Scott Schwertly is an expert in presentations and you get more than an inkling of how much he knows as you go through his newest book, HOW TO BE A PRESENTATION GOD by Wiley and Sons with a copyright of 2011. He crams a lot of information into the book but I found the underlying philosophy of presenting to be the most valuable content. There are several sentences that might summarize his philosophy but I am going to chooose this one: "Our worst enemy is our own low expectations. What if the opportunity at hand is far, far bigger than anything you could have imagined? What would you do? Don't just make a living, Change the world."
He points out in this book that on a daily basis more than 30 million face to face presentations are made. He calls this about the oldest form of mass communication and he seems to have a point. After all, we are still using the principles espoused by Aristotle ON RHETORIC as the foundation for our rhetorical skills training today.
Schwertly brings the reader up to date with presentation software ideas and with a detailed description of several key audiences, which in themselves make the book worth its price.
Students who have had me for public speaking at Coker College know my three major rules of being successful on the platform: Know your audience; Know you are prepared; Know your subject. Schwertly does a good job of explaining the whys and hows of these three principles, which may be why I enjoyed the book so much.
Showing posts with label Richard Puffer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Puffer. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Interesting article from Marketing Profs
There is an interesting article on the MARKETING PROFS web site that discusses public speaking and presentations. He has eight or nine tips. One of his tips is to minimize technology and the other tips generally talk about what you do with the technology you decide to use in the presentation. I really think he could have reemphasized the idea of leave the technology at home because people are wanting to hear your ideas and generally the technology is going to get in the way.
The best tip he has in the article is No Notes. "It is a little unauthentic...", he says. Really, you should know your content and be organized in MAIN POINT structure and be able to adapt your talk to the audience, the time available and the goal you have for making the presentation. That is all easy to write but not always as easy to implement.
So, I will end with one of my continuing public speaking tips. If it has been awhile since you have been in front of audiences, become a Toastmaster. That group makes a rapid difference in a motivated person's ability to become an effective public speaker. Or, if you are a student at a place like Coker College, make sure you get to the speaking classes and then take every opportunity offered to get in front of audiences.
The best tip he has in the article is No Notes. "It is a little unauthentic...", he says. Really, you should know your content and be organized in MAIN POINT structure and be able to adapt your talk to the audience, the time available and the goal you have for making the presentation. That is all easy to write but not always as easy to implement.
So, I will end with one of my continuing public speaking tips. If it has been awhile since you have been in front of audiences, become a Toastmaster. That group makes a rapid difference in a motivated person's ability to become an effective public speaker. Or, if you are a student at a place like Coker College, make sure you get to the speaking classes and then take every opportunity offered to get in front of audiences.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Books are a great place for "Material"
One of the major challenges for many beginning speakers is figuring out what to talk about. Most of these beginning speakers have a great many things they are doing and hope to do but often do not think about those things as speech material. We do a lot of brainstorming in my Coker College classes to come up with speech ideas. While I hear from many of these student that they don't read I continue to encourage them to look to books for both subjects and for speech-content material.
We are in a season when lots of people are summarizing their reading of the past year and I think some of these lists could be useful for speakers looking for ideas. Tim Elmore, who is a leadership trainer and also a frequent speaker, just posted his 12 top books from 2010. This is a good example of a list that could help others begin to find "material" for their talks -- both in class and in their real lives. This idea is not only good for students but can also work for people who are members of Toastmasters and other speaking groups.
I just finished a book by Steven Johnson about where ideas come from and this book could be good for a year's worth of speech material. In addition, he has a major bibliography in his notes section that is excellent for people who might be thinking, writing and talking on such subjects as innovation and creativity, learning, leadership, etc.
We are in a season when lots of people are summarizing their reading of the past year and I think some of these lists could be useful for speakers looking for ideas. Tim Elmore, who is a leadership trainer and also a frequent speaker, just posted his 12 top books from 2010. This is a good example of a list that could help others begin to find "material" for their talks -- both in class and in their real lives. This idea is not only good for students but can also work for people who are members of Toastmasters and other speaking groups.
I just finished a book by Steven Johnson about where ideas come from and this book could be good for a year's worth of speech material. In addition, he has a major bibliography in his notes section that is excellent for people who might be thinking, writing and talking on such subjects as innovation and creativity, learning, leadership, etc.
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