Public Speaking Articles: Week in Review [2008-05-17]

Every Saturday, we survey the best public speaking articles from throughout the public speaking blogosphere.

Topics featured this week include:

• a trio of in-depth article series;
• three articles on introductions;
• marketing yourself as a speaker;
• keys to Toastmasters success; and
• much more!

Week in Review: Six Minutes

This week featured 1 article on Six Minutes:

• Lessons I Learned from Toastmasters Speech Contests
  A series of lessons learned from competitive speaking over the past few years.

Week in Review: Public Speaking Blogosphere

These are the best recent public speaking articles:

• John Watkis points out that practice alone will not make you perfect if you continue to reinforce bad habits.
• Susan Trivers matches story types to the key point you need to make in your business.
• Denise Graveline discusses how your personality type impacts you speaking style.
• John Windsor provides tips for mastering the 3-minute presentation.
• Peter Cohan itemizes “the meaningless-filler gratuitous-phrases vocabulary list“. (i.e. words and phrases not to use when you are speaking)
• Olivia Mitchell argues that maybe you don’t need an attention-grabbing opening.

In-Depth Article Series

• Lisa Braithwaite penned a series of 3 articles on four preparation rituals: focusing, distraction, mental preparation, and physical preparation.
• Nick Morgan recently completed a 9-article series on body language. Here’s the first article, while the others can be found in the sidebar on his site.
• Kevin Hogan recently completed a 5-article series on “ten ways to flub a story.” (The remaining articles can be found from his homepage.)

How important are speaker introductions?

• Chris Elliott establishes the importance of a speaker introduction and suggests four key elements.
• Wayne Botha tackles the same content by illustrating a horrible introduction.
• Denise Graveline emphasizes that an introduction is about today’s topic, not your resume.

Professional Speaking: Marketing Yourself and Making Money

• Ford Harding argues that you must discover who is in your audience to improve your chances of turning them into future clients, and then provides four ways to do this.
• Paul Roberts discusses whether a publicist is a viable option for securing speaking engagements and launching a public speaking career.

Keys to Toastmasters Success

• Chris Elliott offers a series of articles about being successful in Toastmasters.
• James Feudo lists 8 ways to maximize your Toastmasters experience.