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The Key Factor for Your Presentation’s Success

When you’re preparing a presentation, who is the most important person you need to consider? The answer: Your audience.
You’ve likely experienced, at least once in your career, what happens when you forget about your audience. Here’s the scenario: You create the perfect presentation complete with solid transitions, compelling visuals, and stellar numbers. You have great [...]


Embrace Your Authenticity: It’s the Backbone of Public Speaking Success

True, authentic communication is about creating a bond and connection with your listeners, whether you’re talking with one person or one hundred. Unfortunately, displaying authenticity when giving a presentation is a challenge for many women.  
For example, I have a female client who is struggling with this exact issue. She wants to come across as authentic, [...]


Crisis Management: The Anthony Weiner Way

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-New York) got caught in his own web of lies…or perhaps he lied himself into a corner. Either way, his juvenile behavior, coupled with his terrible judgment, left everyone stunned.  
During his show, news anchor and political commentator Chris Matthews described an interesting political term called “rolling disclosure,” where you roll and roll [...]


Three Influential First Ladies

As the old saying goes, “Behind every great man is a great woman.” When it comes to talking about American presidents, nothing could be truer. American presidential history is filled with influential First Ladies who have paved the way for women everywhere.
What I find fascinating about First Ladies is that while they don’t have an [...]


PowerPoint Lessons at 30,000 Feet

I was flying to Houston recently and sat next to a woman who was working on…you guessed it… her PowerPoint presentation. We started up a conversation, and before she knew what I did for a living, she confessed that she really couldn’t take the time to chat because she was giving a presentation the next [...]


Listening: A Core Communication Skill

I’ve been working with two different clients lately, of two different genders, in two different companies, from two different states who have two entirely different approaches to listening. One client actually listens too intently, and the other doesn’t seem to be listening at all.
Is it really possible to listen too much? Well, you decide: Whenever [...]


Samoan Car Thieves, Fiji Water…and Public Speaking?

What do Samoan car thieves have to do with public speaking or speech writing?
On April 1st I received a phone call from my son.  “You’ll never guess what happened,” he said.  “My car got stolen…again.”
Since it was April Fools’ Day, I figured it was a joke.  After all, his car was stolen six months earlier [...]


“This is the White House calling…” A Last Minute Speech for Barack Obama

On Monday, September 21st, my business associate and friend Dawn Josephson received the call of a lifetime. “Hi Dawn…This is Karen from the White House. I’m calling to see if you and your son can attend an event with us this Wednesday the 22nd. President Obama will be in attendance, and he’d like you to [...]


Dying to be a Public Speaker?

I got a call today from a woman who owns a bakery that specializes in selling gluten free products—cookies, biscotti, scones and other wonderful wheat free foods. She has a good niche market but wants to grow her business—and someone told her to look into public speaking as an avenue to get the word out. [...]


On Thanksgiving Day: Give Thanks – Give a Speech

We are in the midst of one of the most difficult years this country and the world has seen in decades – the challenges of the economy, the irreversible issues of climate change, mounting healthcare costs, two complicated wars…plus our own personal challenges. During times like these it’s often difficult to look on the bright [...]


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