Can British Prime Ministers still learn from Aristotle and rhetoric? Aristotle is important to us as speakers because he is generally credited as developing the basics of rhetorical theory in his book, which is often translated into English as The Art of Rhetoric.

Britain now has a new Tory Prime Minister. As a note for anyone outside the U.K., Tory is the nickname for the Conservative Party. I don’t want to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition, I’m specifically interested in the new Prime Minister’s speaking ability. Read the rest of this entry

Hello, hey, bonjour, ciao… alright?

I can’t believe that it’s been eight months
since I’ve written a post on here. Wowsers
trousers. A LOT has changed! As some of my friends and regular readers know in September 2009 I emigrated to the United States of America to marry my long term American girlfriend.

I’m going to catch you up on the things that I’ve been involved with and I provide you with ten tips and food for thought along the way. They’re not all focused on techniques for using humour in presentations. They’re  more goal setting and getting work oriented.

This blog has been offline ever since because, in the past, I have made some commission off affiliate products that I have promoted. In December 2009 new FTC rules came in to force stating that all bloggers and other affiliate marketers have to be explicit about the products that they promote to their readers. Read the rest of this entry

(Photo source Examiner.com)

By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the singing sensation Susan Boyle? She’s the overnight singing sensation who recently appeared on Britain’s Got Talent. She’s a 47 year old unemployed lass from Scotland, who just gave an amazing rendition of an Elaine Page song.

Why am I talking about Susan Boyle on a blog about speaking? Well, there two reasons; the first is that it’s nevertoo late to go for your dreams and goals. If you’ve got a passion and, importantly, the talent to back it up then just go for it. Susan Boyle did it.Doesn’t matter whether she wins or not…

Read the rest of this entry

Just came across this article on The Guardian website:

“Two years ago, Bo Burnham’s big brother Pete left his home in Massachusetts to attend Cornell University in New York. Burnham wanted to stay in touch, so he wrote a comic song for Pete entitled My Whole Family Thinks I’m Gay, videoed himself singing it, and posted it on YouTube. Read the rest of this entry

Fellow blogger and speaker Eric Feng made an interesting post over at The Public Speaking Blog back in August on whether an award-winning speech at Toastmasters can be considered an excellent speech. Here’s how the article opens:

“A couple of days ago, I raved about having a female winner for the International Speech Contest held by Toastmasters International. This competition is akin to the Olympics of public speaking. Anyhow, one of the readers (Simon from UK) commented that “a Toastmasters competition is not the best way to measure skills as a public speaker…” and he sees “competitions as a bit too artificial to give a decent idea”…” Read the rest of this entry