Eric in action (speech coaching)

If you have been a frequent visitor of The Public Speaking Blog, you will realize that I seldom do promotions or get you to buy anything unless it serves a purpose i.e. the product helps you become a better speaker in the shortest amount of time. Today is such a occasion.

I have three goals for this blog entry.

One, I want to be FULLY TRANSPARENT to you and tell you only the truth.

Two, I will reveal the profound but strangely unknown reason why you are struggling with public speaking or any other skills in life.

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There is a astronomical number of public speaking resources out there on the web and it is almost impossible to read every one of them. Agree?

What if there is someone who compiles all the quality entries and update them at a period you request (say 10 mins?).

This means that you will have the latest and most relevant speaking strategies at your disposal. And instead of searching for them like a needle in haystack, you can now read the selected few and be assured that they are the best.

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A creative ad by Mini Cooper placed at the Zurich , Switzerland train station, shows people climbing into or out of the car, when they are actually entering or exiting stairs. That’s persuasion at its best! More examples below.

I just listened to an mp3 interview with Paul Endress, persuasion extraordinaire and found some of his persuasion techniques insightful. He is also the man behind the persuasion article written for The Toastmaster (May 2008 edition). If you want to listen to the full version of the tutorial, click here. If you are in a hurry, you can first check out my notes below.

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This time, we’re going CORPORATE. Did you know that stories are THAT powerful? Its use can be extended even in our super competitive world of business!

I’ve written an article before some time ago about using stories to pitch better, sell faster and win more busineses. But recently, I found another gem on how to use stories in the business context. This entry is inspired by that book, “Storytelling: Branding In Practice” written by Klaus Fog, Christian Budtz and Baris Yakaboylu. In fact, I’m holdng on the book so tightly that its been a month overdue. (I hope no one working for the National Library Board is reading this)

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I was casually browsing through some blogs when I stumbled upon a new article titled “25 Ways To Help A Fellow Human Being Today” at Zen Habits. And then a couple of hours later at a coaching program, “compassion” became the word of the day. I took that as a hint to write an article revolving around compassion. And riding on the theme of this blog, I am going to share with you my list of 13 ways you can help a fellow speaker today. (Please add on to my list so we can hit 25!)

If you are the audience…

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(That’s me in action at Raffles Junior College)

It has been a crazy two weeks for me which explains the awkward silence in The Public Speaking Blog. However I will like to assure you that I am still alive (thankfully!) and I have prepared a couple of interesting entries for next week. Meanwhile, let me share with you a recent article sent to me by Patricia Fripp, one of the more well known coaches in USA.
…….

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TO ALL MOTHERS WHO ARE READING THIS: HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!! *HUGZ*

If you have not wish your mum a happy mothers’ day, please do so right now. No no, this entry can wait. Go on.. wish her. Make sure you give her a big hug and tell her how much you love her. In fact, you should do it everyday because they deserve it.

Clockwise from left: Eileen (my sister), Dad, really beautiful Mum and my girlfriend, Yiting.

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Have you experienced the weird atmosphere which comes after a funny story you’ve cracked fell flat on the target audience?

Or, do you have the belief that you are, simply, not funny at all?

Even the most confident speakers may falter when it comes to the skill of injecting humour adequately in their speeches. Not to worry, though, as this entry aims to offer several tips which, I hope, will guide you in adding just the right dosage of humour in the right moment so as to make your stories or punchlines work.

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After one week plus of dry spell, it is time to turn this blog up a few notches.

And I shall start off by sharing with you a video taken by my friend Bo from Massachusetts, USA. (I was interviewed by him on podcast last year for The FAQ Book on Public Speaking - scroll down to interview #11) Possibly one of the funniest table topic speech ever! For the newly initiated, table topic is a speech delivered by a speaker on the spot, so this trains you in your quick thinking skills and organizational ability. However, this table topic session was slightly different. The audience are told that the speaker will be given a particular topic while the speaker was given another. As you can see from the video, the mis-match causes the audience to break up in fits of laughter. This, by the way, is a comedy technique.

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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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