Vocal expert Sharon Marrell sits down with Phoenix Public Speaking owner and founder Paul Barton to talk about how to use your voice in public speaking and business presentations to engage your audience.
For more information about Sharon, see her website and her LinkedIn profile.
Join us from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 27, for a free virtual breakfast webinar featuring business communication strategist Paul Barton who will present new ways of looking at the year ahead and ideas about how to keep building on the lessons we learned in 2020. Paul is the owner and founder of Phoenix Public Speaking and is a Certified Virtual Presenter.
The webinar is sponsored by Maricopa Corporate College (MCOR), which delivers high-impact training and development solutions for the business community, government, and non-profit organizations.
The breakfast is an annual event but is being held as a virtual event this year for the first time.
How do you speak in a structured, conversational way, stay on point and on time, and do so without a script? This video unlocks the simple but powerful secret that can supercharge your public speaking and business presentation skills. Give it a tumble and let us know what you think.
A lot of tips have been written for Zoom hosts and presenters, but what about participants in the audience. You can’t hide in the back row like you can at an in-person meeting. Watch this video for some participant pitfalls to avoid during a Zoom meeting.
In communication, especially personal communication like public speaking, credibility is everything. Want to know the fastest way to blow your credibility as a public speaker or business presenter? This video will tell you the pitfalls to avoid when making presentations.
Did you know that you can drag and drop in Zoom? Do you know why, as a business presenter, you’d want to? This tip will help you to better connect with your audience on Zoom.
Can public speaking be fun? How can you conquer public speaking fear? Should you use a green screen when presenting on Zoom? What role does storytelling play in public speaking? What are common mistakes to avoid? These and other questions are answered in the lively podcast interview I did with Book Marketing Mentors recently.
Book Marketing Mentors is a first-rate podcast and I am very thankful that Susan Friedman, CSP, asked me to join as this week’s guest expert. I’ve been a huge fan of Susan and her podcast since it began about four years ago. I always get a few actionable tips off of every episode. So, this time, I was the one giving tips.
Give it a listen and let me know what you think.
Oh, and you can also download a PDF transcript of the entire podcast. Hey, it makes great bedtime reading! LOL
Did I choose public speaking coaching as a career or did it choose me? Here’s the story of how I went from a 20-year career in corporate communications to became a public speaking and business presentation skills coach.
Here’s the fastest way to become an expert on any topic that you need to speak on – research. Yes, solid research can give an immediate boost to the credibility of your business presentation or persuasive speech.
Pick credible sources for your research and be wary of advocacy groups that have a clear bias. My general rule is: the more controversial your subject is, the more credible your research sources need to be. If you do choose an advocacy group that is clearly on one side of an issue, make that clear and consider having a counter opinion from someone on the other side of that issue.
You don’t want to give a full citation in your presentation because, well, that’s just plain boring. However, you do want to mention the research you gathered in a conversational way, such as “According to the Centers for Disease Control …” or “I think Bob Burg had it about right when he said …”. This casual mention will let your audience know that you’ve done your homework.
Meanwhile, you do want to have the full citation at the ready in case members of your audience ask about it after your presentation has concluded. You may get a skeptic who wants to validate your source. Or, you may get someone who is excited about the citation and wants to share it with their colleagues.
Finally, consider this: A presentation with good research data but without a story to illustrate your point lacks emotion and makes it more difficult for your audience to connect with your point. The audience may be numb from all the data. Does that sound like any business presentations you’ve sat through? In contrast, a presentation with colorful personal anecdotes but without research data may lack context and may strain credibility. The audience may be left thinking “that’s your story, but what about everyone else?”
So, what’s a poor presenter to do? Here’s the winning combo: Combine your research data with personal anecdotes. It might go something like this: “So, now that you’ve heard my story, you may be wondering how this issue affects people nationwide. Let’s look at the data.”
Now that’s a powerful 1-2 punch. Boom!
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The first time I remember being aware of public speaking was when I was 10 years old. It was a sermon at church and it was the first time that I had seen a large group of people focused on just one person speaking.
Even more amazing to me was how the audience reacted. The laughed when he told a joke and and they nodded in agreement during his stories. They were engaged.
Following the sermon, the parishioners met the pastor on the front steps of the church. They said good morning and shook his hand. Many told him what the sermon had meant to them personally. Some of them were transformed by it.
The lesson I learned that day was the magic of public speaking: the ability to engage and transform an audience.
Do you remember the first time you saw a public speaker? What was your reaction? Tells us about it in the comments section below.
