Recent Articles in Strictly Speaking
October 17, 2022
Public Speaking Gestures: Find the right 'voice' for your hands
Gestures & Body Language , Public Speaking , Strictly Speaking , Presentation Tips
Worried about inappropriate gestures? (No, not THOSE gestures.) We're thinking about how to strike the right tone in presentations when you talk with your hands.
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February 28, 2022
Personal Experience: The Mother Lode for Speakers
Public Speaking , Storytelling , Strictly Speaking
Your personal experience can bring emotion and authenticity to presentations. Our founder holds forth on choosing the right material and delivering it to delight your audience.
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December 30, 2021
Resolve Never to Be a Bore
Strictly Speaking , Public Speaking , The Buckley Experience
If you're making a New Year's resolution, here's a suggestion from our founder--and some insight into one of the most common mistakes speakers make when preparing a presentation.
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November 22, 2021
Public Speaking Fears: Look for the Helpers
Strictly Speaking , Public Speaking Fear , Resources , Speaker's Bookshelf
Feeling nervous? Our founder says focusing on the right audience members can help you find your confidence AND make audience support go viral.
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October 18, 2021
Public Speaking Fears: Rehearse without going stale
Public Speaking Fear , Public Speaking , Strictly Speaking
Rehearsing helps you build confidence, but bored looks on the audience's faces can bring on a serious case of nerves. How do you practice and keep it fresh? Our founder shares his techniques...
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September 14, 2021
Public Speaking Fears: Write It or Wing It?
Public Speaking Fear , Strictly Speaking , Public Speaking
Writing a speech word for word can calm nerves and delivers other benefits, too. Our founder holds forth on the joys of not speaking by the seat of your pants...
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August 12, 2021
Public Speaking Fears: Organizing to defy nerves
Public Speaking Fear , Strictly Speaking , Public Speaking
"Fear keeps steady company with the performing arts," writes our founder. Here's the first step in channeling those nerves...
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April 21, 2021
Voice of the Speaker: Pace and Tempo
Vocal Delivery , Strictly Speaking , Public Speaking , Resources
Your pace can project confidence. Your tempo can cue an emotional response in audiences. Our founder holds forth on how to use both when presenting so that you orchestrate better vocal delivery.
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March 17, 2021
Voice of the Speaker: Power of the Pause
Strictly Speaking , Public Speaking , Resources
One of the most powerful ways to use the voice in a speech is... to stop speaking? Our founder describes the dramatic potential of a well-timed zip of the lip.
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February 24, 2021
Voice of the Speaker: Managing your Accent
Vocal Delivery , Strictly Speaking , Public Speaking , Instruction
Does your accent need to be managed? Perhaps, our founder suggests, it should be relished and unleashed!
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January 12, 2021
Voice of the Speaker: How Sense Travels
Vocal Delivery , Strictly Speaking , Public Speaking , Public Speaking Books
Diction, enunciation, and pronunciation--learn how to hone these so your words can cross the vast sea separating speaker and audience.
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December 21, 2020
Public Speaking Virtues & Vices: Sarcasm
Virtues & Vices , Strictly Speaking , Speaker's Bookshelf , The Buckley Experience
A sprinkle of sarcasm may delight an audience--but if it's your dominant platform style, you have a problem. Our founder holds forth on how much is too much and what to do about it...
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November 25, 2020
Public Speaking Virtues & Vices: Humility of Spirit
Strictly Speaking , Virtues & Vices , Public Speaking , The Buckley Experience
Our founder believed it's the chief virtue for a speaker. What is humility of spirit, exactly? And how the devil can you get some?
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October 13, 2020
Public Speaking Virtues & Vices: Truculence
Virtues & Vices , Public Speaking , Resources , Speaker's Bookshelf , Strictly Speaking
A speaker who is ferocious or harsh, as our founder so eloquently says, "don't win friends." Here's his field guide to truculent speakers--and what you can do to tame them (if they happen to be you).
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August 30, 2020
Public Speaking Virtues & Vices: Passion
Virtues & Vices , Strictly Speaking , Public Speaking Books , The Buckley Experience , Public Speaking
Not to be confused with ranting or reckless enthusiasm, passion that suits your speaking style is key to becoming an influential presenter. Here's how...
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July 13, 2020
Public Speaking Virtues & Vices: Pomposity
Virtues & Vices , Public Speaking , Strictly Speaking , The Buckley Experience
Our founder called this "a creeping disease" to which any public speaker can be vulnerable. Could you be stricken? And what do you think of Reid Buckley's shocking cure?
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March 29, 2020
Public Speaking Virtues & Vices: Decency
Virtues & Vices , Strictly Speaking , The Buckley Experience , Public Speaking , Public Speaking Books
He's the expert we count on, the one who can avoid partisan nonsense. This excerpt from Reid Buckley's "Strictly Speaking" has us thinking about one of the chief qualities of Dr. Anthony Fauci's public speaking...
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February 17, 2020
Public Speaking Virtues & Vices: Belligerence
Virtues & Vices , Strictly Speaking , Public Speaking , Resources , Business Communication
Worried that you antagonize audiences? Or perhaps that's your goal! Check out our founder's case for warming up your stage presence and his unconventional steps to get you there...
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January 20, 2020
Public Speaking Virtues & Vices: Honesty
Virtues & Vices , Strictly Speaking , Resources , Public Speaking , Business Communication
"Character is the primary element a speaker brings to the stage. Everything else can be learned," wrote our founder. Get his honest advice...
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December 18, 2019
Public Speaking Sins: Following George Will
Cardinal Sins , Strictly Speaking , Presentation Tips , The Buckley Experience , Just For Fun
Reid Buckley's 10 Cardinal Sins stretched out to 11--thanks to George Will. A few words of wisdom for those times when you have to follow a rock star...
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October 23, 2019
Public Speaking Sins: Assuming All Audiences Respond the Same Way
Cardinal Sins , Strictly Speaking , The Buckley Experience , Public Speaking , Presentation Tips
Some audiences laugh easily. Others not so much. When you take your presentation on the road, here's why it pays to keep regional and cultural differences in mind...
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September 25, 2019
Public Speaking Sins: Failing to Respect Your Audience
Cardinal Sins , Strictly Speaking , Presentation Tips , The Buckley Experience
From our founder's 10 Cardinal Sins that amateur public speakers commit: Here's why you should work for the audience and assume they know a thing or two.
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August 23, 2019
Public Speaking Sins: Failing to Appeal to Emotion
Cardinal Sins , Public Speaking , Strictly Speaking , The Buckley Experience , Presentation Tips
Even the most brilliant audiences need more than facts. From our founder's 10 cardinal sins, why you've got to break out of that box and get the audience to have feelings for you.
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August 22, 2019
Presentation Skills: Got Charisma?
Public Speaking , Resources , Presentation Tips , Strictly Speaking
It's that quality we struggle to define, yet seems to sparkle in the best public speakers. At The Buckley School, we call it personal magnetism. Here's how you can develop yours...
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July 23, 2019
Public Speaking Sins: Grandiose Allusions
Cardinal Sins , Public Speaking , Presentation Tips , The Buckley Experience , Strictly Speaking
"Count on this: almost nobody who quotes Plato has read Plato," writes Reid Buckley in his advice to speakers. Before you start strutting that stuff in your next speech, consider the consequences...
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May 13, 2019
Public Speaking Sins: Avoid fad phrases
Strictly Speaking , Cardinal Sins , Public Speaking , The Buckley Experience
From our founder's 10 Cardinal Sins that amateur public speakers commit: Before you toss in the latest trendy expression, consider whether it's already dated...or worse.
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April 3, 2019
Public Speaking Sins: Verbal Flatulence
Cardinal Sins , Strictly Speaking , The Buckley Experience , Instruction
Cut the filler and the false ingratiations. And absolutely no sharing from the stage. From our founder's 10 Cardinal Sins, something he and Kanye West agree on...
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March 5, 2019
Public Speaking Sins: 'I would submit'
Strictly Speaking , Cardinal Sins , Public Speaking , The Buckley Experience
You hear it in speeches all the time. That doesn't mean it's a good idea. From our founder's 10 Cardinal Sins of Public Speaking, we would submit to you the conditional tense...
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February 7, 2019
Public Speaking Sins: Opening with a Joke
Strictly Speaking , Cardinal Sins , Public Speaking , Presentation Tips , The Buckley Experience
What must public speakers avoid if they don't want to make the amateur's mistakes? Next from our founder's 10 Cardinal Sins of Public Speaking, why canned jokes are no laughing matter...
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January 6, 2019
Public Speaking Sins: Arrogance & Conceit
Public Speaking , Strictly Speaking , Cardinal Sins , The Buckley Experience , Public Speaking Books , Presentation Tips
What must public speakers avoid if they don't want to make the mistakes of an amateur? Our founder's 10 Cardinal Sins of Public Speaking, starting with one that requires "cleansing your spirit."
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