Late last year when we started paying close attention to good opening hooks, we started noting those TED talks that had particularly good ones. In this 3 minute video we produced below, we’ve spliced out 6 really notable ones, and what we consider a represenative sample of the different types of hooks you can deploy. From self-deprecating […]
One of my clients called me yesterday to share how her recent presentation went. We’d spent about 6 hours together reviewing, practicing, taping, testing, editing and more. It was a 45 minute talk to a consequential group in her industry. She couldn’t retain her excitement. “So I started with that story we practiced – where
What it takes to be successfull Read More »
To kick off this year’s TEDActive conference in Palm Springs, the TED staff held a special workshop day for TEDx organizers. I gave a brief presentation on speaker preparation to my peers and I’ve included the slides (with notes) below. The irony of these slides is that they weren’t seen at the workshop — the tech
Live from the Desert. Read More »
Here’s my list of bad to beautiful public speaking moments for 2010: 10. We’ll start with bad: I’m still amazed that this guy made it onto national news after the viral explosion of his supposed nomination speech at a political event in NE Ohio. Nonetheless, I’ll chalk it up to good acting as there’s no way someone sober
While executing a public speaking and presentation training for rising executive at a national manufacturer recently, we inadvertently found a deep breaking point. While she broke down weeping we knew that it meant one thing: we found her pain. Her boss had employed us for a day of evaluation and experimentation. She suspected that there
When you find the pain Read More »
In our Influential Storytelling class at ar.tic.u.la.tion, we apply critical thinking methodologies to help properly frame a story. So on our summer family vacation a week ago, I thought I’d test the logic with my 7 year old daughter. What better story to practice than “what I did this summer,” knowing she’d be quizzed upon returning to school
How was your summer? Read More »
On Wednesday this week, Jan and I attended the ‘final exam’ in Alaina Sheer’s presentation transformation. I hadn’t written about our style and delivery session that we had a few weeks ago as I knew there was some additional work to be done before she was really ready to present. Tuesday night we had a chance
A presentation transformation: part 2. Read More »
From fairy tales to extreme makeovers, who doesn’t love a good before-and-after story? HGTV has built an empire around ’em (with good reason) and TLC offers a veritable pantheon of makeover shows about babies, weddings and beauty. So Ruth and I thought it would be fun and, more importantly, helpful and enlightening, to feature a before-and-after story of
A presentation transformation: part 1 Read More »
In today’s New York Times, an illuminating story about multi-tasking adorned the front page. It’s disintegrating our ability to focus, the research argues (I would personally agree!). And indeed, checking email, texting, facebooking, skyping, webinaring- whatever the task- must all be but aside for the careful work that is presentation preparation. I recently queried a PR
San Diego, August, 1996: I was sequestered for a day in the speechwriters’ room behind the big stage at the Republican National Convention. I was there to “traffic” a speech. I was charged to make sure the one that was supposed to scroll on the teleprompter was the one my ‘principal’ was expecting to give,
From Ruth: 25 years in the making Read More »
announcing
the motivated speaker
six principles to unlock your communication potential
In this book you will discover the six essential threshold concepts needed to give talks like the best TED speakers and Fortune 500 leaders.
The book will deliver May 2025.
Stay tuned for the launch!
