Top Five Public Speaking Articles To Read (9/11/2007)
Here’s my top five recommendations for this week.
Conquering Your Fear of Public Speaking
Steve Tobak, tech executive and blogger at CNET, has a few words of advice to help anyone facing down a crowd get into the right frame of mind. To avoid feeling isolated and on-the-spot, for example, interact with your audience:
Draw them into your presentation by asking leading questions and encouraging interaction. You’ll instantly feel more comfortable, and so will your audience. A great side benefit is it will make you a far more dynamic and engaging speaker.
Other helpful tips include knowing your material cold and asking yourself “What’s the worst that could happen?” If you want more tips to overcome the initial jitters, click here.
One of the common problems I notice about experienced speakers is their lack of structure, partly because they can get away with it. However flawless delivery does not equate clarity.
Let me give you a recent example. Last Tuesday, I had the chance to listen to this speaker who is clearly well trained. (I later found out that he is a corporate trainer) He had the audience engaged right from the beginning. He was animated and funny, which makes him entertaining to listen to.
However, at the end of his presentation, we had no idea what we have learned. His speech was like cotton candy, sweet but with no substance. Even his evaluator commented that he was not focused. For five minutes, he shared with us about the unsung heroes in our lives. And then in the middle, he spoke at length about personal leadership and then ended with how Sri Lankans should stand up for what they believe in. So what exactly is his point? Is being a hero about having the ability to lead ourselves? Or is it to stand up for what we believe. But if so, why aren’t the examples he shared supporting these points?
It’s never a good sign if you leave your audience with more questions…unless your purpose is to have us reflect. In this case, the spaker had us reflect on the effectiveness of his speech.
Hope you got my point. And yes, you can now go ahead and check out Gavin’s post.
With Brad’s Humor College running on intensive mode, I have been spending two hours everyday studying humor. The above entry is one article that I chanced upon.
I have learned a lot in the process, so much so that for the next few weeks, I am going to download what I have learned to my subscribers (in the SpeakEZ mailing list). Here’s a couple of emails I will be sending out.
- How to be funny even if you are not funny
- How to write an imbroglio story (an acutely embarrassing story that happened to you)
- What to do if your jokes bombed
- Reviews on the Humor College program etc.
If you are not yet in my mailing list, I suggest you do so. You get EXTRA privileges like free reports, download links to ebooks, audios, videos and even discount vouchers for public speaking products. The form is on the top right hand side of this blog. You won’t miss it.
250 Things To Gurantee Your Speaking Success?
There is this blogger from Canada (Andrew) who wrote an extensive entry in response to the list I created early this week. Though I do not agree with all his pointers, it is still worth your time to look at it. It’s always good to hear from other people’s perspective. I am definitely going to bookmark his blog because Andrew has written quite a number of great posts relating to public speaking. If you enjoy seeing me ripped, this is the article you got to read.
Special e-Book Download: 250 Things You Wish You Know That Will Guarantee Your Speaking Success
Shh… I intentionally placed the special download link last, so that only the conscientious bunch of you will notice. Recall the ultra-long post I wrote a few days back, now you can have all the 250 speaking tips in a printable ebook where you can refer to at any time of the day.
And have a great weekend!
Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach
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