Category Archives: Developing core public speaking skills
The Lessons I Learned From Extemporaneous Speaking
During my senior year of high school, I made a fairly bold decision that was out of character for me. I decided to join my school’s speech team to participate specifically in extemporaneous speaking, also known as extemp. This is … Continue reading
Believing in Yourself
Yesterday we shared a great guest post by Frank Simmons Jr. who encouraged you to be yourself – and to believe in yourself – to avoid becoming a cookie-cutter professional speaker. To take the topic a bit further, I thought I’d share this clip … Continue reading
Visual Aids: Guy Kawasaki on PowerPoint
On December 30, 2005, on his blog How To Change the World, venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki, the co-founder of alltop.com and the former chief evangelist for Apple, set out “The 10/20/30: Rule of PowerPoint.” You’ve probably heard of it. The … Continue reading
How to Use a Microphone
Here’s a topic that can be of benefit to both event planners and emerging professional speakers themselves. As an event planner it may be your responsibility to introduce the speaker on stage at your event. We discussed the ins and … Continue reading
Introducing Your Speaker
As an event planner it may fall to you to introduce on stage the professional speaker you’ve hired for your event. The speaker introduction is an important part of any event as it sets the tone for what is to … Continue reading
Inspiring Speaker Friday: Steve Jobs
Yesterday I referred you to John Zimmer’s blog, Manner of Speaking, for his article titled “10 Tips for Using Props in a Presentation,” which was just chock-full of interesting videos of inspiring speakers making use of props in their presentations. So … Continue reading
Visual Aids: Props
Yesterday I wrote about some of the most common visual aids used in presentations today: presentation software, flip charts and white boards. Today we’ll discuss another: props! Props can get a bad rap as they sometimes come off as cheesy or … Continue reading
Two Types of Visual Aids
Yesterday we wrote about the benefits of incorporating visual aids into your presentations. Statistics have proven time and again that audiences get the most out of a presentation when it appeals to more than one of their senses. Remember, according to … Continue reading
Visual Aids: Why You Should Be Using Them
People have long been researching the effectiveness of using visual aids in presentations. In fact, the Management Information Systems Research Center at the University of Minnesota conducted a study in 1986 that was “designed to systematically explore how computer generated … Continue reading
Uninspiring Speaker Friday: “Every Presentation Ever”
Since we posted a video of an inspiring speaker yesterday, I thought we’d do something a bit different with Inspiring Speaker Friday today. So welcome to Uninspiring Speaker Friday! Today I’d like to share a video that was put together … Continue reading
