By now, the term “Death by PowerPoint” should ring a bell in our ears and even send shivers down our spine. And most of you unfortunately had experienced the wrath of powerpoint or perhaps have been on the giving end. Most critics have conveniently placed the blame on Microsoft and its creators. However the truth is, the fault never lies on the tool. Of course this begets the question: who then should we blame?

Who else — the speaker!

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Our third chill-out & coaching session at Bianca was once again a resounding success, all thanks to the mouth-watering Italian food that kept us indulged from 7pm till 11pm! That’s right, we can really eat! Check out the satisfied faces of blokes and babes who came last Friday.

L-R: Donald (the chef!), Justin, Danny, Mira, Adrian, Meng Qi, Doris and Me.
Not in pic: Jim and Brennan

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Daily damnit is a term I learnt from being a coach at Executive Coach International. In the seven weeks of one-on-one coaching, our client has to come up with five daily damnits, or acts of discipline that they adhere to. These daily damnits are there to build up their discipline which most people are seriously lacking. For example, a daily damnit could be sleeping by 11pm or eating a fruit after every meal. From the name, you know that it is a DAILY act that is excruiatingly hard to complete, which explains the “DAMNIT!” It goes like this… “Damnit, sleep by 11pm!” or “Damnit, eat my fruit!”

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Here’s my notes from listening to an audio post by Mark Brown, 1995 World Champion Speaker. His tips make a lot of sense and I would strongly advise you to try them.

Here’s how you can earn your EX-rating and become a [Fill in the blank] __________ speaker.

1. EXPLORE ways to do more as u grow as a speaker

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Speak.
Speak more.
Speak even more.
Speak even more than that.
Speak when you don’t want to.
Speak when you do.
Speak when you have something to say.
Speak when you don’t.
Speak all the time.
Keep speaking.

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach

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Just to get your day going… two more days to Friday. Hang in there, buddy.

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach

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Darren’s quick tip on how to engage the audience was simply ingenious! So much so that this entry was written almost immediately without much editing.

Put simply, it is about leveraging on the moments that the audience has already emotionally connected with.

If the speaker before you did something that causes the audience to erupt in laughter, find some way to bring back that funny act he did in your speech. Or, if the speaker shared a mesaage that created an AHA moment for the audience, find some way to link your speech to that message. In short, tap into what the audience ALREADY love and then ride on the wave.

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It just occur to me that blogging on weekends is an absolutely no-no with all the booze, babes and… Harry Potter craze. So I shall snooze a bit and leave you with some light reading to get you through your weekend.

All The King’s Men
This movie charts the spectacular rise and fall of a charismatic Southern politician, Boss Willie Stark (Sean Penn). You should see the charisma and conviction exude by him as he gave his maiden speech to his people. Have you caught the movie?

Does Your Speech Contain Substance?
Short and easy piece of reading that highlights the importance of delivering value to your audience.

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Two days ago, I was invited by Singapore Poly Toastmasters to conduct a 20 minutes workshop on “How To Evaluate”. Decided to transfer my teaching notes here so that more people can learn and master the art of evaluation.

One of the greatest advantage of joining a Toastmasters club is the opportunity for more experienced speakers to give you constructive feedback on what you have done well and what could be done better. They help you identify your blindspots, which when remedied, will make you a lot better as a speaker in the shortest amount of time.

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Due to the Cannon event at Geek Terminal, we had to move our chill-out session from Thursday to Friday. As a result, a number of you could not make it. My apologies! Still, some of the hard-core socialites came to relax over pasta, lounge music and red wine. Below are the early birds. From L: Enyong, Brennan, Moi, Mira, Huimin, Jens and Zong Yin. A few more came after work to join us. Shamir, Raine, Eric and Jingheng. We had such a time of our life that I forgot to snap another group pic.

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