Speaking Tips

 

Prove It

Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Hawking, and Ben Franklin were members of the Royal Society founded in 1663. Still today, the Society’s mission is to promote excellence in science for the benefit of humanity. And by testing facts via experiments, the Society can verify statements and withstand...

Always be Intentional

E.O. Wilson, a pre-eminent scientist references intention in his book The Meaning of Human Existence. Wilson writes that during the cognitive revolution of our species, humans developed language and told stories. Then, as our brains grew, we were able to imagine future scenarios and predict...

No Smize

This year’s Paris Fashion Week featured gaggles of grumpy models strutting down runways in ungapatchka) wardrobes. All looked as if they had just lost their favorite pet, smiling only with their eyes. The smize facial gesture began years ago, when Tyra Banks taught contestants this...

Jump In

The TV biopic Nyad features distance swimmer Diana Nyad, culminating in her successful, yet controversial swim from Cuba to Florida in 2013. This was Nyad’s fifth attempt, took fifty-three hours and she was sixty-four years old. Remarkable. It reminded us of another naiad, our friend...

Open and Shut

An opening to any talk is critical. Yet most openings tank the speaker because of pro forma announcements like housekeeping, reciting their name and company, thanking clients or sponsors, or offering an agenda, all upstaged by PowerPoint. There is a better way. Great openings accomplish three...

All that Glitters

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. A few years back, a young professional at a networking meeting extolled the virtues of Crypto and NFT’s. How has that worked out?...

Foe or Friend

At our trainings, we poll attendees about whether they experience more pronounced stage fright in front of friends/colleagues or strangers. Our unscientific polls tell us that it’s roughly fifty-fifty. The drivers seem to be that when speaking to colleagues, we want to perform well because they...

Survival

Morgan Freeman narrates a new TV series: Life on Our Planet which takes us back four billion years. The series focuses on events that accelerated evolution-- like earthquakes, meteors, and drought. It’s incredible that 99% of all species that ever existed are now extinct. The...

Sizzle or Steak

We just returned from a trip to Vienna where we trained physicians and sales teams in Prolacta Bioscience. Then we headed to Sicily and the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy. Stanley Tucci’s CNN series made us hungry for their culture, art, and food. We booked one Michelin-starred...

It Ain’t Over

Yogi Berra was one of a kind-- perhaps the greatest baseball player of all time. This son of Italian immigrants, he played on neighborhood sandlots as a kid and never lost his love of the game.Berra added catcher to his batting skills. His specialty was...