Let’s explore 5 of the worst ways to open your next keynote or major presentation…that we hear ALL TOO OFTEN! Ahem! (clearing your throat – do vocal warmups beforehand, please!) Thank you…. (your audience doesn’t need to hear this.) It’s really great to be here….(you’re wasting even more time.) Can you hear me? (do your …

How do you get a QR code of your LinkedIn profile? You can do it directly from within LinkedIn! I often put a QR code that leads to my LinkedIn profile on or near the last slide of my presentation. I sometimes will put one in a video. With a QR code that leads to …

Here’s a question about presentations and videos I started to get a lot last month. I’ll paraphrase it: Hey Laura. How do you do those square, short, silent little videos that you share on LinkedIn and Twitter? The answer is: really easily! I use a tool called Canva. As a stand & deliver trainer, I …

You go to give a whiteboard presentation. You pick up a marker. But it’s dead. 💀 Happens all the time. You then go through 5 stages of grief. 1. Denial: It’s not really dead. 2 . Bargaining: Shake it really hard, try to write with it. 3. Sadness: Pick up another. 4. Anger: Argh! This …

“We don’t pay attention to boring things.” John Medina, Brain Rules Sounds basic, right? But how do you NOT be boring when you’re speaking or presenting? Medina tells us to be sure to introduce something emotionally relevant every 10 minutes. At least every 10 minutes! If we don’t, we risk losing the attention and interest …

Design your slides with accessibility in mind. (I was trying to read small black text on a gray-radiant background earlier this month. I gave up.) One accessibility violation I see in many slide designs involves the use of color. ❌ Red text on a green background? Yikes! ❌ Green text on a red background? Don’t! …

Never end your presentation with a Q&A. Got that? Don’t end your next presentation by saying, “Any questions?” There’s no need to announce that it’s time for questions and answers. You can do better. Always plan a strong closing. If you’re planning a Q&A session, you can have it near the end, but not at …

Ah, Q&A. The “question and answer” portion of your presentation, where anything can happen! Instead of dealing with a Q&A hog, let’s say someone in your audience asks you a brilliant question. It’s timely and topical! It’s directly related to your content! At this point, your answer can fall into three categories. 1. Hey, I …

So, you’ll be presenting as a team. Super! Make sure you know what position you’ll be playing. One of the biggest mistakes I see in team presentations is when one person on the team is speaking — and the others on the team don’t exactly know what to do with their bodies. “Just because you’re …

A popular quote by W. Edwards Deming reads: “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” But what if you flipped this saying? “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” Leaders need to share informed opinions and insights. Any dashboard can spew data. It takes soft intelligence, leadership, and communication skills to …