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Spread The Word |
We love hearing about the good things happening to our ESI graduates. Drop us a note if you have something to report. Here are some recent comments from grads that we had to pass along.
"Thanks to your training, coaching and the confidence that I gained from working with you - I went 5 for 5. That means for the 5 companies that I interviewed with face-to-face, I received 5 different job offers," says David McClelland. "I owe a lot of my 100% success rate to ESI and especially to Anne Boyd-Gellman for all her support."
Read what others are saying.
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Show Prep |
Kathy Turner, head of the speech department at Davidson College, sent us a link to a story about how Apple's Steve Jobs gets ready for a presentation.
The story says that the presentation "represents weeks of work, precise orchestration and intense pressure for the scores of people who collectively make up the "man behind the curtain". I know, because I've been there, first as part of the preparation team and later on stage with Steve."
Here's the rest of the article.
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About Us |
Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems changes lives by helping lifelong learners hone their natural communication tools.
As the premier provider of public speaking and presentation skills, we help individuals and organizations learn to communicate more effectively with their customers. |
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Hello. Good stuff in this month's Zipline. We have a great piece reprinted from Charlotte ViewPoint on eloquence, as well as some comments about ESI from our graduates.
In September, we're bringing to Charlotte the Tiger Woods of executive speaking coaches. We'll tell you more about this advanced session from Patricia Fripp as we get closer to the date.
With the New Year fully underway, we need your thoughts on a very important question: In your desire to gain proficiency in communications in 2007, what topic, skill set, or experience do you feel you most need improving? Whether we offer such a solution, we need to hear what that competency is. Please, drop us a note.
Thanks, now let's get started.
Ty Boyd
Fear Factor
Fear is both a strong motivator and demotivator. It truly depends upon whether you let it affect you or you take charge of it. Life's possibilities are endless for those who learn to surmount fear.
Are you afraid of presenting, [firstname]? You aren't alone. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld once said that most people would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy at a funeral.
If you have this fear, you are missing out on so much. You're passing up on business opportunities to lead for fear of having to present. Leaders must give voice to the mission. Otherwise, there will be no followers.
And in business, the ability to speak persuasively and coherently in front of small or large groups is a skill vital to your career success. Did Mary Lou get that promotion just because she has better communication skills?
Did you lose that sale because your presentation skills just weren't adequate? Are you also missing out on chances to be involved in or lead community projects? You can gripe about it or do something positive so you'll be ready next time around.
In our ESI sessions, we have found that a lot of very intelligent, highly capable people have this same fear. All of us suffer from at least a little stage fright before the curtain rises. It's normal and natural, and can be used to your benefit.
You can harness that fear, make it your friend and use it to turn you into a more effective speaker. As someone once said, "don't kill those butterflies. Just get them into flying formation."
Make a commitment to improve your presentation skills this year. Otherwise, you will continue to settle for less in life, in business and in your community. You are worth the investment.
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Elocution
By Darryl Spencer
Reprinted with permission from Charlotte ViewPoint Magazine.
I avoided a recent NPR show broadcast live from Charlotte. I like the show's content, but not the host's communication "style." With a script, she stammers and stutters, suggesting uncertainty, unpreparedness, and inability to think while talking. Is she a good public speaker? No. But she sounds like most Americans, like "one of us." Is that what we want from "talking heads"?
A CNN regular is eloquent during newscasts and live reports from disasters. Yet in interviews, whether interviewer or -ee, he is as "speech-interference"-inflicted as a preteen. Ad-lipped utterances of young Hollywood actors make them sound socially retarded or doped up.
"Rhetoric" to Aristotle - who codified it - meant "effective speech." We've had presidents with speech problems, from Nixon's grammatical fragments to Bush 41's sentences defying syntactical analysis to a more recent office-holder's embarrassingly simplistic vocabulary.
We've had eloquent presidents during my lifetime: FDR heartened a nation with "fireside chats"; Truman had directness; Ike was prescient about "the military-industrial complex." We accepted Kennedy's accent because of his intelligence in debates. I heard him speak magnificently on the White House lawn in 1963 without teleprompter or notes. LBJ had an accent, but an avuncular style that could persuade and move us - hear his 1965 Civil Rights speech (which I witnessed from the House gallery). Great Communicator Reagan deployed actor's skills to convince an opposition-led Congress; Clinton extemporized his way into the White House.
Get the rest of the story.
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