The Premier Blog For Quickly Improving Your Public Speaking, Presentation & Communication Skills
drjim When somebody asks you to give a speech do you start thinking about the PowerPoint (or Keynote for you Mac users) slides that you’ll have to create? Do you ask the person how long the speech needs to be just in order to determine how many slides that you’ll need to make? Stop! Maybe it’s … Read more
So how hip and cool are you? If you are both hip and cool, then I don’t even have to tell you what “Pecha Kucha” is because you already know. If, however, you are like the rest of us, then you might be scratching your head right about now and saying something like “I’ve never … Read more
You’ve just had the best idea that you’ve ever had for a great speech. You can see it in your mind’s eye so very, very clearly. Now if only you could write a speech that would allow you to get this idea across to your audience as clearly as you see it. Hmm, perhaps there … Read more
We’d all like to be seen as being great speakers. We imagine ourselves as the next Tony Robbins, standing in the middle of a huge stage with a large audience hanging on our every word. I fully support your dream, but perhaps we need to have a talk about how you are going to go … Read more
On the day of the 2012 Republican National party’s caucus in the state of Iowa, Dr. Jim Anderson will be participating in a discussion of political speeches, past and present. Here’s how the Iowa NPR radio station describes the discussion: Do inspirational words of the past fit into the politics of today? We attempt … Read more
As speakers we are always being urged to “connect with our audience”. Now this sounds all fine and good; however, as with everything else in life the devil is in the details. Just how is a speaker supposed to connect with a room full of people who are staring at him or her? It turns … Read more
When it’s really important that a speech that you’re giving make an impact on your audience, then it’s going to be really important that you do a good job of writing the speech. Hmm, so I’m sure that you can write a speech, but do you know how to write a great speech? It turns … Read more
A quick question for you: are you afraid to fail? Would you be willing to get up and give a speech if you knew that it was going to turn out badly? Even though we all know the importance of public speaking, I’m willing to bet that a lot of us would say “no” – … Read more
After you’ve given a few speeches, it’s entirely possible that you’ll find yourself falling into a rut. You know the routine: write a speech, give a speech, write a speech, give a speech. Sure you are speaking, but are you really connecting with your audience? You can tinker with incorporating different presentation tips, but that’s … Read more
Babe Ruth was great at baseball. Michael Jordan was fantastic at basketball. Joe Namath was a master of the game of U.S. football. As public speakers we’d like to be known as being the best at what we do. All of these sports stars had talents that made them better than everyone else. Guess what … Read more