How Do You Know if You’ve Given a “Good” Speech? As public speakers, we want to do our best. But presentations can be hard to evaluate. Was it a good speech if: You felt comfortable? The audience was engaged (and what about the audience that’s hung over, only got 3 hours of sleep last night, and Read More
100 Top Public Speaking Tips
Public Speaking Tip 81: Giving a Speech? Close With Your Key Message. And if Your Speech is Followed by Q&A, Do It Twice!
What does it mean to close with your key message? Well, a client who’s speaking in Budapest next week asked me how she should walk off the stage. She wanted to know if, following her Q&A, she should: Say goodbye? Wave? Just smile and exit? What I told her is that any of these three options are Read More
Public Speaking Tip 80: The Right Apology Makes Both People Feel Better (Even If You Don’t Think You’ve Done Wrong!)
When corporations do wrong, they often blow their apologies. An example: After the deadly Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the Chairman of BP, which was responsible for untold damage, famously said, “I want my life back” and — wait for it! — “We care about the small people.” Well, we “small people” can do better! Read More
Public Speaking Tip 79: Petite and Female? Your Size is No Obstacle to Being Heard!
According to one website (sadly, no longer active), one-fourth of adult U.S. women are under 5’3″. These women run businesses, raise families, and speak up for their beliefs, just like their taller sisters do. So if you ever feel that small stature is a deficit, think about petite powerhouses like these: Small Women with Big Impacts Rosa Read More
Public Speaking Tip 78: To Know Your Audience is to Love Your Audience
The hardest audience I ever spoke to was also the easiest. Here’s how it happened: Several years ago, I got a call from the President of the National Aircraft Resellers Association (NARA), an exclusive group of successful aircraft brokers and dealers, asking if I would speak at their anual meeting in Puerto Vallarta, a resort town Read More