Public Speaking

So many professions require a good level of public speaking, from lawyers and media darlings to politicians and teachers but to name a few.

Content is king, talk with purpose, meaning and precision so as to keep your audience interested. Mindless mumbojumbo is sure to put your audience to sleep at best. What you’re trying to create here is a journey of discovery for the onlooker, where they are following an interesting and diverse path to an eventual exciting and relevant destination. Any diversion from your intended route should have concise explanations in a way the audience understands. Humor should be injected into your speech in a few areas to lighten up the mood and retain their attention.

Body language is also important. Stand upright and engage the audience so that they think you are talking to them personally. This is easily achieved by looking at members of the audience. In addition it is best to only look at your notes for 20% of the time.

Use a projection of voice that is clear, easy on the ear and can be heard by everyone.

Don’t make any grammatical errors, and make the occasional perfectly timed pause for added impact.

If you become adept at all these tips your public speaking should be well on the way to success.

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We are what we believe we are, and we can do what we believe we can do.

Yes, I know that sounds all touchy-feely and new age, but you don’t have to be a metrosexual to climb onboard the belief bandwagon.There is an interesting connection between our conscious mind and our subconscious. Our subconscious is tasked with the responsibility of making what we consciously believe is true, actually come true; at least to the best of our subconscious mind’s ability to make it true.

So, if you think you can do something, you can. And, if you think you can’t, you can’t. It sounds simple, right? Well as it is simple, sort of.

We’ve all heard of the old proverb, “The Devil you know is better than the one you don’t”. This great fear of the unknown causes people not to take chances and to stay in situations where they’re not very happy. As soon as people think about change they start playing the “what if?” game.
• What if I make a mistake?
• What if it’s worse than what I have now?
• What if I fail?

You tell yourself the “grass is greener” and bury any thoughts of changing your situation for the better. You think you should stay where you are, just in case. You don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future so you can’t tell for sure what the consequences of your actions will be.

You do know what you have now and you tell yourself that if you think about it, it’s really not that bad. Right? The fear of the unknown is what stops most people from ever making positive changes in their lives.

If you let it, your imagination can dream up a never ending supply of terrible things that could happen. But let’s think about it. You have the ability to imagine the absolute worst thing that could happen so that means you also have the skill to use your energy to imagine the absolute best thing that could happen. It’s a matter of focus.

Why do you waste so much time imagining the worst when there’s just as much of a chance of the best outcome happening? In Susan Jeffers book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, she says that whatever option you choose will provide you with new opportunities and surprises that you may never have imagined happening.

Check out for belief buster kit review, make your life meaningful….dont waste it.

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Laptops, Audio-Video & Systems:

1. Even if you are carrying your own pc with the presentation preloaded, always have a backup. Always have a copy of your PPT in a USB flash drive and remember to carry it or email it prior to the presentation to the host of the event and request them to have it loaded on an alternate machine.

2. Check and recheck all your hardware, cabling, power supply and software.

3. Always run your laptop from its Power Supply. Even if your laptop can run for more time without power, than the length of the presentation, don’t use battery. Modern day notebooks slow the speed of CPU if you are running from battery. Slowing your machine down.

4. Keep all the applications that you are demonstrating open before the start of your presentations. Much of the time applications seem to take more time to start when you are on the stage.

5. Increase your font size to about 20 in Notepad/VS.NET/IDE if you are displaying computer code.

6. Stick to simpler fonts like Courier or Tahoma, It is my belief that source code looks clearer with these fonts.

7. If this is the first time, you are doing a demonstration with this notebook then connect your notebook to an external screen and check the output is configured the day before.

8. If you are going to be using a notebook for the first time during the presentation, then practice using a notebook before the presentation. The usage of touchpad pointer is completely a different method from a mouse. Better still, request or carry a mouse and connect it prior to the presentation.

9. Go 20 or 30 minutes early to the stage before the audience comes in, then rig your laptop and check it works with the projectors. Try to build a team spirit with the A/V assistant there, remember he is the most important person in the entire universe during your presentation. Place your plastic business cards in a prominent position where people will notice them and pick them up. plastic cards are preferable to traditional business cards as they are visually striking and more likely to be picked up and retained.

10. If you require an Internet connection, inform the Event Organizers well in advance (A week really helps). I have learned the hard way that the larger the hall, and the more stars if it is a Hotel, the greater the difficulty for them to give you an Internet Connection or Phone Connection. This problem is now relatively negated due to Internet connection through Mobile phones and WIFI. there again, on most halls for some reason, because they tend to be below ground have the worst signal strength near the stage. So always test it before relying on it.

11. Always Remember that the Murphys law works at its best during technical presentations and especially during beta demonstrations.

Sharing the stage:

1. If you are undertaking the presentation with another speaker, remember to get the storyboard discussed well in advance. Apart from doing this, you need to definitely rehearse your presentation at least once or twice. Because the chemistry on stage between you two is very important and it doesn’t come very easily unless you know the other person very well and have worked or spoken with them before.

P.S. With the help of the proper speaking skills you can turn any business or web project into a magnet - even simple auto loan calculator site that explains how to save money on car loans.

Master these skills and you will see how it changes your business success very favorably.

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