Public Speaking Skills Training

The Art of Public Speaking
Our Public Speaking training courses are designed for both the inexperienced presenter or as a refresher for the more experienced members of your company or organization. The Public Speaking Training Company’s public speaking skills training courses and workshops are offered in most major cities across the United States and Canada. All public speaking skills training classes are kept to a maximum of ten participants. This guarantees that all students will have ten digitally recorded in class practice exercises. The public speaking skills training course is conducted by two senior level instructors. This assures all participants that they will personally have the necessary face to face interaction to assure their success.
 

Our public speaking skills training courses will eliminate your fear or inexperience in public speaking and dramatically improve your speaking skills whether you are persuading, educating, or informing. Our highly interactive public speaking training courses focus on professional business communication including preparation, structure, delivery, and strategy, use of visual aids, and handling questions & answers. Contact us today by phone at 713-627-7700 or via email: service@publicspeakingtraining.net

Public Speaking Skills Training Consultants Say the Darnedest Things

Part of being in the presentation skills training business is keeping up with current findings and new literature in the field. As any modern day researcher (read: web surfer) knows, this can consume huge amounts of time as each interesting looking hyperlink leads to another, and another, and, well, you know how it works.

Sometimes, our travels are rewarded with gems like the ones that follow. Turns out that ever since Dale Carnegie discovered about a century ago that good public speaking was a process that could be learned rather than inherited, there's been little shortage of people out there with "good advice" to pass on. Some of these people even take money for it! Anyway, here's a sample of the wisdom we garnered for free, and it’s worth every penny!

T.B., a presentation skills consultant writing at All Sands, a knowledge site, advises:

"Many professional actors and public speakers find that doing light callisthenic exercises in their dressing rooms or a private area can relieve the excess energy. Try running in place, or shaking your arms and legs. Go out for a quick run somewhere, or punch a boxing bag. The trick is to release enough nervous energy to calm your anxieties, but not leave you so stress-free that your public speaking speech suffers."

Problem: When we're engaged to do public speaking, we often have to wear a suit and tie. It's been our experience that going out for a run just before we go on stage can often work up a good sweat! If you can help it, while presenting you really never want the public speaking audience see you sweat. And the punching bag idea is not always a convenient one. If you're giving your presentation out-of-town, a full-size Ever last bag does not easily fit in the overhead bins or under the seat in front of you, and can really slow you down when running to catch a flight.

Solution: The excess energy people experience when speaking results from adrenaline pulsing through the body, brought on by the classic fight-or-flight syndrome that accompanies fear. The fear needs to be dealt with, not the energy. In our presentation skills seminars, we show participants how many of the techniques they learned in their public speaking "education" actually create, build, and compound normal levels of anxiety.

A.M., another public speaking consultant writing at All Sands, advises:

"Some speakers are surprised to learn how limited their view of the public speaking audience really is when all the stage lights are turned on. What you might fear as a group of faces staring at you in judgment may just turn out to be an anonymous group of shadows."

Problem: Call us old-fashioned, but when speaking in public, we don't feel we're really relating to our public speaking audience best if we can think of them as an "anonymous group of shadows". If you think not looking at the public speaking audience is a good thing, how about just wearing a pair of Blues Brothers shades? Or maybe squinting your eyes really tight, so that the people all become one amorphous blob? Or, better yet, maybe closing your eyes completely!

Solution: Actually, learning to adopt proper eye-contact techniques is the key to reducing the self-induced fear factor we spoke of above. More to this point, though, is that to be a truly professional public speaker, to be believed and get your public speaking audience behind you, it is essential that you firmly establish eye contact with the individuals in the group.

Ask yourself this: If you're buying a used car and have questions about its history, do you want the dealer to look you in the eye, or to treat you like an anonymous shadow?

But wait - there's more!

T. H., author of Essential Managers Series "Making Presentations", DK Publishing:

"[When public speaking] try to glance at the whole public speaking audience at the start so that they feel involved. Sweep your gaze across the entire public speaking audience."

Problem: Yeah, whenever we've got a group that we really need to convince, or whenever trust is an issue, the words "glance" and "gaze" come to mind first if we're thinking eye contact. We believe people feel a certain level of sincerity with a glance or gaze that you just can't get with that direct, look-me-in-the-eye thing. Also, when we first get up in front of a strange group, we like to get as much visual over-stimulation as possible, just to get that adrenaline pumping at full force!

Solution: The great news here is that when you engage proper presentation skills, it’s a win-win for all. In all forms of speaking, proper eye contact works for both the public speaking audience and the presenter. We show participants the skills required to establish the right amount of contact for every presentation situation; our participants quickly discover for themselves just how comfortable and de-stimulating this can be. In addition, members of the public speaking audience feel greater trust, because it’s hard to believe someone is lying when they look you in the eye.

Finally, one of our favorites:

From e-training systems, you can take away this useful public speaking tip:

"Without doubt the hardest kind of public speaking format to prepare for is speaking impromptu."

Public Speaking Skills: We don't think Yogi Berra could have said it any better!

J. Douglas Jefferys: link

Subject: Public Speaking Skills Training