A Public Speaking Nightmare

Recently, I attended a keynote presentation by a major radio executive in Toronto. Which, may sound interesting enough but, what happened at this event may make you think twice about how fine tuned your public speaking skills really are!

It all started innocently enough when a representative from the hosting organization got up to introduce the keynote speaker. What happened next can only be described as a complete public speaking meltdown and a humiliating nightmare.

After taking the stage and nervously placing herself behind the podium, she immediately launched into a twenty minute litany about herself, her quirky mother, nine rooms in her house, her alcoholic father, her trip to Boston, her move to New York etc. And, as she rested her elbows on the podium she held tightly to her face two goose-neck microphones. (I know you can picture this in your head!) And, while this looked obviously inappropriate she also never got around to mentioning anything about the keynote speaker.

With growing frustration, chairs around the room started to shift, people started to moan, and people began to give hand signals to hurry up and get off the stage. Yet, despite all the warning signs, she just kept going. Then, it happened. She got heckled by the audience! “Get off the stage for crying out loud, let the speaker speak!” said one. “That’s enough!” said the other. And, this was not just any audience! This was a prominent well-to-do money making business audience.

Not only did she never even get to the point but, but she failed completely in her duty to introduce and honour the keynote speaker. After realizing her professional blunder (due to the loud heckling from the audience) she politely said “well it looks like I’ve run out of time”. Though she tried to regain her composure, she sheepishly began reading the guest speaker’s credentials off a page in a monotone voice like she was reading names from a phonebook.

I can honestly tell you that it was truly painful to be in that audience and watch such a complete and utter self-destruction! The whole room was not only uncomfortable but some audience members were clearly angry! This is just one example of the many potential public speaking mishaps that I witness on a regular basis.

Other common public speaking mistakes include...

• When the speaker fails to build trust with his/her audience
• When the speaker tries gimmicks or jokes that interfere with their message
• When the speaker fails to effectively communicate their message and/or product/service benefits
• When a speaker puts the audience to sleep
• When a speaker manages to exclude their entire audience by focusing all of their attention on one member (or target members) of the audience

Have you ever heard ineffective speeches or pitches by politicians or by business leaders and colleagues? Did it garner your trust or lose your trust? Have you ever heard sorry speeches at weddings that made you say “yikes”? Have you ever attended a seminar where you were filled with so many statistics that you were bored after ten minutes? Have you ever witnessed an amazing seminar and wished you could do the same?

You may be interested to know that public speaking is an art that can be taught. In fact, everyone can learn the basic template for a winning and successful presentation. Learning public speaking can be a fun and stimulating experience that will empower you in any boardroom or public presentation. It can give you the confidence you need to achieve the higher success that you want! Simply by learning the secrets of powerful speakers you can make affect great change in both your professional and personal life! Avoid the professional pitfalls and public blunders altogether. Public speaking training is not only a great investment in your professional career; it’s a great life investment that will reward you again and again.

About The Author

For more information about Paul Tobey's public speaking training seminars and public speaking courses please visit his website at http://www.paultobey.com/seminars/public-speaking-training.html.

Public Speaking - The Money's in the Template

The best public speakers in the world all agree on one thing. You can’t get good at public speaking without practice. That’s where some public speaking training seminars fail in teaching people how to do successful presentations. Lecturing someone on how to do a presentation will not make a student learn any faster. If you learn by doing, you'll achieve much higher results!

After several years of public speaking engagements, teaching seminars and performing piano music for worldwide audiences, I woke up one day and realized I didn’t know the first thing about public speaking. That seems like an odd thing to say but it’s true. How did I know I wasn’t any good at it? Because, I didn’t "feel" successful at it.

Then, as luck would have, I reluctantly and skeptically attended a seminar my wife dragged me too. I thought to myself, I’ve been doing this forever and I don’t need to learn anything. But, I went anyway. And boy, am I ever glad I did. For the first time in my life I witnessed a public speaking genius at work. This man was truly amazing. He had every one of the 2,000 people in that audience on the edge of their seats for three entire days!

That was the turning point for me. At that seminar I realize why I didn't feel like a successful speaker. I resolved myself to learn everything I could about being successful, not only as a public speaker but as a concert performer. And, overnight I went from being a know-it-all to a learn-it-all. I decided to invest in a seminar that promised to teach how to do successful public speaking presentations. Wow! It was even better than their first seminar. It was five entire days of learning, jamb packed with the most incredible public speaking knowledge imaginable.

What happened next is the truly amazing part! As soon as I got home I started incorporating my new found knowledge into my concert piano performances. The result? My audiences began to grow exponentially and my sales of CDs and DVDs went through the roof. Plus, my fee for performing grew to ten times what I was getting previously.

So, I took the knowledge and experience and began my own seminar business. I first started teaching what I knew and was successful at including how to increase your leads and sales through internet marketing, how to succeed in the niche music business, how to sell off the stage and the inner game of success.

What does this all mean for you? If I could use public speaking training to improve my sales, so can you!

The secret formula that I use for my public speaking presentations works great for keynote speeches, training seminars, sales presentations, live concerts, fundraising speeches, wedding speeches, board room presentations, employee motivation, employee training, pitching, team building, networking and virtually every other public speaking and presenting situation you can think of.

What is this amazing secret formula?

IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU, IT’S ABOUT THE AUDIENCE!

What does that mean exactly? Well, the vast majority of performers and public speakers are far too concerned about how they speak, about how they look, how they perform and how they sell themselves. This is 100% guaranteed to have less impact! In fact, if you’re out there trying to sell yourself, think again, few will buy!

Based on my experience, once I started to make the audience the star I generated more audiences, more results, and more money. This was real world proof that the template works! At first using the template felt strange, because of course, the template felt unfamiliar and was very different than anything I had previously tried. But, after only a few engagements, I was able to merge my personality with the template.

With practice, the template began to feel natural and effortless. Now, I use the template for every type of presentation. In fact, I recently did a boardroom sales presentation for a corporation and walked out with a $20,000 deal. How did I do it? The TEMPLATE!

Here's where you can start. First be open to learning! Then learn the perfectly powerful speaker's template. Then learn by doing. It's that easy! Don't forget to make the audience the star and you’ll realize just how rewarding and profitable public speaking can be.

About The Author

Paul Tobey give highly motivational public speaking training courses for professional speakers and business people who want to learn the right way to give public speaking presentations.

http://www.paultobey.com

Public Speaking, Presentation of the Presentation

Presentation, presentation, presentation is the name of the Publlic Speaking game!

You may be the most knowledgeable person in the world on a given subject, you may be a PHD with clusters, but if your presentation of the presentation does not have presentation skills your presentation will fail! “Now that was fun!”

Have you gone to a seminar you were really excited about and if you made it to the end, got nothing out of it? Let’s take a look. When the presentation started this is what your heard; Welcooome toooday. . . . . . we will talk abouuut . . . . . .blah de blah, blah blah, blahblahblah. “Monotone, I hate monotone!”, “Drives me absolutely crazy!” Standing in one spot, like a mannequin and has the excitement of watching ice melt. Got the picture?

Continuing the series of “So You Want To Become A Public Speaker?” we are going to dive into Presentation. Not to be confused with the presentation itself, but how it’s presented.

Remember, a presentation is a performance, like an actor. Always bring your “A” game. No “B” movie acting here! How you are being perceived is critical to your longevity in this business.

Dress properly for the occasion. As stated in a previously published article in this series; you can always dress down, but not up.

If your topic is serious, be serious, but not stiff. Present the desired image to your audience. Be enthusiastic, confident, carry yourself with pride, but not cocky. Remain calm. Appear relaxed, even if you feel nervous. Remember the duck story; calm and collected on top of the water, even though your feet are going like heck below the surface.

Speak slowly, articulate clearly, and show appropriate emotion and feeling relating to your topic. But don’t be phony your audience will pick up on that immediately. Take the time to connect with your audience. (Refer back to “Public Speaking Pre Preparation” in the area of “know your audience”.) Speak to the person furthest away from you to make sure your voice is heard from back of the room. It’s okay and encouraged to ask that furthest person in the back if you can be heard. Fluctuate the tone of your voice and dramatize if necessary. If sound equipment is required, as was determined during your pre preparation, adjust accordingly. DO NOT TALK MONOTONE!

I was taught to speak with conviction as if I really believed in what I was saying. Throughout my public speaking career I have changed that teaching to, “Speak with conviction as I truly believe in what I’m saying!”

The material you present verbally should have the same structure as a written research paper, i.e. INTRODUCTION to BODY (strong supporting arguments, accurate and up-to-date information) to CONCLUSION (re-state intro, summarize, and a logical conclusion) with a verbal presentation, add a questions and answer period.

Body language is critical. Standing, walking and moving around using appropriate hand gestures is a MUST. Never present a presentation sitting down or standing still, reading from a prepared presentation. I encourage you not to use a lectern. “Here, check this out” American Heritage Dictionary - lec·tern (lěk'tərn) A stand that serves as a support for the notes or books of a speaker. Now here’s my definition - “A lectern is a crutch for the unprepared speaker.”

Audio-visual aids are okay; don’t torment your audience by creating a lengthy overhead presentation and reading it out to them. You will loose your audience for sure and most importantly your credibility.

Do not read from notes. It’s okay to glance at your notes, but personally I don’t use them. However, I do use overhead presentations so if I loose my place I can glance up, adjust and continue on. Know your subject! If you make an error, correct it, inject some humor and continue.

Add humor when appropriate. Keep your audience interested and relaxed throughout the entire presentation. Caution; don’t be a clown! Humor is great to get your audience relaxed and at the same time relax you the presenter. Don’t open with a joke. This is a bad practice. Trust me there will be plenty of time and opportunities for humor during your presentation. Remember that an interesting presentation makes time go by fast, but a boring presentation is always too long to bear even if the presentation length is the same.

Maintain good eye contact with your audience. Have direct eye contact with a number of people in the audience, and once in a while glance at the whole audience while speaking.

Maintain a constant visual on your audience. Their body language will tell you if you need to adjust your presentation. Speak to your audience, listen to their questions, respond to their reactions, adjust and adapt on the fly.

Your presentation of the presentation (gotta love it) is critical to your public speaking career. Voice tone, eye contact, humor, body language, subject matter knowledge, visual-aids and structure are items you must understand and implement. As stated in previous sessions, “You’re a walking billboard for your Public Speaking career and these are some of the tools in your toolbox of success. Good luck and see you at the next session.

Visit Us at our Public Speaking site. http://www.dseconsultinginc.com/talk

About The Author

Mr. Dale Simmons has been public speaking since 1973. Mr. Simmons has presented hundreds of public speaking presentations from business concepts to motivational. Mr. Dale Simmons, known as the “WHY” man, is a interactive motivational and "self-help" public speaker.