It’s Hard to Trust Yourself When a Speech is Near I recently received this note from a client, Jezra, I’m presenting tomorrow, but I haven’t had much time to practice, and the person who invited me to speak has suggestions he wants to give me tonight. There’s a lot of pressure and things feel off. Do Read More
Presenting: You and Your Audience
Public Speaking Tip 100: For a Successful Presentation, Go for What You Know with Your Audience
NOTE: If you’ve haven’t yet read Public Speaking Tip 98: For a Successful Presentation, Get Your Attitude Together Before You Prepare Your Speech and Public Speaking Tip 99: For a Successful Presentation, Practice Individual Ideas Throughout Your Day, they provide helpful background for this tip. Go for What You Know When You Create and Practice Your Read More
Public Speaking Tip 43: Want to Minimize Negative Reactions? Vaccinate Your Audience
What Does It Mean to Vaccinate Your Audience? You’re probably familiar with the principle behind vaccination: Vaccines contain a small amount of something that has the potential to make you very sick – let’s say, the polio virus. Why would you willingly get shot up with polio virus? Because (and I apologize to scientists everywhere for this Read More
The Starbucks Public Speaking Strategy: Talk To Large Groups Like They’re Individuals
Want to get more comfortable speaking to large groups? It’s easy with the Starbucks Strategy. To start, imagine that you’re in your local coffee shop. (Or health club, or grocery store, or multiplex…) You don’t hear much dull delivery, or see many bored audience members here, do you!? Everyone Speaks Well When They’re Speaking to Friends 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