Author: Susan Weinschenk
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Short Animated Video: 5 Things Every Presenter Needs To Know About People
To celebrate my latest book: 100 Things Every Presenter Needs To Know About People, I had my good friends at Truscribe create an animated video with 5 of the 100 Things. Here it is! You can download a poster with the illustration from the video.
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Top Ten Things Every Presenter Needs To Know About People: #10 – People Imitate Your Emotions And Feelings
Your facial expressions and body language communicate information and affect how people react to you and your message. They can also cause other people to start feeling a certain way. People imitate what they see — If you are smiling, they will tend to smile; if you are energetic yet relaxed, then your audience will tend…
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Top Ten Things Every Presenter Needs To Know About People: #9 — If You Want People To Act You Have To Call Them To Action
Recently I attended a fund raiser. The speaker got up and gave a pretty good speech (I think he could have used a speech coach!), but at the end he didn’t have a call to action. There were people walking around with jars so you could donate, but no one had actually asked for the…
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Top Ten Things Every Presenter Needs To Know About People: #8 — People Are Energized When The Room Is Full
There are many subtle and not so subtle ways that people change when they are together. Human behavior is a complex combination of interactions with other people. When people enter a room that is largely empty they will tend to position themselves evenly throughout the room. This means that while they are waiting for the…
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Top 10 Things Every Presenter Needs To Know About People: #7 — People Assign Meaning To Your Hand Gestures
Everyone “talks” with their hands to some extent. Some people’s hand-talking or gesturing matches their message well. Other people have a tendency to make overly large gestures that can be distracting. Others don’t use their hands much at all. No matter which camp you fall into, it’s important to pay attention to your hand gestures…
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Photography And The User Experience: A Podcast With James Chudley
What is the role of photography in the user experience of websites? James Chudley and I explore this topic in a podcast. James is the (co)-author of Smashing UX Design, a new book coming out in June of 2012. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on this link. It’s approximately 30 minutes in length.…
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Top 10 Things Every Presenter Needs To Know About People: #6 — People Need To Feel Safe To Participate
The best performance I’ve ever been to (the best music, dance, theatre, speech — any kind of performance) was by Bobby McFerrin. His performances involve music and extensive audience interaction. I saw him in a 1500-seat theatre in a small city in Wisconsin. The theatre was full, and from the start the audience was appreciative…
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Top 10 Things Every Presenter Needs To Know About People: #5 — People assign meaning to your tone of voice
If you’ve ever eavesdropped on a conversation in a country where you did not speak the language, you might have been surprised to find yourself following along and picking up the feeling of the conversation even though you didn’t understand any of the words or literal meaning. This is an entire field of research, and it’s…
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Top 10 Things Every Presenter Needs To Know About People: #4 – People "read" your body positions instantly and unconsciously
Not too long ago I spoke at a conference with a line-up of great presenters. One man I had been looking forward to hearing got up to speak. He is well-known in his field, but I had never seen him speak. His talk was very good, but I couldn’t concentrate on it because throughout the…
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Top 10 Things Every Presenter Needs To Know About People: #3 – Multiple Sensory Channels Compete
Imagine that you are driving while listening to the radio and talking to a passenger sitting next to you. You are processing multiple sensory channels simultaneously. You are watching (the road), listening (to the radio and your friend), and thinking and talking. This doesn’t sound too difficult. People process multiple sensory channels all the time.…
