An outside perspective on your presentation or public speaking skills is often the best way to discover where you can improve your content or delivery. However, ask yourself: “Is this person giving their advice truly qualified to help me? Does this person have my best interests at heart? Am I asking for their input, or […]
Read More...Great Ways to Connect with Your Audience – Expert Advice
The Secret of Connecting to Your Audience When your message is memorable, your communication clear, and your presentation powerful, you will position yourself for greater success. If you want to excel as a public speaker you must make an emotional connection with your audience, regardless of your subject, setting, or message. The most powerful communication […]
Read More...Public Speaking – Delivery Strategy
After you have crafted and rehearsed your presentation, review your delivery strategy. Public speaking can create an adrenaline rush – so, when you are about to take the stage you may feel charged with energy or a bit nervous. Your audience will feel comfortable, when you look confident. Remember, nobody knows how you feel; they […]
Read More...Do You Alienate Your Audience? Make A “You” Turn
If we focus too much on ourselves in our presentations, we run the risk of losing our audience and failing to get our message across – even if our content and delivery is strong. I share some insights on this from my friend and fellow presentation expert, Darren LaCroix. How many times have you been […]
Read More...Public Speaking – The One Secret to Delivering A Successful Speech
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 […]
Read More...Sri Lankan Wins Toastmasters’ 2014 World Championship 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 […]
Read More...Fripp Virtual Training Members to Compete at Toastmasters International Speech Contest
As 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 […]
Read More...Do You Know How to Deliver A Wedding Toast? Toastmasters’ Tips for The Perfect Toast
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 […]
Read More...Practice Does Not Make Perfect – Are You Reinforcing Bad Habits?
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 […]
Read More...Toastmasters’ Golden Gavel Award
Before I became a professional keynote speaker, before I had the honor of serving as the first female president of the NSA (National Speakers Association), and long before I became an in-demand speech coach… I joined Toastmasters. Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network. […]
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