The Problem with “Them”
MillsWyck Communications Blog
by Alan
2w ago
You know, they say…  But who, exactly, are they? This has come up a bunch recently in prepping clients for big presentations.  It’s a huge problem in writing, and perhaps even more important in speaking.  But what is this?  And it? The indefinite pronoun. One of my editors explained to me that a pronoun must first be identified to be of any use.  Much like an abbreviation or acronym, good writers establish the noun before using a pronoun.  In a written paragraph, the rule was simple: name the person before referring to him/her by a pronoun.  Thus, a paragraph ..read more
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Same Old Same Ol’
MillsWyck Communications Blog
by Alan
1M ago
There is an important change afoot in our world.  It affects you.  And I realized that the principles involved were worth sharing. First, the situation.  We are moving all of our backend systems and processes to a new server and method to support our new online training programs that we are releasing.  That means you’ll no longer get email from this Constant Contact address.  This is the last such mail you’ll receive.  We’ve ported your subscription over to our new system and will continue to deliver monthly content to you.  You don’t need to do anything to ..read more
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New Year!
MillsWyck Communications Blog
by Alan
2M ago
It’s no secret that I love the New Years.  It’s a new opportunity.  A fresh start.  A reminder to leave behind the mistakes and problems of the past year.  It’s a chance to change.     This year I did something new, thanks to a friend/coach/mentor.  It’s a simple concept I’ve used in other areas of life and work, just not my personal life.  I created an Annual Plan.  Through a scripted set of questions and a lot of introspection, I made out a design for the year, matched with the goals for the rest of my life.  It’s a process that gives ho ..read more
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I Don’t Have Time to Prepare
MillsWyck Communications Blog
by Alan
3M ago
The last few weeks have felt like I was playing Whac-a-Mole.  Travel.  Back-to-back-to-back training programs.  Coaching sessions.  The holidays.  Visiting family.  Sickness.  It’s all been there.  But I also had several new or altered programs to develop.  This has put a strain on my time and mental energy to devote to the process.   In our workshops, it usually isn’t more than an hour before someone makes the comment that the key to speaking success is preparation.  While we advocate for solid preparation in every phase of speaking (And ..read more
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Don’t Sound like you’re Reading
MillsWyck Communications Blog
by Alan
4M ago
I’ve just finished coaching a group making a pitch for a very large grant.  The pitches were virtual – the entire team was spread out over multiple locations and continents.  While everyone agreed that an in-person presentation would be preferred, that opportunity was not available.   There were two more constraints that made this an interesting coaching assignment: the time was strictly controlled (the presentation HAD to finish in a certain amount of time) and there were specific questions and topics that HAD to be addressed.  While the dynamic team would excel in an open ..read more
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Bad PowerPoint
MillsWyck Communications Blog
by Alan
6M ago
I’ve been quoted by students and clients as saying I hate PowerPoint.  That’s not true.  I hate BAD PowerPoint.  Which is, sadly, almost the same thing since it’s rare that I see slides and visuals that are effective, or even necessary.   In the last month I’ve worked with clients that had restrictions they had to face with PowerPoint that required a different solution than just “create better slides”.  While we teach how to create and use PowerPoint effectively, we are often forced to consume others’ creations or use slides for a purpose that makes speech coaches cri ..read more
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Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
MillsWyck Communications Blog
by Alan
7M ago
After years of procrastination and adaptation, I recently had my second total hip replacement this year.  THR is a radical one-way street—there’s no going back.  The surgeon sawed off my femoral head, cleaned out the hip socket (with a chisel and drill), and replaced the natural bone and cartilage with a Pinnacle metal liner and Marathon polyethylene cup, a titanium Depuy TRI-LOCK stem, and a ceramic head.  All this through a four-and-a-half inch opening.  Sewed me back up and sent me on my way.  It’s crazy to even think about.  It was a heart-wrenching decision t ..read more
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Three Phrases to Avoid When Trying to Convince
MillsWyck Communications Blog
by Alan
8M ago
The central model of our training methodology (adapted from Aristotle’s work a few millennia ago), says that great communication lives at the intersection of what you say, how you say it, and the relationship that exists between the speaker and the listener.  On an intellectual basis, we get essentially no pushback on the validity of this model.   An oft-repeated adage, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it,” was probably created by parents tired of teenagers’ eye rolls and sarcastic tone.  But it’s not true.  What you say most definitely matters.  It’s why we us ..read more
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Diagrams
MillsWyck Communications Blog
by Alan
9M ago
An oft-quoted statistic estimates about 65% of an audience are visual learners (I tend to side more with this being fiction, but the actual number is irrelevant to our discussion today).  Visual learners prefer to take in information through sight over any other input means.  But this does not mean a visual learner can’t absorb content by listening, or that an auditory learner can’t benefit from a well-constructed visual, or that both won’t benefit from a well-constructed activity.  It simply means the brain prefers or perhaps processes visual information more efficiently.  ..read more
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Direction Determines Destination
MillsWyck Communications Blog
by Alan
10M ago
The first Christmas break of my college career, my high school friends and I decided to go snow skiing.  Our excited troupe from Florida loaded up in four cars and headed north towards the North Carolina mountains.  After stopping for gas at an exit in Georgia, one of the members of our group turned onto I-95 South while the rest of us took the Northbound exit.  Since this was before cell phones, the other three cars pulled off to the side of the road to determine what to do.  We finally decided to proceed onward towards our destination, confident our friend would figure ou ..read more
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