Tag: communication skills

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Cait Donovan, burnout expert, speaker, author, and host of “Fried – The Burnout Podcast”

More About Our Guest Cait Donovan:

Caitlin Donovan is one of New York City’s leading burnout experts. She is the host of “Fried – The Burnout Podcast,” and author of the book “The Bouncebackability Factor: End Burnout, Gain Resilience, and Change the World.” Her master’s degree is in Traditional Chinese Medicine and she is currently studying Biobehavioral Health at Penn State. After treating more than 25,000 acupuncture patients, Caitlin added 1:1 coaching, corporate workshops, and keynotes for companies – all with a focus on burnout. She is on a mission to end burnout culture!

For more in-depth information and resources, please check out Cait’s website – https://caitdonovan.com

Tags burnout, communication skills, endburnoutculture, podcast, public speaking, public speaking podcast, public speaking skills, publicspeakingtraining, speakerburnout

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Episode 17: The A-Ha! Method Public Speaking Podcast

Post author By speakersalliance
Post date June 28, 2022
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Infusing Connection, Interactivity, and Fun into your Virtual Meetings with Melissa Dinwiddie

This episode is a MUST LISTEN for anyone who leads or facilitates virtual meetings!

Melissa Dinwiddie – Founder, CEO, Lead Curriculum Designer & Facilitator at Creative Sandbox Solutions – joins Dayna and Gabe to discuss ways to make virtual meetings, trainings, and events more fun and engaging, which is so needed right now!

We have been doing the virtual meeting thing for over 2 years now, and they aren’t going away any time soon! Melissa is a pro at creating excitement and engagement in every event, and she shows us how to sprinkle in connection, interactivity, and fun into your virtual meetings so that you don’t lose your attendees to their emails, social media, or many other distractions!

We highly recommend watching this podcast on Spotify, because Melissa shows some cool slides on her video as she provides her awesome tips and tricks to better meetings. If watching on a different platform, please check out the YouTube videos in the show notes so you can see what she is displaying during the episode.

Don’t lose your audience to distraction, and don’t be a talking head in virtual meetings. Allow your meeting attendees a chance to engage and participate, and you will see much better outcomes and productivity in your meetings and trainings!

Check out Dayna and Melissa playing Powerpoint Karaoke here: https://youtu.be/F89_fYokQOM
Video from podcast – 8 Unofficial Start Ideas For Your Virtual Meeting – https://youtu.be/kUxHWO3pqqc
Video from podcast – Micro-Engagement Ideas for Better Virtual Meetings – https://youtu.be/MoUynFIswdY
Melissa’s website: https://creativesandbox.solutions/
Melissa’s Free Guide – 7 Mistakes to Avoid When Planning Your Next Virtual Event, Training or Conference – https://creativesandbox.solutions/resources/
Melissa’s Virtual Learning Lab every month – https://creativesandbox.solutions/learning-lab/
Follow Melissa on LinkedIn – she posts some helpful tips and tricks for better meeting engagement!
Follow Melissa on Instagram for her creative pursuits.
Check out Melissa’s personal website for all her creative and fun endeavors – https://melissadinwiddie.com/

You can watch the full video of the episode on Spotify! Or if watching on a different platform, watch the YouTube videos in the Show Notes to see when Melissa shares her screen images.

Check out this episode and our other episodes of The A-Ha! Method Podcast here:

Follow us on social media for the most up to date announcements and so you never miss when a new episode is released. 😍

Melissa Dinwiddie Photo - Melissa is the queen of leading fun and engaging virtual meetings — Melissa Dinwiddie, Founder, CEO, Lead Curriculum Designer & Facilitator at Creative Sandbox Solutions

More About Our Guest Melissa Dinwiddie:

Melissa specializes in working with innovative, people-first organizations grappling with boring (or nonexistent) virtual trainings and events. She helps them engage and delight attendees, who acquire new skills and behaviors while building connections and having fun.

Melissa’s the author of The Creative Sandbox Way™: Your Path to a Full-Color Life, an interactive playbook that countless readers have sworn freed them from creative block virtually overnight.

Melissa has a reputation for creating impactful, memorable experiences that teach key skills while being fun at the same time. She loves collaborating, and is great at encouraging, cheerleading, and creating a positive vibe.

Melissa’s front-of-room experience ranges from traveling the country teaching calligraphy, to speaking on stages from Connecticut to California, to performing as a singer for audiences as big as 6,500, and presenting at professional conferences internationally. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, she’s become sought after for her expertise in play-based techniques for leading engaging, interactive virtual meetings. When there isn’t a global pandemic going on, she performs improv with a number of different groups in the San Francisco Bay Area.

A graduate of UC Berkeley with a Bachelors in Social Science, and the University of Birmingham, England, with a Masters in Cultural Studies, Melissa lives with her husband in Silicon Valley and spends her free time making art, playing ukulele, or chasing around her rescue kitties, Vinnie and Jack Jack.

For more in-depth information and resources, please check out Melissa’s website – https://creativesandbox.solutions/

Tags applied improv, applied improvisation, communication skills, connection, interactivity, podcast, public speaking, public speaking podcast, public speaking tips, virtual meetings, virtual presentations

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Episode 16: The A-Ha! Method Public Speaking Podcast

Post author By speakersalliance
Post date May 19, 2022
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Pelvic Healing for Better Public Speaking with Dr. Mariesa Barbara

Mariesa Barbara, DPT, joins Dayna and Gabe to talk about pelvic health and pelvic healing and how these issues can affect our public speaking. Mariesa helps us understand the connection that our pelvic health can have on all aspects of our health and well-being. She also demonstrates a helpful breathing exercise that speakers can do before they give their talks and presentations to relax their muscles and allow for better diaphragmatic breathing.

Not going to lie, this is not Dayna’s most professional episode as she gets very uncomfortable, tense, and even silly about the topic of pelvic health and the pelvic floor region. Mariesa handles it like the professional she is though, and she shows us that it’s important to talk about the tough and uncomfortable topics because not many people are talking about them right now. Acknowledging that it may be uncomfortable, using the correct terms instead of calling them “weird” terms, and normalizing the subject matter can make your audience (whether one-on-one or a large group) feel more at ease with the topic and more willing to engage with you. At the end of the episode, Mariesa even helps Dayna say the correct terms and feel much more comfortable with the subject matter, and she can help you feel more comfortable about it too!

Check this episode out for helpful breathing tips, how to speak about tough/uncomfortable topics, and quality information about your pelvic floor health! We use our pelvic floor muscles everyday, and it’s important to be aware of our pelvic health and get help and healing when needed.

Dr. Mariesa Barbara – Owner and Founder of My Pelvic Healing and Island Movement Yoga Studio in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands.

Find out more about Dr. Mariesa Barbara:

Website: https://mypelvichealing.com/
Check out her Meet Your Pelvic Floor Course: https://courses.mypelvichealing.com/meet-your-pelvic-floor
Book a one-on-one session with Dr. Barbara (via virtual consult) for any pelvic floor issues you may be experiencing – open for all genders!
Follow Mariesa on Instagram or Facebook!

Speakers Alliance Announcement:

You can now sign up for Private Speaker Coaching on our Speakers Alliance Website. If you have an upcoming pitch, presentation, or speech that you are working on, you can practice it with both Dayna and Gabe and get feedback and suggestions for improvement. For more details, go to https://speakersalliance.org/speaker-coaching/

Check out this episode and our other episodes of The A-Ha! Method Podcast here:

Follow us on social media for the most up to date announcements and so you never miss when a new episode is released. 😍

More About Our Guest Dr. Mariesa Barbara:

She received her Doctorate from The University of St. Augustine in Physical Therapy. After PT school, she began treating outpatient orthopedics in Phoenix, AZ where she began to specialize in Women’s Health. She was always interested in the intricacies of the female body and how it adapts to child birth, trauma, and injury.

In 2016, she received her 200 hr Yoga Teacher Training and started teaching yoga. The impact and connection between the mind, body, and spirit is empowering. Her journey has shifted to helping women with chronic pelvic pain and childbirth injuries.

She moved from her hometown of New Orleans to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands in 2018. She loves scuba diving, free diving, and feeling connected with nature.

She is so excited and honored for this opportunity to create content to help guide women through healing. ❤️

For more in-depth information and resources, please check out Dr. Barbara’s website – https://mypelvichealing.com/

Tags becoming a better speaker, breathing, communication skills, pelvic healing, pelvic health, podcast, public speaking, public speaking nerves, public speaking podcast, public speaking skills, public speaking tips, publicspeakingtraining

Comedy and Public Speaking improv Podcast

Improvisation – Episode 14: The A-Ha! Method Public Speaking Podcast

Post author By speakersalliance
Post date March 10, 2022
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Dayna’s Favorite Topic – Improvisation

Last episode of Season 1, and we go out with a bang talking about Dayna’s favorite thing to do and discuss – Improvisation, or Improv for short.

When you hear the word improvisation, you may think of improv used for comedic purposes, but improv is way more than just funny scenes and shows at your local neighborhood theater. The skills of improvisation are very much applicable to life and can tremendously help your public speaking as well.

Improv can help you:

Improve your listening skills
Embrace mistakes and happy accidents
Develop a “Yes, and…” mindset
Boost your creativity and imagination
Gain confidence in answering questions during a Q&A period
And so much more!

Improv has been such a gamechanger in Dayna’s life over the past few years, especially during the pandemic, and it can help you too if you give it a try. It may push you way outside your comfort zone, but it’s so worth it!

Say “Yes, and…” and hit the play button for this episode!

Show Notes:

Watch Dayna and Gabe play Powerpoint Karaoke and give an improvised presentation here: https://youtu.be/wrBwqQBPFIk –> We do a pretty good job for our first attempt at this, or at least we like to think so! 😊

Check out the PowerPoint Karaoke game here and try it out on your own: https://www.powerpointkaraoke.com/

If you are interested in taking improv classes, there are so many places offering classes online and in person now. Message us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn for recommendations. Or you can google improv near you, and you may find a theater close to you offering some beginner classes.

Looking for Table Topics questions to work on your impromptu speaking skills? Check out this awesome list of 365 Table Topics questions! –> Pick a number, look at the question, and then respond to the question within 1-2 minute timeframe. How comfortable do you feel answering the question off the cuff?

For funny style improv, watch Middleditch and Schwartz on Netflix. It is super funny and silly, but remember that not all improv has to be funny. We improvise all the time in our daily lives, and everyone can improvise and develop better improvisation skills to help with listening and communication.

Check out this episode and our other episodes of The A-Ha! Method Podcast here:

Follow us on social media for the most up to date announcements and so you never miss when a new episode is released.😍

Tags communication skills, improv, improvisation, podcast, public speaking, public speaking podcast, public speaking skills, yes and, yesandmindset

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Episode 11: The A-Ha! Method Public Speaking Podcast

Post author By speakersalliance
Post date December 13, 2021
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Part 2 – The Discussion Continues: Behind the Scenes about The A-Ha! Method Public Speaking Course

In this episode, Gabe tells a funny story in the beginning about a mariachi band playing during one of his recent speeches at a conference, and then Dayna and Gabe try to make call back jokes about mariachi bands as many times as they can throughout the episode.

With her long list of questions, Dayna continues part 2 of her interview with Gabe about The A-Ha! Method Public Speaking Course on Udemy. They discuss how to make your slides look and flow better, and Gabe also shares his method for learning his slides and material without having to memorize all of it word for word. There are some excellent tips and tricks provided throughout this episode to help you improve your presentations. The most important tip to remember when preparing for your next speech or presentation – Less is more when it comes to public speaking! More is not always more! (So true and yet we…aka Dayna…forgets that all the time!)

Show notes:

Check out The A-Ha! Method Public Speaking Course on Udemy!
In the episode, we reference Dayna’s blog article about the A-Ha! Method Course – check out that article here: https://speakersalliance.org/2021/07/28/the-a-ha-method-public-speaking-course/

Check out Part 1 of this discussion and other episodes of The A-Ha! Method Podcast here:

Follow us on social media for the most up to date announcements.

Tags communication skills, public speaking, public speaking course, public speaking podcast, public speaking skills, public speaking tips, publicspeakingtraining

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Last Public Speaking Practice Sessions of 2021

Post author By speakersalliance
Post date November 9, 2021
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Two more practice sessions left before the end of the year!

The holidays are coming up, but there are still speeches and presentations to give before the end of the year! The Speakers Alliance is offering two more FREE Public Speaking Practice Sessions for participants to practice their upcoming speeches and presentations. Anyone who wants to practice a presentation, speech, sales pitch, social occasion speech, etc. is welcome to join and participate! If you do not have a speech or pitch prepared, you can still attend and listen to others practice and ask questions during the Q&A period.

Talks can be up to 5-6 minutes long. If you have a longer speech, just pick a portion you want to practice. The panel will provide feedback after your talk.

Here are our remaining 2021 public speaking practice sessions:

Wednesday, November 10 from 4-5pm PT

Wednesday, December 8 from 4-5pm PT

We will add more public speaking practice sessions in 2022. Follow us on social media for announcements and updates.

Tags becoming a better speaker, communication skills, practicepracticepractice, public speaking, publicspeakingtraining

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Episode 10: The A-Ha! Method Podcast

Post author By speakersalliance
Post date October 28, 2021
No Comments on Episode 10: The A-Ha! Method Podcast

Behind the Scenes about The A-Ha! Method Course

In this episode, Dayna talks in the beginning about her first in-person presentation since March 2020 and how it felt to be in front of an audience again (spoiler alert: she got very sweaty!).

Also, Dayna interviews Gabe about The A-Ha! Method Course on Udemy, and Gabe tells us all about why he developed the course and what his process was for creating the course. Gabe explains more about The A-Ha! Method and how to use it to organize your speeches and fight short attention spans. This is a great introduction to the course and a more in-depth discussion about how the course can help you achieve your public speaking goals and become a better presenter and communicator.

Show notes:

Check out The A-Ha! Method Course on Udemy!
In the episode, we reference Johann Hari’s Ted Talk from 2015 called “Everything you know about addiction is wrong.” Check out that speech here.

Ways to listen to The A-Ha! Method Podcast:

Big presentation at work Boosting Your Confidence Building Confidence Fear of Public Speaking Improving Your Presentations Practice Sessions Public Speaking Practice Virtual Presentations Work Presentations

Tags communication skills, public speaking, public speaking podcast, public speaking skills, publicspeakingtraining

October Public Speaking Practice Sessions

Post author By speakersalliance
Post date October 12, 2021
No Comments on October Public Speaking Practice Sessions

Picture credit: Canva.com

Practice your speech before the big day or event. Speakers Alliance can be your test audience and give you unbiased, helpful feedback before you get in front of your real audience!

Each month the Speakers Alliance runs two FREE Public Speaking Practice Sessions for participants looking to improve their public speaking skills. Anyone who wants to practice a presentation, speech, sales pitch, social occasion speech, etc. is welcome to join and participate! If you do not have a speech or pitch prepared, you can still attend and listen to others practice and ask questions during the Q&A period.

Talks can be up to 5-6 minutes long. If you have a longer speech, just pick a portion you want to practice. The panel will provide feedback after your talk.

Here are our scheduled October public speaking practice sessions:

Wednesday, October 13 from 3-4pm PT

Wednesday, October 27 from 3-4pm PT

We will be adding more public speaking practice sessions in November. Follow us on social media for the most up to date announcements.

Tags becoming a better speaker, communication skills, practicepracticepractice, public speaking, public speaking practice, public speaking skills, publicspeakingtraining

Big presentation at work Practice Sessions Public Speaking Practice Virtual Presentations Work Presentations

September Public Speaking Practice Sessions

Post author By speakersalliance
Post date September 13, 2021
No Comments on September Public Speaking Practice Sessions

Picture credit: Canva.com

It’s important to practice your speech before the big day or event. Speakers Alliance can be your test audience and give you crucial feedback before you get in front of your real audience!

Talks can be up to 5-6 minutes long. If you have a longer speech, just pick a portion you want to practice. The panel will provide up to 3-5 minutes of feedback after your talk.

Here are our scheduled September public speaking practice sessions:

Tuesday, September 14 from 2-3pm PT

Thursday, September 30 from 3-4pm PT

We will be adding more public speaking practice sessions in October. Follow us on social media for the most up to date announcements.

Tags becoming a better speaker, communication skills, practicepracticepractice, public speaking, public speaking practice, public speaking skills, publicspeakingtraining

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Episode 8: The A-Ha! Method Podcast

Post author By speakersalliance
Post date August 23, 2021
No Comments on Episode 8: The A-Ha! Method Podcast

Winning Virtually at Sales and Public Speaking with Nitya Kirat

Nitya Kirat, Founder and CEO of YOSD Consulting, joins us to discuss how to improve virtual sales meetings and how public speaking can help improve your sales skills, even if you aren’t a salesperson by trade. We talk with Nitya about some of the techniques and tips he provides in his recently published book Winning Virtually: 10 Tiny Habits For Big Virtual Selling Success.

Nitya has a great mindset and approach to sales, and he even used some of the techniques in his book to answer Gabe’s tough questions about sales, which was very impressive! We learned that not being scared of sales is the first step to improving your relationship with sales and then improving your techniques and processes can take your professional and personal sales transactions to a new level so that all parties involved feel like they are winning!

Check out Nitya’s Winning Virtually book at https://www.winningvirtually.com/.
YOSD Consulting: https://www.yosdconsulting.com/
Follow Nitya on LinkedIn .

Ways to listen to The A-Ha! Method Podcast: