Be a Motor Mouth: Practice Your Speech in the Car
You can greatly improve your speech with practice, but finding the time . . . that is the challenge isn’t it? One way that I have found to slip in practice time is to practice in the car. I don’t suggest practicing in rush-hour traffic, because your attention will be divided and you might not […]
Don’t Risk a Bad Start: Bring Your Speaker Introduction
Your speaker introduction is an important part of your presentation. It should get the audience leaning forward with anticipation of the topic and also set up your credibility (here’s a post on how to write your speaker introduction). Unless you have a video of your introduction played just prior to your presentation (which can be […]
The Cure for Stage Fright
Perhaps you know the feeling. The tightness that grips your stomach. The racing heart. The sweaty palms. The shaking hands or legs. All physical symptoms of the fear of public speaking. The intuitive approach is to try to calm yourself. While some deep breaths are a good idea (you do need oxygen to your brain!), […]
Free ebook–Public Speaking Lessons from TED Talks
Free until Saturday, March 8, 2014 Get your free Kindle version of the short e-book, Public Speaking Lessons from TED Talks: The Good and the Bad from the 10 Most-Viewed TED Talks Imagine giving a powerful, TEDTalk-Style Presentation. You can learn insightful tips from this ebook, a compilation my past 10 posts on the top 10 most-viewed TED Talks. The […]
Speaking Tips from TEDTalk #1: How Schools Kill Creativity (Ken Robinson)
TEDTalk countdown: the #1 most-watched video on TED. Video and Transcript The Big Idea: “Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.” The overall construct of the speech: Loosely persuasive, using humor and stories/examples to increase receptivity for his message. Not perfect: Some digressions. This […]
Speaking Tips from TEDTalk #2: How Great Leaders Inspire Action (Simon Sinek)
TEDTalk Countdown: the #2 most-watched video on TED. Video and Transcript The Big Idea: People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it. The overall construct of the speech: Persuasive, using logic, research and anecdotes Not perfect: His opening rhetorical question took me off-track at the start. “How do you explain when things […]
Speaking Tips from TEDTalk #3: The Power of Vulnerability (Brenè Brown)
TEDTalk Countdown: the #3 most-watched video on TED. Video and Transcript The Big Idea: To be fully alive is to be vulnerable. Embrace vulnerability. The overall construct of the speech: A somewhat chronological retelling of events leading to insight. Not perfect: Honestly, I was so engaged by this talk that I found it difficult to find fault. […]
Speaking Tips from TEDTalk #4: My Stroke of Insight (Jill Bolte Taylor)
Video and Transcript TEDTalk Countdown: the #4 most-watched video on TED (2008) The Big Idea: Spend more time choosing to “run the deep inner-peace circuitry of the brain’s right hemisphere.” The overall construct of the speech: A story of insight arising from tragedy. Jill Bolte Taylor, brain researcher, had the opportunity of a lifetime when […]
Speaking Tips from TEDTalk #5: How to Live Before You Die (Steve Jobs)
TEDTalk Countdown: the #5 most-watched video on TED: Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University, 2005. Video. Transcript. The Big Idea: “Follow your heart.” The overall construct of the speech: Three stories which each make a point that support the overall big idea. Story 1: “Connecting the Dots” Jobs talks about dropping out of Reed […]
Speaking Tips from TEDTalk #7: Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are (Amy Cuddy)
Video and transcript here The Big Idea: Amy Cuddy shares how “power posing,” standing or sitting in a posture of confidence, even when you don’t feel confident, can affect testosterone (dominance hormone) and cortisol (stress hormone) levels in the body, causing you to feel and be perceived as more confident. It’s not “fake it till […]