By now you know that I believe in telling stories to make talks interesting, engaging and compelling.  Did you also know that telling your story relaxes and calms you, and it frees your body to express more naturally and creatively?   I used to think that I did not have any stories to [...]

  I would love to have been a fly on the wall to have heard what President Clinton said to the North Korean officials that persuaded them to release the two women reporters.  My guess is that he used his ability to connect genuinely and speak from his heart.  I am sure he had a [...]

  Impromptu speaking or thinking on your feet is synthesis thinking not new thought thinking.  You do have to prepare to think on your feet; but then you have to let go and flow.  So it uses structure and flow at the same time.   In impromptu speaking or thinking on your feet, you are [...]

When you want to compel attention and help people change their thinking, use the element of mystery in your speaking.  Mystery is a story that takes your listeners on a journey to solve a problem or improve a situation.  The clue to a mystery is  “Huh? Ahh!”  Try saying these two sounds aloud.  Make the sound “Huh?” [...]

Andrew Dlugan at Six Minutes Public Speaking Blog has written a brilliant assessment of Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech.  Check it out for excellent ideas on speech writing.  This was the speech that was so persuasive that it has endured for decades.

Thursday evening, I was almost asleep with the TV on when I awoke startled to hear Thomas Friedman speaking to Charli Rose on PBS.  Thomas was speaking about the importance of talking to people from a gut level. He mentioned Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton as speakers who impart more than information, as speakers [...]

To empower your talks, identify a universal message that you own through experience.   A universal message will energize your presentations with passion for what you are saying.  A contributing factor to stage fright and fear of speaking is the fact that people often leave out their most deeply held beliefs and values from their presentations.  [...]

Everyone has a unique message to deliver that is exciting and compelling.  Every life has a theme that is based on a major lesson that is being learned through the human experience.  Your unique message always comes from your struggles.  Struggles build soul. What you are wrestling with in your life becomes the gift you [...]

Life presents opportunities – moments that can propel us into a future of expanded experience. When the moment comes to turn the tide of life, what prepares us to catch the opportunity?  It is the ability to speak, to say yes, to say just the right thing, tell the right story, make the right point [...]