Fear of public speaking causes a lot of us to avoid it altogether or suffer sleepless nights leading up to the event.  But you can effectively prepare yourself for the big moment. The key is not to completely eliminate fear but to accept it, reframe it, and control it.

As small businesses around the country plan for 2011, many are focused on simply surviving. What's lost is the big idea.

The recent salmonella outbreak that led to the recall of half-a-billion eggs affects businesses far removed from the two big Iowa egg producers at the center of the storm. Most are relatively small ventures struggling to survive in a recession and committed to delivering safe food. As a communications specialist, I am often called upon to help companies respond to and recover from a crisis.  These 5 lessons for rebuilding reputations and brands can be applied to almost any company involved in a crisis, food related or not. They can help you survive and possibly emerge even stronger.

Shortly after talk show host Larry King announced his decision to hang up his suspenders after 25 years at CNN, he was asked to reminisce about his favorite guests. What caught my attention as a business communications coach were the traits King says he looks for in an ideal interviewee: passion, a sense of humor, anger, and an ability to explain what he or she does very well.

As a communications specialist, I am often called upon for "crisis communications" projects—helping companies respond to and recover from a crisis.

The company name "Apple" fell from a tree, literally dropping right into Steve Jobs's vision of what a computer should be: simple and approachable. Although Jobs had dropped out of Reed College in Portland, he returned to Oregon periodically to share ideas with like-minded people in a Zen-influenced commune called the All-One Farm where they grew—you guessed it—apples.

What could you do today to increase the potential that your next presentation will hit a home run with your prospects and existing customers? Answer: Cut the bloat.