Thursday, July 05, 2012

Common Sense Public Speaking!



Steve Jobs was a passionate, confident speaker!
Public Speaking is  like everything else - you've got to use plain common sense.  If you speak too fast people can't understand you - and can't process what's being said fast enough to 'get' your message.  If you speak too slowly, you give the brain too much time for distraction - you lose them.  Filler words are a distraction.  Constant movement is a distraction.  A speaker needs to minimize distractions so that the audience is locked on to the message, not the quirks of the messenger!

If you're totally connected with the real message you're presenting, and are passionate about it, your energy will reflect that.  If you're speaking too slowly or too fast, that tells me, as a listener, that you're not totally 'feeling' what you're talking about, or that you're not  reading your audience to determine whether they are tuned in to you or not.  During a presentation I believe that a speaker has to know their topic so well that they can be flexible to change up pace, audience interaction, and just overall, be able to take command of the energy in the room!