Tip #1: Make Them Glad They Came!

Do you have time to spend attending unproductive meetings? Neither do the people with whom you work. Make them 1) thankful they attended, and, 2) willing to attend future meetings, by having an actual opening and closing to your presentation and peppering your talk with little examples. The simplest and most impactful way to do this is to tell a short story. And don’t say, “I’m going to tell you a short story that demonstrates why this topic is important.” Just launch into the story! An example might be: “4:00am Tuesday morning, plant employees walked into our Michigan facility and clocked in for their shift. What happened four minutes later shocked us all and created a public relations nightmare from which our organization is still recovering…”

Tip #2: Don’t Talk To Your Slides!

The verdict is in – slides are nice, but they are not the presentation – you are. The goal is to be perceived as though you are a leader, having a powerful conversation with your audience, as if the group were really a single individual. Turning your back to your audience only creates distance between you and them instead of the connection you both need to make and participate in an effective presentation. Don’t insult your audience’s intelligence by reading to them. Instead, provide a handout when you are going to talk about something specific like a chart or graph, or refer to the specific web page if your presentation is online.

Tip #3: Get Over Yourself!

Most people feel nervous because they worry about evaluation. Their motives are more about what people think about them than helping the individuals whose time they are taking. Being successful in front of a group is all about having your purpose and your motives lined up correctly. If your information is helpful to them or the organization, make sure they know about the connection. Fear is often a reflection of not enough speaking experience, misplaced negative evaluation thoughts, or the wrong motives in delivering the talk. Deal with the root of that nervousness to be effective as a public speaker. Currently, only a very few presentations are considered, “Excellent” or “Memorable,” so with a little training, coaching and enthusiasm, you can go a long way in making yourself stand out amongst the other presentations your audience will endure in their careers.

Bottom Line: Think about your audience first and get training if you need it! The best communicators often have the most influence, so keep improving your public speaking skills. Nick Ruotolo is a trainer with Greater Impact Ministries, Inc. He is filled with enthusiasm about helping younger workers avoid common mistakes while encouraging those in the middle or at the end of their careers discover a new enthusiasm, passion for excellence and purpose in their lives. Nick finds the growth that occurs in others through THE GREATER IMPACT COURSETM invigorating and inspiring and revels in helping others to achieve greater success.

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Some of the world’s greatest business minds can ooze confidence and excel as practitioners of business, yet can become shivering wrecks whilst standing behind a lectern facing an unassuming and docile audience.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear from the outset ~ quality business speakers are not born with a natural ability to captivate and inform an audience. They have learnt the essential skills required for a polished public speaking performance and then practise and perfect their art.

What follows are the basics of giving a public presentation as a business speaker, together with some simple suggestions on how to acquire a noticeable air of confidence whilst presenting in public.

Firstly, as a business speaker you need not only to establish the title of your talk but also the objective of the presentation. e.g. the title may be ‘The Alpha Widget’ and the objective could be ‘To familiarise delegates with the benefits of using the Alpha Widget’.

You can establish the objective as a business speaker by simply asking ‘by the end of my presentation what would you like delegates to do or what would you prefer them to be thinking?’

Establish early how many minutes your business speaker masterpiece is expected to last.

In preparation for the task ahead clear your desk of all clutter and you are already on the road to becoming a polished business speaker admired by many.

Write the title of your talk and speech objective as a business speaker onto separate Post-its (or scrap papers), and then place them in the centre of your now cleared desk.

Carry out a brainstorming session by writing anything that comes to mind that is connected to your title or business speaker objectives onto additional Post-its and place them around your title and defined objective.

Once you have covered your desk you will then need to cull. Get rid of anything that is not central to the objectives of your presentation as a business speaker.

Take into account the amount of time that that the event organisers have set aside for your speech, and the time allocated to you, the business speaker, at the end of your talk to take questions from the audience etc.

Consider each Post-it as no more then two to three minutes in time and this will help you improve your time management skills as a business speaker.

Establish order in your business speaker presentation by separating the Post-its and creating a beginning, middle and end in your speech. The beginning might be related to what existed prior to the production of the Alpha Widget, the middle a reference to the main advantages of the new product, and the end perhaps some reference to the future benefits the delegates will achieve when they use the fantastic Alpha Widget.

Now add a Post-it or two to the very beginning of your speech introducing yourself – the business speaker to the audience, together with a brief overview of the content of your talk. (Known as the gestalt).

Add one or two Post-its thoughts at the end of your talk to act as a finale. The conclusion provided by a business speaker usually consists of little more than a brief summary of the presentation and an equally short ‘thank you for listening’ comment or an ‘any questions in the time remaining?’ type statement.

Look again at your timings as a business speaker. If you anticipate one particular Post-it needs to be allocated more than a few minutes this may mean some other Post-it(s) will need to be cut.

When you are totally satisfied and confident about the content and likely duration of your presentation produce an aide-mémoire.

The best business speakers don’t normally use notes but it is perfectly acceptable for a less experienced business speakers to use one or two index cards showing a few words, usually written in very large letter with varying colours, to act as a prompt and assist in the quick retrieval of information, if required.

Even the top, experienced business speakers rehearse, rehearse and rehearse again. Check your talk timings carefully, and know your material well.

On the day of the event, a good business speaker will arrive at the venue very early to check everything is set up and ready. If you are using slides with PowerPoint make sure they are loaded onto a computer and you understand the workings of other people’s remote devices that are used to forward and reverse a slide during the speeches.

To be effective as a business speaker don’t use more than ten words per slide. Audiences quickly get bored with too many words and always prefer meaningful pictures and illustrations to emphasis a point.

Direct your business speaker presentation to the whole audience and yet try to make each and every delegate feel as if you are addressing them as individuals. The best way to do this is by randomly looking at different sections of an audience and establishing the briefest of eye contacts with as many delegates as possible.

Build rapport as a business speaker by sharing humorous observations and create audience participation by asking the odd open question e.g. ‘Anyone been in a situation where they wished they had something like an Alpha Widget to help them out of a tricky situation?’

Talk as if people in the audience are your best friend of many years standing and they will quickly warm to you and make your job as the impressive business speaker that much easier.

Whatever you do as a business speaker don’t read, especially from your slides. Remember notes are an aide-mémoire; nothing more, and the top, very best business speakers don’t use them at all.

Don’t detract from your performance as a business speaker by trying too hard. If you have purposefully prepared, know your material, and rehearsed as I advised, you will appear that much more confidant to a grateful audience who has a thirst for knowledge.

Stop hiding behind a lectern. Stand near the front of the stage, with your legs slightly apart, displaying open arm gestures, and you will appear honest and genuine as a business speaker. (Check out short videos of quality business speakers on the Internet to better understand why I recommended this style of deportment).

If you intend to move away from the lectern make sure you are fitted with a radio mike and the lighting engineers are expecting you to move.

Vary the tone and speed of your delivery as a business speaker, and carefully watch the energy levels of your audiences, injecting humour, witty observations and the like to regain full audience attention if required.

Whatever you do, don’t get too carried away when the audience look as if they are really enjoying your skills and expert knowledge as a business speaker. When you get to the end of your allotted time say something along the lines of ‘in conclusion’ or ‘finally’ and know that, at best, you have no more than two minutes to stop and humbly accept the applause.

So in conclusion, from one business speaker to another, I wish you every success with your presentation. Business speaker John Bell has been educating and entertaining audiences for over 26 years.

You can learn more about business speaker John Bell and watch videos of him performing at his website www.johnbellspeaker.com

By visiting his site www.johnbellspeaker.com you will also have the opportunity to read some of the many testimonials he has received from delighted meeting organisers together with a ‘no obligation’ option to temporarily hold his services for your meeting.

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The above reason brings us to what this little article is written for? Simply put, to help get the most out of your presentation using visual aids as the experts in this game do. So the followings are some tips that if put into practice can produce the desired outcomes.

-Create visuals that help them understand better what you utter. What you say should align what is in the graphics.

-Make sure that each visual communicates only one idea. Do not puzzle them with too much ideas conveyed within one graphic.

-Choose the best visuals that suit your audience, objectives and environment. Too many complications won’t serve your expectations.

-Bear in mind that the most important element in the presentation is YOU. Do not let the graphics to take the focus away foam you. They may be the most important tools, but what you say must be more important than your tools.

-And finally, make sure that your visuals are working before you enter the presentation room.Otherwise; you know what going to happen.

In summary, The are just aids. no more, no less.undoubtedly,good visuals are able to determine the final results of your presentation.So,use them smartly. And remember, visuals are to add, not to block, communication. SIMON GARMAH is an executive Communications Consultant and Coach. He is president of Lifestyles Communications, Inc. which helps individuals communicate in the new global and virtual world. His fear public speaking blog.So take the first step toward conquering your fear of public speaking

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1. Know your audience. This is the single best piece of advice for delivering a presentation that really hits home. What are their interests? Their backgrounds? Why are they coming to hear you speak or present? What ideas do you have to share with them? Approaching your speech as more of a “me-to-you” discussion rather than a full-blown broadcast will make it more manageable (and less stressful) and easier on you.

2. What do you want your audience to do as a result of your speech? What’s really at the heart of your presentation? By concentrating on the end result rather than slogging through the beginning, you can create a powerful punch that drives home your message instead of rambling on and losing your audience’s interest (or missing the point entirely!)

3. Share a story. In public speaking circles, this is called a “hook” �” something that gets your audience’s attention and makes them sit up and listen. Start off by asking questions or sharing an experience you had. People like to be active, rather than passive listeners. By giving them something that they can identify with, you’ll find that these people are, in essence �” just like you! And that makes giving a presentation a whole lot easier. Just be sure your story has a beginning, a point, and an ending. There’s nothing quite as bad as telling a story to an engaged audience and then forgetting why you told it!

4. If you’re selling a product, focus on the benefits instead of the features. People would much rather hear WHAT a product can do for them than HOW it does it. Narrow down your product’s features until you get to the core of how it solves a problem. If you need help with figuring out the difference between a feature and a benefit, ask yourself “So What?” For example, if you’re selling a vacuum cleaner that has a hypoallergenic filter, put yourself in the customer’s shoes and ask yourself “so what?” The answer would be something like, “It picks up dust, mold and pet dander”. Again, so what? Answer, You’ll feel relief from runny nose and sneezing plus itchy, water eyes. Now THATs a benefit!

5. Don’t lean too heavily on media to make your message clear. PowerPoint presentations are great for making specific points, but they can be overwhelming �” or downright boring. Instead, give your audience something to DO by providing them with fill-in-the-blank flip charts or “team activities”. These help reinforce and emphasize your message in ways that a computer presentation simply cannot.

6. Above all, make sure your speech ends in a way that reiterates the beginning. Too often, speakers get carried away with the details and leave their audiences asking, “What was the point of all that?” People naturally digest information in “chunks”, so focus on the big picture rather than all the pieces. If the details are just as important, save it for an after-speech handout that the audience can take with them and read over at their leisure.

If you keep these six tips in mind, you’ll not only have an easier time overcoming your fear of public speaking, but you’ll have a very appreciative audience who will in turn be more receptive and eager to try your product or service. Go get ‘em! All Managers Are Customers Too Whatever business you are in, you will find that there is one key cause of your success.

How your customers experience your business and service.

Many departments and companies have processes in place for assessing their services to their customers. However very often the measures in place don’t reflect what the customer perceives to be important. They don’t reflect the true benefit and often processes which suit the business, are not customer-friendly, however much they suit the internal needs. What has the customer experienced? In addition, the key for an excellent customer experience is in the relationship between person/department/company and their customer. I had a new washing machine delivered recently. It arrived the day and time slot the company stated. Great! If the company measures ‘did they deliver when they stated they would’ they would have a 100% service. The managers will be proud of themselves!! However, what they didn’t measure was my satisfaction. The delivery driver was the most miserable person I had met in ages. He obviously wasn’t passionate about his job. He left muddy footprints on my carpet. So was I happy? No! They may have delivered on the right day/time but my overall experience was poor. Will I be using the same company again? I doubt it. Do the managers of the company know? No! They think they are providing a fantastic service because they are only measuring their processes, which suit them internally. One of the keys to creating an excellent customer relationship is the interface between the customer and their point of contact within the company. One way to avoid this issue is to ask your employees what gets in the way of making the very best of relationships with their customers. What do they need more of (as well as less of) to deliver exemplary customer service?

Another valuable way to approach this is to ask your people what they find works well for them when they themselves are customers, as we all are, elsewhere. What was good about it and what did they think could have been done better. Also, ask the customer! What was the experience like for them? You could ask them to complete a questionnaire. However, a great way would be to ring them a few days later. Finally, experiencing the customer journey through their experience is probably one of the most value-creating actions that can be taken.

For employees to watch, listen and even act out the experience of one of the customers they would normally be serving, is a very enlightening role they can play.

This can be achieved by taking them out of their usual working role, for a while, and getting them to watch or listen to what happens when their customer starts the interaction. They then really share the experience and start to notice how things could be different.

If that can then be brought into a discussion forum where several share their experiences and propose changes, there are the ingredients for continuing progress and change.

Most employees want to do a great job. They want their customers to leave satisfied, thrilled even, wanting to do business again in the future.

Enabling your people to spend time getting all the pieces in place for their customer, really understanding how to meet their needs fully and even exceptionally is a way to get them motivated and excited to be part of your team. It builds team spirit and morale.

Using the capabilities of your own people, to give better service through sharing their thoughts and ideas, is a valuable exercise – and one, which creates untold value in your business for the future. It is easy to establish such a way of working. Be the person to instigate such an activity. Make sure you implement some of the ideas suggested. Track the benefits as a result. You will be seen as the manager who ‘makes things happen’.

Andrew Rondeau transformed himself from a $4 an-hour petrol-pump attendant to a highly successful Senior Manager earning $500k every year. Discover How to Maximize Your Income and Minimize Your Effort by receiving Andrew’s free e-Course and report: http://www.greatmanagement.org/

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If we have to become a successful inspirational speaker on professional development, then we must see to that we have some information that has value, the information we convey must motivate others so that other’s benefit from your message. No one is a born a inspirational speaker, it is only some who are lucky to be gifted with this quality can become. Your speech must encourage and revitalize every individual to reach out to success and not holdback anyone from reaching their goal.

Having a special niche to become an inspirational speaker is the next step to ensure success towards becoming successful inspiration speaker. Every one of us are interested towards something that is more exciting to us. Your interest becomes a passion and this passion may be generally by different activities that we do like books that we read, people we meet, conferences or seminars that we attend. There are varieties of topics one can begin with to increase their public speaking but choosing a special niche is important. It is sure that one can become a successful inspirational speaker and reach crossroads in life if he puts all his efforts in the initial stage.

Another way of becoming a successful inspiration speaker on professional development is to make sure that you prepare yourself as preparation is very much necessary especially if you want to make your speech a motivating and inspire others. Don’t forget that Preparation is the key to success to become a inspirational speaker. This will not only build your confidence but also establish you as a successful speaker. Turn your speech into a motivational message by creating an outline of all your ideas.

If you want to be an inspirational speaker on professional development, there are many things that should be kept in mind. The items mentioned in this article are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to your own professional development.

Remember no one who is a successful inspirational speaker was born that way; it’s your turn to become a successful inspirational speaker now just visit the website http://www.newonlinelife.net and become a successful inspirational speaker now!

Dr. Richard Baiz has nearly 34 years experience as educational administrator, governmental lobbyist, official entrepreneur and corporate consultant. He loves to share his comprehensive plan to become a successful inspirational speaker. Do you want to become an Inspirational speaker the visit the website http://www.newonlinelife.net now!

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Tip No. 6: Delivering visuals

So now you have a nice, clearly designed visual. How do you mechanically deal with that visual? What do you do physically to present it to the audience? Should you look at the visual? Should you talk to the screen? Should you not talk to the screen?

We suggest that you keep the following things in mind when it comes to delivery with visuals: As soon as your visual is presented on the screen, whether it be from a laptop, or from a slide projector, or even from an overhead projector, your audience will immediately focus one hundred per cent of their attention on the screen.

So you effectively disappear from the room. You vaporize. You could drop your pants, you can blow your nose – it doesn’t matter, because until everyone in the audience has figured out for themselves exactly what all that information means, you’re effectively not there.

Tip No. 7: Effects

Keep in mind: if there are too many bells and whistles, if there is too much movement, if there are too many sounds, if there are too many things going on, people will be more interested in figuring out how to do that with their own presentations then they will be in the actual knowledge you are presenting.

And that’s if your dramatic appliqués are good. Most of the time, effects just add confusion, or worse yet, disconnection. Make sure that your message is more important and of value to the audience than the design features of your presentation.

Tip No. 8: Pointers

We still see some people using the old wooden pointer. We have seen people actually snap that wooden pointer in half. We have also seen people play collapsible pointers like an accordion. The point is, you don’t need a pointer.

An effectively designed and delivered presentation eliminates the need for pointers of any kind. Your data should call attention to themselves. Laser pointers seem to be very popular these days, but very rarely does anybody in the audience like them. In fact, they are pretty annoying to most people and even a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon can’t hold those things still.

Tip No. 9: Hardware

One of the things that you definitely want to make sure is that you show up early to your presentation. Make sure all of the equipment is in working order, the overhead projector, the laptop whatever it is you are using. Check everything out yourself. Just because the banquet manager came in ten minutes ago and told you everything was working last night doesn’t mean it is actually going to work.

We can’t tell you how many times, and we’ve traveled everywhere from India to Indiana teaching seminars, somebody told us something was working, and it did not.

So for that reason you have to show up early and make sure everything is working. Make sure that you can actually work it. Make sure that you actually see it working. It is up to you and it is your responsibility because when you start your presentation you can’t say say, “Well you know, somebody in the banquet department told me just a few minutes ago that this was working.” Don’t be embarrassed. Don’t be caught off guard.

Tip No. 10: The Q&A process

This process can be very, very difficult because when you are making a presentation, you are in essence in control. You have designed that presentation. You have created some excellent visuals. You know your presentation well enough to know what’s coming next.

The problem with Q&A is that it is the unknown. You don’t know what is going to happen. Somebody can throw you a question out of left field. Perhaps someone can make you look bad. There is so many unknowns that we need a system to be able to deal with that unknown, and be sure that you look good in the process.

One of the first things you need to know is what to do when somebody asks you a negative question. Many of us were taught to repeat the question back to the questioner. Do you suppose there might be something else we could do other then repeat a negative question? If you repeat that negative question, what are you doing? You are in essence confirming that it might be true.

Now actually repeating a question is not always a bad idea. It gives you time to think. It gives the rest of the audience a chance to hear what the question is. But if the question imparts a negative, there is another way.

Instead of repeating the question verbatim, try this: Listen closely to the question so that you are hearing not just the words, but the essence of the question. Ask yourself what is at the kernel of the question when all the negative, inaccurate, untrue or personal agenda items are stripped away. Then rephrase the question around that kernel, signaling to the audience that you are actually searching deeper into the topic that the questioner did!

Because Q&A typically is the last thing that happens in a presentation, it is so important and vital you end on a positive note. We can’t tell you how many times a presentation which started off well didn’t end that way, because it all fell apart in Q&A.

About the Author

J. Douglas Jefferys is a principal at PublicSpeakingSkills.com, an international consulting firm specializing in training businesses of all sizes to communicate for maximum efficiency. The firm spreads its unique knowledge through on-site classes, public seminars, and high-impact videos, and can be reached through the Internet or at 888-663-7711.

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In a survey from the Book of Lists, people were asked, “What are you most afraid of?” Public speaking was the number one answer. In fact, fear of death was sixth on the list. In other words, you are not alone.

So we congratulate you on taking the first step to improving yourself in this area. Let’s talk about the Ten Tips and how they can begin to help you right away.

Tip No. 1: Eye contact.

When the majority of people are up in front of a group they start their physical activity by rapidly scanning the room with their eyes. They spray the audience with their vision. Look: adrenaline is already shooting through your body, you’re anxious and nervous. Spraying the room with your “aerosol eyes” simply compounds the problem. It makes it worse. Very quickly your brain becomes overwhelmed with all of this visual input: different faces, different colors, different clothes, different countenances.

What you need to do is find an anchor and to lock in on one individuals eyes. You need to slow down, get your bearings. You will then have a chance to channel your nervous energy.

In other words: look at just one person, look at their eyes, speak to one person at a time. Then pause, and find the next individual. Instead of speaking to a group… have a series of one-on-one conversations with the individual members of the audience. And if your eyes aren’t locked, your jaw must be!

Tip No. 2: Gesturing:

What do you do with your arms, your hands or your feet and the rest of you body? Typically men put their hands in their pockets. We often see the fig leaf position, or the ‘phone booth’, in which presenters hug themselves with both arms.

You will also see people do all kinds of nervous fidgeting with their hands, with their arms. They really don’t know what to do. What we suggest is that you do use your arms and hands, but that you use gestures to specifically emphasize the things that you are talking about.

If you are speaking about a big opportunity, let’s see how big that opportunity is. If you are speaking about an increase, let’s make sure that your gesture reflects that specific increase by its altitude from the floor.

Use emphatic gestures and use gestures to describe things. Then when you are not using your arms or there is no need to, simply allow them to drop naturally to the side into what we term the neutral position.

Tip No. 3: Inflection and volume

Have you ever been to presentation where the presenter spoke in a monotone, “It’s- great-to-see-everybody-Thank-you-very-much-for-coming-today-I-have-some-exciting-news-for-you.” BOOOORING!

You want to increase your volume, and increase your voice inflection, which means the variance in the pitch or the tone of your voice. It is more interesting, more exciting to listen to a presenter that has passion and feeling in their voice. Speak to your audience with belief and you will soon see they will share that belief.

Tip No. 4: Humor and jokes

We receive a lot of questions about this. “Should I start with a joke?” Should I loosen things up with some humor in the beginning?”

Let me ask you…How many people do you know who can actually come into a room full of strangers and pull off a joke? It is what we call a Break Even / Lose proposition. If it works you haven’t gained much: if it doesn’t work you can lose your audience for the entire presentation. It’s risky business.

It’s a high stakes gamble. We suggest if you like using humor, feel out your audience first. If you feel humor might be appropriate, use humor. But using humor up front can be very, very difficult. You are at your highest state of nervousness, your audience is sizing you up and remember first impressions last forever. Many audiences feel that using humor or jokes in business signals you are not taking them seriously.

The type of humor that is most effective is self deprecation. Make fun of yourself. We are not suggesting you call yourself an idiot or the audience may say to themselves “He sure is” and you’ve lost them. Just don’t take yourself so seriously. A lot of times we will joke about the fact that our writing isn’t that good or my ability to draw is awful. Typically if people have been with us in a two day seminar, they already know that. So go ahead and make fun of yourself. It is a safe form of humor to use.

Tip No. 5: Designing visuals

How many times have you been to a presentation where the presenter is literally confused by her own visual? They look up at the screen and they say, “Well what you have here is, well, gee, I’m not sure, well what I meant is…” – what is that presenter doing? They are essentially saying that they haven’t taken the time to simplify and become familiar with their own visuals and now they expect you to look at it and understand it.

The point is to keep your visuals simple in design. You don’t want an unsolved mystery up on the screen. Make sure that it is very clear and keep in mind that people read from top to bottom and left to right. Design your visuals to be read that way.

Make those visuals easy to understand. Your talk doesn’t need to be simple, but the visuals you use to cue your audience to hear what you’re saying do.

About the Author

J. Douglas Jefferys is a principal at PublicSpeakingSkills.com, an international consulting firm specializing in training businesses of all sizes to communicate for maximum efficiency. The firm spreads its unique knowledge through on-site classes, public seminars, and high-impact videos, and can be reached through the Internet or at 888-663-7711.

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First of all, it is important that even the best motivational speakers remember the fundamentals of public speaking. These include moving your eye contact and field of view around the room, so that you can connect with the entire audience. Also, it is obviously important to use hand gestures and humor to establish a rapport with the audience, and help them to remain entertained by what you are saying to them. Although elite motivational speakers almost always have the fundamentals down, a lot of the reason that this is true is because they reinforce these fundamentals through practice.

The best motivational speakers are experts at tailoring their messages for a variety of groups and events. For instance, it is only reasonable to expect that you will not always have the same type of audience from event to event. You may speak for educational professionals at one event, a retired persons group at another, and then high school students at yet another event. Each of these particular groups of people have to be approached in a different way for you to reach them with your message. That must be taken into account when you are writing your speech, and also when you are delivering your speech.

Also, some events call for a different approach to speaking style. For a group of students, for example, it may behoove you to adopt a very casual style, and to also include some humor during your speech. For other speeches, you may want a more formal approach, although in general, motivational speakers use a casual speaking style.

The number one thing to do to join the ranks of top motivational speakers is to practice. By practicing your craft, you will only get better at what you do. Also, when you speak, your audience will be able to tell that you practiced beforehand.

About the Author

Read more information about all types of professional speakers, including Sales Motivational SpeakersMotivational Keynote Speakers at http://www.speakersbureautraining.com and and Motivational Keynote Speakers at http://www.speakersbureautraining.com

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<p>I once met a man who told me that his soft-spoken voice made others become quiet and pay attention to him. It took everything in my power not to laugh in his face. In today’s loud, fast-paced, hectic world, being soft-spoken is definitely not a strength, especially in America. To be constantly asked to repeat yourself is one of the reasons others take over the conversation.</p>
<p>Imagine watching a movie and the volume is not quite loud enough to be able to understand the actors’ words. That is exactly what is happening when you speak and others cannot hear you. To solve the problem with the movie, you simply turn up the volume. Unfortunately, it is not quite that simple with the speaking voice because your inner ear has spent a lifetime being most comfortable with your softer volume level.</p>
<p>Your inner ear is the way you perceive your voice – its timbre, volume, and other qualities. Unfortunately, your inner ear is a poor judge of how you actually sound to everyone else. When you speak, the voice you hear in your head is sound vibrating in the solid and liquid of the brain – distorted sound.</p>
<p>What you hear on your answering machine, voicemail, or other form of recording equipment, however, is sound traveling through the air. And, you do not recognize that voice because it is foreign to you. It is not how your inner ear perceives your voice.</p>
<p>The answer is to train yourself to accept a larger volume of sound. Admittedly, your inner ear will revolt in the beginning because you will think that you are shouting or that you are speaking too loudly. This is why recording yourself is the 1st step in re-training your inner ear to appreciate that increase.</p>
<p>I suggest you record a TV broadcaster’s voice and then record yourself directly following the professional. When you make the recording, be sure that the volume for the broadcaster is at a comfortable listening level. Then when you record yourself, place the microphone the same distance from yourself as it was from your speakers.</p>
<p>Play it back and adjust the volume output according to the professional’s voice. Then listen to your volume. Were you softer than the other voice? If so, can you appreciate the need to speak in a ‘normal’ volume level if you expect to be heard? Notice that I said normal, not loud.</p>
<p>I do not want anyone speaking loudly. Loud hurts your listeners’ ears. Your goal is not to speak loudly but to speak with a normal amount of volume. If you expect your message to be heard, it will not happen until you are ready to accept that increase.</p>

<p>Article Source: <a href=”http://www.articlesbase.com/public-speaking-articles/if-you-are-softspoken-your-message-is-not-being-heard-2220097.html” title=”If You Are Soft-Spoken, Your Message Is Not Being Heard”>http://www.articlesbase.com/public-speaking-articles/if-you-are-softspoken-your-message-is-not-being-heard-2220097.html</a></p>

<strong>About the Author</strong><br />
<p>The Voice Lady <strong>Nancy Daniels</strong> offers private, corporate and group workshops in voice and presentation skills as well as <strong>Voicing It!</strong>, the only video training program on voice improvement. Visit <a href=”http://www.voicedynamic.com/specialaccessvolume.htm”>Voice Dynamic</a> and watch Nancy as she describes <strong>Your Volume Control.</strong></p></body>
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Technorati Tags: Presentation Skills, Public Speaking

Public speaking is the number one fear in most people, the number two would be fear of dying for most people. So many people get stressed out at the thought of speaking in public that many of us would like to avoid this problem entirely, but this is hard to do. If you are a small business owner, or as part of your current job you are expected to provide presentations to others, then you need to get over your fear of public speaking. If we want to be leaders or achieve anything meaningful in our lives, we will often need to speak to groups, large and small, to be successful.

The big secret behind the truth about public speaking is is IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE STRESSFUL! If you keep just a few key principles in mind, speaking in public will soon become an invigorating and satisfying experience for you.

So here are my five key tips for great public speaking:

1. Relax - remember the audience are there to hear what you have to say. They are looking forward to what it is you are going to deliver. They want you to succeed, therefore they are behind you.

2. Realise it is not about you – Remember, the essence of public speaking is to give your audience something of value. The audience are there to hear the message you are going to deliver. The purpose of public speaking is not for you to get something out of it from your audience. It is about YOU giving useful information to your audience.

3. Speak in simple terms – you don’t have to make it overly complicate,just get your message across in terms that are appropriate to the audiences needs. All you need are two or three main points to convey to your audience.

4. Don’t preach to your audience, instead try to engage with them, they will warm to you and interact in a positive way.

5. Inject a little Humour or tell a story (your story if appropriate). If being funny feels comfortable to you go for it, it usually works and breaks the ice letting the audience warm to you. Or if humour is not appropriate then tell a story that is relevant to the topic at hand.People tend to engage well with stories of meaning and if they have some personal bearing to you, the audience get a feel of what you are like as a person,therefore you are engaging.

Hope the top tips help you out when you next have a presentation or talk you have to do publicly. You will have noted that I did not mention ‘practice’ normally when you practice too often it tends to come out worse,instead carefully look at what message you are going to deliver and write down your key points that you want to get across. If the subject is something you are well versed on you should have no problem delivering your message, so go out there and DO IT!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Colette_Morris

Technorati Tags: presentation tips, public speaking tips