Public Speaking Skills

We talk about this theme often here at The Latimer Group. But as with any important theme, it merits multiple mentions. When we are communicating in the workplace, we need to make sure we have the correct mindset. And that mindset is this… be more than a messenger. We need to be thinking about doing […]

This post was written by Lauren St. Germain, Facilitator and Coach for The Latimer Group. Every year, our CEO and Co-Founder, Dean, shares his advice on how to give a great wedding toast.  This year, I told him I wanted to have a crack at providing some advice and started my making my own independent list of […]

“Music is the space between the notes.” ~Claude DeBussy In many workshops, we see two parallel fears come up over and over. People fear silence when they’re speaking. Silence makes them uncomfortable. Therefore, they often fill the silence with more sound — extra words and non-words (we call them “verbal pauses’). And at the same time, people fear […]

How often do you sit in a meeting, or on a conference call, or listen to a presentation, and feel disengaged within the first two to three minutes? Yep… me too. It usually takes speakers forever to simply get to the point, and find ways to engage the audience. And by the time they do, […]

There are a few questions we frequently hear from our workshop participants. And perhaps the most vexing is the question of detail: how much do I need, where do I put it, how much is too much? Without exception, it comes up and is a major topic of conversation in every workshop. Why? For two simple, […]

In our communication workshops, we work with clients from many countries, across several continents, and of course, in varying age groups, from just-out-of-college Gen Z’ers to Millennials to Gen X’ers to late Baby-Boomers. In our work with these individuals, we often find a disconnect between how the generations speak to each other. These differences across […]

Do you want to be an effective communicator? Be more memorable? Do you want people to follow your lead, support your idea, or buy your product or service? Of course you do. When I say “be memorable,” I’m not suggesting that you do something outrageous so that they remember that crazy person who did “x.” I mean […]

What we care about most at The Latimer Group is your ability to communicate your message — your story — powerfully and persuasively to your audience. Virtually all the work we do points back to that theme of great communication, and great storytelling. Even in the workplace, great stories and great storytelling are what will stand out among your clients […]

How do you prepare for that big sales call, or that important meeting with your boss? If you prepare at all (not trying to insult you, but a shocking number of people still try to “wing it”), and if you are like most people we meet, then your prep goes something like this… organize your […]

Over the course of this blog, we write frequently about the important ingredients for great communication… clarity and brevity chief among them. Today we touch on another critical ingredient: context. Context is critical. Context creates relevance. Context helps your audience engage and listen. Context helps your audience care. We are all time starved. We are all attention deprived, to varying degrees. […]