Tag: public speaking

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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

Applied Improv Distracted Audience improv Podcast Professional Speaker Public Speaking Tips Virtual Meetings Virtual Presentations

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

Breathing Improving Your Presentations Public Speaking Nerves Public Speaking Tips Talking about uncomfortable topics

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

Fear of Public Speaking Podcast Public Speaking Tips

Episode 15: The A-Ha! Method Public Speaking Podcast

Post author By speakersalliance
Post date April 4, 2022
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Find the Fun in Public Speaking

Dayna and Gabe kick off Season 2 and the beginning of 2022 with a lighthearted discussion about how to find the love, joy, and fun in public speaking. Finding the fun in public speaking is much easier said than done though, so they dive deeper into how you can (not should!) find the fun in public speaking as well.

This episode has a “big reframing energy” to it as they share some ways that you can reframe your negative or nervous thoughts about public speaking and think about it in a more exciting way. Also, Gabe shares some very interesting analogies to illustrate how he feels about public speaking. 😂😂

There are lots of great tips and tricks in this episode to help you find more fun in your public speaking journey. The more we view public speaking as fun and enjoyable, the more we want to do it and the better we get at sharing our stories and our messages with the world!

Show Notes:

Follow us on on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn for more updates and fun!
Check out our new Workshop Your Workshop Class starting in mid-April!
Gabe’s Tedx Talk – How to Win at Losing: a Failosophy for Innovation | TEDxFrankfurt
Gabe’s Tedx Talk – Conquering addictions with AI algorithms | TEDxSanFrancisco
Gabe’s Tedx Talk – The Future of Creativity and Innovation is Gamification | TEDxVilnius
Gabe’s Tedx Talk – Gamification | TEDxKids@Brussels
For more information about the The A-Ha! Method Course on Udemy, please go to https://speakersalliance.org/join-a-course.

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 becoming a better speaker, Fun and Public Speaking, podcast, public speaking, public speaking nerves, public speaking podcast, public speaking skills, public speaking tips

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

Finding Your Voice Podcast Professional Speaker Public Speaking Tips

Finding Your Voice – Episode 13: The A-Ha! Method Public Speaking Podcast

Post author By speakersalliance
Post date February 15, 2022
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Finding Your Imperfectly Beautiful Voice with Chloe Dolandis

Chloe Dolandis, a dynamic entertainer, award-winning voice actor and singer (and excellent improviser!), shares amazing advice on being vulnerable, being your true self, and finding the love and joy in what you do. Making the words on the page or script come to life with your voice is such a phenomenal skill and talent, and voiceover artists, like Chloe, make it look so effortless and easy. The skills used in voiceover can also relate to public speaking, such as pacing, vocal variety, vulnerability, and taking care of your voice and your body. Also, energy reserve is a real thing! Just like voiceover artists, public speakers must make sure they conserve their voice and energy before an upcoming talk or presentation.

Listening to this episode, you can tell that Chloe is such a genuine and caring person. She shares her stories, struggles, and experiences with such grace and humility. We really could listen to her talk all day (seriously, she is so good at what she does!). It was an honor and a treat to talk with Chloe and learn from her. Chloe inspired us to accept and love our voices the way they are and use our voices for good in this world. We hope you will be inspired in many ways as well!

Find out more about Chloe Dolandis:

Chloe’s Website – https://chloedolandis.com/
Follow Chloe on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
During the interview, Chloe mentioned that she would provide some places with excellent voiceover classes for those who are interested. Here are some of her favorites:

https://atlantavoiceoverstudio.com/
https://www.shutupandtalk.com/coaching/
https://www.thevodojo.com/ (their “Fight Club”)

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.

Tags becoming a better speaker, public speaking, public speaking podcast, public speaking skills, public speaking tips, voiceover, voiceover artist

Podcast Public Speaking Tips Sharing Your Stories Storytelling

Episode 12: The A-Ha! Method Public Speaking Podcast

Post author By speakersalliance
Post date January 20, 2022
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Share Your Stories with the World, Even When It’s Hard

Gabe coaches Dayna on how to best share a story about her experience with Hurricane Ida in August 2021. Dayna is struggling with the decision to even tell the story and also how to organize it and share the most important details. Dayna spins her wheels about the story and other similar stories, but Gabe helps her to realize that there is value in sharing these stories when she is ready to share them.

Sharing your personal stories is a great way for people to learn more about you and your life experiences. It can also be very healing and cathartic. However, sharing tough and traumatic personal stories can be hard, especially when you are trying to figure out how to organize your stories and process what you learned from them. You may not want to share some deeply personal stories, and that’s okay. But when you feel comfortable sharing particular stories, we hope you will share them with the world. Share your stories, even when they aren’t perfectly ready. Start sharing them so you can see what works and what doesn’t. It takes time to craft a great story, but it’s worth it when you do.

Show notes:

Check out The A-Ha! Method Public Speaking Course on Udemy, which has lots of great resources to help you with organizing your stories and then preparing to share them.
Dayna references a speech she did about her experience with Hurricane Katrina (yes, hurricanes are a common theme in this episode). She is still figuring out how to best tell this story and deliver it in a better way, but here is a speech she gave in 2020 for a Toastmasters Area Contest and won the contest! (This speech was given in early March 2020 before the world shut down…back when we could do speeches in person and get awesome audience participation and feedback!)

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.

Tags becoming a better speaker, public speaking, public speaking podcast, public speaking tips, sharing stories, storytelling

Distracted Audience Improving Your Presentations Podcast Public Speaking Course Public Speaking Tips Work Presentations

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

Post author By speakersalliance
Post date December 13, 2021
No Comments on Episode 11: The A-Ha! Method Public Speaking Podcast

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: