March 15, 2007

http://botd.wordpress.com/2007/03/13/growing-blogs-321/

My blog was number 92 on the list of growing blogs a few days ago. I’m not sure  if that means anything good because since then my stats have plummeted. I’m trying to figure out why! 

(Can’t see the pic? http://matnewton.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/dilbert2007034072810.gif)

While  I’m no public speaking veteran by any means, the times that I have had so far have been quite successful. It seems that I’m one of those fortunate people that has a knack for talking in front of groups of people (some that I know theorise that this is due to my middle-child status.)

There’s enough guides telling you to use inflection, or make eye contact with the crowd. Here’s a couple of extra pointers.

1. Let the audience breathe. You wouldn’t take a deep breath, then another one straight away, would you? It’s impossible. You need to breathe out first. Crowds are the same. They can only take so much great content at once. Mentally they need to relax, settle, and then hear more great content. When you tell anecdotes, show diagrams, photos, or a 2 minute break, you’re allowing people to get ready to ‘inhale’ your next batch of great points.

2. “It’s such a pleasure to be with you today. (Not.)” Cliches cause people to switch off mentally. Go through your presentation, look for the cliches, and delete them. Audiences will be much more interested if you’re presenting something that they haven’t heard before… sounds obvious right? Crank out the cliches and you’ll experience just how fun it is to try and win back the attention of a bored audience. From the very first sentence, say something else. Keep the crowd guessing - maybe bypass the pleasantries and skip straight to the content. Whatever you do, don’t be ’standard’.

3. If you wouldn’t say it in conversation, don’t say it on stage. Remember, an audience is just a collection of individuals. Take each paragraph in your presentation one by one and imagine yourself using that exact turn of phrase in conversation with a friend. Would you expect to lose that person’s attention? If yes, rephrase rephrase rephrase.

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