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By Arlen Busenitz, on May 4th, 2010%
Study the famous speakers of the past and present and you'll find most use an important public speaking tip. They speak with enthusiasm and passion. Great speakers care about their topic and influencing the audience. We can learn from them and put some fire and passion into our presentation.
Here are three ways to help us speak with passion and enthusiasm
1. Choose topics you care about.
2. Think about how your message will impact the audience.
3. Act enthusiastic. Control your body and the feelings will follow.
You captivate the audience when you deliver your speech. Use this important public speaking tip and speak with passion and enthusiasm.
By Arlen Busenitz, on March 9th, 2010%
 Yesterday, you learned the power of speaking to one person. Another powerful delivery tip is to use the word “you”
Compare these two questions:
“How many have been to New York City?”
“Have you visited New York City?”
The second question is much more personal and the audience member will feel like you are speaking to them. After asking this, you would pause to let people mentally answer yes or no.
Presentation Tip #9: Use the word “You” frequently and reword general questions and statements.
Skim through your presentation and insert the word you when appropriate. When you get to a general statement or question, ask, “How would I word this if I was visiting with someone in the hallway.” Craig Valentine calls this the hall way test.
We would never say to someone in the hallway, “Who here has vacationed in Mexico?”
Instead we would say, “Have you vacationed in Mexico?”
Notice the difference?
Also watch out for what Darren Lacroix calls the “You / I ratio”. We should be using the word “You” much more than the word “I”.
Use the word “You” frequently and it’ll help you connect with and impact the audience.
By Arlen Busenitz, on March 3rd, 2010%
Has the audience ever been bored during your presentation? Unfortunately, there have been many times I have lost the attention of the audience and bored them. Why? Is it the subject, the delivery, the structure, the lack of stories?
Presentation Tip #3: If the Audience is bored, the problem is not the subject. It may be you.
Ouch! A good speaker can make any subject interesting. Sure, some subjects are more interesting that others, but you can hold the audience's attention with any subject. Use effective story-telling techniques. Speak with passion. Speak to one person. Apply other speaking tips.
Do this and you will wake'm up and your message will hit home.
By Arlen Busenitz, on February 8th, 2010%
 What makes one person successful and another person unsuccessful? Brian Tracy claims the answer is simple. Successful people have successful (million dollar) habits. In his book Million Dollar Habits, Brian lists the habits a person must have to be successful.
I realized the same principle applies to speakers.
Successful speakers have million dollar speaking habits.
After some brain storming, here are a list of 10 habits we should have as speakers (Feel free to share your thoughts). Having these may not make us a million dollars, but it will help make us incredible speakers.
#1: Be passionate about our message.
#2: Be audience focused and truly desire to serve/help them.
#3: Know and research the audience before every speech.
#4: Give a clear organized presentation.
#5: Have one main point or foundational phrase.
#6: End on time.
#7: Speak to one person
#8: Prepare well.
#9: Give a $10,000 speech every time.
#10: Review and evaluate every presentation.
Developing these habits
On the right side of my computer desktop is a shortcut to a file with a list of million dollar speaking habits. Every time I prepare, I seek to glance through and implement the habits. Why?
Time + Consistent Action = New habit.
Soon these habits will be almost second nature.
What other habits could we include?
(C) Arlen Busenitz
By Arlen Busenitz, on January 21st, 2010%
 A dry mouth can really hinder a presentation or conversation. In part 1 I shared 4 dry mouth solution tips. Here are 5 more dry mouth tips to help you when conversing or speaking from the stage.
#5: Lightly bite your tongue.
By lightly biting your tongue, you’ll find your mouth starts producing more saliva. Here again it is important that your body be hydrated.
#6: Use Sugar Free Candy
Many famous people will keep candy or lozenge in their mouth if they have problems with a dry mouth. Check with your pharmacy if you wish for specially made ones. Lemon flavored often helps. Unless you have an extreme dry mouth, remove it before you stand up to speak.
#7: Sleep with a Humidifier
A humidifier puts water into the air. In the winter the air becomes drier and can irritate the throat and dry out the mouth. Breathing in this moist air at night can prepare you for the public speaking event.
#8: Learn how to Overcome Fear of Public Speaking and Social Anxiety
Think of a good speaker that you know. Likely at one time this person experience stage fright, fear of public speaking, and speaking anxiety. At one point they learned how to overcome this fear.
You can do the same. Take time to read and study how to overcome public speaking fear and anxiety. There are several good public speaking programs that can help you.
#9: Using breathing Exercises to relax and breath your nose.
Good breathing exercises will help you relax and thus it make it easier for your body to keep your mouth, tongue, and throat moist. Breath in for a count of 3, hold for a count of 3 and breathe out for a count of 6. Repeat.
Before you speak, seek to be breathing your nose as to not dry out your mouth.
Dry mouth affects nearly every speaker. Use these 9 dry mouth solutions and it will help you keep the saliva flowing so you can captivate the audience and speak with confidence.
By Arlen Busenitz, on January 5th, 2010%
I was suffering from public speaking embarrassment. For 20 minutes I had walked around the room greeting people. I smiled, made small talk, and burned off some nervous energy.
Seven minutes before Showtime, I was slammed with an embarrassing realization.
My zipper was wide open. Have you been there? My mind raced back to the ten plus people I had talked to. How many had noticed? Why had no one said anything? Friends don’t let friends walk around with unknown wardrobe malfunctions!
If I had gone on stage with the blinds open, that could have been embarrassing. Thankfully, I caught it before I went up on stage. However, as speakers it’s very important to check our zippers, our buttons, and anything else that could be a distraction.
Not only will a wardrobe malfunction distract the audience but it can throw us off once we realize it. Every speaker has to recover from this, so don’t feel too bad.
What’s the solution? Do a full body mirror check before you walk into the room. Is your hair fine? Food on the face?
Next, as you are waiting your turn to speak make sure your zipper and buttons are OK. Tuck the shirt in. Consciously do this, so you don’t have to do this on stage. It is hard to speak and be checking your wardrobe at the same time.
What if you are speaking and notice something is wrong? If you can discreetly fix it, do so. If the audience is well aware of it, make a joke out and keep on going. You could say, “My worst nightmare has come true. (pause for laughter)” Fix the problem and try and work it into your content.
Don’t be caught with your zipper down. Check your wardrobe before you go on stage and you’ll prevent public speaking embarrassment.
(C) Arlen Busenitz – Speakinginfo.com
By Arlen Busenitz, on October 19th, 2009%
When was the last time you listened to a speaker who actually held your attention for almost the entire presentation?
Just five hours ago, I was listening to a speaker who grabbed my attention and held it. Yes, he was good, but it was not because he was using a lot of slick or advanced public speaking tips.
He was using one of the most powerful public speaking formulas a speaker has in his/hers arsenal.
Tell a Story and Make a point.
Hour after hour, this speaker would tell stories and make points. Sure, he took time to define his content, use quotes, and make some humorous comments. However, He probably had a different story every 5 minutes or so.
After telling a story using effective story telling techniques, he would pause and drive home his point. Next, he would pause to let the point sink in.
Did it work? Yes.
Why is this public speaking tip powerful? Stories automatically hold people’s attention, especially if we use some good story telling techniques. All we have to do as speakers is weave our point into the story or bring it home at the end in a powerful way.
However, we must be careful not to make the mistake that many advertisements make. Do you remember the commercial about cowboys herding cats? How about a more recent one that features a white duck? Here is the million dollar question: what are those stories/scenes representing or selling? I must confess I have no clue about the herding cats commercial, and just recently remember what the duck stood for.
We must tie the story and point together so well that if the audience remembers the story, they’ll for sure remember the point.
How can we apply this tip?
- Use stories throughout our presentations.
- Tie the story and point together so people remember both.
- Use effective story telling techniques to help our stories hit home.
(C) Arlen Busenitz – 2009
http://www.SpeakingInfo.com
By Arlen Busenitz, on October 10th, 2009%
 Eye contact and Peanut butter? Yes, those two are related. Let me explain.
In March of 2004, I was speaking to an audience. If you had been standing with me in the back of the room after the presentation, you would have seen a white haired, elderly lady walk up to me.
Boldly, she said, “You were looking right at me!” For a moment I was taken back because I thought she was upset! She went on, “I felt like you were looking at me the whole time. That’s ok.”
I knew I was not looking at her the whole time, because I was spreading it around.
I’ve never forgot the experience nor the lesson I learned. “Eye contact is powerful.”
As a speaker we want people to feel like we are talking to them. Not in an uncomfortable way, but in a way that connects.
How can you make people feel like you are talking right to them?
Three words. Make eye contact.
Eye contact helps connect us with the audience, keeps the audiences attention, and cements the message in the minds of the audience.
So what does eye contact have to do with peanut butter?
First, eye contact should be sticky, just like peanut butter.
Have you seen wall gazing speakers? They just look at the walls. Or how about “Stare in space” speakers. The audience is outer space and they just kind of stare out.
Unfortunately, I have done both.
We don’t want to be like that. We our eyes to stick with audience members for around 5-8 seconds. Just enough time to deliver a thought and let the member bask in the glow of our attention. They will feel like we are speaking right to them.
Don’t do it too long! We don’t want to stare them down!
Second, eye contact should be spread around-just like peanut butter.
Imagine eating a slice of whole wheat bread where all the peanut butter is crammed in one corner. 75% of the bread would taste dry and the corner would be overpowering.
Same principle applies to eye contact. Spread it around the audience. Hit the front row, the back grow, the sides, the middle, and everywhere in between.
My problem is that I sometimes have eye contact patterns that leave out part of the room. By watching video tapes of myself and being aware of how I speak, I have discovered areas of the room that I used to hardly touch.
Watch yourself on video and notice your eye patterns.
Don’t leave one part of the audience uncovered! Spread the eye contact around.
Next time you speak, keep your eye contact sticky and spread it around to all corners of the room.
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Arlen Busenitz. 2009
By Arlen Busenitz, on October 7th, 2009%
In part one I showed you how Joe should prepare as if only one person was in the room. This same concept should apply when speaking.
Speak to one person at a time.
Craig Valentine says, “Speak to one, but look to all.”
You and I should be having 5-10 second conversations with people in the room. We’ll deliver a couple sentences or one thought to the dark haired individual in the front row. Then we deliver the next few lines to the individual in the back row. We keep to doing this with audience members around the room.
What will happen? Members of the audience will feel like we are speaking right to them. Every speaking book and course hammers home the idea of making eye contact for around 5 seconds.
This tip goes well beyond that. You are not just making eye contact, you are having a conversation with that individual.
Do this and you and I will connect with the audience and stand out from most speakers. A lot of speakers will just talk to the room. Have you seen it? They speak to one side of the room and then the other, but their eyes never lock on an individual.
You can be different. Speak to one person at a time and you will connect and create a positive audience experience.
(C) Arlen Busenitz
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