There is another pernicious myth about public speaking: that only extroverts can be effective public speakers. Early in my speaking career, a fellow speaker, an introvert, said, “You’re so lucky to be an extrovert. It must make public speaking so much easier. I have to think every time someone asks me a question.” I laughed. […]
There is another pernicious myth about public speaking: that exposure is enough compensation. That myth ignores the value the speaker offers. Imagine this scenario: a large, multinational company or a famous conference asks you to speak. You feel flattered and warm all over. You have exactly the right presentation for their audience. Then you ask:
By now, you’ve probably seen the Wall Street Journal article on happy hour, or seen the various news coverage stories mourning the loss of drinking after work. What caught my eye was a video of a man asking, “Why should I work longer for free?” He has a point. He should not work longer for
If you follow me, you know I’m running a Kickstarter for the Effective Public Speaking book. Once they fund, many Kickstarters offer stretch rewards. I wasn’t worried about offering a stretch reward. Instead, I worried that the Kickstarter audience would not back a nonfiction book. This entire endeavor is an experiment in product development, product
Since I’m running a Kickstarter for the Effective Public Speaking book, here’s another public speaking myth: the one where you introduce yourself so you look impressive to an audience. Uh, sorry, no. Here’s why: Most conferences or meetups have a facilitator who will read the bio you sent them in advance. The audience chose you
This week’s podcast is from a short romance story. This part is the meet-cute. The Podcast: The Transcript: This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for January 9, 2026, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some writing in progress. This is part of a summer romance short
I’m running a Kickstarter for the Effective Public Speaking book. It funded on the first day thanks to all my backers! I am thrilled. Now, I get to think about stretch goals, and finishing the audiobooks, the bookplate stickers, and all that finishing work. Why a Kickstarter? Several reasons: Experiment with new forms of marketing. Invite
Since I’m running a Kickstarter for the Effective Public Speaking book, I expect to record several videos about the myths and traps of public speaking. However, I never memorize my talks. These videos are not exactly presentations because I’m trying to keep them short, so people will watch them or read these blog posts. So
So far, this series has focused on smaller efforts, such as one or two products or one or two teams. But what if you have a larger effort, where several teams need to collaborate to deliver the business value? That’s a program. (I wrote Agile and Lean Program Management: Scaling Collaboration Across the Organization to
I’ve run the Free Your Inner Writer workshop since 2018. The writers who do the work tell me they find it helpful and a way to start their writing careers. (Regardless of how much they choose to write.) This Q1 2026 workshop will be the last workshop where I offer writers my personalized feedback. You can