Catapult your career or business to a new level!

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Create persuasive presentations that people will remember!

WORKSHOP BEGINS May 16th, 2012
MEETING DAY/TIME Wednesdays, 6:30 to 8:00PM
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MAX. NO. OF PARTICIPANTS 6 people

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If you are a speaker today, you need to be entertaining.  Why?  Well, consider your audiences.  Some are distracted.   Others want to be.  Meeting planners look for speakers who know how to grab an audience’s attention and hold it firmly for an hour.

Another reason to be entertaining is that audiences get more value out of your presentation when they connect to it emotionally, not just intellectually.  Your message sticks when you make it unique and enjoyable.

Adding entertainment to your presentation makes your message unforgettable.

As a coach, I help speakers incorporate different kinds of entertainment in to their talks such as stories, humor, music, demonstrations, and audience involvement.  I start by identifying a speaker’s natural strengths and talents.  Once I know what they are, we transform them for the stage.

So, let’s think about how you can entertain your audiences. For example, do you like telling stories?  Storytelling is an ideal art form for speakers.  A well-crafted story delivered with dramatic flair firmly embeds your message in your audiences’ minds and hearts.

How about adding music to your presentation?  I am not a professional singer, but I write songs and have experience in musical theater.  I put those talents together and involve the audience in musical finales, sing-alongs, kazoo bands.  You name it!  Impromptu audience productions are my signature and often result in new and repeat business.

OK, so maybe music isn’t in your veins. What about audience involvement?  It’s a great way to keep people engaged and entertained.  You might keep it simple like asking the audience questions.  Or maybe you have a knack for what I call “high wire audience interaction”.  Speakers who are good at this have a natural talent for leading large group activities, can think on their feet, and have a great sense of humor.  Sound like you?

Being entertaining is much more than opening your speech with a joke and ending with a quote.  The possibilities for using your unique strengths and talents in your presentations are almost endless.

So do you have a special talent that you can share on stage?  Are you willing to work with a coach to develop creative ways to use it?

If you answered yes to both questions, you are on your way to adding powerful pizzazz to your presentations.

Tell us about what kinds of pizzazz you put in your presentations to make them memorable!

Welcome to my blog!

In my upcoming posts, you can expect a no-holds barred conversation about what bores audiences and what gets them eating out of your hand.  I’ll share tips for making your presentations not just interesting, but unforgettable.

And if you like audience interaction, stay tuned.  I’m going to give you some great ideas – from simple methods to high wire techniques – that will make your audience sit on the edge of their seats!

I’m here to help you kick your speaking up a notch…to make you and your message unforgettable.  Please join me!

I recently watched a speaker insult a delegation from a foreign country during his presentation. When asked a question he did not understand, instead of trying to clarify exactly what was being asked, the speaker gave a confusing answer and then told the participant he must be confused.  Ouch!

If you have heard more than a couple of speakers in your life, you have probably seen a cringe-worthy moment or two on stage.  It’s painful to watch a speaker blunder or crash and burn.  

Cringe-worthy moments stand out and stick in audiences’ heads.

For example, in the first scene of The Social Network the actor playing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg demolishes what’s left of his relationship with his girlfriend.  Lacking social sensitivity to the extreme, he makes one jaw-dropping verbal blunder after another and bats non-stop insults at his girlfriend.  Not a pretty picture and one that’s hard to forget.

And then there’s Michael Scott, manager of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company on the television show, The Office.  The number of social offenses Michael makes at staff meetings is off the charts, even by HR standards.  His insults about ethnicity and sexual orientation are outrageous.  Michael’s unfiltered personality provides flawless comedy and one cringe-worthy moment after another.

If you are a speaker who wants to improve, get paid or be invited back, you must be an ambassador of good will.

That can be a challenge under stressful conditions.  Several years ago I was invited to speak for a state association of 500 school food professionals.   During my presentation I reached in to my bag of props and found a mouse skittering about.  Yes, a live mouse had climbed in my bag while it sat in the wings before I went on stage!

I realized in that moment, just one breath short of shrieking, that food service professionals and rodents don’t co-exist well in kitchens or at annual meetings.  So, what’s a speaker to do?

I’ll share my solution in my next post, but I would love to hear how you would have handled that situation.  And please send your stories of unforgettable things that have happened in your presentations and how you handled them!