Tim Minchin, the former UWA arts student described as “sublimely talented, witty, smart and unabashedly offensive” in a musical career that has taken the world by storm, is awarded an honorary doctorate by The University of Western Australia.
The clothes you wear when you present … what do they say about you? Yes I know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but we do. Everyone does. Audiences do. So what do your clothes say about you? Is that the message you wanted them to convey? The message the audience gets from your clothes needs to support the impact you want to make.
On the other hand, are your clothes making their own statement? Do they stand out so much that they are more interesting than your words or message?
Consider the thought that you are respecting your audience if you dress at least at their level and perhaps a level above.
“A man’s best friends are his ten fingers.”
-Robert Collye
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~ Speech was given to the ordinary sort of men, whereby to communicate their mind; but to wise men, whereby to conceal it. ~
Robert South
You vividly remember that special speaker’s message and stories years—or decades—after hearing the talk. It had a huge impact on your life. You want your presentations to be that magical and memorable. You’re a good speaker—perhaps very good—but know you could be even more unforgettable.
Why do some speeches stay in our minds long after the speaker has left the stage? How can you integrate some new elements of outstanding orators?
This session will look at the key elements that create a memorable and repeatable experience for listeners.
You will hear:
• How to “yank ’em in and throw ’em out”—creating that exceptional opening that pulls the audience right up on the stage with you. . .and closing in a way that makes them beg for more.
• Structure—it doesn’t “freeze” you, it “frees” you—why an audience loves transparent structure even when they don’t consciously recognize it.
• Being the story, not telling the story—right, you’ve heard this before, but we’ll tell you exactly how it’s done. . .on Broadway, in novels, and in your presentations.
• Truly speaking to “an audience of one”—what are those magical little phrases and transitions that make each audience member feel you are speaking only to them. . .and in an almost intimate way at that?.
• Voice as a finely tuned instrument—ironically, one of the most ignored assets by many speakers. We’ll show you the way to use your voice like Yo Yo Ma uses the cello.
Get all the details here => http://bit.ly/nrIRd8
Tired of chasing the latest technology-dependent business model? Exhausted at the idea of having to post another tweet, blog, Facebook or LinkedIn update? Want a dependable income model that allows you to speak in your home town (if you want)—and get paid really well to do it?
During four decades, Ed has perfected this model. He’ll share how he fills his 3-day programs by selling dozens of seats to the same handful of companies over and over and over again. His 80-person courses are full far in advance without any ongoing marketing, giving him time to speak more—if he wants—or go on a motorcycle trip. And he never has the stress of updating his PowerPoints or having his technology fail—he doesn’t use any!
This 77-year-young speaker has lots to share with other, less experienced speakers. Learn to adapt his ideas to your market and life preferences and you’ll be as energetic as he is!
You will learn how to:
• identify and approach companies you want to work with
• sell the program once and have a steady stream of participants that lasts for years, if not decades
• use this model when a traditional approach for public workshops doesn’t
• capitalize on why companies value this approach better than having a speaker/trainer conduct in-house workshops
• double your participants and increase their take-away value with one easy suggestion
• maintain this model, even with diminishing education budgets
http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?u=290828&b=127559&m=17824&afftrack=&urllink=www%2Enaturesinspirationmovie%2Ecom
~ Cliff Atkinson
Armed with laptops and smartphones, audiences today are no longer sitting quietly taking notes during live presentations. Instead, they’re carving out a new space in the room called the backchannel, where people are online searching for resources, checking your facts, and connecting with others inside the room and out.
MC’ing events and conferences at the top professional level is a real blast. The fundamental key is to make everyone else look like stars…then you’ll shine along with them.
June 10
with Jon Schwartz, a.k.a. Vinny Verelli
You tell stories in your presentations about your stern father, wise grandmother, bawdy aunt or clueless ex-boss. But what if you illustrated the character of their personality through your voice tone, accent, facial expression and/or body language? It would make your presentation much more powerful and the point of the story more memorable.
If you don’t incorporate memorable characters into your stories, you’re missing an opportunity to make a stronger impact on your audience. The more you can do to bring your stories to life the better chance you have of making a difference.
Jon is a master at characterization. His most memorable character is Vinny Verelli, The Goomba Guru of Negativity Management(R). Why does Vinny stand out? For one thing, he’s quite a character, literally one of dozens created by Jon.
You will learn:
- simple tools that you can start using immediately, to add a new dimension to your presentations
- tips on how to do accents and dialects
- why less is more and the importance of doing nothing
- how to explore character development on your own with tools and resources to help you
- how to avoid common performance pitfalls
Register or order the CD or MP3 recording
Date: Tuesday, June 10
Time: 7:00 pm Eastern, 6 pm Central, 5 pm Mountain, 4 pm Pacific
Length: 60 minutes
Cost: $25
Special Limited-Time Offer:
If you want more information on ways to add different dimensions to your presentations, we’re offering a special discount — only $10 each (while quantities last) — on the audiotapes (note: not CDs or MP3s) of two earlier programs to complement Jon’s program:
- “Breakthrough Customization Techniques: 85 Ways to Modify Your Presentation to Your Client’s Needs” with Rebecca Morgan, CSP, CMC
- “Facilitating for Profit: Building Client Value with Facilitation” with Charlie Hawkins, MBA
With your order of Jon’s teleseminar, CD or MP3, at checkout you will be offered these tapes and transcripts at a special discounted price of $10/each. This offer expires June 30.
This blog is moving.
Visit me instead at http://pivotalpublicspeaking.wordpress.com where you will get exactly the same sort of posts.
Best wishes,
Bronwyn
There seems to be hundreds of theories and opinions about nerves in relation to making a presentation. Possibly one of the more famous sayings is that it is okay to have butterflies, as long as they are flying in the same formation. Other people say presentation nerves are built-in anti-complacency buttons, ensuring that we are always on edge and performing to our best.
Article continues
This blog has moved
You can visit me now at WordPress.
Handling the audience in public speaking
Audiences Are Your Friend
For the rank amateur to the ignorant professional, audiences create the same effect no matter how small they are to a speaker.
Fear and anxiety.
From a single person to a crowd as big as the fans in the Super Bowl, speaking in front of a serious listening audience is the true test and baptism of fire.
Despite this, audiences are predictable.
Audiences listen to you because they want to learn something from the speaker.
Following this logic, the speaker would do well to follow the strategy of making it informative as well as interesting to listeners to see your speech through till the end.
Here are some tips on how you can have the audience listen in rapt attention.
Public Speaking Success Tip – Avoid fillers
Unless your speech if absolutely fascinating, any “pause fillers” you add repetitiously, like um, or y’know, or OK will start to stand out. They will capture the audience above your speech. Start by listening to others – sports commentators, interviewees on television, anyone speaking publicly. Listen for their fillers then you will learn to listen for your own.
How to give your presentation a great title
People don’t usually give much thought to the title of their presentations. Yet they should. Giving your presentation an interesting title means that interested people are likely to turn up to hear you speak. If you ever speak at seminars you realise that you are sometimes competing against 4 or 5 other speakers. In this situation, often the best presentation title in the programme will get the lion’s share of the audience.
We can borrow a few lessons from journalists and copywriters when it comes to naming your presentation.
People who write headlines understand what it takes to get people interested and engaged.
Wanda Loskott, on her site http://www.loska.com/columns/headlines.html lists her choice of the Top 100 headlines of all time. There are some fairly dated ones in there, but it’s the structure of the headlines which we can learn from.
25% of them start with the word “how”.
16 of them are questions.
Not one of them is less than 4 words long.
Next time you are trying to think of a name for your presentation try starting it with the word “How”. This will get you thinking more like a copywriter, it will engaging more of your audience from the outset and you will invariably end up solving a problem for the audience.
Here are Wanda’s Top 100:
They Laughed When I Sat Down at The Piano – But When I Started to Play!
Give Black What They Deserve
Profits That Lie Hidden In Your Farm
How I Made a Fortune With a Fool Idea
Thousands Have This Priceless Gift – but Never Discover It!
Do You Do Any Of These Embarrassing Things?
Six Types of Investors – Which Group Are You In?
Does Your Child Ever Embarrass You?
To People Who Want To Write – but Can’t Get Started
The Crimes We Commit Against Our Stomachs
How to Do Wonders with a Little Land!
“Here’s an Extra $50, Grace”
A Wonderful Two Years Trip at Full Pay – but only men with imagination can take it
A $10,000 Mistake!
The Greatest reason in The World
The Man in the Hathaway Shirt
Dare To Be Rich!
How To Rob Banks Legally
A Startling Fact About Money
How To Discover What You Are Really Good At
How To Write a Business Letter?
The Secrets of Making People Like You
Advice to Wives Whose Husbands Don’t Save Money
How a New Discovery Made a Plain Girl Beautiful
How to Win Friends and Influence People
How to Swim with The Sharks without Being Eaten Alive
Do You Make This Mistakes in English?
Why Some Foods “Explode” in Your Stomach
You Can Laugh at Money Worries – if You Follow This Simple Plan
Five Familiar Skin Troubles – Which do You Want to Overcome?
How I Improved My Memory in One Evening
Suppose This happened On Your Wedding Day!
Free Book Tells You 12 Secrets of Better Lawn Care
The Secret to Being Wealthy
To Men Who Want to Quit Working Some Day
Imagine Holding an Audience Spellbound for 30 Minutes
New Shampoo Leaves Your Hair Smoother – Easier to Manage
Thousands Now Play Who Never Thought They Could
Great New Discovery Kills Kitchen Odors Quick!
For The Woman Who Looks Younger than She Is
Check the Kind of Body You Want
“At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”
Why Wall Street Journal readers Live Better
“Dear American Tourister: You Saved My Life”
Girls! Want Quick Curls?
You May Be Eating More Salt Than You Should
Get Rid of That Humidity!
How You can Get a Quick Loan of $1,000
Become a Well Paid Hotel/Motel Executive
How To Get More Energy From The Food You Eat
They Grinned When the waiter Spoke to Me in French
Imagine Harry and Me Advertising our Pears in Fortune!
My Sears Kenmore Sewing Machine has 9 Different Stitches – Imagine!How I Improved Memory in One Evening
You Can Make Big Money Easily
Get Rid of Money Worries for Good
Keep Your Dog safe This Summer!
Free to Manufacturers.
Write for Brochures You Want.
The Instrument of the Immortals
For People Who Don’t Have Time for Unimportant Books
How To Avoid Mental Hazards
Break Out of Jail!
Tenants Mysteriously Disappear from the Carrboro Apartment Complex!Will You Help me Free Gina?
Don’t Even Think About Buying New Home Without Reading This Report!How To Start from Scratch and Become a PO Box Millionaire
The Secret of Having Good Luck
How To Get Rich Reading Classified Ads
How To Form Your Corporation Without a Lawyer for Under $50
Seven Steps to Financial Freedom
How To Write a Hit Song and Sell It
Who is Making a Bundle and How
How The Experts Buy and Sell Gold and Silver
Want to Be a Legal Investigator?
How To Write a Good Advertisement
But What if You Could See Her Naked?
A Little Mistake That Cost a Farmer $3,000 a Year
The Child Who Won the Hearts of All
The Last 2 Hours are the Longest – and Those Are the 2 Hours You Save
How To Burn Off Body Fat, Hour-by-Hour
Is Your Home Picture Poor?
“I liked this product so much – that I bought the company!”
Why Some People Almost Always Make Money in The Stock Market?
How Much is Your Working “Tension” Costing Your Company?
Is The Life of a Child Worth $1 to You?
161 New Ways to a Man’s Heart – in This fascinating Book
How To Give Your Children Extra Iron – 3 Delicious Ways
Often a Bridesmaid – Never a Bride!
Little Leaks That Keep Men Poor
This is Marie Antoinette – Ridding To Her Death
Take This One Minute Test!
Here Is a Quick way to Break Up a Cold
“I lost my bulges – and save money too!”
Satisfaction Guaranteed – or Your Money Back!
The Truth About Getting Rich
Do Your Employee Work as Slowly as They read?
The Most Expensive Mistake of Your Life
7 ways to Collect Your Unpaid Bills
Need More Money!
What Your Lawyer Doesn’t Want You to Know
Have You Ever Seen a Grown Man Cry?
Creating the WOW factor in your Speech or Presentation – Consider your Audience
Why are you giving this speech? What do you hope to achieve with your presentation?
What sort of impact do you want to create? What will that “WOW” be?
In creating that “WOW”, that impact, one of the most important steps will be to research and consider the audience, because unless they understand what you are saying and respond to it, there can be no impact, no WOW. Read on …
The Guy Kawasaki 10/20/30 Rule of Powerpoint
The majority of the presentations that I see have text in a ten point font. As much text as possible is jammed into the slide, and then the presenter reads it. However, as soon as the audience figures out that you’re reading the text, it reads ahead of you because it can read faster than you can speak. The result is that you and the audience are out of synch. From the 10/20/30 rule of powerpoint
Three essential body language tips
For anyone who has done some training with me, you’ll know that I don’t focus on body language when presenting. People can get obsessed by trying to look convincing or slick, and neglect the content of their presentation. They perform all the textbook hand gestures, and what comes out of their mouths doesn’t match up. A bit like watching 100 chavs pour out of a limo. It just doesn’t seem right.
Sometimes however I do give advice on body language for presenting – especially when it detracts from the message. Here are the 3 biggest body language presentation pitfalls, and what you can do to avoid them:
Using both sides of the brain for Public Speaking success
Men can think faster than women, transmitting nerve impulses more rapidly – according to a controversial study recently reported in The Sunday Times. It measured nerve conduction velocity (NCV), the speed at which messages pass through brain cells and found males had four times faster NCV’s than females. (Mind, the researchers are all male…)
Whatever your gender, do you have trouble thinking fast when put on the spot, Bronwyn? Whether during question time after a presentation, in the board-room or at team meetings, a tough question fired out of left-field can send anyone into panic.
We are more effective presenters if we can balance our logic and analysis (left brain hemisphere) with colourful imagery and expression (right brain).
Confidence trick: Accessing both brain hemispheres enables us to present with security – assuming we’ve prepared and know our topic!
The power of the whole brain Educational Kinesiology and Brain-Gym programs develop brain-body wholeness with simple movements like cross-crawl, i.e. crossing over the mid-line between brain hemispheres, as we do when walking. Originally conceived to correct learning disabilities, Brain-Gym’s whole-brain learning is used by people from many fields (professionals, students, athletes, dancers, musicians, artists) to draw out their hidden potential and to make it readily available. http://www.braingym.org/
Some over-diligent people, by trying too hard, “switch off” the brain-integration mechanisms necessary for complete learning. Thus, information which is received by the back brain as an “impress” is inaccessible to the front brain as an “express.” This inability to express what is learned or to stay “centred” locks us into a failure syndrome, resulting in irrational fear, flight-or-fight reactions and frozen emotions.
Even a simple action like the steepling of fingertips balances and connects the two brain hemispheres. And it’s a poised look for a presenter about to take the spot-light.
Before presenting, if you feel an urge to pace, don’t resist it! Walking sends blood circulating to your brain, helps you handle curly questions with clarity.
(Precis from “Don’t Freak Out- Speak Out; Public speaking with confidence”, available as hard-copy, e-book and audio CD from http://ruthbonetti.com/books.php3
Speech Making Success Tip:
Eye contact is a wonderful tool to convey sincerity. It is also useful to help you to stay aware of how the audience is reacting to you. Stay aware and adapt by changing your presentation style and content to keep their attention and interest.
This is an excerpt from the Pivotal Public Speaking ezine which goes out today. You can view it here or subscribe to receive tips, articles, links and resources. Subscribe to Pivotal Public Speaking by clicking here.
Public Speaking: No Brainstoppers!
From the Great Public Speaking blog
I made this term up so don’t try to find it anywhere else. A “brainstopper” is something you say or do that causes the mind of an audience member to stop to think. This can be a good thing, but most of the time when I catch a coaching student delivering a brainstopper, it is a bad thing.
Here is an example of a good brainstopper. You might say, “Take a moment and think about the first toy you had as a child.”
A command like this would take the audience member’s mind from where it is now to a time long ago. For most of the audience this will be a pleasant experience. For some it may be unpleasant. Either way you still are directing the show. You might do this to make some kind of point about how simple things used to please us, or something like that.
Here is an example of a bad brainstopper. You might say, “That man’s elocution is impeccable.” For all of us highly educated and brilliant folks the word “elocution” obviously means fine form in speaking or reading.
If this word was used in a less educated arena, the instant it came out of your mouth, the brains of the audience members would be racing to figure out what the word “elocution” means. Thus, their brains have stopped because you used a word that was not easily understood. The audience member will not hear your next few sentences because they are still trying to figure out the word “elocution.” Do this several times and they will tune out altogether … unless of course you are Deepak Chopra who gets high praise for being totally unintelligible hahahahaha
Another way to stop someone’s brain is to distract them by your actions. You might display an odd prop before explaining what it is. This would make an audience member stop listening while their minds tried to figure out what the prop is. If you were talking during this time, they wouldn’t hear a word you said.
Look at your word choice and actions carefully before you exhibit them on stage. It is hard enough to keep attention in today’s short attention span environments. Don’t make it worse by using bad brainstoppers.
Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking with Mental Preparation Strategies
Mental preparation is a vital part of the process of overcoming the fear of public speaking. It is one of four processes successful speakers use to make sure they lose their fear and use their nerves for success. Read the article
5 ways to reduce PowerPoint overload
From the Gee Whiz blog
Bored by 50-slide presentations that drone on, bullet by bullet, slide by slide? Having a hard time keeping audience interest in your point. Then start practicing these five research-based techniques for reducing PowerPoint overload:
1. Write a clear headline that explains main idea of each slide (“Three reasons we achieved 105% of our goal”).
2. Break up story into digestible bites in slide sorter view.
3. Reduce visual load: move all text offscreen, and narrate.
4. Use visuals instead of words alone.
5. Remove every element that does not support main idea.
Check it out in the pdf “5 ways to reduce PowerPoint overload” by Cliff Atkinson and Richard E. Mayer from sociablemedia.com.
Based on the techniques, from a gargantuan 48-slide sales presentation, I created ONE slide, with a powerful graphic image that resolves to a high-impact image. Proprietary business strategy and other sensible rules prevent me from displaying it here.
E-mail me and ask for the “WhyEHM.ppt” file.
I guarantee you’ll see “wow!”
Behind the magic curtain
Next week Steve Jobs of Apple will grab media attention with another simple-looking stage show. Mike Evangelist tells the insider secrets of his gruelling preparation
From The Guardian
If the chief executive of Cadbury-Schweppes speaks at a conference, or Nike’s boss introduces a new kind of trainer, you might expect to see it covered in specialist magazines, then quickly forgotten.
But on Tuesday a chief executive will stand up and announce something, and within minutes it will be scrutinised across the web and on stockbrokers’ computers. It will be in newspapers. They’ll talk about it for months.
That chief executive is Steve Jobs, and I know why that speech makes an impact. To a casual observer it is just a guy in a black shirt and jeans talking about some new technology products. But it is in fact an incredibly complex and sophisticated blend of sales pitch, product demonstration and corporate cheerleading, with a dash of religious revival thrown in for good measure. It represents weeks of work, precise orchestration and intense pressure for the scores of people who collectively make up the “man behind the curtain”. I know, because I’ve been there, first as part of the preparation team and later on stage with Steve. >>more
How to Get a Standing Ovation
from Guy Kawasaki
When I started public speaking in about 1986, I was deathly afraid of public speaking–for one thing, working for the division run by Steve Jobs was hugely intimidating: How could you possibly compete with Steve? It’s taken me twenty years to get comfortable at it. I hope that many of you are are called upon to give speeches–it’s the closest thing to being a professional athlete that many of us will achieve. The purpose of this blog entry is to help you give great speeches.
Speech Making Success Tip:
One of the most powerful tools in public speaking is to be believable. One of the ways to achieve this is to use open body language. It communicates openness and sincerity.
Tom Peters on Great Presentations
I’m going to add some stuff to my “PE56” list, thanks to your Comments.
But let me begin with something that may be personal: Why I use PowerPoint. You say, “Hey Tom, you’re the guru.” I say that my conclusions are much more credible when I back them up with Great Sources. I say pretty radical stuff. I say “Get radical!” That’s one thing. But then I show a quote from Jack Welch, who, after all, ran a $150 billion company (I didn’t): “You can’t behave in a calm, rational manner; you’ve got to be out there on the lunatic fringe.” Suddenly my radicalism is “certified” by a “real operator.”
Also, I find that people like to get beyond the spoken word, and see a SIMPLE reminder of what I’m saying.
Also, we post all my slide shows so attendees (or anyone else) can go back at their leisure and recall the logic of the presentation and “steal” some Cool Quotes to use in their presentations!
So here are a few things, thanks to you, that I’m going to add to “PE56”:
How To Add Sound To Your Presentation Using Microsoft PowerPoint XP/2003
If you are looking for ways to add sound to your PowerPoint Presentation, you have landed on the right page.There are indeed several ways to include narration, music or other sounds in your PowerPoint presentations without needing to buy extra software and to enroll in another presentation course. Read on …
Public Speaking Tips: Pauses
A true NO ZZZZZs presenter doesn’t feel that he or she must jabber away constantly to keep the audience awake.
Skilled presenters use silence to add to the effectiveness and polish of a program.
Theatrical folks have identified a whole bunch of neat pauses which I’m sure they have a ball playing with. I’m only going to address some of the most obvious and important ones here.
SHORT – The shortest pauses, which last anywhere from one-half to two seconds, are for the simple purpose of separating your thoughts. All you have to remember is to slow down. Give the audience a fighting chance to absorb what you are saying. Change your voice inflection slightly at the end of each thought to cue the audience the next thought is coming. Also, use a short pause before and after any phrase (punch line) or word you want to emphasize.
SPONTANEITY – Another neat pause is known as a spontaneity pause. This is a planned “unplanned” pause used so that you don’t look too rehearsed. You might apply this pause when you want to pretend to search for a word or phrase that you already know.
LONG – Long pauses of more than three seconds are very powerful. They command the audience to think about what you just said that is if what you just said was worth thinking about.P
lease [pause] [pause] [pause] don’t be afraid to be quiet once in a while. It can dramatically increase your impact.
Excerpt from “Wake ’em Up Video Professional Speaking System “http://www.antion.com/speakervideo.htm
To Overcome Fear of Public Speaking, You need to Understand the Underlying Causes.
Once you can identify the causes that are underlying your public speaking nerves and fear, you can choose the strategies you need to build your confidence, use the fear and present successfully.
Most people suffer from some fear of public speaking. The survey that identified it as America’s number one fear was accurate then and remains so today. But the causes of that fear can differ from person to person.
One of the most important steps towards overcoming the fear of public speaking is to identify the things in your life that have created the fear and then choose the strategies that relate to those causes and that will conquer the fear and allow you to harness it to enhance your presentations and speeches, not destroy them.
Grow your organisation.
If you are looking for ideas on how to grow your organisation – managmement, leadership, publicity, and much more, visit my blog called Grow your Organisation
Public Speaking Tip: Screen Size Approximation Chart
SCREEN SIZE APPROXIMATION CHART
Use this guide when someone asks you how large of ascreen you need.
3-5 people 21 inches diagonal (53.34 cm)
5-9 people 29 inches diagonal (73.66 cm)
10-15 people 37 inches diagonal (93.98 cm)
16-35 people 60 inches diagonal (152.4 cm)
36-50 people 72 inches diagonal (182.88 cm)
51-140 people 120 inches diagonal (304.8 cm)
141-220 people 150 inches diagonal (381.0 cm)
221-390 people 200 inches diagonal (508.0 cm)
391+ people 300 inches diagonal (762.0 cm)
Source: http://www.bhphotovideo.com
Prevent distractions during your presentation
by Cliff Atkinson, Sociable Media
The physical environment in which you make your presentation is just as important as the story you tell. The quality of your hard work is affected if the room is physically uncomfortable, no electrical outlet is within reach of the projector, or your microphone doesn’t work. You’ll need to prevent distractions that will diminish the impact of your presentation.
Successful Speech Making
Eye contact is a wonderful tool to convey sincerity. It is also useful to help you to stay aware of how the audience is reacting to you. Stay aware and adapt by changing your presentation style and content to keep their attention and interest.
From Tom Antion:
Public Speaking Tip: Say It With Flowers
A speaker friend of mine had a deal with a local flower shop. When he had a program the next day he would buy up all the fresh flowers that did not sell for a dirt cheap price. The flowers were destined for the dumpster anyway so the florist was thrilled to get anything for them. The speaker would arrive to big fanfare throwing flowers into the crowd. Everyone got a flower to take home and depending on the size of the crowd, some would get a whole bouquet. He also sent big bunches as his thank you gift to the meeting organizer. He purposely sent so many that the organizer could not possibly take them all home. His good will (and name) was spread all over the company he was speaking for and the people in the audience had a blast.
Public speaking tip – Remembering new jokes — Jan McInnis (Jan@TheWorkLady.com)
As a comedienne, I usually kick off my corporate show with 20 or more new jokes I’ve written for the group which means I have to have good, fast memory skills.
A couple of ways I remember these new jokes:
* Starting a few nights before the show, I review 5 or 6 jokes each night before I go to sleep. When I wake up, I know the jokes. (A friend of mine at a university is actually researching sleep and its effect on memory. It really works.)
* I go over them out loud as fast as I can. I also do this with the jokes in my act. It sort of “ingrains” the joke into my head so that when I say it, it rolls off my tongue without my having to stop and think about it.
* I group the jokes according to subject — all jokes about the people together, all jokes about the industry together, etc.
* I use notes. I carry them up to the stage with me, but I make sure I know the first 2 or 3 jokes cold, so I don’t have to refer to the notes in my hand. Then if I do, it’s not as obvious as pulling the notes out of my pocket and I just glance at the sheet, saying, “I took some notes on you guys.” I’ll have a key word or two written on the sheet. And, even if I wrote the jokes ahead of time, it looks like I just wrote them that morning.
Tips for keeping your cool before your presentation
Stretch to relax. Rise on your toes and reach for the ceiling, with your head back. Tighten your muscles from legs up through abdomen, and then release. Relax the neck and shoulder muscles, letting head loll on neck in different directions.
Breathe to relax. Stand erect, but relaxed and balanced. Inhale while silently counting to five. Hold the breath for five counts, then exhale for five – all breathing is through the mouth. Your diaphragm should move, but your chest should not expand. You can gradually increase the number of counts for each breath to 10.
Relax your Jaw. Let your head loll forward. As you raise it, keep your jaw relaxed. Let it hang open, and smile to yourself at how silly it feels.
Relax your throat. Yawn …. This is how your throat needs to be to speak well – open, and relaxed.Keep relaxing the muscles throughout your body, your jaw, neck and throat until you walk to the presentation area. Then smile! and begin.
For more tips and articles on overcoming public speaking nerves, visit Public Speaking Confidence
Countdown Clock For Presentations: How To Build It
When training a class or delivering a long workshop, it is always difficult to get people to come back to their desks in due time.
The same happens when assigning a test to be completed within a specified time. Missing a common shared timer for everyone, it gets a little difficult to communicate efficiently to everyone when time is really running out.
In these situations, what can work extremely well, is the use of a digital countdown timer to be projected on the main audience screen. In this way, you need not continuously interrupt or distract attendees to inform them of the remaining time and anyone can see at a glance how much time is left.
Here PowerPoint expert and book-writer Ellen Finkelstein gives a step-by-step tutorial on how to build such a digital countdown clock.
10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking (Paperback)
by The Princeton Language Institute, Lenny Laskowski
Written by an expert in the field, this book has the tools you need to become a relaxed, effective, and commanding public speaker. A clear, concise, step-by-step approach with dozens of inside tips, 10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking will help you:
* Overcome nervousness and discover your own natural style
* Establish an immediate rapport with your audience
* Practice your new techniques daily in conversations with friends
* Write a speech that builds to an unforgettable conclusion
* Expertly blend humor and anecdotes into your talks
* Use special techniques to memorize your speech
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Speech Making Success Tip
In preparing for your speech, make sure your notes are in order. Choose the best way to create them to support your speech. For example, you may choose palm cards with dot points, or you may choose to type the whole speech on letter paper with the main points highlighted. If you have more than one piece of paper, make sure that they will not distract from your presentation, either visually or audibly. And make sure you can move from one to another easily. This might even extend to putting them in different areas of the presentation area. When you visualise your successful speech, include the best way that your notes can support that speech.
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Public Speaking Tip: Add Weight
No I’m not promoting obesity.
I’m referring to outdoor presentations.
If you are ever forced (I say “forced” because you should try to avoid outdoor presentations at all costs) to do an outdoor presentation, then make sure you have several different kinds of weights handy to help control your presentation.
You might need a sand bag or dumbell to hold down the easel of your flipchart.
How about taping some heavy coins to the bottom of the sheets and clamping the edges to keep the breeze from lifting up the pages?Paperweights, or in a pinch, plain old rocks are great for holding down papers you have on a table on stage.
What else do you commonly have with you on stage that could blow around in a breeze? Make sure it’s secured.
Ties and scarves that look gorgeous in a no wind hotel room look terrible and distracting when flapping in the wind.
Use Powerpoint to enhance your presentation, not cripple it
I’m not the first person to point out that Microsoft’s mainstay meeting and presentation application Powerpoint is usually anathema to any sort of useful communication, and that most speakers rely on it as a crutch rather than a memory jog, but I just got back from a three day marketing conference and was really struck by how most of the presenters were still falling into BPS (Boring Powerpoint Syndrome).
You know what I’m talking about if you ever go to meetings or attend any sort of workshop or conference. These are the folk that use plain white backgrounds for their slides and cram ten to fifteen bullet points on each slide, each bullet point a full sentence.
Tags: powerpoint
Turn Ordinary Presentations into Extraordinary Experiences for
You and Your Audience
How to Deliver Highly Effective Presentations
breaks down the presentation process into easy and manageable steps.
You can produce exceptional results if you have the FOCUS, the TOOLS and the CONFIDENCE to make it happen.
Tag: public speaking
Um… uh… do I sound stupid?
Have you ever wondered why some of us just can’t seem to expunge those “ums” and “uhs” from our speech, no matter how hard we try?
I don’t know about you, but even as a professional speaker, I still have to carefully edit those filler words out of my podcast every week. And it’s worrisome, since many people tend to take a plethora of “um” and “uh” as a sign of a lack of intelligence, or at least as a sign of a less-than-suave delivery.
Turns out that there is actually a reason for those seemingly meaningless fillers.
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