Blog
Create Deeper Interest With This Key Story Element
Why Most Stories Don’t Connect An important aspect of stories is the goal of the main character. What does this individual want to achieve? Too often, speakers present this ‘finish line’ in vague terms: - A financial advisor tells the story of a couple who want to...
How to Increase Your Story’s Impact
Story is Everywhere Every day, it feels like people are doling out advice on why you should tell stories and how to do it. As a result, many people are now telling their stories in professional presentations and networking events. And they’re not getting the results...
Stop Telling Just ANY Story
3 Keys to Crafting Stories People WANT To Hear Maybe it’s because of the work I do — presentation skills and storytelling coaching — but it feels like everywhere I look, someone is promoting storytelling. Organizations like TED and TEDx are built upon the power of...
Public Speaking Tip – How to Discover the Heart of Your Story
THE Key to a Memorable and Impactful Message One of the most vital skills in public speaking is to deliver a crystal clear main point. Without clarity, you lose your audience and your influence. If you want to get to the heart of your story and connect with your...
Is It OK To Cry When You Speak?
It All Depends One question people often ask is, "Michael, is it OK to cry when I speak?" My initial response is, "It depends." It depends on whether your tears are under control, or your tears are controlling you. Talking About Painful Experiences is...
Your Most Important Connection When You Speak
So Obvious I Missed It For years, I have challenged clients to strive for connection with their audience. If you connect with the people sitting in front of you, they’re more likely to hear your message and act on it. Makes sense, right? There’s one problem with...
Why All This Talk About Storytelling?
STORYTELLING IS EVERYWHERE It seems like every time you turn around, someone new is extolling the virtues of storytelling. And this inspires the question, “Is storytelling really that important?” It is, and there’s plenty of research to back this fact. For example,...
Feeling ‘Chicken’ About Speaking? Try This….
How to Manage Speaking Nerves One of the most common questions I hear is: “Michael, how do I get rid of my nerves?” I understand the purpose of the question, but it's the wrong one to ask. My response is always, “You don't want to get rid of nerves.” Some of the...
How to Deliver a Presentation – Don’t Be a Polished Speaker
How is Furniture Polish Relevant to Being a Speaker? What is this picture? You're right, it's a can of furniture Polish. What does this have to do with speaking? Many years ago when I first started speaking to audiences, I was convinced that effective speaking...
Networking Tip – How To Make a Positive Impact in 13 Seconds
The Pain of Traditional Networking Picture the scene. You're at a networking event. It’s time for each attendee to stand up and introduce himself. The first person stands up and says, “Hi. I’m John with Acme Financial. We offer life insurance, IRAs and tax planning...
Presentation Tip – Are You Making This Common Rehearsal Mistake?
A Common Presentation Rehearsal Mistake Imagine you’re practicing a presentation. Five minutes into your rehearsal, you get interrupted. After dealing with the interruption, you go back to your talk. Where do you restart your practice? If you’re like most people,...
Use These Questions to Connect With Your Audience
Why Use Questions to Connect? A common challenge for most presenters is how to capture their best ideas that will quickly gain audience attention. An obvious reason for this is that people are easily distracted today. We must capture their attention with our first...
Communication Skills – How a Wounded Soldier Connected With Me
How do you connect with an audience when you don’t seem to have anything in common with them? I was reminded of this question a few months ago when I was invited to Tampa, Florida to do some work with one of my past clients, retired Green Beret Lieutenant Colonel...
How to Keep Your Audience From Getting Lost in Thought
One of the most important lessons we teach speakers is this: Your goal is to change the way audiences Think, Feel or Act. One of the biggest mistakes speakers make is that they often cause people to think too much. Huh? Isn’t that a contradiction? At first glance,...
How to Help Your Audience See the ‘Big Picture’
Audiences often have ‘blind spots’ about the topics we speak about. One of the roles of speakers is to help audiences see the world in a different light.
He truly has a gift in connecting with the heart of each person he works with and helping them to unleash their story into their talk. All of the speakers raved about his work with them. Each of them has had broad experience in speaking, but they all felt that working with Michael raised the bar on their ability to speak. You can listen to all of his speakers, Anthony Munoz, Richard Bernstein and Graeme Joffe, at http://www.tedxcincinnati.com/talks/.”
Allison Wonders Gars
Speaker Coach Manager, TED x Cincinnati
“Investing in Michael is one of the best investments I have ever made. I speak on the subject of diversity in the workplace, which can at times be a difficult topic to discuss.
Michael taught me a repeatable process that allows me to create a foundational concept, a logical structure, an opening that grabs the audience’s attention, and a conclusion that encourages my audience to take action that will save them time and money.
I found Michael easy to work with, flexible with his schedule, and a wealth of information about the art of speaking. If you need to improve your presentation or speech, I highly recommend you consider hiring Michael. It is one of the best investments you can make in your own growth.”
Natalie Holder
Founder, QUEST Diversity
Panic to Power
Swift and Simple Strategies Anyone Can Use to Overcome Fear and Anxiety About Public Speaking.
Inject More Humor
Secrets for Using Laughter to Connect Deeper with Your Audiences
Evaluate to Elevate
Discover the keys to delivering evaluations that lift others to higher levels of accomplishment
THE Book on Storytelling
Discover How to Develop and Deliver Business Stories That Increase Your Impact, Influence and Income
Go Ahead and Laugh!
A Serious Guide to Speaking with Humor.
Michael’s mission is to help leaders, managers and sales professionals communicate with more confidence, impact, and influence. This passion is born from his own communication difficulties early in his career. Fortunately, he discovered that public speaking is like riding a bike, swimming or driving a car - it’s a learnable skill. Once he discovered this ‘secret’ he became a voracious student of the craft. He took courses, studied some of the world’s best speakers and storytellers and continues to study presentation and business storytelling skills. He is hired by companies and organizations, leaders, managers and sales professionals, and TEDx speakers to help them become more confident, impactful and influential communicators.
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