Public Speaking Information & News

Photo credits to Slimmer Jimmer

Let’s set things straight. There is absolutely NO way you can learn how to swim or cook from just reading a book or attending a seminar unless you are a genius. Yes?

And there’s a reason why there are still a gazillion number of people who are not rich in spite of the number of books on how to get rich. Yes?

If you have realized by now, the fastest and most effective way in mastering a skill is by DOING it. As the saying goes:

Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skills is knowing how to do it and virtue is doing it.

But Eric, I don’t deliver presentations everyday! No worries, you can still clock stage time if you adopt this insider strategy practiced by many top leaders and speakers in our world.

And here’s the barring truth - champions never turn down stage time. So instead of harping on it, I shall share with you 15 more ways to take the stage and sharpen your public speaking skills. If you have other brilliant ideas, please share them with me under the comments section.

1. Volunteer to emcee at your company’s event or your child’s birthday party
2. Give a toast at your friend’s wedding
3. Ask a question at a conference (during the Q&A session)
4. Join a Toastmasters meeting (speak at the Table Topics segment)
5. Conduct a mini workshop for your friends on a topic that you are an expert on (say cooking)
6. Speak up at your department’s meeting
7. Volunteer to deliver a presentation on behalf of your team in school
8. Attend a business networking event - find opportunities to speak up
9. Say hello to strangers on the way to work or school
10. Volunteer to teach at a non-profit organization
11. Videotaped yourself delivering a speech and then get professional feedback
12. Search for speeches and scripts on youtube and then recreate them.
13. Do a stand up comedy gig (warning: not for the faint hearted)
14. Have a boys or girls night out and take the chance to share some of your juicy stories with them.
15. Attend a public speaking program!

And I have just the right program to recommend you, especially if you are in Singapore!

It’s no ordinary program because it has taken close to a year to develop.

It combines years of experience and wisdom from all my mentors and speech coaches.

The process that we are adopting in this program has been fine-tuned over the past three years, with many success stories to boast of, including mine! (grins)

If you are curious enough to find out why this program can help you become confident, compelling and charismatic speakers in two days, CLICK HERE. Psst… there is a free prize inside.

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach

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A couple of days ago, I raved about having a female winner for the International Speech Contest held by Toastmasters International. This competition is akin to the Olympics of public speaking. Anyhow, one of the readers (Simon from UK) commented that “a Toastmasters competition is not the best way to measure skills as a public speaker…” and he sees “competitions as a bit too artificial to give a decent idea”. If you are curious about why he thinks that way, check out his blog.

Nonetheless, our conversation triggered a question - Can a winning speech be considered an excellent speech?

With the recent win by LaShunda Rundles, people all around the world are raving about her, judging from the number of times she gets mentioned in blogs and websites. For people who haven’t heard her speaker, we would be curious about what she spoke about that got her that win. What’s her message? How did she deliver it? What techniques did she use? Who was her coach? And etc.

However, is her winning speech a model of an excellent speech? Now, that’s a tough question.

What makes a winning speech is fairly subjective. Not only does it depend on a set of judging criteria, it also depends on the judges that day and the other contest speeches.

Take for example the District International Speech Contest held in Delaware, US in 2005, organized by the Toastmasters International. Five of the eight speakers had messages that revolved around death! At first, the stories shared were rather touching and the first two speakers managed to move the audience. However, when the other three speakers continued speaking about death, it totally spoilt the mood. All of a sudden, the audience felt manipulated. It didn’t help that the timekeeper that day was donning the attire of a Grim Reaper! Not surprisingly, the three speakers who won that day were those who avoided the topic of death. And mind you, they weren’t the best!

Having said that, let me share with you a secret on how Darren La Croix, 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking, beat 11 other world-class speakers that year.

It is best explained by telling you how his winning speech came about. A couple of months before the contest, Darren went to his speech coach, Mark Brown (1995 World Champion of Public Speaking) for some assistance. He was not sure what to speak on and his coach gave him one assignment.

“If you have only one day left to live, what is one lesson that you have personally learnt in your life, which you want to pass on to your children?”

For those of you without any children, replace that with your loved ones, or even the world if you like.

Darren had two days to list them all down. You see, if you were to think on the spot, you may come up with the obvious few. However, this may not be the most heartfelt or authentic ones. Remember the importance of speaking from the heart? As he glanced through all the possible topics, one stood out.

“I became a comedian because I was willing to fail…”

And Darren ran with that topic.

The next assignment was to find stories that related to his message. Again, if you were to just take whatever comes to mind first, you will put yourself in the league of the ordinary. Stories on Thomas Edison or Abraham Lincoln were way too common and predictable. Instead, Darren chose a character that was listed at the bottom of page four – Dr Robert Gardner, the man who invented the first rocket.

The lesson is simple. When you speak on a topic that you can relate to; that has the most significance on your life, that when shared, will create the greatest impact on your listeners, you will effortlessly win your audience over. That is also how you can create a winning speech.

Watch Darren deliver his winning speech.

Now let me answer the second part of the question. Can a winning speech be considered an excellent speech? Again, excellence is subjective. It also depends on whose benchmark you use to judge the speech’s excellence.

In my opininon, a winning speech is NOT an excellent speech because the people judging your speech may not have an eye for excellence. In addition, when you win a speech, it may be because your competitors are weak! Hence, even if you win several speech competitions, you are not necessarily good.

At this point of time, some of you may be asking us “If that is the case, how can one measure his speaking success?”

On top of the speaking accolades you win, there are two other ways to measure your speaking success. Interestingly these two ways are often overlooked.

1. Personal Growth

Your success can also be measured by how much you have grown from giving the speech. There are some types of speeches that you are not comfortable delivering (e.g. humor speeches), and you made an attempt, that’s personal growth… as long as you learnt something from your act of courage. It can come in the form of realizing that you do have a knack for humor or discovering some techniques that did not work very well for you.

Growth could also come in the form of speaking to an audience that you are not used to. For example, large size or higher seniority, or speaking in a style that you are normally not used to.

Take myself for example. My default mode is high energy, always smiling and positive. That works very well for me, especially if I want the participants to warm up to me. However, I realized that this style doesn’t work if I were to coach a bunch of adults who are not producing results. Being nice only gives them the permission to take advantage of me. This is when my tough side needs to show.

2. Create Value For Your Audience

Interestingly, “creating value for audience” is a favorite measure of success for many champion speakers, including Darren La Croix (2001) and Jim Key (2003).

“Champion speakers do not aspire to get a wow. We aspire to get the audience to do something for themselves, or to think differently about your subject or themselves when we are done. You need to think the same way. You cannot worry about what the audience thinks of you…that is an amateurish way of thinking. Think bigger. What will they ‘do’ as a result of you speaking… makes sense?” – Darren La Croix

Furthermore the audience has given you the gift of time and attention, so it is only fair to return them something valuable. Value could come in the form of what the audience wants. For example, to de-stress after a long day at work. Hence a speech peppered with funny anecdotes would be much appreciated. Alternatively, if they are here to learn, then make sure that your audience walks away with useful pointers that they can apply immediately to areas of their concern. Remember, under-promise but over-deliver! Or, maybe what your audience needs is to be challenged and inspired to grow. You can write a speech that bestows them with such opportunities!

The next speech competition is coming near… we have the Humorous Contest, Evaluation Contest (in Singapore) and Table Topics Contest (in US). I suggest you take the opportunity to clock your stage and remember, winning is only one way of measuring your speaking success.

Hey you reader, what are your thoughts on this controversial question - can a winning speech be considered an excellent speech?

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Success

P.S. These are the two entries that triggered the article you just read.

–> Are Women Any Less Capable Than Male Public Speakers?
–> Women Speakers Just Made Public Speaking History

P.P.S. If you want to learn more about winning speech competitions, I will like to invite you to buy a copy of The FAQ Book on Public Speaking. We have a whole chapter dedicated to that. Check it out.

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There is no one perfect way to start a presentation. You don’t have to tell a knee-slapping joke or start with a poignant anecdote. But you don’t want to start the way most presenters do. Why? Because most presenters start of by talking about themselves too much.
As a presenter, you have to make one fundamental choice about how you start: are you going to focus on yourself, or on your audience? If you focus on your audience, you will likely be a success. If you focus on yourself, no matter how polished you are, you will likely fail.
Here’s how most people start a presentation.

“Good morning. My name is TJ Walker (the audience already knows this because I was just introduced or my name is on the agenda).”

“I am the CEO of Media Training Worldwide. (Again, the audience already knows this because that’s how I was introduced or it’s on the agenda)”

“I am very happy to be here today. (Why should the audience care about my happiness at this stage of the relationship?”

“Before I begin (actually, I have already begun), I’d like to tell you about the history of my company, back in 1984… (Why does anyone want to hear my life story at this point?)”

“Now, let me tell you about all of the cities we are in. Currently, we are in Mumbai, Seoul, Bucharest… (Why should anyone care about all the cities they don’t live or work in?”

The problem with this speaker is that everything he is saying is about himself and is either boring, a cliché, or irrelevant to the audience. He might eventually get to some interesting content, but by then there is the real danger that half of the audience has zoned out or is fixated on his or her own blackberry messages.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Deep down I am an optimist and I believe that most people are good-spirited, but I do not think that audiences are primarily interested in the well-being of the person speaking in front of them. It’s not that the people we speak to wish us ill-will, it’s just that they are focused on themselves, their lives, and their careers. So the quicker we talk about them, the better off we are.

Here is an example of how I start a presentation when I am working with a small group of executives in a session on presentation training:

TJ, “So, why are we here? Jim, you mentioned that you are comfortable when you are sitting down presenting to a small group, but that you get uncomfortable when you have to stand and talk to more than 20 people. We’ll work on ways to overcome that.”

“Sally, you mentioned that you don’t mid talking to a roomful of strangers, but you get really nervous talking in your weekly staff meetings. We’ll come up with tips on how to get comfortable there.”

“Sandy, you feel like your PowerPoints are dragging you down. We’ll learn some new ways to make PowerPoint add to your presentation.”

Now when you are reading this, you might be thinking “TJ is not saying anything particularly eloquent or brilliant…it’s not even that interesting.” However, I can assure you that Jim and Sally and Sandy find this opening incredibly interesting because it is about them. They are riveted to the presentation because it doesn’t seem like a so-called formal presentation. It is personal and about them, therefore it is about the most interesting subject in the world to them.

How did I get all of this inside information about the people I am speaking to? Did I hire private investigators? Google search them for 20 hours? Interview their assistants? No. All I did was have a 30 second conversation with each one 10 minutes before the speech started. I listened to my audience and talked to them about their needs and personalized the start, that is why it is effective.

The technique I used works well with a small group of people or even just in front of one person. But it also works well in front of 1000 people. Obviously I can’t reference what 1000 people said to me, but by referencing what four or five people in the convention hall said, it makes the audience relate to me better and feel like I am giving them content that is fresh and relevant to them. It gives my presentation an “un-canned” quality.

The problem most people have is that if you have written out your speech or a speechwriter or corporate communications person has created your speech in advance, it is hard to know how to personalize your opening. Speechwriters may try to get you to be overly formal by thanking 22 people. Marketing experts who have a hand in your PowerPoint will want you to start by listing off your top five corporate messages. And you, because you are nervous, might try to memorize an opening to your speech. These are all mistakes.
There is no one ideal way to start of a speech. It could be with a question, it could be with a funny story. It doesn’t have to be witty or clever as long as it is interesting and relevant to your audience.

Most speakers feel the need to go through a series of boring, cliché-filled formalities before they start their speech in earnest. This is great news for you and me because it means we stand out as fantastic speakers as long as we don’t do the normal, standard boring speaker-centered opening. In my experience, audiences truly reward audience-focused speakers who concentrate on the audience right from the beginning. The people you are speaking to will reward you with what really counts—their attention, their focus and their memory.

Photo credits to brenno64

When there’s a storm, the grass bends over and lives to see another day. The oak tree that stands upright and unyielding will eventually be uprooted.

The same goes for public speaking. Don’t antagonize your audience – they’re not there to be offended. And if you do offend them, then you’ve just lost any chance you ever had of persuading them of your point of view.

In a sense, it’s very much like ju-jitsu or judo. Instead of rushing headlong at your opponent (and getting said head cracked open), use your opponent’s energy and momentum against him.

If you’re preaching to the converted, you have an easier job, of course. But even if your audience isn’t entirely convinced or even skeptical, your attempts at persuasion shouldn’t be obvious – because otherwise, they’ll fail. Acknowledge your audience’s beliefs and work from it.

Here’re three major steps that will have even a hostile audience warming up to you.

1. Start from a COMMON GROUND.

People have lots of different identities. At any one time, you’re someone’s child, but you’re also someone’s spouse and someone’s parent. You could be defined by your job – teacher, engineer, telemarketer, manager, salesperson. You could be defined by your religion – Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist. You could also be defined by your lack of religion – atheist. You could be defined by ethnic group or by gender, or even by age.

Use that! Find a common ground that you can share with a majority of your audience – and better still, relate your topic to it. Talk about your own personal experiences and share them with the audience to build rapport.

In short, understand your audience.

If you’re addressing a bunch of people who come from different faiths, talk about how faith in general can impact people by giving them spiritual support. If you’re addressing people from different ethnic groups, identify an issue that they can all relate to – for instance, the rising costs of living.

If you know your audience is particularly hostile on one particular identity, then try and shift the focus away from it.

Imagine, for instance, that you have to give a pro-abortion talk to a fervent group of anti-abortionists. Don’t jump straight into it and say that they’re wrong. Start by identifying with them. Talk about your experiences with raising your own children and the joy and the trouble that they’ve given you. In short, change your main identity – not pro-abortionist, but parent.

A common ground encourages understanding and emotional connection, which will soften their stance towards you – thus giving you an opening in their defenses, through which you can deliver your main points.

2. Address COMMON VALUES / GOALS.

Of course, after you’ve identified the common ground, it’s only logical to talk about common goals.

Life, after all, is about how we strive to achieve goals despite the obstacles in the way. And telling people that you want to help them achieve those goals is a great way to garner more support.

It’s important to show that you understand someone’s goals.

For instance, the anti-abortionists want to preserve life and they often cherish the idea of a family. So talk to them about it. Acknowledge this goal and show that you’re not at odds with it.

For instance, you can say that you want what’s best for families, both children and parents. It’s a goal that most people would agree with (I should hope so, who wouldn’t?) and you can then show how allowing abortion under certain circumstances may actually help this, possibly by ensuring that the children who are born are genuinely wanted and receive a higher quality of life.

Of course, your audience may not be hostile. Better still, then! If you’re attempting to sell something at a product demonstration, for instance, just demonstrate how your product meets the needs of your potential customer. You see it all the time in persuasive marketing, and here’s a basic example – shampoo.

Most shampoo brands will have variations of their product. There’ll be one for dry hair, for dyed hair, one for extra-moisturising properties, one for straight hair, one for curly hair… and so on.

The company wants to help you make your hair look good – which is why you buy their product.

Of course, that’s not really the case, is it? The company wants to make money. But no company’s going to actually say that – and the take-away from that is that neither should you. Focus on what your audience wants, and show them how you can help them achieve it.

3.Be CALM. Avoid being too aggressive.

As a rule of thumb, people don’t like being pushed to do things. We like to think of ourselves as independent people who are capable of making our own decisions, so if you get too pushy, you might alienate people.

Sometimes, it’s as easy as acknowledging this fact. Simply say that you understand that not all members of the audience may agree with you, but that you respect their opinions and you hope that you’ll receive that same respect. Chances are, you will.

But of course, life’s not always that pleasant.

For instance, if you’re dealing with a hostile question from the audience, remain calm. Never, ever get defensive or worse, antagonistic. Things will go very rapidly downhill from that point.

Instead, try and defuse the situation. If the question is extremely hostile or even rude, a humorous quip tends to amuse other members of the audience and bring the hostility down – for instance:

‘Did my ex-husband/wife/mother-in-law send you?’

But also, thank them for their points and appreciate them. Devote some time to it – unless, of course, they’re just heckling you, you can simply note the concern and move on to more serious questions.

Some presentations are lost causes – you can talk till the cows – and even the sheep and the sheepdogs – come home, but you still won’t change anyone’s core values.

But with the above three tips, you can certainly make it a more pleasant and rewarding experience for everyone involved – most of all, yourself!

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach

P.S: Need to be more persuasive? Then check out the following entries too!

Art of Persuasion: How Do You Get People To Say Yes To You
Here’s How You Be Right All The Time
Ten Timeless Persuasive Speaking Techniques

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Two weeks ago, I wrote an article that raised some eye brow among the readers here. I brought in Hillary Clinton, Helen Fisher and Patricia Fripp as examples of how women are scoring in the public speaking arena. You can read all about it here: Are Women Any Less Capable Than Male Public Speakers?.

A strange thing happened shortly after writing the article.

I receive an email from my friend informing me of the winner of the International Speech Contest held by Toastmasters International.

“Eric, guess what. The winner this year is a LADY!!! So yes, women are as good - if not better - than men in public speaking! LOL”

By the way, LOL = laugh out loud. It’s email language.

The winner this year beat over 2500 speakers from all over the world… and she is not even a professional speaker. Her good name is LaShunda Rundles. What’s even more outstanding is this - LaShunda is the first woman to win the contest in more than 20 years! (She’s only the 4th woman to win since the contest began in 1938 - though Toastmasters was a “male only” organization for many years, as quoted from Darren La Croix) To see the other finalists, click here.

Champion’s Edge is going to interview her tonight and I will try my best to get a copy of the interview. Meanwhile, you can read more about the competition here:

–> The New World Champion of Public Speaking
–> Losing The 2008 World Championship of Public Speaking
–> Here’s 2008 World Champion of Public Speaking by Darren La Croix

Oh, do you know that LaShunda can sing! Listen to her croon here at mySPACE. It’s beau-ti-ful!

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach

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Picture by SiFu Renka

Lisa Braithwaite is the author of “Speak Schmeak”, another Public Speaking Blog featured on Alltop. This week we’re featuring an article from her blog.
Take it away Lisa!

One of my clients was talking about her initial nervousness when she gives a presentation and how much it would help her to have a better opening.

We usually talk about strong openings as a benefit to the audience: as a way to engage them, pique their interest and encourage them to get involved.

But we don’t talk about the benefits to the speaker of having a strong opening. Like I mentioned in yesterday’s post on slowing down, having a strong opening benefits both the audience and the speaker.

A strong opening helps you feel more fully prepared, because you know exactly what you’re going to say.

A strong opening helps you get over initial nervousness, because when you’re prepared you feel more confident.

A strong opening helps you read the audience right from the beginning, giving you an idea of their mood, their level of interest and their likely level of participation.

Think of your opening not just as a way to grab the audience, but as a way to psych yourself up and get yourself in gear for a successful presentation.

For more information on strong openings, look here:

How do you know when you’ve nailed it“>

Strong openings: shocking statistics

two minutes of thank yous?

Stating your credentials–yay or nay?

When not to say thank you

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach

Want more on how to open your speeches strong? Then you’re going to want to dig these!

7 Sure Fire Ways To Kick Start Your Presentations With A Bang

How Do I Start My Speech Powerfully?

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I wish I could tell you to just chant positive affirmations, or picture your audience naked, or visualize a standing ovation, but none of those things will prevent you from giving a lousy presentation, so they should not help you prevent nervousness either.
I’d like to be able to tell you something comforting, like “it’s going to be fine!” or “”you’ll do great if you just believe in yourself!” But the reality is that you should be nervous. Chances are, you are going to bomb. I don’t say this to be mean-spirited or to mess with your confidence, but here are the facts: most speakers bore their audiences. Most presenters give unmemorable data dumps. Most speakers communicate absolutely nothing, if by communication, you mean what the audience remembers, not just what comes out of the speaker’s mouth.

So, at the risk of freaking you out, I really think that you and most speakers should be MORE nervous, not less nervous when you speak. The real reason that you and most people fear speaking is that you fear the unknown—you don’t know if you look or sound stupid, you are uncertain of how you are coming across. When you think about it, this makes perfect sense. If someone forced you to get dressed in the morning in pitch black and without being able to look in the mirror once before leaving your home, would you be nervous about your appearance? Of course you would. You’d be worried that you missed shaving half of your face or that you put lipstick on crooked.

Of course you and most people always look at the mirror many times before leaving your home in the morning. Why do we do that? It’s not as if we have to look at our own face all day long. We look at mirrors because we want an accurate sense of how the rest of the world sees us. Most of us look at the mirror when we first get up. Then after we hop out of the shower. Then after we shave or after we put on makeup. And probably one more peek before walking out the door. We have an “editing” system for putting on our public face and clothes.

The result? When you show up at the office or in front of clients, you probably aren’t worried about your face or your hair. You might not feel you are perfect, but at least you are confident that you have put your best face forward—so you aren’t nervous about your looks.

But when it comes to our presentation or talk, how do we know we make any sense or are even remotely interesting? There is only one way: you have to look at your speech. I don’t mean stare at words written on paper. The speech is you actually speaking. There is only one way for you to do this and that is to video record your speech and then watch it (talking to a mirror is a complete waste of time). 

You must practice your speech while video recording it, and then watch yourself. The one thing clients ask me constantly is “TJ, do I really have to watch myself? I hate watching myself on video!” Sorry, but you do have to watch yourself, the same way you have to look at yourself in the mirror before you leave your home.

Is it painful to watch yourself? Yes. But this is less painful than wasting the time of people you are speaking to because you were boring or hard to follow. So grab a mini-video camera, a cell phone with video capture, a webcam, a camcorder or any other video device and record your speech. Then watch it.

If you are like most people, here is the response you will have after watching yourself on video, “Ugh, TJ, I hate my speech! I am so deadly dull it’s not funny. I never imagined I would sound so boring and monotone. I would fall asleep if I had to watch this speech.”

Well, at least now you know how your audience will feel. The good news is that you still have time to fix this disaster of a speech. When I ask my clients what they want to do to improve their presentations, their first response is usually “throw the whole thing in the trash can!”

That may be the best thing.

I can’t tell you what to say, but I can tell you that if you hate your speech, there is an excellent chance your audience will too. If you don’t like your speech, then come up with a new one. Then video record it. Watch it. Did you like it better this time?

Practice alone is not enough—especially if you are practicing a long, boring, abstract presentation. The key is to get rid of the bad, boring, abstract content from your speech and replace it with interesting examples, case studies and success stories.

Keep refining your speech and keep watching it until you reach a magical moment: that is when you can watch your own speech and actually love what you see. This might take you five minutes, or it might take you five days. Either way, your audience doesn’t care. They just want your best.

But here’s the payoff: when you are watching a video of yourself and you can clearly see that you look comfortable and confident and that you are expressing your ideas in an interesting and memorable way, a funny thing happens to your nerves—they completely disappear.
So that’s the solution: a lot of hard work, a little technology, and a focus on the perspective of an audience member—in this case, you as a representative of your audience.

Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps was asked the following questions on August 14, 2008 at the Beijing Olympics:

“Are you the greatest Olympic athlete ever?”

“Are you the greatest swimmer ever?”

“Are your accomplishments greater than those of Carl Lewis or Jesse Owens?”

And what was Phelps’ brilliant response?

“I just swim. I don’t think about it.”

Brilliant!

Phelps didn’t allow himself to get sucked into a debate that could only make him look bad for the rest of his career.  These questions, by their very nature, are hypothetical, and any answer would be highly speculative. To be fair to the journalists, these questions are interesting, relevant, and reflect the interests of readers and viewers around the world. But there is no way that someone in Phelps shoes can give a direct answer to these questions without coming across as arrogant, insensitive, ego-centric, insecure or all of the above.

But Phelps did answer; he didn’t simply say “no comment.”

Phelps answer of “I just swim. I don’t think about it” works because he is being respectful to the questioner, answers the question at some level, keeps himself totally above the fray and away from controversy, shuts down further lines of questioning, and reinforces his image of a singularly focused athlete.

Political leaders and CEOs around the world might not ever be able to duplicate Phelps swimming skills, but they can and should emulate his media abilities.

Do you know that there are a total of 418 articles written for The Public Speaking Blog since March 2006? Each article contains about an average of 10 insider strategies to help you become more confident and charismatic speakers. And if you were crazy enough to read EVERYTHING here, you would have gained access to over 4180 time-tested speaking tips and tactics that would have cost you a thousands of dollars to acquire. Yet, I realize that most of my revered readers (that includes YOU!) only manage to scrap the surface and read about 10% of what’s written for you. What a shame!

And then I thought about Pareto’s Principle - 80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts and time!

… which led me to wonder what are the 20% of articles here that will give you the most return?

And I thought about all the articles that were published before, for example:

So You Think You Can Make A Singaporean Laugh and Think Purple Cow! which was published in The Toastmaster magazine in June 2008 and May 2007 respectively.

Top 7 Presentation Bloopers To Avoid which was featured on GetEntrepreneurial.com

The Art of Schmoozing which was featured on the Recruit section of Straits Time (my national paper)

And of course 250 Things You Wish You Know That Will Guarantee Your Public Speaking Success which created quite a storm on the web, including a feature in Lifehacker and Digg.com

However, I feel that it is not authentic enough. These articles could have been featured because of the editor’s opinion, not yours.

And so the only way to find out is to ask you.

So here goes.

“Among all the public speaking articles you have read thus far here, which article has provided you with the most value?”

All you got to do is to give me the title and the url in the comments section. I would appreciate it if you can also let me know WHY is that article of most value to you.

As a thank you, I will be giving you the audio copy of the first two chapters of The FAQ Book on Public Speaking worth US$60 for f*ree! The two chapters are:

–> How to overcome your nervousness and stage fright once and for all
–> How to connect with your audience (and keep them excited, engaged and at the edge of their seats)

Do that within the next three days to qualify!

Talk soon,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach

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Well first, let me say thanks for the warm welcome Barry, and in the immortal words of one of my heroes, Dean Martin, "how’d all these people get in my room?" 

Well as my bio states, I spent most of the 90’s hidden away in the deepest darkest recesses of the largest mountains in the world.  My experiences over those seven years have formed how I approach business and consulting.  One of the biggest lessons I have learned, and carry with me today, is to prepare properly.  For an expedition the size of Annapurna, it tooks months of planning and logistics work.  Speaking in public and/or presenting to C-level executives for client corporations requires significant planning as well.

As with climbing any major mountain, you need to learn everything you can about the route, weather, etc.  Tha same goes for speaking.  You have to learn everything you can about your audience.  I spend hours pouring over research about a client’s industry and company.  By doing this I make sure that I speak to the issues and challenges they face everyday.

Now one of the things that I was taught by some of my mentors in IT early on was to make a strong opening and closing and to just memorize that part.  I can’t find a way to compare that to alpine climbing, but suffice it to say, I make sure that I have some great facts and figures memorized about my clients industry and company, maybe some IT initiatives I’ve been able to uncover in my research.  This will really blow your audience away when you can jump right in a speak intelligently about their industry and/or company.

As I have learned over the years climbing and in life in general, if you visualize yourself doing something it makes it easier to achieve your goals.  I used to visualize myself reaching the summit of mountains.  I still had to endure many hardships (freezing temperatures, snow, ice, avalanches, etc) to reach a summit, but visualizing myself standing on top helped push me forward when it took everything I had to just put one foot in front of the other.  I take that same approach before I begin any presentation.  I visualize my success and getting a great positive response from my audience.  If you follow this little piece of advice it will go a long way in calming those nerves and mentally setting yourself up for success.

The last thing I want to close out my first post with is to give you two words:  Passion and Enthusiasm.  I am passionate about the technology I have made a career out of; Citrix.  I share my passion and enthusiasm for business and technology everyday I’m in meetings with clients and prospective clients.  I share this passion and enthusiasm with groups that I speak in front of.    People feed off of these two emotions.  If you exude enthusiasm for your topic your audience picks up on that and it carries the rest of the way through the presentation.  These two emotions will help you create success.

I am looking forward to contributing to this site and sharing my alpine climbing experiences and how they help me everyday in my career.

Cheers
Michael