Rob Biesenbach's Blog

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Win Business and Influence People Through Public Speaking

Sharing your wisdom from the stage at professional and industry conferences and other venues is one of the best ways to raise your profile, advance your career or boost your business.

Public speaking will get you noticed and help build your reputation as an expert. And that can attract all kinds of opportunities, from a promotion or raise, to a great new job offer, to valuable leads for growing your business.

If that sounds interesting to you, let me share what I’ve learned over the past decad...

How to Control Your Emotions When Speaking: 10 Tips

Even in the best of times, it can be hard to control our emotions. But we haven’t been living in the best of times.

Most of us have experienced some level of stress or even trauma as a result of the pandemic. So it’s natural to be feeling a little “raw” emotionally and unpracticed socially as we reenter the real world.

In this environment, emotions can unexpectedly rise to the surface and catch us off guard in the most ordinary circumstances, like catching up with co-workers or speaking up at ...

Present Like a Boss: 5 Essential Tips

Want to be viewed as a leader? Then get up on stage and present like a boss.

A presentation tests your mettle in any number of ways, from your ability to inspire others to how you work under pressure to whether you can translate information into action. It can bring out your best — and worst — instincts, serving as a microcosm of the “real world” and how you’ll perform in it.

Here are five ways giving a presentation will put your leadership skills to the test and help you truly present like ...

A Personal Brand Guide for Personal Brand Haters

How do you feel about the idea of having a personal brand? If you’re like a lot of people, you may agree with this pithy comment I got on Facebook: “Barf.”

That’s an understandable reaction. After all, we are not dish soap (“cuts through grease!”) or paper towels (“the quicker picker upper!”).

So let’s dispense right away with the nausea-inducing notion that a personal brand has to do with giving yourself a trademarked tagline, or adding “guru” or “ninja” to your twitter handle or, say, always...

A Simple Communication Framework For Crafting Any Message

If you’re struggling to organize your thoughts for a presentation, report or any important message, it’s hard to go wrong with this simple and time-tested communication framework.

Known as “Know, Feel, Do” (or sometimes “Think, Feel, Do”), it’s an indispensable tool for creating communications that are compelling and that resonate with your intended audience.

I didn’t invent it, but I use it all the time — and should, too!

How it Works

Here’s how it works. Whenever you’re planning an importa...

Advanced Storytelling Tip: Locate the Small Moments

Here’s an important storytelling tip that will vastly improve the impact of your stories. It’s all about finding the moments.

In my workshops and consulting, people often come up with the broad brushstrokes of a perfectly functional story. The problem is, it’s too broad.

The devil is in the details. And the right details can elevate a good story to greatness.

Go Beyond the Generalities

Common sense suggests that the more general our stories are, the more universal their appeal will be. But i...

10 Career Boosting Benefits of Improv Training

One of the most important things you can do for your professional development is to get some improv training. I studied improv for several years at Chicago’s Second City Training Center and it changed my life.

Improv made me a better communicator, a better team member and a better (and braver) person.

Someone in your community is teaching improv — a theater group, comedy troupe or community college — and these days you can even find classes online. Seek them out and sign up. You will not be di...

How to Tell Your Story on LinkedIn

If you want to stand out from the crowd in the marketplace, you need to be able to tell your story on LinkedIn. After all, storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to influence and persuade an audience.

Take a look at your LinkedIn profile and put yourself in the shoes of a potential employer, customer or other important person. What do you see?

A laundry list of experiences, skills and achievements? Or a compelling narrative that captures who you are, how you’re different and the value y...

Tough Love: How to Overcome Presentation Anxiety

If you’re like most people, you get nervous before a presentation. It’s okay. Even professional speakers occasionally experience presentation anxiety.

The difference is in how it’s managed. You can let the anxiety drive you crazy and even affect your performance, or you can meet it head-on and at least subdue it, if not quite conquer it.

Billions of words have been written about overcoming presentation anxiety. Beyond the usual menu of tactics, I’m going to offer a way to reframe your thinking...