Herein lies the conundrum that every professional inevitably faces–how to provide the most useful and efficient project update possible in a fraction of the time you want.

Speaker SoundbitesKurt MacDonaldApril 1, 2023Board reports, Executive update, Business communication, Project update, Public speaking, Professional Communicators

Rehearse!

You’ve got your talking points, developed great strategic stories, written an outline, and built a PowerPoint to reinforce your key messages. Heck, you’ve even added a few speaker notes to your slides.

But, you’re not finished.

You need to rehearse.

Speaker SoundbitesKurt MacDonaldNovember 1, 2022Business presentations, Business Communication, Public speaking, Presentation rehearsal, The Professional Communicators

Your Visual Open

Right there on my TV was a critical lesson--that engaging an audience requires careful orchestration of what your audience hears and sees.

Speaker SoundbitesKurt MacDonaldApril 1, 2022Visual communication, Business presentations, Business Communication, Public speaking, PowerPoint, The Professional Communicators

Like...Illustrative Examples

“Like” has gotten a bad rap.

“Like” has become a pariah of the English language.

But don’t be too quick to entirely discard it from your vocabulary. It’s often the gateway to engaging and persuasive content.

Speaker SoundbitesKurt MacDonaldMarch 1, 2022Illustrative examples, Presentation coaching, Business communication, Public speaking, Professional Communicators

Communication Firebreaks

On the afternoon of July 6, a bolt of lightning pierced the Oregon sky and struck the ground near the small community of Beatty. If you were in the vicinity, it most assuredly caught your attention, but what happened next would catch the country’s attention.

…

But what does a 400,000-acre forest fire have to do with effective communication?

Speaker SoundbitesKurt MacDonaldAugust 1, 2021Public speaking, Talking too quickly, Business communication, High stakes presentations, Presentation coaching

Practice, Practice, Practice!

Like learning to play guitar, golf, or knit, improving your presentation skills takes practice.

We get asked all the time, how much should I practice? Good question.

In order to become a more effective communicator, we recommend the following:

Speaker SoundbitesKurt MacDonaldJanuary 1, 2021Public speaking, Business Communication, Presentation preparation, Professional development, Presentation practice

The Lost Handshake: Nonverbal Communication in Video Conferences

Many people may be lulled into thinking a video conference is the same as an in-person meeting, but there is an essential ingredient that is missing: THE BODY!

Speaker SoundbitesKurt MacDonaldJuly 1, 2020Video conferencing, remote communication, Body language, Nonverbal communication, Leadership Communication, Public speaking, The Professional Communicators

Communication Moments Matter

Michael Bloomberg is exhibit A in the case for ‘communication matters.’

Preparing for every communication moment (whether it’s a national debate or a company meeting) can be the difference between:

success and failure,
clarity and confusion,
profit and loss.

Speaker SoundbitesKurt MacDonaldMarch 2, 2020Business communication, Public speaking, Executive presence, Executive communication, Professional Communicators, Presentation coaching, Debate preparation

Empathy and Communication

Empathy, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is the ability to share someone else’s feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s situation. It is a decidedly human characteristic, and it also underlies effective communication. That’s because communication is inherently a human-to-human process, and for communication to be successful, there must be a relatability between the sender and the receiver.

Speaker SoundbitesKurt MacDonaldFebruary 3, 2020Business communication, Communication, Empathy, Empathetic communication, Human interaction in business, Public speaking, Professional Communicators