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Great Speaking Vol. 4 Number 14
Welcome to our many new subscribers who signed up through,
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GREAT SPEAKING
Circulation 155,837
The largest speaking ezine in the world
Vol. 4 Number 14 - September 10, 2002
Publisher: Tom Antion tom@Antion.com
http://www.Antion.com
(C) Anchor Publishing 2002
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No one ever lost credibility by
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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
Visit the Speaker Shop for the finest in professional level
speaking training
http://www.antion.com/speakershop.htm
** TOM'S LIVE INTERNET MARKETING CAMP SCHEDULE **
Sunday Sept. 15, San Francisco, CA, (includes special follow-up
TeleSeminar because some attendees must leave early for
Yom Kippur.)
Sunday, Oct. 13, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Sunday, Oct. 20, Norfolk, VA
Sunday, Nov 10, Ann Arbor, MI
Sunday, Nov 17. Lakeland, FL
Once you attend once, you attend all regular ButtCamps for free
for life. Your teenagers always attend with you for free.
Register now for early bird discounts in Ft. Lauderdale, Norfolk,
VA, Ann Arbor, MI and Lakeland, FL.
http://www.antion.com/buttcamp.htm
Can't make it? The six-hour audio tape set is on sale now! Learn
to sell a ton on the web, just like Tom does.
http://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com/buttcamptapes.htm
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1. Quick Presentation Skills Tip
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SIT DOWN by Tom Antion
I keep a chair on stage with me and quite frequently I'll just
sit down. Sometimes I keep two chairs and put my feet up on one
while I'm sitting down. Sometimes I'll be standing and put one
foot on the chair and lean on my knee while I'm talking. Some
people have a barstool type of chair so they can take a load off
their feet, but still be pretty much upright while they are
presenting. This position can make you appear very relaxed on
stage.
I haven't seen any bean bags on stage yet, but hey, you could be
the first. :)
OK I know the Toastmasters out there are having heart attacks and
thinking how unprofessional this is. I beg to differ.
Professional means having a tremendous influence on the audience
and making an impact. I use the chair technique as an attention
gaining device and also to take emphasis off myself while the
audience is watching a video clip. I just go sit down and get out
of the way.
Don't be afraid to do something out of the ordinary when the
situation allows . . . you don't want to be ordinary do you? If
you do, you're reading the wrong e-magazine.
*** MORE FREE PROFESSIONAL SPEAKING TIPS ***
Sign up for "The Professional Speaker" weekly TipZine at
http://www.professionalspeaker.com
**********************************
********** GET FUNNY **********
with John Connor's one-on-one comedy training
seminar. Learn comedians' secrets for creating laugh-out-loud
moments in your speeches, including writing and performance.
http://www.JohnConnor.com/get_funny.php
mailto:John@JohnConnor.com
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2. Advanced Presentation Skills Article
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RATE YOUR PRESENTATION SLIDES Part I By Dave Paradi
When I work with speakers on effective use of presentation
technology, one of the areas we look at are their presentation
slides. Whether you use PowerPoint or some other program to
create your slides, you can use the criteria listed below to rate
how effective your slides are.
OVERALL SLIDE DESIGN
COLORS - The background and text colors need to have a high
degree of contrast so that audience members will be able to
clearly see what is being presented. Most presenters prefer dark
background colors, such as dark blue, dark gray, dark green or
dark purple. Studies have shown that colors have implied
meanings, and these darker colors are usually acceptable. The
text colors should then be bright yellow, white, beige or light
blue. This contrast allows the words to float above the
background and enhance readability.
FONTS - The default fonts for headings should generally be serif
fonts (like Times Roman) so that people spend a little more time
reading them and get context for where you are in the
presentation. Body text fonts should be sans-serif fonts (like
Arial) so that audience members can more quickly read the points
and return their focus to the presenter. Also, limit the number
of different fonts used in the presentation to no more than three
or four.
SLIDE TEXT
SLIDE DENSITY - A slide that is too dense - packed
with too many words - will be hard to read and understand. A
general guideline is to aim for six to seven points per slide and
six to eight words per point. Bullet point form is much preferred
over full sentences because it is quicker for the audience to get
the key idea.
TEXT BUILDS - One technique to help keep attention is to build
the bullet points on the slide. This increases comprehension
because the audience can focus on one idea at a time.
TEXT MOVEMENT - When using text builds, you should not have the
bullet points moving on the screen (i.e. flying in from all
sides). Moving text is extremely hard to read while in motion, so
most people wait until it stops before reading it. This increases
the amount of time the audience is watching the slide and reduces
the time they can receive valuable information from the
presenter.
In the next issue we'll discuss how to use graphics effectively
and how to make your slides more understandable.
©2002 Dave Paradi Dave Paradi helps people effectively use
technology to communicate. He is the author of the "Build &
Deliver Effective Presentation Slides" CD training product and
the bi-weekly e-zine "Communicating Using Technology". Access
more articles at his web site
http://www.communicateusingtechnology.com
or contact Dave by e-mail at
mailto:dave@communicateusingtechnology.com
*********** SPONSOR ***********
FREE 7 Day Electronic Marketing Mini Course
mailto:minicourse.GS045@aweber.com
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3. HUMOR TECHNIQUE
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VOICES by Tom Antion
You don't have to be a professional impersonator to use voices to
add comedy to your presentations and stories. If you are really
good at it, so much the better.
If the person your are impersonating with your voice is not known
to the audience, then anything you come up with will be perfect
because they don't know how the person really sounds. You might
even make up a person like your old uncle Elmer and use his
voice.
I impersonate my mother's voice during a story about her and
since no one in the audience knows my mother, it doesn't really
matter what it sounds like as long as it gets the point across
that she is a meek lady from the backwoods of Pennsylvania.
If you are impersonating a known person, either one from the
group or a celebrity, then you better be pretty good at voices or
you'll look a little foolish when you have to tell the audience
who it was you were impersonating.
BODY LANGUAGE
Whether you are great at voices or marginal, your performance
will be enhanced by adding appropriate body language while doing
your voice impersonation.
When I'm using my mother's voice, I get very small, sink in my
chest, keep my hands close in, and lower my head. All these
indicators add to the idea that I'm taking on my mother's persona
during that part of the story.
You will find that if you put in some time playing with different
voices that your presentations will be lots more fun for both you
and your audience.
* ATTN AUTHORS, WRITERS, SPEAKERS, AND ANYONE WHO WANTS TO BE! *
A friend of mine named Rick Butts just launched a cool new
website called http://www.eBookSource.com. Rick is looking for
authors to put their book on his cyber-shelves! They pay up to
70% commission when your work sells, and they handle all the
credit card processing and send you a check.
This is a terrific solution for anyone with an eBook, published
book, set of articles, or other information.(eBookSource will
even convert your manuscript into an eBook and create an eBook
cover for you, too!) It's also perfect for an author who doesn't
have real-time credit card processing on their site.
Rick asked me to let all my information brokers know about this
great opportunity, including fiction authors!
He's also offering his 5 Day Mini-Course "eBook Power" FREE.
Learn how to create, design, write, publish, package, and price
your eBook to sell. mailto:mini-course@eBookSource.com
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4. SPEAKER MARKETING TIP
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ASK AND YE SHALL CREATE by Dr. Jeanette Cates
How do you decide to create a new speech? A new report? A net
product? Most of us have an idea, then start to work on it. It's
only when we are well into the creation phase that we determine
whether or not it will sell. By then, it's too late! We've put
time and effort into the production. Either we don't want to
"waste" that time and effort, so we go ahead with a product
destined to lose money or we "scrap" an idea that we're just SURE
could have been productive if it only had time.
What if we reverse this "create then market" paradigm? Let's
determine FIRST if there is a market, then create the product the
market wants. The Internet provides the ideal venue for this
process because it's cost-effective to distribute your survey and
it offers quick turnaround for responses.
Your first step is to create a survey that you'll send to your
target market. Your survey includes four parts:
1. Create a list of problems or issues that are typical of your
target market. For speakers, for example, topics could include
marketing materials, topic choice, product development, demo
videos, office productivity, etc.
2. If appropriate, list several formats in which you can deliver
the information. For example, as a speech, a special report, an
audio CD, a videotape or a DVD.
3. List related questions. These could include:
a. How much would you pay for . . .
b. How likely would you be to . . .
4. Gather relevant information that could be useful now or in the
future. These questions may be about the professions responding,
types of computers or connections used, equipment available, etc.
When you've completed your survey questions, you'll need to
decide on the technology you'll use to deliver the survey - and
to gather the answers. You are more likely to get a higher
response if you send your survey via email. However, that means
you'll need to compile the responses manually. If you're looking
for a small number of responses, email works fine. For larger
surveys, use a web-based survey service. Zoomerang is one of the
better-known services which offers both a free and a fee-based
survey service.
As the last step in the Ask then Create system, invite people to
participate in your survey. You can do this as a link from your
website, in a pop-up window, or in an email message. You can
increase the number of responses by offering a reward - a free
article or report, a gift certificate, a copy of the results, an
entry in a drawing, a donation to a charity. Be creative!
What's YOUR reward? You get an exact description of the problem
your target market wants solved. You'll see how they want the
information delivered, how much they're willing to pay for it,
and how likely they are to purchase.
And THEN you create the ideal product.
To see a survey in action, visit
http://www.Tech4Speakers.com/survey1.htm
Dr. Jeanette Cates is a professional speaker and editor of
http://Tech4Speakers.com She is an Internet Strategist for Small
Business and author of "Online Success Tactics: 101 ways to build
your small business"
Good and easy to use shopping cart system
http://www.kickstartcart.com
The email list management company I use
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Tom's Top Ten Marketing Resources page
http://www.antion.com/marketingtools.htm
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5. SPEAKER HUMOR
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=> Teamwork is important so you can blame someone else when
something goes wrong
=> A bird in the hand is always safer than one overhead
=> A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
=> A fool and his money are soon elected.
=> A good scapegoat is hard to find.
=> If you examine two snowflakes, you'll see that no two flakes
are alike. This is in contrast to politics, where all flakes are
alike.
=> Negotiation is an attempt to reach a meeting of the minds
without a knocking of the heads.
=> What was the best thing before sliced bread?
=> Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid
someone will clean them?
=> If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?
=> I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not too sure.
=> Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
=> Always go to other people's funerals or they won't go to
yours.
=> I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
Much more FREE speaker humor at
http://www.antion.com/humor/speakerhumor/speakerhumor.htm
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6. USEFUL WEBSITES
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http://www.bibliofind.com rare book search associated with
Amazon.com
http://www.ivillage.com All sorts of women's issues.
http://www.disasterium.com/ The almanac of disasters. Find a
disaster that happened on the day you were speaking. We hope that
your speech doesn't qualify for inclusion in next year's issue.
:)
http://www.dumblaws.com/ You'll get lots of speech humor at this
site.
http://www.deathclock.com Now here's an interesting site. It told
me my day of death would be June 2, 2048 and also calculated the
number of seconds I had to live. I can see uses for this in a
speech encouraging people to use every second to it's fullest.
I'm going to go back to the site tomorrow and get a second
opinion :)
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