Conference calls can be a mess! Often, you’re dealing with bad tech, background noise, people popping on and off, dueling egos, and different time zones, as this video illustrates: Pretty real-life, isn’t it! But never fear: It is possible to get your point across, and these conference call tips will help you do that. The Best Read More
Tech: PowerPoint, Skype, eMail, Phone Calls, Letters, and Social Media
For Public Speaking (and Business) Success, Pick Up the Phone
Twice this week, I’ve had to remind sophisticated clients that you can pick up the phone when you need information: In one case, a client who’s applying for an academic job realized that she could get an inside track on what they were looking for by asking the acting department head. Another client, who’d just Read More
Public Speaking Tip 86: Don’t Talk About Your Co-Workers on Facebook
One of my favorite clients (let’s call her Jessica) recently discovered that two of her direct reports (let’s call them Gail and Willow) were talking about her on Facebook. Jessica was not specifically named in this exchange, but the reference to her was clear enough that an unrelated third party took a screen shot of Gail Read More
Public Speaking Tip 76: Public Speakers, Avoid Common PowerPoint Mistakes
In Bill Cunningham New York, a documentary about the great street fashion photographer, someone notes that Bill never took a mean photo in his life. So with Bill in mind, I’m posting this example of bad PowerPoint, not to ridicule mistake-makers (I’ve made some beauts myself!), but because it can be helpful to know “what Read More
Public Speaking Tip 71: To Get POWER from Your PowerPoint…Transition, Click, and Pause
This tip is so simple (and so much fun) that you might find yourself smiling when you use it. Why Are So Many People’s Slide Decks Lackluster? One Reason: No TRANSITIONS! Most people use PowerPoint in a truly feeble way — and I’m not talking about the overcrowded slides, incomprehensible charts, irrelevant data, and disorganized images that we see so often Read More