Tag Archives: speaking

Two Important Speaking Tips | chrisbrogan.com

Two Important Speaking Tips | chrisbrogan.com.

Chris Brogan, as usual, has some really insightful tips about speaking. Chris says “Here are two really fast and important speaking tips for you to learn and understand. Start with answering your audience’s most pressing question: “what’s in this for me?” And then finish by giving your audience actionable takeaways. Making these two speaking tips top of mind becomes vital in delivering a presentation that matters. Too often, we have a tendency to clear our autobiographical throats before we dig into educating an audience. Then, we end with no real sense of what comes next. This means we leave people excited, but with nothing to do.”

Brogan provides us with an example: “Takeaways should be very actionable. If you’ve finished up your speech on how podcasting changes communication, give people an assignment to find five podcasts on iTunes and subscribe for a month. Take notes on the ways each show introduces information, etc. Review your current corporate communications documents. Do any lend themselves to a potential audio format as well?

By starting with WIIFM and ending with 5 takeaways – even if you do it in a creative way that breaks the mold a bit, people will feel like they better understand and appreciate your efforts to educate and entertain them.”

The WIIFM and ending with 5 takeaways gives you a structure, a roadmap. AdvancingWomen.com believes having a proven structure always makes a presenter….you…. feel more comfortable and confident and leads to a more effective presentation and better results. Your audience, after all, is coming not just to hear you, but to know what to do next on their own. The more they understand what they need to do next to execute on the main points of your presentation, the more successful you will have been and the higher your audience will rate you.  Always a good thing when jumping on the speaker’s circuit

Do you have any speaking tips or techniques to share?  If so, please jump in and add a comment.  Thanks

For the whole post, go here Two Important Speaking Tips

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Marketing Brand “You”

Personal branding isn’t only important for promoting a product, business or political cause, but also for promoting yourself .

  • Think of yourself as your #1 product.
  • Manage your career like your #1 product
  • Market yourself like your # product.

http://prvision.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/400px-famous_brands.png

The first priority in developing “Brand You”, is to develop your skills and abilities and professional reputation. You can do this by identifying your strengths, value and accomplishments, then broadcasting them in your community, through social networking sites or on the web with your own page.

An observation to consider by Alisha Nicole on her blog, PR Vision: ” I came across an interesting site created as experiment in brand perception. Noah Brier’s Brand Tags shows visitors a logo and asks them to submit a word or phrase that they immediately associate with this brand.  “The basic idea of this site is that a brand exists entirely in people’s heads. Therefore, whatever it is they say a brand is, is what it is.”

The take away from that observation on brand perception is that you have a blank canvass on which you get to create the best possible, and also true, image of yourself.  Focus on the positive, on your best traits, strongest skills and greatest accomplishments.  Modesty doesn’t create opportunity.

The benefits are many. Personal branding:

  • Adds perceived value to your product or service
  • Increases your earning potential
  • Differentiates you from the competition
  • Enhances your reputation and prestige
  • Positions your focused message in the minds of your target market
  • Confers top of mind status
  • Increases your authority and credibility

Branding yourself should become a life long habit. Once you’ve recognized and developed your strengths, think about how you best connect with people. Consider what your target audience needs and wants, identify the value you deliver to meet those needs and wants, and communicate that value in a way that reaches your target market through the channels that work best for you.  Word of mouth works.  Speaking works and giving presentations works.  Websites and social networking sites work.  Practice them all.  Or start by identifying which venue you feel most comfortable with and do that first.  But keep expanding your comfort zone until you’re doing them all.

Brands are built over the long term, so don’t expect instant results.  But the rewards and benefits are also long term, so an investment of time and energy in building and broadcasting “Brand You”, will be a productive and valuable investment earning lifetime returns.

( Brand Perception graphic from PR Vision by Alisha Nicole)

See also Professional Online Career Portfolios

How to Captivate an Audience

OPEN Forum -  How to Captivate an Audience.

Nancy Duarte knows how to make killer presentations. She and her husband, Mark, founded Duarte Design, Inc., a firm that helps everyone from Google to Al Gore master the art of captivating audiences. Her recent book is called slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. In this interview, she shares the secret to great Powerpoints and tells us how to avoid some of the most common presentation pitfalls, starting with the question:” Why do most presentations suck?”

If youre serious about wanting to improve your presentations, whether in house or to a large group, this author gets into the nuts and bolts of doing it right, giving some good advice like “Develop your content from the context of what the audience needs,” and noting that high impact presentations take some time to develop.  She also notes the importance of feedback from honest friends who are not afraid to tell you when your presentation is not up to par.  For the whole post, go here:

How to Captivate an Audience.