A few years ago, I hosted a live event with Dan Roam as the guest speaker. We did a smooth tech check thirty minutes before going live – everything worked. Then, thirty seconds before showtime, my setup crashed. Total chaos. Dan handled it brilliantly. We improvised a new setup on the fly, and the event still worked. But it was a reminder I won’t forget. Here’s the lesson: If it can go wrong, it might.
Continue Reading“…until they get punched in the mouth.” That line came from Mike Tyson. Plans look good on paper – until reality shows up. Some people script every word. Others like to improvise. Both can work. But neither works if you can’t adapt. If you stick to a script no matter what, you risk sounding stiff. Miss one line and you panic. If you wing it with no structure, nerves can take over, and you ramble.
Continue ReadingJeff Bezos once said that people often ask him, “What’s going to change in the next ten years?” But almost no one asks the better question: “What’s not going to change?” For Bezos, that second question matters more. At Amazon, he knows that no matter how the world evolves, customers will always want low prices, fast delivery and wide selection. So that’s where they focus – on the things that won’t change.
Continue ReadingIn 2009, Warren Buffett told a group of students that his greatest fear early in life was public speaking. He was so anxious about it that he dropped a speaking course before it even started. But eventually, he forced himself to go back and complete it. Years later, he said that the most valuable diploma in his office was from that public speaking course. That’s the key: action changes fear.
Continue ReadingI came across an article from The Economist about how to be a better boss. One lesson stood out: good managers remove what gets in the way. Fewer emails, fewer meetings, fewer distractions. The example they shared was interesting. Shopify removed 12,000 meetings from employees’ calendars. Not all of them came back. Overall, meetings fell by around 14%, giving people more time to focus on meaningful work. There’s a clear message here: subtraction works.
Continue ReadingIn 2015, a poll by YouGov found that 41% of Americans believed dinosaurs and humans once lived on Earth at the same time. That’s despite over a century of scientific evidence to the contrary. It’s easy to laugh – until you realise how little impact facts have when people’s beliefs are already fixed. As Robert Cialdini wrote in classic book Influence, “To change feelings, counteract them with other feelings.” You won’t shift someone’s thinking with stats alone.
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In this episode of the Ideas on Stage Podcast, Carmine Gallo shares how timeless principles of persuasion apply to modern business communication. You’ll learn how storytelling builds trust, how to create moments people remember, and how to communicate more effectively in client presentations and high-stakes conversations. A few days after a presentation, most people forget most of what they heard.
Continue ReadingMy colleague Phil Waknell is an outstanding speaker – and a presentation coach himself. He’s helped thousands of leaders deliver powerful talks. And yet, before his TEDx Talk, he worked with a coach. That talk has now been viewed more than a million times. To grow as a speaker, you need skill – but you also need humility. I often meet people who say they want to improve but, deep down, believe they’ve already figured it out. I’ve been there myself. We all have moments where we think we know best.
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