Articles tagged: professional speaking

Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark will help you communicate better, whether writing speeches, reports, handouts, or articles.

As I breezed through Writing Tools, I confessed to my wife that I felt inspired to write. Thus, the book achieved the rare feat of delivering on the promise of the front cover review (from the Boston Globe): “Writers will be inspired to pick up their pens.”

This article is one of a series of public speaking book reviews from Six Minutes.

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One of the most frequent questions I receive from Six Minutes readers breaks down to a very basic idea:  “How can I make money speaking?”

For example, a recent question from Tanya M. asks:

A few years ago, I hated speaking in public. But I’ve been giving presentations quite a bit at work, and I’m getting compliments on my skills now. […] I’d like to know about ways that I can make money speaking in the future.

Can you help?

In this article, we examine 5 common ways that speakers make money. The good news is that Tanya — and you — can tap into any of them.

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Telling Ain’t Training is an outstanding book for trainers and educators on how to develop effective training. Published by the American Society for Training & Development, this is the best book that I’ve found in this speaking niche.

Our Six Minutes survey last fall indicated that a third of our readers are teachers, instructors, professors, or corporate trainers. If you are one of them, or if you would like to start delivering effective training sessions, you should read this book.

This article is one of a series of public speaking book reviews from Six Minutes.

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Full-day training courses offer many challenges for speakers, including:

• massive preparation requirements;
• physical and mental fatigue (for both the speaker and audience); and
• maintaining interest requires dynamic delivery and varied presentation techniques.

If you can overcome these challenges, you can provide significant value for your audience.

This past week, I was fortunate to attend a series of full-day training courses (Usability Week 2012 in San Francisco, offered by the Nielsen Norman Group). While my focus was building my usability knowledge, it was also a great opportunity to learn from people who speak regularly around the world. One of these speakers was Marieke McCloskey, who taught my first session of the week.

This article offers 28 tips for designing and presenting training courses inspired by Marieke’s strengths and areas for improvement.

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The act of speaking in public and the process of improving one’s speaking skills are wrought with conflicting emotions, exhilarating highs, and frustrating lows.

There are times when applause makes you think you’re the greatest speaker in the world, and there are times when the silence of the audience makes you want to crawl into a hole.

In short, the mental game for speaking in public is a jumble of thoughts, experiences, and emotions.

In this article, we apply the wisdom of the Six Thinking Hats to provide a framework for sorting out this jumble and gaining useful perspectives which can help us improve.

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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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I recently read Boring to Bravo, an impressive book on audience engagement written by Kristin Arnold. (You can find the Six Minutes book review here.)

When I found out that Ms. Arnold is also the President of the National Speakers Association (NSA) for 2010-2011, I approached her to see if she would answer a few questions about the NSA.

I’m delighted to be able to share her interview with you here.

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A few weeks ago, we examined 27 Hot Summer Reads — popular books being read by the Six Minutes community.

On my recent vacation, I took a copy of Boring to Bravo. It’s a perfect summer read. Not only is it organized into easily digestible chunks (read a section or two while sipping lemonade on the deck), it is also packed with techniques which will energize your presentations.

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

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Confessions of a Public Speaker is a highly entertaining and insightful insider’s view of public speaking, with value for speakers of all levels.

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

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Imagine… you are the speaker that people want. They crave your expertise, and they are willing to pay you for it.

A dream? Not if you understand how to brand yourself as an expert, one of the steps to becoming a speaker in demand.

In this article, we tap into the wisdom of five experts from the fields of branding and public speaking. They discuss the importance of personal branding, and they offer advice about specific tools you can use to shape your personal brand.

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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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