Dave Hill – Speaker, Trainer, Author, & Speech Coach What do you do when asked to give a speech to 600 middle school students…in the school gymnasium? The answer to this question is…. you say, “YES,” you thank them for the privilege, and then you prepare like you have never prepared before. This was [...]

One of the most unusual stories I have heard regarding Leading With Humor was at a technology exchange conference. A senior executive did the opening keynote. During his speech he emphasized the need to take risks, to push the barriers of technology, and to make the incredible credible. He stated that this will unfortunately result [...]

Imagine you are flying to Brazil for a few weeks. The business trip involves a 20 minute introductory speech to inform the audience about the scope of the visit. There will be over 100 people in the audience. The people you visit will be a bit nervous since you are visiting from the corporate office. You [...]

Imagine you are speaking at a National Speakers Association (NSA) convention where there are over 2000 people in the audience. A few minutes into your dynamic presentation, your mind goes blank. You go into panic mode standing there, looking at the audience. Your breathing gets heavy, your face shows trauma and you make a few [...]

It was August 1987, and I was working on a sail training ship called Zebu. It had 7 crewmembers and 15 young sail trainees from all over the world.  The trainees would rotate at three-month intervals. The ship could hold 13 sails, and there were approximately 150 lines (ropes) controlling the sails and yardarms (the [...]