Contact us

Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.

From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.

How to Become a Strong Public Speaker

I am a fourth-year student at Seattle University and president of the Management Advancement Club within the Albers School of Business and Economics. As a leader of this committee, I coordinate teams and plan events to benefit aspiring corporate professionals, which includes a significant amount of public speaking.

Typically, there are one of two emotions I experience when speaking: I am either nervous or confident. However, I have found that preparation aids my confidence level and the quality of my presentation. Specifically, I have learned it is helpful to do the following:

  • Sharpen my message. According to a Forbes article, “12 tips for public speaking,” it’s a good idea to address your audience’s interests with the intent to move people to action. When I present, I create a message specifically for my target audience and try to anticipate their reaction to it.
  • Rehearse my speech. This tip may seem the most obvious, but it’s the most effective and sure-fire method to deliver an excellent presentation. I like to rehearse by myself or with a small group of peers who provide constructive feedback. While practicing, I find it’s a good idea to consider the hand gestures or equipment I may want, and the pauses, emphases, or anecdotal stories necessary to bring my content to life.
  • Gain feedback. My colleague, Lauren Beehler, wrote a helpful post, “Giving and receiving feedback: tips for success,” which I recommend reviewing before you solicit input from others on your presentation. She has some great suggestions for ways to solicit constructive feedback including asking open-ended questions.
  • Practice maintaining eye contact. The Business Talent Group, a management consulting firm, published an article titled “10 tips for virtual presentations and public speaking.” This article emphasizes the importance of eye contact to demonstrate that you are serious about your topic. If your presentation is virtual, you should look at the camera to create intimacy with your listeners.
  • Consider how to be energetic and authentic. According to Marjorie North, with the Harvard Division of Continuing Education, being an energetic speaker creates a more satisfying experience and impact on your audience. Allow your personality to shine through because the audience connects best to authenticity.
  • Use non-verbal communication. It’s the minor details that can make your presentation more successful. Subtle actions such as a smile, a hand gesture, or a healthy pause can help you emphasize your key points.

Public speaking can be nerve-wracking, and it’s never a good idea to wing it. These tips can guide your rehearsal process before your next speaking opportunity.

One of my mentors, Givelle Lamano, principal attorney at Lamano Law Office, says, “Perfection is all in the details.” The details can mean the difference between an average speech and a stellar presentation that creates a meaningful impact for the viewers.  

Read More

New Kantola Training Goes Beyond Compliance Basics to Address Vital Workplace Issues

In August 2021, I wrote about Kantola Training Solutions and its effective and successful harassment prevention and diversity, equity and training programs. (My previous blog is “Looking for Resources for a Healthy Workplace” in case you’re interested.)

Since that time, Kantola released a new family of online harassment prevention training, including employee and manager courses with versions specific to many different states. You can learn more about the training here, but the main thing to know is that it goes beyond the basics of compliance to address many of the most vital and complex issues confronting workplaces today.

In addition to developing world-class training, Kantola’s leaders are also committed to being a resource for managers and company decision makers who want to build better workplaces. As such, they’ve have written numerous articles about unconscious bias, the impact of remote work on DEI, how to manage resistance to change and more. Please see below for the complete list.

If you’re a journalist writing on this topic and would like to contact the team at Kantola, please let us know. They’d welcome the opportunity to answer your questions.

We hope these resources are helpful.

Read More

Carbon Robotics Unveils New LaserWeeder

In the spring of 2021, our client Carbon Robotics, an agriculture robotics company, became a sensation when it revealed a “laser-shooting” robot to eliminate weeds. This innovative and organic approach to weeding would help farmers solve one of the most challenging, time consuming and costly parts of farming.

So, when the Carbon Robotics shared the company was planning to release a new implement with higher-performance capabilities, we knew it was going to make a big splash.

Given the new implement would be revealed less than a year after the first robot was announced, we knew there would be questions about the differentiating features as well as motivation behind the change. We worked closely with the team to develop messaging that would address anticipated questions and highlight the enhancements of this implement, including the increased laser density and improved performance. Additionally, we thought it was important to emphasize that this change stemmed from farmer input, demonstrating Carbon Robotics’ ability to adapt to customer feedback and its commitment to supporting its customers.

To ensure reporters had time to ask questions about the change and understand the new robot, we wanted to offer them an opportunity to talk to Paul Mikesell, the CEO and founder of Carbon Robotics, before the announcement published. We pitched a variety of business, technology and agriculture publications, radio shows, broadcast stations and podcasts. We conducted six interviews in advance of the announcement going live and addressed many inquiries via email.

The media was intrigued by the 2022 LaserWeeder and this led to a significant amount of coverage, with even more scheduled to publish in the coming weeks.

Congratulations to the Carbon Robotics team on the development of another innovative implement!

 

Carbon Robotics Coverage
Read More

Seven tips to improve your writing

According to Stephen King, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

Fortunately, in my role with Communiqué PR, I’ve had significant opportunities to exercise my writing skills and have identified some best practices that I plan to incorporate into my process.

I thought I would share my tips so you can apply them to your next writing project:

  • Create an outline to organize key ideas. Outlines are valuable because they help the writer identify critical points, build arguments and think through the flow and structure of the information they want to convey. When you are struggling with a topic, it may be a good idea to create an outline.
  • Consider using the Jane Schaffer paragraph. Jane Schaffer, an esteemed writing teacher, developed a formula for creating a five-sentence paragraph. The first sentence introduces the topic, the second provides concrete detail, the third and fourth is where the writer includes commentary, and the last incorporates a closing statement. I often find it helpful to go back to analyze my writing to determine if I’ve included these elements and, if not, work to add any missing components.
  • Use active voice. Active voice is beneficial because it clarifies who is doing the action. In my colleague Lauren Beehler’s article, “Who did this? How the passive voice hides a sentence’s subject,” she goes into more detail on why to avoid passive voice. A couple of examples of these two types of sentences include the following:
    • Active: The intern is writing an article.
    • Passive: The article was written about improving one’s writing skills. (In this example, the reader doesn’t know who is doing the writing.)
  • Avoid unnecessary adverbs and adjectives. In the Inc. article, “Data science reveals why the best business writers avoid certain words,” Jeff Haden explains how unnecessary adverbs and adjectives can get in the way of your key points. He shares an example from Stephen King where action verbs replace adverbs to make the writing stronger. When reviewing your work, be sure to keep this best practice in mind.
  • Get feedback. When I finish an article, I first run it through Grammarly to catch any mistakes. After that, I ask my colleagues for feedback. I’ve found that peer review is essential in helping me identify areas for improvement and grow as a writer.
  • Don’t over-explain your material. Grammarly’s article, “Improve Writing Skills Dramatically by Doing These 15 Things,” advises prioritizing the main ideas instead of overwhelming the reader with trivial ideas. One way to do this is to think about what the reader must know instead of sharing nice-to-know details. If it’s not essential to the reader’s understanding, consider removing it.
  • Read your work aloud or use “Read Aloud” in Word. In the article, “The Benefits of Reading your Work Out Loud,” Janice Hardy discusses how reading out loud can help you find clunky words, incorrect punctuation, run-on sentences, and other incohesive sentences. Microsoft Word’s Read Aloud feature also is an excellent way to review your work. I like listening to the computer read my work with a focus on improving the pace and rhythm of my sentences. This process is beneficial for sentence-level edits and looking at the overall structure of your piece to ensure you’re not being repetitive.

Writing can be challenging with its plethora of rules, writing styles and obstacles along the way. I hope these tips can help you when tackling your next project.

Finally, remember practice is essential for growth and development, and as Stephen King suggests, you will want to read as much as possible. Reading carries numerous benefits, and you can learn a lot by studying the works of others.

Read More