiences are making value judgments of you as soon as you open your mouth. This takes just seconds. They will decide if they want to listen to your content or not. That is why we have to perfect our vocal presentation style so that we capture those audiences in seconds, if we really want to have relationships with them.
Three main points to be great communicators and how to achieve them
Roger teaches to his experts that there are three main points that people must learn to be great influencers and great communicators. These are:
* Control the perceptions of others
* Move people emotionally
* Predetermine the outcome you desire
In order to achieve these three points of Roger’s method, you can work right away on three components:
* Add more melody. Record yourself and practice, force yourself to go up and down on the scale. Adding melody is the #1 way to move people emotionally. Whenever you speak, don’t produce more than 3 words in the same note before going to another note.
* Speak louder. Most people don’t speak loud enough. In the last 10 years people started to communicate by just sending messages, with no sounds. One of the remnants of that “Text Age” is lack of volume. We need to pretend that the people we are speaking to are farther away from us. We need to fill the room with our volume.
* Change the way you breathe. Most people breathe through their mouths, which dries up their throats and vocal chords. Dry vocal chords create hoarse voices. Breathe into your nose while your mouth is closed.John Zimmer: 4 Easy Rhetorical Devices for Any Talk
A speech opener in special
One of John’s clients had to speak in a convention for 20 minutes needed help with her opener. John used his coaching skills to pull a moving story from her. Ultimately the speech opened with the words, “It was raining the day I arrived at the hospital” and she continued the story and kept her audience captivated until the end.
What rhetorical devices are
Rhetorical devices are clever uses of language to make a persuasive argument. As a speaker, the main tool you have is your use of language.
4 Easy Rhetorical Devices for Any Talk
Anaphora is the repetition of a word or a phrase at the beginning of successive sentences. An example from Winston Churchill: “We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, …”
Epistrophe is the repetition of a word or a phrase at the end of successive sentences. From Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: ” … and that government of the people, by the people, for the people”
Anadiplosis is beginning a sentence by repeating the last words of the previous sentence. An example from Star Wars’ Yoda: “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
Tricolon is a series of three words, sentences or clauses. An example from Julius Caesar: “I came, I saw, I conquered”
Rhetoric. The Public Speaking Game
It’s a board game that John has co-created with Florian Mueck. The game is in its 2nd edition (2015) and the digital version (app) is in progress. Players practice 1-minute speeches and can use rhetoric techniques, including metaphors.
Related: Winston Churchill’s Legacy in Rhetoric and...Oscar Clark: PechaKucha. Talks for Communicating Passion and Inspiring People
What is PechaKucha?
In a PechaKucha talk you are given 20 slides, you can only have images on the slides, not text. After 20 seconds, the slide moves on automatically. It’s really powerful when you manage to speak just as the slides change.
“The only type of talk that has ever intimidated me is PechaKucha. It’s terrifying.”
PechaKucha talks began in Tokyo by an architecture firm called Klein Dytham, back in 2003. They wanted to invite architects to talk in a social and relaxed atmosphere. Since then, the format has spread all over the world.
An amazing format for inspiring people
Oscar doesn’t think PechaKucha is a good format for serious communication of ideas, to present details. Instead, it’s an amazing format for communicating passion, for inspiring people.
You can watch Oscar’s awesome PechaKucha talk this year at PocketGamer Connects Helsinki. He admits to have “cheated” by using moving images, instead of static.
His piece of advice on preparation for PechaKucha talks
First, decide a theme, topic. Then collect a set of images. Make sure you always give the attribution to people when you use their imagery. Look for iconic, recognizable statements in the image. Also look for consistent styles, contrasts among your set of images. You can first collect 40 images, and later narrow them down. The next step is to define one sentence per slide. Once the slides are ready and you rehearse, check your timing. Make sure to fit into the 20 seconds. You can rehearse in front of a friend who gives you honest feedback, and pay fine attention to her reactions and response.Sarah McKay: Scientist to Speaker. Elements of Effective Scientific Talks
Her TEDx talk “Indulge your neurobiology”
One evening Sarah received an email with an invitation to speak at TEDxNorthernSydneyInstitute, in Australia. She immediately took the opportunity even though the event was only 5 weeks away. The topic Sarah created was how taking a 20-minute afternoon nap is excellent for your brain health. Her talk was titled Indulge your neurobiology.
Due to the very short time for preparation, her coach Laura Huxley‘s help was invaluable. Sarah rehearsed approximately 60 times, and that allowed her to be present and to feel herself very natural when the time of the talk arrived.
Sarah’s piece of advice for effective scientific talks
There are 3 keys elements of effective scientific talks:
* Your talk must land emotionally with someone, by using an emotional story.
* Make complex ideas simple. You don’t have to show the scientific proof for every word you say.
* It has to be relevant for the audience, something they can go away and do.
Her speaking role model from the scientific world
Sarah’s absolute favorite TED talk is “How to make stress your friend” by Kelly McGongial, a health psychologist. During the preparation for Sarah’s own TEDx talk, she broke down and analyzed McGongial’s TED talk in a “scientific approach”.
Related: Public presentations about technical topics
Lea Pica: How to Present Data Effectively and Inspire Action
What data visualization is
Data visualization is the presentation of data in a pictorial or graphical format with the goal of communicating information clearly and efficiently.
Lea Pica’s top principles of presenting data effectively.
Lea has elaborated the PICA methodology, which teaches you how to present data effectively and inspire action. PICA stands for: purpose, insight, context and aesthetics.
* Purpose. Ask yourself: does this chart have a purpose?
* Insight. By definition, insight is the capacity to gain an accurate and deep intuitive understanding of a person or thing. It tells you the why. The “McKinsey title” is a good example.
* Context. Round out the story as full as possibly you can make it, so you are making a truly informed decision.
* Aesthetics: A lot of aesthetics is around learning principles of visual design that impact cognition or the comprehension of data. Choice of colors and chart detox are great ways to present data effectively.
An example of a famous person who presents data effectively
Al Gore knows how to present data to create real impact, as he showed it during the movie An Inconvenient Truth.
Her recommended tools for presentations
Lea recommends to master the basic tools first: Excel and PowerPoint. She also recommends two extra tools: KeyRocket (it unveils all keyboard shortcuts in Windows and Office), and SlideProof (it’s like a personal proofreader for objects inside PowerPoint slides). Lea offers us exclusive Adam Tuffnell: How to Handle Q&A Sessions Without Stress
Adam’s piece of advice on how to handle Q&A sessions without stress
Do your preparation, know your subject. Appreciate how powerful the mind is, so you can channel your energy toward success. A great analogy is the survival story of the pilot who landed on the Hudson River in 2009. Captain Chesley Sullenberger, on top of being competent and knowing his subject, chose the right mindset at a very difficult moment.
Adam recommends the following practices for Q&A sessions:
* Have someone to moderate the Q&A if possible, as that will give you some extra time for reflection on your answers.
* Ask audience members to stand up to ask questions so their voices have better projection.
* Repeat the question back for everybody’s better understanding.
What to do with hecklers or in the event of tough questions
Breathe and relax. Remind yourself that the audience wants the speaker to succeed. Be open. If you can’t answer the question, say that you can continue the conversation at the end of the talk.
Skills beneficial to learn
Separate the hard skills (stand up comedy course, improv course) and the soft skills (any skill that helps you to increase your self-awareness, like yoga). Both are beneficial for any stressful situation, including Q&A sessions.
Related: How to Turn Fear of Speaking into Success
Favorite quotation
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another without loss of enthusiasm.” —Winston Churchill
Recommended book
Shackleton’s Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Expl...Jill Douka: As a Speaker, What Makes You Unique? Find and Share Your Passions
As a speaker, what makes you unique?
At Jill’s TEDx talk “RE-act and have fun at work“, one of her key points was: “focus on what are you unique at.” As a speaker, what makes you unique? Jill says that speakers who are having an impact are passionate, so they find what they are passionate about and they share their passions. “Talking without passion is like trying to drink water from a glass that has no water in it.” We all must find our own mission statement, our uniqueness. In order to find her own uniqueness Jill created her “Uniqueness game.”
Audience participation and her other favorite techniques
“Without participation it is very tough for people to really get something away.” Experiential training is the best way of passing through knowledge. Jill always does that. Another technique is sharing stories that touched us, and that are relevant to the topic. During her talk at TEDxNicosia Jill shared a story of a ski injury, and aimed to engage her audience’s five senses. At the end of the talk, some from the audience said they felt they were on the mountain and felt cold.
In public speaking, there is no failure
Jill’s first TEDx talk is about “How to embrace failure
Mona Moisala: Creating Brain-Friendly Presentations
How to create brain-friendly presentations
The brain has a lot of hardwired limitations, but we can learn to work with them. You can use them to your advantage to be a more effective communicator and to create brain-friendly presentations. There is a “filter” at the beginning of brain processing that just lets in a bit of information at a time.
What should be done is to narrow down your topic to a few key points. Make them as clear as possible and get rid of all excess.
Our memory, our ability to remember things is also limited. No matter how great a speaker was, we’ll only remember a few items the next day.
Is multitasking an asset?
Even though multitasking is considered an asset in professional contexts, it might not be good for the brain. There is some research that suggests that multitasking for long hours causes the brain to get tired, people gets tired, and the brain always is in a state of stress. It might also affect people’s ability to focus on one task and to get that task done.
The same occurs in a presentation that has a lot of text, the audience is forced to multitask by both listening to the speaker and reading the text on the slides.
What the audience can do to get the most of attending a presentation
The best is to be a little bit “selfish”. Not just listen to what is being said but ask yourself: What does this mean to me? How is this is relevant to me? How is this going to help me in a concrete way?
The reason is that if you manage to integrate new information with information you already have in your memory, that’s going to create a really strong memory.
Related: Sharpen your point on your slides. 2 easy principles to achieve that
Favorite quotation
“One of the difficulties in understanding the brain is that it is like nothing so much as a lump of porridge.” — Richard L. Gregory
Viki Winterton: Get Known Now! Why Speakers Should Write a Book
The best way for a speaker to get known worldwide today
Viki has gone through all the different aspects people can use to get promoted. To her, by far the most powerful vehicle is your own book. Very few people get a book written and published. It’s a very elite crowd authors run in, and that’s why media and clients respect it.
Her very first book
Viki first thought, as many others do, that she didn’t have a story to tell. She was approached to do a book anthology, one chapter, but she delayed it for years. At some point she got frustrated with what authors were getting out of their books, and thanks to the experience working with many authors, she wrote the book Beyond Your Book. Discover the Many Ways You Can Use Your Book to Skyrocket Your Success!
Why speakers should write a book
Some of the most powerful reasons why it’s so important that a speaker has her own book are:
* It develops a respect for people within your circle, your following.
* It creates media opportunities, even when the book hasn’t been published yet.
* It helps to close deals.
I’ve published my book, what’s next?
Before you publish your book, you have to have a plan, a marketing plan, a vision, your goals. You must have created strategic alliances that will allow you to promote your book: TV programs, radio shows, podcasts, etc. Book sales are the least of what a book does for you. What a book really does for you is to open doors.
Related: Jon Block: How to Craft your Signature Talk
What a signature talk is
A signature talk is a system for public speaking that results in your audience moving forward to the next purchasing step. Is a signature talk only for professional speakers? It’s hard for Jon to think of anyone who would not benefit with having a signature talk.
At first, Jon had aversion to the concept, especially because one of his core values is authenticity. He thought that just being authentic with the audience would connect with them and lead them to the buying decision. It proved to be immensely more effective to have a structured signature talk.
Steps how to craft your signature talk
There are three key parts: (1) your personal story, (2) your content, and (3) your offer.
* Your personal story is designed to position you as an expert, to create your credibility for your audience, and to provide a human connection. Create a hero’s journey structure and show that you have been there. An example is Tony Robbins who tells his story how he was broke and overweight before. The missing part for many speakers is picking the right personal story.
* Your content is the information part. It’s the reason why someone would come and hear you speak. It’s the wisdom, knowledge, the value piece. No matter what they decide to do at the end of your talk, they leave feeling that they really got some value.
* Your offer is a compelling, irresistible call to action. The worst thing is not to make an offer at all. Jon’s case: after showing all the benefits of the offer he would say, “to see if this is a fit for you, what I offer is a free, one-to-one speaker breakthrough session that has a value of 500 USD, in which we’ll look to your signature talk inside and out and discover your business model that will allow you to generate 10,000 USD every single time you speak. But because you have come here today, as my complimentary gift it’s absolutely free when you book today.”
Related: 3 Innovative Ways Speakers Can Make a Living in the New Economy
Dananjaya Hettiarachchi: How to Become a Champion. It’s All About the Journey (Episode #50)
His journey to become World Champion of Public Speaking 2014
Dananjaya started in 2005. It took him 10 years to reach the top. He identifies three key highlights in his journey: 1. He met people who encouraged him to compete. 2. He went to an international convention the first time (2006). 3. He evolved as a speaker, from sharp and forceful at first to a more empathetic and conversational style.
His winning speech “I See something”
The first version of “I See Something” was two years before becoming a champion. It’s available in YouTube as a TEDx talk. He worked 2 years to bring the 20 minutes talk to 7 minutes and 20 seconds.
The technique Dananjaya mastered at the time of his winning speech “I See Something”
The conversational style of speaking was the technique Dananjaya mastered when he became a world champion. He wanted to bring public speaking back to speaking.
How to become a champion. It’s all about the journey
Dananjaya’s ultimate piece of advice is: Take your time. Don’t think of having overnight success. Instead, it has to be a journey. If you want to be a champion in public speaking, commit to understanding the art and science of communication and public speaking.
Related: Become the Speaker You Want to...Brian Jenner: The Art of Social Speechwriting. Beyond Jokes and Quotes
One of his lifetime best openers
Brian started quoting Woody Allen: “At this moment in time, mankind stands at a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” A bit silly joke used in a speech that could have been too serious from the start.
What is a speechwriter
Speechwriters help people to express the best selves. They advise people how long they must speak at each occasion, help them to use short sentences, use humor that is appropriate, and telling them the principles of a good speech. Speechwriters advise clients what is appropriate for a conference, wedding, etc. Usually people are in a hurry to prepare a speech and don’t have time to research, take a book of quotations, etc.
The art of Social Speechwriting
The art of social speechwriting is helping people in their personal life to deliver a good speech. For instance in a wedding: thank the right people, make few jokes, and do not to forget saying the things that need to be said. The phenomenon has also existed before the Internet, but now you find someone on Internet with great websites and more niched offerings.
Some piece of advice how to write a good speech
* Keep it short, up to 900 words.
* Make sure you read out the speech 10 or 12 times.
* Try your jokes with people who are not completely sympathetic towards you.
Related: Outlining a Speech
Favorite quotation
“Be who you are.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
Recommended book
Lend me your ears by Max Atkinson
Routine to Shine
Constantly look out for good quotations. Watch on the TV or on newspapers for examples of funny lines, good stories, anecdotes.Efrosyni Adamides: Become the Speaker You Want to Be
Steering away from being purely motivational speaker
Efrosyni prefers being a trainer rather than a motivational speaker, as she thinks that motivation is temporary. Zig Ziglar said “motivation is like taking a bath, you can’t just do it once and be clean the rest of your life.” The key thing is changing people’s mindset, because in life 95% is the mindset and 5% is the “How to.”
How to become the speaker you want to be. The BOMBA factor
Efrosyni has designed the BOMBA factor (Believe, Overcome, Mentor, Become, and Action), which you can apply to become the speaker you want to be. You can apply these five steps to anything in life:
* Believe: What is your “Why”? Believe in your dream, as it’s what will keep you driven.
* Overcome: You must be able to overcome challenges. Sometimes it’s OK to fail, but always keep going.
* Mentor: Have a mentor. Tony Robbins once said “the key thing is modeling.”
* Become: You need to learn the right skills and become the speaker you want to be. Malcolm Gladwell talks about 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something.
* Action: You must take action on a daily basis, take any opportunity you can, and speak.
Even Tony Robbins once didn’t believe in himself
Tony Robbins started selling personal development training, and at that time he was broke. He was focused on “Can I do this?” instead of “How I do this?” However, you know the end of the story, as he has coached speaking skills to successful people including leaders of nations.
A Mentor is crucial
One of the most precious things we have in life is time. A mentor can save you years in your learning curve and help you to avoid mistakes. It’s also very important that you choose the right mentor, someone who has the results you want to achieve. Once you buy someone’s advice, you buy the lifestyle.
Related: Narges Nirumvala: CEO as Spokesperson. Why Public Speaking is So Important
A CEO as Spokesperson
If you are CEO, Head of a charity, an elected public official, you must speak effectively in public at all times. One wrong sentence in a meeting or a media interview, can be re-tweeted, posted in YouTube and spread quickly.
Narges expects four “C” in a CEO as a spokesperson: you need to be Confident, Clear, Concise and Compassionate. The last one needs your emotional intelligence in display, which will enable a CEO to inspire, engage, motivate.
There is a natural spotlight the upper you are in the hierarchy, and CEOs and other top executives are aware of that. Also every COO, CFO, CIO, Board member needs to be effective and lead by example.
Some CEOs who are great speakers
Narges likes Steve Jobs and Darren Hardy (Success Magazine). And she especially likes CEO thought leaders such as Seth Godin, Brené Brown, Simon Sinek, and Malcom Galdwell. They ask questions that challenge us, and have innovative thoughts.
Should a CEO have a speech writer?
Narges doesn’t believe that a speech writer should do the whole job, as it would end up in a “canned speech”. The CEO or executive must bring the ideas and key points, and the job of the speaking coach or speech writer will be to improve the speech or talk and make it much more effective.
Related: Own the Room and Move Your Audience!
Favorite quotation
“Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.” — Douglas MacArthur
Recommended book
Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal
Routine to Shine
Expand your comfort zone.Teresa de Grosbois: How to Become Highly Influential in Your Field
How some people achieve enormous influence and success
Teresa one day realized that she was gifted in creating powerful relationships. That was after the success of her three best seller books. Since then, she branded herself, started working with emerging thought leaders and taught them the principles of influence.
The greatest influencers are masters of relationships. Are you investing on your relationships? There are two types of relationships that are important: relationships with your following, and relationships with influential people in your industry. “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.”
Habits of highly influential people
Solve a big problem for the world. Influencers don’t play small. The bigger the problem you solve for others, the easier it will be for people to talk about your work. Think of Gandhi or Marin Luther King Jr. They stood on the biggest problems going on in the world at that time.
Become a hub of influential people. Do something that draws influential people together: blog about others, create a networking group, hold a conference and invite influencers, etc. That is what Teresa calls “the golden rolodex.”
The biggest mistake people make with influencers
The biggest mistake is “the premature ask”. An example is when at the end of a conference, there are people waiting for a famous speaker to ask something: “can you introduce me to this person you just mentioned on your talk?” or “can you endorse my book?.” If you meet an influential person, don’t ask, you should offer first. Offer first: interview them, share their articles on social media, invite them to a conference, etc.
Related: Garry Parker: Winston Churchill’s Legacy in Rhetoric and Public Speaking
Churchill 2015 commemorations
2015 marks the 50th anniversary since Winston Churchill’s death. He has inspired and influenced millions of people around the world, including Garry himself. “The Second World War”, a book that won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953, has been standard schoolboy reading in the UK.
Churchill’s Legacy in Rhetoric and Public Speaking
Winston Churchill had a speech impediment (lisp) and he wasn’t the most confident speaker when he was young. He didn’t come to maturity until the onset of WWII and as Prime Minister he persuaded UK’s cabinet to make strong decisions in order to defend his country.
Churchill was very Shakespearean and often used old language to dramatize his words. As far as we know, he never had a speech writer.
The very best of Churchill in Public Speaking
A few days ago, on August 20th, was the 75th anniversary of his speech “The Few”.
Another famous speech of that time is “We shall fight on the beaches”.
In addition to his speeches, there are books about his anecdotes such as “The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill”.
Speakers influenced by Churchill
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, is heavily influenced by Churchill. However, these days we are more politically correct, and many of Churchill’s speeches, comments and views would not make sense to many people today. Another clear example of a speaker influenced by Churchill was Margaret Thatcher.
Related: Communication skills for entrepreneurs (previous interview with Garry Parker)
A Churchill’s quotation
Written to her wife when she was away:
“I think a lot about you my darling … and rejoice that we have lived our lives together; and have still some years of expectation in this pleasant vale…. I feel this has been a great experience and adventure to you and ...Tom Dowd: How to Turn Fear of Speaking into Success
Why people are afraid of public speaking?
Imagine driving in a city you’ve never been to before and you don’t have a map or GPS. It’s the same feeling: risk of failure, fear of embarrassment, thinking “what if”, etc.
How to overcome the fear of public speaking
Figure out what your symptoms are and start working on them. Stop trying to avoid them and take conscious efforts to make yourself better. Grab a mentor or someone who gives you good, solid, objective advice. Start sharing stories you’re familiar with. That will build your confidence.
Confidence
For 18 years, Tom was told on his performance appraisals that he couldn’t communicate well. When he joined Toastmasters he found out that it had nothing to do with communication skills and everything to do with confidence. Communication skills can be taught, but telling someone to be confident is tough.
Trends in presentations
The business of speaking is changing. There are alternatives to be trained and get content, such as attending a webinar versus traveling. Those who can marry the technology with their audience needs find more success and have strong content.
Related: Find Your Own Words of Power
Favorite quotation
“Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” — John C. Maxwell
Recommended book
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson
Routine to Shine
Write. And when you’re done, write some more. And when you’re done, write some more. Write, write, write.
Links
Tom at Twitter
Tom at LinkedIn
Tom Dowd’s website
Gustavo Reis: Better Communication for Better Education
His extraordinary TEDx success
In his TEDx talk “Seja um fracassado”, Gustavo presented an overview of what life of a teacher is with his own personal story. There was a clear message: it’s possible to be a successful teacher by choice, and really enjoy your work. People, especially teachers, wrote Gustavo to thank him for bringing meaning to their work.
Gustavo also attributes the success of this talk to the power of rehearsing. He spent two months rehearsing every single day until he didn’t have to look at the slides to know where he was. He knew it from the clicker what was on the screen. That gave him confidence. During his preparation, Gustavo read in a book “the more you rehearse, the more spontaneous you will look”.
Also be aware of the opportunity you have, if you are eventually invited to a TEDx talk or another similar big event. Take it as something that can change your professional course.
Better communication for better education
Gustavo believes that education’s main challenges are communication and behavior. Today students often have access to online tools that teachers don’t have. There is a high chance that the students already know what teachers are going to teach. A teacher’s challenge is to help students feel that live classes are still useful and valuable. A teacher’s role should be to become a mentor for students, which unfortunately is perceived by teachers as a step back in their careers.
Related: Public presentations about technical topics
Favorite quotations
“Every single thing that is good requires a lot of work.” — Gustavo Reis
“It takes 20 years to make an overnight success.” — Eddie Cantor
Recommended books
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman
Pamela Thompson: Leadership Challenges & Lessons Learned. Inspiring Others with Your Speaking
Leadership across the globe
The idea of “leadership” has changed over the 10 – 15 years. Before, it used to be more hierarchical, especially in communist countries. Today, leadership is perceived very similarly across the globe. Social media and global marketplaces have helped this. Leaders must have a clear vision, be able to articulate that vision (Simon Sinek’s “Why”), and be able to inspire others. Leaders also need to be clear in their own values and live their lives in alignment with them.
Leadership Challenges & Lessons Learned
Pamela’s biggest challenge was creating and maintaining work/life balance. She had been working hard since very young, and she was feeling fulfilled until 2012. At that time Pamela had the opportunity to work in Afghanistan on a project with extremely tight timelines. During that year she got pneumonia twice and had other signs that her immune system was telling her to slow down. However, soon she joined another organization to work across Africa. One year later she felt like a “lemon that had been squeezed dry” and decided to take a break. It took her time to stop feeling weak, but months later she found the balance and also creativity to start writing a book. The life lesson was that there is a different way, that it’s possible to create healthy and balanced lives.
Another challenge she faced was when working in Kabul. In the middle of a training, one of the participants received a call,Clark Gaither: Find Your Own Words of Power
How he became Dr. Burnout
Physicians are one of the professions who get burnout the most. In some branches of medicine it approaches to 70%. Clark experienced burnout himself five years ago. Then he researched the topic and started giving talks about it to other colleagues. That led to the start of his speaking career.
Words of Power
All people have had some emotionally strong event, either good or bad. There are always emotions on it, and words connected to those emotions. They are your own stories. When you share these stories you will connect with the audience in an emotional level. These are your words of power.
When Clark was a student, he completely froze in a speech. That was his bad experience which led him to one day become an award-winning speaker. Everybody has similar stories.
How to find your own words of power
Several exercises in Clark’s book lead the readers to find their own words of power. It’s especially important that everyone writes his/her core values inventory (PDF available for free in Clark’s website). Then begin using your top 5 core values in your words, stories, personal mission statement. The most powerful words are simple words but convey honest emotion, and people will feel that.
Related: Stutter to Speaker
Favorite quotation
“We don’t see things the way they are. We see things the way we are.”— Anais Nin
Recommended book
Secrets of Dynamic Communications by Ken Davis
Routine to Shine
Begin to tell stories from your own experience. Even the painful ones, because that is where your greatest influence resides. You can start writing your own thoughts, in a journal.
Links
Reagan Pugh: The Power of Storytelling from Movies
What speakers can learn from movies and movie makers
It’s the opportunity to create a memorable moment, as happens many times during a movie. Speakers would rather start with stories and pull the curtain back to bring the magic. The best speeches pull greatness out of people.
Examples of the Power of Storytelling from Movies
* “Dead Poets Society” with Robin Williams. A speech about seizing the day.
* “Any Given Sunday” with Al Pacino. The speech “Inch by inch” is about having the power to do difficult things.
* “Wide Awake” with Rosie O’Donnell. A boy in an existential crisis, closes the story giving a powerful speech.
There is no good movie without a compelling story. Donald Miller said “a good story is about a character who wants something and is willing to overcome conflict to get it.”
Also, there are thematic movies about public speaking like “The King’s Speech.” This film is powerful because it drives home the point that King George’s impediment to speak is much deeper than the fear of speaking. The lesson is that you have to work hard in yourself.
Related: Start with a Story!
Favorite quotation
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman
Recommended book
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
Routine to Shine
Write at least 750 words per day. There is a website that can help you: 750word.com
Links
Reagan Pugh’s website
P.S. If you liked this episode,Laura Baxter: Own the Room and Move Your Audience!
What singers and speakers have in common
A lot, almost everything. First of all, our job as speakers and singers is to move the audience and inspire them in a way that they have never been inspired before. You have to remain healthy, you’ve got to have voice when you’re getting up at the stage, you must have a routine for you to keep you strong. PR and how you build your audience is similar too.
The only real difference between the speaking world and the singing world is the content. As a singer the story is there, as a speaker we have to decide what message to give to the audience.
Laura’s secrets of presence from the Operatic world
Presence is a word with several meanings, inner presence and outer presence. There are three clear elements that speakers can learn from the operatic world:
* Inner presence. Musicians have to do well, you are connected to your center. In your operatic world, you can’t do that without deep breathing. Another is how to deal with mistakes: if you make a mistake, you just keep going.
* Clarity. On the operatic stage, we all know what the goal is. There are very clear goals, procedures, and rituals (e.g. how to greet the conductor is clear worldwide). As a speaker it’s very important to have a clear goal and keep it on your mind at all times. You must create daily rituals that you follow: enough sleep, stay healthy for your voice and body, etc.
* Outer presence. Be aware of the room: size, acoustics of the room, technicalities around you. Speak to the back wall and back, hear your own echo, so you will control how you will sound in the room. Also, we have an energetic field that we emote into the room, can be trained to be large or small.
Related: Peak Performance for Public Speakers
Favorite quotations
“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” — Maya Angelou
“It all started with a mouse.Fabiola León: How a Mentor Can Change Your Life
What a Mentor is
A mentor is a person who is willing to become part of a supportive community open to share experience, vulnerabilities and expertise. A mentor models the need to continue learning as a lifelong term adventure. Mentorship is a path that never ends.
How a Mentor Can Change Your Life
Meeting and partnering with Bob Proctor changed Fabiola’s life. Proctor became her Mentor. In return, Fabiola has mentored many people, especially women entrepreneurs. In many cases, her mentees have told her, “No money can pay what you have done for me.”
There are many famous people who have reached success thanks to counting on a mentor. Some examples are:
* Tony Robbins’mentor: Jim Rohn
* Joe Vitale’s mentor: Wayne Dyer
* Bob Proctor’s mentor: Lloyd Conant
Differences between mentorship and coaching
* Coaching is task-oriented. Mentorship is relationship-oriented.
* Coaching is short term. Mentorship is long term.
* Coaching is performance-driven. Mentorship is development-driven.
Related: Leading in high heels. Achieving personal and professional excellence through self-leadership
Favorite quotation
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer
Recommended book
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Routine to Shine
Breath consciously. Practice visualization. For instance, “see yourself delivering a good talk” before going to the stage or having a meeting. Visualize every day seeing the results you want to get.
Links
Fabiola’s website
Bridge the Gap (Twitter)
P.S. If you liked this episode,Robert Clancy: Speaking from the Heart! How to Shine as an Inspirational Speaker
What an Inspirational Speaker is
A motivational speaker helps you to overcome a problem you may have in your life, for instance: how to quit smoking, how to lose weight. In contrast, an Inspirational Speaker answers the bigger questions: why you need to do those things? why you need to bring them into your life? why you need to do this change? and also how you can help others in that process.
How to Shine as an Inspirational Speaker
To be an inspirational speaker you must:
* Have great stories of love, compassion and leadership.
* Be able to effectively tell those stories. Practice daily, tell stories to your friends.
* Be real, by telling either your personal stories or stories that touched you.
* Speak from the heart.
Related: Motivate like a Genius
Volunteerism
Robert’s motivation for volunteerism is that we all have the responsibility to give back, make a difference in someone’s life. Volunteerism can start just by sharing a smile, a tool that can change someone’s life. It has also helped Robert by having many inspiring stories to tell.
Favorite quotation
“To love for the sake of being loved is human, but to love for the sake of loving is angelic.” — Alphonse de Lamartine
Recommended book
Alicia Dattner: Bring Humor to Your Talks
Her stage fright moment
It happens sometimes. “Stage fright is an important sign that we care about something, it’s an exciting moment.”
The ultimate thing speakers should learn from comedians
Really connect with what you’re speaking about. Comedians’ main skill is being present and speaking what’s here now. Paula Poundstone is a brilliant example as she feels what’s happening and speaks to it. If you can attune to the audience and the moment, the power of the speech will magnify exponentially.
The biggest obstacle to be funny
When we shut ourselves down and don’t connect, or try to avoid doing or feeling something. But ultimately Alicia believes that “trying to be funny” is the biggest obstacle to being funny. Spontaneity is the best. Everybody can become funnier and you can bring humor to your talks.
Related: “Never too old to learn something new” by Julie Kertesz
Favorite quotation
“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives .” — Annie Dillard
Recommended book
The Comedy Bible by Judy Carter
Routine to Shine
A Yoga Laughter exercise. Stand up in a power pose, with arms high, your chin up and your face to the sky. Let out some laughter, keep laughing until it feels real. Do it for 5 minutes in the morning, every day.
Links
Alicia Dattner
Making Light Comedy Festival
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Also,Diane Allen: Peak Performance for Public Speakers
Her stage fright moment
Never as a public speaker. As a musician, when she completed her studies she started looking for a great orchestra to join. Even though she had a lot of training, a great skill level, passion and confidence, Diane failed in all the auditions because she couldn’t maintain her composure in the heat of the moment. Over ten years she developed a system to get rid of the tension and ultimately she succeeded in becoming lead violinist.
Related: Wow Your Audience With Stage Presence
Peak Performance for Public Speakers
The opposite is extreme fear of speaking in public. Peak performance is when you exceed your potential and have complete joy speaking in public. Normally, people perform in the middle of the spectrum.
The 3 main benefits of peak performance:
* Standing in your power
* Having an unshakable confidence
* Having unwavering focus
Favorite quotation
“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are made for.”
Recommended books
Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel
The Inner Game of Tennis by Tim Gallwey
Routine to Shine
It’s all about the routine. Your routine is the key. Identify your own step-by-step routine. In short: know your reason, have practice behind you, relax (deal with your body) and deal with the distractions.
Links
Meet with Diane Allen (30 minutes consultation, free of charge)
Eloquent Expression
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our Sam Horn: Got Your Attention? – Specific Ways to Capture and Keep Attention
Her stage fright moment
Speaking at an Inc.500 event, Sam started feeling self-conscious. “How do I look? What if I forget what I say?” She had some stage fright moments like these. She believes that the important thing is to focus on connecting with the audience, and adding value for the audience.
How Sam became the Intrigue Expert
Years ago, Sam was at the Maui Writers Conference, an event where authors had a chance to meet decision makers. Talking with a colleague, they observed that you could guess which writer would sign a deal just by looking at the publisher’s eyebrows. The decision makers who got eyebrows raised were intrigued and more interested in the book. That’s how she started talking about intrigue. Ten years ago Sam renamed her company as The Intrigue Agency and she became the Intrigue Expert.
Related: Effectively communicating with venture investors
Her book “Got Your Attention?”
Released in April 2015, and endorsed by Daniel Pink and Marshall Goldsmith, Got Your Attention? is a book full of ideas of how to intrigue and connect with anyone. Among many other techniques, Sam developed a 60-second opening for a pitch. First, ask three “did you know …?” questions. Secondly, ask “Imagine if …”. Finally, show your solution with “You don’t have to imagine, we have it …”. You can read the technique in the following article.
Being TEDx speaker and coach
Andy Bassuday: Asahi and Breathing Techniques for Public Speaking
What Asahi is
Asahi means “morning sun” in Japanese. “You want to start the day feeling alive.” Asahi is a Finnish concept, designed and developed in Lauttasaaren Liikuntakeskus, a gym in Helsinki. Asahi is a health exercise developed by researcher Timo Klemola, Dr. Yrjö Mähönen, trainer Ilpo Jalamo and chief executive, trainer Keijo Mikkonen. Asahi comes from the martial arts.
How speakers benefit with Asahi
Asahi has three main elements: breathing, mind and movement. In speaking, two elements must be focused: voice and body. Asahi helps you to be focused, to have awareness, to connect with your audience, and to be relaxed.
The importance of breathing
You always have to warm up. The voice is a wind instrument. You are breathing 14 times per minute, 20 thousand times per day. Asahi helps speakers to develop proper breathing. Most people don’t breathe properly, and do chest breathing instead of abdominal breathing.
The breathing leads the movement. You breathe first and then you speak. “You don’t speak first and then try to catch your breath later.”
Favorite quotation
“The great end of life is not knowledge but action.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Recommended book
The Bible
Routine to Shine
A breathing exercise. First, stand up well grounded with a nice, relaxed posture. Next inhale deeply, fill your stomach with air. Wait a couple of seconds. Finally empty the lungs from the bottom up, squeezing your belly. Repeat that cycle for few minutes, every day.
Links and contact information
Asahi website
Andy Bassuday
PR
Lauttasaaren Liikuntakeskus
Heikkiläntie 4, 00210 Helsinki
+358 45 124 3128
email: [email protected]
www.liiku.Katriina Haikala: Speaking to Promote Your Art
Speaking to promote your art
The main situations to promote art are openings of the exhibitions, and artists’ talks organized by museums and galleries. If the art gets more attention, it can also be promoted on TV and radio. Sometimes universities ask artists to lecture and speak about their art. If an artist doesn’t promote the art him/herself, a gallery owner or a curator usually does the job.
Her piece of advice on how to promote their art
First of all: Start promoting it. Be proud of what you do, and talk about your work as though is the only thing you want to do in your life.
Secondly: Talk with passion. A good example is Guerrilla Girls, who always talk with passion, often with public speeches.
Her experience in corporate training
Katriina found that the common thing between speaking to promote her art and corporate training is to inspire people by being fearless. Especially in corporate training, people need encouragement as they are often afraid of failure.
Her experience with crowdfunding
Katriina and other artists teamed to launch Monokini 2.0 as a crowdfunding campaign and they learned that the product was too niche and the world was not ready for that. She thinks that artists can use crowdfunding, but it requires expertise in social media and a lot of work.
Favorite quotation
“Do not play by the rules, but know your game.” — Katriina Haikala
Recommended books
Incognito by David Eagleman
Homo Ludens (“Playing Man”) by Johan Huizinga
Routine to Shine
Julie Austin: 3 Innovative Ways Speakers Can Make a Living in the New Economy
Her stage fright moment
The very first time she was paid for speaking it was at a learning center. When onstage she forgot the name of the company. Among the audience, the CEO was standing with arms folded looking at her. Luckily, she saw a big banner of the company with the name. Julie recommends beating stage fright with humor. In this particular experience she improvised, joking about a teddy bear that was on the stage and that broke the tension and she found her way to continue.
How Speaker Sponsor started
Julie has friends who used to be paid 10,000 USD to speak somehow easily. Now the same speakers are being asked to speak for free. Things have changed a lot.
She was also asked to speak for free at conferences, and one day she decided to ask a meeting planner, “What if I get my own sponsor?” They agreed, and that’s how she got paid. Then friends asked her how to do it. Later the idea evolved to Speaker Sponsor, an online platform.
3 Innovative Ways Speakers Can Make a Living in the New Economy
Julie recommends three ways:
1. Sponsorships. Focused not on big companies (e.g. Coca Cola, Nike), but in the millions of small businesses. The opportunity is in small business sponsorship.
2. Crowdfunding. Many speakers have a cause topic, such as animal rights, poverty, etc. Those speakers can get donations from the public to go out and speak.
3. Grants. Typically with narrow focus, some organizations offer, for instance, grants to college students. You have to seek them out.
Favorite quotation
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” — Helen Keller
Recommended book
Cashflow Quadra...Troy Woodson: Painting the picture for your audience. A South Bronx tale
Learning cross-cultural communications the hard way
In the South Bronx there was lot of crime. In order to survive, Troy had to to know the language of the street, learn some humor, use some Spanish, and be a bit of a chameleon. In cross-cultural communications you must retain your core, but adapt to the particular culture you’re interacting with.
Later, professionally he learned the tools from companies that specialize and train about cross-cultural communications.
Painting the picture for your audience
Successful speakers relate an experience that paints a picture in their audience’s minds. As a pharmaceutical rep in the late 90s, Troy presented new products to doctors in NYC. He always started talking about a particular patient type with a name, humanizing the patient, let’s say Ann, how she lost quality of life. By this point every doctor had Ann in their minds, she was their patient. Then he would reveal the product, a pill, and their benefits.
Steve Jobs and Tony Robbins are great examples of what painting the picture means.
The key to painting the picture is identifying why that person is there, what they need.
Favorite quotation
“Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” — Oscar Wilde
Recommended book
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosiński
Routine to Shine
Do something every day that makes you uncomfortable.
Links
CBW Global
Troy at LinkedIn
P.S. If you liked this episode,Laura Penn: Wow Your Audience With Stage Presence
How to Enhance the Performance of Public Speaking: A Pocket Coach
Laura noticed that people don’t consider public speaking as a performance. Published in 2013, this book describes the elements of performance of speaking. The book also serves as a public speaking journal.
What is stage presence?
Laura’s definition of stage presence is: the ability to wow your audience with your charisma and energy.
Main elements of stage presence
Stage presence is a combination of:
* How you use your eyes.
* How you smile.
* How you stand, your posture.
Related: Being an authentic speaker
Three great examples of stage presence
Jane Goodall, a conservationist. Small woman, but she exudes inner power.
Bill Clinton. Stage presence in a conversational way, approachable.
Martin Luther King. A leader who made you feel safe, who guided you.
Her favorite quotation
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, it’s not going to get better.” — Dr. Seuss (from his book “The Lorax”)
Recommended book
Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment by George Leonard
Routine to Shine
You can do this daily: turn on a reality TV show, and turn the volume off. Sit down and watch it for 10 minutes, and study the gestures, micro-movements, expressions to learn the skills for yourself. Be a student of body language.
Links
the Professional Speaker Coach
Mike Richards: Start With A Story!
His stage fright moment
The first time Mike was invited to speak was at a small church in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Everybody in the audience was 45 years old and older. He had 20 minutes to speak. He was prepared, excited to speak, but also really nervous. Already onstage, suddenly he grabbed his notes and started reading as though he was reading a grocery list. Nobody found it funny. After his opening line, he said, “I’m done, thank you,” and left the stage.
Related: Speakers shine with pathos
Why to start with a story
It helps people to immediately identify themselves with your message, to make them think, “Yes, I had that experience.” Stories are a great connector, eye opener.
Steps to bring your message until the talk ends with a story
First of all, define the problem and a proposed solution. Then, find a story that helps your audience to identify themselves with the problem.
During the delivery:
1. Start with a story
2. Transition – tell the problem
3. Transition – next points
4. Transition – this is the ideal solution
5. Transition – next points
(Use pieces of the story to transition to the next points)
6. Bring the story back to the end with your punchline
More about using stories
Besides your main story, you can use a few additional ones that support specific points, but don’t use too many.
You can always use visuals, voices, props, but use only one per talk. Don’t have too many moving parts as it can be distracting.
Favourite quotation
“If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.” —Thomas J. Watson
Recommended book
David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
Routine to Shine
Don’t overthink. Stop rehearsing at least 12 hours before your speech. You will sound more spontaneous, more as having a conversation with your audience.
Links
Mahima Klinge: Lean Into Positivity
Her book “The Inner Peace Formula”
Originally titled “A Rebel’s Guide to Inner Peace,” and just relaunched, it presents 3 steps you can take into your daily life to increase your compassion, good feelings and positivity.
Being positive as a speaker
Being positive is all about your mindset. It’s a choice.
As a speaker, even before you open your mouth, your audience will notice how you feel. People will be open only if you are feeling good and positive. Otherwise, your will lose them.
All famous and successful speakers are positive and charismatic.
What if you are in a bad mood the day you must speak in public? Mahima’s recommendation is: be authentic, be yourself, and don’t try to mask your feelings.
Lean into positivity
Stop focusing on the negative things happening. Instead, be conscious of the small positive things that happen around you. Then, expand this moment and amplify this good feeling. Talk about positive things: “You know what?, on my way to work I saw a guy dancing on the tram and it put a big smile on my face.”
Related: Grow your courage
Favorite quotation
“Play to your strengths and outsource your weaknesses.”
Recommended book
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Routine to Shine
The way you start your day and end your day are key to being positive and to shine. Incorporate some morning ritual before doing anything else: a breathing exercise, meditation or yoga. And, end the day with gratitude.
Links
Mahima at Facebook
Love Silence
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Don’t miss any of our upcoming episodes with our amazing guests! Mikko Hyppönen: Public presentations about technical topics
His lifetime best opener
He started his latest TEDx Talk The Internet is on Fire (December 2014) with a story. During the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, Walter Bailey, a young waiter, was the only person who took action to try to save lives. This was a metaphor for today’s Internet, where everybody knows about surveillance but very few people are taking action.
The most important elements in a technical presentation
* You have to be able to simplify. Use stories and metaphors.
* You have to be as concrete as possible, don’t speak in abstract. Use screenshots, videos.
How to coordinate all sections of a technical talk
“When you do demos, you have to surrender to the demo gods.” It’s easy to go wrong with live demos. Mikko schedules a warmup talk (a final rehearsal) for the most important talks. Rehearsing is the key to success. Do spice up your talks with videos, props, demos, in addition to slides. In his very first TED talk he used an overhead projector as a prop.
Recommended tools for technical demos and presentations
Practical tool for demos: ZoomIt
YouTube downloader: youtube-dl
Favorite quotation
“The biggest lie on the Internet is “I have read and I agree to the terms and conditions.” – Terms of Service; Didn’t Read Project
Recommended books
The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley
Alex Sozonoff: Disrupting the Status Quo in Today’s Changing World
His stage fright moment
Never had fear of the stage. A certain amount of tension is always good as it helps you to be concentrated on what you’re saying.
A long leadership journey
Alex worked with Bill Hewlett, one of HP founders, who became his first role model. HP always had an atmosphere of trust and respect, with the ambition to succeed. He steps out of his comfort zone sometimes, which is one way to grow. Concern about the welfare for its employees was deeply embedded in the company.
Related: Effectively communicating with venture investors
Today’s challenges and how to disrupt the status quo
There is a well-known list of challenges and they are accentuated by inter-connectivity and social media. Connectivity is the mother of all disruptions. The next paradigm is big data and analytics, which can be used, for instance, in healthcare.
An example of disrupting the status quo is Uber. Solutions like this face a lot of resistance. It requires perseverance, determination, and creativity.
Disrupting the way people communicate with others
Disrupt in reverse. Let’s not forget that personal communication (face-to-face) is more significant.
Favorite quotations
“As you create your roadmap for the future, make sure you are part of the steamroller and not part of the road.”
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve.Adam Tratt: Creating Presentations that Inspire
The Story of Haiku Deck
Adam met his co-founder Kevin Leneway at a startup accelerator and they had the idea of building a celebrity-based Facebook game. Among their team, there was a very talented designer who made extraordinary presentations for pitching the product. However, the game failed and at some point the talented designer quit. Challenged by this loss, and seeing opportunities with the iPad, Kevin came up with the idea of “What if we did for PowerPoint what Instagram did for Photoshop?”
Four best practices in presentations
According to Adam, presentations experts say that there are four main best practices. These best practices are productized to create Haiku Deck:
* Use one idea per slide
* Reinforce your idea with a very powerful, beautiful image
* Have consistency in your formatting
* If you use a graph or chart, make it simple
Haiku Deck aims to make it very difficult for users to create an ugly presentation.
Related: Common mistakes in company presentations
Storytelling
People don’t remember facts as well as remember stories. Throughout history, people has been telling stories and writing them on walls. Today, there are many opportunities to tell your own story via social media and tools such as Haiku Deck. Adam wants people to achieve success through storytelling.
How to Get Started with Haiku Deck
Haiku Deck is available for iPad and as a web app, for free. They just launched Haiku Deck Zuru, which is powered by artificial intelligence to analyze your text and suggest the best pictures and design. It is available today as a Pre-sale with a 50% discount.
His favorite quotation
“Start with Why.” — Simon Sinek
Recommended book
Bright Lights, No City by Max Alexander
Routine to Shine
“I do a lot of my best thinking when I’m moving.Christine Clapp: Outlining a speech
Her book “Presenting at Work”
Co-written with Bjørn Southard, her former debate partner. They both had the same idea in mind: a book absolutely practical for people in the workplace. It covers several speaking situations: a job interview, going to a networking event and introducing yourself, leading a meeting, giving a panel presentation, giving a keynote address at a conference, and even how to give a toast. Also, the goal was that the book is easy to read and that people use it time and time again.
How to outline a speech: Oreo Outline Method
Christine started to design the method because her students and clients all wanted to deliver extemporaneous speeches. Neither a manuscript nor a roman numeral outline are useful in these situations. The Oreo Outline method has 4 differences with other outline methods:
* One piece of paper.
* Oriented horizontal (landscape mode), from left to right.
* At the top and bottom, the speaker writes word-for-word the opening and closing of her speech.
* Ocular cues, such as transitions.
As speaker, your single-page Oreo Outline can be “your speaking notes”, and you bring it with you to the lectern.
This method also works with leading a meeting, giving a toast, written speeches, Q&A sessions, and even introducing yourself at networking events.
You can also try Christine’s Online outline tool
How to transform from an expert to a thought leader
Develop your communication skills. Five pillars of speaking with confidence: stance, sound, smile, silence, and sight (eye contact).
Her favorite quotation
“If you can’t write your message in a sentence, you can’t say it in one hour.” —Dianna Booher
Recommended book
Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
Routine to Shine
Make sure you’re getting enough sleep. Rehearse well in advance so you don’t need to sacrifice your sleeping hours on the day before your speech.
Links
Jack Vincent: A Sale Is A Love Affair
His stage fright moment
When Jack was senior in high school, he was co-President of Santa’s Helpers, a group of volunteers who would go all around the city to raise donations for poor people. At a Christmas concert, he was asked to talk in the intermission much earlier than what had been planned. As they had arrived late and he got distracted with the people, he got nervous. However, he made the mistake of accepting to speak right away. He spoke his first line well, but then he froze. People sympathetically laughed. By the end of the event he came back onstage and closed with great words. They got a record in donations. The lesson: if you don’t feel prepared, say “No.”
A Sale Is A Love Affair
The best salespeople are loved by their customers. Love more, sell more. These are some of the key principles that his book conveys.
What was Jack’s inspiration? He’s been doing sales training for 10+ years. A few years ago, a relationship of his ended and he started dating, and also started to talk about relationships more often with his friends. These conversations started to bring ideas for discussion inside his sales training. And his students liked the discussions and analogies between sales and love affairs. They liked it so much that brought their own views and ideas. One day in a training Jack said, “I will write a book about this.”
The book is targeted to salespeople.
About taking risks in writing and speaking
This book came from his heart. Days ago he posted in social media, “If some people aren’t laughing at you, your dreams aren’t big enough.” He prefers that when you speak, people will say you’re crazy or laugh at you, instead of playing with their phones. Jack used some analogies that could sound controversial such as “Salespeople are from Mars, Customers are from Venus.” He believes in this, and the book seems to be resonating with most of its readers.
Favorite quotation
“You were wild once, don’t let them tame you.” — Isadora Duncan
Recommended book
Sacred Hoops: Spiritual...Craig Senior: Stutter to Speaker
His stage fright moment
For Craig this is “when your mind gets hijacked”. Once in a speech contest, his mind went completely blank. It was a long silence. Then he turned slowly with a dramatic movement, raised his hand, and the words came back.
Another time he put his full script on a lectern, looked down, and all the words on the page had completely disappeared. The words only came back when he sat back down. It was a very weird sensation.
How he overcame stuttering
Craig remembers his own life stuttering. Since a child, he always dreamed to be speaker. He never took any speech therapy. Being already an adult, someone in his company started a Toastmasters club and he immediately joined and started to speak as much as he could.
Once he stuttered in his thoughts, and that was when he believed it was a mental pattern. As he thought he had to rewire his brain, he wrote a speech titled “reprogramming the human computer”. He would practise at home the words and sounds he had trouble with and then force himself to speak in public. He overcame stuttering by brute force. After all, everyone does stuttering sometimes. Expectation of being perfect in speaking is silly.
He became a speaking coach in Canada and even has remote students in India, Hong Kong and Singapore.
His piece of advice for stuttering
Figure out why you have it, if you can. In his case, the epiphany was realizing that his problem was not physiologic.
You can go to speech therapist to get tested and figure out the cause.
One exercise Craig does is related to breathing, as some people creates stoppages simply by not breathing. Stop, breath, say your sentence, stop, breath, say your sentence … Sometimes your brain works faster than your mouth. Slow down.
Another exercise is called “listening with the audience”. The idea is to imagine an audience. As you’re speaking, ask yourself “do I understand that?”, “does that make sense?”, “was that funny?”. Then take time and feel the emotions as thought you were in the audience. This slows you down to a pace that you can speak.
Favorite quotations
“Satisfaction of one’s curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life.” — Linus Pauling
“One of the most beautiful compensations in life is that no person can help another w...Nando Miranda: You can be a Master of Ceremonies
What is a Master of Ceremonies
A Master of Ceremonies (emcee) is the person who acts as a Host for a special event. The emcee steers the audience through the itinerary, through the program of entertainment. The event can be a speech contest, talent show, a wedding reception, etc. The emcee is the manager of the protocol, saying what is allowed, what is not, introducing the speakers and performers, letting the people know when to applaud and when to be silent.
His favourite Master of Ceremonies
Nando admires Ryan Seacrest, who is American Idol’s host. Ryan dresses and looks the part and he piques the audience’s interest by telling short stories about the performers he is introducing. And he is very encouraging. All these elements make the show always runs smoothly.
His top piece of advice to be Master of Ceremonies
1. Gather information from the organizers. You must know exactly what the program is. Know what is off limits as there might be some subjects that are taboo. Learn how to pronounce well the performers’ names.
2. Rehearse. Write a script in advance. Using note cards is OK, especially useful for introductions.
3. Dress and look the part. Wear a suit and put on a tie (for men), wear a dress (for ladies). Look like a Pro even if you haven’t acted as emcee before.
4. Relax! Have fun because you are there to entertain the audience.
How to introduce a speaker or performer
You want to build the excitement but you don’t want to overhype the moment. Tell a concise story why the audience should be attentively listening to a speaker or watching the performer. Lead the applause.
Favorite quotation
“Do. Or do not. There is no try.” — Yoda (Star Wars’ Episode V: “The Empire Strikes Back”)
Recommended book
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Routine to Shine
On a daily basis, make a list of goals of what you need to accomplish both in your personal and business life. It’s a day to day tactical way to see what you accomplish towards your goals. Just pen and paper.
Links
Martti Vannas: The magic of memory
The magic of memory
Memory training teaches how to better use your memory to remember names, numbers, ToDo lists, everything. No theory, it’s all about practise. Martti has learned the techniques and proved their usefulness.
If you remember things better, your have more confidence. As a magician, memory helps Martti by remembering what he specifically did in his previous performances, and how. The memory will create a bank of past experiences, which will help you to react and adapt to new situations.
Memory is a skill and everybody can learn to have better memory.
How memory helps speakers
You can deliver a speech without notes, relying on the key points of the speech. No slides needed either. You can memorize a speech that is several hours long. You can link parts of the speech (tags) with parts of your body. For instance, you attach one image of “beach” to your toes, “sand” your ankles, “a car” to your knees, until you reach the top of your head–“a watch”–which means it’s time to stop.
What speakers can learn from magicians
Connection with the audience and selling yourself as a persona to the audience are things that magicians are very good at. The main principle is: Be yourself. It’s better being authentic but boring than artificial and funny. People will smell that you’re not genuine, and you will lose the connection.
Favorite quotation
“Look at what the majority is doing, and do the exact opposite.” – Earl Nightingale
Recommended books
No B.S. Sales Success by Dan S. Kennedy
Make ‘Em Laugh & Take Their Money by Dan S. Kennedy
Routine to Shine
Talk to one stranger per day. No empty small talk, but a compliment or say what you’re doing, few exchanges of thoughts with the other person.
Links
Martti Vannas website
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our Nienke van Bezooijen – Being an authentic speaker
Her stage fright moment
At the end of a big seminar, she unexpectedly had to sing along in front of 2500 people. It went well after all, and that moment is kept in her mind as “moment of success”. Nienke recommends to keep you own “moment of success” on your mind and tap into it when you need it, in order to prevent stage fright.
Being an authentic speaker
She has made a research observing top CEOs, executives, bankers, politicians, and many other speakers. Only nearly 10% of them speak authenticly.
An authentic speaker:
* Is there to serve to the audience.
* Speaks beyond her/his own ego (avoids phrases starting with “I …”).
* Masters also body language and voice. 70% is body language, 20% is voice, and 10% is content.
Her new book “The Speaker Success Solution”
After her experience learning from top class public speaking and voice coaches, and then coaching hundreds of speakers, she developed her own professional speaking system E.A.S.E. (Energy, Authenticity, Speaking skills, Engagement). Her mission is to provide the world with a voice. The book “The Speaker Success Solution” is expected to be released on April 2015.
Her favorite quotation
“I believe you when You believe you.”
Recommended book
Little Voice Mastery by Blair Singer
Routine to Shine
Breath in on 4 counts (seconds), deep down and not too fast. Breath in for a count of 4. Hold on the air for 7 seconds. Then breath out in 8 seconds. Repeat . Practise on a daily basis.
Links
Presentation Master – Nienke van Bezooijen
Download the free ebook Dashboard for the Professional Speaker
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our Jeekeshen Chinnappen: Motivate like a genius
How to motivate like a genius
He started to speak in public after sharing and spreading what he learnt from NLP. As he quickly received requests for talking to more and more audiences, he had to stand up and make it happen.
Speaking skills are not the most important thing to be a motivational speaker. Knowledge is first, which will give you confidence. Then soft skills and empathy: understand the audience, build rapport. Speaking skills are the final element.
You don’t need to be onstage to motivate people. You can start step by step: first writing posts on social media, then talking on the radio, then on TV, and finally motivate as public speaker.
About NLP
Being in a trip to Europe, Jeeks saw a show by magician Derren Brown using NLP principles to convince people in the audience to give him their wallets. Astonished by this, Jeeks started to explore NLP, which is a personal development technique. He soon became an expert and even published a book.
How he established several companies
Break the big goal of building a company into smaller objectives. First, start with a good idea and make a market research. Have partnerships, which will bring confidence and motivation. One needs to be a good speaker, act like the public figure of the business. You need a lot of motivation and self-confidence.
Favorite quotation
“If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” —Albert Einstein
Recommended books
Frogs into Princes by Richard Bandler and John Grinder
The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan and Barbara Pease
Routine to Shine
“Anchoring”, an NLP exercise which consists in creating triggers to get you into a specifc state. For example: imagine you hit a button and you become self-confident, you hit another button and you get sleepy,Aleksi Litovaara: Grow your courage
Courage
Courage is the ability to do things even if you’re scared. Do small courageous actions every day, have fun, connect with people, speak with people. Everybody has aspects in her own life where they have courage, and there are techniques to move the courage to other different areas of her life.
His piece of advice for speech contests
Practise, practise, practise. Build the place you practise as real as possible, put photos of people in your room. Practise the mindset and feeling (e.g. the pressure) of being onstage. Use relaxation techniques. And have fun.
Hosting events
There is a manuscript, usually not ready well in advance. You have to be spontaneous and react to people. It’s more about creating a good time to the audience. Think of there are a lot of people (your audience) helping you to succeed.
Favorite quotation
“You Can’t Stop The Waves But You Can Learn To Surf .” — Jon Kabat-Zinn
Recommended book
Losing my virginity by Richard Branson
Self compassion by Dr. Kristin Neff
Routine to Shine
Smile. Take some breaths, feel the moment. Even if you don’t feel like smiling, take a smile on your face, as it will eventually become a real smile.
Links
Aleksi Litovaara website
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Don’t miss any of our upcoming episodes with our amazing guests! Sign up here.
Will Cardwell: Effectively communicating with venture investors
Types of venture investors
* Angel investors. Wealthy individuals, who are investing their own money, and usually invest in projects they are passionate about.
* Venture capital investors. Companies who invest money from pension funds, insurance companies, foundations, etc. and aim to create a portfolio of investment.
* Corporate venture investors. Large companies (e.g. Intel, Cisco, Sony) that invest part of their money in projects that are complementary, symbiotic to their core business.
How to communicate effectively with venture investors
Figure out their motivations, each category thinks different.
Share all news with your investors, both good and bad. Communicate regularly about customers: weekly to angels, monthly to venture capital investors, less often to corporate investors. Everybody is interested about sales.
Have something more sophisticated than email, such as Podio or LaunchPad Central.
Elevator pitch and storytelling
Either you are founder, CEO, or just an employee, you’re pitching all the time, even unconciuously. You need to learn a storyline.
Customize your elevator pitch, based on your audience and how they like to receive information. Chemistry matters. Some investors are more interested in the team, others in the market, etc.
You need several stories ready to be used: about the customers, about the founders, about the team, about the product. Also bring something visual, such as a mockup or prototype.
Favorite quotation
“The shit’s chess, it’s not checkers!” – Detective Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington, from the movie Training Day)
Recommended book
The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Routine to Shine
Keep your brain healthy. Keep yourself moving, even in micro activities: taking the stairs, walking instead of driving, etc.
Tulia Lopes: Leading in high heels. Achieving personal and professional excellence through self-leadership
Her stage fright moment
Never had. She started dancing onstage, since very early in her life. But-as being very spontaneous person-something that came to her mind often when she started speaking in public was: is my audience understanding what I mean?
Leading in high heels and AWE Summit
Leadership is a BIG name, for many people. The goal of AWE Summit (Assertive Women Entrepreneurs) originally was to give women voice, more opportunities to speak in public. “Leading in high heels” is a program focused on leadership for women, in which Tulia uses the metaphore of: Flat heels, Wedges heels, High heels.
Self-leadership
You have to be a good leader of yourself, before leading others. It starts with self-awareness. Not only making your own decisions, but also knowing that you’re the only responsible for your actions. “If you don’t take the leadership of your life, someone else will”.
Favorite quotation
“Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.” — Pablo Picasso
Recommended book
7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey
Routine to Shine
Plan ahead, and using your agenda, write only three things per day. This avoids feeling overwhelmed with many activities that are not achieved by the end of the day. Include times for breaks, exercise and reading (never stop learning).
Links
Tulia Lopes website
...Alessandra Cimatti: Common mistakes in company presentations
The most typical mistakes in company presentations
1. No clear structure and flow. Hard to follow.
2. Tied to the corporate template. Usually badly designed templates that limit users.
3. Careless about copyright of images. Instead of searching at Google, use either free image sources: picjumbo.com, pixabay.com, pexels.com or stock image sources: shutterstock.com, fotolia.com, istockphoto.com
4. Using the wrong charts to display data.
Related: Sharpen your point on your slides. 2 easy principles to achieve that
Examples of speakers who make great presentations
Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn. You can watch this video
Seth Godin, marketing thought leader. You can watch this video
Newest trends in presentations
Uploading slides to Internet is good for marketing. Slideshare is the most popular site, which is well indexed.
Use of full-screen size photography, minimal text (keywords), avoid bullet lists, and embed videos.
Apps customized or designed for tablets. Example: Haiku Deck.
Favorite quotations
“If you can’t explain it simply,Kin Tue-Fee: Succeeding from Engineer to Manager. Communication matters
His stage fright moment
During his last year studying Naval Architecture at The University of Glasgow, he had to present his project to his Professor, lecturers, and fellow students. He froze in front of the audience for few minutes and had strong stage fright, even though he knew his topic very well. A second stage fright moment occurred in his own wedding’s speech.
A lesson of persistance
In order to become a Manager in the Canadian Public Sector, Kin had to compete nearly 25 times. The hardest part was always the oral interview. In this journey he joined Toastmasters International, which helped him to gain confidence and the communication skills that he lacked. A great lesson of persistance.
Communication is the most important skill to become a Manager
As happened in his own personal story, Kin has seen how dozens of people flourish once they gain communication skills. In his seminars, Kin challenges his audience asking: “Give me an example of a good leader who has poor communication skills”. Communication is the most important skill to become Manager.
Favorite quotation
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela
Recommended book
“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey
Routine to Shine
Ho’oponopono is a healing technique from Hawaii. Four phrases to repeat: I am sorry; Please forgive me; I love you; Thank you. Tell this to yourself every day. For more insight, please read Kin’s article.
Links
Kin’s Blog “Become your Best”
André Noël Chaker: Speakers shine with pathos
His stage fright moment
When was still a student at Law School, André worked part time performing “singing telegrams” at special events. One night he went dressed as “Bell boy” to sing happy birthday to a girl working in an East-Montréal bar full of Hells Angels. He was really afraid and couldn’t perform at first, but then he came back and shined onstage.
Speakers shine with pathos
According to Greek philosopher Aristotle, every speaker should use ethos (credibility), logos (logic) and pathos (emotions) in a speech. In a recent research analyzing thousands of TED talks, it was observed that only 3% of these speeches reach more than 10 million views. The hypothesis is that these outstanding speeches all have a similar breakdown: 10% ethos, 25% logos, and 65% pathos. That’s the power of pathos, to turn data and facts into a compelling story.
Related: Storytelling is important for everybody
Writing books to change behaviors
André’s motivation to write “The Finnish miracle” and “Santa’s Dream” is the power of pathos. You can embed what you believe into stories, with the purpose of changing behaviors.
Favorite quotation
“Be yourself, everyone else is taken.” —Oscar Wilde
Recommended book
“Talk Like TED” by Carmine Gallo
Routine to Shine
Come up with a story per week. Embed facts you want to convey into a compelling story.
Links
André at Twitter
André at Facebook
Santa’s Dream website
Kickstarter
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our Timo Sorri: Sharpen your point on your slides. 2 easy principles to achieve that
Timo Sorri is a presentation designer who helps people turn their ideas into compelling and understandable visual stories. Based in Helsinki, he is founder and owner of Havain, a company specialized in designing business presentations and also offers training in the subject. Author of the Presentaatioiden Pelikirja -blog (the Playbook of Presentations). Member of Toastmasters International since 2009.
His stage fright moment
His “icebreaker” at Toastmasters. In spite of having rehearsed his lines for 5 hours, when the moment approached he was extremely nervous, “about to collapse”. But after few seconds of being on the stage, everything went calmer and he successfully delivered the speech.
Two easy principles to sharpen your slides
The two “S”: (1) So what? and (2) Signal to Noise ratio.
1. So what? -> Be clear what you want to say in the slides.
2. Signal to Noise ratio -> Minimize the amount of things that you need on your slide in order to communicate your point.
When to use slides
Use slides if the audience is very big.
Avoid using slides in company internal meetings, where people should instead interact more.
Useful resources for designing presentations
Creative Commons licensed (i.e. you can use them without charge, just give the attribution to the source) image sites:
* www.flickr.com/commons (search engine for world’s public photography archives powered by Flickr)
* www.compfight.com (search engine for Flickr users’ Creative Commons licensed images)
* www.photopin.com (same as above)
* labs.tineye.com/multicolr/ (Search Flickr Creative Commons by color)
* Estève Pannetier: The world needs more communication, not more knowledge
Estève Pannetier is a consultant, trainer and ritual designer based in Helsinki. He has been TEDx Turku speaker in 2013. Currently he is a very active advocator of the GreenBlueRed communication framework.
The world needs more communication, not more knoledge
The problem is not having enough knowledge but how to communicate and share the knowledge with other people. People are not able to communicate clearly to each other. People needs to communicate more concrete, and less abstract–which is the usual style in science, academia and other fields.
The GreenBlueRed communication framework
Work by Flemish sociologist Théo Cockx. Analyzing deeper than verbal communication, and even deeper than non-verbal communication, there are three intentions of communication: Green, Blue and Red. Blue is talking about yourself (e.g. your knowledge, your fears, your expertise), Green is talking about the other (often called empathy), Red is the shared action (e.g. a sales person trying to close a deal). For more information, read GreenBlueRed.
Usually comedians are people who are very Green on the stage. Other examples are: coaches, therapists, and people whose main duty is to help others.
His stage fright moment
Not in public speaking, but when playing music (drumming) in front of thousands of people. To beat stage fright, Estève recommends to focus on others (your audience).
Favorite quotation
“If you ask a question you will be fool for a second. If you don’t ask a question you will be fool forever”
Recommended book
He learnt a lot about communication by bubble travelling, instead of reading communication books. But he recommends:
“The Essential Guide to Chakras” by Swami Saradananda
Routine to Shine
Every time you meet somebody for the next week, instead of “how are you?” ask a question about the positive emotion that is happenig right now. Examples: what are you greatful about?Mette Højen: Audience Participation. Giving life to the speech.
Mette Højen is a rhetoric expert and keynote speaker based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is also professional trumpet player and very interested in conductors’ rhetoric and leadership.
Lifetime best opening
Opening for Mette’s keynote speech “Emotions” at PSA World Conference (New York, May 2014):
“There is a powerful moment just before a classical concert is about to begin.
That is when the orchestra is testing and warming up the instruments, turning the pages of the sheet music. All is an undisciplined cacophony of voices, sounds, chords and rhythms.
The conductor appears, and faces his audience – the musicians.
Suddenly he does a small gesture, nothing pomp, nothing sophisticated. Just a small gesture.
Chaos becomes order, noise becomes music, leadership becomes power.
Leadership and power is exactly what my talk today will focus on.
The leaders’ most important tool when facing an audience–that could be employees, clients, press–is the power of emotions and how to demand emotional response. And emotional response is what the conductor gets real time when the musicians are playing. That is true power. …”
Her stage fright moment
Mette was 12 years old. She was planning to say an introduction of a piece she was about to perform in a concert. The moment arrived and she didn’t know what to say. That inspired her to dig into the public speaking sphere.
The importance of audience participation
Audience participation is important because: (1) the audience determines our success, (2) the audience gives us credibility as speakers, (3) the speaker must be present without being in the center.
Techniques for audience participation
The best techniques for audience participation are:
1. Puzzle-solution structure. People love listen to secrets.
2. Ask questions. If you expect an answer, make it clear.
3. Bring in reflections from the corridor, the previous speaker, etc. Give life to the speech.
Favorite quotation
“Don’t tell people everything you want them to know. Tell them the one thing you want them to remember.” – Thomas Rosshirt
Recommended book
Lend me your ears by Max Atkinson
David Gelkin: When you just want to slap your audience
David Gelkin is a public speaker, actor and serial entrepreneur. He is also a Toastmaster, and currently serves as Division G Governor (Nordics) 2014-2015 for Toastmasters International. He has written the book “Financial Freedom from 499 Euro”.
His stage fright moment
Haven’t had yet, but he gets nervous and has butterflies in the stomach just before to speak.
The rules of audience etiquette
First rule: It’s not the speakers’ responsibility to keep the etiquette rules in place. It’s the meeting facilitator’s (or Sgt. at Arms) role.
Second rule: Make sure First rule is followed.
More about audience etiquette
If you are the meeting facilitator and you are going to enforce audience etiquette, do it with dignity and diplomacy.
If you are part of the audience and you have some task to do while listening to the speaker (e.g. taking a photo and tweeting it immediately), be discreet.
Favorite quotation
“The good of the many outweighs the good of the few.” – Mr. Spock (Star Trek)
Recommended book
The richest man in Babylon by George Samuel Clason
Routine to Shine
When you wake up in the morning, listen to some uplifting music on the radio, and dance!
Links
David at LinkedIn
David at Twitter
Book “Financial Freedom from 499 Euro”
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Don’t miss any of our upcoming episodes with our amazing guests! Sign up here.
Antonio Meza: Storytelling is important for everybody
His stage fright moment
When he was a kid he had to deliver a poem in a school festival. He couldn’t speak at all, got paralyzed.
He believes that in order to overcome stage fright, we must look at the stage as a meeting place, not as an exposure place.
Storytelling is important for everybody
Absolutely yes. Storytelling is one of the things that makes us humans. Stories are vehicles we use to convey beliefs to other people. Our brains work thanks to our beliefs.
How to make storytelling effective
First of all you need to know yourself as a speaker, what you want your story to be effective for, what is the purpose of the speech. Empathy and paying attention to the values of the audience are the most important things to make storytelling effective.
How to create good personal stories
Not to be judgemental with your own stories. Collect all your stories, be aware of them. Ask for feedback. Choose the right one for a specific audience.
Favorite quotation
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” — Samuel Beckett
Recommended book
Resonate by Nancy Duarte
Routine to Shine
Play “Make another choice” with yourself by the end of the day, every day.
* “Make another choice” is an Improv comedy’s excercise.
Links
Akrobatas
Antoons (Antonio’s page as cartonist)
Antonio at Twitter
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Don’t miss any of our upcoming episodes with our amazing guests! Sign up here.
Julie Kertesz: Never too old to learn something new
Julie Kertesz is today a storyteller, keynote speaker, photographer and stand-up comedian. She started stand-up comedy at 77 years old. She is also a Toastmaster, awarded as DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster). Julie currently serves as Division K Governor (UK South) 2014-2015 for Toastmasters International. PhD in Physico Chemistry. Julie writes her diary since she was 10.
Her stage fright moment
In her first meeting in Toastmasters club in Washington, USA. She was asked to stand up and speak.
Stand-up comedy
She was convinced that she was not funny until 77 and saw the world with comedian eyes.
She started in gigs when she took a workshop and the trainer told her “we teach you only if you go out at least 20 times”. That was the beginning.
“I always have pleasure to do it”. A huge hight to be with the audience.
Favorite quotation
“You are never too old to begin something new, to learn something new.”
Recommended books
The Power of Personal Storytelling by Jack Maguire
Julie’s 9 recommended books
Routine to Shine
Practice the “Power of Pause”. Pause before you speak, look at the audience eyes. Pause before a punchline. Use the pause to look at people.
Links
Julie’s blog “Competent Communicator”
Flickr
P.S. If you liked this episode, you might enjoy subscribing to our mailing list. Don’t miss any of our upcoming episodes with our amazing guests! Sign up here.
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