By now, you know that you should be complementing your speech with gestures.

But do you know how big these gestures should be?

In this article, you’ll learn to match the size of your gestures to your audience and venue.

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Looking for public speaking experts on Twitter?

Two years ago, Six Minutes compiled an extensive list of public speaking bloggers.

Now, we’ve enhanced the list to include Twitter accounts for those bloggers.

As of this writing:

• Twitter List — 73 bloggers listed:
  @6minutes/public-speaking-bloggers
• On Six Minutes — 117 blogs listed:
  Public Speaking Blogs

You can follow Six Minutes on Twitter here: @6minutes

On Saturdays, we survey the best public speaking articles from throughout the public speaking blogosphere.

This super-sized review features topics including:

• new public speaking books;
• writing a eulogy;
• eye contact vs. eye communication;
• speaking with notes;
• tools for slide color schemes;
• the validity of learning styles (are they a myth?);
• moderating a panel; and
• being successful as an introvert.

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Think of a group of people whose careers or circumstances require them to work well with one another: athletic teams, orchestras, or emergency room workers. If individual members “do their own thing,” the entire group suffers.

When you’re asked to present as part of a panel of experts or a team making a sales pitch, you might think that there is safety in numbers and that you need to prepare less than if you were speaking on your own.

The truth is that, for your audience, a group presentation is only as strong as its weakest presenter. Here’s how to help your team create a strong and unified group presentation.

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Six weeks ago, we were fortunate to share Becky Blanton’s educational and inspirational story titled How to Deliver the Talk of Your Life. This was one of the most popular articles we’ve ever published on Six Minutes.

The focus of her article — her TEDGlobal 2009 talk — is now available on video. Watching it will be the best seven minutes of your day. Click here to watch it.

Does your voice put your audience to sleep? Does it put you to sleep?

Do you find it hard to convey emotions with your voice?

Are you easy to listen to, or does your voice let you down?

The sixth Toastmasters speech project guides you to harness the power of your own voice. This article of the Toastmasters Speech Series examines the primary goals of this project, provides tips and techniques, and links to numerous sample speeches.

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If you dream of speaking one hour for $15,000, this book is for you.

If you have absolutely no idea how to get there, this book will show you what is required.

Jane Atkinson’s The Wealthy Speaker: The Proven Formula for Building Your Successful Speaking Business is packed with advice to prepare you to make the jump to $15,000 speaking fees, whether you are six months or six years away.

This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

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Two years ago, the very first article was published here on Six Minutes.

Since then, we’ve added 172 more, all of which are available free in the article archives.

Today, we celebrate the best articles of Six Minutes as determined by you, the reader. We list reader favorites in the major Six Minutes categories, from speechwriting to speech critiques, from visual aids to speaker resources.

It has been a pleasure sharing these articles with you. Thank you for your readership, and thank you for all of your emails with great suggestions and feedback.

Please Share With Your Colleagues

Six Minutes has over 4000 subscribers and thousands more read the articles on the website every day. If you know someone who would benefit from Six Minutes, please email this article to them and encourage them to subscribe.

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You know that the start of your presentation is critical to grab attention. [You did read Peter Jeff’s recent article with 5 ways to start your speech, right?]

But do you know how to develop a mindset that will enable you to devise effective speech openings?

Carmen Taran’s Better Beginnings: How to capture your audience in 30 seconds is a one-of-a-kind book entirely dedicated to helping you master this critical speaking skill.

This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

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To mark the 85th anniversary of the world’s leading organization devoted to communications, we recently asked Six Minutes readers to share their stories of growth through Toastmasters.

Question: How has Toastmasters made a difference in your life?

We received a flood of testimonials, and are pleased to share several of them below.

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On Saturdays, we survey the best public speaking articles from throughout the public speaking blogosphere.

This review features topics including:

• tools for presenting with Twitter;
• pauses to highlight key statements;
• better bullet points;
• Pecha Kucha;
• confidence and charisma;
• gender differences;
• speaking on a panel; and
• energy zappers to avoid.

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