The Accidental Communicator

3 Secrets Speakers Use To Add Stories To Their Speeches

Dr. Jim Anderson — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:00:24 +0000

What speech wouldn’t be better with a good story?Image Credit

Does your next audience really want to hear your speech? I mean really, what are they going to be doing after you are done speaking? You know about the importance of public speaking, but do they? Would they rather just get to that next thing and skip your speech? For many speakers this can be the case (especially if they are speaking just before lunch is to be served). In order to fix this problem, you’re going to have to add some stories to your next speech and that means you’re going to have to discover the 3 secrets of doing that correctly.

The Three Secrets Of Adding Stories To Your Next Speech

Understanding that adding more good stories to your next speech is going to make it a better speech is one thing, actually knowing how to go about doing this is something else. That’s why the following 3 secrets for how to add stories to a speech are so important for you to know.

The first of these secrets is for you to collect stories. You can’t add a story to your speech if you don’t remember it. That’s why you need to commit yourself to listening to everyone that you encounter and observing what goes on in your own life. This is where the best stories come from. Once you find a story that you think that you might be able to use in a speech, you need to find a way to remember it. The best way is to carry a notebook of some sort with you at all times and write it down. However, this is the 21st Century and so it might be more practical to whip out your smart phone and type it in there. Check out the free Evernote application for iPhones and Android phones – it was made for exactly this task.

The second secret is to make sure that any story that you tell is relevant. I am all too aware of getting into a situation where I have a story that I’m just bursting to tell because it’s so funny or because it will provoke a reaction from my audience; however, it has nothing to do with my speech’s main point. Don’t let this happen to you. Make sure that the stories that you add to your next speech have something to do with the topic that you are discussing.

Finally, the third secret is not be afraid to borrow the experiences of others. As speakers we’ve all been told to not plagiarize material and this is a good rule for all of us to follow. However, this doesn’t mean that every story that we tell has to be about something that happened to us. Rather, we can learn from others and use their stories in our speeches. The only thing that we need to be careful about is that the person that we’re telling the story about doesn’t use the same story in one of their speeches. If they do, then we’ve got to stop using it.

What All Of This Means For You

As speakers we are always facing the simple fact that our audience has other things that they could be doing and they may not realize the benefits of public speaking (at least our speaking). If our speech does not both catch and hold their attention, then they’ll quickly start to think about the next thing that they want to do and not about our speech.

In order both capture and hold our audience’s attention, we speakers need to incorporate more stories into our next speech. In order to do this we need to collect stories that are relevant to our audience. We can do this by borrowing the experiences of others.

Long after your speech is over, you want your audience to remember what you said. It’s not the facts and stats that you shared with them that they’ll be able to recall. Instead, it’s the stories that we share with them that really hit home that will create a lasting impression on our audiences. Take the time to add more stories to your next speech!

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: Do you think that there are any dangers of telling stories about other people’s experiences?

Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Quick question for you: what’s the difference between a sculptor and a painter? It turns out that the answer is pretty simple: a sculptor creates by removing, a painter creates by adding. A similar difference exists between good and not-so good speech writers. The good ones know to start writing their next speech from the end…

How Good Of A Speaker You Are Depends On How Well You See Yourself

Dr. Jim Anderson — Tue, 07 May 2013 09:00:30 +0000

To become a better speaker, you have to be able to see yourself clearly
Image Credit

Every speaker wants the same thing – to become a better speaker. The challenge that we all have is that although we understand the importance of public speaking, often we don’t know what we need to change in order to become better. The secret to solving this problem is to take the time to see ourselves the way that our audience does.

How To Evaluate Your Next Speech

Imagine for a moment that you are a professional sports star. You are only going to remain a part of the game if you keep getting better and better. How are you going to go about doing that? Today’s modern athletes get better at what they do by taking the time to study how they did it last time. They identify where they need to improve, work on their skills, and then move their game up to the next level.

As public speakers, we need to be doing the same thing. You’ll never get better if you don’t take the time to study how your last speech went. You are at a fundamental disadvantage every time you give a speech – you can’t watch yourself while you are giving the speech. This means that you’re going to have to come up with a different plan.

The simplest way to evaluate your performance during a speech is to pause while you are delivering the speech and evaluate your audience’s reaction to the speech. Do they seem to be interested or are they “not with you”? Do this evaluation a few times throughout your speech in order to see if your audience is staying with you.

An even better way to get an evaluation of your next speech is to either videotape yourself or plant some evaluators in the audience. Either way you’ll get straight and honest feedback on how you did. Each time that you do this, you’ll get a little bit better and you’ll be able to improve your game the next time you give a speech.

Getting Off Autopilot

There was a diet that was popular a few years ago that was all about getting your body to be in “the zone”. The thinking is that once you got there, the extra pounds would just slide off of you. This might be a great way to lose weight, but it’s a lousy way to give a speech.

All too often speakers can develop patterns of giving a speech that will distract from the speech itself. These patterns can include such things as things that you do with your hands such as touching your hair or fixing your clothes while speaking. It may have something to do with the words that you say – some phrase that you repeat over and over again.

We do these things on autopilot and we are generally not aware that we’re doing them. In order to shut off our autopilot, we need to have someone watch our next speech and make notes about the things that we seem to be doing over and over again without being aware that we are doing them. After the speech is over, we need to have a talk with this person, learn from what they tell us, and then when we practice for our next speech we need to work to turn our personal autopilot off.

Becoming Better

Every speaker reaches a certain point in their speaking path where they may start to think that they are “good enough”. This is when they believe that they are a better speaker than a lot of other people and they may find it hard to keep improving.

We need to understand that we always need to be working to become better. Yes, change in any form is difficult and uncomfortable. Change is not something that will happen overnight. In fact, it might not happen by the time that you are called on to give your next speech. The good news is that change does not have to happen all at once – it can happen little-by-little. Just as long as we are getting better every time that we give a speech, we will be making the progress that we need to be making.

It is by changing that we can find ways to better serve our audiences. The reason that we can screw up the courage to get up in front of that audience and deliver a speech in the first place is because we believe that by doing so we can, in some little way, change the world. In order to make this happen, we need to always be looking for ways to become better at giving powerful speeches.

What All Of This Means For You

The speaker that you were yesterday is not as good as the speaker that you are today. The speaker that you will be tomorrow will be better than the speaker that you are today. The key is to find out just exactly how to become better.

In order to improve our speaking abilities, we need to first find a way to evaluate our performance during our last speech. Next we need to identify and stop doing those actions that we do on autopilot during a speech. Finally, once we know how to become better, we need to commit ourselves to becoming better.

One of the benefits of public speaking is that it truly is possible to become a better speaker each and every speech that we give. However, this isn’t going to happen by magic. Instead, what need to occur is that we need to learn how to evaluate our last speaking performance and then we need to use what we’ve learned to become better. It’s possible, now get to it!

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: What’s the best way to incorporate changes that you want to make into your next speech?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Communicator Blog is updated.
P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Communicator Newsletter are now available. Subscribe now: Click Here!

Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

The Importance of Making a Great First Impression With Your Audience

Dr. Jim Anderson — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:00:10 +0000

Every audience that you meet is another opportunity to make a first impression
Image Credit

Note: This article has been written by Philip J Reed on behalf of DexOne, creating small business marketing solutions.

We all know about the importance of public speaking, but did you know that people size you up from the moment they see you? It’s not about being judgmental — at least not on purpose (in most cases). It’s just human nature to read the environment. In “5 Ways To Make A Killer First Impression”, Vanessa Van Patten, Author of “Human Lie Detection And Body Language 101″ referenced Princeton research in which people watched a video of political candidates for a microsecond and then they were asked to predict who would win the election. The subjects had a 70% accuracy rate. As a result Van Patten says, “People can make incredibly accurate snap judgments in a tenth of a second.” And if your audience is deciding that quick, then it’s important to make the most of your time with them.

Here are a few tips to help you “say” what really matters with your look, body language and conversation before you start your next speech.

What’s in your head is ultimately the most important information about you. But in most settings people have to go two layers deep before “hearing” what you have to say in conversation. First comes your look, followed by body language, and conversation is usually third on the list. Since your style does matter and is often the first part of the equation that an audience tries to solve when listening to a speaker for the first time, take a few minutes to get this right.

Look The Part

“Make sure that what you’re wearing and how you do your hair or make-up says what you want it to say to the people you’re meeting for the first time,” says Van Patten. For example, nails need to be clean and well groomed so that they don’t take away from your overall message.

Style is always a matter of degrees, and you’re working to strike a balance. Clothes should reflect your personality and respect the environment. And get the hygiene right, because body odor, bad breath and too much perfume/cologne can kill the best fashion statement. When it comes to looking your best, get it straight in the quiet of your home and then forget about it so that you can focus on the rest of the conversation.

Your Body Talks

MindTools says, “When…making the first impression, body language…speaks much louder than words.” Again, people are going to listen to your body’s conversation before they get to hear you say a sentence. So take Whitson Gordon’s advice in “How to Make (and Sustain) a Good First Impression Every Time”, “Smile. Try to keep from fidgeting. Adopt an “open” posture—that means no crossed arms or crossed legs.” When you are greeting people before your speech, get the handshake right.

According to LifeHacker “the handshake, is one of the oldest, most common social customs on the planet, and a key factor in many first impressions.” ABC News reported that Chevrolet commissioned Professor Geoffrey Beattie, Head of Psychological Sciences at the University of Manchester, to create a handshake guide for their British sales men and women. And Professor Beattie says there is such a thing as the perfect handshake.

Conversation Matters

One of the benefits of public speaking is that once you get the body conversation right, you finally get a chance to talk. To make the most of this opportunity to connect remember at least two things:

Lifehacker suggests that you “use their name.” By doing so it demonstrates a level of focus and respect.

The lifestyle website also suggests that you “don’t talk about yourself too much.” Ask questions about them so that your audience gets to talk as well. After all, conversation is supposed to be give and take by design.

First impressions matter — make it count.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: What do you think the best way to research how you can make the best first impression is for a given audience?

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Public Speakers Do Better When They Lose The Script

Dr. Jim Anderson — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:00:29 +0000

Scripts are for movies & TV shows, not speeches!
Image Credit

If I asked you to do a perfect job for the next speech that you gave, what would you do differently? I’m willing to bet that at least one thing that you’d do is write out a script and use it to deliver your speech. We’d all do this – it’s the best way to make sure that you don’t make a mistake, right? It turns out that it’s not the best way and I’m going to tell you why…

Why Do We Want To Use Scripts?

What magical power do scripts have over us – why do we seem to be drawn to them when we want to give the best speech ever? I think that the answer to this question is pretty clear: we believe that if we use a script, we won’t forget anything and our speech will be better than if we didn’t use a script. Maybe it’s because of the importance of public speaking, but we all seem to view scripts as being a sort of “silver bullet” that will solve all of our public speaking problems.

What’s interesting about this assumption is that it is completely wrong. Yes, I’ll grant you that there’s a good chance that you won’t forget to include any part of your speech if you use a script. However, it’s not going to matter because the speech that you deliver is going to be so horrible that nobody in your audience is going to get anything out of it.

The reason that speeches that are based on scripts don’t work is because of several different reasons. The first is that if you have a script, then you’re going to have to be reading off of it during your speech. This means that your head is going to appear to your audience to be bobbing up and down during the entire speech. Another problem with using a script is that it can be very difficult to keep your place while reading off of a script. This means that you have a very good chance of losing your spot and then stumbling over your words while you search for where you need to be.

Using a script might seem like your ticket to giving the perfect speech, but it’s not. There has to be a better way.

What’s A Better Way To Give A Good Speech?

If using a script during your next speech is not the way to go, what other options are there for a public speaker? Instead of trying to write out every word that you’re going to be saying, a much better approach is to create an outline for your next speech.

Creating an outline sounds easy, but upon a closer look the question comes up: what do you put into an outline? The process is always the same. You start out by identifying what the main message of your next speech is going to be (you do have a main message, don’t you?) Your next step is going to be to create three main segments in your speech that will support your main point (e.g. what the problem is, what possible solutions exist, what solution you are recommending). Now you are going to want to load each of these three sections with the jokes, quotes, and facts that you’ll want to cover at that point in your speech.

Having an outline is a great place to start, but it’s not going to be enough to get you through your next speech. You are going to have to transform that speech outline into a tool that you can use during your speech.

Your goal here should be to create a speech outline that you can fit onto a single sheet of paper – this will eliminate the need for you to do any page flipping during your speech. Next you are going to want to make sure that you haven’t written out any part of your speech on your outline. Instead, load it with words, phrases, or even pictures that will allow you to remember what you wanted to say and in what order you wanted to say it.

The goal of your outline should be to easily keep you on track during your speech. This means that you should feel free to use color and different size / types of fonts to help you easily find the section that you are looking for.

If there are any quotes or facts that you need to include in your speech, feel free to write them down. These are important and the wording that you’ll want to use when sharing them with your audience will be very important. Make sure that when you are sharing this information with your audience that you don’t just read them off to them. Instead, provide some background and then share the information that you’ve written down.

What Does All Of This Mean For You?

In our quest to give the best speech possible, we are always looking for that secret way to make sure that we’ll not make a mistake when we’re giving our speech. Writing our speech out word-for-word can seem like one way to achieve perfection; however, it never seems to work out that way. One of the benefits of public speaking is that we can always learn from our mistakes and find new ways of doing things.

When we use a script to give a speech, it causes us to not connect with our audience. A much better way is to create an outline that allows us to keep track of where we are and what we want to say.

I’m not sure if it will ever be possible for any of us to give “the perfect speech”. However, by ditching the script and spending our time connecting with our audience during our speech, we’ll sure be getting a lot closer to perfection.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: How long do you think that an outline should be for a 30 minute speech?

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Congratulations, you’ve been asked to give a speech. Were you thinking about using some PowerPoint or Keynote slides with that presentation? Ok, we all know about the importance of public speaking and so that sounds like a good idea. One quick question about those slides that you’re going to be making – do you know how to make the data that you are going to be presenting memorable or is it just going to be forgettable?

It Turns Out That The Little Things Really Matter When Giving A Great Speech

Dr. Jim Anderson — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:00:09 +0000

It’s the little things that can make a speech great

Image Credit

What does it take to capitalize on the importance of public speaking and transform a so-so speech into a great speech? Is it how the speech is delivered? I’m sure that we can agree that that can certainly play a major role, but I believe that there is more to it than that. Delivering a great speech is like giving your audience a fantastic gift that they keep unwrapping during your presentation and discovering more and more things. Now the real question is how to go about making this happen?

It’s All About The Little Things

If, as your speech unfolds for your audience, you want them to continually be delighted and anticipating what you are going to be saying next, then you are going to have to build a speech that allows this to happen. What this means is that you are going to have to make a speech that provides value to your audience during the entire speech – not just at the start or the end.

This, as you may be realizing, is not an easy thing to do. What you are going to have to have do is to sprinkle tidbits of information that your audience will treasure throughout your next speech. These bits of information may be either closely or loosely related to the topic that you are talking about.

What this type of “ear candy” for your audience actually looks like can take on many different forms. The one form that we are all most used to is the quote. A well placed quote that supports what you are talking about is something that will delight your audience when you say it and it will be something that they remember long after your speech is over. Remember that quotes don’t have to come from historical figure, Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian can serve as good sources for topical quotes.

You don’t have to feel as though you are limited to just using quotes. Feel free to use so-called “fun facts” in your next speech. You are going to want to make these facts both interesting and engaging for your audience. One of the most important things for you to realize is that as powerful as this technique may be, you still need to be careful to not overdo it.

Finally, depending on the topic that you are speaking about, there are a number of different sources of fascinating information that you can draw into your speech in order to amaze and enthrall your audience. The worlds of sports, music, and business all have deep histories, colorful figures, and interesting events that a skillful speaker can twist to fit the topic that you are currently talking about. Once again, remember that the goal is to add value to your speech so make sure that you don’t overdo it.

What All Of This Means For You

A great speech should constantly surprise and delight your audience. As you deliver your speech, your audience should be anticipating what you are going to say next and they should be delighted when you say it. If done correctly, this is one of the benefits of public speaking. The trick is discovering how to do this correctly.

By taking the time to work small surprises into your speech for your audience, they will have the joy of discovery as you deliver your speech. These surprises can take on many different forms: memorable quotes, fun facts, sports facts, music facts, or even business facts.

What every audience wants is to get some sort of confirmation that the time that they invested in listening to your speech was time well spent. By providing your audience with extra treats that are sprinkled throughout your speech, not only will they walk away with your main message, but they’ll also have a lot of additional memorable information. Do this correctly and you will have given a great speech.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: How many of these verbal tidbits do you think at you should try to put into a 30 minute speech?

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Business Speaking: What To Do, What Not To Do

Dr. Jim Anderson — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:00:33 +0000

A business speech is unlike any other type of speech…
Image Credit

Giving a speech in a business environment, specifically to a group of senior managers, can be one of the most difficult speeches that any of us will ever be called on to give. However, even this type of speech can be done smoothly and will allow you to be seen as an effective communicator if only you take the time to follow the following suggestions.

What You Need To Do During A Business Speech

I’d like to be able to tell you that there is just one set of presentation tips that we all need to know in order to make sure that our next speech to the people who are running the company will not only hear what we have to say, but also take action based on it. The reality is that there are a number of different things that you’re going to have to do all at the same time in order to realize the importance of public speaking in this type of business environment.

The first of these is to make sure that you set aside enough time to practice the speech that you’ve written. The reason that you’re going to want to do this is because when you actually deliver your speech, you are going to want to make it sound natural – that is, not like you are giving a speech. Although you don’t want to come across as being too informal, you also want to connect with your audience and by taking the time to practice your speech the words will flow out of you naturally.

The next thing that you are going to want to do is to take the mystery out of why you are giving the speech. You’ve been invited to present to your senior management and it turns out that generally they have fairly poor listening skills. What this means is that they can either leave or cut you off at any time if they don’t understand why you are wasting their time. In order to prevent this from happening, you need to clearly state what your speech is all about right off the bat. With a little luck, this will capture everyone’s attention and you can then move on to providing them with more details and background information.

Finally, you need to take the time to paint a mental picture of what the future could look like. If you want your senior management to agree with the ideas that you are presenting in your speech, then you are going to have to use your speech to paint a vivid mental image in their heads of what the future could look like if they approve what you are proposing.

What You Need To Not Do During A Business Speech

Just as important as doing the right things during a speech is, making sure that you don’t do the wrong things is just as important in order to achieve the benefits of public speaking. It would be a shame if you did everything correctly, and then ended up still not having your ideas accepted by your senior management. Here’s one thing that you need to make sure your speech does not contain.

Just about the worst thing that you can do when you are giving a business presentation is to try to make it appear perfect by memorizing it. If you write out every word that you are going to say and then you memorize it that way, you are going to come across as being stiff and brittle. The smallest distraction during your speech may cause you to lose your place and the whole thing will come crashing down on you.

Instead, do take the time to memorize the opening and the closing of your speech. How you word both of these parts of your speech is very important so memorizing them makes a lot of sense. Use bullet points to keep track of the middle of your speech and that will allow you to cover the important stuff while still sounding natural to your audience.

What All Of This Means For You

Making a business presentation to a group of senior managers can be both a nerve racking and a career limiting event. You can do this successfully; however, in order to be successful you need to do the right things and not do the wrong things.

The right things consist of taking the time to practice your speech before you give it, opening your speech by telling your audience what your main point is, and painting a picture of what the future could look like if the senior managers adopt your speech’s proposal.

The ultimate goal of any speech that we give is to change the world in some way. Giving a business presentation to senior management allows us to make this happen if we take the time to do it correctly.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: Do you think that there is a maximum time that your speech can run for when presenting to senior managers?

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Getting To Great – How Great Speakers Are Made

Dr. Jim Anderson — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:00:00 +0000

To bake a great speaker required the heat of stressful circumstances…
Image Credit

I’m pretty sure that it would be safe to say that we’d all like to become better public speakers. The challenge that we face is that nobody is just exactly sure how to make this happen. I’d like to be able to tell you that because of the importance of public speaking, it’s easy to become better, but the truth is that more often than not it takes some stressful circumstances to help us to reach the next level.

No Time Creates The Best Speeches

In order to become a great public speaker, you need to be able to create a good speech and deliver it. What I’ve discovered over time is that the more time that you have to create a speech, the lower quality the speech is going to be.

I can’t really explain why this is so. However, I believe that it may have something to do with the simple fact that when you have a lot of time, there is almost no sense of urgency when you are creating the speech. You have all the time in the world to put it together and somehow that comes out in the speech itself.

On the other hand, some of the best speeches that I’ve ever given have been created with very limited time. You know how those requests go: “Hey, could you give a speech to this audience tomorrow?” (or even worse, today?) It’s these speeches that get written in a hurry, practiced just a few times, and then presented that seem to do the best job of connecting with our audience.

Once again, I can’t really explain it, it just is. The next time you get asked to give one of these “hurry up” speeches, appreciate it for what it really is: a learning and growing experience. Seize it and make the most of it.

How To Become An Expert

Although you may not be aware of it, something magical happens each and every time that you give a speech. The audience that you are talking to starts to see you as being an expert on the subject that you are talking about.

Being perceived by an audience as an expert is a very good thing indeed. Very quickly you can become the “go-to” person when it comes to the topic that you’ve been talking about. Needless to say, this can be a real boost to your career.

The 5 Things That Are Part Of Every Speech

When we are creating a speech, we tend to focus on the words that we are going to be saying. I agree that these are very important; however, this is not all that there is. It is very important that we keep in mind the simple fact that our audience has a total of 5 senses and as we create a speech we need to do our best to reach each one of these senses.

As you build your speech, keep your audience’s different senses in mind. Think about where you’ll be standing when you speak and work in some movements and some eye contact that will allow you to stimulate your audience’s visual senses. The more of yourself that you can work into your speech, the more of an emotional connection you’ll be able to establish with your audience. Finally, make sure that you use pauses and changes in your volume when you deliver your speech. This will keep your audience’s ears engaged and they’ll listen to your every word.

What All Of This Means For You

It’s not easy to become a better speaker. What happens is that we reach some level of skill and it turns out that it is a lot easier to stay there instead of reaching for the next level. However, if we are willing to make the effort, that next level is just there waiting for us — that is one of the benefits of public speaking.

If you want to become an expert on any topic, just make the effort to go talk to an audience about that topic. Simply by doing this, you’ll be seen as being the expert that everyone else wants to be. Make sure that every speech that you give uses all 5 of your senses and connect with your audience’s senses.

Although breaking out of our comfort zone can be a scary thing to do, we all know that it is something that we’re going to have to do someday if we ever want to reach the next level of speaking. Make a promise to yourself that starting with your next speech this is what you are going to do. No, it’s never easy, but the results are well worth the effort!

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: What do you think the best way to get your audience to use all of their senses during your next speech is?

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Public Speakers Want To Know: Are Handouts Your Friend Or Foe?

Dr. Jim Anderson — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 09:00:26 +0000

Are you going to be competing with your handouts for your audience’s attention?
Image Credit

How much information is there going to be in your next speech? Most of the speeches that we give are full of great information that our audiences would like to remember and follow-up on — your audience understands the importance of public speaking and that’s why they are there. That’s where the problem shows up: when a speaker provides his or her audience with a handout there’s a good chance that you are going to lose their attention. What’s a speaker to do?

One At A Time

Although the handout that you’ve created for your audience may be full of great information, you are facing a serious problem when you get ready to hand it out to your audience: should you give it to them before you speak or after you speak?

If you give your handout to your audience before you deliver your speech, they may spend their time reading your handout and not paying attention to you. Additionally, if like most of us you just print out the slides that you will be presenting and give it to your audience as a handout, then they’ll always be two slides ahead of you and still won’t be paying attention to what you are saying right now.

If you decide to avoid this situation and distribute your handout after you are all done giving your speech, then do you really think that anyone is ever going to take the time to look at them? For that matter, where did your audience write down the notes that they took during your speech – was the information that they were trying to remember available in your handouts?

One way to deal with this problem is to use a combination approach: provide your handouts to your audience as you reach that point in your presentation. Clearly this takes some effort and the rustle of papers being handed out over and over will tend to take away from your speech. However, the benefits can be enormous.

Since each handout will show up just when you start to talk about what’s on it, your audience will have no problems making their notes on the correct handout. Limiting the handouts that they have to material that you’ve either already talked about or are just getting ready to cover prevents them from jumping ahead of you.

Fill In The Blank

Another way of making it so that you can use handouts with your next presentation without taking away from what you are saying is to use the fill-in-the-blank technique. This approach is a less disruptive than the one-at-a-time technique.

When you use the fill-in-the-blank technique your audience will be handed a complete set of your handouts before you start to speak. However, the handouts that they receive will be incomplete – information will be missing.

During your presentation you will show slides and you will discuss issues that contain the information that is missing from your audience’s slides. As you do this, they can write down what you’ve just said and when your speech is over, their handouts will be full of valuable information.

This approach allows you to strike a balance between making sure that your audience has the information that they’ll need in order to remember what you said while not allowing your handouts to distract from the speech that you are giving. No solution is perfect, but this technique seems to do a good job.

What All Of This Means For You

The benefits of public speaking include sharing the information that we have with our audience. Sometimes we have so much information that some form of a handout is called for in order to help our audience to remember everything that we’ve told them.

The problem with handouts is that they can distract our audience from paying attention to what we are saying. There are several different ways to deal with this problem. The first is to hand out the different pages in the handout as you reach that point in your speech. Another approach is to remove important information from each slide and force your audience to pay attention in order to fill out the handouts.

Handouts are becoming a more and more critical part of every speech that we give as we load our speeches up with additional information. Give some thought to how you want to share your information with your audience while keeping their attention throughout your speech.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: How many pages do you think that you need to limit your handouts to?

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Starting A Speech Off On The Right Foot

Dr. Jim Anderson — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:00:47 +0000

How you start a speech determines how it will end…
Image Credit

When it comes time to give a speech, since we are aware of the importance of public speaking we tend to spend a lot of time thinking about how we want things to end up. It turns out that although this is important, perhaps what we really should be doing is spending more time worrying about how our next speech starts off.

Is That Really You?

One of the ways that we public speakers go about becoming better is that we take the time to observe how other speakers speak. We might do this by watching a Tony Robbins video or perhaps by watching a political debate. However, although this approach is very valuable, it also carries with it an element of danger.

All too often when we’ve intently studied how another speaker delivers a speech, what can happen is that we can end up trying to mimic how they give a speech. I for one would love to be able to give a speech using the same style that Tony Robbins does – but I’m most defiantly not him! Your audience is sharp. They are going to pick up on the fact that you are not being you. What you need to do when you are starting your next speech is to be yourself – be genuine and be real.

Are You Interested Or Interesting?

Hey look at me, I’m an interesting speaker! As speakers we’ve been taught that we need to very quickly capture our audience’s attention when we are starting a speech. Most of the time the way that we try to go about doing this is by saying things that we believe will make us interesting to our audience.

The problem with this is that you are now making your next speech all about you. A much better way to accomplish the same thing would be to show your audience right off the bat that you are interested in them. If your audience believes that you really do care about them and their issues, then they will be hanging on your every word during your speech.

How Is Your Confidence?

As you give your speech, your audience will be sizing you up. What that means for you is that you need to be projecting a sense of self-assurance that will cause them to view you as being both interesting and attractive.

The best way to make this happen is for you to be confident. In order to make this happen, make sure that you are not trying too hard. At the same time, make sure that you are not coming across as being over-confident – that will turn your audience off.

What Does All Of This Mean For You?

How your next speech is going to end probably will have a great deal to do with how it begins. In order to share the true benefits of public speaking with your next audience you are going to have to make sure that you get things off on the right foot.

Although it may sound a bit strange, you are going to want to start things off by making sure that you are there – be real, be yourself. Next you are going to want to find ways to communicate to your audience that you genuinely care about them. It’s them and their issues that are interesting, not you. Finally, in order to come across as an attractive and interesting speaker you will need to show your audience some self-confidence.

The great thing about starting your next speech off correctly is that it almost guarantees you that you are going to end things up well. Take the time to work the three tips that we’ve covered into your next speech and you’ll be able to start and finish your next speech on a strong footing.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: What do you think is the best way to show your audience that you are interested in them?

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Great Speakers Know How To Get Off To A Great Start

Dr. Jim Anderson — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:00:59 +0000

How you start a speech determines how it will all end…Image Credit

The next time that you give a speech, what can you do to boost your chances of the speech being a success? We all know about the importance of public speaking and since none of us want to waste our time or the time of our audience, long before we take the stage or the front of the room we need to figure out what we can do to make the speech that we’re going to give a great speech.

Three Things That You Can Do To Make Your Speech Great

What can you do in order to make your next speech great? What will transform an ordinary speech into a great speech is if you are able to find ways to connect with your audience. In order to do this, you need to understand what they are looking for you to do.

The first thing that you’ll need to do starts before you even open your mouth. You are going to have to relax. Your audience is going to be able to tell if you are nervous. If you are tense or uptight about standing before them, then they’ll start to feel nervous also and they won’t be able to focus on what you are saying to them.

Don’t let this happen to you. Make sure that you have some time reserved before you are scheduled to begin your speech. Use this time to create a mental picture of yourself being successful. By seeing yourself this way, you’ll be able to calm yourself down and reduce how nervous you feel.

The next thing that you need to realize is that one of the simplest things that you can do can have the biggest impacts: smile. By taking the time to remember to smile while you give your speech, you’ll do a better job of connecting with your audience.

The true power of the smile can only be realized when we are actually using it. What we all too often forget is that when we smile, our audience will react to it. When they see us smiling, they’ll smile back at us and that will put them in a good mood to listen to what we are trying to tell them.

Finally, you need to realize is that one of the keys to your success is going to be your ability to make good eye contact with your audience. It’s not just important that you make good eye contact, but also that you don’t make bad eye contact. If you are not looking at your audience then you’ll be looking elsewhere and that is going to make you look shifty.

Take the time to actually look at your audience while you are giving your speech. By doing this you’ll be able to read their faces. You’ll know if they are following your speech or if you are losing them. Once you know this, you’ll know how you should adjust your speech in order to have the maximum impact.

What All Of This Means For You

Anybody can give an ok speech. However, the next time that we stand before an audience we want to give a great speech. One of the benefits of public speaking is that we can change lives. It turns that that this is possible to do, we just have to know what needs to be done.

The very first thing that you have to do when you are giving a great speech is to relax. If you are tense, then your audience will become tense. Next you have to remember to smile. Doing this will cause your audience to smile back at you. Finally, you need to make eye contact with your audience.

None of these three tips are groundbreaking; however, you would be amazed at how often public speakers forget to do them while they are delivering a speech. The next time that you are standing before an audience, take the time to remember these three tips and your speech will turn out to be great!

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: Do you think that it is possible to smile too much while giving a speech?