The holidays bring an abundance of social gatherings, and if you’re hosting, there’s a good chance you’ll be stepping up to the mic. Whether you’re welcoming guests or introducing entertainment, here are five practical tips to ensure you shine:

1. Speak Early to Maximize Attention

Timing is everything when it comes to grabbing your audience’s attention.

Don’t wait for every confirmed guest to arrive—people may trickle in late, leave early, or miss the event entirely.

Consider your event in segments: early arrivals, the peak social window, and the wind-down. The sweet spot for speaking is toward the latter half of the first segment, once your guests have settled in but before their attention shifts elsewhere. For example, if your event runs from 7 PM to 10 PM, aim to speak around 8 PM for maximum engagement.

2. Bring the Gratitude

Expressing genuine appreciation sets the tone for a warm and inclusive atmosphere.

Thank your attendees...

If you are a leader with an audience, you already know that engaging with the people in front of you is a critical part of the social experience. The humans in your in-person or virtual room want to be part of the conversation, not a vessel in which you are pouring information. And if you are teaching others, this engagement also serves to increase retention rates for your participants.

While there are bucketloads of methods for inviting participation, your options and choice will often depend on the size of your group, the purpose of your presentation, the audience composition, the time allotted, and your venue, to name a few.

For example, if your presentation is in a large theatre or auditorium with an audience of 300 and you have been offered 10 minutes on stage, you wouldn’t necessarily opt for audience engagement that involves moving about the room – theatre-style row seating and the timing do not lend themselves well for that freedom of movement,...

Effective communication is an essential leadership skill. 

Whether you are pitching an idea, seeking investment, being interviewed, or trying to sway your team or students to take action, the ability to deliver a persuasive presentation is critical to achieving your objectives. In this article, we explore three key elements that can significantly enhance the impact of your presentations and leadership communication: Verity, Perspicacity, and Simplicity.

Verity: Honesty and Authenticity

Verity, often defined as truthfulness or sincerity, lies at the core of persuasive presentations. In a world where information flows rapidly and skeptics and falsehoods abound, being genuine and honest can set you apart from the crowd with a refreshingly human approach. Here are some key aspects of Verity in your communications, including formal presentations:

a) Knowing Your Stuff: Being well-prepared instills confidence in your audience. Research thoroughly, understand the...

Originally published March 2023

Presenting in front of people can be nerve–wracking – it doesn’t matter if it is in person or online. Many of us tend to be hard on ourselves and think that we appear incompetent if we make a mistake or that we’ll be judged harshly. It's one of the main reasons people tend to stick to a script rather than pausing, connecting, and having a conversation with their audience.

We don’t have to feel this way!

Let go of the need to be perfect. Instead, incorporate these tips to truly engage your audience when you're in the spotlight.

Tip #1: Focus on things that matter

When speaking, even in a casual setting, people tend to use filler words to allow their brains to catch up. Filler words can take the form of "um," "like," "okay," "you know," and so on, and these are common and natural. An excellent way to check OVERUSE of fillers is by recording yourself and tallying every time you stall the wording of your...

Before you hit the stage or your desk in an online setting, you’re putting a lot of time and effort into making your presentation look as professional and appealing as possible. Often, we are carefully considering which font and colours to use, which stock images fit the energy of the message, and how the language flows with what we have to say. And that’s good, but there are other visual elements of your presence to which we ought to give attention.

Elevate your dress code: Find confidence in clothing.

Have you ever bought a new outfit and felt like the cool kid in high school, ego-boosted and ready to embrace the spotlight? It doesn’t have to be a style makeover; it could be as simple as a new shirt or pair of shoes. Whatever your new item is, use it as a vessel to present the new you.

Levelling up your appearance can give you confidence from within and give your viewers a powerful and fresh first impression of you, even if it’s subconscious. Feeling (and...

Beta Testing

Hurrah! Your online course is complete!

So, now what?

The first thing to do once you have a completed course framework is to make sure that it all works and flows properly.  When it comes to online courses, you’re not only looking to make sure that it actually works, (the technology and software are functioning as desired), but you will also want to make sure that the content flows properly, makes sense to your target audience and yields the results you had intended and are promoting.

Although it can be tempting to launch right away, the benefits to testing before launch are plentiful and should be thoroughly considered.  

These include:

• The ability to understand how the flow of the course will work in real-time
• Seeing and reacting to actual results and transformations within your students
• Collecting testimonials or case studies suitable for launch and promotional messaging
• Understanding the degree of...

Part III - Production

In this third installment of our Creating an Online Course series, we’re going to be chatting all about the best practices for producing your content and then in Part IV, we will discuss how to incorporate beta testing models to ensure your course runs smoothly when it’s time to launch! 

If you haven’t yet read Part I and Part II of this series, we highly recommend going back and getting those under your belt first so the tips and tricks we chat about in this article make more sense.

Let’s hop right in!

So now that you’ve put all of the content together in a manner that flows properly and meets your learning outcomes, it is time to film, record, and edit your online course.

For many, this is the most intimidating phase of online course development. Depending on the nature of your course, this may include getting in front of the camera, which can be daunting for many.  

Before we get to filming though, let’s...

Part II - Facilitation

In Part I of this series, we discussed the boom of online learning, the benefits of challenges that most course creators and students face and the best practices for preparation and development of your course.

With those foundational pieces in mind, let’s talk about how to best facilitate your course material to ensure that you are delivering an inclusive, engagement-friendly, and educationally impactful experience for your learners.

Facilitation - How to Get Started

When it comes to the actual facilitation of your online course, there are a number of areas you are going to want to focus on, including:

• Securing the Tools of the Trade
• Creating a Comfortable and Inclusive Environment
• Outlining Clear Goals and Expectations
• Offering Behind the Scenes Support
• Fostering Participant Communication
• Including Opportunities for Engagement
• Facilitating Forward Movement

Within this article, we will go through each of these areas with recommendations on how to best...

Part I - Planning & Development

The Boom of Online Learning

As we all know, the last 2+ years have brought about many changes (read challenges) when it comes to how we do business and more specifically, how we train and learn. That said, it has also offered a number of growth opportunities in areas where it previously didn’t seem plausible.  While that doesn’t make the hardships of the last few years disappear (far from it), it does open up some thought for where we can go from here, especially when it comes to online education and training.  

While the pandemic certainly skyrocketed the boom-like growth within online learning, virtual events and the overall enhancement of virtual facilitation, the online education industry was actually already experiencing significant growth and adoption in the years leading up to it.

As a result, learning and streaming platforms come to the plate in a big way, as you can see in the graphs below that demonstrate the...

Best Practices for Hybrid Events

As we make the triumphant return to in-person gatherings, we’re also beginning to see the return of live events. While it is certainly exciting to see the return of live group learning and especially the rise of hybrid type events, they’re not without their own set of challenges.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term hybrid event, it is the process of combining a live event with a virtual one, so that people can attend regardless of their location and level of comfort given ongoing concerns related to Covid-19.

While restrictions have been lifted in most places, there is still hesitation from many to travel or attend conferences where there are a lot of people in one place, making the hybrid structure a great avenue to accommodate a larger and more geographically dispersed audience.

Benefits of Hybrid Events

Aside from the obvious benefits for those feeling uncomfortable with in-person gatherings or events, there are several key...