Mike Perras asked:




It should be obvious these are not the same thing. There are a great many people that engage in public speaking and ultimately, a rare precious few that actually speak well!

Most politicians are public speakers, most do not speak well. JFK is a great example of an articulatory master. He could take almost any phrase and articulate it in his Kennedy style that would make it memorable. His famous “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for you country” is the classic example. Let’s be fair but let’s be honest too, these words in of themselves are by no means profound. They were delivered in such a way that made them seem profound. JFK had a gift, a gift we can all be learn from, he was clearly a master of speaking well.

The perception one gives when he or she speaks well is one of authority. Of course the opposite happens when one does not speak well. You may know your stuff better than anyone else, but because your speaking-well skill set is underdeveloped, the perception is that you are not an authority and thus not taken as seriously as you deserve.

Let’s be honest here, speaking well is not easily learned in a book. It’s an exercise that requires regular practice and coaching. No one is blessed at birth with a speaking well gene. It’s something that is developed over time. There is no easy quick fix here.

Most professional people understand all of this and many are in coaching programs to improve this one area. We can all dress for success in 60 minutes or less. We now have the optics in place until we have to speak that is. Those that have both working at the same time are clearly in the very top 5% of their profession.

Everyone acknowledges the advantages of speaking well. And again, it’s that top 5% that are willing to do what it takes to further their speaking well skills. This knowledge is within the grasp of anyone. Keep in mind also that speaking well is ageless and without gender. In fact I guess it needs to be said, the better you look, male or female, the higher the expectation when you speak.

I have been a professional broadcaster and public speaker for 30 years. Enunciation and articulation were my personal coaches. I certainly would not have lasted long without either. I still practice speaking out loud every day, it’s an exercise I’ve never stopped doing. Practice, practice, practice!

So your action item here is, do I continue on as a public speaker getting the same results? Or do I step it up a notch and learn to speak well and join that top 5% group.

Cheers,

Mike Perras, P.Mgr

Keith Longmire asked:




Most of us are familiar with using visual aids in our public speaking. Even if you are not an active public speaker yourself it is pretty certain that you have suffered from the odd day or two of ‘death by PowerPoint’. There are alternatives.

One of the most memorable presentations I ever saw used a child’s toy as a prop. Jon was a project team leader. He had to give an update on his project to a group of team leaders, project managers and support staff. An audience of twenty five to thirty in all.

On the face of it his subject matter was not that great. He was responsible for the implementation of a payroll outsourcing service. The client was a pubic service works company. They were particularly well known as refuse collectors in the London area though the services they offered were much more wide ranging.

All in all, the client employed around 20,000 monthly paid staff and almost 10,000 weekly paid workers. At $2.00 a payslip this deal was worth just short of $1.5m per year. No small matter for a relatively junior project leader.

I was a bit surprised that Jon didn’t prepare any slides. Instead he turned up with a large plastic supermarket bag. When it came to his turn to present Jon stood up with his bag in his hand. He outlined the basic details above. And then reached into his bag and pulled out a pretty well used and abused child’s toy. It was a battered refuse truck.

Jon then proceeded to use features of the toy to illustrate his project.

To start with Jon pointed out that the two characters in the cab of the truck were not looking at each other. He used this to describe the relationship between the client’s project manager and their existing payroll manager. They didn’t get on, weren’t communicating with each other or him.

He then spun one of the wheels – it was distinctly wonky (does that translate in American?). When pushed the truck moved reluctantly and erratically. Again Jon used this to describe the difficulties in maintaining progress, directions and momentum.

The presentation continued in this vein for some time. Each quirk of the truck was used to illustrate some feature of the project. All delivered with wit and controlled humour.

Once we understood the difficulties Jon then explained what he had done to correct each problem. The wheels were aligned and balanced, the headlight fixed, the suspension greased.

At the end Jon pulled out a new toy refuse truck. It was bright and shiny and in the client’s corporate colours. Jon then removed the 2 figures from the cab of the first toy and placed them in the cab of the new one. Both figures were still rigidly facing in opposite directions. It seems he had fixed all he could but he couldn’t get these two protagonists talking.

Now, I can’t remember all the points that Jon made – it was more than five years ago. The fact that I remember the presentation at all is truly remarkable. How much of your public speaking is as memorable?

Next time you are tempted to base your public speaking on a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation you might just consider if you could use a prop instead.

BigMoneySpeaker .com asked:




Have you ever wondered how you can develop a poweful and effective speaking voice?

The sound and tone of your voice can greatly affect the effectiveness of your speech. The audience is normally receptive to pleasant sounding voices. Clarity and inflection are essential as well.

In public speaking, the voice is the carrier of the information. If your voice lacks volume and clarity, the message will be poorly received. Monotonous sounding voices lack the personality and will bore listeners. For these reasons, speaking voices can make or break the success of the speech.

Fortunately, speaking voices can be developed and improved. With consistent practice and proper training techniques, your speaking voice will develop into a very pleasant and influential tone.

The only way to improve your speaking voice is through practice and exercises. But you must hear yourself speak first. So, try to rehearse a speech while recording it. It will be better if you don’t try too hard at first. Try to speak as naturally as possible so you can determine if your normal efforts will sound good enough.

After the recording, listen to your voice. Take note of your flaws and determine the parts in which you hear yourself having difficulties. You must know the what gives you most trouble.

These are the common blunders in speaking voices and the ways to remedy them:

1.    Low volume

Having an inaudible voice is public speaking mortal sin. You are not whispering to your spouse; you are addressing a crowd!

Low volume can be a result of poor confidence but if confidence is not the problem, insufficient lung power or lung capacity is the likely reason. To resolve this you must loosen up your speaking muscles and do some breathing exercises.

Take a deep breath. As you exhale, vocally count to ten. Increase your volume in every count. Repeat as often as you want.  Keep in mind to breathe from your diaphragm and use your stomach muscles for volume not your throat. Straining your throat may harm your vocal chords.

Learn to relax the muscles above your neck. Loose muscles will not fatigue easily. It will be much easier to control your voice if you are loose and relax. The muscles from the throat, jaws, and nasal airways are only used for effect such as, pitch and tone. They should not be used for volume increase as much as possible.

Posture is also important. A straight and relaxed posture will allow you to expand your lung capacity and lets the air in your body flow easily.

2.    Monotone

Speaking in monotone makes it look like you lack personality and you won’t be able to arouse audience interest.

Try to speak with passion. Learn to emphasize important phrases by breathing into them while using your throat, jaw, and nasal muscles to produce inflection.

Don’t try too hard to speak out of your natural pitch. Be natural but professional sounding. Humming in different tones can help develop pitch control.

3.    Pacing

Fast pace will give the audience a hard time to catch up while too slow of a pace will turn off people.

You must not forget to breath and pause. Start your speeches slowly because you tend to increase the pace as you get along with your speech. Fast pacing will often result to gibberish. Articulate the words if you have a tendency to speak fast.

Kevin Hensey asked:




For some, spiders; for many, ghosts; others would say heights, but there are those who would admit that public speaking is their greatest fear.

It is actually normal. Come to think of it, there is nothing more frightening than having to stand up and speak in front of a group of people who could sleep, shout at you, laugh at you, or leave while you are talking. Even actress Debra Messing of Will and Grace surprisingly had this fear all her life. And she’s an actress! Imagine how much worse this could be for those who haven’t even had the chance to go up a stage ever in their lives.

Thankfully, public speaking is a fear that can easily be overcome. If you are not exactly fearful, but you think you still need improvement on it, then don’t worry as well. You can improve your public speaking skills quite easily by following the tips below.

Be prepared and practice. The value of preparation can never be overemphasized. It adds confidence and substance to your speech.  Research well about the topic you will talk about and try to find the best way to present it. Outline your points and use cue cards if necessary. Practice your delivery to make sure that your talk will not exceed the time allotted for you and so that you could also asses your delivery yourself. If you are to speak in a very important engagement, try to practice your speech in front of someone who could properly assess how you have done.

Know your audience. Technically, this is still part of being prepared but it is just so important that it calls for a separate entry. Knowing your audience provides you with valuable insight on the type of presentation that would appeal best to them. It guides whether you can be casual and funny or whether you would have to be serious and sophisticated. It also gives you great input in streamlining your speech by suggesting what you need to include and what you can do without.

Dress the part. As much as we refuse to admit, image is everything. How the audience responds to you highly depends on how they perceive you. Generally, you would appear as a more convincing speaker if you are dressed well. Also, since the audience will have to look at you anyway, might as well make that experience a pleasant one for them.

KISS. Keep It Short and Simple. Even geniuses have limited attention spans. Do not bore your audience to death with a speech that is too long. The faster you can get your message across, the better. A short and simple message also appears smarter and it prevents you from being perceived as someone who came unprepared. It also allows your listeners to retain what you have said easily.

In addition to these, your public speaking skills will also be improved if you practice establishing eye contact with your audience. Also, if the occasion and your resources will permit, you can use visual aids such as slide presentations, product samples, handouts, etc to stimulate your audience’s attention. To cap off your presentation, you should be able to answer the audience’s question confidently and with tact.

Remember that there would really come a time when you will have no other choice but to speak in public. So you might as well be ready when that time comes. It could either be a disastrous or a pleasant experience for you; and you have all the power to make the most out of it. Follow the tips above and you’ll surely be on your way to become a natural at public speaking.

HOW TO BE A PUBLIC SPEAKING SUPERSTAR:

http://publicspeaking.pan100.net/?e=kevin121554@yahoo.com

SpeechTime asked:

Elmer Fudd isn’t the best public speaker. But he makes a great public speaking teacher!

Christopher Byrnes asked:




Although public speaking is generally regarded as a monologue, this monologue is usually addressed to a willing and receptive audience who desire to learn from you as much as you desire to offer them something worthy. However, it has to be said that how much your audience is able to learn from you, will depend to no small degree, on how you connect with your audience, in short on how effective your public speaking audience centered approach bears out.

Following are some common-sense, but effective points that, put into practice, will immediately improve your audience-centered approach to public speaking:

Greet your audience in advance

Minutes before your actual speaking engagement, why not walk around the venue and familiarize yourself with the people who will be listening to your speech or presentation? As the audience and the attendees arrive, offer them a warm and sincere greeting. The reason for this is that it is is so much easier to deliver a speech to people with whom your are acquainted, however briefly, than a sea of unfamiliar faces.

Be positive

Trust in the fact that people expect and want you to succeed. Audiences want to be as informed, stimulated and entertained by you as they can be. If they have taken the trouble to attend your presentation or speech, they want to get as much out of the event as they can, so all paranoia aside, they are on your side. They empathize with you. If you fail, they cringe with you. Succeed and your audience reaps the benefits of message your great speaking performance set out to convey.

Don’t apologize!

If you approach the audience by saying that you are nervous or if you express your apologies to any problems you think may exist about your speech or your speech delivery, you may be setting them up to focus on the very thing you are apologizing for. If you do bring up your fear, you’re drawing your audience to the very thing you wanted them to . Relax and be silent and your audience will relax with you. Learn some basic deep breathing and relaxation techniques, such as those freely avalable on the Internet.

Establish strong eye contact

An audience-centered approach towards public speaking requires that you connect with your audience, appearing natural. You’ll know you are well on your way to mastery when you can get the audience to nod their heads as an acknowledgement of what you are trying to convey. Do not breeze through your speech. Instead, pause for a while or for a brief moment, especially at those points you want to emphasize. You should also avail yourself of this opportunity to establish eye contact with your attendees as well as to catch that much needed breath.

Don’t get drawn into a debate

If, during the question and answer part of your speaking engagement, all or part of you audience expresses disagreement with any part of your message, let go of the need to impose your point of view on your listeners. If you encounter those ‘awkward’ attendees who continue to make a point open for debate, getting into the debate can very often be highly counter-productive. The best way to deal with such ‘hecklers’ is to offer to continue the conversation after your speech. This not only demonstrates a high degree of professionalism, but it also allows you to get onto other questions from other attendees, without causing friction.

Incorporate the simple elements above into your speaking and you’ll see that public speaking, an audience centered approach can work for you.

sheila Mulrennan asked:




Think of the last really memorable talk or presentation that you attended. Now, was that easy to do, or did you really have to rack your brains to remember one? Sadly, too many presentations are easy to forget. And that’s a big problem because the only reason the presenter gave the talk was to communicate something to you.

However, there are four basic things that you can do to ensure that your verbal messages are understood – and remembered – time and time again.

Although somewhat obvious and deceptively simple, these are:

Understand the purpose of the presentation

Keep the message clear and concise

Be prepared

Be vivid when delivering the message

Understand what you want to achieve:

Before you start working on your talk or presentation, it’s essential that you really understand what you want to say, who you want to tell and why they might want to listen. To do this, ask yourself: Who? What? How? When? Where? Why?

Who are you speaking to? What are their interests, beliefs and values? What do they share in common with others; how are they unique?

What message do you wish to convey? One way of answering this question is to ask yourself about the ‘success criteria’. How do you know if and when you have successfully communicated what you have in mind?

How can you best put across your message? Language is most important here, as are non verbal cues such as body language and expressions. Choose your words and non verbal cues while keeping your audience in mind. Plan a beginning, middle and end. If time and place allow, consider and prepare audio-visual aids.

When? Timing is important here. Develop a sense of timing, so that your contributions are seen and heard as relevant to the issue or matter at hand. There is a time to speak and a time to be silent.

Where? What is the physical context of the communication in mind? You may have time to visit the venue, for example, and rearrange the furniture. Check for availability and visibility if you are using audio or visual aids.

Why? In order to convert hearers into listeners, you need to know why they should listen to you – and tell them if necessary.

The Importance of Simplicity:

When it comes to wording your message, less is more. You’re giving your audience headlines, too much information will overload and bore your listeners.. They are not expecting to become experts on the subject as a result of hearing your presentation, therefore simplicity is best.

If you’re using slides, limit the content of each one to a few bullet points, a single statement or a very simple diagram.

Preparation:

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. In fact, it is the most important factor in determining your communication successes. When possible, set meeting times and speaking and presentation times well in advance, thus allowing yourself the time you need to prepare your communications. Each minute of a presentation deserves thirty minutes preparation.

Of course, not all communications can be scheduled. In this case, preparation may mean having a good, thorough understanding of the office goings-on, enabling you to communicate with the knowledge you need to be effective, both through verbal and written communications

Successful Delivery:

The manner in which you deliver your speech or presentation has a lasting impact on your audience. Again, preparation is paramount here, in order to hold the listeners attention. Some useful tips for keeping your presentation vivid include:

Use examples to bring your points to life

Keep your body language up-beat – don’t stay stuck behind a rostrum

Don’t talk to fast. Less is more here too. Pauses are effective.

Use a variety of tones of voice

Use visual aids.

Presentations and public speaking, although daunting, can be a very enjoyable, rewarding experience, once adequate time is taken to prepare and rehearse them. An enthusiastic speaker who is confident with their material will make a lasting memorable impression on their audience.

Kerrie Espuga asked:


Public Speaking:  3 Tips to Remove Workplace Fears
 
Fears at work are countless:  Public Speaking, fear of conflict, fear of small cubicles, and fear of speaking up. Why are the phobias at work are endless? Why is it that Public Speaking is still on the top of the phobia lists? Wikipedia quotes fear of public speaking as stage fright affecting as much as 75% of the population.

Most careers require an adequate ability to present which is vital to continued success. Could Fear of Public Speaking actually be the fear of rejection? Fear of being seen as weak? Fear of being put on the spot? Since this topic continues to resonate, here are some tips to overcome these fears and anxieties:

PREPARE:

Proper preparation exudes confidence. Always use bullet points for your presentations. Memorizing speeches can result in freezing on stage. Use a format instead (e.g. opening/3 main points/closing) and you will know where you are during all stages of the talk. Following the format in your own words will make you sound conversational and relaxed. See yourself as the Expert. Know more about the subject than expected (have some reserve power for after your talk).

PUT YOUR AUDIENCE FIRST:

Be genuinely interested in your audience. How will the purpose of your talk benefit your audience? What are their needs? What steps in their lives should they take which will help them? Is there a dramatic effect on the audience if they take make these changes in their lives? Did you research their interests before going on stage? Do you have intriguing facts about that particular audience to capture their attention up front? As an audience member, we enjoy Speakers who smile, tell memorable stories, are passionate, and honestly care about us.


PRACTICE:

Practice in front of a mock audience (perhaps co-workers if they have a similar need). See if the stories work. See if the audience is engaged. Be open to implementing their feedback. Practice without coaching is like not practicing at all. Think of fluent speakers who had great impact. Chances are they took the above approach to overcome their fears to convey conviction and confidence.

Trina Paulus once said, ‘How does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” Take the opportunities to prepare, put your audience first, and practice, and you, too, will become the envy of others! Chime in at meetings when you normally wouln’t. Challenge yourself to be the first participant to chime in on teleconferences. Have you taken the opportunity to speak in the community lately? Remembe that old quote: “You miss 100% of the shots not taken.” How can we become proficient if we’re not consistently practicing?

Kerrie Espuga is Founder and Managing Director of Corporate Trendsetters, a NY professional training consulting company. Her expertise includes Public Speaking, Team Building, and Sales/Management Training. Kerrie has extensive experience in Corporate America at Fortune 500 companies, including facilitating/training, selling, and coaching/managing in the Pharmaceutical industry. She’s an exciting innovative Facilitator, who enjoys keeping groups engaged to enhance the learning! Kerrie Espuga, Managing Director Corporate Trendsetters Training Consulting http://highpowerpres.com/Test/gen-step1.php

awesomeseminars asked:

Very cool secrets from Neil lazarus

tom antion asked:




One of the most common problems I see, even with experienced public speakers, is that they do not seem to be capable of standing still when they should. It is very distracting to try to listen to a public speaking presentation when someone is wandering and swaying around on stage.

I have stated in previous articles that you should move at least three steps, in a particular direction, and for a purpose whenever you move on stage. Small to and fro movements during your speaking engagement are very distracting. As we move into a century that will likely include more distance / TV training, keeping still is even more critical when you are speaking in public.

When you are on TV or video your movements are magnified. I got a good reminder lesson in keeping still while doing the weather and traffic report for a broadcast station in Orlando, Florida. I was all set to be my highly animated self. They put me at an anchor desk and turned me loose with a set script on the teleprompter. My normal performance looked absolutely ridiculous. In fact, it wasn’t even close to being acceptable for the tight shot they used. I had to stay perfectly still with the exception of my head and eye movement and facial expressions.

You can practice this at home with a simple video camera zoomed in to a tight close up shot. Either stand or sit and don’t move your shoulders and arms at all. Talk to the camera and only allow movement from the neck up. To do an el cheapo simulation of a teleprompter, cellophane tape a script on to the bottom of the lens of the camcorder.

Once you master this technique and can convey all your non-verbal information with only head and eye movement and facial expression, you can add small amounts of body, arm and shoulder movement as the video shot gets wider.

Learn to make a home run presentation everytime!