For decades, FM radio stations served as the primary outlet for major record labels to promote their artists. Radio listeners visited brick-and-mortar music stores to purchase records, tapes, and CDs. For a while, M-TV joined the party. Then the … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:05) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakepedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk, smart strategies, and … More ☛
Oh, they’re right enough about climate change. If you look at the data and at changing weather patterns around the world, it’s difficult to argue otherwise. But when it comes to telling the story, scientists have it all wrong. Measuring … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:05) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakepedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker , bringing you straight talk, smart strategies, and … More ☛
Transcript: Dave Bricker (00:07) This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by Speakipedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk, smart strategies, and amazing stories from visionary speakers and thought leaders. From the heart of small town … More ☛
How can we use AI to boost our HI—our unique and beautiful Human Intelligence? Explore some amazing new AI tools for speakers, authors, influencers, and visionaries. Get deep intel on your audience, promote an event, write a killer introduction, and … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:03) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakipedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk, smart strategies, and amazing … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:07) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakipedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk, smart strategies, and amazing … More ☛
Dave Bricker (00:07) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakipedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk, smart strategies, and amazing stories from … More ☛
Dave Bricker (00:00) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakipedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk, smart strategies, and amazing stories … More ☛
Dave Bricker: Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakipedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk, strategies, and amazing stories from visionary … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker: Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by Speakipedia.com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from visionary … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:09) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speekipedia Media brought to you by spekipedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies … More ☛
Transcript: Dave Bricker (00:07) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakepedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from … More ☛
Transcription Dave Bricker (00:07) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speekipedia Media, brought to you by speakipedia.com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from visionary … More ☛
“People from technology don’t understand the creative process … companies go through to make their products, and they don’t appreciate how hard it is. And the creative companies don’t appreciate how creative technology is; they think it’s just something you … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:06) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media, brought to you by Speakipedia.com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from visionary … More ☛
The Speakipedia Influencer Tools are based on careful study of story structures. It’s easy to ask AI to “write a story” or “create an introduction for my next speech,” but unless we provide specific information and careful instructions, the AI … More ☛
Transcription Dave Bricker (00:06) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media, brought to you by Speakipedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from visionary … More ☛
by Dave Bricker Load a demo and view the AI-generated results. Intro Setup Protagonist Transformation Conflict Steps Characters The Story Introduction If you have zero carpentry skills and you purchase a table saw, you’ll likely lose a few fingers by … More ☛
Dave Bricker (00:01) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakipedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from visionary … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:01) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakypedia Media brought to you by Speakypedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from … More ☛
by Dave Bricker Load a demo and experience the AI-generated results. Get Started Opening Prompt Intro Call to Action Pitch! We’ve all suffered through the round-robin ramble—where meeting participants each deliver a boring, too-long, me-focused, exposition on who they are … More ☛
by Dave Bricker Load a demo and experience the AI-generated results. Get access to work with your own content. Intro The Talk Audience Conflicts History News Landmines Material Content Introduction Prepare for Your Presentation The Audience Inspector collects information about … More ☛
Foreshadowing can appear in subtle clues or explicit warnings within a dialogue, setting descriptions, or through a character’s thoughts or actions. A character finding a mysterious key early in a story might foreshadow its importance in unlocking a crucial secret … More ☛
There are plenty of good reasons to self-publish, but not all are profit-oriented or even rational. Before you invest in your book, take a look in the mirror and ask yourself some serious questions. Why did I write my book? … More ☛
Verbs are the engines that move your writing and your readers, but many authors don’t spend enough time choosing the right ones. If your writing was an electric guitar, your verbs would be the volume, tone, and distortion controls that … More ☛
Book cover design tells the story of the story. It must convey the spirit and intentions of the author authentically, and it also has a few practical chores to perform. If a book cover design is to accomplish these things … More ☛
The principles behind the simple art of essay writing can be applied to most any kind of written work. Even if you never write an academic paper again, these techniques will help you write more focused and powerful prose. Time … More ☛
This article discusses the pros and cons of traditional publishing. Abandon your biases, study the business of publishing, and choose the publishing method that best suits you and your book. Perhaps the biggest myth in publishing is that as a … More ☛
Two-word clichés are perhaps the least obvious kind. Unless we’re vigilant, they sneak into our prose, steal color, mask our individual writer’s voice, and make us sound like millions of other writers who mindlessly employ the same worn out word … More ☛
Should you give away books for free? The value of book giveaways can’t be assessed by formula. The prevailing mythology suggests that the goal of publishing is to sell books, but the huge majority of indie publishers don’t do the … More ☛
This article explains how to produce and market a professional quality audiobook using Amazon ACX. Through ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange), I was able to audition voiceover talent, choose a professional producer, review the work in progress, and make my audiobook … More ☛
Page layout programs like Adobe Indesign and Quark, allow typographers to exert fine control over justified text to remove gaps and “rivers.” The default settings produce “pretty good” results—better than a word processor—but a few small tweaks will dramatically improve … More ☛
A few years ago, I attended a nonfiction-writing workshop where I was told by the instructor that to qualify as nonfiction, a work must adhere as strictly to truth as possible. But such an edict rests on the naïve assumption … More ☛
You threw a grand party but nobody came. Your novel is so good but you’re not selling books. What happened? You were supposed to appear on Oprah’s show. Terry Gross isn’t calling you for an interview. You may be an … More ☛
Dialogue presents challenges for writers. Some prefer to simply declare what was “said.” Many authors feel that “said” is both traditional and invisible: “I’m going to write some dialogue,” said Bill. “I look forward to reading it, ”said Helene. But … More ☛
This third installment of Judging a Book by its Cover looks at great book cover designs that won the 2012 Design Observer 50 Books-50 Covers award. Part 1 explored how most book design rarely rises above “competent.” Part 2 looked … More ☛
How can speakers, indie writers, and self-publishers use a blog to build a platform? This article explains how to publish online content to build community around your books. Build a Platform: Set up Your Blog A blog (short for web … More ☛
Part 1 of Book Cover Design: Judging a Book by its Cover critiqued “professional” covers taken from Amazon’s Editor’s choice list. Read that article first as it provides background for this one. The article looked at design elements that worked … More ☛
Nothing screams “amateur” like a poorly crafted book cover. The standards for book design aspired to by trade publishers are not all that high, but self-publishers routinely fall short of them. If you want your book to be taken seriously, … More ☛
After completing the final draft of a manuscript for my fifth book, I wanted a reality check. I hired a professional editor and learned something important about self-publishing. No matter how capable you are as a writer and proofreader, you … More ☛
Book reviews are critically important. Have you ever read a book hoping it would get better, only to find that it never did? And how do you tell if an independently published book is any good? So many are poorly … More ☛
The very idea of “book marketing” is vague. It’s like subsuming advertising and fine art sales into a single realm of “image marketing.” And in tacking marketing on as the de facto second phase of writing a book, a lot of worthy artists’ resources are placed in jeopardy.
More ☛Many readers still love to feel the subtle emboss of letters stamped on paper with metal type. I was rummaging through the garage and came across an old copy of The Progressive Road to Reading Book 2 by Georgine Burchill, … More ☛
Part 2 of Fundamentals of Book Design explores optical margins, paragraph formatting and spaces. Read about margins, layout and leading in Part 1. The self-publishing revolution is (aside from the Internet) the greatest thing ever to happen to freedom of … More ☛
Editing is one of the first hurdles you’ll encounter as an independent writer. Your fan club is your enemy. Encouraging friends who think it’s “wonderful you actually wrote a book” are not unbiased editors. A good editor will put your … More ☛
There is a direct relationship between the number of sales you can expect from a book distributor and the value-added services they provide to publishers and readers. Publishers are best served to ally themselves with book distributors that do the … More ☛
There are plenty of good reasons to self-publish, but not all are profit-oriented or even rational. Before you invest in your book, take a look in the mirror and ask yourself some serious questions. Understand what you’re getting into and define success at its proper place on the spectrum between retail sales and artistic satisfaction. With some clarity, planning and management of expectations, even a modest publishing venture can be rewarding and satisfying.
More ☛Anecdote. Technically, an anecdote is a short narrative about a real incident or person, usually intended to illustrate or support a point in a speech or written text. I like to think of an anecdote as something that’s different from … More ☛
Exordium—the introductory part of a speech, where you set the stage and prepare your audience for what’s to come. The exordium is your first impression, and it’s vital for capturing attention and establishing a connection. An effective exordium might begin … More ☛
Epistrophe is used to emphasize a point and create a memorable rhythm in speech. A classic example comes from Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address: ‘…of the people, by the people, for the people.’ This repetition reinforces the message of … More ☛
Climax. Yeah, we all know what that is … but in the context of storytelling and public speaking, a climax is the moment of greatest tension or conflict, where the stakes are highest and the outcome is decided. It’s the … More ☛
Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. It’s a powerful tool used to emphasize a point or stir emotion. In his iconic speech, Martin Luther King Jr. repeats ‘I have a dream’ … More ☛
The monomyth, or the hero’s journey, is a common narrative archetype that involves a hero who goes on an adventure, faces a decisive crisis, and comes back changed or transformed. This concept was popularized by Joseph Campbell in his book, … More ☛
Allegory is a narrative technique in which characters and events represent broader themes and ideas. Through allegory, storytellers explore complex issues and moral questions in an accessible and engaging way. One classic example is George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm,’ where farm … More ☛
Metaphor—a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain it or make a comparison. Saying ‘Time is a thief’ suggests that time, like a thief, can take away life’s … More ☛
Pacing is the speed at which a story unfolds or information is delivered. It plays a crucial role in maintaining audience engagement and building suspense and intensity in narratives and speeches. Many speakers think of the word “dynamics” as referring … More ☛
Narrative Hook—an opening to a story that grabs the audience’s attention so that they want to keep reading or listening. An article published by TIME magazine in 2015 quoted Microsoft research that concluded that humans have an attention span of … More ☛
Verisimilitude is the appearance of being true or real in a literary work. It helps in making a story or speech more believable and relatable to the audience by incorporating elements that reflect reality. John walked onto the stage. The … More ☛
A soliloquy is a speech delivered by a character in a play or other literary work, who is alone on stage, revealing their inner thoughts and feelings to the audience. Hmm … isn’t that pretty much a speaker‘s job description? … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:05) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by Speakipedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:07) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakipedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from visionary … More ☛
Dave Bricker (00:02) This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakipedia.com. Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from visionary … More ☛
Everyone thinks they know what good customer service is. We’ve all had bad customer service—a waiter who won’t bring the check or an Internet company that can’t keep a four-hour appointment window. But good customer service means more than … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:06) This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by Speakipedia .com. Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from visionary … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:07) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by Speakipedia .com. I’m your MC, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:06) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by Speakipedia .com. I’m your emcee Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:07) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by Speakipedia.com. I’m your emcee Dave Bricker bringing you straight talk and smart strategies from visionary … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:06) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakipedia .com. I’m your MC Dave Bricker bringing you straight talk and smart strategies … More ☛
We’ve all heard that speaker, the one with a particular type of poor me story that can actually be dangerous. I had a wonderful career doing what I loved and making lots of money. I lived in a beautiful house … More ☛
What of M&Ms, rock stars, and divas? The rock band Van Halen had an infamous clause in their contract saying there could be no brown M&Ms backstage, or the promoter would forfeit the entire show at full price. It … More ☛
Every sailor runs aground sooner or later! How do you know if a speaker really brings the experience they claim to? I was sailing along through clear turquoise water over a pure white sand bottom. A jagged line of … More ☛
The best speakers tell stories about YOU! A speaker walked onto the platform wearing a rugged jacket and hiking boots. He set an ice axe down on a small table, pulled off his snow goggles, and began to recount his … More ☛
Effective speakers wrap their messages in stories—but few understand what stories are and how they work. This brief guide explores why some narratives connect with listeners and others don’t. Examples—including a few of the author‘s nautical adventure tales—reveal powerful techniques … More ☛
How do you turn your me story into a you story? As engaging and interesting as the tale of your ocean crossing, summiting of Mount Everest, or successful marathon run may be, it won’t take long before audiences begin to … More ☛
(272 words) The New York Yankees honored Lou Gehrig two months after the great first baseman found out that ALS had robbed him of his physical abilities. On July 4, 1939, Yankee Stadium was packed with 61,000 fans. When the … More ☛
True story: Joe was hired to keynote at a huge conference—you know—a fancy stage with multiple iMag screens and colorful lights. He planned to make a splash, light up the audience, and please the meeting organizer who was in a … More ☛
Words and Terms related to speaking and speechwriting: Adynaton [ad-uh-NAY-ton]: A form of hyperbole in which the exaggeration is so extreme as to be impossible “You will sooner find a donkey flying than see me agree to that deal.” Allegory … More ☛
Is your story big enough? What a sad question! Too many meaningful stories go untold because we fear they’re not as big as someone else’s. Why should we tell tales about life as a middle manager in a corporate cubicle … More ☛
My client wanted to broadcast my presentation to a satellite office and to some of their team members who were working at home. In the room were about a hundred employees from a marketing and PR firm who were attending … More ☛
Writing teachers encourage us to engage the mind and senses. Describe sights, smells, tastes, sounds, feelings, thoughts, and tactile experiences to appeal to the reader’s imagination on every possible level. In concept, this is excellent advice. In practice, the advice … More ☛
Many write and speak absently about “starts” and “beginnings.” John started to talk about his feelings for Vera. Ed began the long trek to the computer repair shop. Jeanne started to feel as if nobody else cared about the garden. … More ☛
Dialogue… So many speakers miss this fantastic opportunity to engage the audience. When it’s time for dialogue, they narrate it. My wife walked in and she asked if I’d pick up some groceries on the way home from work. I … More ☛
My friend Kelly Swanson fell off the stage! She picked herself up, looked at the audience, and said, “I will now take questions from the floor!” Standing ovation! Why is it that we waste so much energy hoping and praying … More ☛
Virtual backgrounds for on-screen meetings are very popular. Why not hide that messy bedroom and look like you’re in a conference room, sitting under the aurora borealis, or sunning yourself on a beach in Tahiti? Here are a few reasons: … More ☛
True story: Gayle’s connecting flight from Atlanta was canceled and she had to be on the stage at a conference the next morning in New York City — 850 miles away. Not only was her five-figure speaking fee on the … More ☛
If we’re honest and authentic, we often feel compelled to fill in every detail of a story as it actually happened—but this isn’t always the best strategy. Be a journey-ist, not a journalist. The purpose of a story is to … More ☛
You may already have explored the golden rule of storytelling: Stories are always about people. The StorySailing® model breaks story structure into four elements. The CAST Call formula helps with creating stories that influence and persuade. The Three Circles of … More ☛
Sometimes you can get a lot of mileage on stage when you leave half the conversation to the audience’s imagination. [ring] Hello … Oh, hi honey. I can’t really talk right now. I’m in the middle of giving a pres…” … More ☛
So many speakers offer wonderful advice … And then they forget to Kick ASK! What is it we’re supposed to do next? How can we take what they’ve given us and harness its power? Calls to action—CTAs—can be simple: Stories … More ☛
Do you have a powerful story? Great! That’s an advantage. Now tell your story about the audience! What does that mean? Make your story a metaphor for the audience’s story. In my storytelling speech, I share a time when I … More ☛
Never play the victim card, on stage or in life. Don’t use your audience as a therapist. Your triumph over cancer, escape from an abusive relationship, or successful battle with addiction is admirable but… When we’re in pain, we tend … More ☛
Here’s a simple rule: If you bring your audience into darkness, bring them back into the light. Not every story has a happy ending, but it should at least offer a worthwhile lesson. If everybody in your story loses and … More ☛
WordPress is a content-management platform used to drive over 455 million websites. Written with open-source technologies like PHP and MySQL, this free software is supported by a huge developer community that extends its functionality through thousands of free and commercial … More ☛
Like the Chauffeur story, here’s a tale that thousands of speakers love to tell but shouldn’t: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=speaker+telling+the+starfish+story A man walking along the beach noticed that thousands of starfish had been washed up on the sand by a storm tide. And … More ☛
