Make the points in your speech easily and cleanly with analogies

Sometimes, as speakers, we need to make a point that is just too new, or strange, or huge or threatening for our audience to grasp. It can certainly be a challenge and I am so grateful for analogies and the way they can easily and simply and cleanly do the job that we need to do in sharing that information.

An analogy works by relating the element that we want the audience to understand to something that they do understand, something with which they are familiar. It works because we are not very good at remembering concepts that come as words or as numbers, but we retain and understand far better if something is left in our minds as a picture or an image, particularly if it is something we have already seen or experienced. And that’s what analogies can do, leave your audience with an image and an understanding that they will remember long after your presentation has finished.

Analogies are extended similes and metaphors, and because they link your new or difficult concept to something that is familiar and understood by your audience they create a very human aspect to your point – and, by extension, to you as the presenter. Martin Luther King, in his “I have a dream” speech, compared the needs for civil rights to cashing a cheque. He said,

“In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a cheque. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.
This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of colour are concerned…”

This is a metaphor, but it cannot stand on its own. King could have said “We have come to our nation’s capital to cash a cheque.” But to make it understood and easily grasped he extended it with an explanation and it became an analogy, a powerful analogy.

As speakers we can all do this – compare our concepts that might be difficult to understand and remember with something that is relevant to our audience, something that resonates with them, something they can picture. And because it is their right brains that process that picture, it will remain with them after we have finished the speech. We have used an analogy to create a connection that will guarantee success for the point we are making.

And finally, to make that connection more powerful, make it relevant, make it resonate. Choose something that will appeal to your audience, something they understand, something they relate to. Use your research into your audience to guide the choice.

When it comes to finding analogies, look to your own life. Keep the major points of your speeches in the front of your mind as you move around your day. Look to the things around you, the people, the stories, the events, particularly with those points in mind. You will find that there are analogies everywhere, once you start thinking about things in that way. And because they are your own comparisons, from your own thoughts and your own life, they will have a powerful authenticity to them.

It can be a lot of fun, finding those analogies, and in the process you have a very useful tool to use.

© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years’ experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being admired, rehired as a speaker, confident and sucessful, with the 30 speaking tips. Click here for 30 speaking tips for FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com
 
 

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Public Speaking tip – The Mental Blank

That terrible moment when someone loses complete track of what they are saying – there is a blank, their face drops, and then becomes more and more frantic. This is painful not only for the speaker but for the audience.

Develop a strategy now so that if, despite your best preparations, a blank happens, you have something to say. You could remark, “Oops I’ve lost it” and maybe you can add some appropriate humour (“Must have left the speech in front of the mirror!”) and then add something like “Now where was I?”

Look at your notes if necessary – “We were talking about …”

If it’s really bad, ask the audience.

Whatever strategy you use along these lines, you keep the audience, and yourself, moving on, returning to target and none of you is embarrassed. So if you fear the blank moment, be prepared with a strategy that will allow you to deal smoothly with the situation.

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Do you know where you are going?

“The audience only pays attention as long as you know where you are going.”

– Phil Crosby

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Build your brand with stories

Stories are a subtly powerful way to support your speaking outcomes. You can use them to support the points you want to make, but you can also use them to position yourself in the eyes of your audience. When you speak you need to be seen as an expert, though an approachable expert, and the audience needs to understand you and your why. They need to know why they should listen to you and why they should do what you expect form them at the conclusion of your speech. You also have an opportunity to establish yourself and your brand in their memories, through the power of storytelling.

Here are 4 specific ways you can use storytelling to build your brand.

1. Identity

Tell stories about yourself. There are several benefits to this. You can identify yourself as someone your audience can relate to – someone with credibility. You can also show that you are not perfect – reveal a flaw (though not a serious one!!) or a mistake you have made. This makes you seem human, and by revealing vulnerability, you build trust. You can use self-effacing humour here, and if it is the sort of mistake that your audience has made, then they can relate to you, and your story will be the stronger for it. This same story or another one, should progress to show your authority in your subject, establish you as the expert or the source of expertise your audience needs to solve their problems.

2. Why

Use a story to reveal your why – why it is you are in business. This, too, builds trust and shows that you do not have a hidden agenda – are authentic – and makes you appear less “salesy”. People have more empathy with you once they know your why, particularly if it is similar to their own.

3. Understanding
In a business speech, particularly, but in any speech, you are working to break down resistance to your persuasion. If you can tell a story that shows you recognise your audience’s thoughts – their objections – you can show you respect them – understand and respect them and their views. You will, of course, show that those objections are not applicable to this situation, but you will have communicated your respect and therefore established more trust.

4. Authenticity
Find stories about yourself and about your business – true stories. Everyone has a story – from the past, from the present and about the future. And so do businesses – stories about their beginnings, their present and their futures. Spend time finding the ones you can use to establish your brand. Because you have chosen true stories, their authenticity will not be compromised. Beyond that, create stories, do things that are story-worthy – or tell stories about other businesses that indicate the values you hold in your own.

Stories position you as someone the audience can relate to on their own level. Stories position you as someone to whom they can go to solve their problems. Stories position you as someone they can trust. And they do this very subtly but very powerfully. What are your brand stories – personal or business?

© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years’ experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being admired, rehired as a speaker, with the 30 speaking tips. Click here for 30 speaking tips for FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com
 
 

3 ways a microphone can contribute to your success as a speaker

For all sorts of reasons, speakers will decide not to use a microphone. They are not confident that they know how to use it, they believe their audience will be able to hear them, they consider that they have projection skills, they have spoken in the venue before … and more.

For all sorts of reasons, though, a microphone can enhance a speaker’s success. Here are three….

1. It is very easy to take our voices for granted. Vocal chords are, in fact, easily damaged and that damage can be permanent, irreversible. Even though you are capable of projecting, the sustained effort of projecting can contribute to damage. A microphone will help prevent you straining your voice.

2. Generally, you become familiar with the size of group you can speak to comfortably, without straining your voice, and so that everyone can hear. There are, however, other reasons that people may not hear, beyond the size of the group. It may be that your audience is elderly and hard of hearing. It may be that there is a little child or children in the audience who are noisy. It may be that there is machinery either within the room, like an air conditioner, or outside. It may be that there is another function or a noisy kitchen beside your room. It may be that people in your audience do not share your native language or do not understand some of your terminology.

Obviously, you need to research your audience to discover how they will affect your need for a microphone. Visit the room before your presentation if you can. Find out what is happening on the day and at the time you will be speaking. Test the acoustics. High ceilings can make it more difficult to be heard, for example.
And yet, despite all your research, you cannot always foresee what is going to be happening on the day. So if at all possible have a microphone available, and then if something unexpected happens or the audience is too large for your comfortable projection, then you will be prepared.

3 A microphone has the ability to improve your voice, not just prevent it being damaged. It will give you the ability to speak in a more conversational, more personal way and connect more strongly with your audience. If you have a lapel or handheld microphone it will also allow you to get closer to your audience for an even more personal approach. It is also a great way to add power to the points you want to emphasise.
It can also improve a soft voice, although this is difficult. Generally a person with a softer voice needs to speak directly into the microphone, always. Because of the inability to project, if they turn their head away at all, the voice will be lost.

So learn to project, but always ask for or accept the offer of a microphone. It will add impact to your speech and help save your voice. And you can always leave it off if you so choose.

© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years’ experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being admired, rehired as a speaker, with the 30 speaking tips. Click here for 30 speaking tips for FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com

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Presentations in Action

80 Memorable Presentation Lessons from the Masters

by Jerry Weissman

Weissman shows you how to

Content: Master the art of telling your story.

Graphics: Design PowerPoint slides that work brilliantly.

Delivery: Make actions speak louder than words.

Q&A: Listen more effectively, and handle even the toughest questions.

Integration: Put it all together in one seamless, winning presentation! => http://bit.ly/NCM4ER

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8 Ways to harness the words that you use for public speaking success

The ways you use language and words in your speeches and presentations can make or break your chances of success.
 
This is because success in public speaking depends on how well your audience understands your message and responds to it. They won’t understand if you lose their attention, because they will stop listening. They won’t understand if you distract them from the message. And they certainly won’t understand if they cannot understand the language you use.
 
So let’s look at 8 ways to get and to keep – that understanding and attention – using words
 
 
1. Avoid losing the audience. Be sparing with dates, figures and statistics. These are all very powerful ways to support your points, but overuse them and they just become boring, and your audience will turn off. If data is absolutely necessary, use your slides to create a visual rendition of it. Tell stories about it. Find some way to relate it to your audience – percentages of people like them, for example, or of their country.
 
2. Don’t forget to credit your sources for all of these as you would for your quotes. Support your credibility!
 
3. You can also avoid boring your audience by varying the pitch and the volume and pace of your words. Use pause for drama. Speak quickly to communicate your energy and enthusiasm, and then use a slower rate for emphasis. You can also deliberately vary the structure of your sentences. A single word can have huge impact used on its own, particularly if it comes after a wordier segment. All of these are keeping your audience hooked.
 
4. Remember the rule of three. There is a creative vibration in the number three – and you can create impact using it. So you might list in threes – “Faith, Hope and Charity” is an example of a list of three. Or you might repeat a particular phrase structure three times, for example “You could try words, you could try deeds, or you could always try good food.” Use the technique sparingly, though, or it will outlast its welcome, and be more of a distraction then a support.
 
5. We all have short attention spans. This is exacerbated in these days of communication delivered in truncated, rapid-fire bytes. So you have to organise your presentations so that you do something frequently to keep attention. Change your delivery style. Support your words with a new visual. Challenge with an activity for audience involvement. Tell a story. Whatever techniques you use, introduce them often and vary them. Each will have its own impact, but make sure that impact supports your chosen image and message.
 
 
6. Use humour if you can, create vibrant word pictures and tell stories to reinforce concepts. These will allow you to avoid presenting a continuous flow of theory which will kill audience attention and it will give vividness to your material that will make the message last in the minds of your audience – powerful impact.
 
7. Consider your audience when you are choosing the words that you use –the vocabulary. Speak to them in a language they understand. Look at your technical terms, and any jargon that they may not understand. Use examples, stories, quotes and other support material that has relevance to their lives and their interests. You will keep their attention and their interest.
 
8. Finally, remember this is a speech or spoken presentation. Spoken language is very different from the written. Writing tends to use far longer, more convoluted sentences, which often use voices that we would not use in speech. Try reading out the sentence you just read and see how awkward it sounds when it is spoken. Again, it is a case of speaking to the audience in their language – the language they expect to hear spoken. So if you need to write your presentation first, take the time to read it out loud, and then say those same ideas as if you were telling someone face to face. If you absolutely have to have a written draft, then re-write using what you said aloud. Make sure, though, that you can make eye contact.
 
A speech or presentation is, after all, a conversation, despite the constraints of expectations and formality, and in any conversation, we need to make ourselves worth hearing. The audience is the determinant of what we say if we want to be successful, to maintain their interest, don’t bore them and speak to them in their own language and you will have a fruitful “conversation.”

© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years’ experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being admired, rehired as a speaker, with the 30 speaking tips. Click here for 30 speaking tips for FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com

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Create a deep connection with your audience – be authentic

Being your authentic self as a speaker is a vital tool in creating a connection with your audience. They need to be able to identify with you as a person who is just like them. They need to know that you are sincere and believe in your material. They need, above all, to know that you can be trusted. And that is not going to happen if they have the slightest suspicion that you are not being true to yourself and your communication with them.

This is not always easy. Being a speaker, establishing a connection with your audience, you need to find a balance between being authentic on one hand, and on the other, speaking in a language and a tone and with content that resonates with your audience. It is possible, but something that can easily be destroyed, sometimes with the best of intentions. Here are six ways you can maintain your authenticity and your connection with your audience.

1. Be yourself. It is tempting, seeing someone else who is successful, and admired, to want to copy their style, their energy and even their content. After all, what worked for them should work for you. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t! You cannot be yourself if you are being someone else. Audiences want more than a performance of someone else’s material. And so do you! The dissonance between you and the persona you are trying to create will make it awkward for you and will alert the audience, no matter how hard or well you perform. If you must copy, copy only those things that fit with your own natural, personal style.

2. Choose your support material wisely. Stories are a powerful way to support your material and make your points when you speak. They create an unconscious deep resonance with your audience that makes persuasion so much easier. Build authenticity into this process by using your own stories. Use stories about yourself or about your clients. Choose stories that you are passionate about. Tell them all from your own perspective (so long as they support the point you are making) and you will have the real you, making the point, with so much more power.

Humour is another strong speaking support. It builds connections on its own. If the audience is entertained, they will stay for the ride far more readily than if they are bored. Obviously the humour has to be chosen so that it supports your case, and does not fall flat or, worse still, insult. And the best humour to cover all those bases is humour about you. And in the same way that you used stories, you will inject your own personality and consideration for your audience into the humour and, in doing so, build authenticity.

3. Speak with passion. Feel your passion for your subject, and for communicating it, and ramp up the energy. If you allow this passion and energy to get through, you speak with confidence. Confidence communicates that passion, the fact that you know your content, and that you are confident to share it – the very basis of authenticity. An audience is far more likely to engage with someone who knows and cares what they are talking about and is confident that it will be useful and worth sharing.

There is a saying that “enthusiasm is contagious.” And it is so true. If you are enthusiastic about your subject then your audience likely will be too. It is very difficult on the other hand to be enthusiastic about material that is not your own. Before long the mismatch between your own beliefs and enthusiasms and the material you are presenting will show. It might not be obvious, but there will be a feeling of discomfort for you and for the audience, and the reality of your authenticity will be in question.

4. Create alignment. Your enthusiasm and your belief in your material should be enough in themselves. But it is worth remembering that everything that you do when you speak must be in alignment. Everything you do, everything you say, every movement you make must support everything else and they all should work together to support the point you are making, your enthusiasm and your passion. Any fidgeting or body language expressing nerves, for example, will undermine the image of confidence. Speaking in a monotone will destroy the feeling of passionate energy … and so on. It may be that you need some coaching to make sure that how you look, how you speak and how you move are congruent, because if they aren’t you undermine your authenticity.

5. Be aware of your audience. You are having a conversation with your audience. The conversation doesn’t have to be verbal on their part. But it will exist, nevertheless. And, to be authentic, any conversation has to be relevant, and interesting and appropriate, to the parties involved, or it will close down. So you will need to be aware of what is going to be relevant, interesting and appropriate to this particular audience, just as you would be in any conversation. Be aware of who they are. Be aware of how they respond to you, right from the moment you stand to speak. Be aware of whether your earlier research into them and their likely needs, wants and reaction has been successful and that what you have planned will make your presentation relevant to them. You need to adjust at least your attitude and presentation style and possibly your content and its order of presentation to how they respond to you. If this is to be a successful, connecting conversation, then you need to make it an authentic one.

6. Know yourself. Do the work to know who the authentic you really is, what your authentic speaking style really is. A lot of this will come from practice, from being confident enough to engage fully with an audience. I means being yourself, not trying to be perfect, but focussing, instead, on giving generously to your audience, and interacting with them. When you can try that style of presenting, you can find out just what works best for you, what an audience responds to and what really creates a connection. Then you can polish and re-use it in other presentations.

Let the real you shine through in your speeches and presentations, and be confident and assured that your audience will relate, connect and respond.

© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years’ experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being admired, rehired as a speaker, with the 30 speaking tips. Click here for 30 speaking tips for FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com

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Yes. 50 scientifically proven ways to be persuasive

Every day we face the challenge of persuading others to do what we want. But what makes people say yes to our requests? Persuasion is not only an art, it is also a science, and researchers who study it have uncovered a series of hidden rules for moving people in your direction. Based on more than sixty years of research into the psychology of persuasion, Yes! reveals fifty simple but remarkably effective strategies that will make you much more persuasive at work and in your personal life, too. => http://bit.ly/JzqjVU

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No defeat!

The virtue of all achievement is victory over oneself. Those who know this can never know defeat.
 
A. J. Cronin

(Overcome your fear of public speaking, and WIN!!)

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Knock down the wall between you and your audience in public speaking

The first piece of public speaking that I can remember doing was in about the second year of school. Every year of school, we learned several pieces of poetry by rote, wrote them in our best handwriting in our poetry books and recited them together each morning. I loved that poetry – loved the writing, the sound of the words and the way they fitted together in a new form of speaking. But in the second year of school, it was decided that each person in the class would recite the poem to the whole group. We were instructed to stand out the front, in the middle, with our hands clasped together with the finger tips of each hand nestled against the fingers of the other – “cupped” I think, is the word for it.

I don’t remember being nervous, but remember standing there. I don’t remember what the teacher may have said was good about my presentation, but in perverse and fairly normal human style, I have never forgotten being told that I had swayed while I spoke.

And that was the beginning of years of fear of public speaking. Obviously perfection was expected here and obviously, too, my body could not be trusted to be perfect without my strict supervision. By Year seven, the public speaking exercises had graduated to coming to the door of the classroom, knocking and asking “Are you Nelly Reddy?” That was too much! I would discover a sudden need to go to the bathroom –and stay there. It got to the stage where the teacher asked my mother if I was having some sort of health issue!

My love of language and an ability to use it reasonably well meant I built a successful career in public speaking at high school, but always at the expense of suffering horribly from nerves. There was still the expectation of a performance, and the degree of perfection against a set of criteria was always forefront in every experience.

I have worked hard over the intervening years to overcome the fear, because despite it all, I still love public speaking. And one of the best feelings these days is the feeling of being able to stand confidently on a stage and have a conversation with the audience. Another best feeling is knowing that that is the common trend in public speaking today as well. I watch “Show and Tell” in primary school and watch as the teachers make each child feel comfortable, supported, encouraged and never judged. I read about public speaking and see the growing number of people discussing this need to be perfect and what a burden it is, and how unnecessary.

The concept I love most is the idea of the performance/perfectionism as placing a wall between yourself as a speaker and your audience. Perhaps it should be refereed to as a screen, in the way that a screen holds a movie or video separate from its audience.

And of course the antidote is to break down the wall, take yourself out of the screen and see yourself as having a conversation with your audience. You can be so much more authentic as you be yourself in conversation rather than a performing persona. You can be so much more engaging as you interact, in conversation, with your audience. And as a speaking consultant I can now encourage my clients to be themselves – their best selves, mind you, but still their authentic selves.

© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication. please do. but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years’ experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to admired, rehired as a speaker, with the 30 speaking tips. Click here for 30 speaking tips for FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com

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Public Speaking and Presentations for dummies

With the right preparation even the most nervous speaker can deliver a winning presentation. Public Speaking & Presentations For Dummies shows you how, from drafting your content to honing your tone for a perfect delivery. More confident speakers can find expert advice on getting visual aids right, impromptu speaking, dazzling in roundtables, and much more. http://bit.ly/IRsnKf

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Confidence + energy + enthusiasm = passion = engagement

ps_tip_passion

So what is this elusive thing called “passion” in public speaking?

It’s an overused word, “passion”, and yet it is an attractive concept – a person who is passionate.

Well …

a passionate person is enthusiastic.

There is a saying that “enthusiasm is contagious.” And it is so true.

If you are enthusiastic about your subject then your audience will be too.

Behave this way and you create the impression that the subject is worth talking about, worth learning and worth sharing.

And if it is worth talking about, worth learning and worth sharing, then your audience will be engaged, doing just that – learning and remembering and repeating what you shared.

A passionate person is confident in their enthusiasm.
 
If you speak with confidence, you give the impression of being authentic and sincere.

Confidence gives the impression that you know your content, and that you are confident to share it.

An audience is far more likely to engage with someone who knows what they are talking about and is confident that it will be useful and worth sharing.

A passionate person shares their passion with energy.
 
Speaking with energy shows your passion for the subject and for your opportunity to share that passion and the information.

Energy presents itself at different levels, though.

It does not mean presenting for the whole time with high energy.

You will need to go into the speech at the energy level of the audience or you will seem strange, seem to be outside their circle, their experience.

You can build the energy, or tone it down to suit.

Try to avoid speaking quickly and excitedly the whole time. It will get boring and will be wasted just as much as speaking in a monotone will.

Keep the power of that passion by using pauses, by using deliberately slow speech and by creating down time. They work just as powerfully as speaking quickly and with excitement.
 
Combine those three elements of enthusiasm, confidence and energy and you have passion, and passion creates engagement with our audiences.

© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication. please do. but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian. writer. award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk . a certified World Class Speaking coach. and has had 30 years experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, do you want to be 3 times the speaker you are now? Click here for 30 speaking tips FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com 

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Technique, Style, and Strategy from America’s Top Speaking Coach

The Power Presenter: Technique, Style, and Strategy from America’s Top Speaking Coach

Jerry Weissman

Learn the successful presentation techniques used in over 500 IPO road shows and featured in The Wall Street Journal and Fast Company.

Filled with illustrative case studies of Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, John F. Kennedy, and many others, The Power Presenter will bring out the best in anyone who has to stand and deliver.
Readers of The Power Presenter will have access to video clips referenced in the book. => http://bit.ly/ICHA1E

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Quotation about Public Speaking

It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.

~~ Mark Twain

(Thank you so much for your insight, Sir, again!!)

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Be confident in becoming a Speaker, not a PowerPointer

So much is written about the problems of PowerPoint. There are so many lists of dos and don’ts for PowerPoint presentations. But in the end, the answer to producing an engaging, successful presentation actually does not originate in the use of PowerPoint itself. It originates in the speaking skills. Good PowerPoint presentations are presented by people who are good speakers first, and who apply those skills to their PowerPoint as well.

A good speaker does not allow PowerPoint to be a wall to put between themselves and the audience. She uses it as a visual aid to the words and the presentation style of the speech. It is not the dominating feature of her presentation. It has to be the speaker, who leaves the impact and the memories with the audience, not the PowerPoint slides, excellent though they may be. Her speaking skills will make the difference. PowerPoint simply supplements them.

With or without PowerPoint, a good speaker will respect his audience. He will prepare the speech so that he can give full attention to the audience and engage fully with them. If he is reading his slides, or using them as a memory prompt, then that respect is obviously diminished. Did he care so little for this audience and this occasion that he could not be bothered to fix his material in his head so that he could engage with them?

With or without PowerPoint, a good speaker will be able to engage with her audience using many techniques. Speaking is so much more than the words used. If it were not, then those words could be put on the slides and emailed or printed and posted. Making a presentation in person gives you a vastly increased chance of persuading, inspiring or affecting your audience with all sorts of vocal, content and presentation techniques that are completely impossible with words alone. So if you put all of the words on the slides, or many of the words, then the attention of the audience is focussed on those words and you waste the power of your presentation techniques.

With or without PowerPoint, a good speaker has the skills to maintain attention and engagement. This negates the need for flashy, distracting animation. It negates the need for multiple slides for each point. The slides should be unobtrusive and supportive of the spoken word, not the focal point of engagement and attention.

With or without PowerPoint, a good speaker is prepared. In PowerPoint, this means having words in a font size suitable to the room so that they can be read easily by anyone in the audience.
She knows how to use the equipment and has set it up and tested it, if at all possible before the presentation begins.
She can adapt her presentation to allow for audience interaction. The presentation is flexible so that she can respond to questions and obvious needs specific to this audience.

She has spent the time necessary to make the slides as effective as possible. This means giving time to design, ensuring all backgrounds, layouts and font are consistent. It means ensuring that the backgrounds are simple and do not create distraction from the main point and image. It means choosing images and words that support the message and no more. It also means choosing images that will appeal to this particular audience as well as establishing the brand and personal image that she chooses to represent. None of this can be done successfully by either putting the presentation together at the last minute or chopping pieces from other presentations that were not designed for this audience or situation.

All of these attributes of a good speaker – respect for an audience, being able to engage an audience, and being prepared – are also what make a PowerPoint presentation successful.
……………………………………………

(c) Bronwyn Ritchie
If you want to include this article in your publication. please do. but please include the following information with it:

Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being confident, admired, successful, rehired. Click here for her 30 speaking tips FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com 

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Overcome obstacles and convey your message with confidence, poise, and persuasiveness

The 7 Principles of Public Speaking

Richard Zeoli

With The 7 Principles of Public Speaking, Richard Zeoli makes the common sense, gimmick-free program he’s offered to business leaders and political candidates available to everyone. => http://bit.ly/IjaYFJ

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Quotation about public speaking

“No more than six words on a slide. Ever. There is no presentation so complex that this rule needs to be broken.”

– Seth Godin

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Public Speaking success comes from knowing your audience

Your audience knows whether you are speaking to them, of just presenting information. They will either feel the connection or tune out very quickly. With any conversation, whether it be informal or a formally presented speech or something in between, you keep that conversation going by choosing things to talk about that interest the other person, get them responding. So you need to know what interests your audience, what they will respond to.

This is what underlies the construction of most of your content.

It is the reason to talk about the benefits of a product instead of the features.

It is the reason to use language the audience understands.  Look at your technical terms, and any jargon that they may not understand. Use examples, stories, quotes and other support material that has relevance to their lives and their interests. You will keep their attention and their interest.

And if your presentation has been advertised in media or in a conference program, the material in that advertising is what drew people to your session, so try to stick to it, or they will disengage very quickly.
 So research you audience before you create your presentation if you can.

 Find out as much as you can – their age range, gender, income levels, dreams, needs, wants, culture.

 You can gain much from a registration form.

 You can ask the event manager.

 In your preparation routine, you can mingle with them before your speech.

 Then you can use that information in constructing your speech. If you need to persuade, for example, you can use your knowledge of their interests and dreams.

 You will choose language that they understand, and that is not irritating or offensive to them, and subject matter to suit that audience – themes, supports, anecdotes all will be tailored to them. Find out how best to dress, speak and what will meet their needs, or solve their problems and you have the first step to keeping their attention.

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(c) Bronwyn Ritchie
If you want to include this article in your publication. please do. but please include the following information with it:

Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian. writer. award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being confident, admired, successful, rehired. Click here for 30 speaking tips FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com 

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A clear, engaging guide, not only for those speaking to the business world.

Working the Room
by Nick Morgan

Through entertaining and insightful examples, Morgan illustrates a practical, three-part process—focusing on content development, rehearsal, and delivery—geared toward engaging an audience on every level: emotional, intellectual, and physical. Presenters from novices to seasoned orators will learn how to:

• Craft an “elevator speech” that concisely nails the key message.
• Prepare a compelling “story line.”
• Rehearse effectively.
• Involve the audience.
• Choreograph body language to reinforce the core idea.
• Channel nervousness into positive energy and passion.
• Master the technical details of voice, posture, gesture, and motion during delivery.

Whether speaking to a handful of employees or a keynote audience of hundreds, anyone can use these principles to give speeches that challenge minds, impassion hearts, and empower audiences to change the world, one idea at a time. http://bit.ly/IwOYLn

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Book to Read: Secrets Of Superstar Speakers

Secrets Of Superstar Speakers: Wisdom from the Greatest Motivators of Our Time

Lilly Walters

Top speakers such as Anthony Robbins and Lou Holtz reveal how they work their magic. Using the same winning formula that propelled her Secrets of Successful Speakers to sales of over 85,000 copies, best-selling author Lilly Walters examines what makes the cream-of-the-crop motivational speakers stand above the rest. She interviews or does detailed profiles 19 superstars–including Maya Angelou, Les Brown, Jack Canfield, Deepak Chopra, Stephen Covey, Sir Winston Leonard Spenser Churchill, Elizabeth Dole, Mark Victor Hansen, Lou Holtz, Vince Lombardi, Sr. and Jr., Earl Nightingale, Norman Vincent Peale, Christopher Reeve, Anita Roddick, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Dottie Walters, and Zig Ziglar. Perhaps more importantly, she interviews hundreds whose lives have been changed when they heard the words of these superstar speakers.

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How to speak on the spot – successfully

Being put “on the spot” can be a challenge. And yet to some it seems so easy. They rise to the occasion, speak fluently, seemingly without preparation, and with such ease. We would all like to be able to emulate them – that effortless presentation of ideas, that seemingly impromptu connection with an audience, and an outcome that establishes them as credible and convincing.

In this article, let’s look at 6 techniques you can implement to build your fluency and confidence, so that you, too, can seemingly present with effortless ease.

1. Stand very deliberately and take time to begin. Pause. Smile if it is appropriate. Take a moment or two to think if you need to, and to ground yourself physically. Stand up straight to build confidence.

2. Do not apologise. You will have something to say even if it is about what you don’t know about the subject and why. Apologising ruins your confidence, deflates the audience’s confidence in you and is generally demoralising. It is also a waste of the opportunity to create a great attention-getting opening that leads into your ideas.

3. Begin with a strong opening and with confidence. Make a bold statement of your theme or to introduce what you want to say. It may be a challenge to the audience. It may be a strong statement of belief. The emphasis here is on the word strong. You convince your audience, and in the process, you convince yourself that you are confident and have a strong theme.

4. If necessary, repeat the topic out loud, either as an opening or following the strong opening. It gives you the feeling of gaining time, and it helps you develop your theme and tie it into the topic.

5. Scary though it may be, maintain eye contact. You and the audience are all in this together. Share the experience. Make the tone conversational so that you engage them in your material and presentation. Use words that you would use with them in conversation. If possible relate your material to someone in the audience or the organisation involved or to the geographical area.

6. Stick with your topic. Use your stories, examples and other support material to relate to that topic. Call back, if possible, to your opening statement. Stay focussed on your message.

7. Take questions and answers if there is time and/or opportunity, but not right at the end. Instead, finish strong. If nothing else, conclude with a reiteration of your opening statement rehashed in light of what you have said during the speech. If there is no need to thank anyone at the end, then a nod and/or smile is enough to finish, and can be far more powerful.

Add a dash of practise to this recipe. With experience you can build these techniques into habits so that they come to you more easily. With experience, and success, your confidence will grow. And with experience you will become more comfortable with not only speaking “on the spot”, but also interacting with your audience “on the spot” as well.

© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:

Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. Get her 30 speaking tips FREE and boost your public speaking mastery over 30 weeks. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com

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Visual aid – The Swinging Ball of Death

… a wonderful example of using a visual aid – Who needs PowerPoint?!! Watch the language he uses, and the use of pause

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Public Speaking Tip: Extremely Small Customization

[Via Tom Antion]

“When speaking to a very small group of people you should be able to include an extremely large amount of customization. You should have researched the group and done your normal homework including phone interviews with the expected attendees (if it is a public event and you don’t know who is coming, be set up way early so you can greet and interview people as they arrive.) Jot down a note of why each person attended. Then, when a section of your talk applies to them, point it out and name them by name.
Example: “John, you told me you wanted to learn how to sell more to the people that visit your website. This section specifically addresses that, especially the part about the psychology of the sale.”
Don’t assume that people will perk up when you come to the part that specifically applies to them. Make a big deal to point it out to them. You will be adding an extreme amount of value which makes them realize that it was a good thing they attended. Oh and don’t forget they’ll love you for it.”

Your Question and Answer Session – 3 ways to set yourself and your audience up for success

1. Encourage questions

I’m sure you have been to a seminar or presentation where the speaker asks for questions and there is an uncomfortable silence. It is embarrassing to say the least – for the presenter and for the audience. Perhaps it has happened to you. There are four ways to avoid this situation.

You can ask the audience to ask the person sitting next to them what they took away from the session. Some people ask for “ah-has”. Then you can ask for the outcomes of that discussion and extend that to comments and questions.

You can begin with a question yourself – say it is one that you are asked or have been asked in the past. Provide the answer and then ask who has the next question as though the audience were already alive with questions.

Before you begin your presentation, you can set up people to ask questions for you. Provide them with the questions if necessary. That way you can begin with something that will provoke more questions, or even set up for some humour to make people more relaxed and open to asking.

Avoid the danger of asking a closed-ended question. Rather than asking if there are any questions, ask “Who has the first/next question” or, more powerfully, “What are your questions?”

2. Create Impact
Answering questions is as much a speaking exercise as the presentation itself, so the sorts of techniques you use for success in your speaking will work here too.

Add impact to your answer by answering with a story. Making information interesting, relevant and memorable is just as important here.

While your whole presentation is a conversation, it is a public one. So treat the individual asker of the question with respect, and then answer to the group. That respect includes thanking the person. It includes avoiding sarcasm and giving the question its due. Repeat the question. This is partly to make sure everyone has heard it. It is also an opportunity to ensure you have understood the question thoroughly before you launch into your answer. It can give you, too, an opportunity to think about how you will respond. If you know that you always need this time to think, use pause here, to buy yourself that time. But make sure you pause for every question!

3. Be Prepared

Spend time anticipating the sorts of questions this audience will ask. It will give you a chance to prepare the best way to answer. It means getting to know the audience beforehand, which you will have done in the preparations for the presentation anyway. Talk to the event organiser, talk to other members of the organisation and if at all possible talk to the audience before you present. Not only will this give you an understanding of how the audience members think and what they need, and a foundation for preparing for their questions. It will also give you material you can use in your presentation and in your answers that are specifically customised to this audience and even to specific members.

You can also prepare some humour to use as well. You can inject humour into the answers to lighten the session and, if necessary, to deflect any discomfort.

Finally you can prepare cards on which you can ask people to write questions during breaks or before the session.

Being prepared is “half the battle” when it comes to any public speaking challenge and it applies just as much to your question and answer sessions. If you are prepared with ways to smooth the process, with an understanding of your audience and the questions they might ask, with a set of boundaries and with Plan B, C and D, then you can turn your Q&A from a fear-invoking challenge into a positive, powerful experience.

© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:

Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. Get her 30 speaking tips FREE and boost your public speaking mastery over 30 weeks. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com

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The Exceptional Presenter

The Exceptional Presenter: A Proven Formula to Open Up and Own the Room

by Timothy J. Koegel

It’s often reported that the number one fear among American adults is public speaking. But in today’s competitive business world, effective communication is a crucial skill, and the cost of being less than effective is quite high. From the White House to boardrooms worldwide, Tim Koegel has strengthened presentations, media relations and communications skills of CEOs and world leaders alike with his renowned coaching abilities. His new book, The Exceptional Presenter, lays out his techniques in a format perfectly suited to today’s busy world.
 This little hardback is incredibly easy to read. Extremely well organized, it’s written in clear, jargon-free language. Each of its many lessons covers just a few pages, and is composed of short, straight-to-the-point paragraphs. Sized to fit easily in the side pocket of a laptop case, it’s an ideal way to kill time at an airport gate, on a flight, or even during those dead half-hours that often pop up between convention sessions.

Better still, this book really delivers on its promise. => http://bit.ly/wpKj8H

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In Speaking, “Sell” Is a Four Letter Word

It’s weird. Professional speakers, who are often paid thousands of dollars to give a one-hour talk, are expected to “sell from the platform” – that is, encourage audience members to go to their product table at the back of the room to buy their books, CDs, DVDs, notepads and promotional items using a short commercial at the end of their talk. The problem is that when the pitch goes on too long, it can backfire.

But as a free speaker who is typically compensated only with a free meal or a small gift, you are not supposed to sell at all. Why? Because you were invited to speak by a particular group; you were not hired by them. It is understood that you are there to educate, engage and entertain that group, not take the occasion to promote your own agenda.

The problem is that you ARE there to sell something, and you should expect the investment of your time, effort and money in securing and giving your presentation to pay off in terms of product sales, new clients, referrals, or some other form of financial return. Here are six ways you can encourage your audience to take action on your behalf without turning them off:

1) Change your thinking: Think of sales of your products as a way to nurture your relationship with your audience, rather than as change in your pocket. The only reason people will buy what you have to offer is because your talk touched them or taught them something, and they want to take you home with them. Buying your book, CD, etc., allows them to do that.

2) Remember that nobody likes to be sold, but everybody loves to buy: Pitching is offensive, but persuasion can be pleasant. Rather than trying to sell products, your mission should be to encourage people to want what you have. Since they came to hear you, they are already interested in your topic, and when you respect their intelligence and don’t pitch or push, you’ll find they will be interested in you and be more inclined to linger afterwards.

3) Have a drawing using a sign-up form: Pass out a sign-up form for your ezine (email newsletter) and draw for a copy of your book, CD, or a free consulting session. As you give it to the winner, tell them and the audience that you’ll autograph their copy – and everyone else’s – at your table after your talk.

4) Incorporate your product subtly into your talk: I recently heard an author who excerpted an exercise from her book and had the audience totally engaged by it. During her talk, she would occasionally refer to her book by saying, “This is on page ______” or “This is in the chapter titled ______.” It was extremely effective and completely unobtrusive.

5) Be realistic: I wish I could tell you that you can expect X% of the audience to buy your products, but the fact is that each speaking engagement is unique, and so is each audience.

When I was doing a lot of speaking for my book Secrets of the Hidden Job Market: Change Your Thinking to Get the Job of Your Dreams, my experience ranged from making no sales to selling 44 books in 30 minutes. Same talk but different audiences.

6) Think relationships: Since people do business with people they like, your goal is to develop relationships with those who may have an interest in what you have to offer, and to encourage them to refer you to their friends. Your speaking success won’t be measured in product sales, but rather in the business that comes later.

So the next time you get up in front of an audience, don’t see them as prospects; think of them as people who are there to hear you share with them something they want to know. And very shortly you’ll discover why speaking is the most cost-effective way to generate business for your business.

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Janet White is a 40-year veteran of business to business public relations, marketing and sales. Her diverse career includes being a reporter for Newsday, operations assistant at WABC-AM in New York when it was the # 1 radio station in America, 12 years as a commercial real estate writer and publicist in New York and Dallas, and 14 years as a sales rep for mobility, custom rehab, bariatric and patient handling medical equipment.

In 2010, Janet came back to her public relations and marketing roots and established The JW Speakers Agency, Dallas/Fort Worth’s only booking agency for business owners who use free speaking as a way to increase their exposure, broaden their network and bring in new clients, and emerging speakers who need guidance on building their speaking business. http://www.jwspeakersagency.com

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Audience feedback!

We learn what we have said from those who listen to our speaking.

Kenneth Patton

What did you expect when you wrote your speech?

You wrote your speech, prepared it, presented it. Was it successful? Did you get some response?
 
What did you expect?
 
If it was not successful, if it did not get response, then possibly it did not meet your expectations. What were your expectations? Did you have expectations?
 
Expectations are vitally important in creating a presentation.  And they need to start before the speech, be a part of the planning stage, not just a part of the finale. If you do not know exactly what you want, or if you don’t plan your speech/presentation around what you expect, then you are playing Russian roulette with your speech – shooting it off without knowing if it will work or not – without preparing for it to succeed in the way that you want it to.
 
Every successful speaker knows, before they even start writing their speech, what it is that they want to achieve with that speech.
 
When we build a house, even though the part of the process that seems more important is creating the rooms, first a foundation has to be laid. Eventually it will be out of sight, but without it, the house is lost. So it is with a speech. Before we start putting together the words and phrases, there are things to be done.
 
First ….If the words and phrases, the body language and the visuals are to have impact, that impact has to be defined. What is it that you want to achieve? What is it that you would see as success for this speech?
 
The public speaking literature lists “impacts” as things like
 
· To inform or educate
· To persuade or motivate
· To thank
· To inspire
· To entertain
· To provoke thought
 
And you can think in those terms. Or maybe you have your own personal view of the impact you want to make – to impress the boss, to gain funding for a new project, to sell a product – the list of possibilities is endless.
 
Whatever that impact is, it is vitally important to keep it in the forefront of your thoughts, and make it the basis of all the processes involved in creating your presentation.
 
Visualisation works. It does. Visualise what you want at the end of the speech. How do you want to feel? What do you see the audience doing? Are they flocking to buy your product? Are they cheering? Are they coming to you with quiet admiration? Are they asking questions? Are they signing up for your course or ezine? Are they hiring you for the job? Are they heading for the polling booths to vote for your candidate, or vowing to be more attentive to environmental issues in future?
 
When you have a picture of this outcome, when you know in detail what it is that you want to achieve in this presentation, then you can go ahead and put together the words, gestures and facial expressions that will make up the speech. But not before. Impact is not an accident. It is something that is planned. For experienced speakers it may be an instinctive process, but it happens nevertheless. If you want success for your speech or presentation, plan for it and let that plan permeate everything you put into the presentation, and you have the foundation for success.

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© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. Get her 30 speaking tips FREE and boost your public speaking mastery over 30 weeks. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com

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“The Top 10 Secrets of Today’s Most Successful Speakers”

Maya Angelou, JFK, and President Obama didn’t become gifted orators overnight. It takes old-fashioned practice and perseverance to master the art of public speaking.

As a business owner, you’d be surprised how much your world will expand when you begin to connect with a live audience. Your confidence will attract new clients, new resources, mentors, and the media. So, if you’re ready to master this powerful business development tool, here are my top 10 tips for success on the stage:

1. Research — Prepare carefully by doing your research before you even attempt to write your speech. Who is your audience? What are your “take aways” — the most important things you want them to walk away having learned from you? The more you know about your audience as well as your subject, the more confident you’ll feel when you are in front of them.

2. Make clear notes — Write down your entire speech, then pick out the main areas you’ve covered. Jot them down as bullet-points, words or phrases on 3? X 5? cards to prompt you during your speech. Use different colors to separate your points, in case you lose your place or work them into your PowerPoint presentation.

3. Practice thoroughly — Practice giving your talk into a recorder and use a timer to watch your minute marks. Surprisingly, having a recorder running puts pressure on you to know your material. From here, you can graduate to practicing in front of others. Practice using tools such as your PowerPoint clicker or laser pointer.

4. Visit the venue beforehand — Make an advance visit to where you’ll be speaking, even if you can only do this an hour beforehand. Stand exactly where you will be giving your speech to get a feel for the space. Also, ensure you get a sound check beforehand if there is a sound engineer provided for you.

5. Dress to stand out from the audience — If the backdrop is dark on stage, make sure you wear light colors. If the backdrop is light on stage, wear a contrasting color or darker shade. Never wear black on top, although black pants with a light or colored top works well. If you wear a dress, pick one with a belt, so you can clip the wireless mic transmitter to it! (Otherwise, in a pinch, I have clipped my mic pack to my bra strap.)

6. Breathe deeply – Take deep breaths before you go on stage. A minute or so of calm, deep breaths will slow your heart rate, increase your oxygen levels, and ground you nicely to give a calm, confident performance.

7. Think positively — If you’ve rehearsed and prepared adequately, there is no reason not to believe in yourself. Visualize no other outcome but being a raging success. Think how much the audience will like you, and how good you will feel after you’ve done it!

8. Don’t rush — Speak slowly to ensure you don’t trip over your words, and don’t rush to finish points. Ideally, set timings in your speech notes, so you know if you are going too fast or too slowly as you go along. Timing checks in your notes will help you sail along at a comfortable, relaxed speed.

9. Show your passion! — Feed off the passion you have for your subject. This will engage your audience’s attention. Let your voice get louder for some points and softer for others; have some variance in your presentation as far as your sound dynamics.

10. Be yourself and have fun – Audiences may forget what you say, but they will remember what you make them feel. And no one will know that you “messed up” but you. So go for it!

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© 2011 Ali International, LLC
Self-made entrepreneur and Inc. 500-ranked CEO Ali Brown teaches women around the world how to start and grow profitable businesses that make a positive impact. Get her FREE weekly articles and advice at www.AliBrown.com

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Is your audience listening?

Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening.

Dorothy Sarnoff

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Be prepared to say a few words off the cuff

Mention impromptu speaking and many people shiver with fear and loathing. Given that many would rather die than give a speech, then to do so “of the cuff” is completely beyond the pale.

Impromptu speaking certainly is speaking “off the cuff” and we often think of it as speaking without preparation. That, I think, is where we go wrong. A great deal of preparation can be put into impromptu speaking. As Mark Twain said, “It usually takes me about three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”

Consider everyday conversation – “Hello, beautiful day isn’t it?” If someone says that to you in passing, you can answer and probably choose from a range of answers, “off the cuff”. Much of your ability there comes from habit combined with thought. If someone asks you about your business or what you do for a living, you can answer, and again choose what to say “off the cuff”. And your ability there comes from habit and from having thought out your marketing or why it is you do what you do.

These are both examples of impromptu speaking and we deal with similar impromptu situations on a regular, frequent basis, usually with success and without too much difficulty.

All we need to do then is apply the same skills to Impromptu speaking in a more formal setting and we have the same achievement.

Generally when we are asked a question, the best thing we can do is talk about what we know and particularly what we know best. Confidence comes from knowing that we are familiar with the information. And because we are familiar with the information we can give more thought to how best to present it.

This works particularly well if you are being asked to talk about your specialty. You can choose what to say, just as you do when you answer a conversational question. You can choose based on your audience what you want to be the result of your talk, and how much time you have.

If, on the other hand, you have been asked your opinion on something you are not familiar with, you will also need to choose from our own knowledge and experience in choosing what to say. The worst case scenario is being asked about something that you know absolutely nothing about. Then it becomes a case of talking about the value of the subject itself rather than its information. You can also talk about why you know nothing about it, that you have no experience of it and why, that you would like to know or need to know more and why, or that you would prefer not to know and why.

So when you are asked to speak, think of your own life and what you know about the subject. Think also about what you feel, and what your opinions are. If you have stories from your life that relate to the subject, it’s highly likely that you can construct a speech around those – and again how they make you feel and how they may have influenced your opinion.

So state an opinion in terms that will engage the audience. Use your experience and knowledge to support two or tree points about that opinion. Conclude with the same statement of opinion, adapted to the new information that you gave and you have quite a powerful completely impromptu speech.

So given that you have a way to access your own experiences and knowledge to create “a few words”, you can set up a mindset of being prepared to speak off the cuff or impromptu. This preparation involves being aware, always, of things you could use in a speech. Be aware of stories happening in your own life and the lives of those around you and those in the news or movies. Be aware of your own experience and life story. Be aware of your own knowledge. It is often broader and deeper than you knew until you catalogue it.

Then you can also collect phrases and ways of saying things that will support you in your presentations. Collect phrases that can stall for time, that can cover for any mishaps during the speech, that can link between ideas, and that can introduce humour. Think of clever or witty ways you could tell your stories, and ways to tell them so that they truly and succinctly support a point.

Now you are prepared to speak seemingly “without preparation”!!

(c) Bronwyn Richie
If you want to incude this article in your publication, please do, but only if you include the following information with it:

Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, a writer, and an award-winning speaker and trainer.
She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk , a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. Boost your speaking success, click here for Bronwyn’s FREE 30 speaking tips. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com

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101 Ways to Captivate a Business Audience

There’s nothing worse than sitting in the audience while an inept speaker stumbles through an ill-conceived business presentation– unless, of course, you’re the one floundering in the spotlight. In 101 Ways to Captivate a Business Audience, Sue Gaulke, founder of the Speaker’s Training Camp, strips the mysteries from the process by showing how to prepare and present an effective address that will successfully involve your audience and deliver your message. => http://bit.ly/zBvNQW

Developing the Speaker Within You: Capture That Inspiration

We are all wired up differently. Our DNA is not the same. Thankfully.

We all think just that bit differently, process differently and arrive at conclusions in different ways, and, at different speeds.

This is not rocket science, but when dealing with a very subjective thing like inspiration, it becomes very important indeed.

For, trying to tell someone how to be inspired, how to come up with ideas, how to be creative is like the classic ‘how long is the piece of string’.

We will all arrive at these moments in slightly different ways, and importantly, we will manage those moments quite differently.

When speaking, or writing for that matter, it is often impossible to simply allocate time to be creative, and then do it, or rather, be it. Just like that. Clinically.

I often liken this condition to being ‘in the zone’. A time when ideas, concepts, themes and solutions just seem to flow. Like, the tap has been suddenly turned on and our thoughts run unimpeded, unrestrained, freed from our circumstances, surroundings or competing priorities.

Some people can, in fact, simply spend time formally thinking, and be creative. Many of us, however, find that these moments are seemingly outside of our control. They just happen, and often when we are least prepared.

Perhaps while sleeping and suddenly we awake with these amazing thoughts. Scientifically this is proven: that our brains whilst asleep process huge amounts of data and frequently just come up with solutions. This is the old saying ‘to sleep on it’ at work.

Perhaps while driving, or in the shower, the epiphany occurs and the solution or the idea just seems so clear.

The eureka moment (that concept attributed to the ancient Greek thinker Archimedes in about 225 BC) occurs and we have it!

But what we do with that epiphany, that Eureka thought, is mission critical in these circumstances, for just as these thoughts seem to arrive out of thin air, they will disappear just as quickly into thin air if we don’t capture them. For usually at these creative times, our thoughts and processing capability are quite scattered, running this way and that. Great thoughts stumbled upon in a waking moment will often be lost completely unless captured, recorded in some form.

I have found myself literally getting up out of bed several times in a single night to quickly record thoughts for an address I am preparing for, such is the urgency, the imperative of doing so. Now, usually, I keep a notepad and pen beside my bed at all times, and often don’t even turn the light on to write, but simply jot down a few words in the dark as memory prompts for the next morning. That way they are not lost.

I know people who have been driving and literally written key thoughts with a whiteboard pen, or even lipstick, on their car window (not on the wind screen to impair their vision) in order to capture those critical key Eureka thoughts while they are happening.

On occasion I have literally had to reach out of the shower (not a pretty sight) to scribble down some key words, to capture those key thoughts on the run so I don’t lose them.

I often capture notes and ideas on my iPhone and save them as notes, or email them to myself so as not to lose them. Obviously, an audio recorder can also be a great way to go. Most smart phones have this capability now.

The key here is to simply be like the boys scouts, and be prepared.

Moral to this story: inspiration happens when it happens, whether we are ready or not. It’s best to be prepared for it when it comes. Opportunity lost is no different to never having an opportunity at all.

Nothing is truer than the old adage: the bluntest pencil is better than the sharpest memory.

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Neil Findlay has been involved in the business and Not For Profit sectors for nearly 40 years in Australia and abroad. During this time he has been an active public speaker. Take a moment and review his website at http://www.neilfindlay.com.

How to remember your presentation without using the PowerPoint slides as notes

How will you remember your presentation? How will you remember what to say? How will you remember what comes next? “Use the slides.” No way! There are too many reasons why this is not a great idea.
 
What you stand to lose by using slides as notes:
 
You will lose the power to connect with your audience. Looking at the slides and the screen means you are not maintaining eye contact or connection with your audience. You also lose your spontaneous interaction with them by reading the slides and not your audience.

You will lose the power of design in your slides. Instead of having the chance to be one powerful point that reinforces your message, each slide will descend into being simple reminders to you or a mass of text.
 
You will lose the power of your message. If you say the same thing as your slide each weakens the other. Your audience is divided between listening to you and reading the slide. No audience is so stupid as to need the material presented to them in exactly the same form twice ( we all need reinforcement, but preferably in more subtle ways than that.)

Your audience will question your confidence in your subject, and your personality cannot shine through.
 
Other ways to remember:
 
Use the structure of your speech. You will have distilled your message to one sentence when you were preparing the presentation. If necessary, return to that sentence and then expand and in the process you can return to the point you were making. You will also have decided on the best structure for presenting your information – maybe chronological, or from strongest point to weakest, or pros and cons – whatever it was it can be a guide to you to work through as you present.

Use your senses when preparing. Use visualisation. As you practice, visualize the speech and how you are presenting. Visualise audience response. Visualise yourself moving and speaking and using the slides. Then when you present, move through the pictures in your mind that you created. Or use the audio sense. Or use notes when you present – the structure of the speech – main points, subheadings and when you present you can return to the picture of that page or those notes. If you an audio person, listen to yourself as you practice. Listen to the pauses, to the introductory phrases, to the quotations and power words. Then as you present, you can listen to the recordings in your head that you ran as you practiced and use them as prompts.

Use notes. Either use the Notes View in your presentation software or create a set of paper notes. Practise with the notes. Place them where you can use them – on the podium, behind a chair, in your coat pocket, on the desk next to the computer, but use them confidently. Have them organised so that they work seamlessly.
 
Then you can put all of your attention into your presentation. You can focus on your audience, on your message and on the energy and passion of your presentation. You will not be focusing on your slides, and you won’t need to use them to remember what comes next!

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(c) Bronwyn Ritchie
If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:

Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer.
She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk , a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years’ experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. Boost your public speaking success with Bronwyn’s FREE 30 speaking tips. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com 

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Design perfection

A designer knows he has achieved perfection, not when there is nothing left to add,
but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Can you whittle your speech or presentation down to that level of perfection?

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This week’s “What do you think?” … PowerPoint

We all need to simplify our PowerPoint slides.

What do you think … for this week’s discussion ….

One word … One image/graphic/data representation … Per slide … All slides >>>>?

Would you? Could you? Should you?

I would love to hear your response in the comments below ….

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Developing the Speaker Within You: The Make or Break 10 Seconds

Generally there isn’t a drum roll as we step up to the dais or platform.

OK. So you do get a drum roll whenever you get up? In that case I am not speaking to you, but to all the rest of us who usually don’t get one.

We then have to create our own aura, sense of interest, excitement.

It is widely understood that the first few moments, perhaps 10 seconds that a speaker spends on the stage are amongst the most critical of their entire address. In fact, even their ascendance to the stage, the very act of rising from the floor, or their seat on the platform is just as critical.

We only get one chance at a first impression. One chance at that vital impact that makes us memorable to an audience.

Audiences seem to have this perceptive on/off switch embedded in their minds that is activated immediately the speaker is introduced. Within seconds it swings one way or the other: I like this speaker, or I don’t!

And once triggered it takes much, much more energy to change the position of that switch (if it can be done at all) once the address is properly underway so the message is clear: get it right first up!

It is always advisable to demonstrate an impression of enthusiasm, liveliness immediately our cue is given.

Never, ever just lounge up to the stage, with our face fixed on the floor and meander casually to the dais. Even worse is to, once having shuffled to the dais, spend 10 seconds or so sorting notes, adjusting microphones, sipping water and generally doing all the things that should have been organized well before.

This just breeds a perception of a speaker that is disorganized, careless and in all probability, boring.

It is best to spring to our feet, move at a brisk pace to the platform or dais and then simply spread our prepared notes (if we are using notes) in one smooth motion while keeping eye contact on both our host and the audience.

Eye contact is just so important even at this early stage of an address so it is advisable to do everything possible to keep the audience attention on your eyes, not on the surroundings.

They are, even at this point, instinctively working out whether they will listen to us, or not.

For this reason it is usually best to transport our notes in a matt black folder that is basically invisible to the audience while we are moving: not a bundle of loose, flapping pages that give the appearance of a newspaper caught in a wind gust.

Once ensconced at the dais, depending on the event and the audience, great energy and expectation can be created by maintaining an interested, roving eye contact with the audience for a few seconds, coupled with appropriate body language, before uttering our first (very carefully chosen) opening line.

Whilst it may seem forever, a well executed pause at this critical moment of about 4-5 seconds will almost have our listeners lifting out of their seats in expectation. It is almost like inflating a balloon right up to bursting point: the audience are almost holding their breath waiting for the bang!

At this point, for a few critical seconds, the world is our oyster.

The selection of our opening words, the first 5-10, is key to creating the life and energy that will either turbo charge or stall our entire address.

I once was commissioned to introduce a keynote speaker, from WorkCover, a key Government agency responsible for employee safety at an industry conference.

My opening five words were “WorkCover is killing this industry”.

Everyone went quiet.

Our CEO’s face looked like the blood was draining from it. I could see him thinking “what is Neil doing, what have we done, how am I going to apologize to our speaker?”

But, the audience attention was palpable.

What the CEO (and the audience) didn’t know was that I had done my homework in advance. As any speaker should. I had spoken with the keynote before the session, talked over his content to make sure that I didn’t detract from his key address.

And, I had meticulously explained, and gained his consent to open with an inflammatory remark.

We got the attention of the audience. Our keynote was pleased. Our CEO recovered his composure and didn’t have a heart attack. The session went well.

Our first few moments on the stage will often determine our success. Plan them well, execute them well and our audience response will be positive.

Neil Findlay has been involved in the business and Not For Profit sectors for nearly 40 years in Australia and abroad. During this time he has been an active public speaker. Take a moment and review his website at http://www.neilfindlay.com or his e-business card at http://play.goldmail.com/k44iejhkvq62

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Your Question and Answer Session – Turn Negatives into Positives

Many people fear having a Q & A session in their presentations. They fear that they will lose control of the audience, that people will take advantage of them, that they will be exposed as less than the expert. And it is a fear based in reality, because without preparation and some ideas on how to handle this session, it can, quickly, become a disaster.

A Question and Answer session, however, if handled adroitly, can become a very powerful tool. It provides a wonderful opportunity to really connect with your audience through interaction. It provides a chance to be absolutely authentic and therefore so much more believable. And it provides an opportunity to build on the credibility and professionalism already established in your presentation.

This is the first of two posts about creating a successful Q&A, and in the first one, we look at turning negatives into positives.

Disaster recovery

Not knowing the answer to a question may seem like a disaster, but it is, in fact, a great opportunity. Admitting to not knowing the answer is a chance to build authenticity. There is nothing authentic or credible about someone trying to side-step a question with blustering.

Before you lose your credibility as an expert, though, have a plan for response to these questions.
If it’s possible, know the experts in the room. Throw the question to one of them, and you are providing a resource just as much as if you had given an answer.

You can also refer the question back to the audience in general. Again you are building engagement here by interacting with them.

Avoid saying “No comment.” You appear either to be completely ignorant and helpless on the subject, or worse still, trying to hide something. It is a matter of showing respect for the person asking the question and for the question itself, no matter how awful the question or the motives of the questioner.

If the question is worded so that it gives you no alternative but to put yourself in a negative light, find a way to give a positive statement if not to the question, then to the general situation.

If someone seems to want to dominate your presentation, or maybe has negative motives, you can answer once and then ask for questions from other parts of the room and not make eye contact with that person. You can ask the audience if they want the question answered and if they don’t, offer or organise to continue the discussion at the end of the presentation. If you suspect this will be a possibility before you begin your presentation, maybe you could organise to have someone to distract the negative people from undermining your presentation. Something that I have not tried but that I have heard done for a persistent heckler, is to walk among the audience and present from beside or behind the person and they are silenced.

Set boundaries

This is one way to make sure you feel you are in control of the session. Make it clear from the beginning of the presentation, how you are going to deal with questions. You may choose to take questions throughout the presentation or at particular times. You can announce this, so that you are interacting throughout and people know not to save their questions until the end. If someone asks something related to material further into the speech, you can promise to answer the question at the relevant time.

If at all possible do not end the presentation with Q & A. You want to be able to finish with something you have prepared – something you know will accomplish your objectives for the speech, something that will get your audience to take the next step. You cannot guarantee this outcome for yourself or your audience if you finish with a Q&A. Again, announce that the session will not be the end of the presentation or you may have people starting to pack up during your Q&A and lose the opportunity to leave them with a strong close.

Set boundaries, make them clear and stick to them. So you could allow a set time for the Q&A session. Announce it and finish within the time limit. You can always promise to answer more questions after the presentation. Or you might decide to have, say, five questions, and take no more. Again promise to answer any other questions after the presentation … and follow through on the promise.

Integrity and authenticity are a powerful platform on which to base how you deal with Q&A sessions – or any speaking opportunity for that matter! Combine them with thorough preparation and you no longer need to fear Questions and Answers.

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Design simplicity

A designer knows he has achieved perfection, not when there is nothing left to add,
but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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Improve Your Public Speaking – 4 Tips for Using Evidence

Many tools can be implemented for success in delivering your speech, whether you are giving a speech to a public audience, talking with members of a company board meeting, or simply offering a sales presentation. Such tools comprise explaining detailed examples, designing statistical charts, in addition to providing influencing testimony. Below, we will add another public speaking skill to the list and explain four special tips for using “evidence” in a influential speech. => http://bit.ly/xIEIsj

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Victory …

The virtue of all achievement is victory over oneself. Those who know this can never know defeat.
 
A. J. Cronin 

It’s been a long time since I read A.J. Cronin. Nice to see this quote just in memory of enjoying his books. Regarding this particular piece – I certainly believe it applies to achieving mastery and certainly mastery of public speaking. We overcome nerves, we develop “muscle memory” through rehearsal, we learn to interact with an audience rather than just speak at them, and so much more. What has been your greatest victory over yourself in becoming a speaker?

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Dealing with interruptions … as an artist

[Note: the links to Perfect phrases for Executive Presentations has now been fixed!!]

I know we would all like to feel the mastery that this performer has achieved with his violin. I also know that we would all hope to be able to deal with interruptions just as masterfully – with grace and humour!!

Yes that’s a Nokia ring tone!

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Perfect Phrases for Executive Presentations

Hundreds of Ready-to-Use Phrases to Use to Communicate Your Strategy and Vision When the Stakes Are High

by Alan M Perlman

Any successful leader will tell you: Giving a strong presentation is the most immediate and powerful way to set goals, form strategies, and sell your vision-to both internal and external audiences. Perfect Phrases for Executive Presentations not only tells you how to plan and deliver your address, but also provides phrases for every part of the speech or presentation. => http://bit.ly/z76FV8

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Audio Visual Presentations

Even the best messages can be ruined by a bad presentation. To get your information across effectively and to generate the right response from your audience, you need to know how to use audiovisual technology to your advantage.

Interested in how to improve your presentation? Read on for some audiovisual presentation dos and don’ts. => http://bit.ly/x1XXQu

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Seated Presentations – Don’t be a Sitting Duck

At one time or another, your boss has probably said to you, “Don’t get caught sitting down on this one.” The problem is, many sales presentations are made while you’re doing exactly that – sitting down.
It’s more difficult to be impressive and in control when making a seated presentation than when standing, say Judy Stein and Marya Holcombe, principals of Strategic Communications, Inc., a consulting firm in New Haven, Conn. They believe sales people who don’t adjust their delivery style inadvertently put themselves in the hot seat.
Fortunately, the problem is easily remedied with a few simple modifications. Here’s what Stein and Holcombe suggest: => http://bit.ly/wY36qK

Your Public Speaking Introduction – Prepare for Success

The introduction to your speech is not your opening. The introduction begins before you do. Usually it is presented by an M.C. You will have planned the opening of your speech and its introduction to work best for you and your speech. You need to put the same amount of planning and exercise the same amount of control over the way you and your speech are introduced by the M.C. It can have a huge effect on the way the audience sees you before you begin. So rather than having to make up for a poor introduction, ensure you get a good one – one that works for you.

There are five basic ingredients your introduction needs to have.

Credibility

Briefly list why you have credibility on your topic, why the audience would believe you or even listen, why you have the authority to speak. Make the list very brief and very relevant.

It might include:
• Your education, work experience, past clients.
• Any books you have written or contributed to. Where you have been quoted
• Previous speaking engagements
• Life experience relevant to the subject and/or the audience

Remember two points here. This list must be brief. Edit it to only include those points that will impress this audience and relate to their interests or their reasons for being at this event. Otherwise it will just be a meaningless list that will begin to sound like a boring list or a boast.

Engage this audience

While the information you give needs to establish you as an authority on the subject, it should not elevate you above your audience to the extent that they cannot relate to you. Provide information that shows you are just like them in some ways, and that you have faced the struggles or problems or challenges they face. Letting them know that you will share how you overcame those struggles/problems/challenges will be a strong lead into your presentation.

In the end you need to reassure the audience that the subject of your presentation is relevant to them.

Include, too, something about you that is memorable. It could be something humorous or unusual. It need not be related to the subject of your presentation, but it should be something the audience can relate to. It’s a kind of hook that they can remember and associate with you and your presentation.

Make an impression

You can use the sorts of devices you would us in any speech to make an impact with the introduction. Choose an opening that gets attention and engagement. Include facts that might be unexpected or quirky of humorous. Finish, too, with something that has impact as well as leading into the presentation opening.

Details

Start with your name and speech title and end with your name and speech title with a segue into the opening of the presentation

Must be short

Edit the introduction so that it works as a spoken presentation. Use language that will be familiar to your audience. Edit it so that it takes less then 60 seconds to present. It should not be longer than around 100 words.

This is not a resume. It is not a biography. If necessary a resume and/or biography can be printed in the invitation, handouts and/or program.

Make sure it is printed so that it is easily legible for the person who is introducing you.

To further make your introduction work as successfully as possible, prepare the person who will introduce you. If you can choose this person, then so much the better. Choose the person who has the greatest respect/seniority/experience within the group, and you will improve your own credibility through their endorsement.
Allow time to explain the introduction and how it will work, and time for the MC to prepare it. Hopefully you will have been able to send a copy beforehand. Make sure you have another copy with you in case the first is lost or forgotten.

Make sure the font is large enough that the person can read it and so that the introduction fits on one page.
Include direction, if necessary, for example where to pause, how to pronounce difficult words and any stage directions that may be necessary, e.g. shake speakers hand and exit right.
If you can explain it all to the presenter, then do. You can take the opportunity, too, to point out the importance or relevance of what you have written.

Have a Plan B

The piece of paper gets lost and there is no introduction. The MC decides to create his own introduction including a biography, resume and numerous stories. There is no MC. Any number of things can go wrong so that your carefully crafted introduction is not presented as you expected.
So make sure you have a “Plan B”.

Ensure you have ways of incorporating the 5 elements we listed earlier into your presentation. Stories are a very effective way of establishing credibility and of bringing yourself back to a level with the audience. And humour will build engagement.

It really is important to be prepared for your speech introduction. It sets the scene for you and for your presentation. It builds your credibility and engages your audience. It sets the scene for your presentation and it can be a powerful lead in to your material. Prepare!!

© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years’ experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being admired, rehired as a speaker, with the 30 speaking tips. Click here for 30 speaking tips for FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com