Rob Biesenbach 
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
If you want to see the lessons from my book presented live and you can’t spring for a trip to Denver next week (where I’ll be keynoting PRSA’s Western District Conference), you can check out a free webinar I’m doing the week after next. It’s being done through Georgetown University’s Alumni Career Services office, but … Read more
To paraphrase another president: there he goes again! The Obama administration putting a prop to good use, this time upping the ante by having the CIC himself wield it. So glad to see it. I’ve wondered in the past why Obama and other chief executives don’t make better use of three-dimensional visuals in their speeches … Read more
Facebook Timeline for brands is the latest hysteria-inducing development in social media. Its introduction has been accompanied by the usual how-to articles screaming TEN THINGS YOU MUST KNOW and FIVE HIDDEN TIMELINE SECRETS THE EXPERTS WON’T TELL YOU and YOU’RE NOT ON TIMELINE YET? YOU HOPELESS RUBE! I actually think the timeline is cool. I … Read more
The worst kind of client is the one who sees the cost of everything and the value of nothing. The second worst is a client who treats you like a vendor instead of a partner. Combine those two and you’ve truly got the client from hell. Consider these two experiences. Totally hypothetical. Client A: The … Read more
Google+ is the weirdest social network there is. When it was launched last summer the Internet world was atwitter (so to speak). Afraid of being left behind, people rushed to get on board the new new thing. So it grew at a ridiculously fast rate. And it now has 90 million users. But how many … Read more
There’s plenty of advice to be found on how to prepare for a TV interview. Talk in concise soundbites. Look at the interviewer, not the camera. Don’t wear crazy patterns. But sometimes it’s the little things they don’t tell you that can make or break the interview. Here are seven practical lessons I’ve learned from my … Read more