Articles in category: Resources for Speakers

Reading about audience analysis and talking about audience analysis is great… in theory.

But it’s much better if you are doing audience analysis, instead.

To help you make audience analysis a positive habit, I’m sharing a free audience analysis worksheet.

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Update: The server upgrade is complete. Thanks for your patience.


 

This weekend (December 21-22), Six Minutes is getting a gift from Santa — a new web server!

While the update is taking place, Six Minutes will be unavailable (hopefully less than 24 hours). I apologize for any inconvenience, but I hope you are all attending holiday parties instead!

When the maintenance is complete, the new server should be both faster and more reliable. This is necessary to continue to provide the very best public speaking and presentation skills resources to you.

Happy holidays to you and your families and friends!

Hundreds of presentation books are published each year.

Some are bad. Some are good. And some are outstanding!

We want to help you find the outstanding books — books which truly help you build your presentation skills. That’s why we publish book reviews on Six Minutes.

So, when Gonzalo Álvarez invited me to join in a survey of experts to rate a collection of the best presentation books, I was happy to participate.

This article reports the results of this survey: the top 35 books on presentations.

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The holiday season is a time of renewing traditions: parties with friends, family, and colleagues; decorating the house, inside and out; and making wishlists and shopping for the items on the lists of those you love.

On Six Minutes, we have a holiday tradition too: a holiday list of gift ideas for speakers, whether that recipient is you, or someone special in your life. In this article, we list speaker gift ideas ranging from tiny stocking stuffers to more tantalizing items. Whether you are a professional speaker or whether speaking is a new hobby, there’s something for everyone.

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Six Minutes began 5 years ago, with a speech critique about a novel presentation style. Hundreds of articles, thousands of subscribers, and millions of visitors later, we’re still going strong thanks to you, our readers.

To celebrate our 5-year anniversary, we have compiled our 50 most popular speaking articles.

Please share this article with others, and save or bookmark it to return again and again to enjoy the best of Six Minutes. Thanks for reading!

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The holiday season is a time of renewing traditions: parties with friends, family, and colleagues; decorating the house, inside and out; and making wishlists and shopping for the items on the lists of those you love.

On Six Minutes, we have a holiday tradition too: a holiday list of gift ideas for speakers, whether that recipient is you, or someone special in your life. In this article, we list speaker gift ideas ranging from tiny stocking stuffers to more tantalizing items. Whether you are a professional speaker or whether speaking is a new hobby, there’s something for everyone.

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What if I told you that you could attend a series of workshops given by seven presentation experts?

What if I told you that you could do so without getting on a plane, a bus, or even a bicycle?

What if told it was free?

I’m pleased to invite you to attend a free online webinar series focussed on improving your skills as a presenter.

The speakers include several experts which have been featured before on Six Minutes:

  • Carmen Taran – author of Better Beginnings (read our book review)
  • Jan Schultink – author of the Idea Transplant blog, a favorite of mine
  • Ellen Finkelstein – organizer of the workshop series, and also a noted PowerPoint blogger

Other speakers include Cliff Atkinson, Bruce Gabrielle, Simon Morton, and… me!

Webinars are scheduled every Wednesday. They start on September 7th, and continue through October 26th. (I’m presenting on October 19th.) Sessions will be recorded and available for playback if you can’t make every one… but you must be registered to get access.

I attended several of the sessions in last year’s Outstanding Presentations Workshop, and I learned a great deal. I highly recommend investing just an hour each week in this informative series.

Read more about the Outstanding Presentations Workshop on the website and register today!

This afternoon, I watched Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech again. (You can find the full speech text and video, along with an extensive Six Minutes speech analysis here.)

I was reminded of the tremendous power speeches can wield. One cannot watch Dr. King or read his words without stirring emotions, even though the speech was given over 47 years ago.

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to Six Minutes readers around the world. I hope this season is peaceful and happy for you, your family, and friends.

It’s been quiet around Six Minutes for a while, but we’ll be resuming regular articles soon.

In the meantime, you may be interested in some holiday resources:

Our recent interview with Kristin Arnold, President of the National Speakers Association, led me to several questions:

  • How many professional speaker associations exist?
  • Where are they?
  • How long have they been around?
  • How many members do they have?

Do you know the answers? Read on!

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The barbecues are ready. The vacations are planned. The schools are squeezing students out.

Summer has arrived.

Lazy summer days and relaxing summer evenings provide some of the best conditions for enjoying a good book, whether educational or frivolous.

What will you be reading? Will a speaking book or two slide into your plans? If you are looking for a great summer read, consider the books below.

In this article, we list the most popular public speaking books being read by the Six Minutes community — people just like you with an avid interest in speaking effectively.

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