Speaking Tips

 

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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...

Absolutely

We’re always entertained by excuses for backing out of a commitment. From the lowly “The dog ate my homework” to the lofty “Corporate policy is restricting travel,” we’ve heard them all. But like comedy, timing is everything. When you absolutely promise to show up, and...

No There There

Anyone who has ever been in an Eloqui training knows the word “help” drives Deborah nuts. We encounter this ubiquitous Band-Aid when people relate what they do in business or their non-profit. Unfortunately, when you use “help” it makes the rest of what you say...

Weeeeee

Last season, downhill racer Mikaela Shiffrin accumulated the most wins for any competitive skier, man or woman. Now Shiffrin is training in Portillo, Chile for the upcoming Olympics. But Shiffrin departed from her usual events to do speed training. She even posted a video of...