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Want to engage your audience right upfront? Try sharing a little piece of yourself. That’s what I did last night as emcee of the Woman of Distinction Awards Reception-Dayton for Girl Scouts of Western Ohio. The event at Dayton’s Schuster Center celebrated the legacy of Girl Scouting by honoring six exceptional women in the Dayton region who […]

I was thrilled to share six ways to make speeches “sticky” with 80 attendees at the Women in Business Networking Lunch ‘N’ Learn Tuesday. (Translation: A sticky speech has the power to help people hear, understand and remember – so it has the power to help people change the world.) Here’s a bonus example I didn’t […]

Today I am excited to announce that one of my speeches has won a top Cicero Speechwriting Award. “Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Go It Alone” – prepared for and delivered by Barbara Hayde of The Entrepreneurs Center on April 9, 2013, at the University of Dayton – won in the Leadership and Management category. Cicero called […]

Someone asked me the other day whether they could give the exact same keynote address written for one audience – a college community – to a completely different audience of high-powered business executives. I hesitated. After all, a speech with examples, stories, statistics and anecdotes that resonate with the college crowd won’t touch the hearts and […]

“Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Go It Alone” – a keynote address written in April for a Dayton-area client – drew upon a local historical event to anchor the opening and closing remarks. One entrepreneur attending the event rushed up afterward, greeted the speaker and said, “You made me feel like an astronaut!” Here are two excerpts […]

Try making it personal. Start with a story. This is how I engaged my audience last week with a speech about speech giving — tips on how to “woo, win and wow!! your next audience”: I’ll never forget the advice I got decades ago from one of my crusty old journalism professors during my first newspaper […]

“First Things First: Together We Can Make an Impact on Education,” a client speech written last year, won a national Award of Excellence in the APEX 2012 Awards for Publication Excellence competition in category 101: Speech & Script Writing. Here are the opening and closing remarks. EXCERPT (SPEECH OPENING) Let me tell you a true […]

Think about the last story you wrote. Did you get a bunch of high-fives? Did you hear things like, “Wow – thanks! That was such a great story!” Or did you hear absolutely nothing? If so, that can be telling. Perhaps the problem lies in how you interview your sources. 1. Do you settle for […]

I’m often asked, “What are the most common errors you see people make when they write?” Here are the top three I’ve run across repeatedly this week. Goof 1: Writing “it’s” when you really mean “its” (or vice versa) Remember: The word “it’s” is a contraction for “it is.” And the word “its” is the […]

Getting ready to interview a hesitant or harried source for your company’s or client’s next big story? Job 1 is creating the right environment so your source feels comfortable sharing information. Here are 13 ways to create a good rapport with your story sources – right upfront. 1. Tell a source you simply want to […]