Missoula-Public-Speaking-Tips: 2011

Six Steps To Becoming A Powerful Public Speaker

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There a literally millions of people all around the world that have benefited from a membership in a Toastmasters club, and we trust that you will also consider visiting our club and joining. Visit our site at Shootin The Bull

You will find that Toastmasters is a wonderful place to not just learn to speak but to also make friends and meet new people. As one of the top Networking Organizations in the world it is a great place to meet other professionals and local people that want to become better speakers. Also you will find that Toastmasters supportive atmosphere assists even further in making new friends easily. I have met many people through Toastmasters, including many people I might not have otherwise had the chance to meet.

Join Us any Tuesday at Noon -Lunch Time for a 1 hour get together at the Elk Foundation on Grant Creek. Shootin' The Bull Toastmasters Club
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Public speaking ranks right up there in terms of the things we are afraid to do. Whether it’s the fear of being watched closely by others, or the insecurity and self-conscious feeling of slipping up during the presentation, these six tips will help you give a polished, professional speech that you (and your audience) can be proud of!

1. Know your audience. This is the single best piece of advice for delivering a presentation. What are there interests? Their backgrounds? Why are they coming to hear you speak? What ideas do you have to share with them? Approaching your speech as more of a “me-to-you” discussion rather than a full-blown broadcast makes it less stressful.

2. What do you want your audience to do as a result of your speech? What’s really at the heart of your presentation? By concentrating on the “end result” rather than slogging through the beginning, you create a powerful punch that drives home your message instead of rambling on.

3. Share a story. In public speaking circles, this is called a “hook” – something that gets your audience’s attention and makes them sit up and listen. Start off by asking questions or sharing an experience you had. People like to be active, rather than passive listeners. By giving them something that they can identify with, you’ll find that these people are just like you; that makes giving a presentation a whole lot easier. Be sure your story has a beginning, a point, and an ending. There’s nothing quite as bad as telling a story to an engaged audience and then forgetting why you told it!

4. If you’re selling a product, focus on the benefits instead of the features. People would much rather hear WHAT a product can do for them than HOW it does it. Narrow down your product’s features until you get to the core of how it solves a problem. If you need help with figuring out the difference between a feature and a benefit, ask yourself “So What?” For example, if you’re selling a vacuum cleaner that has a hypoallergenic filter, put yourself in the customer’s shoes and ask yourself “so what?” The answer would be something like, “It picks up dust, mold and pet dander”. Again, “so what?” Answer, “You’ll feel relief from runny nose and sneezing plus itchy, water eyes.” Now THAT’s a benefit!

5 Powerpoint presentations are great but they can be overwhelming – or downright boring. Instead, give your audience something to DO by providing them with fill-in-the-blank flip charts or “team activities”. These help reinforce and emphasize your message in ways that a computer presentation simply cannot.

6. Make sure your speech ends in a way that reiterates the beginning. Speakers can get carried away with the details and leave their audiences asking, “What was the point of all that?” People naturally digest information in “chunks”, so focus on the big picture rather than all the pieces. If the details are just as important, save it for an after-speech handout that the audience can take with them and read over at their leisure.

If you keep these six tips in mind, you’ll not only have an easier time overcoming your fear of public speaking, but you’ll have a very appreciative audience who will in turn be more receptive and eager to try your product or service. Go get ‘em!

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5 Surefire Tips To Better Public Speaking

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If you search in Google for the term “public speaking tips” you get roughly 2.6 million responses. That seems like a lot, but when you have to be the one standing in front of the group there isn’t enough information in the world that could get you over that fear.

Believe it or not, most of those fears are self imposed. What do I mean? The people listening to you don’t really care how the information is disseminated, they just want at the information. It’s the speaker that puts themselves through the ringer weeks before the event. Here are some tips that may seem obvious, but once completed, will really put your mind at ease, trust me.

Public Speaking Tip #1

KNOW YOUR TOPIC! I don’t mean know your topic, I mean inside and out, upside down, what ever question someone could throw at you, you know the answer. You really need to be prepared to reach this level. You need to know your speech almost by heart; you need to know the products you will be discussing. Do your homework, you will know you have reached public speaking Nirvana when you get that “feeling”, it will come with knowledge. Believe!

Public Speaking Tip #2

Greet as many of the attendees prior to your speech as possible. Familiarity promotes confidence. Besides, think of the benefit you provide the topic you are to speak on when you take the time to meet people before you go on. This strategy also prevents you from pacing back and forth and worrying yourself to death until you go on. There is no point in cramming now, if you don’t know it, you wont, and it will show.

Public Speaking Tip #3

DON’T think everyone in the audience is naked, this in fact will hurt your chances of a successful public speaking outing.

Public Speaking Tip # 4

When you find yourself with only a mouthful of uhs and ums, stop yourself, repeat the sentence as if to add importance, and replace the uhs and ums with silence to allow your points to hit home.

Public Speaking Tip # 5

Animate your speech. Most people think that good communication is mouth-centric. Nothing could be farther from the truth! To be a powerful communicator, you have to use your entire body. Gestures and body language add energy and enthusiasm to your speech. These are tips can really help you take your next step in public speaking. Do you realize that people pass up promotions because they will be required to speak publicly?

Do you realize people fear speaking in public more than they fear dying? Maybe because dying is abstract and appears far away while the podium is right in front of them. Either way, you really can come to grips with your fear and maybe you won’t enjoy it, but you’ll be able to get through it easier. I can’t emphasize enough that half of your battle will be just knowing what you are going to say, and anticipating what others are going to ask. It can be easy!

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How to be a Great Speaker Without Using PowerPoint

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RESEARCH YOUR AUDIENCE It amazes me how some speakers will show up for a speaking engagement and really not know anything about the audience they are speaking to. Many speakers just get lazy and feel that their message is so important that anyone would want to hear it. They couldn't be more wrong. Your core message may be about the same for everyone, but knowing your audience will allow you to slant the information so that the audience feels it was prepared just for them. They will relate much better to the information and think much more highly of you for creating something specifically for them. Of course, in many cases you were only slanting your information, but I won't tell if you won't.

PRACTICE The only way to look polished while speaking is to practice. This is one skill you cannot delegate to anyone else. It is you that is on stage with the microphone and it is you who will look either great or terrible. You are sadly mistaken and egotistical if you think the PowerPoint slides that either you or someone else created will make you a dynamic speaker. There are specific techniques used to practice that don't take much time and make you look extremely polished. One of these techniques is called bits. You practice a short piece of material over and over again. You don't practice it word for word, but just talk your way through it. This way you won't blank out when a distraction happens while you are on stage.

TAKE CARE OF HECKLERS The following is my famous asterisk technique; I use it to make sure hecklers don't interrupt my presentation. I get people in the group to identify potential troublemakers BEFORE I get to the event. I phone these people and interview them to give them the attention they are craving. I then mention their names during the speech. This virtually eliminates the chance they will give me a hard time because I am praising one of their opinions. This works really well but don't mention their names exclusively or the rest of the audience that knows these people are trouble may think that you are just as bad. Mention a wide variety of people in the audience. Just make sure the bad ones are included which normally keeps them at bay.

USE EMOTIONAL LANGUAGE Boring old facts rarely move people to action. Learning to use words that evoke emotions in people will make a much greater impact when you speak. There are many emotions you can trigger in the audience just by your choice of words. Happiness, anger, sadness, nostalgia are just a few. Knowing your purpose for being in front of the group helps you to pick which emotions you want to tap. When your purpose is known, choosing words to get the desired emotional response is much easier. For instance, if you wanted to take someone back to a childhood experience you might say, "Do you remember when someone did something bad at school and the teacher smacked the yardstick on her desk?" The word Phrase "smacked the yardstick" would evoke an emotional response that many adults can relate to. A younger group may not relate to this phrase since corporal punishment has all but disappeared from schools. You must pick the words that would mean something to your audience.

REVEAL YOURSELF Often people have trouble implementing this idea because they like to remain aloof and private. This will hurt their chances of making a good connection with people in the audience. You certainly don't have to reveal your deepest darkest secrets when on stage, but you certainly could tell someone how much you like horses, or how you love to cook . . .anything that will give them a glimpse into the real you will give you a better chance of connecting with them and getting them to listen to you.

USE PROPS A prop is worth a thousand words. People can really anchor a thought in their minds when it is connected to an object that relates to the point you are trying to make. You could use large, small, funny or serious props. Always relate the prop to the point you are trying to make and make sure the audience can see it. Sometimes you'll want to hide the prop so people don't wonder what it is until you are ready to present it.

USE HUMOR Even Shakespeare used humor in the middle of the tragedies he wrote. Humor is a powerful and effective tool that gives the audience's mind a chance to breath in the face of heavy material. It also makes you more likable and fun to listen to. Humor is also much more likely to make your information more memorable. You don't have to be a stand up comedian to use humor in speeches and presentations, and you don't have to tell jokes either. There are many ways to add humor that don't require any skill at all. You can show funny visuals, tell stories, or read from books or periodicals. Just like with props, make sue your humor relates to the point you are trying to make and you will be much more successful. Each issue of "Great Speaking" has about 20 pieces of humor you can use during speeches.

MOVE 'EM TO ACTION If you are going to bother taking up people's time to speak to them, don't you think it would be a good idea to get them to do something positive because of your presentation? Even if they do something negative, it's still better than doing nothing because they will at least get a chance to learn something from their mistake. Regardless of the size of your ego, the reality is that you are there for them, not the other way around. I'm all for you building up your reputation, but if you go into your speech thinking it's all for you, it will show and you probably won't do as well as you would have had you concentrated on the needs of the audience more.

BRING SOLUTIONS One of the best ways to make sure the audience loves you is to bring solutions to their problems. If you have done a thorough job of researching your audience, you already know what their problems are. It's your job to bring ideas for them to try. In modern day thinking this is what motivational speaking is all about. No longer is it good enough to get people all fired up where they are bouncing off the walls without a clue as to what they will do with this new found excitement and motivation. Modern professional motivational speakers bring solutions and a plan of action to achieve them. Now those are motivating.

PAY ATTENTION TO LOGISTICS The best preparation, practice, and audience research could be ruined if you forget to pay attention to all the details surrounding a presentation. You want to know what is happening before you speak, and what is happening after you speak: How are the people seated? Are they at round tables where half of them are facing away from you, or are there no tables at all? What kind of microphone is appropriate? How big is the screen in the room? Will the people be drinking alcohol? What is the lighting like? All these items and many more affect the overall effectiveness of a presentation. The same exact words delivered with significantly different logistics could be received in entirely different ways. You could even go from a fantastic evaluation to a bomb just because of the way people are seated. It's up to you to know the differences and how they affect a presentation.

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What Makes a Great Professional Speaker?

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People think that you have to have all this skill and talent to become a professional speaker, however, there are other important factors that determine your success. Technically, you can say and do all the right things. You can have the right information and present it in an organized format, but your true success will be found in your ability to connect with your audience rather than presenting a speech well. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care!

Here are your real tools that you'll need to have that will spur you on to success! Making a mistake at the podium doesn't mean failure. Your biggest mistake is not reaching your audience with the message you have!

1. Your attitude speaks through and through. Why are you presenting this information? Are you here because it's a job requirement or a way to make money? The attitude you take concerning the material you present will show through in your presentation.

2. Your passion communicates more than you'll ever say! Passion brings a professional speaker's material to life for their audience. Your audience will know if you are passionate about what you're speaking about or not. Moreover, they will need to draw on your passion to move them into taking action.

3. Your ability to empathize with the needs and wants of your audience will make you a success! You must have an ability to respond in a split second to the needs of your audience. In order to do this, you have to start interacting with your audience to get a feel for where their hearts and minds are concerning your message. You'll have to think quickly on your feet and be able to adjust your message and you'll have to become sensitive to "feeling" out your audience.

4. Your ability to make your message easy to understand and implement will help you reach more people! The easier your solution is, the easier it will be for your audience to take the action you're recommending in your presentation.

5. Your physical energy communicates the passion and life in your message. Excitement is contagious. So is monotony. You've got to get your audience excited about what you'll be presenting. This requires having the physical energy to rev up your audience as you speak excitedly, move about the room excitedly and present your material in an exciting manner.

6. You must love in order to become a success. This is the heart and soul of true charisma. A general love for what you do, the topics you speak on and the people you're speaking to are needed elements to your speaking career. This love will pass on even when you are talking about the latest theory in quantum mechanics!

These little talked about characteristics will be the true foundation of your success! More than technical skill, these soft skills are the real tools you'll need to get bigger paid speaking jobs. These tools are the elements that will draw your audience to you. If you take the time to work on building these skills, your success will be inevitable.

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Microphone Technique

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Although it sounds strange to you, to hear your own voice over the P.A, in fact it doesn’t sound any different to the audience than if you were talking to them in normal conversation.

The trick here is to be Yourself, if you haven’t got the skill to project a warm friendly personality at the functions where ice breaking is required then being an entertainer isn’t for you. The trick is to find a balance, most people would simply hire the gear - saving around 50% of a D.J’s booking fee and throw a NOW Cd on - if human input and personality wasn’t important to them. At some functions, if they pay for an entertainer and get a human jukebox who doesn’t own a mic and just sits there playing music then they occasionally feel cheated!.

I can’t stress the “BE YOURSELF”, advice enough, don’t put on a radio style zany DJ voice - that will sound false and doesn’t fool anybody. If you are lucky enough to have a D.J training you, or are a young person helping an older mentor D.J then DON’T be tempted to become a clone of him or her. Adopt your own mic style (not a false voice), use your own tag lines but don’t rely on the same cliche’s 20 or 30 times a night - this becomes boring and predictable.

Don’t rely on “that was”, “This is” introductions all night. At some functions going out with a Radio Mic and creating banter with your audience is a great way to break the ice at the beginning of difficult, non formal functions - and a good way of enouraging them onto the dancefloor early on. You can relax the mic work and the frquency of them - once the dancefloor is filling.

Of course there are always going to be functions where you need more mic work than the last, and other functions where it is going to be little mic use, but the key is to develop a style and strength and confidence in your mic working ability and not to rely on non stop music alone to do the work for you.

Just be yourself, and talk normally into the microphone. The thing to work on is to speak confidentally and clearly and try to pace yourself. Speaking too fast will make what you are saying sound garbled, speaking too slow will make you sound like you are addressing a bunch of village idiots . Pretty soon, with a little time and practice you’ll develop your own individual skill and style and that is the most important aspect, don’t try to copy anybody else or put on a different voice, it will sound false and make learning and maintaining the technique a lot more difficult.

If being a comedian is not you, then avoid the jokes unless you are good at this sort of thing , forced comedy can sound false and you may find yourself laughing alone, after all the Client has booked a Mobile Disco and not a stand up comedian!. One of the best pieces of advice I was given my the D.J who trained me, was to “Stick at doing what you are good at and have been booked for, and if in any doubt then leave it out”.

Spontaneous one liners are another matter, if something amusing happens, then share it - use the mic to get requests, make a fuss over other people celebrating birthdays / anniversaries - people like to have their 30 seconds of glory and hearing their name mentioned, over the mic

My advice to those nervous about public speaking for the first time, is not to be frightened of the mic or avoid using one - its your closest and most useful ally, at all functions. Don’t talk all over the track, learn to pace yourself over the outro of the previous track and any intro of the next track - don’t gabble - talk clearly into the microphone as if you were talking to a friend. With time you should be able to familiarise yourself with how themore popular tracks end and finish, this way you can talk upto the vocal, similar to how they do on the radio - stopping your banter at the moment the vocal on the next track starts. Don’t rush to perfect this or gabble to do so, it all comes with time and practice. Keep it simple to start off with.

Start with the easy stuff first, just introducing tracks, and buffet announcements. Once you’ve built up a bit of confidence, you’ll move on from the ‘That was….. this is….’ routine. Try and include your audience, invite requests, make them feel welcome. Even if you are having a difficult gig don’t take it out on the audience and try and look like you are enjoying yourself, even if it’s not going to plan. Don’t worry about making mistakes on the Mic, we all do from time to time, but don’t draw attention to it, or dwell on it it’ll just make it worse - besides making mistakes shows that you are human and not a pre-programmed jukebox

Keep key information on the gig, such as the Bride & Grooms’ names, Best Man Name etc on a piece of paper on the mixer, so that you can casually glance down if you have a sudden memory blank, but don’t write your links down as a speech, otherwise it will sound like you are reading from a script and less natural.

Remember that once the dancefloor is full, you can ease off the mic a little, but keep doing the requests and don’t forget that it exists. Learn to find the balance, too much talking can bore the pants of your audience, too little mic work can make people think that you aren’t earning your keep!. There are functions where you have a full Dancefloor and it would be obtrusive to chat all over the music when people want to dance, equally there are more formal functions where there isn’t the room or inclination to dance, and so a bit of light hearted banter to break the ice and the empathsis on the entertainment side of being a DJ is required rather than just continuous music

All of this will take some time, don’t expect to develop a mic technique overnight just take it one gig at a time.

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Using Humor in Your Professional Speaking Gig

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If using humor in your professional speaking presentation, understand this. People will pay more to be entertained than they will to be informed. Look around you and you will see that the top industry is the entertainment industry. Encompassing sports events, comic acts, movies, television and music, the entertainment industry steadily received trillions of dollars worldwide.

Humor accomplishes many things in your presentation. Here are some things that humor can do for you!

1. Humor helps you connect with your audience. Make yourself more relatable with your audience as they begin to see that it's not all about the information. Humor draws your audience to you because people are naturally drawn to positive things.

2. Humor makes you more approachable and likeable as a speaker. Your audience will see you as being more down to earth and again, relatable.

3. Humor creates interest in your topic as well as yourself. Humor just makes things interesting to follow. People like to laugh.

4. Humor helps to keep the attention of your audience. Your audience tunes out because they get lost in your presentation. By using humor, it'll be harder for your audience to tune out because they will want to hear your humorous story.

5. Humor strengthens point and ideas you want to highlight in your presentation. Funny stories are memorable and can strengthen the point of your message. Television sitcoms are famous for taking real life situations and presenting them in a humorous fashion.

6. Humor removes hostility in your presentation. If there were any ill feelings towards you or your message, humor lightens the mood of your audiences and disarms negative emotions.

7. Humor helps connects pieces of information in your topic. Work humor into the transition points of your presentation. In that way they will be the bridge that connects the points of your message together.

8. Humor helps paint mental images in the minds of your audience. Self-effacing humor is often relatable to your audience because they can see themselves having those same situations.

9. Humor makes your presentation more memorable. People remember when they laugh. They'll remember funny stories or funny instance during your presentation.

10. Humor lightens a heavy topic. People can only take so much of heavy topics. You don't want to make your audience feel depressed even if your topic discusses a very grave matter.

11. Humor can bring in better evaluations and more product sales. Humor warms your audience up to you. In doing so, your audience will be more open to purchasing your back of the room products as well as give you a better review.

12. Humor will make people happy. People want to enjoy your seminar. They want to have a good time and they want to be happy. Humor helps you achieve that.

Humor can add so much variety to an otherwise dull, information only presentation. Helping to connect you with your audience, humor is a great addition that can bring you better speaker reviews and increased revenue. Add some spice to your message by incorporating humor!

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Speak With a Relaxed Body and Mind

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Fear of public speaking is No.1. Death is No.4. So most people would rather get a root canal and pay their taxes than speak in front of an audience!

1. Sure you have catecholamine; all speakers do (including Sir Winston Churchill and Presidents Kennedy, Carter, and Reagan). These are the chemicals that make you sweat, make your heart beat fast, and make your hands shake. Get rid of those chemical and psychological reactions by becoming message-centered and audience-centered, not self-centered.

2. Replace fear and negative noise with positive affirmations. Create new beliefs that nurture you and support you with new ways of thinking. The New Adult You! For example, I am well prepared, and the audience wants me to succeed.

3. Do a quiet meditation, visualization, or exercise before you speak. Breathe deeply. Deep breathing sends a message to your brain that you have nothing to fear. It calms you down.

4. Who cares if you’re nervous? Researchers have found that most people report noticing little or no anxiety in a speaker. If you are thoroughly prepared, your internal nervousness seldom shows. Prepare 150%.

5. The Coach Says... Practice in front of your mirror. Practice in the car. If you can concentrate while driving, you will be able to pull what you need from your unconscious when you are in front of the group. Make your points sound spontaneous and conversational.

6. Rehearse, rehearse, and rehearse. Talk out loud, and walk around while you practice. Use the same physical energy you plan to use on the day of your presentation.

7. Exercise is antidote to stress. Arrive early and take a brisk walk for at least five minutes. If it is raining or snowing outside, you can still do some body stretches.

8. Abstain from caffeine and alcohol before you speak. You don’t need more jitters. Always wear your favorite outfit and use attractive colors. Women, go simple on the jewelry. Avoid too much black and white.

9. The Coach Says... Most of all; enjoy yourself and have a fun. SMILE. After all, aren’t you glad to be there? The sign of a mature adult is that you are not taking yourself too seriously

10. For trembling hands, place your hand son the side of your chair and count to 10 as you try to lift the seat. This is an isometric exercise that works and nobody will notice you doing it.

11. Don’t be perfect. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. No one is perfect in real life. Get the butterflies in your stomach to fly in formation. That’s who you convert your stress into speaking power!

12. Reduce your nervousness by taking several deep breaths immediately before you’re introduced. And for you chocoholics, eat some chocolate to relax your vocal chords.

13. If you experience dry mouth, chew your tongue to increase saliva flow. Singers do this. Close your lips and bite down on the entire surface. Always have a glass of tepid (not cold) water nearby.

14. Focus on a friendly face in the audience. Pretend you are having a conversation, rather than giving a speech. Just be yourself.

15. Here is a vocal warm-up exercise used at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Say, PaPaPaPa, BaBaBaBa, TaTaTaTa, DaDaDaDa, KaKaKaKa, GaGaGaGa. Then do it backwards. (Courtesy of Robert and Rande Gedaliah)

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What Makes a Good Speaker?

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When people hear that I owned a national, professional speakers bureau for 13 years, they often ask me, who are the best speakers and why? What follows are some of the characteristics of a very successful speaker who is often a highly paid speaker.

‘Tell’ em what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell’ em what you told them.”

1.They arrive early and check out the sound system and introduce themselves to audience members during the networking time.

2.They speak on a subject that their audience needs to hear. And they use words and body language that shows their passion and authenticity.

3.They connect with their audience in the first few minutes with a riveting story, a funny incident, a startling statement or perhaps a poem. They know how to make their opening remarks relate to the material that follows.

4. They have no fear. They don’t only say what the audience wants to hear, but what they NEED to hear. In other words, their remarks may raise some eyebrows. They give their audiences some fresh ideas.

5.They never make more than 3-4 points in their speech. They don’t feel the need to tell an audience everything they know. No one can retain it all. For each major point they tell an illustrative story. A good story evokes emotion and offers a lesson. The audience members are then only a step away from their own story.

6. They make great eye contact and make each person feel attended to. This makes them appear to be more heartfelt and really present for their audience.

7. Before closing, they summarize and reiterate their major points. They end with an inspiring story and a call to action. They hold the audience accountable – to take some action in the next few days, weeks.

8.They don’t talk too long. They know how much time they have been assigned and they don’t exceed it. 9.They rehearse their speech a few times but never sound canned. They NEVER read their speech verbatim.

10.All successful speakers market themselves. They all promote themselves. And they all Network. They are a model of excellence. And you can be too!

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Top 7 Ways to Succeed in the Business of Speaking

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How attractive are you as a speaker? Not, your looks, but your consistent ability to provide a quality presentation, attract clients, and be irresistibly attractive to meeting planners and speaker bureaus? Below are some useful tips that I learned while owning a national, professional speakers bureau for 13 years.

1. Presentation – do you have something interesting, inspiring, and useful to share with audiences? Be mindful of your voice (keep it deep and low pitched), your personality and attitude (positive), your tone (soft, loud. Encouraging as needed), your style, your vocabulary.

2. Connection – how quickly do you get to the core of your audience’s problems and challenges? Skip what is between their ears and go straight to their hearts.

3. Passion – do you love what you do? Develop a niche or specialty that you truly enjoy … and are good at.

4. Network – enhance your speaking career by networking with 50 or more other speakers. They become your referral sources. Join the National Speakers Association – a 4,000 member organization that holds conferences and has local chapters to help you with your marketing skills and networking. Call 480-968-2552 (Arizona)

5. Products – write a book, booklet(s), create audio tapes, video tapes, CD/ROM. Having products will catapult your speaking career and make you more valuable to your clients. This “passive” income is like having frosting on the cake.

6. Value added – become known as a value added speaker. Provide handouts, attend the cocktail reception before your program, stay after your speech, offer follow-up teleclasses, offer your consulting services, be a facilitator.

7. Hire a Coach – The Olympic Games remind us that a world-class athlete is surrounded by a number of people whose function is to keep him/her on track. No serious athlete or professional speaker would expect to progress very far without a COACH.

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Ten Sources of Income in Professional Speaking

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One of the best features of having a career in professional speaking is that you can benefit from multiple streams of income. You don't only have to rely on your paid public speaking career to bring in the cash. You can sell other products and services. You can work other areas that require using professional speakers. The key is to leverage your skills and talent to produce an ongoing stream of income that can withstand the drought seasons in your public speaking career.

1. Sell your knowledge via books and articles. You can self-publish for maximum profit or you can seek out a publisher and get paid royalties. Your articles can be highly sought after by trade publications especially if you are a well-noted person in the industry.

2. Sell your knowledge via a training system package. Create a training system using CDs, DVDs, a training manual and any other parts that you'll need. Package the system and sell it for a profit.

3. Get sponsored by a company. Get other companies to sponsor your speaking fee for being mentioned in your presentation. Sort of like advertising, this partnerships has ongoing, long-term benefits for every speaker that makes use of them.

4. Get paid as a speaker. As simplistic as this sounds, at some point in your career, you've got to get out and make an attempt to get higher paying gigs. Don't lose the "free" aspect of your career because they do go a long way. The more famous you get, doing good Samaritan efforts such as speaking for free make great news items for press releases.

5. Get paid as a speaker through speaker bureaus. Speaker bureaus help to connect speaker with meeting planners. Get listed with these bureaus to help promote your professional speaking career.

6. Get paid for the use of your "voice". Do voice overs or recorded speeches or advertisements as a source of income.

7. Get paid for telephone seminars. Many people are doing live webinars or telephone seminars in their businesses. Make contacts with people in the businesses that do them. It's the same thing as doing a speech except that it's on the telephone.

8. Get paid by creating a paying podcast. Podcasting is a new form of media that is quickly gaining popularity. Podcasting is like hosting your own speech online in an MP3 file so your audience can listen over and over again.

9. Work for training companies. Companies like Fred Pryor can be great interim sources of income that help you gain confidence as a speaker.

10. Get paid via your website. Add complementary affiliate programs as well as Google AdSense to your website or blog.

All of these sources of income represent ways to spread the word about your professional marketing career. Additionally, they also can represent ways that bring in income when your career isn't where you want it to be. You can start adding these sources one by one to your revenue stream. You'll see first hand the benefits that each one has as well as what works for your business and what doesn't.

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How to Feel Confident in Front of Your Audience

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The fear of public speaking is one of the top fears that people have. Statistics show that over 41% of people have some level of fear or anxiety with regards to speaking in front of an audience. This fear often manifests as excessive sweating, sweaty palms, increased heart rates, blanking out (memory loss), nausea and sometimes difficulty breathing. There are many speakers who have been in front of audiences for years and they still deal with anxiety to some degree.

Since having this fear often has no bearing on whether you have to do a presentation or not, you'll have to find some ways to overcome your anxiety. The first step is to know that you are not alone and that you can prepare in advance so that the level of fear you feel is significantly reduced. Here are some other interesting statistics.

- Proper presentation and rehearsal of your message can reduce your fear by about 75%.

- Utilizing breathing techniques can reduce your anxiety by another 15%.

- Preparing for your mental state can reduce your fear the remaining 10%.

With these statistics in mind, here are some preparation tips to help you relax and reduce how you feel before going in front of your audience.

1. Know the environment you will speak in. Become familiar with the area by arriving early and walking around. Know how much space you have and the physical distance between you and your audience. As you acclimate yourself to your stage, you will find yourself feeling more comfortable.

2. Know your audience. You should find out who comprises your audience and do some research to find out their likes and dislikes. When they enter the room, greet them and take time to get to know some faces.

3. Know your presentation inside and out. If you don't know what you'll be presenting how can you expect yourself to feel fearless?

4. Implement breathing techniques to help you relax. Breathing techniques have been scientifically proven to invigorate the body and help you get rid of nervousness.

5. See yourself on stage before you actually get there. Replay images of your successful presentation in your mind. If you visual success, you'll find it.

6. Know that your audience wants you to succeed. Your success means they get what they want and need. If they've paid money to attend your presentation, they have a personal stake in your success. If you're providing training, they have a personal stake in your success. If you're delivering a graduation speech at a local university, the graduating class has a personal stake. Get the idea? Your audience wants you to succeed.

7. Don't draw attention to your being nervous. Many people won't even realize that you are nervous. Most times you will find that while you have your audience's attention, they are really thinking about themselves. They are absorbing what you say and processing that into how that relates to them.

8. Know that there is a purpose to your message. You have a message to deliver. Sometimes it's a cause that you are passionate about. Other times, it may be training that your company needs you to give.

Preparation is the key to your success! Through preparation, you can also overcome most if not all of the feelings of fear that you might have so prepare, prepare, prepare!

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History of Public Speaking

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There never has been in the history of the world a time when the spoken word has been equaled in value and importance by any other means of communication. If one traces the development of mankind from what he considers its earliest stage he will find that the wandering family of savages depended entirely upon what its members said to one another. A little later when a group of families made a clan or tribe the individuals still heard the commands of the leader, or in tribal council voiced their own opinions. The beginnings of poetry show us the bard who recited to his audiences. Drama, in all primitive societies a valuable spreader of knowledge, entertainment, and religion, is entirely oral. In so late and well organized communities as the city republics of Greece all matters were discussed in open assemblies of the rather small populations.

Every great epoch of the world's progress shows the supreme importance of speech upon human action individual and collective. In the Roman Forum were made speeches that affected the entire ancient world. Renaissance Italy, imperial Spain, unwieldy Russia, freedom loving England, revolutionary France, all experienced periods when the power of certain men to speak stirred other men into tempestuous action.

The history of the United States might almost be written as the continuous record of the influence of great speakers upon others. The colonists were led to concerted action by persuasive speeches. The Colonial Congresses and Constitutional Convention were dominated by powerful orators. The history of the slavery problem is mainly the story of famous speeches and debates. Most of the active representative Americans have been leaders because of their ability to impress their fellows by their power of expressing sentiments and enthusiasms which all would voice if they could. Presidents have been nominated and candidates elected because of this equipment.

During the Great War the millions of the world were as much concerned with what some of their leaders were saying as with what their other leaders were doing.

There is no aspect of modern life in which the spoken work is not supreme in importance. Representatives of the nations of the world deciding upon a peace treaty and deliberating upon a League of Nations sway and are swayed by speech. National assemblies from the strangely named new ones of infant nations to the century old organizations speak, and listen to speeches. In state legislatures, municipal councils, law courts, religious organizations, theaters, lodges, societies, boards of directors, stockholders' meetings, business discussions, classrooms, dinner parties, social functions, friendly calls in every human relationship where two people meet there is communication by means of speech.

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How to be a Public Speaking Star with The Use Of Computers

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No, you will not be giving a speech using computers. A computer cannot speak for you on stage. No, that is not what this topic is about. I am saying computers can help you get in touch, while helping you search for information. You can use computers to help you write your speech, as well as to help you research effectively, edit your work, check spelling and grammar and more. Computers can help you avoid wasting time; avoid never ending revising of your speech.

A well-written speech should be typed on a computer. This looks more professional than handwriting. Furthermore, speeches often require research, support, correspondence and so forth. If you have a computer you can e-mail important messages much faster than taking the message to the post office. Furthermore, you can use the powerful Search Engine to find out any information you are searching for on the speech topic.

How much better can it get. The Internet has a variety of newsletters, articles, headlines, magazines, newspaper and more that can put you in connection faster with important facts needed to finish your speech. Imagine spending hours at the local library compared to spending a few minutes online. After all, it’s all about saving time and working sufficiently.

The Internet also has libraries all over the world with available information that will help you with the research process. Imagine delivering a ground-breaking speech to the public that is saturated with facts you can verify. The libraries often have helpful information and some libraries will literally find the information for you if it is not available in their library. As you can see you are not only saving time you are finding more information than you can deal with while writing your speech online.

While writing your speech you can also use spell checkers, grammar checkers and other tools to edit your speech. Furthermore, you are going to love this, you can actually use the Thesaurus to discover new words that might enhance your speech. The computers also give you the ability to research languages, i.e. if you want to point out something in Spanish in your speech, you will have the tools to do so even if you can’t speak Spanish.

Not only this, the time you spend writing your speech off the computer will stress you out. If you write, research and prepare your speech on a computer it will save you time, energy and money.

One important issue you want to keep in mind while writing a ground-breaking speech on a computer is that the Worldwide Web of Chaos has a bunch of suckers that will drag you into their arena. Stay out! Set your goal and plan ahead of the game and include in plan avoiding getting into computer based nonsense that will hinder you while writing your speech.

One thing you want to avoid also while writing your speech is stopping and revising the sentences as you write them. This will only hinder your progress. Instead, write the darn report and read it after you finish. If it makes sense and sounds good, use it, if it sounds disturbing…then you can edit the sentences.

As a writer one of the best tools I have is the ability to finish my articles, read them aloud, which helps me to spot out areas that needed brushing or polishing. In the world of editing you could nick and pick through every word and sometimes never find sense in the words, however, a good edit will read the words and define them carefully before considering abolishing the sentences. Thus, they look at structure, characters, grammar, spelling and more to decide whether it fits.

Conclusion

Overall the point is by using a computer; you can save time which in turn will reduce stress for you.

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Presenting without PowerPoint

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Most of the presentations made nowadays are made with the help of PowerPoint. There are also class teachers and lecturers who use PowerPoint to make the teaching and learning process more interesting. However, it is the professional who makes presentations without the use of PowerPoint, while following some of their age-old beliefs for presentations.

Presentations without PowerPoint prove to be quite boring. This is because the presentation will be monotonous, with no music background or visual aids to help in the presentation. PowerPoint presentations usually provide a change for the audience in the presentation, and also give the crowd some visual explanations to the points that are being told in the presentation. So without PowerPoint in the presentation, it is very important that the presenter use some creativity in the presentation. This is because it is only this creativity that will keep the audience interested and motivated in the presentation!

The most important thing that has to be remembered to give a successful presentation without PowerPoint is to exactly know what you are talking about. If you are well versed with the matter you intend to present, you can very well present it without the help of PowerPoint. However, make sure to make your presentation only after learning about the temperament and nature of your audience. Remember that it is of no use talking to the audience as a group of employees. Instead, make it a point to tailor your presentation to meet the intellectual of the audience you are facing.

When beginning the presentation, you have to present it while keeping the end of the presentation in mind. You have to know what the purpose of your presentation is, as without PowerPoint you might lose the interest of the audience! Make sure you see, hear and feel what exactly it is that you want people to respond to in whatever it is that you say. Make a strong start to your presentation. Without PowerPoint, it is very much important that the first words and your appearance set the right tone for the audience to listen to you throughout the presentation. One of the best ways of making a connection with the audience without the help of PowerPoint is to tell a story, or an anecdote that has universal appeal.

One of the main things that has to be done when giving a presentation is to practice on the speech as much as possible. This is the only way of looking polished while speaking. It is indeed a false notion that using PowerPoint slides in a presentation will make a person a dynamic speaker. The process of becoming a dynamic speaker lies in the hand of the speaker. Only practice can make one a successful speaker, and this is one skill that cannot be delegated to anyone else. One of the best techniques to implement for practice is called bits. Here one practices a short piece of material over and over again till perfect. It is not that you practice it for word for word, one just has to talk one’s way through the presentation! In this way, one can easily continue a presentation, even if there is a distraction while onstage.

If PowerPoint is not used in a presentation, it is important that props be used instead. This is because a prop is basically worth a thousand words. With props, people tend to anchor thoughts in their minds to these props. It is no difference if the prop is large, small, funny or serious, as long as it relates to the point that you are trying to make and that the audience sees it! Another way of making sure that the audience loves you despite the fact that you don’t use PowerPoint in your presentation is to bring solutions to the problems they have. With your research of the audience, you would already have an idea to what their problems are; it is only up to you to bring new ideas to them to try.

Remember that when you are not using PowerPoint, you are the visual aid of the presentation. People will then gain more interest in whatever it is that you say, instead of visuals or fancy slides or overheads. So basically, without PowerPoint, it is important that the speaker be more self-confident and well versed in his speech. Without this, it may be quite impossible to imagine giving a presentation without PowerPoint!

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How to Deal with a Negative Audience in Professional Speaking

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At one time or another, you will have to deal with a negative audience member or group. How do should you handle that kind of situation and still keep a professional appearance? The first goal to keep in mind is that you have a message to communicate and that is your job! Your goal is to bring information to the rest of the group whether or not they want to receive your message. The mindset you should have is that you are well able to communicate that message and you're going to do it in a professional way. Here are some tips to keep you on track as you deal with a negative audience.

1. Know your stuff. Knowledge is power and so is preparation. Do you know your subject matter well enough to answer impromptu questions? If not, you should. Review the material and ask yourself potential questions that might come up. Look for inconsistencies in information within your presentation and then remove them. Prepare answers to potential questions.

2. Don't react to negative comments or questions. You are the professional and you are the "guru" of information concerning the topic you're speaking on. Reacting negatively destroys any positive images that your audience has of you. Believe it or not, your audience is not thinking "Oh poor speaker being heckled by audience member Joe!" Don't give in to emotion because that's not part of your equation. Stick to the topic at hand and take the stance that you are the information "guru" regarding the subject matter!

3. Always answer all questions. Avoiding difficult questions also questions you're validity as a subject matter expert. One of your goals as a speaker is to gain the support of your audience. You want them jumping on the bandwagon idea that you're pitching to them. In the process, you'll want to eliminate anything that will cause you to lose your credibility.

4. Maintain your control. Responding to your negative audience with the same negative emotion will cause you to lose control of your topic. Focus on the topic at hand. Train your mind to deliver the message you were hired to deliver instead of letting emotional antics get in the way. A developed speaker is one who has control over his/her emotions.

5. Be prepared for the next potential negative encounter. Having one negative speaking experience certainly prepares you for the next. Instead of focusing on the negative situation, take a step back and begin to learn from what happened. Perform a self-evaluation. What did you learn?

6. Engage your negative audience member or group. A negative audience or member is one who is disconnected with your presentation. It should be your goal to connect with as many people as possible and to make your subject come alive in their minds that what you present is possible.

Train yourself to react professionally. In doing so, you'll be establishing yourself as a leader and as a subject matter expert. Don't let negative questioning override what you have to communicate - look at it as being just a learning experience. When you do that, you'll be well on your way to becoming a top-notch professional speaker!

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Public Speaking: The First 3 Minutes

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This is it! You’ve landed your first Public Speaking engagement. You’ve have prepared and rehearsed. You are all ready to give your best presentation ever.

As you begin you have exactly 3 minutes of your presentation to grab the audience attention and build rapport to ensure they buy in to what you have to say.

In the first 3 minutes of your presentations, your audience is sizing you up. They are deciding whether they like you and whether are you worth listening to. If you lose your audience in the first 3 minutes you will be playing catch up for the rest of the presentation.

Why at the first 3 minutes of your public speaking engagement is most important period of your presentation? This is the time where the attention of the audience is naturally high and focused. Here is where the audience decides to hear you out or not. First Impression counts and you have only one chance at it.

In this crucial period you need to build rapport with your audience. Rapport is a prerequisite for effective communication. Before presenting any material you must build rapport with your audience.

When people are like each other, they like each other. When you have enough rapport with your audience, they will feel acknowledge and engage with you in your presentation.

You can build rapport with your audience by;

- Using the words they use. Use their Jargon’s and preferred terms. - Use the same tonality and say it like they do - Use the same gestures and postures.

People create bonds with each others by finding shared experiences. Tell a story to your audience which relays to them that you are exactly like them. Meet as many of your audience before the presentation and build rapport with them individually.

Right form the start let your audience define their own expectation and do your best to meet those expectations. Experiment with different types of openers to see which builds more rapport for you and with your audience. Be flexible, use as many different openers and evaluate your results. The openers which build more rapport with your audience for you will be the best ones. The types of openers that you can look into are;

o Current Events

o Humorous

o Pictorial

o Anecdotal

o Pertinent Quote

o Real-World Situation

o Rhetorical

o Musical

If you have built enough rapport with your audience in the first 3 minutes of your presentation the rest of your presentation will move smoothly. You will have an engaging audience and you will be able to have fun with them and be yourself on stage.

Remember the first 3 minutes of your presentation is the most crucial of all. Start off your presentation with the right foot.

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Profit From Effective Public Speaking

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1. Free Speeches to Promote Your Business

A lawyer might make a speech to a group of business persons, free of charge, about the advantages of incorporating their businesses. This could result in obtaining new clients. It could also cause existing clients to purchase additional services, such as...

Keywords: PUBLIC SPEAKING, SEMINARS, WORKSHOPS, TELECLASSES, INFORMATION PRODUCTS, CONSULTING, SPEECHES, BOOKS

Article Body: Developing and utilizing presentation skills can result in increased income for you. Here are a few ways that you can turn your public speaking experience into business profits.

1. Free Speeches to Promote Your Business

2. Paid Seminars, Workshops and Teleclasses

You could charge admission fees to attend a seminar entitled "How To Incorporate Yourself Without a Lawyer". This seminar could detail the considerations and mechanics of incorporating your own private corporation.

3. Sell Information Products

The information presented during a speech or seminar could form the basis for information products such as books, courses, special reports or folios, audios, videos, DVDs, electronic books, and so forth. For example, you could write a book entitled "How To Incorporate Yourself Without a Lawyer".

Including such products as handouts at your seminar would increase the value for the attendees (which you could charge for). Even if you gave a free speech to a group, you could still receive back-end income from the sale of such information products.

Obviously, your public speaking skills will be especially important when producing an audio or video cassette. Your listeners and viewers will make certain judgments based on your personal appearance, poise, audience contact, use of gestures, enthusiasm, how informative the material is, and many other factors.

Your information products establish your credibility as an expert, resulting in even more business. As well, you can market those same information products through mail order, direct mail, Internet marketing, and other methods.

4. Consulting and Other Opportunities

As your reputation as an expert in your specialized field grows, you will become more in demand. Clients may seek you out for lucrative speaking engagements. You may be invited to write magazine articles, consult for large corporations, act as an expert trial witness, become a syndicated columnist, et cetera.

Therefore, whether you are a novice or an experienced public speaker, it pays to increase and utilize your public speaking skills.

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Get Rid of Distracting Body Movements

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Your body movement during your presentation has the ability to strengthen the impact of your message or it can seriously be a distraction. One of your goals as a speaker is to look so natural with your movements and with what you say that no one even notices that you are using intonation and inflection or body movement as a means of emphasizing the points of your speech.

What kinds of mannerisms are distracting?

- Swaying to and fro in front of the audience - Hanging on to the podium - Finger tapping - Licking your lips or biting your lips - Fidgeting with clothes, pockets or jewelry - Frowning - Fussing with hair - Bobbing your head - Flailing arms at inappropriate times

The movements you make in your speech should be planned or at least controlled by you. Any movement that is not planned could potentially be distracting. Many of the above mentioned mannerisms stem from being nervous about being on stage. Additionally, they could also come just because you don't know you are doing them. Either way, you'll need to minimize and eliminate as many of these movements as possible.

1. Make a video tape of yourself. Do you even know that you are making these movements? Probably not. A video will help you identify which distracting movements you'll need to work on eliminating.

2. Review your video tape for places where you make distracting mannerisms. Make a list of the mannerisms you have and thoughtfully practice your speech without those mannerisms. Rerecord yourself and keep reviewing your tapes until you a satisfied that all the mannerisms are gone.

3. Work on feeling comfortable with delivering your speech. You should feel natural as you speak about your topic. You should feel like you are sharing information with a long time friend. This will come when you've spent many hours practicing, reworking and revising your speech. This will also come because you speak from your heart and let others know the way you feel about your subject.

4. Work on eliminating nervousness when delivering your speech. This will come as you get more familiar with your material. This will also come as you take the time to focus on delivering your message instead of focusing on the feelings of fear and anxiety.

5. You can also review your video tapes for place in your speech that you need to add body movements into your presentation that will make it more interesting. Let your movements show the way you feel. These movements should be natural and can work in your favor as you emphasize specific points in your presentation.

6. Consider this when deciding which body movements to incorporate into your presentation. Body movements should look natural. You can use facial expressions and make eye contact with your audience for maximum effects.

Every movement should be planned during your presentation. You can easily lose your audience with distracting movements because your audience's focus and attention will be turned to these movements instead of what you have to say!

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Meeting Promotion And Publicity Checklist

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1. Review previous years' promotional budgets

2. Determine objectives and scope of program

3. Determine audience(s): membership, potential exhibitors, an industry or trade, general public.

4. Develop theme and corresponding graphics. Considerations should include purposes of individual pieces: who will receive them, tone to be conveyed, how they will be produced, how many colors will be needed, what layout format is required at each stage (from rough to comprehensive), and how much is budgeted for them.

5. Develop a schedule for the campaign.

6. Set promotional budget based on characteristics of membership, features of the venue, time of year, strength of program, and costs of attendance.

7. Develop promotional materials according to tested criteria: short and forceful sentences, convincing explanation of benefits to attendees, clear emphasis on important elements of meeting, and easy means of registering.

8. Plan for all items needed for the campaign to carry theme forward, taking into account costs of special effects like embossing or die -cutting; quality, grade, weight, and finish of paper; number of ink colors used; time for production; and quantity required:

a. pre-meeting letters and announcements
b. preliminary programs
c. registration and housing forms
d. promotional pieces for both exhibitors and attendees
e. invitations
f. follow-up mailings
g. final agendas/program books
h. badge inserts
i. tickets
j. on-site registration materials
k. signage
l. newsletters
m. lists of registered attendees

9. Solicit a minimum of three competitive bids for all printing, checking samples of paper stock, samples of work for other meetings, references, and explanation of other services each firm can provide.

10. Select printer(s), taking into account whether need is for "quick" or commercial quality, demonstrated ability of a single printer to handle all needs, availability of necessary equipment for jobs, and ability to meet deadlines.

11. Agree with printer on schedule into which extra time is built, and monitor deadlines for rough layout, submission of copy, preliminary approval, completed layout, final approval of blueline, and delivery of job.

12. Promote at previous year's meeting.

13. Release promotional pieces, press releases, and related materials in accordance with schedule, with news releases preceding membership promotional mailings.

14. Target local, national, international media as appropriate by type: trade papers, newspapers and periodicals of general interest, radio and television tailored to market.

15. Overall, control promotional costs through following measures:

a. Obtaining firm written bids for services
b. Providing clean, competently proofread copy to printers
c. Using standard paper sizes where at all possible
d. Using same paper stock for many pieces
e. Piggybacking print items using same color
f. Using standard PMS ink colors
g. Reusing graphics
h. Avoiding unnecessary special effects
i. Avoiding perforations in favor of dotted-line cutting guides
j. Coordinating printing times
k. Setting and enforcing firm policy on overtime
l. Minimizing number of copy changes

* Courtesy of Professional Convention Management Association

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Fluent Speech And How To Achieve It

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This article is all about how to achieve fluency and looks at the specific speech impediment known as stammering/stuttering. My name is Steve Hill, I suffered with a stutter from the age of four and despite regular conventional speech therapy, continued stuttering until the age of twenty-two.

I found life with a stutter extremely frustrating as at times I could speak very well. For example when I spoke to what is now my ex-girlfriend I very rarely had a problem, however when attempting to speak to her parents I struggled quite badly.

When I was drunk my fluency level also would improve to a level where I would be shocked if I stuttered at all.

I could not understand why I could talk to one person but not to another and why I could speak when I was drunk but not when I was sober.

I read many books about speech imediments, achieving fluency and stuttering and spoke to many speech therapists. From what I read and from what I was told, I was made to believe that I was unable to live a stuttering-free life as it suggested you are unable to eradicate a stutter.

This is a very negative attitude, however I could not really believe what I was hearing and reading as I knew I could talk very well at times.

I then was fortunate enough to watch Bruce Willis being interviewed on the television. He stated that he had had a stutter which had started when he was a young boy, however he had managed to achieve fluency when he was a late teenager. This was a huge inspiration to me and I then decided that I would attempt to overcome my own speech impediment.

After nearly a year of working very hard by reading books about positive thinking and mind over matter and by basically studying people who I thought were great speakers, I also managed to beat the stutter. As a career I now help other people to achieve fluency.

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Easy Ways to Remember Your Material

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One of the most common reasons people fear public speaking is that they blank out and forget their entire speech. You can practice and practice and practice and when the moment comes that you need to remember your presentation, everything goes blank! There are ways that you can fool proof your message so that the parts you actually have to memorize are minimal if at all.

This means that you incorporate the use of triggers in your presentation. These triggers can be things like power point slides, props, and story telling that you'll scatter throughout your speech. What the triggers do is prompt you to talk about the next point your trying to make. The triggers can also serve as a trigger to help you remember what to say next.

There are four primary ways to remember your presentation.

1. The first one is memorizing. This can work for presentations less than an hour, but if you're teaching a six hour seminar course, you're going to have to find some other way other than memorizing. This is actually one of the worst ways to remember your presentation because there are no safe guards that protect you once you forget.

2. The next way to remember your presentation is to read a full written version. People write out their speeches, but reading from the full written text can cause you to sound stiff and unnatural.

Most commonly occurring in business settings (i.e. - at board meetings or company meetings), reading your speech may be necessary. If you have to read your speech, there are things you can do to help you sound natural. Keep in mind the business tone may be necessary, but there may also be parts in your presentation that require the monotony to be broken!

3. The third way to remember your presentation is to use notes - a condensed outline form of your presentation. Have your notes on a single page sheet or on note cards. Highlight key points to make in a way that you can easily understand the emphasis that the points need. Having notes does not mean that you do not need to work with your presentation!

4. The last way to remember your presentation is to use visual aids (props) as your notes. Let your visuals and images prompt you to speak. Tell your audience a story about the image you're showing. You can also let your visuals and images do the talking for you. You can post your outline on the screen and say that it's because it will help your audience stay on track with you!

Work with creating mental images of the points you are trying to make. This will help you sound more natural and more "impromptu" with your audience. When you sound natural, you sound genuine.

Utilize one or more of these ways to remember your presentation. Use various ways to "trigger" your memory to say what needs to be said. Use overheads to lead you through your speech as you place keywords on the screen.

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Join Us any Tuesday at Noon -Lunch Time for a 1 hour get together at the Elk Foundation on Grant Creek. We are the Lunchtime Missoula Toastmasters Club