2 Minute Talk Tips

    2-Minute Tip: Schedule Your Practice   We mean well. We put "practice" and "rehearse" on our To Do lists. Unfortunately, that often gets bumped by other, more urgent matters. Or meetings get scheduled in our open blocks of time.   That's why it's important to schedule practice time on your calendar. Set up a meeting with yourself to rehearse. Reserve a conference room if you don't have a private office.   When you have practice actually on your calendar, you are more likely to actually do it and less likely to have that time stolen away by another meeting.     Program Notes     2-Minute Talk Tips was named to Nikki's Podcasts' list of the 6 Inspiring Podcasts for Entrepreneurs. Check out the story and the other podcasts on the list here.   Libsyn is featuring my story along with Strokecast and 2-Minute Talk Tips as the Rockin' Libsyn Podcaster this week. You can find the article here.     Post Tip Discussion: 3 Myths and 1 Mindset for Nervous Speakers     There is a lot of advice ou

    2-Minute Tip: Photograph Your Space   The brain plays tricks on us. It can be difficult to see clutter and distractions in the space around us because we tune them out. That can be true in a home office, in a conference room, or on a presentation stage.   Try taking a picture of your presentation space with your phone. Better yet, have someone take a picture, or several pictures from different angles, of you standing in your speaking spot.   Then look at the background in those pictures. You're more likely to spot potential issues by looking at those pictures than by just looking at the real world.     Post Tip Discussion: Digital Ink in PowerPoint   Digital Ink is feature of modern PCs, especially pen-enabled PC. In PowerPoint, it means you can draw on your slides with a digital pen, your mouse, or even your finger.   There are two contexts for digital ink in PowerPoint Reviewing Content Presenting Content   Reviewing Content   I like to use ink to review slide decks while sitting

    2-Minute Tip: Create a Folder   Many of us have thousands of files on our computers, in our clod drives, and attached to email messages. Getting to the right one can take some work. That's fine when we are by ourselves and have a few moments to spare. During a presentation, or between presentations, it can be more challenging.   Sometimes we may need to drop out of our slide show to answer a question, demonstrate a resource, or change course.   To make it easy, create a folder on your computer desktop. In that folder, include:   Your slide deck Relevant video Reference PDFs Digital version of your event form Whatever other resources you might need during your talk   That folder makes it easy to find what you need when you need it.   Post Tip Discussion: 7 Tips for Better Conclusions   The conclusion of your talk is valuable time. It's the stuff that will stick with your audience when the leave the room and go back to the real world. Make that section has effective as possible by app

  2-Minute Tip: Slides are not Time   How many slides should be in a 15-minute presentation?   How long is a 10-slide presentation?   I don't know because the number of slides is a poor proxy for presentation length. I would rather see a presenter add more slides than to use a small font. Splitting one slide into multiple slides doesn't lengthen your presentation. It just makes content more legible. Conversely, replacing 10 text heavy slides with 3 graphic slides doesn't shorten your presentation.   Let the content drive the number of slides in a deck -- not the clock.     Post Tip Discussion: Talk Less, Say More   My apologies to Lin-Manuel Miranda. His Aaron Burr gave the advice to, "Talk Less. Smile more," to make it easier to get along with everyone, avoid getting arrested by the British, and minimize political enemies. It didn't work out so well for him in Hamilton.   Instead, I suggest you talk less and say more.   Silence and repetition can be powerful tools as we saw in Emma Gonzale

    2-Minute Tip: Use Nose Contact   Using eye contact effectively is an important skill for speakers to master. It helps the audience feel that the speaker cares. It emphasizes how the speaker and audience members are all participating in a shared experience.  Looking at audience members' eyes can be unnerving for some speakers, though.   The solution is nose contact. Instead of looking at the eyes of the audience, try looking at the bridge of the nose. The audience members will still think the speaker is making eye contact, but it can be more comfortable for the speaker.   Post Tip Discussion: Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast   Rushing gets us into trouble. Whether it's while hunting for a job, meeting folks at a conference, relearning how to walk, persuading a crowd, or training learners, there's a temptation to take the fast way to save time. Unfortunately, it doesn't actually save time.    To really be efficient, its often more important to slow down and get it right. By focusing on the bas

  2-Minute Tip: Don't Change Your Caffeine Consumption   It can be tempting the morning of a big speech to load up on coffee and enjoy that miraculous substance. If that's part of your standard morning ritual, that's fine. Go for it.    But don't suddenly double or triple your standard consumption. I get that you may feel tired or nervous, but excess coffee will not help. Instead, you will just ramp up the anxiety even further or cause other last minute biological challenges.   You are much better off getting a good night sleep the night before and giving your body what it has come to expect in the morning.   Post Tip Discussion: The Power of Rituals   Rituals, like the crowning of a new king in the Black Panther movie are powerful things. Whether they are religious, civic, personal, cultural, or familial, the bond a community together. They become ingrained from an early age and follow us throughout our lives. disregarding a community's rituals is a great way to get banned from the community and

  2-Minute Tip: Avoid Dairy Before Speaking   I love a big bowl of sugary cereal or a nice cheesy pizza. I used to drink mochas like water before I decided to switch to Americanos for weight loss (by the way, switching from mochas to Americanos will NOT make 30 pounds just fall off). So I like my milky, cheesy goodness.   But not right before speaking.   Dairy consumption promotes phlegm production. Excess phlegm means that when speaking you have to clear your throat more off, deal with being a little more stuffed up, and generally have to work harder to push your words out cleanly.   So save that beloved dairy consumption for after your talk.   Post Tip Discussion -- The 7 Deadly Sins of PowerPoint   Over the previous few episodes, I've talked about the 7 Deadly Sins of Public Speaking. They are:   Droning on Going overtime Starting late Failing to rehearse Ignoring the audience Getting dragged off topic Using inappropriate language   This week, let's get a little more specific and

  2-Minute Tip: Use an Event Form   I used to travel from Seattle to Irvine, CA, quite a bit. It got to the point where I thought I knew where I was going down there. That was a false confidence. I began making wrong turns because I didn't think I needed a map to help me. As we do more public speaking, we can easily make that same mistake. It's easy to blow past the initial logistics of a talk and just assume, "I got this."   That's when things start to go wrong.   The more speaking you do, the more important it is to have systems in place to manage logistics. A standardized event form is an important piece of that.   The event form you use should be standardized so you use it the same way for all your presentation. At a minimum, it should include:   Event Name Event Date Flight Schedule Flight Confirmation code(s) Hotel Name and address Hotel reservation confirmation Directions to the hotel Rental car details Rental car confirmation Loyalty card numbers Venue Name Venue address How t

2-Minute Tip: Conduct Q&A Before Your Conclusion   Many speakers go through their entire talk, and then open things up for questions. This is a mistake. You will be more effective if you take question before you launch into your conclusion.   The end of your speech is a golden time. It's the last the audience will hear before they go out into the world. Since its the last thing, it can also be the most memorable. Make sure that what they remember is the stuff you want tem to remember -- your call to action. Your vision.   If you conduct Q&A after your talk  and through the end of the session, you squander an important opportunity.   Post-Tip Discussion: Manage Your Gestures   This week I talked about Gestures by talking about Tucks. It's amazing how much he can communicate with a tilt of the head or the flip of a wing.   You can do a few things to assess the gestures that you use and how effective they are. Ask a friend or colleague to watch you practice and watch for your gestures. Re

    2-Minute Tip: Restrict Your Practice Time   Two of the biggest sins of public speakers are going overtime and rambling. Both disrespect the audience, When you go 5 minutes over, you're not just taking 5 minutes. You're taking 5 minutes from everyone in the room. If there are 20 people in the room, you've actually taken 100 minutes in total.   To address both these issues, restrict your rehearsal time. That doesn't mean rehearse less. It means that if you have 45 minutes for a talk, practice as though you have only 38-40 minutes. In all likelihood, the audience will take up that extra time reacting to you and asking questions.   If you ramble when you tell a story, time how long that story takes. If it's three minutes, set a practice goal to get it down to 2:45. Practice until you get there, and then set a new goal of 2:30. When you get there, go for 2:15. Then 2:00. It may take you a lot of practice to get there, but by the time you do, you'll have shaved not just a minute, but 1/3 of the ramblin

2-Minute Tip: Keep Your Shirt Off   Breakfast is the most important meal of the day (if you believe "Big Breakfast"). When travelling to give a talk, we may start the day with room service breakfast in a hotel room while we putter about getting ready for the day. That makes it really easy to spill coffee or jelly on your presentation outfit if you get fully dressed before eating. The simplest way to avoid that is to keep your presentation shirt off until it's time to leave.   Post Tip Discussion   As a general rule, we all want to be successful in our talks, our careers, and our personal lives. But how often do we stop and define just what success means? The fact is success can mean a lot of different things depending on the context. That's why it's so important to think about the criteria for success and define it early on. Once you have a definition of success for the specific context you are in, then you can develop the appropriate plan to achieve success.   Problems and disputes arise when we don

    2-Minute Tip: Keep Tissues Handy   Sneezing in the middle of a presentation can be either mildly annoying or quite embarrassing. It all depends on whether or not you have tissues readily accessible during your talk.   Tissues are also great for dealing with perspiration while you speak. Dripping on the carpet isn't a good look for anyone.   Everything thing from a cold to allergies to hot lights to failing air conditioning can impact your need for tissues as you talk. Be prepared, and have them available.   Post Tip Discussion   Leadership is awesome, but it doesn't exist without followers. Often we may think senior leadership is making terrible decisions, but if leadership is generally effective and competent, it's better to give them the benefit of the doubt. It must have made sense in some meeting I was not a part of.   This week I take a look at the question of trusting leadership as demonstrated in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. This is a spoiler filled episode.   Call To Action   W

  2-Minute Tip: Play Your Videos Full Screen   Including short videos in your presentation can be a great way to illustrate your points. They can be videos you shot of people, stock video, animations, or illustrations. If it's valuable enough to include, make sure your audience can see it. Play it in full screen.   The default for PowerPoint when you embed a video is for it to appear in the middle of your slide. You end up with the title bar of your slide still showing and blank space around your video. That's a waste. Instead, play your video full screen to make it bigger and more visible. Here's how.   When you create your slide and embed your video, click on the video to activate the "Playback" tab in the menu bar. Then, check the box next to "Play Full Screen."     When you conduct your presentation and run your slideshow, you'll get to the slide with the video. When you click that slide, the video will expand to take up the whole screen and play. When the video ends, it will shrink back down

2-Minute Tip: Know Your Gear   Whether its a projector, TV, laptop, audio hookup, or slide clicker, get to know your gear before you conduct your presentation. Figure out in advance how everything works so you're not scrambling at the last minute to figure out why something doesn't work the way you thought it would. If there is a problem making something work, you want to know about that problem while you still have time to fix it.   Post Tip Discussion: 5 Steps to Better Slides   The core message and content of a presentation are always the most important parts. Slides ought to be only secondary. That said, they can still be important. This week, I talk about 5 steps to make better slides. First, though, there are three important principles to keep in mind before opening PowerPoint. Slides are not your presentation. Know your goal. Plan it out.   With that in mind, here are the 5 Steps to Building Better PowerPoint Slides: Step 1 -- List out the slides you need. Step 2 -- Choose a template.

2-Minute Tip: Party AFTER Your Talk   At the Hollywood Foreign Press Golden Globes Award Show, the alcohol flows freely. Many award recipients reach the podium under the influence, and that makes many of the speeches more entertaining. Of course we're not laughing with the recipients; we're laughing at them.  That's in stark contrast to the powerful speech delivered by a seemingly sober Oprah Winfrey.   Alcohol at evening speeches and other events is not uncommon. Many speakers may be tempted to drink to soothe their nerves or "take the edge off." This is generally a bad idea. A speaker needs to be sharp to be effective. If the alcohol is significant enough to relax us, it's significant enough to cloud our view of how we are performing.   So save the partying until after the presentation.   Post Tip Discussion: Learn From Oprah  At the Golden Globes, Oprah gave a powerful 1,000 word, 8.5 minute speech about empowerment and possibility. She used story telling, elegantly wove her themes into her sto

2-Minute Tip: Acknowledge Your Elephants   An elephant in the room is a topic no one wants to talk about, but probably everyone should. They include: Equipment failure Fire alarm Falling flowers Folks who walk out Medical emergency Loud neighbors A blown lamp Major news event Major corporate news And more   As a speaker, it's important to acknowledge them in an appropriate manner. If you don't acknowledge them, the awkwardness will distract your audience and make the rest of your talk less effective.   Program Note   Personal friend and friend of 2-Minute Talk Tips, Tim Garber, recently appeared on the 12 Minute Convos podcast with Engel Jones. It's fun interview. You can check it out here. You can find more of Tim's appearances here.     Post Tip Discussion: Necessary and Sufficient Conditions   Analyzing the goal you are trying to achieve with a talk, and the arguments you plan to leverage through the lens of necessary and sufficient conditions can be enlightening. Doing so makes i

Top 10 Public Speaking Tips   As we wrap up 2017 and plunge headlong into 2018, we are also approaching the first anniversary of 2-Minute Talk Tips. Let's take a look back at my favorite public speaking tips of the year. That's right, it's time for a clip show.  That also makes this a great episode to introduce someone to 2-Minute Talk Tips, or to form the basis of a New Year's Resolution to be a better public speaker in 2018. Her are the top 10 public speaking tips with links to their original episodes. Enjoy.   Use a Timer Use Silence Explore the cursor Keys Record yourself Sit up Straight Avoid the G-Word No Eye Charts Take More Pictures Sit in the Back Bring Candy   Call To Action   Use this episode to introduce someone to 2-Minute Talk Tips. Subscribe to 2-Minute Talk Tips in your favorite podcast app. Have a great Holiday Season. Don't get best...get better.

  2-Minute Tip: Listen Actively     Speaking is about more than just giving a speech. It's about meeting the needs of the event organizer, getting the logistics right, and helping to put everyone at ease. One way to do that is with active listening.   When meeting with your event organizer, customer, colleague or SME, there are some things you can do to help everything run smoothly.   Look at them when they are speaking so you pick up on non-verbal cues. Take detailed notes. Ask questions to clarify things. Repeat back what they said to confirm you got it right. Follow up with an email summarizing the key details.     Post Tip Discussion: Apply the ADDIE Model to Public Speaking   As I read Dorie Clark's book Stand Out (affiliate link), it got me thinking about what I could learning by applying what I know in one field to another field. It occurred to me that the ADDIE framework we use in Training (or Learning and Development, or Adult Education, or Professional Development, or whatever yo

    2-Minute Tip: Practice in Real Shoes   When we have a  big presentation on the calendar, we may be tempted to pick up a new outfit and new shoes to feel all shiny and new, and to imbue us with more confidence. And that's great. It's also important, though, to practice in that new outfit.   If half way through the presentation, you discover those new shoes are pinching your toes or rubbing your ankle raw, you'll have the opposite result of what you intended. Instead of feeling fresh, you'll feel pain. Instead of feeling focused, you'll feel distracted. Instead of feeling empowered, you'll feel weakened.   Make sure you know before the big day just how well those shoes will actually work. uncover any issues while there is time to fix them. You don't want to learn about the problem while on stage.   Post Tip Discussion: Be a Great Audience Member   As a speaker, you know how important the audience is. Audience behavior can impact how well your audience receives your content and how well you deli

**Begin your Amazon Holiday shopping at the 2-Minute Talk Tips recommendation page.** 2-Minute Tip: Skip the Gimmicks   Original ideas in a presentation are fun, but don't confuse originality with gimmickry. A gimmick is often more about the ego of the presenter who wants to show off how clever they are. It becomes more about the speaker's ego and less about the message or the audience.   Post-Tip Discussion: Repeat Yourself   Repetition is a powerful tool. We see it in annoying ads, in great product announcements, in political speech, and more.   Repetition helps with knowledge retention.   Repetition helps with audience persuasion.   Repetition helps with audience engagement.   A speaker who can intelligently deploy repetition has the use of a powerful tool.   Call To Action   What are your thoughts on repetition in public speaking? Let us know below. Think about ways you can use more repetition in your presentations. Watch Angry Angel, and let me know if it's any good. Avoid special