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Great Speaking Vol. 1 Number 12
Last chance for big savings! (See Below)
Happy 4th of July
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GREAT SPEAKING
Circulation 6874
Vol. 1 Number 12 - July 2, 1999
Publisher: Tom Antion tomAntion@aol.com
http://www.Antion.com
(C) Anchor Publishing 1999
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No one ever lost credibility by
being interesting.
==========================================
Please feel free to forward this E-Zine to anyone you
know that is interested in being a better presenter, or
who may want to make money speaking and training.
If you are receiving this issue as a forward, and would
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=============================================
IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Quick Presentation Skills Tip
2. Advanced Presentation Skills Article
(Beginners should read this too)
3. Humor Technique Series
4. Speaker Marketing Tip
5. Speaker Humor
6. Websites for Speakers
*** SPEAKER BUSINESS LEADS ***
Will be delivered to full subscribers when available.
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1. Quick Presentation Skills Tip
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Give Me a Brake
by Tom Antion
. . . a mental brake that is. Here are some mind tricks when
you speak too fast.
=> Imagine that your audience is comprised of 5 year olds and
you have to explain some difficult concept to them. You must
obviously go slowly so they can understand you.
=> Force yourself to use difficult word combinations which will
force you to slow down so that you don*t stutter over them.
=> Do specific practice sessions concentrating on varying the
speed of your delivery so that you get a better control over
this aspect of your talks. Also, varying the speed makes you
more interesting automatically. You must do these practice
sessions out loud. To save time, they can be done in the car,
or while doing your hair or jogging, etc.
=> Cut out some of your material so that you do not feel rushed
to get it all in. Going faster is usually futile because the
retention level drops so low that you may as well have
omitted the material in the first place.
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2. Advanced Presentation Skills Article
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4 Common Ways to Remember Material (Part I)
by Lenny Laskowski
c 1999 LJL Seminars
Remembering speeches can be a very intimidating experience.
There are many ways one can remember material and I would like
to focus on what I believe are the 4 Common Ways to Remember
Material.
1. Memorizing
2. Reading from complete text
3. Using notes
4. Using visual aids as notes
In this issue I will be discussing only the first two:
Memorizing and Reading from complete text.
1. Memorizing - In my opinion this is absolute worst way to keep
track of material. People are preoccupied with the trying to
remember the words they*re saying and not the ideas behind the
words (or with the audience). As a result, normal voice
inflection disappears. And worse, those terrible blank
moments become inevitable.
With memorizing, it is not a matter of "will" you forget; it*s
a matter of WHEN.
2. Reading - Listening to someone read a speech or presentation
is hated by most people. People say, "If that*s all they were
going to do, I could have read it myself." I*m sure many of
us have experienced this at least once when attending a
conference or two. Below are reasons why I believe people
read poorly:
a. The speaker loses normal voice inflection because they lose
touch with the ideas behind the words. Listen for pauses.
Natural speech is filled with pauses; unnatural read is
not.
b. The text isn't spoken language - too often speakers write
their speeches in "business language". That is often hard
to read, much less listen to.
c. The speech isn*t static - the potted plant will probably
move more. There is little movement, little energy, little
interest behind the lectern.
d. There is little or no eye contact - any eye contact is with
the text, not the audience. To read text while trying to
maintain eye contact with the audience takes a lot of
practice.
e. The speaker is scared - many speakers read because they are
afraid to try anything else. They know reading will fail
but at least it will fail with a small "f" rather than a
capital one.
NOTE: Don*t get me wrong, there are times when speeches MUST be
read. Many times it is necessary to read policy statements
or company announcements. Also, some speeches must be
timed right down to the second.
WHEN YOU HAVE TO READ!
If reading is absolutely necessary, here are some suggestions:
1. Pay attention to the inflection in your voice - to sound
natural, rehearse often, checking yourself for pauses. Ask
yourself if your words sound the way you would say them if
your weren*t reading. Tape yourself and listen to your own
voice.
2. When preparing your written speech, say the words "out loud"
in order that your written text read closer to your speaking
style. This will make is easier to read and much easier to
listen to. People often DO NOT write the same way as they
speak and this makes reading more difficult. If we use wording
and phrasing we normally use in our everyday language it will
be easier to add the correct voice inflection and tone.
Annotate your text to indicate which words to emphasize.
Numbers are the easiest target words to say slowly with
emphasis on each syllable.
3. One of the biggest problems speakers face when reading text is
that we often forget to use gestures. We are so busy is making
sure we read the text we are not communicating with out entire
body. One thing we can do to help is to double space the
written text to leave room to add any notes or cues about
gestures and other reminder type clues. We need to practice
using this annotated text of our speech so we can easily and
smoothly react to the cues for our gestures while at the
same time am reading the text. This does take some practice.
Some people do this very effectively. Videotape yourself
reading the speech and then sit and watch the speech, making
notes as to the gesture which could have been used. Add notes
to your written text, using notes or even pictures of the
gestures to use and deliver the speech again, trying to now
add the gestures. After a little practice, this will become
second nature.
4. When we read speeches, the amount of eye contact with our
audience is usually less. In some cases, people who read
speeches have NO eye contact. To avoid this, first write like
we speak (see suggestion #2). When typing the text use upper
and lower case letters. This will make it easier to read.
TYPING EVERYTHING IN UPPPERCASE, AS I HAVE DONE HERE, MAKES
IT MORE DIFFICULT TO READ. Don*t have long paragraphs or
you*ll lose your place every time you look up. Start a new
paragraph every sentence or two. Also, have your text double
spaced. Some people even go so far as alternating the color of
the text for each paragraph.
5. Use unstapled pages for your text. Paper clip your pages and
just before you begin, remove the paper clip. As you prepare
your text, keep in mind that you will have to handle these
pages and you want to do this as smoothly and quietly as you
can. Do not have part of a sentence begin on one page and
continue onto the next. End the page with a complete sentence
and paragraph. During your pause, smoothly "slide" the page
you just finished using to the side and continue with the text
on the next page. Do not pick up the page and place it behind
or turn over the page when done. This can be distracting and
will bring attention to the fact that you are reading.
With a lot of practice and careful preparation you can deliver a
powerful speech, even when read. Some of the world*s greatest
speeches were read, but you can be assured, they weren*t reading
them for the first time when speaking to their audience.
Practice, practice, practice.
Lenny will teach us about using notes and visual aids as notes in
the Next Issue
=========================================================
Lenny Laskowski is a keynote speaker, seminar leader and speaker
coach. He is the author of "No Sweat Presentations - The Painless
Way to Successful Speaking" several videotape and audiotape
programs. Lenny is the publisher of "Simply Speaking.." a FREE
E-zine for people looking to improve their speaking skills. To
subscribe to Lenny*s E-Zine send an e-mail to
majordomo@ljlseminars.com and in the BODY of the message type:
subscribe simply or visit Lenny*s website
http://www.ljlseminars.com. Also, feel free to particpate in
Lenny's NEW discussion board. Goto:
http://www.ljlseminars.com/discussion.htm
=========================================================
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3. HUMOR TECHNIQUE
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Finding Humor for Specific Industries
by Tom Antion
If you are looking for stories and humor in a specific industry,
you must work a little harder than you would have to find general
humor. Certain professions like medicine and law have many
individual books, newsletters, and articles written about them.
But if you are a plumbing executive, or you are speaking to the
plumbing industry it is unlikely you could go down to your local
bookstore and find a plumbing joke book.
Start a file right away for industry-specific information you
find. A good place to start looking for information to fill this
file would be in a trade journal for the specific industry.
Almost every industry you can imagine has one or more
associated trade journals. If you*re looking for humor, sift
through back issues to find humor you can use now. Virtually no
one remembers cartoons and jokes more than a month or so. Watch
for industry newsletters so you can extract usable material.
Check company bulletin boards regularly for funny signs
and postings.
Call others in the industry to look for stories or incidents
that would be of interest to your audience (remember to give
credit). Collect everything you can collect that is interesting
and industry specific and soon you will have the best collection
around.
Don*t forget our friend the Internet. Anytime I need humor on
something really specific, I simply type the keywords
(ex. plumbing humor, or water humor) into one or more of the
major search engines. Something is bound to come up. You must be
ready to do some sifting though before you find some usable
material. Here are just some of the lines I came up with for the
plumbing engineer group I was speaking to. Note: these are the
people who figure out how much water it takes to flush a toilet
hahaha
My wife*s an earth sign. I*m a water sign. Together we make mud.
--Rodney Dangerfield
The shower is the greatest invention. I don*t like to take a
bath. I don*t like to wash my face in the water I*ve been sitting
in.--Lewis Grizzard
How come when you mix water and flour together you get glue ...
and then you add eggs and sugar and you get cake? Where does the
glue go? --Rita Rudner
Getting married is a lot like getting into a tub of hot water.
After you get used to it, it ain*t so hot. --Minnie Pearl
(Re: Wake *em Up Business Presentations Page 199)
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4. $$$$$$$ SPEAKER MARKETING TIP $$$$$$$$
=====================================================
THEMES
by Tom Antion
Chicken Soup, Dummies, Idiots, One Minute, and Wake *em Up are
themes. All are legitimate international best sellers except one.
I*ll give ya three guesses which one isn*t. . . . . OK I*m
working on it. hahahaha Themes take advantage of the name
recognition and synergy effect that all the previously sold
copies, publicity and advertising provide. Pretty soon we*ll see
"Chicken Soup for the Wallpaper Hanger*s Soul," or "The Idiot*s
Guide to Being an Idiot." . . . Guess what. They would both
probably outsell me because of the very strong theme recognition
they enjoy.
I picked my theme or actually it picked me a while back. I
started with "Make *em Laugh" both video and audio, then the
"Wake 'em Up" book and video came and soon the "Wake 'em Up"
audio album is coming. I guess you could say I have the "em"
theme. It will lend itself later to "Wake *em Up Management,"
"Wake 'em Up Service" and so forth.
Themes can get you booked and are usually more memorable than
your name. After one program a meeting planner told me that the
boss told her to get that "Wake *em Up" guy in here. I guess
that*s me. Use themes to take advantage of your past marketing
efforts which will make your future efforts more efficient.
Next issue I*ll talk about how themes of products can eventually
turn into an even more valuable system.
NOTE: I just ran across the most fabulous marketing site I
have ever seen. Im using a tremendous amount of what I learned
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5. SPEAKER HUMOR
=====================================================
=> As a speaker, sometimes I think I understand everything,
then I regain consciousness.
=> Ladies and gentlemen in conclusion . . . and keep in mind that
a conclusion is the place where you get tired of thinking.
=> Never do card tricks for the group you play poker with.
=> If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you*ve
never tried before.
=> "Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if
you just sit there"--Will Rogers
=> I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where*s the
self help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat
the purpose.
=> If at first you don*t succeed, destroy all evidence that you
tried."
=> When did my wild oats turn to prunes and All Bran?
=> Everytime I think about exercise, I lie down til the thought
goes away.
=> The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because
by then your body and your fat are really good friends.
=> "According to statistics there are 7 million Americans not
working and even more if you count those with jobs."
---Bob Orben
=> The diet doctor told me he wanted three fourths of me back in
six months.
=> Child to teacher: "I don*t want to scare you, but my Daddy
said if my grades don*t come up, someone is gonna get
spanked."
=> Note to Teacher: Johnny was absent yesterday because he had
diarrhea and his boots leak.
=> Another Note to Teacher: Sally missed school yesterday because
the whole family had a fever. Her father even got hot last
night.
=> Dumbest Note to Teacher: Jennifer missed school yesterday for
a good reason. We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the
porch, and when we found it Monday, we thought it was Sunday.
=> Church Bulletin Blooper: Thursday at 6 p.m. there will be a
meeting of the Little Mother s Club. All ladies wishing to be
little Mothers please meet with the pastor in his study.
=> Church Bulletin Blooper: This being Easter Sunday, we will ask
Mrs. Johnson to come forward and lay and egg at the altar.
=> Church Bulletin Blooper: A bean Supper will be held on
Saturday evening in the church basement. . . . Music will
follow.
=> Country Western Song Title: If I Can*t Be Number One In Your
Life, Then Number Two On You.
=> Country Western Song Title: If my nose were full of nickels,
I*d blow it all on you.
Lots more FREE speaker humor at
http://www.antion.com/humor/speakerhumor/speakerhumor.htm
=====================================================
6. USEFUL WEBSITES
=====================================================
Reader Dr. Allan Braslow recommends the following two sites:
http://www.moviefone.com/ Enter your zipcode and you'll get
all the theatres, movies and times in your area.
http://www.shopper.com/ Computer and software shopping site
that compares prices for you. Very handy.
Reader RAQUEL CACOILO raquel731@hotmail.com says "Here*s a web
site your readers may like. I found out about it after getting a
CertifiedMail email from a customer. Now I use it so my vendors
can*t say they didn*t get my message!" BTW, you*re site is
required reading around here. Keep up the great work!!!
http://certifiedmail.com
I encourage your website suggestions. They should be at least
loosely useful to speakers, trainers and those that are
interested in public speaking. mailto:tomantion@aol.com
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FREE ARTICLES FOR YOUR PUBLICATIONS
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