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The one thing you need to do right before you walk on stage: You’re gonna love this
August 15th, 2014
Has this happened to you? You’re about to give a speech. You start out feeling only slightly terrified, but as you draw closer to the Moment Of Truth, you convince yourself the audience is gonna hate it. You have mapped out every thought they could possibly have about you. “She sucks. She shouldn’t be up…
What I learned in jail: 3 powerful steps to SELL anything
August 1st, 2014
No, I’ve never actually been convicted of a crime or done time in jail, but I do work occasionally as an actor with Colorado Police Departments. I work as a role-player in Crisis Intervention Trainings and help cops learn skills for offering resource to people with mental illness in crisis. (That’s a picture of me…
A miracle happened today!
July 14th, 2014
That’s how a friend started a story she told me recently. “A miracle happened today.” Then she proceeded to recount a litany of difficult things, each one more challenging than the last. I knew that a miracle was coming so I sat on the edge of my seat waiting to find out how this difficult…
Voice Challenge #2
May 19th, 2014
Did any of you do the 1-minute speech of your life in your bathroom mirror? I’d love to hear about it if you did! Normally I DON’T recommend practicing in a mirror. There’s no mirror when you’re actually giving the talk to an audience, so when you all of a sudden get out there and…
Your Naked Audience
May 19th, 2014
I remember the very first episode of The Brady Bunch. Loretta-my-all-time-favorite-babysitter was babysitting, and she turned us on to the Friday night line-up. The Partridge Family came right after The Brady Bunch, and Friday nights became a highly anticipated night of the week. My world was forever rocked. I remember the episode where Jan’s diary…
Voice Challenge #1
May 4th, 2014
VOICE CHALLENGE: Stand in front of your bathroom mirror. Set the timer for one minute. Deliver “The One-Minute Speech Of Your Life.” Don’t think too hard. Trust yourself. Keep talking for the entire one minute. If you feel brave you can go for 2 minutes or 5 minutes. The only rule is don’t think or…
Public Speaking Lessons from my Dad
May 2nd, 2014
For those of you who don’t know this already, I’m a preacher’s kid. Yep, my dad’s a retired Presbyterian minister. I recently found out that two public speaking coaches in the Boulder/Denver region, and two that I know outside Colorado are also preacher’s kids. I guess all those years of watching my dad in the…
Speaking the Unspeakable
April 11th, 2014
I spent last week at an awesome event, the Conference on World Affairs, which happens every April here in Boulder. For a week, a bunch of smart people get together and talk about cool things. And it’s free. I love it. There are hundreds of panels to choose from, so I’ve found the best way…
Emerging Women Debrief
October 18th, 2013
I’m still coming down from an inspiring weekend at the Emerging Women Live conference here in Boulder, where a line-up of powerful women one after another graced the stage. Over and over I saw the power of the spoken word, and was moved by each woman who shared her story and her thinking and her…
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