Thanks to the international blogosphere, I’ve been interviewed by a Portugal-based public speaker and Toastmaster. Francisco Saraiva is a young executive in Marketing and PR, working for the Port of Leixões in Northern Portugal. He heads the Oporto Toastmasters Club.
The interview was conducted by email. Check out Francisco’s wonderful English-language blog - it’s all about public speaking.
Kudos to John Kinde for a couple of full reports on the National Speakers Association (NSA) Presentation and Performance Lab which took place over the weekend in Las Vegas.
His report on day one of the conference shares a tip from keynote speaker Giovanni Livera useful for both speakers and speech writers:
…a storyboarding technique using colored Post-It Notes to visually see the flow of audience-impact-moments in your speech (color-coding each type of speech segment; stories from the heart, audience participation, music, etc. Pick categories most relevant to the texture of your speech.)
His second report covers the last two days of the event. Among the dozens of ‘keepers’ John records are many of equal value to speakers and writers:
Thanks to John, this was one time when what happened in Las Vegas did not stay in Las Vegas.
One of the gems in Andrew’s list of public speaking blogs was Jessica Hagy’s wonderfully witty blog Indexed.
Jessica creates inspiring sketches on Index Cards. These simple outlines of ideas are a great model for your next PowerPoint slide deck. Here’s a couple of examples.
What concepts or ideas in your next speech could you reduce to a simple visual?
Canadian Toastmaster and award-winning speaker and speech evaluator Andrew Dlugan has compiled a fantastic list of Public Speaking Blogs. He currently lists 75 blogs which cover a wide range of topics: speech delivery, visual presentation design, speechwriting, humor, personal development, and interpersonal communication.
I’m honored that Professionally Speaking is included in the list.
He includes a link to a sample posting for each blog. There’s also a useful OPML button at the end to allow you to import all 75 blogs into an RSS reader in one step (this is a little tricky. If, like me, you use Bloglines, first save the OPML file, then use [Edit] [Import Subscriptions] to load all the RSS feeds into a single folder.)
Andrew is actively soliciting more Public Speaking bloggers to contact him and have their blog added to his list.
Andrew’s blog has other great content. I especially like his video critiques of various speeches. These use YouTube videos to allow you to see the speech being delivered, then, in true Toastmaster style, a thoughtful evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of each speaker. I especially liked his critique of Steve Jobs’s well-known Stanford Commencement Address and Al Gore’s talk at the 2006 TED Conference.
Thanks, Andrew, for a great resource for all speakers!
Recently I’ve noticed a number of blogs that seem to be unloved, untended, unedited. They’re not as disturbing as Splogs (Spam Blogs) or Flogs (Fake Blogs), but they are quite annoying and deserve their own name, so I have chosen to call them Mogs (Moribund Blogs).
It’s apparent that many, many blogs become moribund. Blogging takes energy and commitment. People start a blog, post a few entries, get tired or distracted, and voila! a blog that has not been updated for weeks.
Nothing will turn blog readers off quicker than leaving too long a gap between postings. Would you subscribe to a newspaper that was only delivered every three months? No. So why expect people to subscribe to your blog if you’ve not posted anything new in weeks.
There’s no easy way to say when a blog becomes moribund. However, I think it’s fair to say that any blog which has festered for more than 90 days is probably in need of some attention.
So, since this is a great time to make resolutions, bloggers who have not tended to their blogs for 90 days should perk up and post. Or else, the moggies might come calling!
Meow!
This New Year seems like a good time to look back over my own blog postings for 2007 and make some 2008 resolutions.
Of my 140 postings (better than one every third day on average) certain topics sustain my ability to blog:
The National Speakers Association annual meeting, our Northern California Chapter meetings, the Ragan Speechwriters Conference and the Pro-Track meetings all provided material. I find it’s a useful exercise to write a ‘trip report’ on conferences and meetings I attend. The useful thing about a blog is that the material I post is an archive I can easily refer back to.
Resolved: To continue to post about any and all conferences I attend, and to extend the reports by commenting on Toastmaster meetings.
I’ve enjoyed my role as ‘outside broadcast’ correspondent. I moved from using an elaborate high-end digital recorder with external mic to my trusty Olympus hand-held recorder. A recent experiment with Skype convinced me that podcasts recorded from my conversations on Skype have great potential. What I like about podcasting is that there’s no writing. The voice of the person comes through loud and clear. It seems like a good idea to keep the podcasts to around 5 minutes. And I have no interest in sitting down in front of a mic pontificating.
Resolved: To continue to podcast interviews with interesting people I meet at conferences and also to seek out people anywhere in the world I can connect with via Skype.
My daily read of the FT gives me a host of ideas for blogging. I usually spot three interesting articles for each one I write up as a blog entry. It’s been fun sending some of the FT journalists a note about my blog comments and occasionally getting a kind word in return.
Resolved: To continue to scour the FT for stimulating ideas to comment on.
Looking back on 2007, I see there was a period in February and March when I was trying to look into ‘deep end’ issues such as Ethnomethodology and examine how it is relevant to public presentation skills. I think this is a grand subject for someone’s PhD thesis, but I could not sustain the interest myself. I did hear from a couple of sociologists who came across my blog because there is relatively little on the web about a subject as obscure as this.
Resolved: Stay away from the deep end.
Since 2008 is an election year there’s going to be plenty to comment on here. I’ve mostly commented on Immigration and Climate Change. OK, so this is not central to the title of the blog. But how these ‘hot button’ issues are debated and the way people represent (and mis-represent) them is a great case study in communications.
Since all work and no play makes Ian a dull blogger, I’ve found that fun stuff now and again keeps things fresh.
I’m proud of my review of Bamber Gascoigne’s Timesearch site which resulted in an email of appreciation from Mr. University Challenge himself.
The Rothko paintings in Washington DC left a lasting impression, as did the movie Code 46.
Resolved: Have more fun with my blog.
Little did I know when I invited Clinton speechwriter Vinca LaFleur to create a guest posting on the State of the Union Speech that this single blog posting would attract more visitors than any other. So thanks, Vinca.
Resolved: Invite other qualified people to create guest postings.
After ‘flying under the radar’ with my day job at HP, 2007 was the year my blog was listed on hp.com. To date, I’ve only posted a few blog entries specifically about HP, but since executive communications at the company is a rich source of content I could easily expand this. My role supporting Prith Banerjee at HP Labs gives me a ringside seat at a major global R&D organization. Communicating about complex technology is a fascinating challenge.
Resolved: More blog entries about HP’s executives in 2008.
The NSA International PEG (Professional Experts Group) is a group of around 100 NSA members with an interest in speaking in different countries. Many members travel internationally as part of their speaking career.
I was asked by the PEG Chairman, Garth Roberts, to develop a multi-author blog so that his members could both read and post items of interest to the group. This is a wonderful use of blogging as a community resource rather than just for the writing of a single individual.
After some discussion of the merits of Blogger and Typepad we decided to use Typepad Pro, which allows multiple authors to post to one blog. In a surprisingly short time I was able to create the blog and Garth is currently recruiting a stable of authors from among the membership.
Take a look at Internationally Speaking and let me know what you think.
If you are interested in what professional speakers who travel the globe get up to, subscribe to the blog and find out.
My NSA Blogroll has recently expanded to include bloggers who are members of various Speakers Associations around the world. My first international review is Timothy Hyde’s blog. Timothy is a member of the National Speakers Association of Australia (NSAA). He’s new to blogging and off to a great start.
I’d like to ask anyone who is a formal member an international speakers association and has a blog to please send me the URL so that I can add it to the Blogroll in the right column.
Blogging since: September 16, 2006
Posting Frequency: 3-4 times a week
Post Length: 50-600 words
Aesthetic Appeal: Clean and simple Typepad template. However, does not integrate with the look n’ feel of his main website.
Graphics: Witty and fun
Categories: Assumptions, Books, Brainstorming, Creative Challenge, Creativity, Film, Gen Y, Humor, Innovation, Marketing, Speaking, Travel, Weblogs, Web/Tech.
Blogroll: My blog (This is not the reason I chose his to review!)
Target Audience: Corporate employees who need to create more, with less, in a shorter time.
Comments allowed: Yes
Trackbacks: Yes
Alexa.com traffic ranking: N/A
Sites that link to this blog: N/A
Yahoo Links: 70
Google Page Rank: 0/10
Review:
Timothy bills himself as a Corporate Education & Entertainment specialist who brings creative thinking to the world of business. His blog supports this claim.
The photograph he posts of himself is a great image that immediately sets the tone.
Here’s a guy in a business suit acting goofy, a mad professor scrutinizing your organization.
He blogs on conferences in Australia where he has been hired to facilitate the general sessions, introduce guest speakers, run panel discussions and keep the delegates focused and awake using a range of creative techniques including Magic, Comedy & Interactive Ice Breakers.
It’s refreshing to read his blog for the ‘Only in Australia’ moments: the photograph of a 4′ long croc at Port Douglas in FNQ (Far North Queensland); the meeting with top Australian public speaker and cricket legend Max Walker (Max Who most Americans would no doubt ask); saying a great book is “just a cracker”.
Timothy points to a range of valuable resources, from books to creativity aids to optical illusions. He’s based in the Blue Mountain area, west of Sydney. One of his roles has been MC’ing the Australian NSA national conferences for the past four years.
I wish Timothy well as he continues to grow his blog. More reports from his Australian road trips would be appreciated. Concrete examples from his audience interactions could throw light on the cultural differences between Life Down Under and the rest of the world. After all, he’s living in a country where politician’s lambaste each other with insults like these. And you can’t get much more creative than that, can you, mate?
Sandra Schrift’s Exective Speech Coaching blog supports my recent contention that speech coaches make better lovers. Sandra is obviously skilled in the arts of the podium, shares her special talents liberally and transforms speaking weaknesses to strengths. She’s a highly regarded international speech coach, featured in Business Week, Fast Company, Newsweek and Inc., who offers a wide range of teleclass, small group and 1:1 speech and professional coaching. She owned a speaker bureau for 13 years. Her blog bears witness to her vast experience.
Blogging since: June 19, 2005
Posting Frequency: 3-4 times a month
Post Length: 100-300 words
Aesthetic Appeal: Purple haze…does not integrate with the look n’ feel of her main website.
Graphics: None
Categories: None
Blogroll: None
Target Audience: Speakers wishing to improve their game
Comments allowed: Yes
Trackbacks: No
Alexa.com traffic ranking: 2,324,563
Sites that link to this blog: 173
Yahoo Links: 725
Google Page Rank: 4/10
Review:
Her main web page lists the results she delivers as a coach:
Even if you don’t hire her, you’ll benefit from a careful reading of the content in her blog.
Sandra cleverly repurposes her blog postings as articles on her main website. So this posting becomes this article. It’s an effective way to get more bang for the buck that other NSA bloggers should consider.
In fact the articles listed here are easier to peruse than the blog, which lacks a search function and has a quirky way of archiving by date ranges rather than months.
Her blog has invaluable tips on everything from the importance of using stories in speeches:
Stories are everywhere. Speakers learn to retrieve them and retell them to audiences as a way to show their humanness to show they care; to open people to possibility thinking and how making mistakes will lead to the courage to finally help them succeed. Because most of us delineate our thoughts visually, great stories help to enhance and even transform our lives.
to ways to overcome a fear of public speaking, gain confidence and generate extra income from speaking. The main web site has some great tips not found on her blog, such as this FAQ for speakers.
I loved reading her 3-part series on How to Speak with E’s: Educate, Energize, Entertain, and provide an experience for your audience. There’s a total of 39 tips on professional speaking in that series alone. Example:
5. When appropriate smile a lot. Be enthusiastic about what you are saying. Make it fun. Learning is directly proportional to the amount of fun your audience is having. Laughter is like internal jogging. Aren’t adults just grown up kids?
Sandra’s blog and the articles on her main website are a great resource for all speakers and those, like speechwriters and communications professionals, who support speakers.
My hope is that Sandra invests in some basic functionality for her blog such as a Search function and a list of Categories to help readers find information more easily. Graphics and pictures would help brighten things up. There are formatting errors here and there that should be corrected.
It’s really the blog plus the website that is so compelling. While there’s a link to her Home Page on the blog, people might miss it. I’d recommend a clear statement Please read my Home Page for more valuable information to really high-light it. Sandra has a lot to share that both novice and experienced speaker can benefit from taking the time to read carefully. Heck, some of you reading this review should probably hire her. Go on, you’re worth it!
In addition to my weekly NSA Blog reviews I thought it would be interesting to do a monthly round-up and see what the bloggers in the National Speakers Associaton have posted in September. Here’s some of the noteworthy items that caught my eye.
Bert Decker highlights the master communicator Nido Qubein, who is familiar to all of us who’ve been to the NSA Convention. Bert also has an excellent post on handling Q&A sessions which should be in every corporate communicators playbook.
Bill Conerly started the month in an optimistic mood. This economist viewed September 1st job growth numbers as ‘Just About Right’. However, as the month progressed, the news he reported from the economics front went from bad to worse. In short order we had speculation that stagflation could return; that the housing market is in trouble, if not overdue for a collapse; that CFO’s think the odds of a recession are one in three and that steel prices will tank. Bill concludes the month by noting: I’m still not forecasting recession, but I’m a little more worried each day.
Hey, Bill, who called economics the dismal science?
It’s a relief to turn to motivational humorist Brad Montgomery. Motivational humorists definitely have a waaay cooler life than economists (sorry ’bout that Bill). Get this. He starts the month addressing 1,200 women at a Pure Romance seminar in Ohio. Then there are three (count ‘em) pictures of him surrounded by adoring hot babes at other events he spoke at. But Brad is not just an air-headed eight-ball playboy. He quotes, wait for it, Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast
As he wrote on September 6: I’ve gotta be the luckiest guy with the best job in the world. No question. Brad also gets top marks for blogging about his gigs as a professional speaker.
Chris Clarke-Epstein finds organizational lessons in her grandchild’s crawling and a box of crayon’s. Cute.
The Dating Goddess had a typically breathless month. She posts daily on the adventures of the aggressively single men and women on the dating scene she inhabits. There was more information than I (a happily married man) need to know on women’s shoes, dogs and sex. Not necessarily in that order.
I was on more familiar territory with Dave Pardi’s PowerPoint Blog. Dave considered the minutia on Fn+F8; photo loops and table titles. I’d love to lock Dave Pardi, Garr Reynolds and Edward Tufte in a room for an afternoon and record the conversation.
Over in Half Moon Bay, California, the writers collective shared gentle comments on the lifespan of refrigerators and Scottish sheepdog trails. These are not often topics one finds juxtaposed.
The second blog I came across which is easily identified as being written by a pro speaker is Glen Shepard’s Personal Journal. He details his September road trips to Florida, Ohio and Tennessee. I felt I was there in his audience, sharing the chance encounters and crazy coincidences which are part of the texture of an active speaking career. Wonderful. If you don’t read any other blog this month, read Glen’s.
Over in the UK, Internet Psychologist Graham Jones posted on everything from ‘web rage’ to teenage bloggers. For those of you who want to find out what is top of mind for those in Blighty, he briefs you on The Guardian, The London Paper and Tesco’s.
As impressed as I was by Glen’s travels to Orlando and Marietta, there are those of us in the NSA who travel and then there’s Jake Norton. In September Jake posted from the roof of the world - high atop a 22,500′ peak in Nepal. Next time you are tempted to complain about the hassles of a road trip when your flight is delayed and the airport coffee bar is out of mocha lattes, remember Jake:
The snow had deepened significantly, its windblown mass now waist-deep in places. Panuru, who had been in front breaking trail for most of the day, relinquished the deep-snow lead for the young bucks - Karma Rita and Mingma. But, trail breaking did not make it simple for everyone behind. The wind, carrying all the snow it could up, down, and across the glacier, would maliciously fill in each step once a foot was removed.
Adolescent psychologist Dr. James Sutton quotes Moshe Dayan, Albert Einstein, Lao-Tse, Pablo Picasso, God and his son. Not necessarily in that order.
Cartoonist Jason Kotecki mourned the Crocodile Hunter, gave detailed instructions on how to have a nervous breakdown, and celebrated the importance of tiny grapes, hotel hand soap and porcelain candy dishes.
Triathlete and corporate trainer Jason Womack published this exquisite photograph of the summer night sky in his home town of Ojai:
He also published his travel schedule for the month:
6-8 : Phoenix, AZ
9-12 : New York City, NY
13-17 : London, UK
18-21 : Colorado Springs, CO
22-23 : Berkeley, CA
24-25 : Ojai, CA
26-28 : Miami, FL
29-30 : Marin County, CA
Jim Canterucci’s Personal Brilliance saw fit to mention edible golf tees.
Katherine Albrecht’s campaign against RFID ’spychips’ highlighted the risks to dogs, babies and company secrets of pervasive RFID chip technology.
Uber-blogger Kim Snider commented on personal financial matters such as option calls; the housing market; retirement savings and other issues of interest to ‘the family CFO’.
Marilynn Mobley’s blog moved from Blogger to a new home on Typepad. She comments on YouTube, Facebook and teens aversion to hard copy mail.
Financial advisor Max Jaffee discusses financial literacy for children.
Michael Benidt mentions the value of Sarah Michael’s NSA Convention advice on social networking: connect people with the intention of helping them first. He extends this in a discussion of how to network using the internet. There’s a complete report on the American Business Women’s Association September 16 convention in Denver.
Rebecca Morgan reviews Sam Horn’s new book POP!: Stand Out in Any Crowd
And moving right along, Sam Horn blogs on a favorable review of the very same book that appeared in the Boston Globe.
Executive speech coach Sandra Schrift gives some great speaking tips (make eye contact, tell stories, interact). She quotes the well-known statistic, which executives who deliver PowerPoint and nothing else always forget:
People remember:
11% of what they hear
30% of what they see
50% of what they see and hear
70% of what they do
90% of what they say and do
Classic eight-ball Shep Hyken shares tips on how to escape voice-mail-jail in customer support land.
Stephen Hopson’s Adversity University blog is the second of the blogs I saw this month that should be required reading. Stephen shares wonderful, conversational insights about life changing moments where mysterious forces conspired to save him from certain death:
Everything happens for a reason. We have no way of knowing God’s plans for us but regardless of what happens to us, we are being prepared for the future in some capacity.
He details his adventures as a deaf pilot in the enthralling five-part story of his first maiden flight.
Finally, this posting is a treasure of suggestions for anyone (especially bloggers) who want to overcome writers block:
The practice of creative writing is like unclogging a blocked artery, making way for a torrent of blood (ideas) to flow.
Stephen Shapiro’s Goal-Free Living blog also suggested ways to become more creative. He offers ten ‘lateral thinking brain teasers’ to surface and challenge assumptions. Example:
10. A dog is tied to a 15 foot leash. How can the dog reach a bone 20 feet away?
Yes, there is an answer. How many can you solve?
Stephen also reports on the NSA/New England Chapter meeting where guest speaker Erik Hansen who is Tom Peters’ “Brand Manager” shared some great ideas on personal branding. Here’s a challenge we can all rise to:
10. You Can’t Write Too Much – Tom Peters is known for writing volumes of content on his blog. To date, he has roughly 400,000 words. Given that the average book is 50,000 words, his blog contains as much content as 8 books.
Steve Mertz’s Sales Presentation Training blog has a great series of articles on presenting to international audiences, using PowerPoint, the techniques that Patricia Fripp uses and a report on the NSA/Colorado Chapter meeting. There’s more. So if you are a speaker from the podium or in 1:1 conversations, check out Steve’s September posts.
Sue Dyer’s Strategic Trends blog reviewed the business strategy of co-opetition. Cute.
Terry Paulson spent part of September in the South of France and found an alternative to overpriced $200 French swimming trunks.
Last, but not least, Tim Kidson’s UK blog on organizational (sorry organisational) transformation commented on his family’s experience at the NSA Orlando Convention — his first ever trip to the USA. Tim has unique insights on the British CEO’s he consults with - many share the stress of time management and challenges familiar to CEO’s and Board’s on either side of the Atlantic.
Finally, I must note that Tim references my August post on CEO’s egos, which is nice. But there’s no link to my blog. Hint to Tim: Add this link:
http://www.exec-comms.com/blog/?p=106
It’s free Google-juice!
