SpeakHQ Blog
One of the most annoying bad habits some people have when they give a presentation is the use of “ummmm” to fill the space between words. Why do people do this? There are four reasons: It’s a habit in normal speech. People don’t just do it on stage, they do it in real conversations all…
Read MoreOne of the themes I explored in Confessions of A Public Speaker are paradoxes around lectures. Here’s my list of strange observations: Many people hate lectures but attend anyway. The word ‘lecture’ is often used as a criticism, as in ‘don’t lecture me’. Communication that only flows in one direction has never been much fun (and…
Read MoreThe cool thing about Ignite Seattle, beyond the crazy fun format (5 mins, 20 slides, 15 seconds a slide), is how positive and supportive the vibe is. Everyone talks about cool things they’ve seen and heard, and there’s a buzz of learning and doing that’s superior to most conferences. It’s geekish, for sure, but it…
Read MoreHere’s this week’s roundup of good stuff. First some new stuff up on speakerconfessions.com: Should speakers ban or support twitter? – some nice data about how twitter was used at one popular talk. Learning from Make TV’s Bill Gurstelle – He’s the author of Backyard Ballistics and does live lectures as well as appear regularly…
Read MoreIt’s kind of silly question as I’m not sure a speaker can effectively ban anything in their audience, but someone asked me this the other day. It’s an interesting question if you pile all the technology of laptops, mobile devices and phones, and how that helps or hurts the ability for a speaker to keep…
Read MoreA new post up on speakerconfessions.com is all about panel sessions at conferences and how to fix them: Why panel sessions suck.
Read MoreMany conferences include what’s called a panel session. This is where 3 to 5 experts get up on stage and each one, in turn, bores the audience to death. Why do panels still happen? One reason: they’re sooooo tempting. In theory a panel is great. It gets more people on stage, which should magically creates something…
Read MoreNew post is up at SpeakerConfessions.com about How to fix boring lectures. I’ll be doing more “How to fix…” style posts so if you dig this, keep watching. Got a question you want me to answer on public speaking? Let me know. I take requests.
Read MoreWe all know most lectures are boring. They go on too long, most speakers are dull on stage, and sitting in big dark rooms for an hour or more is not going to help anyone stay awake. But if they’re so boring why do we go? We go because we have little choice. If we…
Read MoreTo keep track of all the interviews, research and stories I’m putting together for the next book, I’ve set up a new blog called speakerconfessions.com. Why the new blog? One reason. Public speaking is a polarizing topic – some people find it fascinating, others are bored to tears. Rather than annoy half of you here,…
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