Biesenblog
Riveting Insights on Communication, Storytelling and Presentation Skills
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How to Control Your Emotions When Speaking: 10 Tips
Even in the best of times, it can be hard to control our emotions. But we haven’t been living in the best of times. Most of us have experienced some level of stress or even trauma as a result of the pandemic. So it’s natural to be feeling a little...
Present Like a Boss: 5 Essential Tips
Want to be viewed as a leader? Then get up on stage and present like a boss. A presentation tests your mettle in any number of ways, from your ability to inspire others to how you work under pressure to whether you can translate information into action. It can bring...
A Personal Brand Guide for Personal Brand Haters
How do you feel about the idea of having a personal brand? If you’re like a lot of people, you may agree with this pithy comment I got on Facebook: “Barf.” That’s an understandable reaction. After all, we are not dish soap (“cuts through grease!”) or paper towels (“the quicker...
A Simple Communication Framework For Crafting Any Message
If you're struggling to organize your thoughts for a presentation, report or any important message, it's hard to go wrong with this simple and time-tested communication framework. Known as “Know, Feel, Do” (or sometimes “Think, Feel, Do”), it’s an indispensable tool for creating communications that are compelling and that resonate...
Advanced Storytelling Tip: Locate the Small Moments
Here's an important storytelling tip that will vastly improve the impact of your stories. It's all about finding the moments. In my workshops and consulting, people often come up with the broad brushstrokes of a perfectly functional story. The problem is, it's too broad. The devil is in the details....
10 Career Boosting Benefits of Improv Training
One of the most important things you can do for your professional development is to get some improv training. I studied improv for several years at Chicago’s Second City Training Center and it changed my life. Improv made me a better communicator, a better team member and a better (and...
How to Tell Your Story on LinkedIn
If you want to stand out from the crowd in the marketplace, you need to be able to tell your story on LinkedIn. After all, storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to influence and persuade an audience. Take a look at your LinkedIn profile and put yourself in...
Tough Love: How to Overcome Presentation Anxiety
If you’re like most people, you get nervous before a presentation. It’s okay. Even professional speakers occasionally experience presentation anxiety. The difference is in how it’s managed. You can let the anxiety drive you crazy and even affect your performance, or you can meet it head-on and at least subdue...
How to Handle a Hostile Audience: 7 Rules
If you ever have to handle a hostile audience at a meeting or when giving a presentation, here are a few things I learned the hard way. How hard? Like an employee interrupting a CEO's speech to yell at him and then storming out of the room hard! That experience...
3 Keys to a Successful Virtual Presentation
Virtual presentations have always been hard. Audiences are restless, distracted and can easily tune out since no one’s watching them. But doing a virtual presentation from home is even harder — both presenters and audiences are dealing with isolation, disruptions and limited technology. So if you want to make a...
How to Nail Your Next Virtual Presentation
With millions of people working from home right now due to the coronavirus, it's a safe bet that many of us are going to be leading or taking part in more and more virtual presentations and online meetings. So I put together this 35-minute video tutorial designed to take the...
Still Presenting Like it’s 1999? Take This Quiz and Find Out
Remember 1999? It was a magical time: The dot-com boom promised an unbroken era of universal prosperity. George Lucas introduced us to Jar Jar Binks, destined to be an all-time fan favorite. And PowerPoint 2000 was released, ushering in a Golden Age of Business Oratory. Yeah, not so much. Maybe...