“Visuals should be used to enhance an audience’s understanding of a concept, not used as cue cards.” – William Kreiger I am sitting in an elementary school lunch room with several dozen other parents listening to the Parent Teacher Association give an accounting of the previous year’s projects and expenses. Like most presentations, this one …
Death by Coconut
We hear a lot about “Death by PowerPoint” (a business phenomenon caused by poor design and delivery of slides). However, in the last 50 years, there are more documented deaths (8) that occurred from coconuts falling from trees and striking people on the head, than people dying during a PowerPoint presentation (0). Maybe we should …
21 Inspiring Quotes for Leaders
I’ve always loved the wisdom found in a short statement. In keynote speaker terms, we call these “sticky statements.” If you’re speaking to an audience and you make a statement that causes everyone to write it down, you just gave them a sticky statement. As we’ve brought the first quarter of 2018 to a close …
“Dear Younger Me…” – 5 Things I wish I knew as a young Sales Professional
I was driving and listening to the radio (KLOVE) when a song by Mercy Me started. It gripped me from the opening line. “Dear younger me, where do I start?…”The song itself is powerful and it made a lasting impression on me because it made me think. I’m 30 years out of high school and …
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7 Secrets to Get Your Next Audience to Love You
I knew it wasn’t going to be your normal conference kickoff keynote when I entered the ballroom and found a bongo at every audience seat. I was in the audience that day with about 400 other attendees. We couldn’t help but pick up the bongo, inspect it and experiment with tapping on it. Then one …
Part 3 of 3: How to Turn Your Presence into LEADER Presence
“How is leader presence any different from normal presence?” My student asked this question immediately after I defined the two elements that make up a first impression; your perceived confidence and your approachability. My student persisted with a follow up question before I could even respond, “I mean, isn’t your presence just these two things, …
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Part 2 of 3: FIVE Ways to Develop Leadership Approachability
The conference call went silent for only a second while she was thinking. Then my boss said, “Russ can be there. Set up the meeting.” Well, it looks like I was about to book a flight to Boston from Houston. Without any thought to my personal schedule, my pregnant wife, or my 2-year-old son. I’m …
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How to Build Leader Presence in 3 Parts
Part 1 of 3: CONFIDENCE, the First Building Block of Leader Presence When I begin a communication workshop the topic of first impressions always comes up. We start by defining the three areas of impression your audience will have of you. One student will usually say, “So I just need to make sure that when …