I have been speaking for over a decade, so there are some things I did in the beginning of my speaker journey that I do not do now AND do not recommend new speakers do either. That’s part of my job as a coach; to shorten your learning curve. I show you what to do […]

I want to speak, but I don’t know what to talk about… I don’t have any interesting stories to use… I really don’t have any experiences others would be that interested in hearing about… All LIES!! Listen, you have SO much speech content inside of you that you’d be AMAZED. You don’t think you have […]

In William Safire’s book “Lend Me Your Ears,” only 7 of the 217 speeches listed end with “Thank You.” This tells us that there are waaaaay better choices for wrapping up your speech! There are quite a few ways that I teach my clients. Here are six of them: ✅Quote: Use a quote that connects […]

My Aunt Cheryl has a big DVD collection (yes, DVDs still exist). When I go visit her, she’ll sometimes suggest a new movie that we should watch together. The movie obviously made an impact on her, or she would not have even brought it up. However, my aunt knows me well. I don’t watch a lot of movies; I go […]

Omne trium perfectum. If you’re not familiar with this Latin phrase, it means “every set of three is complete” or “everything that comes in threes is perfect.”  We see examples of this everywhere: The Three Little Pigs…The good, the bad, and the ugly…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Most flags have three colors. Groupings of three are […]

You’re not alone – when they first start speaking to audiences, many a speaker has found it challenging to come up with a topic or story from their life to talk about. It’s been said that our life is a series of moments, but I think it is a series of stories too. Stories that have taught us […]

There are times when you will have to give the same presentation numerous times, to numerous audiences. This is especially true if you work in a field where you have to train groups of people, such as sales, human resources, or insurance. Let’s face it – sometimes it can start to feel a little boring […]

The other night, I was at a meeting where there was a guest speaker.  I knew the gentleman, but more on an acquaintance level. So my ears perked up when the meeting MC began to formally introduce him to the group, since it’s always interesting what you learn about someone from their introduction. It started […]

“I don’t even know what her speech was about.”  This is what my mother said to me about the keynote speaker at the breast cancer survivors’ luncheon she recently attended.  I wasn’t sure if my mother meant that the speech wasn’t memorable, or that she didn’t get it.  I asked her to clarify a bit […]

One evening, I was listening to a guest speaker at my Toastmasters club meeting.  He was an extremely charismatic speaker who engaged the audience with energizing activities, captivating anecdotes, and memorable analogies. In fact, his analogies were so memorable that I started feeling like I was having a case of Déjà Vu.  Much of his […]