Has the audience ever been bored during your presentation? Unfortunately, there have been many times I have lost the attention of the audience and bored them. Why? Is it the subject, the delivery, the structure, the lack of stories?
Presentation Tip #3: If the Audience is bored, the problem is not the subject. It may be you.
Ouch! A good speaker can make any subject interesting. Sure, some subjects are more interesting that others, but you can hold the audience's attention with any subject. Use effective story-telling techniques.Speak with passion. Speak to one person. Apply other speaking tips.
Do this and you will wake'm up and your message will hit home.
Have you ever heard a speaker give a dead presentation? The speaker sounds bored and the audience is hoping for a fire drill.
Presentation Tip #2: Passion brings any speech & any subject to life.
Deliver a presentation with passion and it will come alive. How can you speak with passion? Choose topics you enjoy. Focus on how your message will help the audience. Act enthusiastic and passionate. Do this and your presentations will come to life and the audience will be disappointed if interrupted by a fire drill.
Presentation Tip #1: Act Confident and you will look and feel confident.
Stand up and walk up to the front with confidence. Have great posture, make eye contact, and smile. Within seconds you will start to feel more confident. You will look more confident to the audience. A confident speaker helps the audience feel at ease.
How do you feel when a speaker is nervously stumbling through their speech. Uncomfortable? Sympathetic? You want the audience to trust in you and feel at ease. This tip will empower you to speak with confidence.
I just created suspense. You want to know the details. Suspense is the key to being a good storyteller. Suspense keeps our audience on the edge of their seats desperately wanting to know more.
Don’t forget that suspense is like tension. Its very important we relieve that tension through the story otherwise it will irritate the audience. What was my stupid mistake? I failed to save a Word document before I shut down the computer. Sixty minutes down the drain!
Put suspense into your stories and you will become a very effective at storytelling.
Would you like to keep audiences on the edge of their seats with gripping stories that connect and touch the heart?
I sure do. Thats why I recently listened to Craig Valentine’s Edge of Their Seats Storytelling Home-Study Course*. Before I listened, I wondered if it was worth a couple hundred dollors to learn how to tell better stories. I was pleasantly surprised.
The Edge Storytelling Creator: Craig Valentine
Craig Valentine is the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking. Out of 25,000 competitors he won all the competitions and took the title. He is also a trainer and speaker. Is he good? I have heard him several times on CD, watched his DVD’s and read a lot of his content. He is the real deal. Don’t take my word for it, watch this video.
Six audio CDs with more than 7 information-packed hours of step-by-step “mile-deep” processes you can use immediately to enliven your very next speech.
A 56-page Workbook to help you internalize the information and form the habits of a masterful storyteller.
A Storytelling Compass™ you can use as a mini-workshop or guide to create EVERY story you give in the future.
Ten Pages of my Edge of Their Seats Storytelling Model (diagrams) to make sure you add the elements that make your stories shine.
Craig uses numerous live audio story clips to illustrates the principles he is teaching. It was easy to follow and the content was in depth. Before I listened I expected Craig to cover the standard story telling principles like suspense, using visual language, etc. Craig covers that, but he went way more in depth.
There is truly an art to storytelling and Craig reveals it all. On my next speech, after learning a few of these principles, a man walked up to me and said, "We felt like we were right in the story." That has never happened to me before, so I knew these principles were working.
Who is this Product For:
Craig Valentine’s Edge of Their Seats Storytelling Home-Study* course will benefit anyone, who wants to become a storyteller who tells gripping stories that make points hit home.
It does cost a couple hundred dollors and will take 7+ hours to go through. This is not a problem if you are serious about improving your story telling abilities. (All speakers should be.) If you want to just brush up on the basics, read the other articles here on the site or check out some books from your local library. When you can afford to make it part of your personal collection, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Conclusion:
If you want to become a top storyteller and keep audiences on the edge of their seats, Craig’s home study course will give you the tools to do that.
* We only recommend products that we have used and feel are helpful to our readers. On some products, including this one, we receive an affiliate commission on products purchased through this link.
You can overcome public speaking fear and confidently talk with any audience. Overcome means to conquer and/or not let hinder.
You can develop your confidence to such a level, that fear and nervous will not negatively effect your presentations or keep you from accepting them.
Most people allow the fear of public speaking to hold them back. You don’t have to be one of them.
Here is how to overcome public speaking fear:
First, understand why you have public speaking fear.
Ask yourself, “Why do I fear public speaking?” Make a list of several reasons.
It may be because you are new at speaking. Is there a bad past experience? Are you not sure on how to put together a speech? These reasons can all be easily overcome with some good public speaking training.
Second, get on stage.
Stage time will give you confidence and reduce your public speaking fear and nervousness. Every time you step on the platform, your confidence will build and your fear will be reduced.
Third, research and learn how the pro’s overcame their public speaking fear.
96%+ of speakers have had to learn how to overcome their public speaking fear. By learning public speaking fear conquering techniques you can slash your learning curve and gain confidence quickly.
Many pro’s use a audience focus technique just minutes before they speak. This public speaking fear technique shoves fear aside and brings new confidence and excitement.
Just a few weeks ago I was using this. The result? What little nervousness I had evaporated and I was brimming with confidence. More on this technique in coming posts.
When was the last time you listened to a speaker who actually held your attention for almost the entire presentation?
Just five hours ago, I was listening to a speaker who grabbed my attention and held it. Yes, he was good, but it was not because he was using a lot of slick or advanced public speaking tips.
He was using one of the most powerful public speaking formulas a speaker has in his/hers arsenal.
Tell a Story and Make a point.
Hour after hour, this speaker would tell stories and make points. Sure, he took time to define his content, use quotes, and make some humorous comments. However, He probably had a different story every 5 minutes or so.
After telling a story using effective story telling techniques, he would pause and drive home his point. Next, he would pause to let the point sink in.
Did it work? Yes.
Why is this public speaking tip powerful? Stories automatically hold people’s attention, especially if we use some good story telling techniques. All we have to do as speakers is weave our point into the story or bring it home at the end in a powerful way.
However, we must be careful not to make the mistake that many advertisements make. Do you remember the commercial about cowboys herding cats? How about a more recent one that features a white duck? Here is the million dollar question: what are those stories/scenes representing or selling? I must confess I have no clue about the herding cats commercial and just recently remember what the duck stood for.
We must tie the story and point together so well that if the audience remembers the story, they’ll for sure remember the point. How can we apply this tip?
Use stories throughout our presentations.
Tie the story and point together so people remember both.
Use effective story telling techniques to help our stories hit home.
Three days ago, I heard the great speech coach Patricia Fripp share a speaking tip to make our presentations deliver more punch.
