Nix Nerves: Pro Tip 3

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Meet and greet your audience

Some of the most highly rated professional speakers I know and admire will stand at the
convention room door one hour early awaiting the first attendees. They shake hands,
converse briefly with audience members as they enter the meeting room, and even refer
to some of them by name throughout their presentation. Putting names with faces and
having brief but meaningful conversations with participants will set many jittery speakers
at ease.

So, arrive early.
Say hello to people as they come into your conference room.
Focus on the gift you are giving your audience: the special message you’ve prepared
especially for them.

Nix Nerves: Pro Tip 2

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Remind yourself it’s all about your audience

Consider that when we are genuinely nervous, another contributing factor is—and let this sink in—that we’re too focused on ourselves and our own performance. Rather does anything positive happen when we are fixating on I-focused questions such as:

– What if I mess up?
– What if I forget to say something?
– I wonder if they’ll like me.
– I wonder if they’ll think Bob did a better job.
– Did I wear the right suit?
– Are my pants zipped?

(Actually, that last one is a good question to ask.)

Instead of focusing on ourselves, turn that I-focus into a you-focus. Think of your
presentation as a gift you are giving your audience; it’s a special message you’ve
customized especially for them.

Make-Your-Mark-March

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While facilitating a four-day advanced communications program for an organization in Houston, Texas, a couple of weeks ago, I stayed at the fun and eclectic @cbaldwinhotel in the heart of downtown Houston. When I checked in at the front desk and the doors of the elevator closed behind me, I was face to face with this message: Make Your Mark.

I thought, what a great pep talk for the business travelers who regularly stay there. They get on the elevator in the morning on the way to a significant meeting or event and are encouraged to Make Their Mark. I know I was!

So, we are declaring this month to be Make-Your-Mark March. What’s one action you can take today to make your mark on your community, your workplace, your family, your friends, your customers, your clients, or your coworkers?

I’ll go first. Today I’m sending six notes of appreciation to people I worked with last week. What about you? Take a few seconds to consider how you can make your mark positively on those around you.

Travel Safety Tip

Travel Safety Tip Week 4: Cover it UP!

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The response to our last few weeks of travel safety minutes has been eye-opening—and fun!

Two readers surprised me with packages in the mail. The first was from Hall of Fame professional speaker Christine Cashen, who sent me this sheet of surface stickers. They are called LightDims from a small family-owned business that uses the income from this innovative product to provide special-needs care for their daughter. They can laser cut exact shapes and sizes; these are ideal for covering the peep holes on hotel doors.

The second fun surprise was from my IAAP CAPstone student, Clara Nakagawa, from Tokyo, Japan. Clara sent this hot pink thin magnet sheet to cover the door scope on hotel doors. She also sent me the best purple proofreading pens ever.

Thanks to these two fabulous friends for such a kind gesture. And, we’re still collecting travel safety tips, so please post your top travel secrets below. I learn something new from your comments every week.

 

To customize a keynote or professional development session that will have your audience laughing and learning, contact Mandi Stanley.

Certified Speaking Professional Mandi Stanley works with business leaders who want to boost their professional image by becoming better speakers and writers through interactive high-content keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, technical writing seminars, and fun proofreading classes. 

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affect or effect

Keep Reading Alive in 2025!

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I’m excited about this focus for our first five weeks, and I hope you’ll accept the challenge to read more books in the new year.

 

It doesn’t matter how many you read last year; add one more to it this year. If you read two books in 2024, strive to read three in 2025. Reading shouldn’t be burdensome or make you feel guilty if you get behind schedule. Rather, I’m encouraging all of my seminar clients to simply READ ONE MORE.

 

In 2024, I set a goal of completing 75 books. I finished the year having read 82. My goal for 2025 is to read 85.

 

For the next five weeks, I’ll use this space to share my secrets for finding the time to read this many books. We’ll begin with the first two today:

 

SECRET ONE. I don’t watch a lot of tv.

Don’t get me wrong: I do have my favorite shows and streaming series. Lately, Bob and I have gotten caught up in shows like “Elsbeth,” and “Matlock,” and “Tracker.” And, we’re awaiting the new season of “Will Trent.” (Hey, don’t judge me for my taste in television.) However, while I’m counting the months until season five of “Only Murders in the Building,” I’m going to read as many books as possible.

SECRET TWO. I keep two books going at once.

Listen, this one is harder for me to suggest than you may realize. For years, I could read only one book at a time, and I wouldn’t begin a new one until I finished the current one. I was a stickler. I sought closure with one storyline before I could even consider another one. Audio books have been a game changer. I keep an audio book going during road trips, and I have a hard copy of a book I can pick up and read any time.

 

And, I’m aware there’s an ongoing debate about if audio books count as reading. Purists say no. However, I say they most certainly do count toward our reading goals, and to hear certain stories narrated elevates them to an entirely new level. For instance, I could listen to Robert Bathurst of “Downton Abbey” fame narrate Louis Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache’s adventures all day, and indeed I have during 11-hour road trips to Kansas City.

It also helps if the two books represent different genres. Usually, I listen to fiction in the car while reading the physical version of a business or professional development book. I’m about to begin Smart Brevity by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen.

What about you? I invite you to state your 2025 reading plan in the comments along with the book you are currently reading or are about to begin. I also invite you to opine on your side of the audio book debate.

 

To customize a keynote or professional development session that will have your audience laughing and learning, contact Mandi Stanley.

Certified Speaking Professional Mandi Stanley works with business leaders who want to boost their professional image by becoming better speakers and writers through interactive high-content keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, technical writing seminars, and fun proofreading classes. 

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What Is This? Wrong Answers Only

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Seriously, though. I don’t know what it is.

Last week, I had the pleasure of working with a select group of leaders nominated from an engineering firm at their Advanced Communication Program retreat. We were together three days at the Radisson Phoenix Airport, and the staff there attended to our every need. They provided delicious options for breakfast and lunch and even brought in mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks. (Is it any wonder I gain weight at these events?) 

 

On our last day there, the catering staff provided us with airport bags stuffed to the brim with bottled water, granola bars, fruit, pens and pencils, notebooks—and this.

 

Nine engineers—and not a single one of us could figure out the function or purpose of this object. Of course, we had some wild guesses.

 

Who knows? If you actually know what this object is called and what it does, please respond. Even if you want to hazard a guess, inquiring minds want to know.

 

To customize a keynote or professional development session that will have your audience laughing and learning, contact Mandi Stanley.

Certified Speaking Professional Mandi Stanley works with business leaders who want to boost their professional image by becoming better speakers and writers through interactive high-content keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, technical writing seminars, and fun proofreading classes. 

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Grammar Grappler #28: Very Unique?

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“Halleigh, the spelling of your name is very unique.”

“She had a very unique way of expressing frustration.”

“The author took a most unique approach to revealing the murderer at the end of the mystery novel.”

Very unique?

Most unique?

Very unique is another phrase we should send to the Redundancy Department of Redundancy. Why? Unique actually means “unlike anything else.” It’s unique. Period. It is unnecessary to modify it with words like very and most. According to its definition, you can’t have varying degrees of uniqueness. Something can’t be a little unique or a lot unique or very unique. It’s unique—just like a rainbow unicorn.

 

To customize a keynote or professional development session that will have your audience laughing and learning, contact Mandi Stanley.

Certified Speaking Professional Mandi Stanley works with business leaders who want to boost their professional image by becoming better speakers and writers through interactive high-content keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, technical writing seminars, and fun proofreading classes. 

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Grammar Grappler #8: Home versus Hone

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As has been the trend in recent posts, yet again I’m blogging about something I have been saying incorrectly for most of my life. And I never realized it until recently. In fact, it was such a light-bulb moment that I called several people close to me to ask them how they used this term, and this one must run in the family because everyone I called said it incorrectly as well.  Read more