From the category archives:

public speaking

It’s How You Handle It That Matters – And Dar Williams Knows How to Handle It

by Michelle Barry Franco August 6, 2010 anxiety

Last night Jim and I went to see Dar Williams perform at The Tower Theatre here in Bend. Damn – she is amazing. If you get a chance, go see Dar. Anywhere you can. While it’s the first time I’ve seen her on stage, I get the strong impression that no matter where she performs, [...]

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Speak & Flourish: Why you should push past public-speaking fear in service of a thriving business

by Michelle Barry Franco July 10, 2010 public speaking

(I wrote this article for Cascade Business News (a local publication in my town of Bend, Oregon), which printed this week and thought you might find it useful, too.) The last time I did a pro-bono 20-minute presentation for a networking organization, I had one person slip me their card on my way back to [...]

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Organizing Your Speech So Your Audience Can Actually Use the Information (Remarkable Speaking for Ordinary People Video Blog Series)

by Michelle Barry Franco June 24, 2010 public speaking

Today’s topic in the Remarkable Speaking for Ordinary People Video Blog Series is How to Organize Your Speech So YOur Audience Can Actually Use the Information. This may seem totally elementary, but it is woefully disregarded way too often. I want to eliminate that possibility for you. Remarkable speeches are memorable because they have awesome [...]

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Public-Speaking Tips from Mike Arauz’s Design for Networks Talk

by Michelle Barry Franco May 28, 2010 presentations

Mike Arauz of Undercurrent in New York gave a great talk today for our AdBite meeting today. Here are just a few of the things he did really well that we can learn from and use easily in our own talks: Public Speaking Tips: Thoughts on Mike Arauz of Undercurrent talk for Adbite, Bend, OR [...]

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Lessons from Behind the Podium

by Michelle Barry Franco January 30, 2010 Uncategorized

I was granted another five minutes of Ignite-style fame yesterday at the Central Oregon AdFed meeting, along with ten other mighty fine presenters. As is so often the case at one of these events, I took away at least as many tidbits about public speaking as I did about the topics of the meeting (in [...]

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Say What You Mean – and Be Care-Full

by Michelle Barry Franco December 15, 2009 messaging

Yesterday I attended a private author’s reception held at The Loft for Lorelei Shellist. Lorelei just self-published a soul-revealing book called Runway Runaway about her love affair with Steve Clark, who was the guitarist for Def Leppard. It’s about lots of other things too (drugs, sex, survival, modeling, growth, spirit…), but her romance with Steve [...]

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What Do You Sell?

by Michelle Barry Franco November 30, 2009 business planning

It took me a long time to really get it what I sell in my business. At first I thought I sold communication coaching and consulting. Then I thought I sold marketing expertise. Then I thought I sold the tools to getting more clients. At various times I would have had visioning, listening, powerful & [...]

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All Public Speaking is NOT Created Equal

by Michelle October 27, 2009 presentations

Five minutes is really not that long. It takes more than 5 minutes just to get my three daughters from the living room, up our short flight of stairs and into the bathroom to brush teeth at night (often 2X 5 minutes.) You can be five minutes late to a meeting or lunch date and [...]

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3 Ways to Eliminate Public Speaking Anxiety (and other kinds of social anxiety)

by Michelle September 17, 2009 anxiety

My husband and I got married in our (very small) backyard, with forty of our closest friends and family. We wanted it small and intimate. The ceremony was co-created with our guests such that each was invited to bring a reading, item, book, reflection… anything they wanted (a joke began early about performing an interpretive [...]

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Messy Presentations

by Michelle August 4, 2009 amplifying aids

I’m always recommending to people that they actually try to avoid using Powerpoint or other presentation technology. I do this because I meet so many people who “have a really great Powerpoint Presentation [they] could build their talk around.” I cringe when I hear this. I cringe because a presentation is always and foremost about [...]