How to Fit A 40 Minute Presentation Into 10 Minutes

One of the best courses I had in college was an English class on the 18th Century Novel. My professor assigned one book per week and would ask one question per book for which we were allowed to answer on only one typewritten, double-spaced page. The problem was that the question asked could be answered more easily in 20 pages than in one. That was the beauty of the course. I learned to write succinctly.

The same techniques used for writing succinctly can be applied to speaking succinctly as well.

While most novice speakers would probably prefer a 10-minute presentation to one lasting 40 or 50 minutes, many speakers find the 10-minute presentation harder to make than a longer version. Some people really love to talk.

The answer to cutting down your lengthy presentation is to ask yourself this one question: what must I say to get my point across? By means of an outline, list what you need to cover. Once you have those bullet points, build on them with care.

The percentage of what your audience actually remembers is minimal; thus, say less, stress what is important, limit your anecdotes, and then say what is important again. Ten minutes is short. Allow one minute for your opening, one minute for your closing, and take those eight developmental minutes and get to your point concisely.

[While I certainly advise you to limit your anecdotes, I don't want you to eliminate them completely. A couple of well-chosen anecdotes can often sell a product better than numbers or data.]

If you are making a sales presentation on a new brand of coffee, for instance, that has only recently come on the market, the 10-minute presentation is not the time to talk about the history of java. If, on the other hand, you are describing the phenomenal success your coffee has had in a very limited time frame, then the history of your brand might be extremely influential in your ability to close the deal. In a situation like this, I would even consider opening the presentation with that data since it is such a wow factor.

Another piece of advice in making the 10-minute presentation is to stick to your script. This is the one time you don't want to get side-tracked. Once off your target, you will lose precious time, so avoid adding that extra thought that comes to mind as you are speaking.

The Voice Lady Nancy Daniels is a voice specialist and president of Voice Dynamic. Offering corporate and 2-day workshops throughout the US and Canada, Daniels launched Voicing It! in April of 2006, the only video training course on voice improvement. For more information go to: http://www.voicedynamic.com

Emphasizing The Importance In Your Presentation

When you have something important to say

How to emphasize the key points of your presentation so your audience hears, digests and remembers it.

When you are delivering a presentation to your management, a proposal to the committee or changes to your staff they are not hanging on your every word. When you get to the key points - you want them to listen, believe and remember. Use the following techniques to give the key words of your presentation more impact.

1. Announce, "This is important." Then deliver the important line. Teachers grab attention by saying, "This will be on the exam." You could state, "This is a million dollar tip."

2. Pause, just before, and after, you say the important stuff. This is similar to placing quotation marks around the important line. Notice the effect of the pause at the awards night when they say, "May I have the envelope please?"

3. Lower the tone of your voice to increase the believability. Practice this, "And in conclusion," (lower your voice) "I am the best one for the job." Just for fun, when you are alone, try it in a higher pitched voice and notice the difference. Think James Earl Jones.

4. Make them laugh just before, then get serious and deliver the important message. This is a good attention getter and very helpful when you want to change directions. When we laugh we open our minds and are more willing to accept new information.

5. Move just before you speak - then stand still while delivering the important message. This is especially effective if you pace or move a lot when you speak. Stand still when you say the important part. We can't listen if we are watching you move.

6. Look your audience in the eye - never read the important message. If you have to read it - then it looks like you don't really know it or believe it. Know your message, rehearse it and deliver it directly to your audience.

7. Smile. We believe more those who smile at us. We also prefer to listen to speakers who smile at us. We listen with our eyes and our ears. Be friendly to the eyes and the ears of your audience. If we don't like what we see - we won't listen.

8. Tell a story of how this lesson was learned or applied. The earliest lessons were stories told by our cave-dwelling ancestors. The story lessons were remembered. If only the teachers and professors of today remembered the wisdom of our ancestors. We love stories. We hate lectures. Just ask your kids.

9. Repeat the main message three times during your presentation. If you want it remembered - repeat it and repeat it again. The first time we weren't listening. The second time we caught part of it and the third time we might hear it and remember it.

10. Reinforce the key message with images. We retain images better than words. Attach your message to word pictures, visuals and body language.

Your words will not be effective unless you skillfully package them. Do that and your presentation will be more successful. And you will close more deals.

© GA George Torok is the Speech Coach for Executives Get your free Power Presentation Tips by visiting http://www.speechcoachforexecutives.com He coaches executives to deliver million dollar presentations. He has delivered over 1,000 professional presentations. He trains managers, technical experts and business professionals to deliver powerful presentations. Arrange for your keynote speech or training program at http://www.torok.com

Public Speaking - The Pause Is Important

Sometimes it appears that there is just too much to think about, to be aware of, and to focus upon in public speaking. While that may seem true at first, if you allow yourself to pause during your delivery, you will discover one of the most important aids when delivering a speech or presentation.

Talking non-stop is ineffective for both you and your listeners. To be bombarded by constant verbiage is tiring. They need breaks and so do you. If you allow yourself to pause, you will find yourself much more relaxed and better able to focus on your thoughts. That 2-second break, albeit brief, enables you to supplement your air supply and to categorize your thoughts. It allows your audience to categorize what they are hearing as well.

One of the problems for many novice speakers is lack of air. The pause solves that problem. By supplementing your balloon of air while speaking, you will discover a continual supply of oxygen. If, on the other hand, you wait until you are totally spent, you will then be forced in inhale a huge amount of air which will actually produce more tension in your body. This results in a 'cat and mouse' situation in which you are constantly trying to fill your balloon or catch up on your air supply.

If you would allow yourself to pause while speaking - even to the point of interrupting your sentence - you will discover control over your pacing and your thoughts. By the way, you do this in normal conversation all the time. For some at the lectern, however, the idea of actually interrupting a sentence is forbidden. Why?

If you breathe while talking to your family, friends or colleagues, why can't you breathe while public speaking? Because you have an audience? What do you think your family, friends or colleagues are when you are talking in conversation? They are your audience as well.

Do not believe you cannot breathe while delivering a speech or presentation. The best in the business do it and so can you. Allow yourself to pause and supplement your air supply before you run out it, and I guarantee you will feel more confident and have better control over your delivery. In addition, your audience will be most appreciative because they will be able to focus better on what you are saying.

The Voice Lady Nancy Daniels offers private, corporate and group workshops in voice and presentation skills as well as Voicing It!, the only video training program on voice improvement. To see how voice training can improve your life, both professionally and personally, visit Voice Dynamic and watch a brief video as The Voice Lady describes Dynamic Public Speaking.

Cure Your Stage Fright And Public Speaking Fear Now

There are many effective techniques to conquer stage fright and fear of public speaking -here's a technique that works quite well, and has an additional hidden benefit:

If you've already tried traditional methods to get rid of stage fright and it hasn't worked, it's time to try more serious public speaking training techniques.

Stage fright is caused by how you hold representations in your mind - a fancy way of saying that whether you know it or not, you're running scary movies in your mind that create fear.

Using this public speaking training technique you can conquer stage fright quickly and easily.

One of the most effective public speaking training techniques you can use to get rid of stage fright is what I call "The Hero Process", here are the steps:

1. Identify Your Hero:

Who can you think of that would never have stage fright, not in a million years? Who can you think of that could confidently speak to any size audience? This person may be living or not, real or imaginary, someone you know personally or not. Important: pick a Hero that would not have stage fright, ever.

2. Observe Your Hero:

It doesn't matter if you observe your Hero in your mind, on a video, or in person. What you're looking for here is the outward demonstration of a total lack of stage fright - in other words, how does their face, their voice and their body look when they're calm and confidently speaking to an audience? Make detailed notes about their face voice and body.

3. Become Your Hero:

Emulate and act like your Hero - stand the way s/he would stand. Make your face like their face. Speak the way they would speak. Feel all the feeling of calm confidence they would feel. Try practicing parts of your speech being just like your Hero.

4. Rinse Then Repeat:

Go back to being yourself for a minute or so, then practice being your Hero again.

3 tips that make this method work best:

1. Don't "impersonate" your Hero, just emulate the qualities they have that make them free from stage fright.

2. Use 2 spots on the floor that are six-feet apart; on one spot, you are you. On the other spot, you transform into your Hero.

3. Try different Heroes: if one doesn't seem to make a difference in how you feel, try another and another until you can speak free from stage fright.

Summary & Bonus Tips:

This is not "fake it until you make it" because the Hero Process literally rewires neural connections in your brain to short circuit stage fright and build new neural connections for calm confidence about public speaking. Remember - you are emulating, not imitating. Use this 2 ways: to practice speaking without stage fright, and to stop an on-stage panic attack by becoming your Hero and instantly calm down.

Bonus tips: by emulating your hero, you can also become a much better and more effective speaker more quickly. Feel free to emulate several different heroes, or even take the best qualities of various heroes who are great speakers and build a "super-hero" to emulate.

For more pubic speaking training articles visit http://www.bestpublicspeakingtraining.com

David Portney is the author of "129 Seminar Speaking Success Tips" and the founder of the Academy of Public Speaking http://www.bestpublicspeakingtraining.com

How To Find Top Paying Public Speaking Jobs

Public speaking jobs are one kind of the top paying careers as it is outlined in the famous book"top 1000 paying jobs".the pay could go anywhere between 1000 $ to 50.000 $ or more depending on the duration as well as the amount of work put into the process of the preparation of a given speaking event.It depends also on the importance of the content of the presentation itself. Because I know the reason why you are here,I'm writing this article to help you to get yourself into the right track in your mission of finding lucrative public speaking jobs.The first thing to consider is to identify the field or the niche you are into and then look at related organizations,companies,associations…etc.Do your homework by contacting each one of the organizations that you found and see if they are looking for public speakers.Here's a little secret of mine:Start with volunteer works with small businesses,non profit organization,universities and even libraries.The point here is to get noticed,Proclaim your expertise as a brilliant public speaker.Believe me,you will get an unbelievable exposure.Just start small and with determination and good faith,you will get the job of your dreams. Another place to look for public speaking jobs is the internet,as you may notice,the internet now is playing an integral part in finding and location jobs online,so a quick search is sufficient to find great jobs opportunities.Try typing something like"speaker wanted+your niche" or something similar.You should find what you want.for example,contact information of organizations,conferences…etc. Last and not least,and actually the most important places to go are directories.There are basically three main directories that will incredibly facilitate your research:The directory of association meeting planners,the directory of corporate meeting planners and the national trade and professional association directory. These are the quickest and the most cost effective ways to locate great public speaking jobs.So far,I hope that you found something that interested you in this little article.Good luck and thank you for taking time to read this piece of information.

SIMON GARMAH is an executive Communications Consultant and Coach. He is president of Lifestyles Communications, Inc. His public speaking jobs blog.So take the first step toward conquering your public speaking jobs.

Most People Don't Remember To Do This In Public Speaking

It is the first thing we do at birth; it will be the last thing we do at death. It is the most important thing we do every day of our lives.

Dogs do it; cats do it; cows do it; and, horses do it. In fact all other mammals do it and they do it properly; it is only man (and that is 99% of us) who is doing it wrong.

On the podium, we not only do it wrong but many of us are not doing it at all!

It is called breathing. And right now you are saying of course I am breathing. Yes and no. Ask yourself the following questions.

1. Do you know what supported breathing is? 2. In public speaking do you experience breathlessness? 3. Are your shoulder and neck regions sore by the end of the day? 4. Can you control your nervousness in public speaking? 5. Is your stress often overwhelming?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, chances are you are a lazy or shallow breather; and, since 99% of the population is unaware of the techniques for supported breathing, it is quite possible that you are part of the majority.

Breathing with the support of your diaphragm, a muscular partition separating your chest from your abdomen, is the answer to the 5 questions above. [While we were born breathing with the support of the diaphragm, as we develop we revert to using only the upper portion of the chest, known as shallow or lazy breathing. It is a medical fact.]

Those who breathe with support are able to eliminate breathlessness at the lectern, end daily neck and shoulder tension, control their nervousness in public speaking and alleviate much of the stress in their lives because diaphragmatic breathing rids the body of toxins that shallow or lazy breathing cannot. In fact, shallow breathing actually increases stress because of the inability of the body to rid itself of toxins.

Incidentally, those who experience true panic attacks are taught first and foremost to take a deep, supported breath.

Learning the simple techniques of diaphragmatic breathing can change your life, both professionally and personally. An added bonus is that they say you can 4-1/2 years to your life, again because you are cleansing your body with each and every breath.

It was the first thing you did in life; it will be last thing you do in life. Why not make it one of the best things you do in life?

The Voice Lady Nancy Daniels is a voice specialist and president of Voice Dynamic. Offering corporate and 2-day workshops throughout the US and Canada, Daniels launched Voicing It! in April of 2006, the only video training course on voice improvement. For more information go to: http://www.voicedynamic.com

Public Speaking - Looking For The Smilers In The Audience

Recently I gave a presentation at a Summit Conference in New York City and was confronted with a very tame audience. I was blessed, however, to have two women in the large ballroom who smiled throughout, nodding their heads in agreement with everything I said. The second blessing was that these two women were sitting on opposite sides of the room; thus, in acknowledging my two 'smilers',I had to scan the room from one side to the other.

In teaching presentation skills, I advocate zeroing in your smilers because they bolster your confidence. Some people smile because they agree with you and some people smile just because they smile. Some people listen with their eyes closed; some people indeed are sleepers.

In a room filled with over 100 attendees, however, I was surprised that I had only two smilers. Without a doubt, this particular group was one of the hardest audiences I have ever faced. In fact, throughout my 40-minute presentation, I questioned their lack of enthusiasm.

Admittedly, the microphone I was handed left much to be desired because it unfortunately was not of the same quality as the stationary mic on the lectern. [And that definitely was my fault for not getting a sound check before speaking. I assumed that because the gentleman speaking prior to me was getting great sound with the stationary mic, so too would I with a hand-held version. Very bad assumption; however, great fodder for the book and audio series I am presently working on for public speaking!]

One attendee, sitting smack dab in the middle of the room and not 10 feet from me, kept nodding off. Of course every audience has a sleeper; and, because the rest of the room was awake, I was not concerned. Interestingly though, while watching the 'before' and 'after' video clips of my clients, the gentleman whose eyes were half closed, reacted with such sudden force upon seeing Craig, that it took everything in my power not to laugh out loud. (Craig is undoubtedly the best change in a male voice that I have ever encountered.) With his eyes bulging, this sleeper reminded me of a cartoon character who suddenly becomes bug-eyed upon viewing a beautiful woman.

While the time I spent talking about voice and telephone techniques certainly had its challenges, the applause from the audience upon closing was thunderous. Indeed that was unexpected. Aside from the two smiling women, here was a crowd who showed little expression in what I was saying by their most reserved and noncommittal reaction to me. What usually gets a laugh did not. What always gets verbal response did not. And yet they enjoyed my presentation.

What did I learn from this particular audience? That once again, you can never prejudge how you will be received. During your speech or presentation, the reaction of your audience may not be what you expected. It may be better or it could be worse.

My advice is to ignore your sleepers; zero in your smilers; and talk to your audience just as if you were having a conversation in your living room.

The Voice Lady Nancy Daniels is a voice specialist and president of Voice Dynamic. Offering corporate and 2-day workshops throughout the US and Canada, Daniels launched Voicing It! in April of 2006, the only video training course on voice improvement. For more information go to: http://www.voicedynamic.com