Developing & Branding Your Personal Competitive Advantage

Excellent points. I can't stress enough how much practice is a key to speaking successfully. Practice mutliple times until you can give your talk without looking at any notes. I would encourage you to try to speak without notes. This will show that you really know your subject matter and will enhance your brand even more. If you must use PowerPoint or other notes, keep it to a minimum just like in point #2.

HI,

Great points on public speaking.

I resonate with the point about looking after your voice. Last year I spoke at an interstate convention. On the way, I strained my voice and spent the weekend with no voice. Made it a bit hard to speak when it was my turn!

The other point that you make about public speaking that is great is the last one - know when to stop. Unfortunately there are so many speakers that just keep going on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.....................you get the point.

Great posts about public speaking.

Cheers

Darren

Thanks Jason and Darren for your encouraging suggestions and additions. When I read your points, it reminds me how this applies past public speaking too. Like presenting to your boss, the board, clients, pushing a budget, your own promotion and raise, interview, anyone making a living on the phone...

Great points. When I've taught presentation skills I've often found myself undoing a lot of problems that other trainers have installed. I had one client who was so worried about how they were breathing, where their hands were, and where they were looking that there was no attention left to spare for remembering content. She would just freeze, but what a perfect frozen speaker she was!

The key point for me is, as you say, be yourself. If you're busy trying to be some mythical 'ideal speaker' you'll come across as fake, but you'll be too busy keeping up the pretence to notice that you've lost your audience!

Again, excellent points to remember. I do about 2 - 3 engagements a month around New York: This Tuesday (7/13), National Network of Accountants. July 28, PodCamp Online, "Podcasting by Phone," Sept 28, Association of Divorce Financial Planners, and many more this fall.

3 points that I'm sure you mention in your guides:
Ask the audience questions - it makes the presentation interactive, it lessens our droning voice, makes it more relevant to the Type-A, alpha, Influentials in the room, and it's an opportunity to edify key leadership.
Hand out some notes - preferably branded with all your contact info, etc. More valuable, more it will be kept... "memorabilia brands experiences" (that's what I always say!)
Wear a custom badge - again, with your logo... stick tags slowly peel off and distracts from your message, and our handwriting sucks. Business cards are often too small. We can all print a colorful, large tag to pin.

I'm sure there are more others can add...
~ Vik Rajan
PersonalBrandMarketing.com

Thanks for the great additions, Vik! Asking the audience questions and soliciting questions from them is important in my judgement to get everyone involved in learning. If they are shy to get started, I find telling stories and even making fun of myself helps loosen people up so they will participate.

It is a tipping point. I am finding the same with my radio show early on. Someone calls, and the phone gets active. You need that first mover.