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!

Similar Articles You May Like... Book Review: Better Beginnings by Carmen Taran

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

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.

• What’s Inside?
• The Price
• What I Loved
• How could it be better?
• About the Author
• Verdict

What’s Inside? A Coffee Table Book about Speaking?

The format of the book is unique relative to other books reviewed on Six Minutes — it’s a coffee table book! On every other page, you will find a full-page photograph to complement the writing and further spark your creativity.

Because of all the images, Better Beginnings is a quick read. Most books that I review take me two weeks to read through. I finished Better Beginnings in just two relaxing evenings before bed.

Visually, this book will stand out from every other one on your bookshelf, your coffee table, or your bedside table.

The Price

At the time of writing this review, you can get this hardcover book for $23.95 through amazon.com.

Given that the book is filled with full-color photographs, that price seems low to me, simply from a cost-of-printing perspective.

Most readers seem to like the value.

What’s the best thing about Better Beginnings?

Most speech opening advice begins by telling you the types of openings you can try. For example, you might open with a personal story, a startling statistic, or a quotation. However, none of these types of openings are inherently focused on your audience. (A story or statistic can be focused on the audience, but it might not be.)

I really like the approach taken in Better Beginnings because it is organized not around types of openings, but according to the emotional or cognitive response you would like to trigger in your audience. Audience-focused!

Better Beginnings guides you to spark the desired response in your audience, with the following chapters:

• Anticipation
• Specificity
• Inquiry
• Incongruity
• Novelty
• Uncertainty
• Complexity
• Ease of Comprehension
• Indulgence
• Staging

Each chapter includes numerous examples to illustrate how you can generate the desired response in your audience. This includes not only what to say, but how to say it and stage it. Consider these examples:

Incongruity (conflict between what your audience expects and what is actually said)

Like many of the great blues and jazz artists of our time, I found myself onstage at Carnegie Hall high on drugs.”

Novelty (new ideas competing with existing norms)

Our customers have been used to square tea bags. What if we made them round?

How could it be better?

Simply, I’d like a bit more depth. Though I love the fact that this has a coffee table book format and was a quick read, I would like to see more depth offered. A more diverse set of speech examples would make it easier for readers to apply the lessons to their own speeches.

Also, how about a companion book like Better Endings? Speech openings and conclusions are intimately tied, and I would love to see similar treatment for speech endings.

About the Author – Carmen Taran

Carmen Taran has a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Design, a Master’s degree in Multimedia Design, and a Doctorate in Instructional Technology. She is a co-founder of Rexi Media, a presentation skills consulting firm.

In the brief video below, she pitches the key strengths of Better Beginnings.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Verdict

I think every speaker will benefit from reading Better Beginnings, whether you speak with visuals or off the cuff, to investors or children.

It is the most thorough treatment I’ve ever seen for starting your speech.

Similar Articles You May Like... Speech Critique: Dan Pink (TED 2009) Bookending Your Speech: A Master Technique Gifts for Every Speaker… from Zero to Eighty Dollars You are Invited to the Outstanding Presentations Workshop Speeches that Changed the World Christmas Resources for Public Speaking

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.