New Breed of Public Speaking Needed

speakingjob — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:27:45 +0000

If you love public speaking then you have to love Buckminster Fuller quotes like this: “Everyone is born a genius. Society degeniuses them.” This quote is sadly too true for far too many. We are habitual rule-followers. Both formal education and socialization work together to “drive us along with the herd.” But it needn’t be that way. We can regain our genius. But we can’t achieve it by always following in another’s footsteps. “The man who follows the crowd,” Alan Ashley-Pitts tells us, “will usually get no further than the crowd.” Writing this blog post has led me to request this of you: Be unique. Develop your own style. Break some rules, even ones that I’ve recommended. I insist! Recapture your genius. And when we couple courage and risk-taking, that genius will manifest itself in our presentations. I like what Neil Postman wrote: “Children enter school as question marks and come out as periods.” Not good but often true. Rid yourself of “periods” and any other conforming punctuation. Dare to be different. Dare to be very different. Dare to be yourself.

From Dave Schwenson’s book, How to Be a Comedian: You should never sit down. This is a “stand up” comedy. (Yeah? Try telling that to Bill Cosby.) Don’t do pratfalls or slapstick. It makes a comic look silly. (Are you listening, Jim Carrey and Michael Richards?) Center yourself at the middle of the stage and don’t pace around. You’ll keep the audience’s attention better. (Do you think Robin Williams and Steven Wright would agree?) Be different! Be yourself! Build your own firey speeches in your public speaking jobs! Like the earth of a hundred years ago, our mind still has its darkest Africa, its unmapped Borneos and Amazonian basins. — Aldous Huxley

There is perhaps no application of this quote more fitting than in the realm of public speaking opportunities. How much has speaking really changed and improved in the last one hundred years? Pause for a moment to consider the past 100 years: How much has technology changed? How much has health care changed? How much has transportation changed? How much has athletics changed? How about motivational speaking? Has motivational speaking changed at all in the past century? Our public speaking jobs seem to be still hiding in the comfort of rules and traditions. But we have unmapped territories to explore. New communication horizons await you in our motivational speaker training course.

Jobs in Public Speaking

speakingjob — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:29:55 +0000

Why are questions so powerful in your jobs in public speaking?Have you considered the benefits of asking for audience responses?

How do questions encourage dialogue and discourage lecture? This is a risk for many of us. It means giving up some control and having to think on our feet.

I recall listening to a motivational speaker who began her presentation asking “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”

This inspired laughter and discussion in the group…

“Does that mean how old do I feel?”

“How old do I look?”

It made an immediate connection and it led into the point of her talk.

Asking questions is also a good opportunity to start off with some humor:

“How many people are in the wrong place?”

“How many wish they were in the wrong place?”

“How many care where they are?”

“How many wish I would stop asking questions?”

People will laugh, and you’ll see hands raised after each question. This provides

both spark and a change of pace.

You do have to be careful, however, when you’re asking rhetorical questions

because some people won’t pick up on the fact that they are rhetorical. It’s not that I

don’t love to get responses from the group. I frequently interact with audiences. But

there are times in a speech when you don’t want people shouting out answers. It can

undermine a dramatic or inspirational point in your speech. You can’t ignore that raised

hand or that shout. I effectively set up rhetorical questions by letting the audience know

in various phrasings that no verbal response is expected. I’ll say…

“Let me just ask you a few rhetorical questions…”

“I want you just to think about possible answers to this question…”

“There’s no need to respond to this, but why would…”

These pretty much guarantee that you won’t be faced with the awkwardness of

someone speaking up from the audience when you’d rather them not.

Why don’t more motivational speakers use this magical device that shows respect?

Why do teachers rarely use questions, except on tests?

Will you consider asking more questions in your presentations?

Can you think of a better way to involve others in your keynote speeches as a motivational speaker?

Motivational Speaking Jobs

speakingjob — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:20:47 +0000

There’s productive work to be done in becoming a motivational speaker. You need to develop and craft your keynote speech. Did you know a great keynote speech can make you a million dollars? Just one great speech will launch your career in the speaker business. Here are a few tips on putting together your keynote speech. This is the phase at which you take the skeleton of your speech and customize it to fit a one particular audience. Picture who is in that audience and speak specifically to them. Very rarely do you go into a clothing store and simply grab a generic suit off the rack and find that it fits perfectly. You need some altering. Similarly, you don’t just dig through your files and
pull out a speech without tailoring it. “Gathering” is research, the research that needs to be done prior to the event. It
may involve making phone calls to meeting planners and to your future audience members. Mark Sanborn, who I’ve previously introduced, once asked a meeting planner for the names of three people who would be in his audience from whom he could ask questions and gather information. How resourceful! Mark called these people and
interviewed them. The meeting planner spoke to him later and said, “You’re the first person in the speaker business I’ve worked with to ever do that.” You can do more than make calls. You could set up personal appointments. If you were speaking in a corporate setting, perhaps it would be smart to interview one person from management, one front-line associate, and one new-hire. This way, you’d be getting ideas from diverse perspectives. It’s crucial that we go to our events having more information than the name of the company and the department. If that’s all we have, we haven’t done our homework, and we haven’t customized our presentation. And trust me, it’s obvious to the audience. Are you ready to start your career and get public speaking jobs? We have a powerful motivational speaker training course just for you.

Public Speaking Jobs

speakingjob — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 03:07:01 +0000

Recently after a business trip in my public speaking job my family and I went on a vacation – our ﬁrst boat cruise. This was a much needed vacation with my family. I learned a great lesson from my daughter that reminded me of why I enjoy all of my public speaking jobs. From Los Angeles, you can go on a three-day cruise fairly inexpensively. Our ship stopped in Ensenada, Mexico, where we disembarked and hopped on the free cruise shuttle tour to the city center, enjoying sights along the way.When it was time to go back to the ship, we took a taxi which had seen many better days in its apparent 20 years of service. Poverty was all around us along this quicker return route. But I remember that our driver was so incredibly nice to us. He taught the girls some Spanish, and he even took our picture upon our arrival at the dock. The fare was $5, so I gave him $7. As soon as he drove off, my older daughter, Alex, asked, “Dad, why didn’t you give the cab driver $10?” And I started explaining, “Honey, the fare was only $5, and I gave him $7 – that’s a 40 percent tip! And you saw how grateful he was.” She acknowledged, “Yes, I saw him smile, but anytime you can make someone’s day for $5, shouldn’t you do that?” I was dumbfounded. She was right. I’ve never forgotten that. Thank you, Alex. As a public speaker that is almost our job description. We get to travel to the most beautiful places and stand in front of an audience and hopefully make a difference in their lives by what we say. By showing them honor and looking to make their day with well chose words. Words that build up and inspire each person to look within themselves and see their genius. That is the beauty of public speaking jobs