June 29, 2009 by Jerry
From his stunning upset victory in the Iowa Caucuses at the start of the presidential primaries, throughout the election campaign, and in the first hundred days of his term in office, the media treated Barack Obama like a rock star and handled him with kid gloves. He acknowledged as much when he spoke at the Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner earlier this month. “Why bother hanging out with celebrities when I can spend time with the people who made me one?” he said with a broad smile, and then added, “I know where my bread is buttered.” But less
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June 26, 2009 by Jerry
Sooner or later every human being on the face of this planet is confronted with tough questions. One of the toughest and most common is the infamous loaded question, “When did you stop beating your wife?” which implies that you have indeed been beating your wife. How do you answer without agreeing with the implication? How do you not answer without appearing evasive? Courtroom dramas often include a scene where an antagonistic prosecutor points his finger at a defendant and asks accusatorially, “Why did you kill your partner?” implying that the person—who has pleaded not guilty—did kill the partner.
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June 24, 2009 by Jerry
In 1982, soprano Kiri Te Kanawa was awarded the title Dame Commander of the British Empire for her lifetime achievements as one of the leading operatic singers in the world. These days Dame Kiri spends most of her time in a backstage role with her own foundation dedicated to helping New Zealand singers and musicians develop their careers. As an extension of her supportive role, she came to United States this week and delivered a Master Class at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Seven fortunate students had the opportunity to be coached directly by Dame Kiri. One by
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June 19, 2009 by Jerry
The presidential election is over, but intense jockeying from all quarters about legislation, issues, rights and wrongs, and errors and omissions has not abated one iota. Contention is a given in the competitive world of politics and is often expressed by spinning, the black art of attempting to influence public perception in one’s favor or against that of the opposition. Spinning can be as harmless as gilding the lily or it can escalate to distortion or even to outright deception; all the points along the scale, however, are of dubious integrity. One of the best examples of political spin
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June 18, 2009 by admin
Macintalkers—a member of Toastmasters International—hosted Jerry on Wednesday, June 3, from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM at the Apple campus in Cupertino, CA. This event was part of Macintalkers ongoing “Cinematic Keynotes” series. Jerry’s talk focused on how to connect with your audience using body language. Jerry uses video clips to illustrate how to deliver a winning speech or presentation that will engage your audience from beginning to end. Macintalkers was chartered on the Apple Computer campus on May 1, 1989. This group meets every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. For more information, please contact VP of Membership.
June 17, 2009 by Pearl
The Discovery Channel has once again changed the way we perceive our world. Their new television series, Time Warp, uses a new technology to bring a never-been-seen world to the viewers. MIT scientist, teacher, and artist, Jeff Lieberman and digital image expert Matt Kearney have created a new television series (Wednesdays at 8PM ET/PT) in which they use ultra high-speed cameras to shoot everyday occurrences that, when shown at normal speed, produce super slow motion images previously inaccessible to the human eye. The producers focus their special cameras on natural events—a pin bursting a water-filled balloon, a cat licking
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June 15, 2009 by Jerry
In one of Frank Sinatra’s compilation albums, the liner notes contain a rather meaningful quote from the celebrated singer, “The reading of a song is vital. The written word is first; always will be. Not belittling the music, but it really is a backdrop. To convey the meaning of a song, you need to look at the lyric and understand.” Imagine that: Sinatra, whose rich, resonant voice was lauded and listened to perhaps more than any other in the history of music, considered the lyrics of a song more important than the melody. The man who was aptly nicknamed
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June 12, 2009 by Jerry
Rudyard Kipling wrote his classic poem “If…” to commemorate a war hero in the Boer War of 1899 to 1902. The poem, which begins with “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…” and ends eight stanzas later with, “Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,” is a paean to concentration. A Wall Street Journal story about rude behavior from audiences at Broadway shows provides a current example in the theater. The story describes the all-too-common discourtesies of mobile phone ringing and loud talking. But the worst incident was at a performance
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June 11, 2009 by admin
 Jerry recently spoke at the 2009 Silicom Summit, hosted by Silicom Ventures. Their goal is to provide participating companies with a concentrated opportunity to improve their presentation and then present their company to interested Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists. Jerry coaches a group of entreprenuers on their opening pitch. There were 40 plus entrepreneurs in attendance. Â
June 10, 2009 by Jerry
A recent post on the Slideshare site makes a strong case for brevity in speeches and presentations. In search of a measure for ideal length, it lists five of the world’s greatest orators’ most memorable speeches and their running times: Ronald Reagan, 40th Anniversary of D-Day: 12:59 John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address: 14:27 Martin Luther King Jr., “I have a dream …”: 17:27 Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address: 3:00 Winston Churchill, “Blood, toil, tears and sweat”: 2:30 Barack Obama’s breakthrough speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention—at 16:25—could readily be added to that exclusive list. The operative word
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