Public Speaking – Share Your Passion
No matter how good your public speaking techniques, if you aren’t passionate about your subject your talk is likely to fall flat. This message was brought home loud and clear to me last week at a networking meeting where one of the members had prepared a 10-minute talk on themselves and their business.
Brian (his real name) engaged us right from the start with his enthusiasm and energy both for his business – Shipping and Logistics, and his hobby – dancing the Tango!
His eyes sparkled, his voice reflected his energy and he kept his focus on his audience throughout with excellent eye contact. He didn’t need lots of complicated visual aids, just one overview slide of his business and a recording of some tango music.
Afterwards, when I went up to him to congratulate him he said he was expecting criticism and was surprised when I confined myself to specific constructive praise. He had met his objectives. We all understood more about his business. We got a real feel for him, his style and his dynamism and we learned some tips about how we might use the internet better to develop our own businesses – not bad for a ten-minute talk.
Thanks for the comment Yim. I’m delighted we are on the same wavelength. Passion is infectious and critical to successful communications.
You are absolutely right in your observation. Passion can carry a poor speaker. But even a great speaker with excellent techniques won’t get far if he’s bored with his subject. Thanks for the post!