I had a new client to meet in New York City, so to beat traffic, I left home early and arrived by 7AM, which left me three hours until the meeting.<\/p>\n

To kill time, I went to The Harvard Club for breakfast (I\u2019m a member because I was smart enough to marry someone who\u2019s a member.)\u00a0 The dining room looks like the dining hall of King Henry VIII.<\/p>\n

Cell phones are forbidden at the H Club, but I thought I could at least read email while I ate. I ordered, then scrolled through junk to find an email from Chris Brogan<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Chris <\/strong>was saying, \u201cDon\u2019t make your readers feel like you\u2019re trying to capture them in a sales funnel,\u201d and then he had a link to something called, \u201cIt\u2019s a trap.\u201d<\/p>\n

I clicked on it.\u00a0 My iPhone 3g chugged away and brought to view a blurry screen that said, \u201cPlay.\u201d\u00a0 I pressed \u201cPlay.\u201d\u00a0 Within a second, a raspy voice was shouting from my phone, \u201cIt\u2019s a trap.\u00a0 It\u2019s a trap.\u00a0 It\u2019s a trap.\u201d<\/p>\n

I could not silence the phone.\u00a0 Escape.\u00a0 Delete.\u00a0 Turn off.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>Nothing would work.\u00a0 A mal-worm had penetrated my perimeter.\u00a0 I scrambled to leave the room and saw that diners and waiters alike were aghast.\u00a0 I put the screaming phone in my armpit and walked into the kitchen, where I was able to steady my fingers and silence the screams.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong> writes great blogs.\u00a0 I will continue to read them.\u00a0 But why did he do that to me?\u00a0 It\u2019s funny now, but it wasn\u2019t funny then.\u00a0 I had visions of being booted from the club and having an infected iPhone.<\/p>\n

And what does this have to do with effective speaking<\/a>?\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s a stretch, but I think Chris <\/strong>was being flip\u2014telling a little joke\u2014by including the mal-ware.\u00a0 And some jokes bomb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a new client to meet in New York City, so to beat traffic, I left home early and arrived by 7AM, which left me three hours until the meeting. To kill time, I went to The Harvard Club for breakfast (I\u2019m a member because I was smart enough to marry someone who\u2019s a… Read More »It\u2019s a Trap: A public speaking mistake<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,18,297,88],"yoast_head":"\n