The Nuts and Bolts of Public Speaking: Book review

February 3rd, 2008

I have just finished a great book on public Speaking, The Nuts and Bolts of Public Speaking.  The author Craig Valentine is the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking and a highly paid keynote speaker in the US.

What sets this book apart from others is that it focuses on the basics.  From speech structure to how to use the rule of three to gte your point across with more impact, this book has it all.

There is one fantastic section that I loved.  It was on finding the magical moments from your own life that will bring your speech alive.  These are the parts of your speech that the audience will hang off.  Despite what we think, we all have an enormous amount of stories that we can draw upon to help us illustrate our points.  This section is well worth the cost of the book alone.

If this book could be improved anywhere, it is that there is no index or detailed table of contents.  This is a great reference book, but the lack of an index makes it difficult to reference!

Over all, a great book, and you can order a copy from Craig here.  Just tell him I sent you.

‘Til next time.

Cheers

Darren Fleming

Australian Toastmasters Champion


Great Speakers are Great Persuaders.

February 3rd, 2008

If you have to persuade anyone, you will need this!

When a great speaker stand to speak, they have a whole arsenal of tools that they can use to persuade you to their message.  One that we can all use is the “Push and Pull” method.

Put simply, the “Push and Pull” refers to how you structure the features and benefits in your message.  (Understanding the difference between features and benefits is a basic sales technique.  For example, the feature of the car is that it has an air-conditioner; the benefit is that you can travel in cool comfort on hot days.  People will always buy the benefits over the features)

You can use the Push and Pull to deliver your benefits in different ways:

  • The Push – The air-conditioner is great because you can travel in comfort.
  • The Pull – The air-conditioner is great because you don’t want to be hot and sticky when you arrive at your destination.

Both the Push and Pull give the benefits of having an air-conditioner but they are worded differently.  The Push a positive approach while the Pull has a negative approach.

You can use these two techniques individually or together.  If you were to use them together you could say something like, “The air-conditioner is great because you can travel in comfort.  After all, who wants to arrive all hot and sticky?”

So how does this apply to today’s work place?  When structuring your message, look at how you can use the positive and negatively worded benefits in your message.  This can apply to anything from change management, the need to increase sales or even in training sessions.  Simply focus on your message and how it benefits your audience and use the “Push and Pull” to get your message across.

‘Til next time.

Cheers

Darren Fleming

Australian Toastmasters Champion


Marketing Your Speaking Skills

January 31st, 2008

I get a lot of enquiries through my website on how to market your speaking skills.  Below are some ideas that I have used recently.

The first thing you need to do is to get out and start speaking.  It does not matter if you are speaking at a Toastmasters Club, Rostrum Club or cards club, just get out and practice!  This will give you the experience that you need to market yourself.

Once you have from this circuit, you can hit the Rotary circut.  Rotary clubs are great to speak to for the following reason:

  1. They are great people – this means a welcoming audience!
  2. The members are generally ‘better connected’ than other members of society.  This means that you are speaking to people who can either look directly at your services and hire you, or will generally have some influence where they work and can recommend you.
  3. It’s a great way to refine your material. Recently I was scheduled to speak to two Rotary clubs on the 1 day.  My first presentation was at 7:30 am and the other 12 hours later.  I thought the speech that I prepared would work well for both clubs.  However, the morning presentation did not go as well as I wanted it too.  To improve my presentation for the evening, I re-wrote my 20 minute presentation during my lunch break that day and gave it again in the evening.  It was a much better effort.  If I had not been at the two meeting in the one day, it would have been much longer between the pain of the morning presentation and the success of the evening presentation.  The longer the time between the two, the less chance of refining!

So how do you go about approaching Rotary clubs?  It is simple.  Just follow the steps below and you will be fine.

  1. Google Rotary Clubs for your local area.  Search the website for individual club websites.
  2. Find the contact of the club.  It does not matter who it is, what position they hold, or what the site looks like.
  3. Send the contact the following e-mail

Hello,

My name is <insert name here>and I am a local speaker.

Could you please advise who I would need to speak to about being a guest speaker at one of your club meetings.

Cheers

<insert name>

That’s all you need to do.  Send this e-mail to every club within 90 minutes drive of your house.  (If you think that is too far, I suppose you don’t want to be a speaker!  If you think that having 2 kinds under 3, both you and your partner working full-time and having to get up at 5 to get there is a problem, deal with it!)

4.  Keep track of the contact names, e-mail addresses and club names.  Not everyone will get back to you straight away.  After a month, follow up those that have not got back to you.

5.  The final reason you would want to get out and do the Rotary circuit is that you get a free meal and a pen as well!

What do you say?  Check some of the other posts such as Understanding your Audience and marketing your speaking skills

But if you really want to a step-by-step guide, you need to get the MP3 How to Start Your Public Speaking Career Today. In this audio you will get everything you need to get started – including an example of a live Rotary Speech. I will literally be your coach on how to get your first gig. Get How to Start Your Public Speaking Career Today.

Getting out and marketing yourself as a speaker really is that easy.  The speaking circuit is full of people who do not have a message as good as yours, but are marketing themselves better than you are.  In 12 months time, do you want to be sitting down annoyed that you let another 12 months go by before you got out and did something?

‘Til next time.

Cheers

Darren Fleming


Kevin Rudd Vs. Obama

January 23rd, 2008

There was a great article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Stephanie Peatling analysing the public speaking skills of the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd with those of US Presidential Hopeful Barack Obama.  It’s a great article that highlights the different styles of speaking of recent Australian political leaders and compares them to Obama.  They are like chalk and cheese!

The full article can be found here.  I have also copied the full article below as I do not know for how long the link will work.

Obama offers hope for the art of speechmaking

Stephanie Peatling
January 21, 2008
Cast your mind back to election night. It’s not that long ago, not even two months. It’s hard, because to go there is to remember the speech Kevin Rudd gave as he claimed victory for the Labor Party after 11 grim years in Opposition.An occasion, one might think, for a rousing, stirring, passionate speech full of hope and optimism.Instead, there was a lengthy dissertation on the task ahead and a short, sharp reminder that even though the night was one for celebration it would be followed by an early morning of work – a none too subtle hint to staff not to let frivolity get in the way of a clear head.For months before that night Rudd had kept the media entertained with his frequent use of metaphors – the bridge too far, the fork in the road, the base camp of Everest. He is a far cry from the walking thesaurus that was Kim Beazley, a Labor leader who would never say “unquestioning underling” when “myrmidon” would do; would never use “wordy” when “prolix” could be dusted off; or “useless activity” when “boondoggle” was there for the taking.A press gallery favourite was “termagant”, which Beazley once hurled at Tony Abbott, who no doubt scurried to check its meaning (“an imaginary Muslim deity portrayed as a violent and overbearing character in medieval mystery plays”) before responding.

But although Beazley tossed out words not used by the average person for several decades, it was done with delight and love for language. He would never have told journalists he did not want the gathering of federal, state and territory leaders known as the Council of Australian Governments “to become a sort of dead horse”.

“I want it to be a workhorse, not a dead horse. I don’t want to whip it. I just want to stroke it gently … Just lately the poetry’s lacking. But my intention is to meet it regularly and actually turn it into a real workhorse of the Federation,” Rudd said in one of his first press conferences as Prime Minister.

John Howard ushered in a new era of no-frills speaking and there is not yet much evidence to suggest the new Prime Minister wants to return to the sweeping verbal landscapes of Paul Keating. Rudd’s use of language so far is functional and administrative. In English, at least. In Mandarin he seems to get a far more appreciative response.

Rudd does have a staffer whose job includes speechwriting but not someone whose only job is speechwriting. Keating had the lyrical Don Watson as his speechwriter. Before him went Graham Freudenberg, the great Labor speechwriter who wrote Arthur Calwell’s 1965 censure of the Vietnam War, Gough Whitlam’s “It’s Time” speech of 1972 and also wrote for Bob Hawke, Neville Wran, Barrie Unsworth, Simon Crean, Bob Carr and Sir William Deane.

Freudenberg wrote in his elegant autobiography, A Figure Of Speech, that his retirement at the age of 70 allowed him to take a new interest in the role of political language and speeches. He attributed much of his interest to George Bush, whose presidency, he wrote, is “being defined by the speeches and the phrase-making of his speechwriters”.“The United States seemed to have become a rhetocracy, ruled by professional wordsmiths: ‘axis of evil’, ‘war on terror’ and ‘shock and awe’ are all speechwriters’ phrases … Despite my professional admiration for the craftsmanship of Bush’s speeches, the whole process seemed to me an absurd and dangerous separation of rhetoric and emotion from substance, argument and reason.”Freudenberg goes on to cite a 2004 essay by the philosopher Raimond Gaita, who speculated that the running down of political language was due to the fundamental cynicism among voters, who, instead of seeing the possibilities for good in politics, saw only the chances for personal gain and self-protection.Maybe the language of Australian politics merely reflects the broader popular culture, with its Big Brother participants and Corey Worthingtons and seeming lack of room or desire for elegance and subtlety.

But maybe there is hope.

Thousands of Americans are responding to the speeches of Barack Obama, whose emotive use of language is propelling him towards the White House.

“Years from now, you’ll look back and you’ll say that this was the moment, this was the place where America remembered what it means to hope,” Obama told people gathered to hear him claim victory in the Iowa primary earlier this month.

“For many months, we’ve been teased, even derided, for talking about hope. But we always knew that hope is not blind optimism. It’s not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It’s not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it.”

If Americans can respond so enthusiastically to such flair there is no reason to doubt Australians would do the same.

All we need is for someone to start speaking.


Why people listen when Donald Trump speaks

January 8th, 2008

It has been reported that Donald Trump earns about US$1.5m for a 1 hour keynote speech.  This would be in addition to any product sales that he has at the back of the room.  He will sell books, CDs, DVD and anything else he can get his face on.

 

But other than being pretty rich, why do people listen to him?  After all there are lots of other people out there that are just as rich (or richer) than he, but yet they don’t have the same cult following.  Why is this?

 

Have a look at this 2 minute video of him speaking and you’ll see why.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfKimrZStA8&rel=1]

Why is he so good?

 

  1. He uses stories.  In this brief video he uses 3 stories
    1. What he learned at Warton
    2. His friend who bought a house
    3. The reporter at the back of the room.

Stories bring people into his message.  When people hear stories they connect with you as a speaker.  This is what speakers should be aiming for.

 

2.  Has a point to what he says.  Therefore, he has a reason for speaking.  If someone speaks for any period of time (even if it’s just a minute) and there is no point to what is said, there is no need to speak!

  

But is there anywhere that he can improve?  Well have another listen and see how often he cuts himself off mid sentence and fails to finish his point. On 4 occasions he interrupts himself to make a side comment or a general comment on what he is saying.  Only on 2 of these occasions does he actually go back and complete the thoughts that he interrupted.  The result is that he does not get his message across as clearly as he could. This can be frustrating for the listener.

 

“So what?”  I hear you ask.  “The guy gets paid $1.5m per hour.  He can do as he wants!”  Maybe so, but if I were paying that sort of money I would want all I can get.  But my real reason for bring it up is for the rest of us mortals who do not get that much but still speak to audiences.  Do you finish every thought and point that you start?  If you don’t, are you delivering your message as well as you could?  If you are not, are you getting the best out of your own time as well as your audiences time?

 

‘Til next time.

 

Cheers

 

Darren Fleming

Australia’s Public Speaking Coach

https://executivespeaking.com.au


How (not) to give a PowerPoint Presentation

December 17th, 2007

If you are looking for information on how to put together a PowerPoint presentation, you should see this 7 minute video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLpjrHzgSRM
“>
As Homer Simpson said, “It’s funny ‘cos it’s true”Cheers

Darren Fleming

https://executivespeaking.com.au


Top Tips for Nailing that Speech

December 17th, 2007

I came across this article on public speaking today.

It opens with a great point, if you want to make a speech, have something to say.  Too often people get up to speak because they feel they have too, or they simply want too.  This bores the audience!  (the classic example of this is the Boss that stands up at the Christmas party and goes on and on and on and on about nothing, all because he feels that he has to make a speech.  They’d be much better to say “Merry Christmas and have a good drink” and be out of there in 30 seconds than to crap on for half an hour!  Trust me, those at the party will appreciate it more.  After-all, what do you want to do at a Christmas party – listen to the boss go on, or have a drink and relax!

So here is the article.  It is well worth a read. http://www.forbes.com/home/entrepreneurs/2007/08/01/sun-microsystems-nokia-ent-sales-cx_ll_0801byb07_publicspeaking.html

Merry Christmas!

Cheers

Darren Fleming

https://executivespeaking.com.au


Howard might have lost, but he is still the better speaker

November 26th, 2007

For the international readers, on Saturday night, Australia had a change of government.  While John Howard and his party leave office, we have lost  one of Australia’s greatest Orators.  I believe that his skills at the lectern are what kept him in power for so long.

So what was so good about Howard’s public speaking style?  Well have a look at his last public speech where he concedes defeat in the 2007 election.  Here are some points:

  1. Spoke without notes.  You gain enormous amounts of credibility when you can speak without notes.  Even in such an emotionally charged atmosphere as being kicked out of public office, Howard was able to speak off the top of his head.
  2. Great pace.  When Howard came to announce that he had spoken to Rudd, he spoke with great clarity and confidence.
  3. Projection.  Even though he was using microphones, Howard projected his voice to the whole room.  He has always used this technique to ensure that his voice fills the room.  This gives him power and power to his message.
  4. Audience interaction.  There were plenty of Howard support willing to express their undying love for him and kept interrupting his speech.  Howard was able to control them and quieten them down and not talk over the – though I think he wanted to.  This shows that he was in control of his stage and could handle what he was encountering.
  5. Showed a small amount of emotion.  While Howard would not like that he showed emotion on the night, when he announced that he would probably lose his seat, you could see the emotions build up.  While he kept the emotions under control, they were present enough for us to feel sympathy for him.  This small amount of sympathy helps us accept him and listen to his message.
  6. Did not care that he forgot something.  Did he forget?  Who knows, but there is a good chance that he did; after all, he had been PM for 11 years.  He was bound to forget something.  However, when he finished his message, he finished his message.  He did not come back for a second bite at the cherry.  This showed that he was in control of his message.  This added strength to what he had to say.
  7. Finally, he was gracious in Defeat.  Unlike Keating, Howard went out accepting the decision of the Australian people

How did Rudd fare?  Unfortunately not as well.  However he has not been at this for as  long as Howard was.  Where can Rudd improve?

  1. Body language:  Rudd seems to have very stiff body language and staged movements.  (The two hands opening out for the “new pages in Australian History”, and the hand over the shoulder for the fair go going out the back door). These have the affect of weakening his strength as a speaker and leader.
  2. Dull text.  Rudd has a great message, and that is partly why he was voted in.  However, it does not matter how good your message is if you cannot deliver it in a way that does not engage your audience to its fullest.  He should work on a more punchier sentence structure that will allow his message to be more easily integrated.
  3. Keep the rule of 3.  Keep examples to only 3 points.  There is something about only citing 3 examples to make your point.  Making 4 points is too many, and only 2 is not enough.  On occasions Rudd gave 4 and 5 examples and this slowed the flow of his speech.
  4. Add emphasis:  Rudd had a great line of, “Today many people voted Labor for the first time.  Today many people voted Labor for the first time in a long time.”  However, he was not able to emphasis that he has won back many of the swinging voters that have voted for Howard recently.  If he had added a pause for “……Today many people have voted labor for the first time………in a long time”, the Pause would have driven home the point that he has won back the disaffected voters.  When you pause you add emphasis!

However, there was one shinning light in is speech.  He positioned himself very well to achieve what he has plans to achieve.  He appealed to all interested parties, from wider the Australian community, Liberal voters, International Allies, trade unions and the State Govts.  By including these entities in his first speech, he brought the different factions and interest groups together, and after all, isn’t this what a leader has to do?

While Howard is certinally the better speaker, I look forward seeing Rudd improve and potetnially surpass Howard during his time in office!

Here is a link  to a BBC article that showcases both Rudd and Howard.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvK9zklvnXg

Til next time,

Cheers

Darren Fleming

Australian Public Speaking Courses


Marketing your Public Speaking skills

November 13th, 2007

This blog was not created to show people how to become wealthy public speakers. There are plenty of public speaking blogs out there that can do that.

However, I recently came across this piece of advice from Patricia Fripp, a San Francisco based public speaking coach. They points are great and should be spread. You can get more of Patricia Fripps insights here.

Everything in life is about marketing. Weather you are trying to sell an idea at work or your services as a speaker you need to understand what you have to offer others. Below are some points that will help.

Successful marketing means that you identify prospective clients and position yourself in the market so they choose you over your competition. When I sit down with clients who want to position their marketing, I seek the answers to four basic questions:

1. WHO IS YOUR POTENTIAL CLIENT?

Who wants to buy or could be stimulated to want to buy? Who is in a position to buy what you sell? What geographical and financial factors affect this ability? A good way to identify future clients is to listen
— really listen — to those you have now. Their comments, especially negative ones, will help you tailor both your product and your approach to other prospects.

2. WHY WILL THEY WANT TO BUY?

What emotional and physical factors will influence them? I just worked with an east coast psychiatrist who ran a practice with ten other psychiatrists and wanted to position herself. Our conversations quickly disclosed that her community was predominantly upwardly mobile professionals. Many of the women had delayed having children. Due to fertility drugs, a high percentage of families had twins, triplets, or more. We decided to focus her practice on these families, the first practice in the area to do that. How did we do this? First, we realized her potential audience was geographical, that is, in her community rather than regional, national or international. These prospects had distinctive demographics. By appealing to a unique aspect, we hit on her core group. She’s now hugely successful in her practice.

3. WHAT ANGLE SHOULD YOU TAKE? How is your product or service unique?

Why is it perfect for your target audience? How is it different from everyone else’s? How will it fulfill your core group’s needs in a way that no one else can? This is positioning yourself in the market.
(Remember how Avis advertised, “We try harder.”) As an example, when other advertising consultants do presentations, they talk about budgets, print versus TV, soft versus hard sell. I position myself by emphasizing that you start by targeting your audience, positioning your product, and creating distinctive selling propositions. Lots of mom-and-pop businesses, confronted by super stores, can’t compete or even survive unless they find a unique niche to fill.

4. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SELL IT?

We all know people with great ideas, products, and inventions. They spend a fortune developing this product, but it sits there because they have no idea what to do with it. Is there a system in place to put your product in the customers’ hands and return their money to you? Or do you need to create one?

Cheers

Darren Fleming
Australian Public Speaking courses


3 Myths of Public Speaking

November 13th, 2007

This article appeared in the Charlotte Observer on Sunday July 22 2007. the original copy can be found here http://www.charlotte.com/business/story/206834.html

Keys to overcoming fear easier than you think
MARSHALL LOEB
MarketWatch
If you are one of the estimated 15 million Americans suffering from a phobia of public speaking, take heart. The trick to overcoming your fear may be as simple as re-examining your basic assumptions about public speaking, say Harrison Monarth and Larina Kase, communications coaches and authors of the new book “The Confident Speaker.”

Here are three public speaking myths:

• Myth No. 1: Everyone can tell I’m panicking!

Your feelings are harder to read than you think. No one but you knows your heart is racing, so take a breath and try to calm down.

The lesson: You’re probably doing much better than you think.

• Myth No. 2: People are judging me.

Many of us mistakenly believe that nervousness automatically counts against us. But most audiences respond better to speakers who exhibit discomfort. “Most people have some level of worry about speaking in public, so when they see your nervousness, they may empathize with what you’re going through,” Monarth and Kase write.

The lesson: The audience is probably on your side.

• Myth No. 3: Postmortems will help me improve.

Those of us who suffer from a fear of public speaking are our own worst critics, write Kase and Monarth, and we tend to use the postmortem as an opportunity to ruminate over our missteps, which only exacerbates the problem.

The lesson: Skip the post-game analysis.

While I generally agree with this article, I must take point with the Myth Number 3.

Even if you hate Public speaking, it is vital that you at least debrief with yourself about how you went. This will help you improve endlessly. Even if you have no intention of doing any more public speaking because you stuffed it up, it is better to work out why you stuffed it up so you can avoid the mistakes in future situations, or similar events.

Cheers

Darren Fleming
Australia’s Public Speaking Coach
Australian Public Speaking courses


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