Increase Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter
May 12th, 2021Doug Ford’s mis-management of the COVID-19 crisis has put the Ontario premier in the crosshairs of parents, teachers, restaurant owners and frontline workers alike; it’s caused health care leaders to […]
read more...Four communication lessons from Doug Ford and Jason KenneyIncrease Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter
December 22nd, 2020A woman once told me about having attended her thesis supervisor’s presentation at an academic conference. It took him almost 20 minutes to read his research paper aloud. When he […]
read more...How to reduce your dependency on speaking notesIncrease Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter
December 2nd, 2020“I’m trying to sound smart.” These words broke my heart when I heard them from a workshop participant last week. The young woman who uttered them is so accomplished that […]
read more...4 incentives to liberate you from reading your speaking notesIncrease Your Impact as a Speaker and Presenter
October 6th, 2020“Find another profession.” That was the blunt assessment of one high school student who sat through a presentation I gave in Saskatoon 15 years ago. The youth-targeted media literacy book […]
read more...The value of candid criticism from reliable sourcesEffective Communication
May 24th, 2019These are just a few of the exchanges provoked by the Toronto Star’s recent publication of a commentary I wrote about the downside of filler phrases. Many of those who responded […]
read more...Clear speech advocate writes; Twitter sh*t storm erupts.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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
read more...Less is more (how your mobile’s stop watch will improve your speaking)Effective Communication
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 […]
read more...Trump’s Terrifying Communication Effectiveness