After 10 years (and almost a million views), it’s time for a change

For the last 10 years, I’ve been posting once a month (or more) on this blog.

Now, with 150 posts and almost 1,000,000 views under my belt, it feels like time for a change. That’s why from now on, I’ll post less often than before.

I’m still fascinated by public speaking, data visualisation, and business communication in general. And I believe people’s need for help and inspiration in those fields is just as great as ever. So I’m sure you’ll find new tips and videos shared here from time to time.

You could say:

“It’s not goodbye, it’s just au revoir”

So until the next time, all the best with your presentations. And as this blog’s header-image says:

“Here’s to better presenting!”

 

Also check out

• Thanks a ½ million! (5th birthday news at Remote Possibilities)
• 200,000 views – and counting!
• Who uses this blog most? (1st birthday news at Remote Possibilities)

6 tips to curb your nerves in public speaking, from Alex Lyon [Video]

Because fear of public speaking’s such a huge issue, any useful advice on it’s a great help – to speakers everywhere.

So I was delighted to find a really helpful video on that topic from speaking coach Alex Lyon.

In fact, Alex posted a pair of related videos in recent weeks.

In this post, I’ll focus on the 1^st of those, which looks at ways your mindset can help to reduce your fear of public speaking. The 2^nd video (which you’ll find at the end of this post) looks at ways your behaviour can help to lessen your nerves, too.

In the 1^st video, I love how Alex starts:

“These tips will help you
cut your anxiety in half”
Alex Lyon, at 0:08

What a winning way to open! He doesn’t claim you can crush your nerves completely. And that distinction’s key to managing your fear – yet it’s all too easy to forget.

Here’s Alex’s 6-minute mindset video. (This clip skips his 40-second intro.)

For your easy reference, these are his 6 points:

DON’T tell this story, says @KindraMHall. I’m not so sure. YOU decide [Video]

If you’re like me (and most other people), you’re fascinated by stories.

As a speaker, stories also help you to connect with, to deeply engage, and even to transfix your audience.

But expert storyteller Kindra Hall has a stern warning for you:

“There is one story you should never tell
– the story that makes you cry”
Kindra Hall, at 0:05

She goes on to say:

“Crying in front of an audience
shows a lack of control and
is simply irresponsible
…You can tell I feel
strongly about that!”
Kindra Hall, at 1:35

Build your talk on messages, not topics – Secret #15 of star presenters [Video]

Have you heard of the “assertion-evidence approach” for making slides? It’s a simple, powerful, evidence-based approach to presenting your talk.

It was devised as a more effective way to share scientific findings. But you can also use its direct­ness and clarity in business – to great effect.

And that’s especially so when you present insights from analysing data. You know, like:

• customer touchpoints
• company financials
• employee survey results.

 

What’s in this post?

Speak online – 8½ terrific tips from Eric Winters [Video]

In a rush? Watch the video (30 mins) or read the tips.

When you present online, the tips below will help set you up for success. They come from my friend Eric Winters, who’s a coach, author, and international public speaker.

I love the metaphor Eric uses to explain why it’s hard work watching an online talk:

“There’s a good reason they call it paying attention,
because you have to give up a lot of energy…

So if we want to help our audiences…
we need to lower the price
of paying attention”
Eric Winters – at 1:42 in the video

In his video below, Eric presents what he calls “8½ tips” to elevate your online pres­entations. The clip’s about 30 minutes long, and he spends about 2-3 minutes dis­cussing each tip.

Below the video, you’ll also find:

• a list of the tips
• discussion of each one
• useful links to help you build your skills.

 

The video

As I think you’ll see – and as Eric’s live audience commented – this was a very engaging and helpful session:

 

The tips

Here are Eric’s 8½ tips – click any of them to jump to the relevant part of my post:

Want an awesome opening line? Look no more – I mean stop!

Of the 140+ posts on this blog, here’s by far the most popular…

Awesome opening lines: 20+ more examples for your speeches, from Patricia Fripp (Certified Speaking Professional)

At its peak, that post had more than 22,000 monthly views (in October 2016). That wasn’t just an outlier, either – for 3 months in 2016, the post had more than 20,000 monthly views. And for 11 months that year, it had over 10,000.

From numbers to narrative – 4 keys of data storytelling [Video]

When you’re preparing a data-rich talk, where could you learn to get your message across better?

In my opinion, you couldn’t do much better than watching the 55-minute video below, by Isaac Reyes. (The first 45 minutes or so consist of Isaac’s talk, and the rest is him answering questions.)

Isaac’s a data scientist, and the video’s from ODSC Europe 2018 (Open Data Science Conference).

The talk describes these 4 keys of data storytelling:

Who knew? 3 things a bank can teach you about public speaking

If you look carefully, you can often learn great public-speaking tips from all kinds of places. (Not just from obvious ones, like courses.)

Let’s check out an example…

As my LinkedIn profile can tell you, I work at CommBank – Commonwealth Bank of Australia, also known as CBA.

Recently, CommBank’s values were updated, so they’re now succinctly expressed in just 3 words:

• Care
• Courage
• Commitment

When I first heard those words, I was struck by how well they work together. And as I reflected on exactly why that is, I realised it’s because they have these 3 traits:

2 ways to use modern, ALL‑CAPS slides – without typos!

Do you sometimes follow the design trend of using uppercase text for headings or other short labels on your slides?

Recently, I’ve twice seen presen­tations with very modern-looking slides using all-uppercase text in brief cap­tions.

My logo can help you be a better speaker – here’s how

Even if you’re a regular reader here, it’s quite unlikely you know what my logo looks like. So check it out:

The logo’s shape and colours represent tech­niques you can use

The logo’s shape and colours represent techniques you can use to make your public speaking more effective. In this post, you’ll find:

• What those techniques are.
• Links where you can learn more.

If you’re short of time, you can click a heading in this post’s contents list: