Speaking Tips

 

What Happens Next?

In Oklahoma City last week, we trained a group of interns attached to the Oil and Gas Industry. Like many of our clients, these young engineers, attorneys, CPA’s and scientists were challenged to construct client anecdotes or case studies. The truth is, no one was born...

Haste Makes Waste

Would that we all had the recall abilities of Sherlock Holmes or Jeopardy champ James Holzhauer. But we humans can employ some of history's best memory tools. Your kids undoubtedly sang "The Alphabet Song" to learn letters. And, as we referenced in a recent tip, the ancient...

First Date

Last week, in a training for female leaders at Glidewell Dental, we were discussing the necessity of building professional networks. One attendee was spot-on when she described effective networking as similar to a ‘first date.’  Remember one of your first dates? Your senses were alert; your...

Navigation

This past week, while in Oahu for OneAmerica, we were fascinated by the roots of the Hawaiian culture. Ancient mariners made their way from Polynesia, and before that SE Asia and China. The sailors had sophisticated instruments, but also counted on close observation of winds,...

Stop Apologizing

A universal teeth-grinder is when reps from AT&T, United Airlines, Restoration Hardware or many other companies apologize when you call in for tech or customer support. Whoever teaches this kind of backward communication needs a new playbook. Do they assume we care how they feel?...

Tree of Life

Northern New Mexico has had a glorious spring, ending ten years of drought. We've nurtured our new trees, and now have baby crops of peaches, cherries, plums, and pears. Caring for our trees, we were struck at the similarities between them, and the art of...

Epochal

Gabriel Garcia Marquez rewrote his seminal work One Hundred Years of Solitude many times...

Tempered Glass

When stressed, annealed glass breaks into dangerous, jagged chunks. But tempered glass can withstand pressure and even impact from flying objects, because it is created under extreme heat. As we know with side and rear car windows, tempered glass cracks but never shatters. Speakers who strive...

Back In Time

Last week we were coaching ‘Jacob’ on an important talk. Our session was fraught with challenges because he was trying to deliver a memorized script, afraid that he would forget his lines. Jacob is a person of influence who donated millions to establish a botanical...

The Heima

The Heima is a troupe of extremely talented young Korean men who danced their way into the top position on the TV series World of Dance. In an effort to make it into the finals, the dancers removed a signature piece of wardrobe, their masks. One...