Clowns vs. Spiders vs. Public Speaking

Which do you fear most? And which fear is irrational? Seems everyone has a different answer. What's yours?

You can check out the other answers at the forum (and when you get there - tell me what you think of the spider. He looks friendly to me and I'm no spider lover!)

A Guide to Public Speaking

Delivering an effective presentation is difficult. With the Internet, listeners have access to more information that ever before and have higher expectations for content from speakers today. In addition, because most people are saturated with entertainment, audiences want a presentation that is entertaining.

Here is a quick guide to giving an effective and interesting presentation:

Read the guide here ... It's basic but comprehensive and sometimes we need a reminder to pay attention to a particular aspect of our presentations.

Book review: 101 Ways to Captivate a Business Audience

by Sue Gaulke

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. (more …)

Buy it from Amazon or request it for free if you are a Pivotal Gold member

The Election Night Speech

Check out Bert Decker's analysis of Barak Obama's speech
http://www.bertdecker.com/experience/2008/11/transformational-election---and-speech.html

Relive the speech here
http://www.consultpivotal.com/barak.htm

Bureau basics and beyond

Developing Relationships with Speakers Bureaus

Having as many people as possible market you makes good business sense.

Or does it?

How can you convince a speakers bureau to represent you? And what, exactly, does “represent” really mean? Will the bureau send a steady stream of business to you — or will it be an irregular trickle? Bureaus are inundated with speakers wanting to be booked, so how can you cultivate a positive relationship? And how do you know which bureaus are ethical, credible, and won’t leave you with unpaid travel expenses?

You will learn:
- how to get a bureau to represent you
- what it means to have a bureau represent you
- what you need to have before contacting a bureau
- how to find and choose bureaus to approach
- how to learn how they want to be contacted
- why you should not balk at paying a materials review fee
- the best ways to develop a relationship without being a pest
- the difference between net fees vs. gross fees and the importance of fee consistency
- realistic expectations of a bureau’s frequency of booking you.

The details are here.

How to close a speech

Tim Wilson has a useful set of suggestions on how to close a speech. One of my favourites, that he doesn't mention, is to leave with a challenging thought. It could be a question, but doesn't have to be. It should produce "an ah-ha moment" or a smile from the audience, of understanding and agreement.

How to embed a youtube video in powerpoint

This is a quick and easy way to embed a YouTube video into a PowerPoint presentation on a PC.

Three Reasons Why You’re Cheating Yourself by NOT Improving Your Speaking Skills

More so than any other professional skill, improving your public speaking skills will give you the most benefit in your career whether you’re employed, self-employed or unemployed. Even if you don’t regularly speak to groups, the skills that it takes to communicate effectively to groups and the confidence that you’ll gain will automatically help you in interpersonal situations. So here are the top three reasons why you should improve your speaking skills.

Public Speaking: The Power Of Words

Words hurt, heal, motivate, and aggravate. They are powerful. They control emotions and can even control a person physically.
(...more)

Fear Of Public Speaking, the Best Way to Get Rid of It

Do you have nightmares about public speaking? When you have to stand up in front of a group does your mouth go dry? Hands shake? Stomach turn flip-flops? Feel lightheaded? Think you may pass out?

Welcome to the club. If it’s any comfort, you are not alone!

According to a well-known survey, 65% of us would rather die than speak in public. Many have tried for years to overcome their fear and given it up as hopeless. But wait! There is hope.

We can now turn to one tested method to end the fear of public speaking that has been shown to yield amazing results. It is The Lefkoe Method (TLM).

Probably the least known, but possibly the fastest way of getting rid of the fear of speaking in public, is The Lefkoe Method (TLM). TLM is based on the knowledge that our behavior is governed by what we believe to be true. Therefore, it focuses on finding the 10 or so negative beliefs that make us fear public speaking. These can be such beliefs as, Mistakes and failure are bad; If I make a mistake, I’ll be rejected; or People aren’t interested in what I have to say; etc.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of this approach is how consistently it works.

(...more)

Video - How to stop those annoying vocal pops and clicks

Book Review - New Talkpower

The New Talkpower: The Mind Body Way to Speak Without Fear
(Capital Ideas for Business & Personal Development)

by Natalie H. Rogers

" . . .the ultimate workbook . . .perfect for public speaking novices or for speakers with a tough case of stage fright." -- Continental Magazine, November 28, 2000

"Natalie Rogers. . . she shows you. . . how to write, how to talk, how to be. . . so you can perform like a pro. It's magic. . ." -- Henry J. Fishman, M.D., creator and host of "TVMD," PBS national network

(more ...)

Wake me when it’s over: A guide to no-nap presentations

It’s 9:30 in the morning and you’ve made it to the third presentation of today’s marketing meeting. The presenter is pretty much reading word for word from a deck of 40 slides, which are mostly densely worded, bulleted items with an occasional chart or graph thrown in. You have no interest in the topic, and to keep from falling asleep during the next 30 minutes, you are taking this opportunity to proofread some documents for a pressing deadline.

(more ...)

The Public Speakers Law of Attraction

If you are speaking as a professional business, or you are just involved in public speaking, using the law of attraction will get into the speaking frame of mind and will put you into the position where you will have created the mindset you need to become a successful public speaker. But remember one point here. It doesn’t matter how many leads you have, or how easy leads are provided to you. It doesn’t matter how many people sign up to hear your speech you are about to give. Without the proper mindset to guide your thinking, you won’t be successful and may just flop as a speaker.

(more ...)

... and death came third!

by Andy Lopata , Peter Roper


From the reviews:
It has often been said that the two key skills for any business in the 21st Century are an ability to communicate a message - and a hungry market to communicate that message to. Now, for those outside of the corporate world, the best way to achieve these two objectives is through networking and speaking to groups.
Andy Lopata and Peter Roper have written a really handy book on how to achieve this. But the book is more than just a guide to the shy and anxious. In a very simple way Andy and Peter have explained how anyone can improve the way they are perceived in the market place through networking and public speaking.

Read more ...

or buy from Amazon

Connecting with the audience

Tim Wilson makes a short but very valid point about the questions to ask while speaking so that you can connect with the audience.

http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com/2008/07/power-of-moment.html

Presentation Technique

This is a great video - Energy is certainly a vital presentation technique. I just couldn't help wondering how much more power this presenter would have had, if he had stood still occasionally!

Click on the picture to click through to the video.

The Power of Your Speech

Language expert Wilfred Funk was one of the first to study highly successful men and women to determine what they have in common. What he discovered was that they all have the ability to communicate clearly and effectively. Since then, many studies have shown the same thing. In fact, members of the "speaking" professions - lawyers, politicians, professional speakers, salespeople, and entertainers - are among the highest paid. There appears to be a high correlation between word power and earning power. The ability to speak, to persuade, and to keep an audience's attention is well rewarded.

What about you? Have you been sabotaging your own success because you feel that speaking in front of a group is something you would rather die than do? If so, it is time to do yourself a favour and learn the skills that can change your life.

Read on ...

PowerPoint - Rearranging shapes in Organization Chart

You can insert an Organization Chart by clicking Insert > Diagram > Organization Chart.

You will though realize that if the shapes are in incorrect order, you cannot reposition or reorder the shapes in the organization chart while AutoLayout is on. Here's one simple and neat trick to reorder the shapes.

Read on ...

Become a fearless, confident public speaker

For most people, just the thought of—or the hint that they might “have to” —speak in public automatically raises their anxiety level to red alert. In fact, it’s well know that many psychological polls rank public speaking as people’s #1 fear… usually ranking above the fear of death.

If you have any level of fear, even if you are terrified when it comes to public speaking, I’m here to tell you that you do not have to live with it. There are all sorts of techniques you can use, but the people at ThinkRightNow.com have produced a new audio program.

”You can literally erase your fear of public speaking… whether it’s a brutally intense fear or just a small twinge. And you can do it without effort or struggle with a new audio program just released:”

Fearless Public Speaking Now!

Make Numbers Work for You.

Speakers can use numbers to support key points. But too often, speakers use their data in place of key points, piling on number after number and, in the end, driving their audience to despair. Here are a few tips on how to use numbers to good effect.

Read on ...

Twelve Tips for Terrified Speakers

If you are overcoming the fear of public speaking, these tips will be of enormous benefit - very useful, and obviously practical. You will also find all sorts of useful, practical information on public speaking at Nick's blog.

Read the 12 tips here.

New Subscription Address

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

Voice Power

: Using Your Voice to Captivate, Persuade, and Command Attention by Renee Grant-Williams

For those who are constantly interrupted or asked to repeat themselves, the problem may not be what they're saying, but how they're saying it. Voice coach Renee Grant-Williams, who works with singers and politicians like Linda Ronstadt and John Ashcroft, shows how to make one's speech resonate impressively in Voice Power: Using Your Voice to Captivate, Persuade, and Command Attention. She reveals how to enunciate consonants for dramatic effect, use breathing techniques to make the voice richer, deploy strategic silence, cope with stage fright and leave authoritative voice-mail messages. There are copious useful exercises. There's also a chapter on maintaining a healthy voice.

“I was impressed that the author sought to train and not to impress.”
You will learn what you do wrong and then you learn how to correct it. Without recognizing your speaking problems (ALL of them, not just one such as a fear of speaking in public), you won't be a better speaker.

How to ceate PowerPoint Templates

Amazing, basic, useful video on creating PowerPoint templates



Get free templates here.

Have You Mastered These 10 Public Speaking Skills?

How skillful are you at public speaking?

Have you mastered the public speaking skills?

If you want to master public speaking, then you need master the public speaking skills. There are dozens of skills required in a talk. These skills are an essential part of the art of public speaking and are especially important in persuasive speaking. How do you measure up in just 10 of the skills?

Read more ...

Public Speaking Success Strategies

Clever little video ...

Tips for preparing a wedding toast or persuasive spech

The Top Ten Speech Preparation and Delivery Tips from Speechforyou.com

Should you decide to write your own wedding toast or persuasive speech, here are a number of ideas which may be useful in the preparation.

Read the tips ...

Determining Your Purpose

There are many types of speeches depending upon the speaker's intention, and a clear purpose statement will lead to a clear thesis statement. Reports are often given for the purpose of providing bases for action. Fact-finding boards, investigating committees, and boards of inquiry all serve as means of obtaining information to be transmitted to an action agency. This article offers guidelines and related links concerning the purpose of your public speech.

Read on ...

Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking

Very succinct list of way to overcome the fear of public speaking.

Click on the picture to get to the video

Public Speaking

10 Simple Steps to Confident Speaking

Here is a very PPPerceptive and PPPractical set of tips. It will motivate an give you usful inforamtion

Public Speaking Marketing - The One Hidden Secret To Growing Your Speaking Business

When I learned what top marketers knew and then simply applied it to my speaking business, my income literally TRIPLE the next year. This was the smartest, most - lucrative decision I've ever made for my speaking business and is one decision that made me a very wealthy speaker.
Read on ...

Make Money Public Speaking

Excellent article http://www.consultpivotal.com/make_money_ps.htm

Public Speaking: Places are funny

Some places are simply funnier than others. Cleveland is funny. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, is funny. I live just off Goodluck Road. That's funny. My computer consultant used to live on Easy Street in Temple Hills, Maryland. That's funny. It was hard to find him because people were always stealing the sign, and it's not easy to steal an Easy Street sign.

Read on ...

More on using humour in public speaking

Daniel Hamburger has a PowerPoint secret he wants to share with you.

From Smart business

“There’s a wonderful feature of PowerPoint, you hit the B key and it blacks the screen in show mode, most people don’t know that,” says Hamburger, the president and CEO of DeVry Inc.

When DeVry, the higher education holding company for DeVry University, Ross University, Chamberlain College of Nursing and Becker Professional Review, hit a rough patch, Hamburger got to know that B button pretty well.

Read on ...

Compare your reading skills

This is a fun quick interactive test of your reading speed, comprehension,
vocabulary

It's FREE and only takes six minutes.

Find out how your skills compare.

Your results are reported at the end of the questions. This test is standardized against the results of 30,592 participants.

To start, click on the "Next button".
>>>Next

Maximise your presentation skills

Maximize Your Presentation Skills: How to Speak, Look and Act on Your Way to the Top (Paperback)
by Ellen Kaye

"If you want to become a better speaker and communicator, this book will be an excellent guide. It is down to earth, easy to read, and very informative." — Ken Blanchard, coauthor, The One Minute Manager"

Ellen Kaye educates, cultivates, and motivates so that her clients are far more capable, entertaining, and charismatic. I've seen it happen. I encourage you to read her book and benefit from her coaching." — Nancy Lauterbach, owner, FIVE STAR Speakers & Trainers, and president, International Association of Speakers Bureaus

Book Description

Master the Perfect Presentation with Ease

The difference between a mediocre and magnificent career usually hinges on one simple thing: how you present yourself to management, clients, coworkers, and the public. In Maximize Your Presentation Skills, professional speech and image coach Ellen A. Kaye reveals how you can take your career to the next level by communicating like a seasoned business leader.Presented in an easy-to-use Q&A format, this indispensable guide answers more than 100 specific questions about public speaking, business etiquette, and leadership image, while dozens of valuable exercises help you hone your new career skills. This powerful and insightful book will help you master these crucial career skills and stand out from the crowd, whether you're just starting out in the business world or have been running a company for years. If you don't want to walk up the career ladder, but rather sprint, let the invaluable advice in Maximize Your Presentation Skills be your guide.

individulaity

"No task is so humble that it does not offer an outlet for individuality."

-William Feather

And there is no doubt that that applies just so well to public speaking. it is our chance to put our own individual stamp on the presentation - whether it be a short toast or a keynote to a roomfull of people. I see public speaking as a fantastic creative outlet. And, of course, a chance to build your image. Thanks, William Feather

Creativity Games for Trainers

Dr. Robert Epstein’s Creativity Games for Trainers arms you with 30 innovative, entertaining games guaranteed to enhance creativity in any organizational setting.

Use them to develop creativity workshops or to breathe life into any training sessions.

Each ready-to-use activity comes complete with lists of required and optional materials, time recommendations, reproducible handouts, follow-up discussion questions, and other essential information. You’ll also find simple instructions for customizing exercises to different settings. . .data collection forms to help measure and track success. . .special “challenge exercises” that help participants develop their own games. . .and unique “application exercises” to assist users in promoting creativity on their own.

You've already got what it takes, or why public speaking experts should shut up and sit down.

You already have everything you need to be an effective, charismatic speaker. You do. You don’t need to adopt certain tricks or mannerisms. Nor do you need to speak with an artificially amped-up enthusiasm or energized voice. You do not need to move in this way or that. Or use props or PowerPoint. All of these suggestions, though well-meaning, keep us struck in the illusion that we need to be other than who we are right now, in this moment, in order to speak well in public.

Read on ...

Storycatcher - making sense of our lives through the power and practice

Making Sense of our lives through the power and practice of Storytelling
by Christina Baldwin
Christina Baldwin’s work on Story…the art, the practice, the importance of telling and re-telling stories in our lives is a stunning masterpiece. Woven beautifully with fragments and selections of her own stories, Baldwin once again instructs, enchants and inspires the reader about the critical nature and importance of the individual stories of all of us. Whether it’s to build community, heal generational wounds, create stronger organizations, leave a legacy, or simply to pass on information, Baldwin’s narrative builds a compelling case for the power of “storycatching.” A magnificent read…and a wonderful gift to give. What will be the questions you carry to ask of yourself and others? A must-have!!

How not to make a powerpoint

This is remarkably true!! “How not to make a PowerPoint”
http://www.consultpivotal.com/videos.htm#powerpoint_not

Tips On Public Speaking; The Seven Secrets You Need to Know

With the information age upon us, and immense knowledge being constantly shared, people are being asked more frequently to address public audiences. The need to define study tips on public speaking is rapidly growing. More and more people are standing in front of their audiences with nothing to say, or it seems that way. These following tips on public speaking will show you why it is important to target you message to an audience that will enjoy it.

Read on ...

Why you should never read your speech ...

Planning on giving a talk?

If you're a nervous speaker, you might be tempted to write your speech and then read it. Don't!

Here are 5 reasons why reading a speech is an invitation to disaster.

Read on ...

Quote for the Week

If you can't write your message in a sentence, you can't say it in an hour.

Dianna Booher

10 Essential Steps to Communicate Effectively As a Speaker

Being able to communicate effectively through words has been a much-coveted secret for centuries. Take the blarney stone in Ireland, for example. The blarney stone is part of the Blarney castle in Ireland and it is tradition that those who kiss this stone are given the gift of the gab. If you want to have the gift of the gab but kissing the blarney stone is out of the question, maybe you could benefit from the 10 basics of communication and public speaking.

Read on ...

Public Speaking Success Tip

Alliteration is a particularly powerful presentation tool

Quote for the week

Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing.
--Sir Ralph Richardson

More quotations about public speaking

A Short Guide to Effective Public Speaking

By: Stephen D. Boyd

Delivering an effective presentation to 20 or to 200 people is difficult. Because listeners have better access to information since the internet became commonplace, audiences expect more content from speakers today. In addition, because of the entertainment slant of most media today, audiences want a presentation delivered with animation, humor, and pizzazz.
If you would rather spend your time preparing your content than reading a book on public speaking, this is an article especially for you! From my experiences in delivering over l500 speeches during the past 20 years, here is a quick guide to giving an effective and interesting presentation your very first time.

Read on ...

Public Speaking Tips: The More You Know, The More It Will Flow - Tips For Knowing Your Audience

The more you know about your audience, the better your presentation will go.

Read on ...

Just for fun

Just in case you are sitting at your computer with nothing to do –

nothing at all …

http://www.widro.com/throwpaper.html

More items like this, and others that you can use in your speeches and poweroints, at the Pivotal Just for Fun pages

Help For Public-Speaking Anxiety

Fear of public speaking strikes some people harder — and differently — than others, according to a new study. The study shows that those who suffer most over speaking in public get more anxious, not less anxious, as their presentation gets under way. And when it's over, instead of feeling relief, they feel even more anxious.

Read on >>>

More on overcoming public speaking nerves

How Power Point Killed Public Speaking

The origins of the use of Power Point were solidly grounded in good intentions. Remember slides? People put pictures on them, or graphs -- visual aids. They were intended to act as accompaniments to lectures and presentations.

The whole idea was that the speaker would talk for a while, and then occasionally show a slide that illustrated a point with a picture or a striking image, or made a set of numbers clear with a bar graph or a pie chart.

Slides were time-consuming to create, and difficult to change. So most people used them sparingly. I once saw a speech by a National Geographic photographer that included a hundred slides, but each one was a uniquely wonderful picture he had culled from thousands, literally. He was entitled.

Then came Power Point.

Read on ...

More on Using Powerpoint on the Pivotal PowerPoint Pages

Public Speaking Quote for the Day

"Broadly speaking, the short words are the best,
and the old words best of all. "
-- Sir Winston Churchill

More quotes about public speaking

Seven Key Ways to Gesture Effectively

Gestures are reflections of every speaker's individual personality. What's right for one speaker may not be right for another; however, if you apply the following seven rules, you can become a dynamic, confident speaker who uses gestures well.

Read on ...

Concluding Your Presentation: End With A Bang, Not With A Whimper

Your conclusion should do much more than simply tell your listeners that your presentation is over. Your entire presentation, in fact, can hinge on the final impression you make. It's that last impression that can linger the longest. So preparing a strong ending to your presentation is every bit as important as preparing a strong opening.

Read on ...

The PowerPoint of no return

A FRIEND RECENTLY joined a multinational company where she was required to undertake several business training courses. In one particular course, she emailed her assignment as a Word attachment. The assignment was promptly
returned ungraded because she didn't "effectively answer the question".

She was, however, invited to resubmit the assignment, which she did and shot straight to the top of the class.

It was a remarkable turnaround by any standard - all the more so because, aside from the addition of two or three extra sentences, the content of the resubmitted assignment was identical to the original. The only significant change she had made was cutting and pasting her assignment into a PowerPoint template. Unless PowerPoint makes you more intelligent - and it's a safe bet that it doesn't - the lesson of the course was that form trumps content any day.

Loved by some, loathed by many more, PowerPoint has become a byword for much that's wrong with contemporary culture.

Read on ...

More on how to use 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:

Read on

Presentation Nerves Part I

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 anticomplacency buttons, ensuring that we are always on edge and performing to our best.

Article continues

More on overcoming public speaking nerves

Don't.Read.Your.Dumb.Slides

From the Shameless Self Promoter

I suspect some folks do put up the charts and bullet points and text-dense slide for the simple reason that they believe the information will speak for itself, so they won't have to do all that pesky work of presenting it in an interesting and useful way.

Here's a hint: IT WON'T.

Read on ...

Engage your audience when you speak

How do you make your presentation more interesting to your audience?

Perhaps the most important technique is to include them when you speak.

You can choose your words to engage your listeners — or leave them out. If you leave them out, boredom is the probable result.

In this article, I'll give you some specific techniques for crafting your content in a way that grabs the attention of your audience.

Read on

More on writing great speeches

Why Use Humour in Your Presentations?

Why should I bother using humour in my presentations?

Can't I just deliver my information and sit down?
You sure can!

That's what most people do.

The problem is that most people are not effective presenters.

They are nighty-nite, snooze-inducing, say-your-prayers, hit-the-sack, unlicensed hypnotists.

They are ZZZZZs presenters.

They might be experts in their field and able to recite hours and hours of information on their topic, but is that effective?

Read on ...

Research used to correct school langage

University researchers have helped West Australian teachers and schoolstudents tweak their talking skills to better suit modern life. For six months, a team of Edith Cowan University (ECU) researchers, Associate Professor Rhonda Oliver, Dr Yvonne Haig and Dr Judith Rochecouste, assisted 50 teachers to investigate the language skills of about 2500 of their students.

http://ecumediaqa.ids.ecu.edu.au/popups/mrPopup.asp?mrID=655

Public speaking FAQ

This is your cheat sheet to making public speaking easy and painless. The book distills the knowledge of three top-notch speakers into an eminently readable question and answer format.

The FAQ Book On Public Speaking

The authors, Eric Feng along with his colleagues Irene Ang and Kelvin Lim, has aimed to answer all of your most burning and nagging questions on public speaking. Straight to the point with no fluff...just stuff that works!

You can download a complimentary chapter of the book right now. Be relieved that your days of being fearful about speaking are coming to an end...

And when the book is launched look for the great bonuses you will receive when you buy your own copy.

Preparing for your presentation

There are so many ways a room and its set-up can affect your presentation. It is so important to make sure it works for you - your position, the audience's position, the equipment, the sound, the heating ...

Graham Jones used this gret example in his tip : Check the room layout for presentations

I was at a meeting the other day when a woman was invited to speak. She stayed where she was in the room to deliver her five minute talk. However, this meant that some people in the room couldn't see her; others couldn't hear her. As a result, about half her audience had five minutes of their time wasted. She also wasted much of her time because she didn't get her message across to half the room.

Where you sit, where you look and how the audience feels is dependent upon room layout. You need to seriously consider all the options before you talk. Get the room layout right and your presentation will be much better. What this means is you should never accept the room as it is - unless it is perfect for you and your audience. Almost every room needs changing in some way so that the audience gains the best from you.

Public Speaking Success Tip - Creating a confident first impression

Before you open your mouth to say the first word of your speech, you are communicating with the audience. Your stance, facial expression and body language are a picture that paints a thousand words. Make it calm, confident and pleasant, and you start "on the right foot!" So plant both of your feet, stand up straight and smile at them. You'll feel confident, sincere and professional and the audience will know. Then you can play with them.

Using Computer Presentation Programs Effectively

"Are you still doing speeches in the stone age?" This was the question a participant asked of a presenter at a recent conference I attended. The presenter had lugged along a box of transparency slides to show during his half-day seminar, and I admit, I was a little doubtful at first about the lack of modern technology. The presentation went well, overall, but could have clearly been enhanced by a good Microsoft PowerPoint, Lotus Freelance, or Aldus Persuasion program. Additionally, it would have been much easier to present for the speaker, and definitely lighter to carry on the airplane.

Later in the month, however, I got a different perspective when I spoke a participant in one of my seminars after the rest of the class had gone. She told me that when she first walked into the room, she was very disheartened to see a computer-generated image being shown on the screen. She confided that although she had enjoyed the presentation entirely, and that I had overcome her initial apprehension, her first reaction was:"Oh no! Not another PowerPoint Presentation"

This reaction is not unique, I've found. When talking to people in my seminars and social settings, the message I get is clear; People are tired of worn-out power point presentations! Does this mean we should jettison the technology and go back to the "stone age", as one person put it, in giving our presentations? No more than we should ban television because of the likes of Jerry Springer and Temptation Island. The medium itself is not to blame, it is how that medium is used that falls short.

Read the whole article

We’re in an Epidemic and it’s called PowerPoint!

Everyone uses it, but is it the best way to present your information?

Most people who use PowerPoint of give Presentations have not had much, if any, public speaking or presentation skills training. However, we tend to copy what others are doing. I would like to suggest stop doing what everyone else is doing and do it right. The following steps will help you stand out above the rest.

Read on ...

Powerpoint backgrounds

To create effective backgrounds in PowerPoint is one of the most challenging tasks for a presenter, as balancing visual impact, layout balance, properly matching colors while keeping great legibility is nothing that I would consider easy. Article continues

Your voice is your most essential tool in presentations

When making presentations it is often easy to overlook the importance of your voice.

But without a dynamic and strong voice you may as well not be presenting.

A friend of mine realised this last week. He makes presentations every day, but he managed to get some kind of throat infection which left him speechless - literally.I pointed him in the direction of Vocalzones, a herbal lozenge which
can help speakers and singers maintain a clear voice. He sucked on a couple of the lozenges and his voice was good enough to give his 20 minute talk.

Your voice should never be neglected and be allowed to get into bad shape. You should always take care of it. To ensure you keep your voice in tip top shape see this article on
voice maintenance.

Powerpoint backgrounds

To create effective backgrounds in PowerPoint is one of the most challenging tasks for a presenter, as balancing visual impact, layout balance, properly matching colors while keeping great legibility is nothing that I would consider easy.

Article continues

Public Speaking Success Tip - 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.

Gestures

Gestures can make or break a presentation. Normally, they flow naturally as a person expresses their thoughts, but if they are wooden or distracting, then they spoil whatever point the speaker is trying to make.

My latest free set of tips is about gestures - how to overcome the problems of being distracting or wooden, or when they just don't work for you.

Visit the courses web page and click the button, and I'll send you the first in the series.

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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.

Read on ...

public speaking

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.

public speaking

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?

From: How to give your presentation a great title

presentations

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 ...

public speaking, speech

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

powerpoint, presentations, public speaking

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:

Read on ...

public speaking

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

public speaking

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

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.

public speaking

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

public speaking, fear of public speaking

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!"

powerpoint, presentations, public speaking

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

public speaking

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.

Read the excellent tips

public speaking, presentations,

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.

speeches, public speaking

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":

Read on ...

public speaking, presentations, speech, quotes

An Effective Style To Use In Public Speaking: Audience Participation

By: James Masterson

An effective public speaker should be able to utilize devices that will be able to capture the attention of the audience. One effective means for them to give you that much needed interest is this: get them to go on stage. Make them participate. When someone is on stage and he or she happens to be a member of the audience, the rest will almost always stay attentive. Why? Because they would like to see what you will be doing to one of them. Also, because they are thinking they could be up there themselves and so to save their precious egos from embarrassment they at least need to know what is going on. Read on ...

pubic speaking, preentations

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 ...

presentations, public speaking, powerpoint

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

public speaking presentations

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.


Article continues

public speaking

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

management

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

public speaking, presentations

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.

Read on ...

public speaking, presentations

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.

public speaking

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, presentations

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.

public speaking, humour, presentations,

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

public speakiong

presentations

speeches