Book Freak #9: Public Speaking Tips
Three pieces of advice on becoming a better public speaker.
Book Freak is one of four newsletters from Cool Tools Lab (our other three are the Cool Tools Newsletter, Recomendo, and What’s in my bag?).
In each weekly issue of Book Freak, we offer three short pieces of advice from books. Here’s the advice from our latest issue.
Don’t Try to Be Someone Else
“Your goal is not to be Winston Churchill or Nelson Mandela. It’s to be you. If you’re a scientist, be a scientist; don’t try to be an activist. If you’re an artist, be an artist; don’t try to be an academic. If you’re just an ordinary person, don’t try to fake some big intellectual style; just be you. You don’t have to raise a crowd to its feet with a thunderous oration. Conversational sharing can work just as well. In fact, for most audiences, it’s a lot better. If you know how to talk to a group of friends over dinner, then you know enough to speak publicly.”
― Chris J. Anderson, TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking
The Power of Silence
“When you pause, your audience thinks about your message and reflects. Pausing builds an audiences’ confidence. If you don’t pause, your audience doesn’t have time to digest what you’ve told them and hence, they will not remember a word of what you’ve said.”
— Andrii Sedniev, Magic of Public Speaking: A Complete System to Become a World Class Speaker
Focus on the Outcome
“Seth Godin said: “If you’re not going to change my mind and change my life and make me go and do something different, why are you boring me with a presentation? Why not just send an email?” ”
― J.F. Penn, Public Speaking for Authors, Creatives and other Introverts
06/20/19
