You might’ve heard some people (especially members of Toastmasters) say not to thank your audience at the end of your talk.
But you’re less likely to have heard any reason for that advice. So in this post, you’ll find these 4 topics to address that issue, and to help you with your speaking:
How do you decide whether to tell a deeply personal story in public, such as at work?
In this 4-minute video, Kindra Hall gives you 3 ways to help you choose whether (and how) to share a tricky story like that:
Recently, I came across Kindra’s work online, and I love it! She shares some great advice, and the topic she’s passionate about is storytelling.
In this video, her 3 main points are:
Continue reading
Here’s a quick quiz for you…
Do you know how to do these tasks in PowerPoint with just a few keystrokes:
Well, read on to find out, and see how other neat PowerPoint shortcuts can help you.
Continue reading
When you build a deck of presentation slides, how do you keep on track? If you’re like me, I’m sure you’ve sometimes felt pressure (from yourself or some-one else) to include more and more content.
You know, like:
Here’s one great tip that’ll help you resist pressures like those, and it comes in just a
20-second video clip from experienced speaking-coach Jim Endicott:
As Jim suggests:
Continue reading
If you use weak words, you weaken your message. So to make what you say more vivid and compelling, you should rarely use words like “very” or “really”.
For instance, instead of saying “very good” or “very bad”, you could use stronger adjectives – like “superb” or “awful”.
That’s what well-known public-speaking blogger John Zimmer wrote recently, and I agree.
In fact John shared a handy list of almost 150 words you could use when you’re tempted to say “very…”. (The list was originally compiled by Jennifer Frost.)
Does that mean you should never say “very…”? No, it doesn’t. As John says:
“[Very] has its place when used sparingly”
To my mind, that’s because sometimes when you avoid “very”, you might cause 1 or more of these 4 problems, where you choose a stronger word that:
When you prepare for an online session, do you wonder:
In this post, you’ll find answers to those questions, and more. It’s part 2 of a review of Ellen Finkelstein’s post called:
(Be sure to also check out part 1 for my review of Ellen’s tips 1 to 4.)
In this post, we’ll look at the last 5 of Ellen’s 9 webinar tips, which I’d summarise like this:
Continue reading
Do you ever present online – at work or for yourself? If so (or if you’re about to for the 1st time), you’ll find superb tips on Ellen Finkelstein’s blog.
Ellen’s a PowerPoint MVP who presents and hosts lots of webinars, including the annual Outstanding Presentations Workshop.
Below, you’ll find part 1 of a review of Ellen’s post called:
In part 1, we’ll look at the first 4 of the 9 tips (plus a few of my own), which – among other things – deal with using your webcam, and interacting through polls or other means.
I’d summarise the first 4 tips like this:
Thanks for your continued support, reading & commenting on this blog.
You rock!
In just the last 18 months, you and thousands of other people from over 200 territories have viewed my posts 300,000 times.
So with your help, today Remote Possibilities reached what I think are some rather momentous milestones:
| Total page views | Age this month | Number of comments | ||
| 500,000 | 5 years | 550 |
Plenty of fives there, and I like the way they sound!
Again, thank you so much for your support, and I look forward to reaching many more milestones in the months and years ahead.
Have you ever stood in front of an audience and felt so nervous that you couldn’t remember what you wanted to say?
I’m sure you’ve been nervous about speaking in public
I bet you can relate to that feeling, and even if you’ve never felt exactly that way, I’m sure you’ve been nervous about speaking in public. (I have, for sure!)
Because so many people can relate to that question, and it’s emotionally charged, it’d make a great opening line for a talk on public speaking.
In fact, it is the opening line for the 3½-minute Toastmasters video below. At least, you could say it’s the opening line – or you might argue it’s not.
More on that shortly, but 1st, why not watch the video and make up your own mind?
Continue reading
Do you record videos of your talks, presentations or demos? Videos can be a great way to spread your message, while building your credibility and experience.
The 6 tips in this post should save you lots of time, because I’ve refined them over about the last 5 years. (And my most popular YouTube video currently has about 120,000 views and 130+ likes.)
You can use the tips (as I have, too) for all these types of videos, and more:
The names of the 6 tips form an acronym (“ASPECT”) which I hope’ll help you to recall the tips, and also to be systematic when you approach your video-based projects.
If you’d like to jump straight to any of the 6 tips, you can click these links:
Continue reading
