"Hello, this is Arlen."

"Hi Arlen. This is John. We are looking for a speaker on August 12 in the evening."

"What can you tell me about the event?"

"………"

"Yes, John. My calendar is open. I do have some questions for you."

"Sure Arlen, go ahead."

Speech Research Tip #26: Be a Detective and Research your Audience.

Knowing your audience is essential before preparing and delivering the presentation. This knowledge will enable you to connect with the audience and tailor a presentation that hits home.

I may have the same keynote I give to various audiences, but I tweak it depending on if I am talking to Junior highers or retired seniors.

Back to the phone conversation. I asked John a series of questions to get a grasp on exactly who I would be speaking to. This helped me to create a "Chris" and focus my presentation.

• What is the age of the audience?
• Why are they at this event?
• What is the purpose of this event?
• What are they expecting from the speaker?
• What can you tell me about them?

These questions enabled me to hit a home run and give a custom tailored presentation.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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I used this next speech internalization tip:

Speech Preparing Tip #17: Mentally rehearse your speech before bedtime.

At 10:45 I delivered the presentation in my living room. Next, I shut the light off, crawled into bed, told my wife I would be concentrating, and rehearsed the speech in my mind. Another alternative of this is to visualize yourself in the front of the room with an audience. Now deliver the speech in the theatre of your mind. Why is this public speaking tip so effective?

I have read various researchers who claim that what you think about before bedtime stays on your mind all night. Plus this is a relaxed learning enviroment.

Try it and see if it works for you. My speech came across pretty smooth and I attribute some of that to how to I internalized my presentation with this tip.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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Eventually I did, but long pauses and losing my place are not acceptable in speeches. Why did this happen?

I had failed to properly practice and internalize the speech. There is a difference between a memorized speech and an internalized speech. When your speech is memorized, you know it word for word. You can rattle it off. Problem is that sometimes it may sound memorized. Also, if you forget just one sentence or get distracted, you may find yourself in my situation: struggling to remember the next line.

A better way is to internalize your speech. Here you know it so well, it is a part of you. If you were asked to share about a good experience from your last vacation, you could very easily. Why? It’s internalized. It’s part of you. Every time you deliver it, it may be slightly different, but it comes out natural and you can focus on delivery.

Over the next several days, you’ll be learning several ways to internalize your presentation so you can deliver it smoothly and completely.

Speech Preparing Tip #16: Have your presentation prepared and ready 3 days before you give it.

Imagine you have a presentation to give on Friday. Set a deadline to be ready to give it on Tuesday. Why?

• As you run through the presentation a couple times over those three days, your subconscious mind will internalize the speech.
• New ideas will pop up, allowing you to optimize the presentation.
• Research shows that sleeping on information after we’ve learned it helps put it into long term memory.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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He was very specific. This speaker did not say "Over 20 million people suffer from diabetes in America." He said, "23.6 million people suffer from type I and type II diabetes". (My memory may be off on the exact numbers)

  Again and again throughout his presentation, he was very specific.

Why is being specific a very powerful advanced public speaking tip? Three reasons.

Being Specific Increases our Credibility

When he said, "There are 405 mg of Vitamin A in this product.", it gave the impression that he knew exactly what he was talking about. (Which he did).

Imagine two investment advisers talking to you.

Person A: "The stock market has averaged over 10% return the past 50 years."
Person B: "The stock market average for the past 50 years has been 11.9%"

Who has more perceived credibility? Person B? When it comes to statistics we must be careful that we don’t get too specific and drown the audience in the details.

Being specific makes stories come alive

In college I told about my most embarrassing moment to my speaking class. Five minutes after class, I asked the teacher what I could do to improve. He said, "Be more specific". When we are specific, it gives fuel to the listeners imagination.

Compare:

"A car drove up and a man got out."
"A blue four door compact car screeched to a halt. The door opened and out stepped a short, smiling, 27 year old man."

Notice the difference? We don’t want to be overly wordy, but being somewhat specific brings the imagination of the audience alive.

Being specific holds attention and keeps our speech remembered

Every speaker has to deal with their audience zoning out. However, being specific, especially in our stories, keeps the audience’s minds involved, and they take away more from the presentation.

Here are different ways you and I can be specific:

• Numbers (47)
• Date (October 5, 1907)
• Time frame (15 hours ago)
• Sound (Loud, soft, etc)
• Color (Blue)
• Statistics (31%)

Use this advanced public speaking and you will gain credibility, make your stories come alive, and hold the audiences attention.

(C) Arlen Busenitz – All Rights Reserved World Wide

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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There was an obvious distraction as the technician worked to get it fixed. Instead of skipping the slides entirely, I used the next speaking tip.

Presentation Tip #12: Have Several Emergency Stories to Share at a Moments Notice.

I knew that if I kept on my speech road map, I would lose half the audience as they looked at the distraction. immediately, I jumped into a completely unrelated story. The story grabbed the audience's attention back, and kept them involved until the Power point computer came back online. This "off the cuff" story turned a speech pot hole into a launching pad for a better presentation.

Always carry several emergency stories with you to use during a distraction, technical difficulties, or when you have time to kill on stage.  If they relate to your presentation, all the better. Use this presentation tip, you will appear in control of the situation and it may actually enhance your presentation. This builds trust and credibility with the audience.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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Is it to:

1. Get recognition from the audience, please a boss, satisfy a requirement, win a contest?

2. Serve the audience, help them, and give them a good experience?

The first motive  is what motivates most people to get on stage. A work report must be given. There is a Toastmaster Contest. A college class forces participation.

However, once we have committed, our focus needs to quickly switch to the second motive.

Presentation Tip #11: Focus on how you can serve the audience and give them a good experience.

Give to the audience. Think of ways to give them a good experience. Customize your content for them. Entertain them, not yourself.

Walk up with this attitude and your audience will quickly pick up on it.  You’ll likely connect better.  Because you have an attitude of giving, not taking, the audience will often give back in the form of rapt attention, applause, and even a second invite.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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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.

(C) Arlen Busenitz – 2011

http://www.SpeakingInfo.com

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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What are some good speech practice tips? After outlining/writing out my speech, here is what I have found helpful:

Practice your speech out loud

When I practice out loud, I think of new and better ways to same key points and punchlines. It makes my presentation 35% better. If possible do this several times.

Practice your speech early

Sleeping on our presentation after practice allows our subconscious mind to go to work. Pick up the speech again in a day or two and you will upgrade your content. This is one of the most powerful tips for creating compelling presentations.

Practice in the theater of your mind

Top speakers have shared with me that they will visualize the audience and then deliver the presentation in the theater of their mind. Not only is this good dress rehearsal but it will calm your nerves and help you deliver a good presentation

Visualize the stage and your audience. Go through the presentation in your mind. Visualize the response of the audience.

Practice while distracted

Mowing the lawn, cleaning, walking, jogging, etc are all great times to run through your presentation. This new practice venue will stretch your mind and help cement your content.

Practice by listening to your practice speech

This is recommended by Alan Wiess, the million dollar speaker. Record one of your practice speeches and then listen to it once or twice. You will be hearing how you sound to the audience. Tweak and keep practicing.

Practice all or parts of your speech in front of live audiences

If part of your speech flops, you want it to flop in front of a small practice group. Rehearse short segmants in your Toastmasters Club, in front of family members, or other opportunities. Its hard to beat live stage time.

Many speakers have the capacity to be a 5 star speaker. However, they are only three star because of lack practice. Don’t be one of them practice and rehearse your speech with these public speaking tips.

Remember,

Giving a speech without adequate practice is like taking bread out of the oven before it is fully cooked.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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Five minutes later the pizza was sliced and we took our first bite. Ugh. Instead of fluffy crust, we bit into raw dough. The perimeter was cooked, but the middle doughy.

Two public speaking lessons stand out:

1. Just as there is no exact cooking minutes for pizza that work on every oven, every speech takes different preparation time. A 30 minute presentation on a topic I’m familiar with may take less prep time than a 7 minute speech on an unknown topic.

2. Don’t underestimate the value of extra cooking time. Just 5 more minutes would have turned pizza headed for the garbage into a delicious meal. The difference between an average presentation and a great presentation is often just a little more prep time.

I was able to cook the pizza for another 6 minutes and salvage the meal. We can’t prepare for a presentation after the fact. Put the time in ahead of time and you will serve an excellent presentation.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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Can you reduce preparation time and increase the quality of your presentation at the same time? Yes, you can with a specific strategy. The key is to marinate your speech. My friend cooks very delicious food. One of his secrets is to take the meat and/or vegetables and marinate them. He will soak them in a liquid filled with spices, acids, and other ingredients. This process may take hours or even  days. Occasionally he will turn it to help the marination process. Marinating the meat enhances the flavor and creates a very delicious meal. Marinating your speech will enhance the quality and reduce your preparation time. How?

1. Have your speech done days or weeks ahead of time.
2. Practice your speech twice a day for three days leading up to the presentation.

When you follow this process, several things will happen:

1. Brilliant thoughts and additional ideas will pop into your mind.
2. You'll think of better ways to word it, and take out unnecessary fluff.
3. You will internalize your speech, so it is a part of you. It will be a very smooth presentation.
4. You will increase your confidence, because you have practiced.
5. You will reduce your preparation time.

By working on your speech over a period of days or weeks you will spend less time staring at your computer screen or notebook. You may jot down a couple notes every evening and slowly build your speech. If you are used to not practicing much, then this extra practice will take more time. However, the quality of your presentation will significantly improve by following the process. Take time to marinate your presentation. You will reduce your speech preparation time and increase the quality of the presentation.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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