The beginning of the presentation is your prime real estate. It’s when your audience decides if you are worth paying attention to or not. In my workshops, I call this the HOOK. You can do this by either asking a question, making a bold statement or telling a story that relates to your topic.
I recently had the great pleasure of speaking at two global events, one for the Coca-Cola Company and one for an international law firm. In both sessions there were attendees from all over the world. I met people from Estonia, England, South Africa, France, Turkey and China. To those of you who attended the programs, and are reading my newsletter for the first time, a very warm welcome.
While there are certainly differences in culture and sensibilities in different countries,
What do the families of Nelson Mandela and John Wayne have in common?
Although they live in vastly different geographies and seem to have greatly varied heritage, these families have been joined in a deep bond by choosing a unique path to continue their father’s legacies. I recently had the great pleasure of meeting the Wayne family, who honor their patriarch’s memory by supporting cancer research through the John Wayne Cancer Institute. This past week,
Thanks to all of you who so kindly pointed out the typos in my last newsletter. At first I was completely horrified that between myself, my copy editor and my assistant we had not noticed them. Then, I was grateful for how gracious you were. I asked one of my colleagues if she thought I should resend it error-free and she reminded me of my own words: “There is no erase button in life.”
On Sunday, the topic of my CNN segment was the former Prime Minister of Ukraine’s hairstyle.
It’s a strange but quite significant topic. To see why, please click on this link.
So, the question is what do we learn from Ms. Tymoshenko’s traditional Ukranian hairdo? Simply that our appearance, while not everything, is an integral part of the way we are perceived.
Are you using every aspect of your appearance to your advantage?
A couple of weeks ago, my beloved Blackberry stopped working; it had apparently stopped communicating with the network. Now, I am sure many of you can relate to the panic and despair that ensues when you either drop your device or leave it somewhere. I thought at first it would be a simple matter of replacing it and was mortified when I was told that our department was no longer ordering Blackberries, and that I had to replace it with an iPhone.
I met Kat Cole in 2005, when I was hosting a panel for the Women’s Food Service Forum at the Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta.
Kat was the only woman, and by far the youngest and most impressive of all the panelists. At the time, Kat was head of training for Hooters, and what struck me most was how a highly intelligent, business-savvy brunette, who the audience couldn’t help but take seriously, represented a brand that I had associated with blondes in tight T-shirts and shorts.
Deepak Chopra, James Patterson and Andrew McCarthy don’t have much in common, other than being best-selling authors. What they also have in common is that I interviewed all three of them over the last few weeks. I found it so fascinating to meet the people behind the brand names and to appreciate their own unique perspectives on navigating life’s challenges.
Let’s start with James Patterson, prolific author, Guiness Book of Records holder for most hard cover best-selling books ever sold,
This summer I kayaked for the first time ever. My brother Brian, a cardiologist, was my coach, and he was very patient with his older and not-very-co-coordinated sister.
As we ventured out into a tidal lagoon in Wellfleet on Cape Cod, he told me that the most important thing was to just keep paddling. Even if you don’t use a lot of strength, he said, you will be fine as long as you keep moving.
