beckysue 
Most people agree that emotion is a powerful tool for persuasion. It helps humanize you, inspires empathy, creates common ground and breaks down the walls between you and the people you’re trying to reach. I’m often asked how you get to that emotional place, especially if you are more of the stoic type — say, … Read more
The lessons we can learn from actors go way beyond how to communicate more successfully. The world of performance offers lots of important life lessons as well. Acting is about taking risks, making clear choices and doing ridiculously embarrassing things in public and living to tell about it. (A particular career lowlight of mine was … Read more
It didn’t matter who you were — Martin de Maat believed in you. Martin was a teacher and administrator at Second City. He died in 2001, about a year before I started taking classes there, but he left behind an indelible legacy. By all accounts, he was a one-of-a-kind figure — passionate, enthusiastic, inspirational. Martin put … Read more
Humor can be most effective when it surprises you — when it comes from an unexpected source or during an otherwise serious occasion. (If you’ve ever gotten the giggles during, say, a funeral, you know what I mean.) This weekend I was scanning the site of a local charity, looking for donation guidelines. I’m in … Read more
With Mad Men finally, finally returning Sunday night, it’s got me thinking about the show’s most memorable moments. Moments that are not just memorable, but instructive. I talk a lot about the lessons we can draw from Mad Men. In a world so often full of needless jibber-jabber, Mad Men reminds us of the power … Read more
Yesterday I had the privilege to speak to about 270 Georgetown University alumni, offering them some of the top lessons from the book — how to connect with an audience, tell better stories, express yourself visually and stand out in the marketplace and workplace. You can watch it here. They asked a lot of great … Read more
A while back I gave some tips for tightening stories. One of them was to watch out for “and then” syndrome. That is, if you find yourself saying “and then” a lot, what you have “may not actually be a story, but just a long sequence of events.” Then this weekend I came across this video … Read more
Practically everyone makes this mistake. I used to make it myself, which may be why it’s like nails on a chalkboard to me. We’re talking about where to put the word “obviously” in a sentence when you’re expressing disappointment. As press secretary for the Ohio Attorney General, I had many, many occasions to use this … Read more
It seems one of the greatest anxieties people have about public speaking is coming up with something funny to say in the introduction. But here’s a crazy secret the comedy professionals won’t tell you: you don’t have to be a funny person to be funny. (And you don’t even have to be funny, of course. … Read more
When it comes to public speaking, nobody put it better than Jerry Seinfeld: According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than … Read more