Articles
everything I know about public speaking, elevator pitches, and communication just for you
The Power of Weakness (and why Superman needs his Kryptonite)
We all know the old adage: people do business with people they know, like, and trust. Your products may be great. Your service may be excellent. But without great customer relationships, based on people that know, like, and trust you, any business will fizzle out in...
Customer service in the UK is bad. Here’s how to make yours so great they scream your name
It was Saturday 4th August 2012 - Super Saturday to all knowing British Olympic fans - and as well as some incredible sporting performances, I had just been treated to world class customer service from the army of volunteers that had given their time for free to help...
How to structure your speech to make a mighty impression
Dale Carnegie was wrong. It was Dale Carnegie (legendary author of the seminal guide 'How to win friends and influence people') that gave us this piece of public speaking wisdom about how to structure your speech: 'Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them....
What can a monosyllabic cyborg teach us about public speaking?
If you want to improve your public speaking ability, forget about studying the likes of Steve Jobs, Michelle Obama, and Winston Churchill. There's one figure above all others that will really show you how to get there: Arnold Schwarzzeneger WTF, Kola?!?!!!? You've...
The mad genius of Donald Trump (or how to talk complete cr@p and still get people to love you).
So, let's get the easy stuff out of the way first. Donald Trump is a moron! Most of what he says makes absolutely no sense; much of it is deeply offensive; and some of it is downright dangerous - allegedly (I'll be saying that a lot just in case the Donald's lawyers...
If you can’t answer this one question, your business cannot succeed.
In one of the many great scenes in the movie Goodfellas, Henry Hill (played brilliantly by Ray Liotta) explains the approach that 'wise guys' (love that description of people who are basically psychopathic thugs!) take when they've loaned money to someone. (I'll...
“I stood up to speak and forgot what I wanted to say!” Don’t let the Blank Brain Boogeyman steal your words.
He lurks in the shadows of your mind but never shows his face when you're relaxed. Still you know he's there, hiding, biding his time, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. At times when confidence is high, you wonder whether he exists at all; maybe he's just a...
I have a dream – An analysis of the greatest speech almost never given
“Tell ’em about the dream, Martin” – Mahalia Jackson It was a perfect speech. Almost every technique in the book was used, from anaphora (repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis), to references to the Bible and Shakespeare. It was delivered to an...
How to be funny in a speech (when you’re not that funny in real life).
According to a Hertfordshire University study, this is the funniest joke in the world. "Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency...
Why Donald won, why Hillary lost, and what we all need to do now
And the next President of the United States of America...Donald J Trump! Are you shocked? You are not alone. The media, the pollsters, the pundits and the news outlets read the mood of the nation spectacularly wrong - all except (as it turns out) for Fox News. What?...