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Every speaker must respect the power of a potato

A potato?  Jim writes ...

Bored audiences will get up and walk out of your speeches. How would you keep the attention of 400+ engineers who were attending an industry dinner event that they didn’t really want to be at on a weekday evening? I recently had the opportunity to be the master of ceremonies at such an event – great gig, tough crowd.

OK so how was a potato of use here?   Read the article for an example of how Jim used creativity and how it works so well in successful public speaking assignments

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Five Rules for Better Presentations

From Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson ...

I often think the presenter would be more compelling if he would ditch the presentation software and just speak. Because of this, I’ve even thought of outlawing presentation software in our company. But alas, It has become a staple of corporate life. It is the ubiquitous prop that attends every presentation.

So if we can’t outlaw presentation software, at least we can regulate it and, hopefully, try to improve it. Here are my five rules for making more effective presentations.

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Are you host or guest at your presentation?

What an interesting thought form Sarah Gerschman:


So often we begin a speech by thanking the audience or someone in the audience for asking us to speak. This small (arguably unnecessary gesture) perhaps unknowingly puts the speaker in the mindset of being a guest. The speaker subsequently must ingratiate himself to the "hosts" - the audience.

What happens?   ... Read more >>>

http://sarahgershman.blogspot.com/

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How to Capitalize on Your Uniqueness to Ensure Repeat Business


 with Glenna Salsbury, CSP, CPAE


Glenna Salsbury

Your platform effectiveness is powerfully enhanced by your clarity of unique message. Are you holding audiences in the palm of your hand? Are you experiencing repeat and referral business time after time?

One of the most practical ways to tap into your authentic message is to begin to dig out of your memory bank the most significant events, most significant people and most life-changing insights that have impacted you.

Life-changing, transformational speakers are those who are captivatingly authentic. Our challenge is to become courageously transparent, to share our own unique truth, with a thoroughly humble heart.

You will learn:

  • methods for clarifying your unique message
  • tips for telling spellbinding stories
  • how to utilize powerful rhythm in your speech
  • why it’s important to deliver elevating laughter
  • practical tools with which to leave your legacy in the lives of your listeners


Register or order the CD or MP3 recording. Note: people who register for the teleseminar will get the MP3 recording of the session for free.

Date: Tuesday, November 24
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 how to mine your life for presentation content, we suggest the recordings of several earlier programs to complement Glenna’s program:

  • “Digging for the Treasures in Your Stories” with Emory Austin, CSP, CPAE
  • “The Anatomy of a Remarkable, Convention-Maker Keynote” with Joe Calloway, CSP, CPAE
  • “Creating Emotional Triggers to Make Your Stories Memorable” with Doug Stevenson

With your order of Glenna’s teleseminar, CD or MP3, at checkout you will be offered these recordings.

Ten Fatal flaws of public speaking

In this article, Ten Fatal Flaws Frequently Found from the Podium, Sandra Schrift lists 10 basics to success in public speaking.  They may seem obvious, and yet in the focus on writing and delivering a speech, they can be overloooked.  Well worth a look - just to be reminded!

How will you handle your Q & A?

You’ve just wrapped up your presentation, and you’re confident that you’ve conveyed your points clearly and persuasively.  Now, it’s time for the Q&A.

If you’re like many speakers, you view Q&As in one of two ways: you dread them, worried about being caught off guard, or you breeze through them, thinking that the “real work” is behind you. Wrong and wrong, and here’s why Q&A is often the most valuable part of any presentation — it invites dialogue, provides feedback, and, when properly handled, allows you to conclude on an energetic and powerful note.

Q&A is definitely not something to fear; it’s an opportunity to interact with your audience, and it can teach you a lot. But don’t make the mistake of treating Q&A lightly. To take full advantage of its power, consider the following:

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Create your key message in a snap

Olivia Mitchell has written a great post on "How to craft a memorable key message in 10 minutes".  Her post is an excellent model of how this works.  It gives us 9 ways that the key message can be created - all incredibly relevant and useful.   Sometimes it's good to be reminded, like this, to stay focussed.

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The role of a leader in times of tragedy

Nick Morgan looks at three US Presidents' speeches in times of great tragedy.  He defines what is needed at these moments and analyses the speeches in terms of those needs.  The latest instance, of course, is Obama's response to the Fort Hood events.  There is much for us all to learn, though we may not be political leaders, in Nick's analysis.

Effective reading for your presentations

Rich Hopkins has a great new blog post that should have us all using reading aloud far more effectively ...

There are times when reading during your speech is appropriate and necessary:

A. Letters, memos, and reports that must be heard in there entirety
B. Quotes, short and long
C. Poetry, lyrics, short excerpts from books
D. Manuals
E. Religious readings

Reading the written word effectively can be a daunting task. We've spent our lives listening to others read out loud in school, church, and the workplace, and it is often so excruciatingly bad, we fear our own reading will be heard with the same critical ears.

Read the whole post here

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The single most powerful way to increase your charisma–and audience connection

Nick Morgan writing at his best ...

What is the single most powerful way to increase your persuasive connection with an audience – and your charisma at the same time?


Listening.

When you listen with your whole body, using your intuition or unconscious to read the emotions of those with whom you’re communicating, the result is a connection with the other people in the room that they experience as engaging, fascinating, and indeed charismatic

There is so much more to this amazing post that you'll want to read it all ...