One way to realize this goal is to offer not just one opinion and one voice, but the advice and opinions of the larger public speaking community. Last week’s excellent article on how to get into professional speaking from guest author Jane Atkinson is a great example.

Therefore, I would like to invite you to write an article for Six Minutes.

Yes… you! Regardless of your public speaking background, you have a unique perspective.

• Are you a corporate, political, or freelance speechwriter?
• Do you teach public speaking in high school or college?
• Do you conduct PowerPoint tutorials at your workplace?
• Are you a professional speaker with wisdom to share?
• Or a novice with a unique perspective?
• Do you have an educational background in communications or forensics?
• Are you a public speaking blogger looking to gain a new audience?

Would you like to write for a large audience with thousands of readers around the globe from all walks of life?

Interested?

Read more about writing an article for Six Minutes, and then contact me to get started.

I look forward to hearing from you. I am confident that your unique perspective will enrich Six Minutes for everyone.

Similar Articles You May Like... Speech Preparation #1: How to Prepare a Presentation 5 Habits to Achieve your Public Speaking New Year’s Resolution 250 Things to Guarantee Your Speaking Success? Q&A Tips from Toastmasters International President The 25 Public Speaking Skills Every Speaker Must Have

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.

Speech preparation is the most important element to a successful presentation, and also the best way to reduce nervousness and combat fear.

The Speech Preparation Series is a series of articles examining each of the six steps which are necessary to properly prepare for a speech.

These steps are briefly introduced here, and investigated in more depth in later articles:

1. Select a speech topic

This may seem like an easy task, but there are infinite public speaking topics. How do you choose the right one? How do you select a topic which is a perfect fit between you and your audience?

Your topic leads to your core message — the entire presentation aims to deliver this core message to your audience.

The second article in this series focuses on selecting a speech topic.

2. Create a speech outline

Your speech needs structure. Without structure, your audience will either wonder what your core message is or they will lose interest in you entirely. Sadly, this step is often skipped to “save time.” A planned outline is vital.

The third article in this series shows how to craft a speech outline and provides several examples.

3. Write the speech

Speech writing is an iterative process which begins with your first draft. Writer’s block can handicap speakers at this stage. The fourth article in the series discusses how you can avoid that trap to write your first speech draft.

Once the first draft is created, speech writing involves iteratively massaging your speech into its most effective form. Keeping your ego in check, you are wise to edit mercilessly. The fifth article in the series shows you how to edit your speech for focus, clarity, concision, continuity, variety, and impact.

Remember that speeches should be written for the ear; adopting figures of speech will keep your speech from sounding like an essay or legal document. The sixth article in the series shows you how to add impact and beauty to your speech with rhetorical devices.

4. Apply gestures, staging, and vocal variety

At this stage, the words are ready, but that’s all you have — words. A presentation is not read by the audience; it is listened to and watched.

The seventh article in the series explains how to choreograph your speech with vocal variety, gestures (micro movements), and staging (macro movements). These elements should seamlessly complement your words and punctuate key phrases.

5. Practice and solicit feedback

Great speakers seem natural when they speak, almost as though they are speaking the words for the first time. Nothing could be more wrong. Rehearsing your speech makes you a master of the content. Soliciting feedback and acting on it gives you confidence that your presentation will be a success. The eighth article in the series explains how to achieve maximum benefits from your rehearsal time.

6. Self-Critique: Prepare for the next speech

Although listed as the final step in the process, it’s really the first step in preparing for your next speech. After you’ve delivered your speech, examine your performance objectively. This will solidify lessons learned as you prepare for your next speech challenge.

The ninth article in the series provides examples of questions to ask yourself as you critique your own speech.

The article series concludes with advice aimed at preparing to win a Toastmasters speech contest.

See the Six Steps in Action

Throughout this series of articles, I’ll be showing you how I applied these steps when preparing for one of my own speeches. My hope is that these practical examples will help you apply the techniques to your own personal presentation.

The speech I’ll reference is an inspirational speech I prepared and delivered for the Toastmasters International Speech Contest in 2007 titled Face the Wind.

Watch it now, and then read the articles to see how a short conversation with a friend months earlier led to this speech.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I would like to thank Chuck Denison for allowing me to use the Face the Wind video for this article series. Chuck has been the videographer for all recent Toastmasters District 21 contests. Videos are produced by Golden Memories Video Productions and available from him [email]. Chuck provides services to speakers who wish to produce a video to enhance their marketing strategy. On top of all that, he’s very friendly and professional.

Join the conversation. Share your experiences and describe what you do to prepare for a speech.

Next in the Speech Preparation Series

The next article examines how to select a speech topic which is the perfect fit for you and your audience.

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• Toastmasters Speech 4: How to Say It
• Toastmasters Speech 3: Get to the Point
• Speech Preparation #6: Add Impact with Rhetorical Devices
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• You are Invited to Write for Six Minutes

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.

Lose weight. Pay off debt. Quit smoking.

Easy, right? No, not really.

Most resolutions fail because they are wishes, not goals. Often, the best way to achieve a long-term goal is to focus on the supporting habits. For example:

By focusing on the supporting habits (and keeping the end goal in mind, of course), we put ourselves in an excellent position to succeed. The same strategy applies to all other New Year’s resolutions, including another popular one: becoming a better public speaker.

Becoming a better speaker is not going to happen quickly and it is not going to happen without dedication and hard work. Nobody can master the 25 skills every public speaker should have after just one speech. To put yourself in the best position to succeed, develop the public speaking habits which give you the best chance of success.

For general advice, check out 14 Tips For Resolutions That Stick in the New Year. For your public speaking resolutions, these five habits will bring you to your goal:

Habit #1: Join Toastmasters.

The cost is minimal, and is one of the best ways to invest in yourself. If you are not already a member of the world’s leading communication and leadership organization, then look up a club in your area and join today. Toastmasters provides a supportive environment in which you will conquer your public speaking fears, develop your presentation skills, and become an effective communicator.

As a bonus, sticking to this habit will help you stick to the other four habits on this New Year’s Resolutions list for public speaking.

Habit #2: Practice. Practice. Practice.

Integrate public speaking into your daily and weekly routines. Toastmasters is once a week, but speaking more often is better. Actively seek opportunities to speak. Chair a meeting. Conduct a seminar. Teach a course. Emcee an event. Speak up at your next volunteer organization meeting. Introduce another speaker. Whether you speak for 30 seconds or 30 minutes, consistent practice will grow your skills over time.

Habit #3: Study great speakers.

Seriously. Study them. Learn from the video critiques on this blog. Watch the many excellent TED presenters. Search YouTube. Take notes the next time you are listening to a speaker. Emulate their strengths. Avoid their mistakes.

Habit #4: Study yourself too.

Many people shy away from recording themselves while speaking, but there is no better form of feedback. You can use a digital voice recorder or a video camera (or a camera phone, or …). Watch and listen with an objective view.

Seek out feedback from others to help recognize your strengths and weaknesses, which leads me to the fifth supporting habit…

Habit #5: Find/Hire a public speaking coach/mentor/buddy.

Build a relationship with a public speaker who you admire. Ask them for advice. Find someone else who shares your goal, and work together with them to improve your speaking skills. The buddy system works for exercising, it works for quitting smoking, and it works for public speaking too. Make it a regular ritual.

To accelerate your growth, hire a coach! Hire me. Hire Lisa Braithwaite. Hire Joan Curtis. Hire Rich Hopkins. Hire one of thousands of speech coaches to help you achieve your goal of becoming a great presenter. Hiring a coach won’t eliminate the need for hard work, but one-on-one coaching is an excellent way to elevate your skills and discover your unique voice.

Let 2008 be the year that you become a great public speaker, a skill which helps you achieve your other resolutions too.

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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.

Universal Truths of Public Speaking

To be fair, there are numerous gems in the lengthy list which are virtually universal truths of public speaking. These include:

1. Audience always comes first.
11. Tell a story, make a point.
125. Speak on something that you believe in.
140. The best speeches are not written, they are rewritten.
250. Persistence is key.

Who Says I Don’t Care About the Audience?

However, some of the advice seems too hasty and forceful, such as:

64. Never ask your audience how are they doing at the start of your presentation because we know you don’t really care. It’s just a sign that you are unprepared.
65. That includes “Good morning”, “Good afternoon” and “Good evening”.

Huh? Who says I don’t care how my audience is? While I concede that it is better to open with something more dynamic, I see no problem in building rapport with the audience if the situation allows for it.

A Public Speaking Guarantee?

Some of the 250 things are good general principles, but saying that you can “guarantee your speaking success” by following them is exaggeration. For example:

92. Observe the 10/20/30 rule: 10 slides, not more than 20 minutes, font size 30 at least.
93. Seriously, 80 slides in 45 minutes? You do the math.

As a general principle, the 10/20/30 rule from Guy Kawasaki has significant merit in many situations. But a successful speaker needs to be able to adapt the presentation style to the audience and the message being delivered. The Lessig Method applied in the Identity 2.0 presentation by Dick Hardt uses far more than 10 slides, but was perfect for that audience and that message.

Eek!

Some of the advice given is just plain scary. Consider:

103. Ten steps to becoming a better speaker.
104. Speak.
105. Speak more.
106. Speak even more.
107. Speak even more than that.
108. Speak when you don’t want to.
109. Speak when you do.
110. Speak when you have something to say.
111. Speak when you don’t.
112. Speak all the time.
113. Keep speaking.
114. In short, it is all about stage time.
115. Having said that, don’t speak for the sake of speaking.

I understand the Stage Time, Stage Time, Stage Time mantra. But one should never, ever “speak when you don’t want to” or “speak when you don’t [have something to say]“. Even though these points are, I assume, delivered somewhat tongue in cheek (see 115), it is careless to even suggest. Stage time is only a benefit if your heart is in it, and you are actually attempting to deliver a message.

Is Speaking a Game?

179. Treat your next speech like a game! Have loads of fun with it.

Excuse me? This contradicts “1. Audience always comes first” (a theme repeated in points 31, 33, 34, 35, 124, 139, 185, 217, and others). Public speaking is not a game. The audience are not donating their time so that you can practice and play games with them. Whatever you do, do it with purpose.

Repetition or Redundancy?

As indicated in the previous paragraph, some themes are repeated in the list of 250. Sometimes the repetition is bordering on redundant:

13. Make a serious point after you get your audience laughing – they remember better.
214. Make a serious point after your audience laugh, it sticks better.

Am I being mean and overly critical? I don’t think so. Great blog posts, like great presentations, need to be carefully edited. They need to be logically consistent. In an ideal world, they need to be free from marketing hype (“250 Things… Guarantee… Success”) and blatant self-promotion. (Is your book really the 2nd best book ever written?)

233. Don’t be afraid to say this to your audience – “RIP ME APART!” Repeat after me, “RIP ME APART!”

Consider yourself ripped, Eric. You can do better, and you have done so many times on your excellent blog.

Update – 2007-11-23

Eric demonstrated that he listens to his audience by trimming his original list down from 250 to 50. The resulting list is of significantly higher quality. Well done, Eric! Does this mean I should look at the posts on this blog and edit them down to the best 10% too?

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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.

Last weekend, I attended an educational seminar led by Chris Ford. He was masterful in how effectively he encouraged audience participation.

He demonstrated many of the techniques covered an earlier article — Leading the Perfect Q&A — including:

• Announce the Q&A. He established the “ground rules” in the first minute (of his 1-hour session). Questions and participation were encouraged throughout the session.
• Encourage questions.
• Restate the question, perhaps in your own words. Chris rephrased several questions, generally expressing the idea more succinctly than the audience member had.
• Give your full attention to the person asking the question. Chris not only turned his attention to the question, but also walked toward the audience member asking the question.
• Don’t end your presentation with your last Q&A response. Chris ended the seminar with his own scripted concluding words.

Chris also demonstrated other techniques which led to an effective Q&A:

• Reward participation early and often. The very first audience member to ask a question was rewarded with an inexpensive gift. A reward was also given to the second, the third, the fourth, and many other people throughout the session. This established an excited mood in the room that led to tremendous audience participation. This also had a symbolic flair. Chris was seen as a giver, both of physical items as well as knowledge.
• Arrange assistants with portable microphones. The room was large, and the audience was scattered around banquet tables. Chris arranged for two conference volunteers (one on either side of the room) to provide mobile and dynamic microphones to capture audience questions. When hands went up, Chris quickly directed one of the two volunteers to the appropriate audience member. This translated into questions that the entire audience could easily hear.

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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.

Every public speaker should be able to:

1. Research a topic – Good speakers stick to what they know. Great speakers research what they need to convey their message.
2. Focus – Help your audience grasp your message by focusing on your message. Stories, humour, or other “sidebars” should connect to the core idea. Anything that doesn’t needs to be edited out.
3. Organize ideas logically – A well-organized presentation can be absorbed with minimal mental strain. Bridging is key.
4. Employ quotations, facts, and statistics – Don’t include these for the sake of including them, but do use them appropriately to complement your ideas.
5. Master metaphors – Metaphors enhance the understandability of the message in a way that direct language often can not.
6. Tell a story – Everyone loves a story. Points wrapped up in a story are more memorable, too!
7. Start strong and close stronger – The body of your presentation should be strong too, but your audience will remember your first and last words (if, indeed, they remember anything at all).
8. Incorporate humour – Knowing when to use humour is essential. So is developing the comedic timing to deliver it with greatest effect.
9. Vary vocal pace, tone, and volume – A monotone voice is like fingernails on the chalkboard.
10. Punctuate words with gestures – Gestures should complement your words in harmony. Tell them how big the fish was, and show them with your arms.
11. Utilize 3-dimensional space – Chaining yourself to the lectern limits the energy and passion you can exhibit. Lose the notes, and lose the chain.
12. Complement words with visual aids – Visual aids should aid the message; they should not be the message. Read slide:ology or the Presentation Zen book and adopt the techniques.
13. Analyze the audience – Deliver the message they want (or need) to hear.
14. Connect with the audience – Eye contact is only the first step. Aim to have the audience conclude “This speaker is just like me!” The sooner, the better.
15. Interact with the audience – Ask questions (and care about the answers). Solicit volunteers. Make your presentation a dialogue.
16. Conduct a Q&A session – Not every speaking opportunity affords a Q&A session, but understand how to lead one productively. Use the Q&A to solidify the impression that you are an expert, not (just) a speaker.
17. Lead a discussion – Again, not every speaking opportunity affords time for a discussion, but know how to engage the audience productively.
18. Obey time constraints – Maybe you have 2 minutes. Maybe you have 45. Either way, customize your presentation to fit the time allowed, and respect your audience by not going over time.
19. Craft an introduction – Set the context and make sure the audience is ready to go, whether the introduction is for you or for someone else.
20. Exhibit confidence and poise – These qualities are sometimes difficult for a speaker to attain, but easy for an audience to sense.
21. Handle unexpected issues smoothly – Maybe the lights will go out. Maybe the projector is dead. Have a plan to handle every situation.
22. Be coherent when speaking off the cuff – Impromptu speaking (before, after, or during a presentation) leaves a lasting impression too. Doing it well tells the audience that you are personable, and that you are an expert who knows their stuff beyond the slides and prepared speech.
23. Seek and utilize feedback – Understand that no presentation or presenter (yes, even you!) is perfect. Aim for continuous improvement, and understand that the best way to improve is to solicit candid feedback from as many people as you can.
24. Listen critically and analyze other speakers – Study the strengths and weakness of other speakers.
25. Act and speak ethically – Since public speaking fears are so common, realize the tremendous power of influence that you hold. Use this power responsibly.

Which skills have I missed? Are all of those on the list essential?

Additional Skills for Professional Speakers

Note that I have not attempted to cover additional skills which professional speakers must have that relate to marketing, advertising, product development, and other aspects of running a professional speaking business. There are other resources which address these, such as:

• Eight Professional Competencies
• Expertise, Eloquence, Enterprise, and Ethics

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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.