Public Speaking – The One Secret to Delivering A Successful Speech

Executive Speech Coach & Hall of Fame Speaker, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE
Executive Speech Coach & Hall of Fame Speaker, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

A few months ago, I received an email: “I am a great fan of yours. Could I interview you for my blog?”

I was busy, and my first instinct was to reply, “Please contact me again in three months.” However, before I hit “send” I thought twice and decided to click on the link to his website. To my surprise, I was looking at someone quite famous (and handsome, I should add). I picked up the phone and said, “What is an Emmy Award-winning TV interviewer and game show host doing being one of my fans?”

Well, we had a great conversation. Obviously, I was willing to grant him the interview. Before we wrapped up, he asked, “Patricia, what is the one secret of delivering a great presentation?”

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Sri Lankan Wins Toastmasters’ 2014 World Championship of Public Speaking

Dananjaya Hettiarachchi
Congratulations to Dananjaya Hettiarachchi!  He is the 2014 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking.

Congratulations to Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, the 2014 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking!  On August 23rd, Hettiarachchi, a human resource development (HRD) specialist from Colombo, Sri Lanka, won the world’s largest speech contest, the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking, with a humorous speech titled, “I See Something.” Below is a clip from his speech. Along with eight other final contestants, he reached the championship level after several eliminating rounds, which began six months ago with 30,000 participants from 126 countries; Toastmasters International is truly international! Past World Champion winners of this prestigious contest include my co presenters at Lady and the Champs events: Ed Tate, Craig Valentine, and Darren LaCroix. I share this from Toastmasters’ International:

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Fripp Virtual Training Members to Compete at Toastmasters International Speech Contest

Toastmasters International LogoAs you read this, the Toastmasters International Convention is being held outside North America for the first time – in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Before I became a professional keynote speaker and long before I became an in-demand speech coach… I joined Cable Car Toastmasters in San Francisco. Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network. Who would have guessed how that action transformed my life and opened a career I never would have imagined?

On behalf of my partners in World Champions’ Edge, Ed Tate, Darren LaCroix, Craig Valentine, and the convention’s opening keynote speaker Mark Brown and out over 500 worldwide members, we are full of pride that many World Champions’ Edge members and Fripp Virtual Training members are in Kuala Lumpur competing in Speech Contests at this year’s International Convention. Speech contests are a Toastmasters tradition. Toastmasters who make it to the international speech competition have already won competitions, beginning with club contests and continuing through area, division, and district level contests, in order to reach this elite level of competition. Congratulations and best wishes to our World Champions’ Edge members and Fripp Virtual Training members competing in this year’s International Contests – we know you can keep those judges Frippnotized! As Darren LaCroix, who in 2001 won the World Championship of Public Speaking – and is there to cheer you on – says, “It is not about the trophy, although that is nice, it about the skills and discipline you develop along the way.”

Good luck Edge members. It is an honor to know you.

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How to Treat Your Sales People Like Real Business Operators

Strategy
Anyone who has ever operated a business knows that running a business does not include the right to follow the path of the wind.

Leadership traditionally comes from the top down, and paradoxically leadership is also necessary from the bottom up. My friend and fellow speaker, Lee B. Salz is a sales management strategist who very wisely recommends giving sales people the responsibility of creating their company’s sales business plan.  In taking on this responsibility, sales people become leaders and deepen their commitment to their company’s sales objectives and strategies.  As I often say,  “A team is a group of people who may not be equal in experience, talent, or education… but in commitment.” I share these excellent insights from Lee:

How Sales People WANT To Be Managed…And How They SHOULD Be Managed
by Lee B. Salz

Sales people often say they want to be managed as if they were operating their own business. And, that’s exactly how they should be managed. Yet, there is a disconnect between how sales people perceive running a business works…and real-life. A sales business plan can help bridge this gap.

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Public Speaking – How Many Hours of Rehearsal?

11 Deadly Presentation Sins by Rob Biesenbach
11 Deadly Presentation Sins by Rob Biesenbach

A successful presentation requires you to devote much more time to preparing your presentation than you will spend in delivering it. Even experienced speakers must prepare for a presentation; this includes rehearsal. My friend and colleague, Rob Biesenbach names inadequate rehearsal as one of the “11 Deadly Presentation Sins.” In his recent book with this title, Rob provides these strategies to help you prepare for your presentation:

So How Long Should You Rehearse?
by Rob Biesenbach

I love to ask this question of audiences: “For a one-hour speech, how many hours of rehearsal do experts recommend?”

The guessing usually starts at five hours. And each time I call out “higher,” people’s eyes get wider. Ten? Fifteen? Twenty? When we finally land on 30 hours, they don’t quite believe it.

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Use Outstanding Presentation Techniques to Improve Your Videos

Video Strategist, Pat Ferdinandi with Scarlett.
Video Strategist, Pat Ferdinandi knows how to create videos that get results.  She is pictured with Scarlet.

My friend Pat Ferdinandi is a video strategist who helps individuals and organizations demonstrate their value and establish client trust through video. More than one billion unique users visit YouTube each month. Whether your videos are posted to YouTube or created exclusively for is specific clients, video is one of the most effective ways you can explain your service to prospective clients, ensure that your products and service stands out in a sea of competitors, satisfy current customers, and expand your customer-reach. The fact is that outside the privacy  of your home, all speaking is public speaking. Pat recently created a video explaining how some of my signature Fripp techniques for outstanding presentations can greatly improve your promotional videos. I share this with you here:

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How Huge Changes in Buying Have Impacted Selling Webinar

How Huge Changes in Buying Have Impacted Selling

Screenshot from Fripp Virtual Training
Fripp Virtual Training

According to Daniel Pink, bestselling author of To Sell is Human, selling and buying has changed more in the last 5 years than it did in the last 100 years!  Unfortunately, most salespeople have NOT adapted to these changes.  What worked well just a few short years ago can be a liability today.

As part of our continuing goal of bringing interesting speakers and ideas to you to help you develop as a salesperson, manager, and business executive, we’re excited to invite you to a dynamic, new webinar on Wednesday, August 6, 11am Pacific.

Why not  sign in and join me in learning how we can improve sales with Jim Dunn, partner at Whetstone Group, a sales process improvement and training company.  He is the co-author of several books, including Common Sense Selling, Sales Mastery, and The Monday Morning Sales Coach.  He has trained 1000s of salespeople in over 17 countries.   Jim brings a new perspective to the old game of selling, one that will help you understand how these changes are affecting your everyday selling activities and how salespeople are now being manipulated.  You’ll walk away with some fresh ideas on how to begin making the transition to selling more effectively and selectively. We will also learn a tool that you can put into practice immediately.
The webinar is complimentary.  You won’t want to miss this.
Click here for more information and to reserve your spot now.

http://webinarjam.net/webinar/go/1087/ededafe0b4

We all need to have a competitive edge. This webinar will help.

Patricia Fripp

 

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Inside Secrets of Powerful Persuasive Sales Presentations

Patricia Fripp, explains how to prepare a powerful and persuasive sales presentation through Fripp Virtual Training.
Patricia Fripp, explains how to prepare a powerful and persuasive sales presentation through Fripp Virtual Training.

Discover the strategies behind effective sales presentations, as I share the Inside Secrets of Powerful Persuasive Sales Presentations. Presentation skills are critical, because being perceived as a dynamic, inspiring, and persuasive communicator is no longer just a nice skill to have. It is a necessity that can mean the difference between business and career life or death!

If there is little to differentiate you from your competition, being able to prepare and deliver a superior sales presentation gives you the competitive edge you need to turn prospects into clients. I share five specific ways you can improve your presentations in this video from a recent FrippVT community event. Enjoy!

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Do You Know How to Deliver A Wedding Toast? Toastmasters’ Tips for The Perfect Toast

Wedding Toast
A toast sets the tone for the wedding reception, so it’s important that the person speaking is prepared, poised and confident.

In 1924, Ralph C. Smedley held the first meeting of what would eventually become Toastmasters International, created to train young men in “the art of public speaking and in presiding over meetings.” In those days, the word “toastmaster” referred to a person who proposed the toasts and introduced the speakers at a banquet. Smedley named his group “The Toastmasters Club” because he thought it evoked a pleasant, social atmosphere.  Today, Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills to women and men of all ages through a worldwide network. Although Toastmasters has always helped individuals achieve public speaking excellence far beyond the banquet hall, understanding how to correctly deliver a toast is still something that many need help with. Here is a recent piece from Toastmasters with their best practices for honoring newlyweds. Even if you are not called upon to deliver a wedding toast this season, consider how you can adapt some of these strategies to prepare for occasions in your professional or personal life when you might be required to make a toast or share a few remarks. Remember, as I always say, “Outside the privacy of your own home, all speaking is public speaking.”

Tips for The Perfect Wedding Toast

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Practice Does Not Make Perfect – Are You Reinforcing Bad Habits?

Hall of Fame Keynote Speaker and Executive Speech Coach, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE
Hall of Fame Keynote Speaker and Executive Speech Coach, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Are you practicing to improve? Or are you inadvertently reinforcing bad habits? Sure, the old adage says that practice makes perfect. But in fact, practice makes permanent.

Practice can help you become a better speaker, but it can also make you more comfortable with your public speaking mistakes –  unconscious language or gestures that detract from your message. My recommendation is to closely examine what you actually say and do in important conversations and presentations. Have you ever recorded what it is you say at the podium? Have you ever videotaped yourself in a training session with your staff? Or asked for the feedback of a trusted colleague? You might be surprised.

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