Let’s Make Patriots’ Day a National Day
I’m from Boston. I travel the world for work, of course, and I’ve lived in other states and another country, but Boston is home. Here in Boston, Patriots’ Day is our rite of spring. The Marathon is...
View ArticleSelf-Awareness Questionnaire – How Good Is Your Body Language Quotient?
The Body Language Self-Awareness Questionnaire: Answer each question “True” or “False” and score yourself 1 point for each True answer and 0 points for each False answer. I am aware of how I am seated...
View ArticleHow to Decode Other People’s Body Language Accurately
What Gesture Is Good For A useful way to think about gestures is as an early warning system for intent, emotion, and mood. We gesture because our unconscious minds push us to do so with an emotion, an...
View ArticleHow to Wield More Influence
How much do you dominate the conversation? That’s one way of thinking about influence – how much you’re in control of the conversation in your work and in your life. Influence in this sense is...
View ArticleHow to prepare a 20-minute TED-like talk
More and more the call is for short speeches. Of course, the popularity of TED and TEDx talks is one cause, but the impatient of the times is another, along with our shrinking attention spans and all...
View ArticleThe 2 Body Language Mistakes You Make Every Day
We normally don’t think at all – at least, in the casual sense of the word “think” – about where we are in space, or how we’re gesturing, or what kind of impression we’re making on the people around...
View ArticleYour Brain, Memory and Grid Cells
A husband-and-wife team of brain researchers has discovered a kind of brain cell that goes a long way to explaining how memory works and how you can remember things better. May-Britt Moser and Edvard...
View ArticleWhy Go to the Trouble of Telling Stories?
People often ask me about storytelling in speeches – why should they go to the trouble to come up with good stories, what does it mean to tell a story, and how do you do it. They’re all good questions....
View Article5 Essential, OBVIOUS, Basic Public Speaking Tips
Here are 5 essential public speaking tips that are so obvious you should be embarrassed if you’re not doing them already. 1. Make eye contact. That means picking individual members of the audience,...
View ArticleHow to make sure your 20-minute speech has a long-lasting impact
I’ve been working recently with clients on more and more 20-minute speeches. As I indicated in an earlier blog post, it’s the era of shorter speeches. Fidel Castro holds forth no more, and Hugo Chavez...
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