Presentation Skills

When I first started writing speeches, I struggled to know how many words to write for a speech of a given length. The only way I would know was to rehearse the speech and time how long it lasted. I have since learned that I typically speak at an average of 80-100 words per minute…

I was particularly impressed with the way Rich matched his energy and pace of delivery to the story he was telling. At the start his pace was slow and measured as he described the rather boring car journey where he was too small to see much out of the car window but clouds. Then, when he arrived at his gran’s the pace picked up dramatically as he described zooming into her house (an Aladdin’s cave for a five year old boy!) with his arms outstretched behind him pretending to be a plane. The pace stayed high as he described how he explored and played and then slowed a little as he started to describe the other family members present. The pace slowed further as he brought us up to the present day and how things had changed. How his granny wasn’t as energetic as she had been, how the food wasn’t as home cooked as it had been and so on. This “gear change”change of pace brought a poignancy and a sense of reflection to this speech that worked beautifully and lead us up nicely to Rich’s take away message.

A good friend of mine and fellow trainer Stella Collins drew my attention to this unusual new application which creates a “word cloud” from any web page or piece of text. The frequency with which the words appear in your text determines how large they appear in the Wordle image. Apart from creating interesting graphics,…

I recently read an excellent post by Andrew Dlugan where he draws some powerful lessons in speech writing from President Obamas inauguration address. We can all learn much from the study and deconstruction of effective speeches and this article is one of the clearest I have read for a while. I recommend that you set…

In my last post I focused on the delivery side of an impromptu speech but what about the content? How do I stop by brain going blank and running out of things to say? Well here are two further technique to help you wow your audience ; Use the PEP model Position – Start…

Delivering a prepared speech can be nerve-racking enough, the thought of being put on the spot to give a short speech without any preparation or advance warning can seem to some people like their worst nightmare. other people cope remarkably well with these situations so what can we learn from them? Well for a start…

Some people find it hard to plan and structure their speech effectively. There are lots of models out there but here is one of my favourites. It’s called the aeroplane approach and is particularly useful when you know how you want your speech to finish but are not sure how to get to that end…

The other day I attended a talk on procurement by a university lecturer who had vast experience in the corporate world. The talk could have been really interesting but wasn’t. Why? Because he assumed that his audience members all came from larger companies with full-time purchasing and procurement departments. In fact, we were the opposite…

I recently heard Sir Digby Jones being interviewed on BBC Radio 4. When he admitted that he still got nervouse every time he spoke he took a bit of a ribbing from interviewer John Humphries. Somehow people think that experienced speakers don’t get nervous. What a load of rubbish. Even the best speakers get nervous. …

I have been enjoying watching the first two episodes of “The Speaker”, the BBC’s new public speaking competition for teenagers. Already there have been some outstanding performances and it’s been interesting to see who and why the judges have chosen to go through to the top 20. I have also been feeling for the people…

Speech writing tips – How many words in a speech?

Match the pace to your content – Changing gear in a speech or presentation

A different way to look at your speech – Wordle.net

Speechwriting lessons from Barak Obama

Impromptu speaking tips – part 2

Impromptu Speaking Tips – Part 1

Planning a speech – Try the aeroplane approach

Make it relevant to your audience

Let’s hear it for nerves!

Memorising a script – Structure or Straitjacket?