I overthink so you don’t have to.
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FRESH THREADS
NEW! The Freenoter Podcast!
There are lots of resources out there on how to become a paid speaker or keynoter, but what if you speak to build your business, as a FREEnoter? Each week, join me and Tom Webster as we cover all the angles of how to profit from speaking for free. If you are looking to grow your business from the stage--without "selling from the stage," this is the show for you. We will cover EVERY aspect of building your business through speaking, and even share a different craft cocktail recipe every week, just because. Subscribe now!
Where is your audience?
“How do I find my audience?” There are lots of answers to that, of course. And, since I escaped the agency world and its focus on marketing tactics, I’m not going to give you that kind of answer. Why not? Because all of those research tools, advertising techniques, and inbound strategies don’t work if you’re […]
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Why you need to give your audience a “positive want”
“Wanting” is a funny thing. It’s important because it’s easy to say “yes” to things we want — and too easy to say “no” to things we don’t. That’s why “wanting” is necessary in your message, because if people don’t hear something, early, that they want or want to know more about… they’ll tune out, […]
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Is this normal?
Whew! I have been BUSY. Actually, scratch that. I don’t like using the word “busy.” It implies what my friend, ah-mazing speaker, and consultant Neen James calls, “unintentional attention.” You know, that thing where you’re doing things just to do them, but not really paying attention to what you’re spending your time on, or why. Busy […]
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5 reasons to stop using a 3-point presentation structure
There’s a piece of presentation advice that I’d like to see die a very fiery death: the one where people tell you that “all you need” for a great talk or presentation is: An attention-getting opening 3 main concepts or themes (usually attached to a story each) A memorable close I have no issue with […]
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Is speaking at (or going to!) the conference worth it?
The other day as I was looking for an old handout from a talk I used to give, I stumbled across something I thought you’d find useful: a “calculator” to figure out whether speaking at an event is worth it or not. You could also use it to decide whether or not to attend a conference, […]
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How good is your opening shot?
Before you read any further: go and watch this video on the 10 greatest opening shots of all time. I wanted you to see how much the opening shot can do for a movie. How it can set the scene and open the story. How you literally can’t start the movie without it… just like you can’t start […]
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How do you serve two audiences at once?
One question kept coming up with my clients recently: “How do you ‘nest’ messages?” So, okay, that’s not how they actually framed the question. No, for them the questions were more like: What do I say to our leadership team to help them see how this benefits our members? I work with the C-suite, but the HR managers hire me… so […]
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How I build presentations in 5 steps
20 minutes. Two weeks. That’s what I had to develop this recently and the time I had to do it in. Except it wasn’t just any presentation, it was the opening keynote of StartupFestival Montreal. And it was going to be custom to them. Lest you be horrified at my procrastination, my prep for this […]
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What do you call that thing?!
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and then just. cannot. get. back. to. sleep? And 90% of the reason you can’t get back to sleep is because you’re worried about being awake in the first place? Ugh. It’s the worst. At least, it was, until I gave it a name. (Or rather, we, gave […]
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Are you smart, capable, and good?
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.” Isn’t that a GREAT line? It was part of the #swipefile, of course, and comes from a (tragically sold out) print by the “Not Real Banksy,” who may actually be the real Banksy. (Thanks to amazing body language expert and all-around good human Mark Bowden for the […]
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