Your Talk is a Gift

Seth Godin is the author of several books about “marketing, the spread of ideas and managing both customers and employees with respect”. They are bestsellers. His blog is one of my favourites and I highly recommend it. This post is part of a series based on original posts by Seth. Your talk is a gift In this blog post […]
11 Steps to a Killer Presentation

Every time you have to give a speech or make a presentation, do this calculation

Here’s a practice to develop with regard to your public speaking. It’s something that I started doing many years ago. It’s a simple calculation that should take 30 seconds (or less if you use a calculator) but the result is always powerful and sobering. Here’s what you do: Take the number of people whom you anticipate […]
Alain de Botton on Dieter Rams and Good Design

A while back, I wrote a post about Dieter Rams, the German industrial designer who is recognized as one of the most influential industrial designers of the 20th century. Rams worked for 40 years at the German consumer products company, Braun. Today, he works at Vitsœ, a British furniture company. In the early 1980’s, as he became […]
Where the streets have no name

For years, the phrase “where the streets have no name” has always brought to mind one of my favourite songs by the rock band U2. After today, however, it will remind me of something else as well. While listening to a discussion on Tim Ferriss’ podcast, guest Derek Sivers mentioned something about the streets in Japan that […]
A phrase to avoid on stage
Actually, it’s several phrases, but they all amount to the same thing.Over the years, I have led presentation skills workshops in MBA and Executive MBA programmes across Europe. In one of my classes a couple of years ago, a bright young fellow was giving his formal presentation about his business idea. The presentation (and the […]
The airport approach to public speaking

I am sitting in the Geneva airport as I write this post. I am on my way to Barcelona for a great week of teaching and learning with my good friends and fellow public speakers, Conor Neill, Florian Mueck, Tobias Rodrigues and Tony Anagor. Today, as always when I travel by plane, I arrived at the […]
Design your presentation like Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was not just a master of art; he was a master of human nature. Of all the things that we can learn from him, one of the most important is the power of simplicity. “Art,” said Picasso, “is the elimination of the unnecessary.” And he actively practiced what he preached. Perhaps the finest example […]
The Prezi Top 100

The past couple of weeks have been pretty exciting for this blog. Only days after reaching 1,000,000 visitors, I received an email from at Prezi. They notified me that they had chosen Manner of Speaking as one of their “Top 100 Online Resources Every Presenter Should See”. And, from among the Top 100, Prezi staff chose Manner of Speaking […]
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