Increase Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter
May 15th, 2017I undermined the impact of my opening. I relied on my notes too much. I failed to advance my slides as intended. Those are just three of the critical observations I made after watching a video of myself delivering a conference keynote in Winnipeg. That’s the bad news. The good news is that 1. the […]
read more...Storytelling and the power of visual feedbackIncrease Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter
April 27th, 2017Brilliance, without the capacity to communicate it, is wasted. I learned this in grade 10 chemistry from the intellectually-gifted, but communicationally-impaired Mr. Philipps. Sadly, that’s about all I learned (and it wasn’t the lesson he was intending to teach). Although my parents may have been disappointed that I dropped sciences in grade 11, I’ve never […]
read more...Five Steps to Overcoming Public Speaking NervesIncrease Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter
November 22nd, 2016By Rama – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, Link Leonard Cohen’s passing offered us all an occasion to re-visit his art and impact. In my fantasy of this singular man, he is introducing me. I don’t even have to be on the stage with him. Or even in the concert hall. I just […]
read more...You’re introducing a speaker: can you channel Leonard Cohen?Increase Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter
November 3rd, 2016My cabinet minister client was a speechwriter’s dream: She had deep knowledge of, inspirational passion for, and a lifetime of stories relevant to her portfolio. She also had a great sense of humour, and a strong and unique voice, which I could hear in my head as I wrote. Because she was a minister, and […]
read more...Less is more (how your mobile’s stop watch will improve your speaking)Increase Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter
September 29th, 2016Power pointers everywhere, can we talk? The time has long passed for you to be creating slides featuring 79 word-paragraphs. It’s not a good idea to share detailed graphs with data that’s indecipherable from even the first row. And no one wants to see your meticulously footnoted sources during a stand-up presentation. That’s what handouts are for […]
read more...How to Avoid Power Point CrimesIncrease Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter
September 14th, 2016Three times in recent weeks, women I know and respect have declared, in conversation or in print, “I’m really good at what I do.” In all cases, I knew them to be stating the truth. And because a part of what Informed Opinions does is remind women of the importance of owning their expertise, I […]
read more...How to rescue yourself from a poor introductionEffective Communication, Increase Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter and Master Media Engagement
August 18th, 2016As professional communicators who advise others on how to improve their ability to connect with audiences, colleague Sarah Neville and I have watched the astonishing ascension of political neophyte and insult-machine Donald Trump with dropped jaws. Here’s our conversation about the lessons to be learned from his fearless communication style, originally published on Huffington Post. SARAH: […]
read more...Trump’s Terrifying Communication EffectivenessIncrease Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter
June 11th, 2016It’s a challenge that has defeated many experts with decades of professional experience. But in Calgary recently, at Congress 2016, 21 grad students from universities across the country managed to describe complex scientific research in engaging and accessible ways, and to do so in under three minutes each. Lots of speakers – academics included […]
read more...Storytellers demonstrate the engagement power of passionIncrease Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter
April 19th, 2016For five long minutes, the graphic recorder’s raised right hand was stalled over the paper in front of her, a stunning demonstration of the speaker’s failure to deliver useful content. Although knowledgeable and articulate, the woman at the microphone had already used up half of her allotted time – and she had said absolutely nothing […]
read more...Avoid graphic humiliation: deliver value from your presentation’s first sentenceIncrease Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter
March 20th, 2016I confess, I didn’t want to do it. International Women’s Day 2016 had already delivered an abundance of workshop and speaking opportunities to me this year (eight in the space of 10 days, three of them out of town), and I didn’t need the added stress of trying to adapt my 20- or 30-minute presentation into […]
read more...How to prepare and deliver a five-minute IGNITE speech