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 …

“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 …

I own a car. When it dies, I may not buy another. In fact, I may never own another car again in my lifetime. I don’t want to be careless. I’d rather be carless. This is a shocking statement for a middle-aged Michigan suburbanite to make. For a time, I worked in the auto industry. …

Sometimes, voice typing can come in handy for really unexpected reasons! It’s October 1, and it’s freezing. My poor fingers are now cramped from typing in a cold room all morning. Google Voice Typing to the rescue! I’ll open up Google Docs, activate voice typing, and talk through a first draft.  I can always go …

Hey remember third grade? You got up and you did show-and-tell and  you loved it. ❤ You didn’t feel nervous or anxious. So what changed? What made you thrilled about public speaking when you were eight… and anxious about it as an adult? Three things: One: you’re more inhibited as an adult. You now know you stand the risk …

Some people feel scared or nervous before they deliver a speech. To gain confidence, they might go somewhere private right before they speak and strike what’s called a power pose. This is a broad, expansive gesture like putting your arms over your head and looking up. It’s a classic pose of someone who just won! …

Consider these four questions. You’ve seen headlines like these in your social media feeds: Who suffers more: Alzheimer’s patients or Alzheimer’s caregivers? What’s more important: presentation content or presentation delivery? Office work or remote work: which is better for productivity? Why would anyone need to go to college when they could just take online classes? …

Three years ago, I organized an online web conference. At the request of an organization, I interviewed three of their Subject Matter Experts to get background information for a presentation. The following photo is a re-creation of what I saw in this online meeting: Uh-huh. That’s right. For almost the entire interview, I stared at …

After a student gives a class presentation, I’ll sometimes conduct a quick poll. I’ll ask the entire class: on a scale of 0-10, how nervous did the speaker appear? The audience might give the speaker a 2 or a 3. But the speaker? A nervous speaker might rate themselves a 7 or 9. That’s a …