Inspired by Andrew Dlugan’s recent post “Stop Rehearsing! 3 Critical Things to Do Before Your Speech“, I will like to add to his list 7 more things you can do before your speech to take the nervousness out of you.

First, let’s do a quick recap of his three excellent pointers.

1. Study the venue logistics
2. Meet your audience (extra tip: build before rapport)
3. Watch, listen and participate in the event agenda

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“Would you have quitted drinking?!”

Yes, I know it is the weekend and I am NOT suppose to be blogging. Or at least that was my promise to my mum who thinks I work too hard. In my defense, blogging isn’t work… it’s something I enjoy doing, especially since I know I have an audience. YOU! (grins)

Anyhow, I think you would love this entry! So read on.

Why is humor so important?

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How do you attract positive attention and draw a sizeable crowd to you?

This is a question I ask myself when I did my first book talk in KL. Unfortunately, I could not find any credible or relevant information that answers this burning question of mine. In times like this, I improvise.

The good news is some work and I will like to share them with you.

Here are the workable ones that have been refined after three book talks.

1. A crowd attracts a bigger crowd… hire groupies if you need to

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I just got wind from my publisher that The FAQ Book on Public Speaking has hit Kinokuniya’s bestseller! (DO THE CHICKEN DANCE!) And we are very close for MPH and Borders. Not sure how many books we sold thus far but hey, bestseller at one of the top bookstores in Singapore… that should mean something right? And here’s the best part, we haven’t been actively promoting the book. So I suspect it has got to do with YOU! So here’s a BIG hug from me and Andrew.

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Pictures tell a thousand words but where do we get arresting images for our presentation slides? And for free?

One site I will strongly recommend is stock.xchng but recently I have been using pictures from flickr. Seth Godin wrote an entry on it last week.

If you need photos for a presentation or website or brochure, try Flickr.

Go to advanced search, choose Creative Commons Commercial license and search away. The breadth is extraordinary, but what will amaze you is the quality. And the license is a generous gift from the photographer to you.

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… there are some HR companies that will shuffle all the resumes for the week and then throw the first 50 in the trash can because they do not want to hire unlucky people?

I shared this interesting quip with my students at Raffles Junior College the other day and that got their attention immediately.

As a speaker, you are going to face moments where your audience will be bored, distracted or exhausted. More often than not, this happens because there is no variety in your speech. Patricia Fripp, a well known speech coach in States, aptly pointed out that sameness is the greatest enemy to speakers. Put it simply, when you become predictable, your audience switch off.

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This is a guest post written by a new online friend of mine, Perrine Oh. He found The Public Speaking Blog via The FAQ Book on Public Speaking and later initiated a really thoughtful email. To cut the long story short, I read 10 entries he wrote in one seating. My conclusion - this guy can write! And one of the articles that stood out is the one that you are going to reading right now. Perrine, take it away!
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