The Best of The Public Speaking Blog In 2007
Inspired by Copyblogger, I have decided to do a round-up of this year’s best received posts with a little running commentary of what is notable for each month.
This would also be an excellent opportunity for you to do some catching up or revisit some of your favorite posts of the year. So come walk with me… there’s something I want to show you, something that I want you to touch. And it’s not very far away. In fact, it is just a scroll away. Shall we?
January
I kickstarted the blog with Top 7 Presentation Bloopers To Avoid that has been well received by many other websites over the year. Some of the notable ones include Ezine Articles, SPIN TrailBlazers magazine and GetEntrepreneurial.com.
Made an attempt with podcasting. Did the first one in early Jan on how to battle your stage fright and sadly, it was also the last one I did. The main problem is getting the right sound equipment. However, with some technical help, you will probably see this up and running again next year. Cross your fingers.
In late Jan, I was hit with an epiphany which led to this post - 101 Public Speaking Tips At Your Disposal. If each one of you shares with me the best advice you have received so far with regards to public speaking, I can easily get a 101! Sadly this post was buried among all the other posts, and as the saying goes “out of sight, out of mind”, hence I only got 87. So if you, my friend, have not sent me yours, scroll down to the comments segment and write me one. Once I have compiled a 101, I will post it on the blog for all to benefit.
February
I took a 10 weeks class with local celebrity Irene Ang on hosting. Who would have thought that she would later become a contributor to my very first book “The FAQ Book on Public Speaking“. I later wrote three posts centering around hosting skills:
Wednesdays with Irene Ang
More Juciy Tips on Hosting
Lights, Camera, CRAP-tion
Thanks to a suggestion from one of my blog readers, I invited Chris King and Scott Young for an exclusive interview on public speaking. Turned out to be a very good thing as they brought in a lot of fresh insights on becoming a better speaker. And along with that, a doubling of my blog traffic!
March
The Public Speaking Blog turns one! There was a lot of celebrating and a lot of thank-yous. However what was most touching were the generous well-wishes that I received from you, supporters of The Public Speaking Blog.
“For me, visiting your blog is very much a past-time (i’ve syndicated the site into my google reader!) where I can pick up interesting stories and tips now and then and incorporate into my own presentations (getting better day by day i hope!).. the upbeat style of writing can cheer me up from a boring day of tutorials and project reports too lol.. can someone tell me how you keep your passion and cheery spirits going all day? =p” - Stan
“It’s with the pointers from your blog that I did well for my communications module!! My classmates and professor were surely impressed!!!! I felt challenged to put up my slides on Slideshare’s World’s Best Presentation Contest. It was a joy to see it being featured!!! Thank you Eric, for it is with your sharing attitude that helped me improved.” - Kok Koon
“It has only been a few months since I registered to your emails and I am sincerely glad I did so. I love the way you inspire us all proclaiming failure as not an obstacle but rather an another form of achievement. The snippets of examples from your own life are inspiring. You have given us access to valuable talks by well known established speakers and insights into speaking techniques followed by them. I have benefited greatly…you have become a friend who helps me, inspires me and teaches me how to conquer every situation with the power of words. YOU ROCK!!!!” - Ritika Taragi
Need I say more - Thank YOU!
April
April was a breakthrough month for me with the win at the International Speech Contest, Divisional Level. I had the chance to represent my university at the District level in Hong Kong. Unfortunately due to prior commitments, I could not make the trip. Nonetheless, I grew a great deal throughout the intensive two months of competition and I even wrote an extensive article to my club members at NUS Toastmasters to share my experiences - A Letter To NUS Toastmasters
It was also in early April when I casually wrote this post “So tell me, what will you ask?” which led to the birth of my first book - The FAQ Book on Public Speaking. If not for the 286 questions that we received over that single week, the book will never have been written. Amazing isn’t it?
If you are living outside of SG and you want a copy of the book, click here. If you are living in SG, visit Geek Terminal to make purchase. If you want the book NOW, click here.
May
The Public Speaking Blog went on a full month hiatus with the increasing number of coaching and training commitments. Fortunately that were two guest posts by Carmine Gallo and John Kinde that saved the month - Designing The Perfect Presentation and President Bush’s Second Career - Stand-up Comedian?
June
It was the usual until this post came along - Cue Cards: To Use or Not To Use? that led to a spike in traffic.
Upon investigation, I found out that a fellow blogger Nancy Tierney has written a separate post countering practically every point I made on why we should do without cue cards. Not long after, Darren Fleming, a public speaking coach in Australia came on board to join in the good fight.
On hindsight, it turned out to be a very good thing for our readers because they are treated to a diverse viewpoint on a rather controversial topic. Oh and all three of us became fast friends. You will notice their blogs in the list of recommended sites.
Here are the top three most well-received posts for the month:
Now More Than Ever, You Need To Know This…
How NOT TO Use PowerPoint
If You Only Have One Day To Live
July
One night, I decided to crank up a post on how to deliver a technical presentation, and that was after much procrastination. And the next day, I was totally blown away when I found out that the blog has experienced a 400% increase in traffic, with over 300 new sign-ups to the SpeakEZ mailing list in a day. Turned out that the culprit was Digg and Steve Jobs. The Public Speaking Blog never looked back since with the increased traffic, visibility and responsiveness from you, the most revered reader.
July was also a fun-filled month because I organized three gatherings with the readers of The Public Speaking Blog. The first one was on Friday 13th (oooooh) which was a big success. We even had a wine tasting session! Click here, here and here to read more about the gatherings. Now that I am back in Singapore for good, I will definitely be organizing more meet up sessions. So see you real soon!
Other notable posts:
The Pointlessness of PowerPoint
Do You - As A Speaker - Leverage?
Must Read For Toastmasters - How To Evaluate Like A Pro
August
The activity thermostat was tuned up a few more notches in the month of August with the announcement of the book deal, our campaign against sucky public speaking advice and our first book interview with Blog Talk Radio.
I also started a blog series titled “7 Eric-trifying Ways To Charm The Pants Out Of Your Audience” which later led to several training engagements in Singapore.
Not forgetting that August was a month of teary goodbyes as I embarked on a five month training assignment in Sri Lanka.
Other notable posts include:
7 Sure-Fire Ways To Kick-Start Your Presentation
Seriously… Go Naked At Your Next Presentation
The Audience Don’t Care If You Succeed Or Not
September
Like Copyblogger, September was a month where things go crazy, traffic wise. This was partly due to the publicity we received from various media channels, for example Business Times, Lianhe Zaobao, News Radio 93.8, SG Entrepreneurs and GetEntrepreneurial.com.
I also took Andrew (my business partner)’s advice and came up with my personal list of top 10 most influential bloggers on public speaking. The score was based on frequency, quality of content, traffic, authority and personality. Here are the results. And thanks to this list, readers of this blog took the initiative to share with me their favorites which creates even more visibility to the other public speaking bloggers around the world.
John Kinde, one of my favorite bloggers invited me to write a guest post at his blog which I happily did - So You Think You Can Make A Singaporean Laugh? The Toastmaster editor later contacted me and requested permission to publish this in their monthly magazine. Not sure when it will be out though, but I will definitely let you know when it does.
One of my favorite posts for the year has to be this one - If This Is Your Last Speech, What Will It Be About?, inspired by Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon computer professor (and founder of Virtual Reality) who was diagnosed with an incurable pancreatic cancer. This was probably his last public speech as the doctors have only given him a few months to live. He is still alive by the way as I am writing this and I am very thankful for it!
October
Following the whirlwind of events happening in September, I finally took up courage to attend the Toastmasters meetings in Sri Lanka and boy was I surprised by the speaking standards the locals uphold, in a good way of course. Here are two posts that were written on my experiences at the local clubs.
Who Says Sri Lankans Aren’t Funny People?
The Day I Stepped Into A Sri Lankan Toastmasters Club
I also shifted gear and tried my hand on the topic of influence and persuasion. Two were very well received by the readers. They include Here’s How To Be Right All The Time and Ten Timeless Persuasive Speaking Techniques
The Public Speaking Blog also received added publicity from Talking Toastmasters and Blogbuzz TV. It was also the first time I get grilled on air… with no mercy, but it is all in good fun. (Check out talking toastmasters podcast). And yes, we also officially launched the electronic version of my first book - The FAQ Book on Public Speaking. This event was extremely significant because it led to our meeting with Kok Hwa, our publisher! If not for him, we won’t have been able to launch the hard copy by end of the year.
41 Ways To Connect With Your Audience And Make Them Like You (my first longest list!)
Excuse Me, Are You A Boring Speaker?
The Fundamentals of Being A Funny Speaker
November
November was another strong month all thanks to this post - 250 Things You Wish You Know That Will Guarantee Your Speaking Success, which created quite a buzz on the blogosphere.
It started with Andrew Dlugin at Six Minutes who wrote a fairly long post challenging many points that I have raised. And then a day later, Life Hacker picked up the article (thanks Kevin!) and bang! Traffic at The Public Speaking Blog quadrupled (again) overnight with 829 new visitors and the “250 speaking tips” entry was posted on 14 other blogs.
We have also prepared a
And that’s not all, I was featured on Business Week (US) later in the month as one of the top 25 young entrepreneurs of Asia, which again boosted the blog’s visibility.
Since good things come in threes, I also had the honor to review Brad Montgomery’s latest creation - The Humor College which I recommend you to seriously consider, especially if you want to find out the real secrets for getting huge laughs, thunderous applause and rave reviews! It led to a series of edu-emails that I sent out to my SpeakEZ subscribers on how to be funny based on the humor college. (If you are not yet a subscriber of the SpeakEZ mailing list, go back to the main page and sign up. The form is at the top right corner - you can’t miss it!
December
The year ended with another bang - the launch of my hard copy book at Geek Terminal. (by now, you should have memorized the title right?) It was a private party of about 80 people including bloggers, media, editors of various magazines, representatives from the publishing industry and of course, the authors, their families and mentors. We partied from 6PM all the way till 11PM. It was insanely crazy… but fun of course. I even got to meet a lot of new friends from Ping.sg and entrepreneurs who were featured with me on Business Week. So where are the pictures and videos? On the way, on the way… you will see them early Jan, I promise.
Though the number of articles were reduced significantly (due to the increased number of X’mas and year-end parties), there were still some note-worthy one. You gotta check them out:
Here’s How To Be Funny Even If You Are Not
The Shortest & Most Powerful Tip I Have Received
So You Want To Speak But You Can’t Think Of What To Say?
I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Ping.sg for featuring The Public Speaking Blog in their December’s newsletter. It’s an honor indeed, especially since there are hundreds of extremely insightful and entertaining local blogs that are worth mentioning as well.
What’s Going To Happen in Year 2008?
If you think 2007 is exciting, wait till you see 2008! Here’s a sneak preview:
I am in the midst of confirming my second book deal (on public speaking). So apart from the usual suspects like Patricia Fripp, Darren La Croix and Tom Antion, you are going to hear from two other world champion speakers, Craig Valentine & Mark Brown. Other contributors include Doug Stevenson, Sam Horn, Michael Port, Glenna Salsbury, Stephen Shapiro and Marcia Wieder. That’s how many brains YOU are going to be able to milk, to help you become a highly confident and compelling speaker in the year to come.
In 2008, you can also expect more fresh content from other top-notch speakers, well-respected bloggers and YOURSELF! Yes, I have decided to open up my blog for external contributions. This way, you get to experience a richer and more diverse viewpoints on various aspects of public speaking (content, delivery, humor, presentation etc).
I am also planning to do more featured interviews (one a month?) as well since the best way to learn is from modeling after very successful speakers. We will get them to reveal their best-kept secrets, share with us their tactics and techniques and most importantly, to reveal their mindset and programming. If you have anyone in mind that you want to learn from, feel free to drop me an email at eric@ericfeng.com
There will definitely be more meet-up sessions in the coming year. This will be an avenue for me to bring in good speakers and even speech coaches to answer any burning question that you may have on public speaking. So how is this different from Toastmasters? Well, for starters, you decide how you want the session to run. Is there a topic that you want to explore? Do you have a presentation that you want to get feedback on? Are you exploring new speaking techniques? It will be informal, so this will also be a golden opportunity to wind down and get to know one another. Think of this like a social gathering. In the previous meet ups, we had wine tasting session and a chef to teach us how to bake tiramisu. I will definitely keep all of you posted.
There’s more but I shall leave it till next year. It’s just a few days wait anyway…
Looking back, 2007 would not been so fun, fruitful and fulfilling if not for you, my most revered reader. Thank you very much for your support and I look forward to another year of serving you and helping you become the best speaker you can ever be.
Wish you good luck, good health and most importantly, a good year ahead!
To you,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach
