“I went through four hours of hair and makeup to listen to this bull—t?” This was Steven Tyler, complaining about the background noise at the USS Midway location for the San Diego auditions. He’s said some crazy things as a judge on American Idol. He also said something in an interview that was so brilliant…
“OUCH!” Winning Speech, One Box at a Time Too many people, when putting a presentation together, try to write the whole thing out. If you use slide presentations, you know the crutch of creating a slideshow by taking an old one, and just “tweaking” it. Guilty? I know I am. A brilliant presentation is clean,…
What do you really want? Why do you really want it? Or better yet, “Yes, that happened to you and I have one question for you, so?” You might be thinking, “OK, Darren did you hit your head?” This is a week where many will be disappointed speech contestants around the world and one person,…
Think back to your favorite teachers, coaches, and mentors of your youth. Who comes to mind? Who do you remember? Why? Maybe it was a struggle you had. Maybe it was how they unconditionally loved you. Maybe they gave you a new perspective when you needed it the most. You remember them. When you are…
Have you ever felt like you were hit squarely in the face by a lesson from an unexpected mentor? When they’re absolutely right…it usually hurts more, doesn’t it? But after the pain we are never the same. A while back in Bel Air, CA, I was attending a casino night fundraiser for a friend-of-a-friend’s theater…
When was that last time you received unsolicited feedback? Did it hurt? Did you dismiss it or take it personally? The way we process all of the feedback we acquire is critical to whether we, our presentations, and our skills grow or shrink. If you have been through some of my programs you know that…
Ouch. It’s frustrating and painful when you compete at anything and don’t win. It is more painful when you take the competition very seriously, work hard and fall short of your expectations. This pain is magnified when well-meaning, biased friends in an attempt to console you by saying, “You should have won!” That seemingly comforting…
What is it you do that you are really good at? You know, that area of your life or career where you have lots of confidence. You think, “I’ve got this!” Confidence is good. A few weeks ago, due to this craziness, I had an inspired thought, “You need to create a brand new 2-day…
What makes you feel presentation pressure? A big client? A big paycheck? Colleagues watching? Family in the audience? A speech contest? The pressure is real even though it is only in your head. For me, it is creating a new webinar or like last week, an entire new 2-Day Workshop. Yikes! I only gave myself…
Where would we be without mentors? We all need them to grow. Have you ever thought about what brings them joy? I’ve been both the mentee and the mentor many times over. This experience was a great reminder to me. The result: Not long ago I went back to my roots to perform stand-up comedy.…