SpeakHQ Blog

CNN covers Confessions

By Berkun | December 1, 2009

Nice article in CNN & Fortune about the new book. Beat stage fright at work

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Wall Street Journal reviews Confessions

By Berkun | November 24, 2009

Really great, high profile review here – check it out Mr. Berkun’s book is packed with tips on how to reduce anxiety and how to speak in public with greater effectiveness. They range from common sense – arrive early, make sure you have back-up copies of your speech, practice – to more advanced tips on…

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Confessions keynote from Web 2.0 expo

By Berkun | November 24, 2009

Here’s the keynote from last week – I’m talking about storytelling, twitter, and making connections. The comments up on youtube are quite harsh – apparently IE sucks (hey, I still say IE 5.0 was pretty darn good), and I’m dumb as hell. (If embedded video doesn’t work, here’s the youtube link)

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The challenge of visible twitter at conferences

By Berkun | November 24, 2009

Last week I gave a keynote at Web 2.0 expo NYC, and as you can see in the photo below, one of the interesting things this year was the twitter feed for the conference was placed on stage behind the keynote speakers.  Any tweet with #w2e was put up live, on stage, a few seconds…

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Confessions #1 on amazon.com

By Berkun | October 28, 2009

Thanks to your help in getting the word out, Confessions is currently #2 #1 on amazon.com for books on public speaking – Yay! If you haven’t checked out the sample chapters or teaser video, you’ll find them all on the amazon.com page.

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Why do people make bad slides?

By Berkun | September 30, 2009

For years experts in psychology, design and even technology have decried Powerpoint and its many evils.  Every few months another blog post, or presenter, explains in detailed outrage why the a presentation they saw was a a horror show of bulleted lists, overwrought diagrams and ancient templates (including this recent story NSA/Prism story). So why…

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Have you spoken at Ignite? Need your help

By Berkun | July 9, 2009

As part of research I’m doing for the new book, Confessions of a public speaker, I have some questions for people who have spoken at Ignite or Pecha Kucha events. It’s a short survey, $100 in amazon.com gift certificates are up for grabs, and it will help me a ton. You might also get mentioned…

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Lessons from 50+ books on public speaking

By Berkun | July 8, 2009

My book Confessions of a Public Speaker is published and doing well – but to write it well I did much research. Here’s what I learned from reading more that 50 books on public speaking: 50% or more of the advice is the same.  Dale Carnegie got much of it right 50 years ago in Public Speaking…

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The Worst Public Speaking Disasters

By Berkun | June 22, 2009

[Update: there’s now a follow up presentation, with summary, on Overcoming the Toughest Speaking Situations , slides and Q&A here] Back in 2009 while working on Confessions of A Public Speaker, I wrote this post asking for speaking disaster stories. Nearly 60 people replied, and some emailed them to me privately. The best ten, including…

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Next book is first draft complete!

By Berkun | June 4, 2009

The first draft of my next book, about an insider’s view of public speaking, is done! Yay for me. If you haven’t checked out speakerconfessions.com, you should. There’s some good material there and it gives a flavor for the questions I’m asking and answering in the book. Spread the word if you can. I’ll be…

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