It’s almost impossible to be yourself in front of 200 faceless people when you are a nervous wreck. Yet we get this advice a lot, don’t we? If I recall, I did rant about it in a spoof video here.

However recently, I decided to give this advice a 2nd chance. It happened during my judging at one of the college’s speech competition. The winner wasn’t exactly eloquent or funny. He hasn’t gone through any formal speech training yet he stood out among the rest of his contestants. I suspect it was because of his PERSONALITY. He was real and imperfect which makes it easy for his audience to relate to.

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Can you believe it?! This blog has survived for yet another year! I once read somewhere that 4500 blogs are created everyday and almost 80% of them never lived through first year. That’s why I think it is absolutely legitimate to kick a BIG FUSS for being around for 730 days!! Judging from the number of exclamation marks I have used in one line, you can tell how excited I am. C’mon, I wasn’t even that excited about my own birthday this year…
So how has The Public Speaking Blog fared for the past one year?

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This is the second time I am reading Craig’s article and I strongly recommend you to invest 5 minutes of your time to read it as well. Why you may ask. Because you are about to uncover one of the secrets of world-class speakers. By the way, he is 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking.

I read this article about three years ago when I was still considered a rookie in public speaking. And right after that, I signed up for a coaching program led by five of the world champions of public speaking. And this decision has reaped me five national trophies, a public speaking blog ranked top ten on google, three media features, a book on public speaking and my very own clients - about 3000 for workshops and 20+ one one one!

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I just got back from a half day judging of the NFL-IDEA qualifier held in Anglo-Chinese Junior College. NFL (National Forensic League) and IDEA (International Debate Education Association) are responsible for organizing the US speech tournament, and this year, they have invited Singapore to be part of this prestigious competition. And I am glad to be part of the judging team.

During the briefing session, one of the judges asked “So should we give more weightage to the delivery or the content?”

And the organizer replied, “It’s up to you… in fact, here’s the guideline - The judge is always right.”

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“I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand.”

If you want your presentation to be memorable even after 90 days, I strongly encourage you to INVOLVE YOUR AUDIENCE…. through DOING. Couple of ideas for you to try out.

1. After teaching a concept, get your audience to split into groups. In their groups, discuss a scenario where they can APPLY the concept. Once that is done, have them send a representative to share what was discussed.

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Late last year, I started the Friday special that went down in flames after a month. 3 reasons why. Laziness, laziness, laziness. Not necessarily in that order. And then early this year, fellow blogger Andrew Dlugan did us a big favor by giving a low down on 86 public speaking blogs. And instead of visiting each site to sieve out the good stuff, I did something really lazy (to my credit).

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We just completed a four week speech coaching program with Millennia Institute. As part of the finale, we organized a speech competition among themselves, idol style. Couple of insightful pointers that were brought up by the judges which deserved to be studied here. I promise to be brief. (grins)

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The last post was a fairly long one, so I shall keep this one bite-size. Under 300 words if I can. One of the problems that speakers have is this - “I have done all the necessary research, but I still feel like I am not prepared. What should I do?”

Here’s a list of three killer tactics that I use very often that will help allay your fears and uncertainties, and even score with your audience!

1. Get flesh time with your audience before the whole program begins.

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