Confession of a Public Speaker

I have not imagined my audience naked but have imagined my audience of 300 persons wearing a clown's nose which made me smile and helped me control my nerves. Another scenario that Scott mention I can relate to†¦ As the person who creates and assist the senior executives at Atlantis including the CEO, a very funny guy who always pick on someone in the audience to poke fun at and keep his audience laughing throughout his delivery. I made a comment to him about how his humor always keeps his audience entertained and he told me that he uses It to get rid of the butterflies and fear because he gets nervous everywhere he has to speak.Before any presentations all presenters have a practice session which Includes practicing and rehearsing the time to prepare the presenter before delivering their presentation which helps a lot. We also go to the venue and practice with all of the presenter to get comfortable with the environment and to gauge the time it takes overall. One thing that I a lways do is keep a backup remote control and a hard copy of the presentation so that when they advance too many slides and lose their position, (which happens with every presentation), I always get them back on track, and the audience never knows what happened.Also one thing that we do for the presenters is show the count-down timer at the halfway mark and in one minute decline as opposed to from the beginning of their presentation to make them feel uneasy. This book is loaded with Coot's own personal stories and experiences of his speeches. It is also good to hear that even professional speaker uses Powering to assist them with their speeches and it was refreshing to know that even paid public speakers have their moments of embarrassment; it makes them seem more human. The book is packed with tips and advice for speakers from all backgrounds.To me he is a highly paid good story teller who is brutally honest and entertains his audience to get his message across. I do not get paid to speak but have received donations from speaking at a few youth organizations at the end of the event. I the book there Is some profanity which I would have skipped because I do not believe that you need to use profanity to get your point or message across. He did teach me the value of being prepared, how to organize my thoughts and Ideas, delivery techniques to make my content flow better and what to do if you forget what cause most of my audience wants to learn something to take away from my speech.Another good technique that I got from the book is how to deal with difficult people in my class, and how to teach using technology, which I do primarily. Now I now know why most people are terrible at speaking†¦ It's because they do not use the right tools and techniques to perfect their speeches. After applying some of these skills to my real life situations I realize how important communications skills are for a speaker and that anyone can learn once you deliver the correct cont ent using the racial approach. The book teaches how you can perfect the art of persuasion and not making your speech too boring for your audience.This can be effectively done using the proper graphics in your Powering, but not to overdo it. If it is a boring topic I do use pictures and animations to engage and grab their attention. Most people's attention span is for about 10 minutes so you have to find creative ways to keep them entertained so that they do not lose interest in your presentation. Far too many speakers lack relevant content and try to make up for that with fancy Powering presentations. There are some â€Å"does and don't† from using Powering. Many speakers use the wrong style and too much fonts, videos, and graphics.You do not want to lose your message with too much fluff. If you are going to use Powering you should not put your entire presentation on the slides but use bullet points to talk and add more power to the point. Keep in mind that mistakes will happ en but, it is how you recover from your mistakes that matters, and that no speaker is perfect, and to always expect the unexpected. Most mistakes can be controlled if you prepare ND plan your presentations in advance. Remember if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Prepare an outline of what you have to say on paper first and transfer this to your Powering.The presenters notes section in Powering can help you stay organized and focus on what to say next, but do not use them too much. By practicing you should learn your material backwards. Knowing your material helps eliminate blank spots during your delivery and give you the confidence you need to deliver a flawless presentation. You must go to the venue about an hour or two before your presentation to get to now the environment. This is a good time to test and run the Powering or rehearse on the stage to get comfortable with the room.Test the lighting and the microphone and any other audio visual equipment that will be used. The wo rst thing that can happen is equipment failure because you did not take the time to test prior to presenting. Remember that every person in your audience is different and their expectations are different. They all want you to have a successful presentation and get to the end. Use the space in the room adequately. What I did when I had to peak to a staff of 300 even the room could accommodate 500, I had another team member seat everyone in the room.As they came in I had the back and side rows roped off and told the participants that we were only using a certain section due to the recording of the event. Everyone cooperated and was on their best behavior during the presentation because they knew that they were being recorded and did not want to look unprofessional on video. Another reason was because we did not want to have everyone running to the back of the room like most people would do everyone sat close which gave the illusion that the room was packed.You should get to know your audience by arriving early to talk to as many participants prior to speaking as possible. Because I had taken the time to get to know them I knew what their interest were which helped me to be more engaging. I found this assist with working the room, I would find the person that I met before the presentation and used that person to connect with and also helped me to smile at them, by connecting with your audience you feel a lot more relaxed and confident. I also involved them in the presentation by using music and dance.One time during the presentation I had the entire audience dance to a beat that is common in our culture which made them to believe that my performance would be a lot of fun, interesting, and engaging. It gave me a lot of energy to start and set the tone for the rest of the presentation. Just like Scott says in the book, most people are trapped in their seat and will not walk out during a presentation because the focus of attention is suddenly on them. Also you must say what you really feel and not hold back because you over think and ay say the wrong thing to offend anyone.Let your thoughts flow naturally. People have a tendency to speak honestly and from the heart, others say what they mean and mean what they say whether it hurts or not. You do not want to stray of your topic and start speaking about something unrelated this is what is known as eating your microphone, which makes no sense to me, but that's what is referenced in the book. This happens to the unprepared speakers. Do not speak with a rushed tone of voice; this is another way to lose your audience. Always speak clearly and take your mime.That's why it is import to get to your event and start on time. At the end of the event ask the audience if they had questions that you did not cover during the speech. Ask if they need you to explain something that was covered with a different point of view. If I do not have time to answer all questions I always leave them with my contact inform ation that that can use to communicate with me after. Overall this is a good book that I found to be entertaining, full of humor and techniques to assist me with being a better speaker and presenter.