I had a chat today with Amber on Twitter about what makes a good public speaker at a conference, seminar or event. She asked me for my thoughts on what makes a person a good public speaker. Check out my video below for the 3 main keys to good public speaking. If there’s interest, I would be happy to create more specific videos on tips and techniques on the topic. Small tweaks can provide great rewards when it comes to a presentation or speech.

Sites referenced in the video:

• Amber on Twitter
• John Maxwell
• Toastmasters
• Upcoming

More CN Coverage:
– Docstoc
– Scribd
– Twitter

Sarah Lacy appeared on Fox Business this evening on their "Happy Hour" show to promote her upcoming book. Host Cody Willard should stick to financial topics - whenever he crosses over to tech, it just doesn’t work. See our previous example for another example where Cody explains how Facebook’s Beacon works.

Sarah begins by defining Web 2.0 as, "basically the collection of companies that started around 2002-2005 and the hallmark is user-generated content, social media and social networking." She names Facebook and YouTube as Web 2.0 companies.

Then Cody shows his real intelligence by explaining that Web 2.0 is a "Ponzi scheme." Sarah tries to explain that none of the Web 2.0 companies have gone public and that’s why we will never be in a bubble.

Sarah then attempts to use her one line which she believes makes her look like an insider, "Facebook actually makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year." She’s used this line on every video/audio interview I’ve seen/heard lately. 

Sarah tells Cody that LinkedIn is the next Web 2.0 company to be a success. Cody then replies with the following, "LinkedIn is a crappy site, no one is going to use LinkedIn." Sarah gets very loud in explaining that LinkedIn has the best business model on the Web today. I agree with her that LinkedIn is hot without being in the 250. Check out our LinkedIn coverage including Mark’s LinkedIn guide.

Overall Sarah comes across smart and knowledgeable in this very short interview. Great book placement behind her left shoulder - not sure she could have asked for a better placement!

Side note, I have purchased a tripod so videos should now always be nice and still. And this weekend the video card will be connected to the cable and future tv captures will be perfect. Thank you for your patronage.

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I’ve been thinking recently about how the ability to go "live" may affect many careers. Using the Sarah Lacy/Mark Zuckerberg keynote as our example, I want to share some thoughts with you. Whether you are a blogger or an entrepreneur, the ability to recognize when you’ve screwed up is critical for success.

Unlike those watching from far away, I was actually there in the room, arrived nearly two hours early so I could sit in the front and get ready to live blog the event. I watched the room fill up, people standing along the sides, cropped down, chairs changed to couches and audio tests. The number of cameras snapping photos when Mark came out was simply amazing - in fact it seemed like a press conference with the number of photographers in the pit.

I was very much looking forward to the interview. I heard there would be no new news, so perhaps we could learn more about Facebook’s strategy and monetization plans. This was my second time watching Zuckerberg live; the first was at the half-interview, half-infomercial at TC40 where Zuckerberg announced fbFund.

The truth is that the interview was a disaster. We are past it now so let’s take a look at how it could have been handled better. And how Sarah could have saved face. Sarah was trying to win over the crowd at Mark’s expense. She made many condescending statements towards Mark throughout including her comment about his journals. I have a set of journals Sarah and Om Malik had a series of posts last year about his journals. In addition, Lacy kept repeating "Stahl moment", which was completely out of line. If you know your subject has x or y issue, then you work around it.

I am 100% certain that Sarah had no idea it was going downhill from minute 3. Had she realized what was going on, she would have changed course. I’ve heard reports that her live interview with Kevin Rose also didn’t go so well but I wasn’t there so I can’t comment.

When the crowd started to applaud when Mark said "you’ve got to ask questions" it was actually 45 minutes of growing displeasure with where the interview was moving. I wasn’t on Twitter as I was typing the live notes but I can assure you that the feeling was all around the room and 98% of the audience were not on Twitter. I am guessing that Sarah still didn’t realize what was going on and I absolutely feel horrible for her. Once she realized what was going on, she had two choices: act professionally or act like a young child who didn’t get her way. She chose the latter.

Her comments on stage including, "you try doing what im doing for a living, it’s not as easy as it looks" and "can someone email me and tell me why I sucked so bad", made the situation worse as she threw grease on the fire. When you are on stage and being heckled, just be professional and move on.

When she ran off stage after the keynote was over, she should have relaxed for a bit. After getting some air, she could have looked for feedback. Instead she ran to Twitter and said, "seriously screw all you guys. I did my best to ask a range of things." Not only did she piss off almost the entire audience during the event, she has just told me to fuck-off. Lacy’s Twitter statement makes me realize that I’ve just wasted three hours. These were hours that could have been spent out partying or at my friend’s session.

One of my mentors says, "perception equals reality". It doesn’t matter what’s right when people perceive something else is right. Before, during and after, Sarah had a variety of stopping points in which to change course and save face.

• When she realized that the audience wasn’t pleased and asked for Q/A, she could have just moved to it and not made the "woe is me" comments.
• She didn’t need to post on Twitter.
• She could have easily apologized to those who felt like they didn’t get their money’s worth from the interview.
• She could have posted a simple survey if she was really interested in feedback on what happened.
• When she was interviewed on camera that evening, she could have dropped the defensive bit and just made a simple statement about what happened and apologized.
• Lastly, before the event, she could have asked her readers what they would ask Mark. Instant winner with this one.

Brian Solis has posted a commentary on the situation including the following comment. "If you think she owes you an apology or needs to fall on the sword for her Q&A with Zuckerberg, don’t hold your breath. Sarah Lacy doesn’t need to apologize to anyone other than Mark." Wrong Brian, wrong. We were her customers and when your customers aren’t happy, you apologize and make it right. Customer is #1. Zuckerberg wasn’t the customer.

Here’s the net result and takeaway. When you screw up or your customers believe you have screwed up, apologize. And if you do apologize, mean it. It’s acceptable to admit when you make errors or miscalculations. What’s great about the Web is that we are all willing to help you back up. Just look at how many chances we’ve given Twitter.

As the world moves to "live", we all need a pause button. Blog attacks are so 2007. Today we have live Twitter attacks and outbursts. Who knows which attack or outburst might actually cause you to lose a deal, a client or worse? Keep thinking to yourself, "breathe before reply."

Sarah said on camera that the audience has ruined SXSW for ever getting a high level person again. I’d wonder if Sarah’s will get another chance at a keynote like the one at SXSW after her inability to apologize when her readers and viewers weren’t satisfied.

Sarah can still make it right. She could explain why the interview didn’t work and how she is working on changing for the future. I’d be interested in speaking with Sarah about her learnings, I am sure we could all benefit so we don’t make the same mistakes.

Check out the printer we used for our business cards:

Jeremy Johnstone, a Yahoo engineer, has taken a break from hanging out with iJustine to object to our mention of one of his images — a screenshot of Flickr, a Yahoo website, displaying a failure message. He responded by replacing the image with a vulgarity. Good to know he has so much time to spend doing anything but writing code. You see, that screenshot is not the only Flickr pic he’s taken down recently. The last one went offline under even less happy circumstances.

Johnstone, who fancies himself quite the lensman, has somehow become Yahoo’s house photographer. He’s been posting his corporate work, without authorization, to his personal Flickr stream.

In his self-appointed role, Johnstone, unbelievably, managed to take a publicity shot of Yahoo TechTicker star Sarah Lacy that made the photogenic valley fox look bad. The online-video show’s producer, who never wanted to go with Johnstone in the first place, had the photos reshot — and was furious to hear that Johnstone had published the unapproved photos on Flickr. Johnstone took them down after a late-night call Friday — which was the first he heard, we understand, that his original photos hadn’t made the cut. He’s being replaced by a real photographer. If only more of the amateurs at Yahoos were meeting his fate.

(Photo by jeremyjohnstone)

“Google’s Search Party,” Ken Auletta’s 6,264-word opus on the search engine’s grudging embrace of D.C. lobbying, has proved tough to condense. Until I reread it again this weekend, and realized it can be boiled down to the final observation made by CEO Eric Schmidt:

What kills a company is not competition but arrogance. We control our fate.

Control fate, or tempt it? Google, improbably, is managing to do both.

Source:Valleywag

No, I don’t understand Paul Boutin’s fixation with Bono, either. But he brought a fistful of sunglasses to Moose’s on Friday, and before we knew it, everyone was putting them on. The bar’s lighting is already moody, and let me tell you, when you put on a pair of Bulgari, it gets murkier than an open-standards discussion list. Things got even geekier when the boys from Uncov rolled in. And then, out of nowhere — well, out of Las Vegas, really — Julia Allison and Meghan Asha showed up to glam up the evening. Did we say “happy hour“? Our apologies. We practically closed the place. Next Friday: Natali Del Conte’s going-away party.

galleryPost(’valleywag20080111′, 6, ‘Happy hours and hours and oh god will these people ever go home?’);

We hear that Yahoo TechTicker, the online-video show from Yahoo Finance featuring Valley fox Sarah Lacy and red-hot moneymen Henry Blodget and Paul Kedrosky, is delayed, and won’t be airing early episodes next week as rumored. Dammit! Scott Moore, we blame you for this, too.

• 
  NERDSPOTTING
  
  (4,585 views)
• 
  BLOGGING FOR DOLLARS
  
  (1,047 views)
• 
  YOUR PRIVACY IS AN ILLUSION
  
  (778 views)

Today’s most discussed stories are

Julia Allison canoodles with Sequoia moneyman (27 comments), San Francisco is just like Second Life (8) and Robert Scoble’s cell phone number is totally 425 205 1921, people (7).

Source:Valleywag

Yahoo TechTicker may launch as soon as next week, reports Michael Arrington. The TechCrunch editor then spins off into lurid fantasy: “Screen shots are starting to leak, and we have this one with Lacy and Blodget just prior to locking into a passionate embrace, I’m sure.” Heavens, Michael. No wonder Lacy tried to cool your jets in Hawaii. Besides, we prefer to imagine Blodget, a known admirer of male beauty, canoodling* with Paul Kedrosky, the ruggedly handsome VC pundit who’s also appearing on TechTicker.

*In the sense of “persuading, especially with flattery,” you dirty birds. What did you think I meant by “canoodling”?

Sarah Lacy’s long-awaited book on Web 2.0 is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. The title: Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0. It’s due for release on May 15, which means we’ll probably see copies circulating in late April. Future reviewers, let us save you the work of coming up with a kicker: Yes, the title practically begs for Lacy to announce a followup oeuvre to prove she, too, is more than just lucky.

Would someone please shut down the Valley and lock the doors? I don’t know if I can take another week like this. Seriously, can you remember another week filled with such drama? Microsoft showers Facebook with cash, making Mark Zuckerberg a paper billionaire — and turning Facebooker Dave Morin’s relationship with a Googler into forbidden fruit. Meanwhile, venture capitalist David Hornik attempts to have an off-the-record conference in Hawaii and completely fails — because gossip will out. Gossip like BusinessWeek’s Sarah Lacy throwing a drink at TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington, while his CEO, Heather Harde, stays up suspiciously late with WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg. Yahoo lost a devoted cheerleader and its top marketer. Larry Ellison tried to reel in BEA. Special correspondent Nick Douglas, meanwhile, demands I stop reading all of my favorite sites. I need something. Not a unicorn chaser. How about ….

… a bulldog chaser?

Thanks, Jason. Everything’s better now. See y’all next week.