Some lessons from Melinda Camille

Who is Melinda Camille, you ask? She's a contestant on American Idol who made it through the first round of auditions and is "going to Hollywood!"

Melinda's audition piece holds some lessons I would consider valuable to any speaker.

1. She's grounded. Look at her stance, her posture, her lack of extraneous movement. You can tell she's comfortable in her own skin.

2. She connects. She sings to the judges rather than singing to herself as many contestants do. She makes eye contact and emotional connection, and brings them into her world.

3. She's confident. She doesn't rush through the song to get it over with quickly. She takes her time, letting the song build naturally and with appropriate pauses.

4. She's herself. She doesn't try to sound like anyone else, or make faces or gestures like another performer. Her style is clearly her own.

5. She's expressive and passionate. You can tell she loves singing. She doesn't hold back her emotions; she radiates happiness.

The audition starts at 1:15.


If this clip doesn't work, watch the video here.

Do it right the first time

I've heard several variations on this quote recently:

"If you don't take the time to do it right the first time, when will you have the time to fix it?"

I don't know who said it first, or the exact wording. If you know who said it, please let me know.

This is one of the most profound lessons a speaker can learn. You rarely have a chance to speak to the same audience twice, so if you can't be bothered to spend the time to craft a great presentation, you will not get another chance.

Do you hear me? You have one chance with an audience. You may never be asked back.

And yet I see, time and time again, speakers who throw their presentations together at the last minute, leaving no time for practice, and still expect to be a big hit. Or worse, don't care one way or the other if the presentation is successful or meaningful to the group.

You're probably not a professional speaker. You might not be speaking to promote your business or organization. You might just be the unlucky schmo who gets stuck giving the report in a meeting.

Does this mean you have any less responsibility to do a good job, to do your best? Forget the audience for a moment. Forget the fact that you should be serving them and giving them practical, useful and valuable information.

Think about yourself and your own goals. Do you hope to advance in your career? Do you hope to make more money, get a better job, have the respect of your peers and supervisors?

Well, doing a half-ass job on your presentation isn't going to help you in any of these areas. So now you're letting the audience down, your co-workers, your boss and yourself.

Why not just make the effort to do it right the first time? Give yourself time (unless you truly are asked to speak at the last minute, which I realize is often the case in the workplace), or at least make the most of the time you have in creating something of value to the audience.

Take pride in your work, make the effort. You don't have to try to impress anyone. You just have to do your best to give value and not waste people's time.

You may not get a chance to fix it, so do it right the first time.

Reading your audience

When I was in third grade, I took third place in the school spelling bee, behind a fifth grader and a sixth grader. I was wearing my favorite pink dress with buttons down the front, and my groovy white go-go boots. I felt fabulous. I loved spelling, was good at it, and was a little bit competitive. When I misspelled my final word, I was a little shocked; the audience roared with applause.

I didn't realize what an accomplishment it was to come in third in the whole school at the age of eight. What I heard in that applause was an audience who was glad to see me eliminated! I thought they must be applauding so loudly because they didn't want me to win. I cried, of course, and had to be comforted by my parents. Somewhere along the way, it was explained to me that I got so much applause because the audience was acknowledging my achievement.

Have you ever misinterpreted your audience's responses to your presentation? Do you see someone on her Blackberry and assume she's bored? Do you see someone with crossed arms and a scowl and assume he's angry? If no one raises hands when you ask a question, do you assume they're not engaged?

It's not always easy to read an audience, especially when there's a lack of response. If your presentation is early, they might be sleep-deprived. If it's late in the morning, they might be hungry. They might be distracted by personal issues, a need for a cigarette, an overactive bladder and a million other things.

It's important not to make assumptions or jump to conclusions. But it is important to build rapport with the audience and find out what's going on with them. If a couple of people seem disconnected, you might be reading them incorrectly. Or you might be reading them correctly, but be unable to reach them.

If the whole group is disconnected, however, there's something you could be doing better. Why not ask them? Ask if there's a particular direction they would like to go. Ask if there's something they'd like to know about that you haven't touched on. Ask them to share their most pressing concerns.

Maybe they've been sitting too long and need to stretch their legs. Maybe you've been talking too long and they need an auditory break. Ask a question and have them discuss with their neighbor, or have them break into groups with a piece of flip chart paper and ask them to make a list or solve a problem. Invite them to stand up, stretch, and introduce themselves to the person next to them.

There are lots of ways to bring an audience back from la-la land. Rather than jumping to conclusions or misinterpreting their body language, ask them what they care about and shake things up a bit. They'll come back.

He's no Barack Obama...

How many times have you heard someone described as "not" something or someone? How many times have you described yourself this way? "I'm no Ellen, but I'm pretty funny." "I'm no Mother Theresa, but I do love helping people." "I'm no Brad Pitt, but I get enough dates."

I've been reading articles that compare various politicians as speakers to President Obama -- unfavorably, of course. Guess what: No one is Barack Obama. There's only one. His speaking style, poise, voice resonance, cadence and use of rhetorical devices are all his.

You may not be comparing yourself to someone famous. You may be comparing yourself to a co-worker who always gets the audience laughing with his silly jokes or larger-than-life personality on stage. You may be comparing yourself to your friend, who always seems able to think on her feet and give split-second perfectly articulate responses to any question.

Well, there's only one of your co-worker, only one of your friend. Each is unique in her or his own way.

And guess what else: There's only one YOU. Instead of comparing yourself to others and finding yourself lacking, try acknowledging your own positive qualities for a change. You don't have to be Ellen funny or Obama articulate to make an impact on an audience.

Sure, you can play around with humor and rhetoric. You can learn how to use your voice more effectively. You can prepare better in order to think on your feet or speak off the cuff.

Just remember that you are still yourself. Incorporate your new skills but remain authentic. Stop comparing yourself to others or trying to become like someone else.

You just have to be the best you that you can be.

Be a tease

In working with several clients on creating and structuring their presentations, there seems to be a common theme among their efforts. They all have too much content for the time they're allotted.

Whether your presentation is ten minutes or two hours long, you will always have to edit, cut, and edit some more. We all have way more information in our heads about our topics than our audiences need or want.

In addition, if you're like a lot of us giving presentations, you don't want to give everything away in one go because you're also hoping to sell books or products or get hired for your expertise. You want to tease them a little with great content and make them want more.

Almost a year ago to the day, I wrote about time vs. information, structuring your presentation to take maximum advantage of the amount of time you have while giving the most value to your audience. If you haven't read it, I recommend checking it out now.

You don't have to share everything you know. Pick the most critical and valuable main points that your audience would want and need, and stick with those. Make sure that you're still using stories, good visuals, and audience interaction to make your content more engaging and "sticky."

Flesh out your material with some good handouts, but again, there's no need to overwhelm the audience. If they want more information, they know where to find you (that is, if you put your contact information on your handouts!).

Hold back a little. Focus on what the audience needs rather than showing how much you know. Your presentation will be lighter, less dense and more accessible.

Thought Trap #7: Magnifying and minimizing

Thought Trap #7: Magnifying and minimizing

Continuing on in the series on Thought Traps.

Magnification (catastrophizing) or minimization -- You exaggerate the importance of negative things (your mistakes or others' mistakes) or you mistakenly shrink positive things until they appear tiny (your own accomplishments or strengths).

Two sides of the same coin here. If you do something good, it's not worth acknowledging. If you do something bad, it's catastrophic and the world is ending.

Minimizing our accomplishments is a common practice, not just among speakers. How many times has someone praised you for a job well done, and you refused to take credit or acted like it was no big deal? The classic example: Someone compliments you on your outfit and you say, "Oh, this old thing?" ;-)

Taking a compliment is hard for a lot of people, but at some point, you have to learn how to say "Thank you" with gratitude and sincerity. When someone compliments or acknowledges you, it's a gift. Don't insult them by not accepting it graciously.

Understanding and accepting your strengths and accomplishments doesn't make you conceited or big-headed. It strengthens you and builds your confidence. It allows you to take on challenges and face your fears. Whether false modesty or true denial, minimizing your accomplishments and strengths hinders your growth both professionally and personally.

On the flip side, magnifying mistakes to catastrophic proportions may not be as common as minimizing, but we've all probably done it at one time or another.

When you find yourself having these catastrophic thoughts, ask yourself how realistic your concern is. If your voice really was quivering at the beginning of the presentation, did everyone really notice? And if people noticed, so what?

If you really did forget one of your main points, will the world come to an end? Is there a way to solve the problem? Perhaps you can e-mail an additional handout to the organizer of your talk to make sure the audience receives the additional material.

Ask yourself, "What's the worst that could happen?" Ask yourself "Does this need to be fixed?" Try to be realistic, even though your mind wants to go to the worst case scenario.

Here again, suggestions on how to approach these negative thoughts once you become aware of them (from a Mother Jones article about cognitive therapy and thought traps):

1. Write it down. Writing automatically provides perspective and helps reveal distorted thinking.

2. Identify the distressing event. What's really bothering you?

3. Identify your negative emotions.

4. Identify the negative thoughts tied to your emotions.

5. Identify distortions and substitute the truth.

And my addition:

6. Take action. What will you do differently next time?

If you speak with an accent, read this! Guest post by Sue Hershkowitz-Coore

Last week a workshop participant came to me after my presentation to tell me that she was very embarrassed to speak publicly because of her heavy accent. (Even though she spoke 3 languages fluently, she was embarrassed because she spoke one of them with an accent!)

I told her to begin her next presentation like this:

Good morning. If you haven’t yet heard my accent, you soon will. That’s because I’m presenting in English today. If I were speaking in Italian, French or Russian, I could speak with almost a perfect accent. I’m still a bit rough with Mandarin, much like I am with English. I hope that you’ll honor me by asking me to repeat anything that I say that is too heavily accented to be easily understood. With that, the first point….

When I speak in the deep south, my New York accent can sometimes get in the way of the message. I’m likely to bring it up to my audiences by saying something like: Some of you may have detected a slight northern accent (and they all laugh!). Yes, I’m a Yankee. But I think it may be okay because my husband is from North Carolina - Thomasville - and he has said that I’m officially Southern, by marriage. One very proud group of Southerners actually gave me a standing ovation!

Powerful presenters remove obstacles between themselves and their listeners. They help their audiences and buyers feel comfortable so that they can hear. If you have an accent, help your buyers/listeners get past the obvious. You don’t want them sitting there not hearing because they are either trying to place the accent (hmm, I wonder if she is from Jersey or Long Island), or turning themselves off because they have to work too hard to understand, or their bigotry gets in the way.

Take the offense. Help others feel safe. Set yourself up for success.

Here are 5 more public speaking tips for non-native speakers.

What are your ideas to overcome speaking with an accent?

For more great posts like this one, visit Sue's blog, SpeakerSue Says...

Are you "sleep-presenting?"

From an AMBIEN ad in a magazine in my doctor's office:

"After taking AMBIEN, you may get up out of bed while not being fully awake and do an activity that you do not know you are doing. The next morning, you may not remember that you did anything during the night. Reported activities include:

Driving a car (sleep-driving)
Making and eating food
Talking on the phone
Having sex
Sleep-walking"

Makes you want to take this drug, huh?

However, you don't have to pop a pill to be a "sleep-presenter." Here are some signs you're sleep-walking through your presentation:

1. You drone on about your topic, paying no attention to the shifting, shuffling, yawning boredom of the audience.

2. You keep your eyes glued to the screen as you robotically advance your PowerPoint slides, reading each one verbatim.

3. You give a one-sided lecture, failing to involve the audience by asking questions or encouraging interaction.

4. You rhythmically rock back and forth behind the lectern, head down, reading from your notes.

5. You give the exact same talk to every group, regardless of their needs, interests or background.

What other examples of "sleep-presenting" have you seen?

Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges! Guest post by Lee Potts

When you’re the slide guy, once all the presentations have been thoroughly PowerPointed and the meeting has started, they need to find something for you to do so you’re not just hanging around enjoying yourself. At least that was the case at an earlier point in my career. These days I’m also the AV guy and I get to show the slides as well as make them. I’m also the roadie, but that’s a different story.

I’m not even sure what you would have called what they had me doing back then. Production assistant maybe? I was wearing headphones, hanging at the front of the room herding speakers. The technical director and the rest of the crew communicated with the speakers through me once the meeting started. I was also responsible for giving each of them a quick visual check before they took the stage.

Ostensibly, I was making sure they took off their name badges and turned on their lavalier microphones. The badges needed to come off because the stage lighting tended to reflect off the plastic holders and the flashing could be distracting for the audience. I was also told to discretely check for a couple other things — making sure everyone had their fly up, for instance (I kid you not).

Having someone to do this sort of stuff made things a lot easier for the speakers and let them focus on speaking, not on the necessary last-second minutiae. Unfortunately, not every event can provide this level of luxury. That means if you're a presenter, you usually need to fill that role yourself.

Develop and memorize a very brief pre-presentation checklist, something you can quickly rattle off to yourself while you’re waiting to be introduced that captures all those little things that can make presenting difficult if overlooked or forgotten: zipper zipped, badge removed, water bottle, laser pointer, speaking notes, glasses, etc. Remind yourself to smile and make eye contact. Ritualize it. Make it habit.

You may also want to consider a post-presentation checklist. Two quick suggestions to start the list off: remember to leave the remote control at the podium for the next speaker and put your badge back on.

For more helpful posts like this one, check out Lee's blog, Breaking Murphy's Law.

Blasts from the past

Here are some of my favorite fun posts from the past. Enjoy! I'll have a few more guest posts next week, but should be back to a semi-regular blogging schedule as well.

Best presentation ever?

What my morning looks like... (Cat lovers will appreciate this)

How NOT to give a technical presentation

Silly SNL skit

Making science engaging

Mental block

Jump. Because.

My new favorite presentation (Another favorite for cat lovers)

Optimism -- pass it on

P.S. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I've been sick for the past week or so, but you might not know that I'm also dealing with a sick kitty.

One of my cats has been diagnosed with intestinal lymphoma and has just started chemotherapy, after having gone through surgery just after Christmas to remove the largest mass. Feline lymphoma is said to be very treatable with chemo, but Baby is 15 years old, so it's hard to say how she'll handle it.

Just want you to know that this is another reason I might not be around as much while she's going through treatment. Family comes first, and our kitties are our family! I appreciate your positive energy and healing thoughts for Baby. :-)

Only 15 days left to take advantage of coaching special!

There are only 15 more days to take advantage of my public speaking coaching holiday special!

I like my holidays to stretch out a little; how about you? Book now, because even though there are 15 days left, my time is limited, and I want to be able to fit you in!

Three Tips for Professional Presentations: Guest post by James Feudo

Many people who can speak confidently in informal situations struggle when speaking in a professional setting. Although speaking in a more formal situation does come with its own set of challenges, the biggest one to overcome is the perception of how high the stakes are in the mind of the speaker. We’re all fine with losing our place during a wedding toast, but mispronouncing a word during a presentation at work can feel like the end of the world.

The good news is that there are a number of things you can do to make your presentation more successful. Here are three easy ways to improve your presentation at work:

Tip 1: If you have to ask, leave it out.

The biggest mistake you can make during a professional presentation is to say something considered inappropriate. Humor is usually the culprit (although stories and opinions can cause trouble as well) as many speakers try too hard to be funny or to get attention. Unfortunately, people try to be edgy because it gets attention. Edgy works for celebrities because many of them would sell their souls to get people talking about them – even if it’s something negative.

The single best piece of advice I can give you in this area is that if you have to ask whether or not something is appropriate to share with your audience, then you’re probably better off leaving it out.

Tip 2: Dress for success.

A common mistake I see in work presentations, especially if the company has a casual dress code, is that presenters don’t dress differently when giving a presentation. The rule of thumb for dressing for a speech is to always dress a notch above your audience - so although you may enjoy wearing shorts and a tee shirt to work every day, you should consider dressing business casual when giving a presentation. This shows your audience that you’re taking your talk seriously and they’re more apt to give you their undivided attention.

Tip 3: Practice, Practice, Practice.

It’s extremely important to practice your presentation beforehand. But how you practice is also important – just reading through your speech several times so you can memorize it isn’t enough. If you truly feel the stakes are high than you absolutely must do the following:

• Run your speech by someone who has knowledge in the area that you’ll be speaking about. They can often tell you the parts of your speech that are confusing or need more attention.


• Practice with a mock audience and have them ask questions.


• If possible, visit the room prior to your presentation so you can adjust your presentation to the room set up.


• If you’re using overheads or PowerPoint, bring printouts of your slides in the event of an equipment failure.


• Confirm all arrangements and reservations one to two days before the talk so that you have time to make alternate plans if necessary.


• If you’ll be using a microphone, practice with one so you’re used to it before you give your speech.

Check out James' blog here, and if you liked this article, subscribe to his e-zine.

Going on with the show: Guest post by Laura Bergells

Lisa B. is under the weather, so she asked if I'd like to guest post at her blog!

Sure will, Lisa! Get better soon. It stinks to be ill.

I had a short bout with an inner ear thing a few months ago. Unfortunately, I had a speaking engagement at the height of my nausea and vertigo.

What to do? Go on stage and risk passing out or rambling incoherently in front of the audience? Or cancel the engagement, and leave my hosts and audience in a last-minute lurch?

How do you make that call? To go on...or not to go on. When you're dizzy and sick, you might also be a little insane. You're not thinking that clearly. This is probably why I've never missed a show. Sick as a dog, I somehow rally. I find myself saying "I can do this! It's only an hour! I can pull it together!"

So far, I think I've been lucky...or delusional! I have horrible visions of one day telling myself, "I can do this!"... and later hurling up lunch on stage.

At the wonderful "Breaking Murphy's Law" blog, author Lee Potts wonders what the boundaries are for going on with the show if you're playing hurt. And who makes the call? The speaker? Or the team that hires the speaker?

I don't really have the answer. As a solo operation, Lee suggested that I could write down a personal sickness checklist of sorts.

The No Go List.

Fever of 101+? No go.
Can't maintain upright or standing position for more than 5 minutes? Uh-uh.
Bandages over both eyes? Stay home.
Unconscious? Well, there's a good excuse.

The "I Can Do It" List.

Last vomit chunk spewed 1 hour before show? Just nerves. You're fine.
Laryngitis? Project from the diaphragm. You'll sound a little raspy, but people will forgive it. Microphones help.
Fever of less than 101? You're a little warm. You'll rally.
Broken bones? That's what aspirin is for.

Hang Tough. For inspiration in the theme of "The Show Must Go On," I like to think of the heroic Kelsey Grammar. A few years ago, Mr. Grammar fell off the stage while hosting a show at Disneyland. Obviously quite hurt, the man picked himself up and went back on stage.

"I'll finish this," he said. "Then I'll take a look at what I've done to my body."

Good man.

But everyone's tolerance is slightly different, I'll admit. What works for me -- or Kelsey Grammar -- may not work for you!

What would YOU add (or subtract!) to your own Go/No Go list?

Laura Bergells, aka Maniactive

(If you like Laura's saucy style, check out her post, "Fear of public speaking is not real.")

PowerPoint Design in 2009 -- group blogging project

Olivia Mitchell has gathered blog posts and e-mails from 40 contributors on our wishes and fantasies for PowerPoint design in 2009.

But that's not all: she has gone on to analyze and synthesize the posts around some central themes: whether design matters, simplicity vs. detail, design and presentation issues agreed upon by most contributors, and predictions for 2009.

Olivia has pulled together a wealth of information to be delved into, and I can't wait to start reading everyone's opinions. Make sure to add your thoughts in the comments!

The experts are wrong. Public Speaking is all about YOU.

While I'm recovering from illness this week, I'm going to refer back to some of my own posts and posts I've enjoyed by other bloggers, and bring in a guest blogger or two...beginning with my pal Rich Hopkins, speaker, author, and presentations coach based in Spokane, WA.

He has twice appeared in the finals of the Toastmasters Championship of Public speaking, finishing 3rd in the world in 2006. You can find him at richhopkinsspeaks.com, or his blog, richspeaks.blogspot.com. Take it away, Rich!

The experts are wrong. Public speaking is all about YOU.

Despite what you may read elsewhere, the most important person at your next speaking engagement is not the CEO, the meeting planner, the audience or even that one person whose life you might change forever. It's YOU.

There's a saying in the sales world: The first sale is always to yourself. If you don't believe in your right to be speaking, your audience won't believe they need to listen. Even if they know what you are saying has merit, they are less likely to act upon it until they hear it again, paired with belief, in the future.

We run into examples of this everyday. The rookie reporter on his first major story. The arm-twisted church parishioner/association member/corporate manager put in front of their constituents for announcements. The wet-behind-the-ears salesperson who won't look you in the eye.

As a speaker, it is crucial that you buy into yourself, and your right to speak. If the audience senses an incongruity between your words and your belief, your disconnect is transferred to the listener.

Lack of self- confidence is a significant aspect of the 'Fear of Public Speaking'. "I'm nothing special. Why should they listen to me?" is dialog 99.99% of us have heard in our minds at one point or another, whether asking for a date, a raise in pay, or belief from our audience.

To bolster your self-confidence, you must make the first sale to yourself – over your own objections.

Without writing 500 pages of self-esteem psycho-babble, let me say that yes, you are special. No one in the room has lived your life, experienced your joys and sadnesses, you failures and your victories. No one in your audience has lived every second of their life exactly as you have lived yours. You are special in your individuality, and that lends credibility to your message.

As for why they should listen to you? This may sound simplistic, but it's because you're up there. You wouldn't be in front of them unless they or someone they trust/report to had some level of belief in you. You have leveraged permission to speak – take advantage of it.

Before you can make your audience the most important people in the room, you must believe in your right to speak to them. That you, your opinions, and your life and life experiences matter. Otherwise the only person in the room you'll really be speaking to is yourself – and even you won't be listening.

Develop your vocal resonance

I enjoyed this recent post by Gavin Meikle on where your voice comes from. He shares a simple exercise for developing your vocal resonance.

Try it out and see if you can control where your voice comes from!

Is PowerPoint the new black?

Inspired by Laura Bergells' recent PowerPoint propaganda post about changing fashions in PowerPoint, Olivia Mitchell pulled together a group of bloggers to participate in a group writing project about what we'd like to see in PowerPoint slide design this year. Check back at Olivia's blog next week (I'll remind you) for links to all the posts. Here it is!

I could go on and on about how to make PowerPoint presentations more effective, but I'll stick to my top three suggestions for how I'd like to see speakers using PowerPoint in 2009 (you'll notice that I've strayed from the topic of "design" a bit).

1. More images, less text

Laura Bergells states in her post that the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction in getting away from bullet and text-laden slides, and that now slide shows have become too simplistic (and propagandistic), with images and a few large words.

This may be the case in the professional speaking/PowerPoint design world, but in the real world, I have yet to see a speaker use an image-based PowerPoint in a presentation. My experience at conferences and meetings is the same as it's been for years and years: heavily bulleted slides featuring boring corporate templates, too many words, and cheesy clipart.

As I've said many times before: YOU are the presentation. Your slides enhance the presentation. Your slides play a secondary role to you as the speaker. You don't need bullet points to repeat what you're already saying -- and you don't want to interfere with the audience's retention of your message.

Get away from using bullets as the sole method of communicating your points.

Use slides that are clean, simple, and support your points with creative and relevant images.

Show data on your slides only if the charts or graphs are simple, clean, and data points large enough to be seen in the back of the room. Otherwise, put data into separate handouts.

2. Don't rely on PowerPoint to be your only visual

Just like no one person can meet all of your relationship needs, no one tool can meet all of your presentation needs.

I like to use flip charts with or without PowerPoint; flip charts used to sketch out an idea, get input from the audience or provide a group activity keep a presentation lively. There's movement, there's interaction, there's problem solving, and the activity is spontaneous, created on the spot.

Other visuals might include props, toys, posters, videos or costumes, depending on the venue and the audience.

3. Step away from the laptop

As I mentioned in this post last year, a wireless presentation remote will free you up from standing stiffly beside the computer, pressing keys to advance your slides.

Standing behind the computer has a similar effect on your presentation as standing behind a lectern. Looking down at the keyboard every couple of minutes inhibits eye contact with the audience, and you're less likely to move around the stage if you have to come back for that key. So you stay put, static, lifeless.

Audiences are already used to staring passively at PowerPoint slides the same way they stare at their computer screen or television. Your physical presence, movement, voice, eye contact and energy are critical to keeping the audience's attention -- whether or not you use PowerPoint.

Don't forget to check back with Olivia's blog for a complete roundup of the bloggers sharing their opinions on PowerPoint fashion in 2009.

Black dress photo by Lukasz Dunikowski.

Does public speaking anxiety lessen as we age?

I had an interesting conversation with my doctor the other day about public speaking. Because one of the concerns of speakers is that they'll be judged by the audience members, she wondered if older people are less afraid of public speaking than younger people, due to the fact that older people "have gotten over themselves," in her words.

What she's saying is that, the older we get, the less we care about what people think of us. The less we care about making a mistake or looking foolish. And if this is the case, how does this affect our feelings about public speaking?

I thought this was a fascinating question and decided to put it out to my readers.

Have you experienced less stress about public speaking as you've gotten older?

Do you find that you are less concerned with people's opinions of you and therefore more comfortable with speaking?

Of course, there are other reasons people are uncomfortable with speaking, and age may or may not play a role. I'd love to hear your opinions and experiences. Please share in the comments!

Best and worst communicators of 2008

It's time again for Bert Decker's annual top ten lists of best and worst communicators. Barack Obama is at the top of the list of best communicators, while George Bush tops the list of the worst.

The comments are as fascinating as the post itself, as readers make their cases for and against Bert's choices. Fellow speaker Andrew Dlugan has posted his disagreements on his Six Minutes blog.

I applaud Bert's effort to narrow down his lists to only ten best and worst (some show up on both lists), when there are so many speakers and communicators to choose from, well known or obscure.

Read the post, watch the videos and see what you think.

This presentation says it all

Do not miss the Q&A!



Here's Doug Zongker's research paper on which the presentation was based.