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 Training for Women: Can We Get Away With Being Funny?

It will come as no surprise to you that I do have very strong views on whether women can make as good a use of humor in public speaking speeches and presentations as men can - but those views are based not so much on whether the speaker is male or female, but more on whether the speaker (whatever gender) is naturally funny or not.

There's nothing more excruciating than listening to either a man or a woman telling a joke in a public speaking speech when they don't have the knack for delivering it, or if it is inappropriate for the audience and gets no more than a polite chuckle from the event organizer and embarrassed coughs from everyone else.

When I'm writing public speaking speeches for clients who are not natural comedians, I always advise them to avoid trying to be funny because it will fall flat. Far better to be interesting, engaging, sincere and if relevant, emotive. Much as most English-speaking audiences enjoy a good joke, humor is not the be-all and end-all of successful public speaking. Humor is a condiment that can add spice to a public speaking speech or presentation; but just like any other condiment, it can ruin whatever it's sprinkled on if it's wrong for the job, or there's too much of it.

Women are more subtle at making people laugh

In the case of mixed audiences as you would get at a wedding, bar mitzvah or other social event, I have to say I can understand how some people, especially older ones, might be offended to hear a woman tell bawdy, blue jokes in a public speaking speech. In the case of a wedding that's probably the domain of the best man if there is one - not because it's a masculine privilege, but because it's boring to all but the few drunken rugby types at the back of the room.

Anyway as you can imagine there is a vast difference between that, and being amusing. In some ways I think women public speaking speech makers have an easier job of making audiences laugh, because they can get a laugh on a much more subtle level than men can - especially from the other women in the audience. Women do not need four-letter words or side-slapping hysterics; with just a smile and a few choice words you can bring the house down.

It is perhaps because of the old fashioned expectation that men will be funny in a public speaking speech and women will not, that women can get laughs more easily. That's especially true if she personalizes the humor - and there are ways to cheat that one. Take this example of a Chief Bridesmaid talking about the hen night...

Original joke (quite a well-known one)
The food in this hotel is disgusting. What could I do about it?
You'd better bring it up at the New Guests' Welcome Meeting.

Personalised version
Some of you here will remember that Cassie's "hen" night was quite an occasion... although my memories of it aren't all that clear after about the seventh glass of champagne. Anyway one thing I do remember though was that breakfast the next morning was awful... greasy, cold scrambled eggs and undercooked bacon. I remember poor Cassie complaining about it and I told her not to worry, we would all bring it up as soon as I could find the manager.

Anyway, enough of the joke crafting! For now, anyway.

Women's public speaking: what are the other issues?

Whereas all the criteria of how to compose, write and prepare a public speaking speech itself are of course identical whoever you are, there are a few "on-stage" considerations specifically for women.

In one of my books, "Wedding Public speaking speeches For Women," I was lucky to get some advice from a top drama coach/teacher, Gail Cornish, who came up with some very useful tips about women in public speaking. Here are a few short excerpts from that...

A woman's voice tends to travel and project better than a man's because it is lighter and higher. However, this can tend to give her less "authority" when speaking.

An untrained female speaker should concentrate on keeping her voice as low in pitch as possible (without sounding like Margaret Thatcher!) to avoid any shrillness.

When practising her public speaking speech, she should do breathing exercises (the breath is the "fuel", so to speak, for the voice "motor" - most people breathe too shallowly), facial warm up exercises, vocal warm up exercises and practice speaking to the end of a room, to the end of the garden, speaking while the radio is playing - all of these can help to keep the volume up.

Also practise speaking slowly. Record yourself doing the public speaking speech - you will probably be speaking too fast. Go at half the speed that you think feels right - then halve it again - that will probably be about right for public speaking!

Practice status: say the public speaking speech with your toes turned inward, your shoulders hunched, looking down or flicking your eyes around, touching your face and hair frequently. Then drop all those behaviours. Say the public speaking speech standing straight, looking straight ahead and sweeping your eyes slowly around from one side to the other, keeping your hands and head straight and still.

Suzan St. Maur: link

Subject: Public Speaking Training