Last night, I attended a presentation by Ken Annandale, one of my favourite speakers. Ken spoke about the business of being a professional speaker, and I am going to share some of my learnings over the next couple of posts.
Today, I will mention some great tips from Ken on how to be a better speaker.
- Read profusely ? books, magazines, newspapers.
- Watch other speakers
- Live
- On DVD (recent and old speeches ? see how the styles have changed over the years)
- Dissect the speeches
- Listen to the message
- Watch the delivery
- Analyze the structure
- Try to meet and learn from other speakers
- Address different personalities in your speeches (eg extrovert/introvert, or choleric, melancholic, sanguine and phlegmatic)
- Address different learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic)
- Appearance ? whether you like it or not, you will be judged and stereotyped by your appearance. Make a conscious decision about what you are going to wear, and what your stage image is. Remember, you are not just giving a speech, you are putting on a show. Package yourself accordingly.
- Have quality business cards. No home-made cards please. They are simply not professional enough.
In my next post, I will discuss a great speech outline that Ken suggested using.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Temperaments
http://www.businessballs.com/vaklearningstylestest.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles