Just like Oprah Winfrey when she had her favourite things episodes on her show, I thought I’d share a few of my favourite things that I use in my business and in my corporate role. Sometimes it makes more sense to purchase things once you’ve heard someone else use it…

No one likes having difficult conversations. These conversations are just that… difficult. We avoid them and we only have them when it’s absolutely necessary. But springing information on people in a surprising way is only going to cause more harm to the relationship than good. Imagine if you were an…

One of my most popular presentation topics is titled “Turning the Technical into the Practical — Communication success”, and it’s a lot of fun to present to see the transformation in the audience. Recently, I spoke to an audience of 500 American in-house lawyers about how we can communicate our…

People seem to have a pre-conceived ideas of the whole TED and TEDx thing. I mentioned it in my first episode but I’m the executive director, licensee and co-curator of TEDxHobart. I receive hundreds of messages from professional speakers thinking that because they can speak well that they deserve a…

When I talk about communication, I don’t just mean when we speak. The way we communicate and the ability to structure it can make a significant difference in how it is received by others. We have a wide array of communication interactions in our workday. From the water-cooler talk, to…

Delivering a presentation can be scary, particularly if you don’t do it often. To help you get through the struggle, I’ve whipped up a few of the critical things that you should consider to ensure you deliver an engaging presentation. 1. Audience: One of the critical things to be aware of is…

There used to be a time when if people gathered together, the audience would sit quietly and listen to the presenter. Of course, those days are long forgotten. With a limited attention span (which I understand, people have an attention span of 8 seconds…), it is hard to capture the…

In the professional services space, speaking publicly has become one of the key skills required for success. Speaking up in a meeting, presenting at a board meeting, or presenting at an industry conference are key activities that require us to put our best foot forward and show our audience how…

This article was originally published in The Australian Retailer April-May 2021 edition. The retail sector was rocked throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost as if every day was Christmas Eve (except more terrifying with the mysterious virus taking over our lives), our supermarkets, convenience and grocery stores were filled with panicked…