25+ Professional Resources for Improving Your Presentation Skills. According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy. —American comedian Jerry Seinfeld So, which person are you? But it doesn't have to be this way. The good news is that you can improve your presentation skills.
What's in it for you? Where will improved presentation skills get you? What got those people onto the speakers list? Next, let's think about the potential client, who has invited her company's top management to sit in. Or picture this scenario: You're at a conference. What got those people onto the speakers list? If you had those skills, maybe you could become one of those industry leaders who speaks at conferences. Organizations and Classes The two organizations I'm about to recommend have been around for, oh, forever.
Bear with me for a moment. Idea #1: Take an acting class. Sock Power! Ekaterina Walter: You vs. Meryl Streep: Confronting Barriers as a Public Speaker. There has been a lot of debate lately about the reasons why there are so few women speakers out there. And I am not only talking about conferences; I am talking about media as well. Take, for example, data from the byline survey conducted by Taryn Yaeger of The OpEd Project, an organization that aims to diversify public debate. Women are practically absent in the debate on many hard news subjects, with their opinions accounting for 11 percent of commentaries on the economy, 13 percent on international politics, 14 percent on social action and 16 percent on security. There are a number of reasons why the statistics consistently show the low numbers of female representation. However, I believe one of those reasons is particularly important to discuss.
And that is this: Women are not confident enough to go on stage because they don't have access to the right mentoring and coaching opportunities. To help address that I sat down with Jill Foster, CEO of Live Your Talk. Jill: Thank you.
Fear. The Social Media Strategies Summit | Agenda-at-a-Glance. Workshops are concurrent. Please choose "A" or "B" Creating and Maintaining an Optimized and Personalized Facebook Presence Most brands understand the importance of utilizing Facebook to grow and maintain brand loyalty. But what some fail to realize is how to use this social platform correctly and the value of creating a personalized and optimized presence. . • Optimized Facebook landing tab for your brand. • Understanding of how to use Facebook analytics to your advantage. • Advice on how to best engage with those who “Like” your brand • Top Do’s and Don’ts for becoming a leading brand on Facebook. 8:30am Registration, Continental Breakfast, Coffee & Tea 9:00am Opening Remarks from the Workshop Facilitator - Workshops Begin 10:30am Refreshments and Networking 12:00pm Morning Workshop A Concludes Lunch for Attendees of a Morning and Afternoon Workshop Creating Effective and Compliant Social Promotions Social promotions are an excellent way to engage your audience and encourage them to take action.
How to write a bio that will knock people out but won’t put them to sleep. Most bios I read are more potent sedatives than sleeping pills. Some of the most talented authors write the worst bios. So do most professional speakers, who cram their entire life's history into their introduction, putting the audience to sleep long before they take the microphone. Don't even ask me what I think about the bios written by engineers, architects, accountants, and attorneys. Why, oh why, do we make ourselves sound so boring? A well-written bio can convey to your potential clients, the media, and your other audiences that you are fun, creative, and entertaining. How to find good material If you do PR for your company and need to write a bio for someone else, find out personal information about them by asking open-ended questions. . • Who is your hero?
You don’t have to include all of the above in a bio. Forget the résumé stuff Write a poem One of the cleverest bios I ever read is the introduction used by Wisconsin veterinarian Dr. Dr. Not one mention of a college degree. The road to being a kick-ass public speaker | Christian Heilmann's blog – Wait till I come! During a meeting of all the Mozilla people last week a few of my colleagues asked me how they could become better at public speaking or as they put it “how do you do all these talks? I could never do that! I am too afraid I’d screw up!”. I took that as a challenge to start a series of talks and trainings on “public speaking for tech geeks” and started with the following talk.
The slides The audio recording Also available on archive.org Detailed notes Today I am going to share a few tips and tricks about public speaking. A lot of what I am going to talk about is already described in the Developer Evangelism Handbook. There is a general preconception that geeks are bad presenters. This breeds a lot of misunderstandings as to how to present. And this is a shame – geeks are awesome presenters – if they understand that they need to present. Step 1: Preparation The first step to preparing a great talk for your company is CYA (cover your arse). Spread out and back up – this is the web, use it. Do you over-explain? 5 speaker tricks for using data, details wisely.
How to Monetize the Content of your Blog in Speaking Engagements — BlogWorld Expo Blog. … by Barry Moltz We love to write, but it’s time we learn to monetize our content. Many bloggers try to sell consulting services as a primary source of income. While this may work in the short term, it is difficult to make a lot of money billing by the hour. There is no leverage in consulting services when paid hourly. While many bloggers turn to selling products through their website, an overlooked path to monetizing content is speaking professionally. Before picking up that big check, people need to have a reason to listen. Every blogger should articulate a strong brand and promise: For example: What have you done? The most effective place to get content for your speeches is from past blog posts and articles at other sites.
If you want to be paid as a speaker, your web site needs to have the following: One line brand on what you speak about. Where do you start constructing a speech? Find the two things you want your listeners to learn. Don’t memorize, but learn the speech. Making slides special: A presenter's quartet of great resources. Speaker Proposal Tips: Follow Directions — BlogWorld Expo Blog. I receive at least five or six emails, tweets, or Facebook inquiries each day asking when BlogWorld will be accepting speaker proposals for our 2011 event. The truth is, we’re still firming up dates and the location and once we have that in place, we’ll be better equipped to open up for speaker proposals. That you’re already enthusiastic, makes us even more enthusiastic and inspires us to set the bar even higher for next year! However, just because we’re not ready for your proposal, doesn’t mean you can’t start working on it ahead of time. We get kind of bummed when we receive proposals on the last day before deadline and they were obviously written up in five minutes.
Giving you what you want! We’re often asked for tips for our potential speakers, especially those who are too shy to submit a proposal or from those whose proposals were denied in the past. Today’s Tip: Follow Directions The simplest things are the ones that trip us up every time. Details…details… Speaker Agreement. Professional Speaking Tips- Get Started. You want to get on stage and speak professionally. You’ve done some time in speaking at free events and you’ve heard really good feedback. But you’re wondering how to get from free to fee, and you’re looking to build awareness and make some money from your efforts. Here’s what I know. Set Your Stage I already shared with you ideas on how to build your stage for public speaking. Make a Speaking Brief Open up your writing software of choice and write about your abilities as a speaker.
A good picture of you. This document should be no more than two pages. Where to Find Clients This depends on your industry, on what you’re talking about, on who you know. I could write a book on just prospecting for speaking gigs, but I won’t do that here. Money talk. The difference between most speakers and professional speakers is that professional speakers charge a fee. When I first spoke for money, I charged $2500. What’s changed? Over the years, I’ve grown in my ability. But none of this helps you.
How to Prepare Public Presentations that Knock the Socks Off. Have you ever had to give a public presentation? If so, you may remember damp palms, butterflies in your stomach, and an overwhelming wish to hide in a cupboard instead of striding onto the stage. If you turn into a successful writer, chances are you’ll have to get used to public speaking. The good news is that you can learn to speak publicly with confidence – and even enjoy it. There are two keys factors that change the way you experience public presentations, one factor is the use of mental strategies that enable you to feel confident and in charge. The other factor is the preparation that results in a presentation that rocks – this is what this post focuses on.
In tandem with this post, I’ve published an article on Goodlife ZEN that covers the psychological and physical strategies that you can use in order to become a cool presenter: How to Speak in Public With Confidence – And Be On Top of Your Game. Nail the benefit Create a memorable structure What is your story thread? The opening. HOW TO: Get Tweetable Moments from Your Presentations. Dan Zarrella is a social media and viral marketing scientist. You can read his blog and follow him on Twitter. Be sure to attend Dan's free webinar, The Science of Presentations on August 19th, and download the accompanying eBook. Twitter is here to stay but there is some science to creating a perfect, "tweetable moment" during a presentation. That is, a memorable moment that sticks in the mind of your audience long after the presentation is over. How do you get those moments to happen? A few months ago, I started to analyze why people share content from presentations and how marketers can leverage those motivations to deliver more contagious talks.
From that information I've collected the essential elements you need to create Tweetable moments in your presentations. Priming Before you deliver your Tweetable moment, you should spend some time priming your audience to get them ready to Tweet your ideas. 1. Delivering “AHA” 1. The Sound Bite 1. Trade Shows – Trade Show – Trade Show Blogs – Convention Blogs. I am constantly going over submitted speaker submissions for ideas about speaking at the events I manage. Many of the speakers have much the same talk and it is some of the usual suspects that I see get a shot at speaking. Some of the speaker agencies out there submit 10 applications to speak and all they do is change the name of their client and that can be especially frustrating when you are the one that has to read every application and determine those that make the cut for speaking engagements and those that you have to tell, “Maybe next year.”
It is tough to make those calls and it is even tougher to tell the folks their submission didn’t make it. I think there are a number of things that can be done by speakers when applying to speak at events that can help your chances. Know Your Organizers – This is not so typical of what I think is on the windshields of those that apply to speak but if you know more about those that are involved in the decision making process the better. 7 reasons you should convert a slide deck to video--and how to do it.