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Phoenix Public Speaking coaching and workshops

Archive for public speaking workshops – Page 3

Public Speaking Tip #38: The Right Tone Makes All the Difference

“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Carl W. Buechner, writer, and theologian

Perhaps more important than the words you say is how you say them. The tone of a speech or business presentation is crucial to engage your audience, to persuade them, and to get them to get out of their chairs to take action.

Words make us think, but it is tone that makes us feel. And ultimately it is how we feel that determines if we’re all in for a cause or committed to follow-through with an assignment.

When we manage people, it’s easy to slip into command-and-control tones. These tones can dampen commitment and damage trust with your audience. Business leaders must be mindful of the following tones and the sometimes unintended messages they can send:

  • Parental: I know best. I’m the boss so just do what I say.
  • Legal: I’m being really precise because I’m more worried about being avoiding a lawsuit than communicating with you.
  • Directive: I want you to perform these tasks. I’m the boss and I don’t have to explain why.
  • Traditional Business: I’m phony, impersonal and disconnected from you.
  • Informational: I’m more concerned with public appearance than communicating with you.
  • Promotional: I’m using pseudo-excitement to try to sell you something you probably don’t want.

In my 20-plus years working with leaders of large corporations, I’ve always found a tone that connotes a trusted partnership works best. Whether you are speaking to customers, shareholders, your own employees, contractors or vendors, you should speak with a tone that says “You are a valued business partner and we’re in this together.”

Striking the right tone can make all the difference. Find a partnership tone that works best for you. And when you do, you’ll move beyond being a mere manager and be on the path to becoming a great leader.

Related Links

Tip #16: Speak Positive: It Works

Finding the Voice of Your Organizations Brand to Communicate with Employees (PowerPoint)

 

 

Public Speaking Tip #34: Use PowerPoint to Enhance

Should you use PowerPoint or other presentation software in public speaking or business presentations? My rule is this: if slides enhance your speech or business presentation, then, by all means, use them.

Sometimes we need a photo, a chart, a graph or some visual representation to better understand a concept or to make an emotional impact. A well-done PowerPoint can help you convey important information. And given that most people are visual learners, it can be a powerful complement to your presentation. But a poorly done PowerPoint can harm your credibility as a public speaker or business presenter.

If you use PowerPoint, it must not become your on-screen presentation outline and you should not simply read bullet points to your audience.

Other Considerations

Another consideration in deciding whether to use PowerPoint or not is the size of the screen your slides will be projected onto. Is the screen too small to make a visual impact? Also, what about the lighting — will you have to turn off some or all of the lights in order to see the screen? You don’t want to be standing in the dark. If you are trying to engage your audience, they’ll likely need to see you.

You’re the Star of Your Presentation

You need to be the star of your own speech or business presentation. PowerPoint and other visual aids should be cast in supporting roles. Sometimes writing on a flip chart or a whiteboard can be more engaging to your audience. Even more engaging is instructing the audience to draw something or asking them to write important information on their own notebooks. You may want to think of something creative, as demonstrated in Public Speaking Tip #32.

The Choice is Yours

You’ll need to make a decision on the pros and cons of using PowerPoint or other presentation software for your speech or business presentation. Don’t automatically think you have to use presentation software. Some of the greatest speeches of all time didn’t use PowerPoint. Consider creative alternatives.Once you’ve thought everything through and weighed all the options, you will emerge with a more effective presentation.

Once you’ve thought everything through and weighed all the options, you will emerge with a more effective presentation. And your audience will thank you.

 

 

Public Speaking Tip #32: Creative Visual Aids

A student in one of my public speaking classes recently gave a persuasive speech about the declining honey bee population. At the end of her presentation, she distributed a straw filled with honey to each member of the audience. Attached to the straw was signage that read “Save the Honeybee.”

The Honey Bee straw was a nice ending to a wonderfully presented speech. It also was a great reminder that in public speaking and business presentations, applying a little creativity in your choice of a visual aid can help you stand out and help make your point more memorable.

Public Speaking Tip 31: Credibility is the Foundation of All Great Presentations

Credibility is the most important characteristic in all communications, especially public speaking and presentation. Without credibility, nothing else you do matters — not the clothes you wear, the words you use, the passion you bring to the presentation, nothing.

This has always been true, but more so now than ever. Thanks to reality TV, YouTube, Facebook Live, Snapchat and a thousand other contributing factors, perceived authenticity and sincerity have risen to the top of the way we evaluate the credibility of all message, including speeches and business presentations. Messages that are not deemed authentic or sincere are immediately dismissed as unimportant by audiences.

In public speaking and business presentations, if you don’t have credibility, you don’t have anything.

Public Speaking Tip 29: Handling Questions When You Don’t Know the Answer

So you’ve just given a great presentation and you’ve moved into the Q&A. Someone asks you a question and you don’t know the answer. What should you do?

  1. Make up an answer?
  2. Admit you don’t know but promise to find out the answer?
  3. Throw the question to the audience?

Let’s look at each course of action:

Make up an answer?

Never make up an answer. It’s not ethical and it will catch up with you eventually. Don’t fall into the trap that you have to know everything because you are the speaker. You’ve already proven your expertise in your presentation. Remember: nobody likes a know-it-all. You don’t have anything to prove, except perhaps your humbleness.

Admit you don’t know but promise to find out the answer?

This is an acceptable way to handle the situation but be sure that you do indeed follow up with an answer and that you do so in a timely manner.

Throw the question to the audience?

I believe this is the best of the three choices. It engages the audience and often provides an insightful discussion. You can say something to the effect of “That’s a great question. I don’t have an answer. What do you the rest of you think? How would you handle this?” I sometimes throw questions to the audience even when I do know the answer just to see what others think. “I have an idea but I’d really like to hear what everyone else thinks.”

The Q&A in public speaking and business presentations is a great way to engage your audience and a great opportunity to be inclusive with other ideas and other points of view.

 

 

7 Ways to Engage a Virtual Audience

By Paul Barton

One reason I love public speaking so much is the audience. I draw energy from them and immediately put that energy back into my presentation. I become more animated and in turn, my audience shows more engagement. I see them smiling and their heads nodding in agreement. They take notes, and when I make a great point, they write furiously. When they see a slide that they like, they raise their smartphones to snap a photo of it. I hear them laugh at one of my quips. I see their quizzical facial expressions when they are trying to understand. They sit up straight and lean forward as they are listening intently.

I can react to all of that — unless I am making a virtual presentation.

Virtual Business Presentations

Increasingly, business presentations are being delivered virtually via webinars, podcasts, and telephone conference calls. Virtual presentations have many advantages, not the least of which is that they allow people from all around the world to participate without having to travel. But such meetings can be challenging because you cannot see your audience and that makes it more difficult to determine if your messages are resonating.

Last Friday, Kris Pugsley of ON Semiconductor and I co-presented a webinar hosted by Poppulo about how large companies could communicate more effectively with their employees. There were more than 1,000 corporate communications professionals from around the world who listened to our webinar.

Engaging a Virtual Audience

Here are some of the techniques we employed in an effort to engage our audience:

  • Good Content: We knew our topic was relevant to our audience and that they would be curious about what we had to say. We presented intriguing strategies but we also included many practical examples. Audiences want to hear stimulating thoughts but they also want ideas that they can implement right away.
  • Personal Introductions: In addition to our professional biographies, Kris and I each shared a photo and shared some information about our personal lives. Knowing that Kris underwent brain surgery last year and that I have a 10-year-old son with severe Autism helps humanize us to our audience.
  • Vocal Variety: Kris and I took turns presenting so the audience got to hear the content broken up with a male and a female voice alternating. An extra bonus was the charming Irish accent of our host, Emma Hanley (Poppulo is based in Ireland.)
  • Compelling Graphics: We had visually pleasing graphics with compelling data.
  • Audience Polls: We polled our audience at four different points during the presentation. The audience was able to see the results instantly. Having to determine how to answer, the physical act of clicking on the response, and then waiting to see how their answers compare to the rest of the audience helps keep the audience engaged.
  • Q&A: The audience typed questions into a chatbox as the presentation went along and we responded to their questions in the final 10 minutes.
  • Social Share: Our host publicized a Twitter hashtag for the event so that the audience could engage in conversations before, during and after the webcast.

Judging from the number of questions asked on the webinar, the feedback we received on Twitter and LinkedIn, and the traffic generated to my website following the webcast, our presentation indeed resonated with our audience.

As presenters in the digital age, we have to become more creative to engage our audiences in virtual presentations. Performing public speaking virtually can be a challenge, but it can be done effectively with forethought, a little creativity, and good planning.

Public Speaking Tip #28: Always Face Your Audience

When public speaking or making a business presentation, always face your audience. If you’re writing on a whiteboard or flip chart, don’t turn your back to the audience while you are talking. In other words, don’t talk to the wall! Learn to write sideways while you are talking or write first if it’s something you can do quickly and then turn to face your audience to talk.

Your audience will appreciate being able to see and hear you.

Public Speaking Tip 27: Find Common Ground

Finding common ground with your audience is crucial in public speaking and business presentations, especially when the goal of your talk is to persuade. It is nearly impossible to change the minds of people in your audience without making connections with them and establishing common ground is a great way to build those connections.

The video clip above, from the movie 300, provides a great example of how speakers can establish common ground by positioning themselves as equals with their audience. In this scene, the Spartan Queen, Gorgo, appeals to her audience “not only as your queen” but as a mother, as a wife, and as a Spartan woman.

Common ground can the key to achieving uncommon results.

Public Speaking Tip #26: Practice Out Loud

One of the exercises I have my public speaking students do is stand and read quotations from famous speeches. One of the quotes is John F. Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” More than half of the students who read it out loud trip over their tounges when saying it.

Sometimes what looks really good on paper is hard to say when spoken out loud. Our brains sometimes get ahead of our tongues. This is one reason why you should always practice your speeches and business presentations out loud. You may discover words and phrases that just don’t come out right. If you do discover problems with the flow, you have two choices:

  1. You can practice the troublesome verbiage over and over until you can say it consistently right
  2. You may replace the troublesome words with something that means the same thing but is easier for you to say.

One thing is for sure: It’s much better to trip over your tongue while practicing in front of your bedroom mirror than it is to have a tongue-twister disaster in front of your business colleagues or a live audience.

Successful Sold Out Workshop

Phoenix Public Speaking workshop

Photo by Patrick Rapps Photography


In today’s fiercely competitive business climate, how well you present yourself can make the difference in getting ahead or going home.  When it comes to winning a new client, getting a project approved, or closing the deal, the smallest things can make the biggest difference. You don’t want to blend in you want to stand out! From shaking hands, exchanging business cards to storytelling these all have a powerful impression on how people perceive you. Most people underestimate the importance of these interactions and just get by.  But by knowing a few simple secrets, you can turn that around.

That was the premise of our “Speak Up and Stand Out” public speaking workshop held last week. The sold out event was sponsored by the Phoenix Business Journal and held at the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce.

Among the topics we covered were:

  • Using your body language to influence and include
  • Using storytelling in presentations to turn heads and win hearts
  • Introducing yourself to make a great first impression
  • Exchanging business cards so that you are remembered

If you missed the workshop, don’t worry — We’ll be adding new workshops soon!