Permission to be human
Whoot, whoot! I’ve just done my first ever Facebook live, in the FB group I created for my group “Luxembourg Powerhouses”. Now, I should add that it lasted all of 2 minutes, I didn’t tell anyone I was doing it and I posted it around 4pm when I knew no one would...
3 ways to conquer the spontaneous Christmas speech.
Ah, Christmas. The season for presents, Christmas parties, and spontaneous speeches. A couple of years ago my parents and I headed off to Dublin for Christmas lunch at my sister’s place, together with about a dozen in-laws. What we didn’t know was that the in-laws had...
What to include in your technical talk: 3 steps to help you get clear
It’s time to get down to the nitty gritty of your upcoming talk, and get some clarity on what you want to cover. Because when you know so much about your subject, as I know you do, sometimes you can't see the wood for the trees. In one of my first blogs, I talked...
Stop the world and let me off for five minutes
This month I took some time to slow down. The last couple of weeks have been quite intense with a number of speaking engagements, and when I went to the Chiropractor for my normal appointment my pelvis was out of tilt. He sent me off with a flea in my ear, and...
3 misconceptions about slides that are losing you connection with your audience
How much do you really think about the slides you present in your technical talk? According to Mayer’s “multimedia principle”[1], if you want to explain difficult concepts it is far more effective to present them not only in verbal format, but also in a visual way. In...
7 things to do in the first three minutes to come across as competent and likeable
As you stand here in the wings, waiting to step on stage to give your talk, know that from the moment you reach the podium and start to speak, you’ll have a maximum of about three minutes to convince the audience that you are worth listening to. Sounds harsh, but...
Three ways to use stories in your technical talk
As human beings, we are hard wired for stories. There is a theory that suggests that when man discovered how to fully control fire, not only did this transform our diet, but it also transformed our culture. As fire could extend day, so too could humans sit around...
5 things I didn’t know I knew when I started my own business
As the one year anniversary of leaving corporate life has been approaching, I have been taking stock and looking back at what I have learnt over these last 12 months. Goodness knows there has been a lot, but what I have found to be the most surprising has been those...
The 1-2-3 of shoe shifting
Shoe shifting: the art of stepping out of your shoes as speaker, into the shoes of your audience. In my last blog post, I told you that the one thing you need to do if you want to make your technical talk interesting is to stop thinking that this speech is about you,...
The one thing you need to do to make your technical talk interesting
Over the years, how many hours do you think you have spent at conferences listening to numerous and varied speakers? If you work in a technical field - law, tax, audit - I imagine that most of these speakers have spoken about some very complex subjects. Funds, the...