Nick Morgan's Blog, page 29
August 24, 2021
For Above-Average Speakers
We are all above average. At least, the studies show that most of us think we are above average. This psychological marvel, known as “illusory superiority,” shows up in a wide variety of human activities, including driving ability, health, memory, and IQ. In fact, 93 percent of us think we are above-average drivers. I’m assuming […]
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August 3, 2021
The Problem with Virtual Communication
Long before the pandemic, I was a technophile. I always latched onto the latest tech, and believed that being up-to-date on technology was important, whether it was joining Twitter 15 years ago, or experimenting with video conferencing in the late 1990s, when it took a day and a specialist to set up the technology so […]
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July 27, 2021
How to Handle Post-Pandemic Speaking Nerves
Most public speakers whom I’ve been checking in with of late are impatient to get back to face-to-face presentations. And those are on the way; anecdotally, I’m hearing of more and more in-person events being scheduled or planned for October and after. I have little doubt that, barring some huge pandemic step backwards, we will […]
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July 20, 2021
How Your Voice Will Help You Succeed or Fail as a Speaker
What do audiences want? They want a speaker to succeed, because that means their time has been well spent. When you ask audiences what makes a successful speaker, they tell you that they want to be able to trust the speaker first and to find her credible second. Given that developing real trust is a […]
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July 13, 2021
A New Alternative to Slide-deck Preparation
When I ask people what they do to prepare a speech or presentation, the most common answer is, ‘pull a slide deck together.” That is mistaking the tools for the house; it’s thinking about the process the wrong way. A more sophisticated answer talks about storytelling, or a theme, or a series of points that […]
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July 6, 2021
Who makes a better public speaker – an introvert or an extrovert?
Who makes a better public speaker – an introvert or an extrovert? Most people would immediately say, ‘that’s a no-brainer – the extrovert.’ And it seems like common sense, right? The extrovert is more comfortable with large crowds, more energized by groups of people, and happier talking rather than listening. Introverts prefer alone time, small […]
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June 29, 2021
Public Speaking: Nature or Nurture?
The long-running debate on how much of our individual variation as humans is due to our genetic heritage and how much due to the environment mostly comes down to “a bit of both.” In fact, I saw a meta-study years ago that triumphantly determined that our humanity was 51% nature and 49% nurture. Or was […]
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June 23, 2021
The Learning Paradox for Speakers
The human brain is a much more powerful learning machine than we think. A recent study (Buch et al., 2021) reveals that in the seconds after learning something, the brain replays the activity at 20 times the speed of the original learning, as if it was consolidating it, embodying it, and making sure that the […]
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June 18, 2021
Just One Question Episode 61: Nick chats to Author, speaker and business school teacher Dorie Clark
Dorie Clark teaches for Duke Fyewqua School of Business. She is the author of too many bestselling books to count, she speaks at high-end venues around the world, and she is ranked as one of the top 50 business thinkers in the world. It’s a great honor to have her with us on #JustOneQuestion. Podcast […]
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June 15, 2021
Is Storytelling Dangerous?
What is the role of storytelling in our world today? Stories are what people hang on to in order to make sense out of an increasingly chaotic world. Stories are the lifeblood of political debate and identity. Stories are the way we recover from the stress of pandemic and get ready for another day on […]
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