Public Words, Inc. Press Coverage

Six Minutes: How to Add Power or Humor with the Rule of Three

Six Minutes: How to Add Power or Humor with the Rule of Three

In this article, you will learn how adding an unexpected twist to the third element can add power or humor to your speech.

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Tom Peters - Link Round Up

Tom Peters - Link Round Up

Our Cool Friend Nick Morgan recently published a manifesto at ChangeThis.com that we think anyone who speaks publicly will find useful. Check it out.

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Harvard Business Publishing: Did Obama's Body Language Match His Rhetoric?

Harvard Business Publishing: Did Obama's Body Language Match His Rhetoric?

Every communication is two conversations: the content and the body language. When the two are aligned, a speaker can be powerful — even charismatic. When they are not aligned, the audience believes the non-verbal every time. How well did President Obama's Cairo University speech yesterday measure up in this regard?

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Harvard Business Publishing: Three Ways to Make Conferences Better

Harvard Business Publishing: Three Ways to Make Conferences Better

The meetings and conference business has taken hits from the economy and Joe Biden telling everyone he wants his family to stay off airplanes. But, much like the overall economy, the business is slowly turning around, or at least slowing its decline. So this is a good time to take a moment to consider the conference business in general. What could it do better when it comes roaring back in 2010? Following are my three radical suggestions for improving meetings and conferences.

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Learning From an Obama Speech That Didn't Work

Learning From an Obama Speech That Didn't Work
By Sean Silverthorne

Here’s a simple tip for making more convincing presentations, something which President Obama didn’t use in a recent speech but that preceding president Bush did.

When attempting to persuade people to support your position, first give a fair summary of the opposing point of view.

You have to argue the other side’s case on its own merits, says Nick Morgan, blogging on Harvard Business Publishing.

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Harvard Business Publishing: How to Debate Without Further Dividing People

Harvard Business Publishing: How to Debate Without Further Dividing People

How do you argue your side of an emotional, contentious issue in a way that doesn't further divide people? President Obama's recent speech, "Protecting Our Security and Our Values," delivered at the National Archives on May 21, 2009, was an example of a well-argued speech that unfortunately will only inflame the debate further.

The speech is a clearly constructed brief on what the Obama Administration has done to keep America safe — and how it has diverged from the previous administration's attempts to do exactly the same thing. However you feel about the politics of the matter, if Obama was hoping to still the debate, here's where he went wrong:

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Virality: How To Be A Great Public Speaker

Virality: How To Be A Great Public Speaker

One of the hardest things in the world to master is public speaking. Many people would rather jump naked into a pool with Great Whites than speaking in front of a crowd. That's probably why we've all heard so many awful presentations in our lives...

I found this downloadable PDF (or e-book/webinar) on David M. Scott's blog earlier this morning and found it quite interesting in its simplicity. Download it here: Before You Open Your Mouth: The Keys to Great Public Speaking. Nick Morgan is the creator of it, an author who also wrote a book on the subject Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma.

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Professionally Speaking: Before You Open Your Mouth

Professionally Speaking: Before You Open Your Mouth
by Ian Griffin

Here’s a wonderful 10-page ‘manifesto’ by communication and speech coach Nick Morgan posted to the ChangeThis website. Before You Open Your Mouth: The Keys to Great Public Speaking is well-worth reading.

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Dianna Huff's B2B MarCom Writer Blog: Free e-Book

Free E-book: before you Open Your Mouth — the keys to great public speaking

I’ve given about six or seven presentations since November... what used to be a scary, nerve-wracking experience has now become quite a bit of fun.

Although I enjoy public speaking, I know I can do better. So I was very happy to read David Meerman Scott’s blog post, 10 Tips for Becoming an Incredibly Successful Public Speaker, a while ago.

I used a few of his tips, especially the one about not using PowerPoint as a teleprompter. (Guilty as charged.)

David followed up his initial 10 tips post with another post about his colleague, Nick Morgan, offering a free e-book, before you Open Your Mouth — the keys to great public speaking. It’s a free download — meaning no registration required.

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Change This: Before You Open Your Mouth: The Keys to Great Public Speaking

Change This: Before You Open Your Mouth: The Keys to Great Public Speaking

“Why is most public speaking so awful? Why do we subject our fellow human beings to this form of torture when there are so many better things we could all be doing, like cutting our toenails, baking snickerdoodles, or watching re-runs of The Prisoner?

You’re in a ballroom with no windows in some random airport hotel. The lighting is dim. The whir of the heating system fills your ears with white noise. The colors around you are shades of grey and beige with puce trimmings. You’re only awake because you’ve had 1300 cups of coffee from the urn in the hallway. Let the speaking games begin.

It’s a diabolical sensory deprivation experiment.

Why is most public speaking so awful? Beyond soulless venues and Death by Power Point, speakers make the same four mistakes over and over again, continuing the sorry state of the art.”

Visit the site and download the free e-Book