By Joey Asher Category: Nerves and Facial Energy I have a friend who fears airplanes. Ask him why and he'll say, "If we were meant to fly, God would have given us wings." When people ask me why people fear public speaking, I have a similar response. “If we were meant to give [...]
Category: Other Speechworks coach Kim Cunningham understands the importance of speaking with credibility. For years, people relied on her weather forecasts to plan their days. And when she was in the Air Force, pilots relied on her to help plan their combat missions. “Getting the forecast right is critical,” says Cunningham. “And delivering the message [...]
Category: Content You’re speaking to the board of directors, trying to win approval for a large capital improvement. Do you give them a detailed analysis of the reasons to approve the project? Or do you hit them with a few key messages supporting your position? You have a better chance of winning their approval if [...]
By Joey Asher Category: Nerves I had an English professor in college who said, "If you write a really great story, you're screwed." He meant that the best storytellers have the courage to open up their personal lives and tell the truth about themselves, even if the truth is embarrassing. Similarly, if you want to give [...]
Category: Tips from Celebrities If you're thinking of dying your gray hair, don't do it if you're a man, says the famously gray-headed anchor Anderson Cooper. “In the TV news business, gray equals gravitas,” writes Cooper in a funny column posted to the CNN.com website. “In fact, in just about any line of work being prematurely [...]
Category: Sales, Visual Aid When trying to sell a complicated idea, most business people fire up their PowerPoint and start creating slides and charts. I ask myself, “What would Aristotle do?” That’s what I did recently when I worked with Chris, a consultant who had invented a 17-step process for dramatically shortening the amount of [...]
By Joey Asher Category: Nerves There are many good tactics for beating the fear of public speaking. Extensive rehearsal helps the most. Physical exertion can reduce the adrenaline-driven jitters. Comedian Billy Crystal once said that he did push-ups to deal with stage-fright. Schmoozing with the audience before the presentation helps you relax. I’ve used all these tactics. [...]
By Joey Asher Category: Q&A My dog Balou is a 60-pound, black-lab mix that we adopted at a PetSmart rescue day last year in Sandy Springs, GA. And if he could only talk and write on a flip chart, I’m sure he’d be a great public speaker. That’s because he understands how to connect with [...]
Category: Other Click the title below to watch Joey Asher's talk at the SOAHR17 Conference: Go Beyond the Data: How to Use Compelling Stories to Persuade Speechworks is a communication and selling skills coaching firm. We teach professionals how to craft and deliver complex messages in a simple, persuasive manner. Since 1986, through workshops [...]
Category: Facial Energy The face bone is connected to the wrist bone. That’s right. Very often, when our clients are having trouble improving their hand gestures, we’ll focus on their facial energy. That’s because if you improve facial energy, the gestures will often improve. “What do I do with my hands?” is a question we [...]
