Your Speaking Power

Each day most of us use thousands of words: we talk to others, talk to ourselves, fill out forms, write reports and go to meetings where we talk and listen. Even on a quiet day, we may use hundreds of words. That’s true, you say, but so what? Before I answer that let me ask [...]

While it’s important to grab your audience’s attention at the start, be careful not to numb them with shock as one presenter did. He was a student in my follow-up course on how to make presentations – and took to heart what I said about making an audience-grabbing opening. In his next presentation, he opened [...]

Recently, I attended an informal meeting of internet marketers. During that meeting, several people suggested that I offer a course on webinars. “But aren’t there already lots of people doing that?” The reply: “I don’t know who’s teaching them, but I turn them off because I can’t stand listening. No matter how good the content [...]

Funny thing about us humans, we keep forgetting that to a great extent we make our our world. We’re social creatures who need each other, need to connect, converse, interact. Though we engage in these activities daily, we often don’t like the results we get. So we conduct study after study to find out what’s [...]

You may never have looked at it this way before, but like it or not, your voice is your public relations agent. Listeners decide on your state of mind, your health, your social and educational background, and even your attitude – mostly from the way you sound. If you doubt this, think of someone you [...]

The number one way to improve your public speaking is…prepare. Though that may sound self-evident, believe me, it isn’t. As any good trial lawyer will tell you, preparation is the key to winning cases. Preparation is also the key to outstanding presentations—especially if you prepare the following way. The Questions First, research your audience. Who [...]

As you celebrate the Fourth of July this year, you might want to think about Lincoln’s speech at Gettysburg– for two reasons: for the importance of his message; and for the format he used to construct that message. The structure of Lincoln’s presentation is simple, yet highly effective. First, he described the situation; Second, he [...]

In March of this year, after reading comments sent to websites, I wrote in “How Not to Persuade”: “As I quickly scan the responses to the latest political news story, I am saddened. Why? Because people’s responses to the news (of this legislation) were filled with name calling and labeling. Reading those comments was like [...]

Psychologists from St. Louis’ Washngton U and the University of Arizona wanted to know if there was much difference in the conversations of people who are generally happy, as opposed to those who generally unhappy. They set up an experiment to discover what differences, if any, exist between the two groups by having volunteers wear [...]

These days when people hear the word “focus” they assume the topic under discussion will be how the internet causes us to have shorter attention spans, and thus, lack focus. But today I want to talk about focus in a different context–your focus when you speak. Whether you’re talking one-to-one or to a large audience [...]