Public Speaking Blogosphere: Week in Review [2008-02-02]

It is Saturday, and that means it is time to review the best public speaking articles from throughout the public speaking blogosphere.

Themes featured this week include:

• marketing yourself;
• body language;
• PowerPoint, Keynote, & slideware; and
• Toastmasters.

[Before we begin, did you catch last week’s review?]

Week in Review: Six Minutes

• Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln: Book Review
  A review of a fabulous public speaking book which all speakers should read.
• Never Read Your Speech… Never?
  Provides tips for rare instances when you simply must read your speech from a script.
• Should a Speaker Apologize to an Audience?
  Examines the conventional public speaking wisdom which states that a speaker should never apologize.

Week in Review: Public Speaking Blogosphere

These are the best public speaking articles I read in the past week.

• Ian Griffin questions whether mastery in speaking is a worthwhile pursuit for CEOs.
• Lisa Braithwaite reflects on how to prepare for a 12 minute presentation.
• Dana Bristol-Smith offers tips to generate your 30-second compelling message.
• Carmine Gallo (Business Week) offers 10 presentation tips to deliver like Steve Jobs. Carmine seems to admire the presentation style of Steve Jobs (who doesn’t?). Last year, he offered 5 tips.
• John Watkis examines repetition in speechwriting by highlighting speech excerpts from Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Jesus Christ.
• Ian McKenzie provides 57 resources for public speaking.

Marketing Articles

• Darren Fleming gives marketing advice for approaching Rotary clubs to be a guest speaker.
• Tom Antion offers a clever marketing strategy that falls in the “give something away and you might get something in return” category.

Body Language Articles

• Gary Guwe points us to a CBC news video which analyzes the body language of Toronto mayoral candidates.
• Patti Wood offers a series of articles examining the gestures of American Presidential candidates. I particularly liked Women like Hillary’s Tears.

PowerPoint, Keynote, or General Slideware Articles

• Robert Lane cautions us to avoid letting slideware interrupt presentation flow.
• Rhett Laubach gives a set of tips along with four example slides which are quite Presentation Zen-ish.
• Lee LeFever posts a review of VizThink, a two day conference on Visual Thinking. Says LeFever: “Text and bullet points – they are dead, or at least used inappropriately.”

Toastmasters Blog Articles

• John Spaith pleads for fewer “manipulative” contest speeches.
• Yow Kia links to interviews with four World Champions of Public Speaking: Vikas Jhingra (2007), Lance Miller (2005), Dana Lemon (1992), David Brooks (1990).

Not Strictly Public Speaking

Dean Rieck offers “recipes for copywriters.” Although this article does not focus on public speaking, much of the advice applies, particularly for persuasive speaking. For example:

ABC Checklist — […] Attain attention, Bang out benefits, Create verbal pictures, Describe success incidents, Endorse with testimonials, Feature special details, Gild with values, Honor claims with guarantees, Inject action in reader.

I’ll end this week’s review with one of Jessica Hagy’s index card creations.

It makes me think about the content of my speeches. Do I talk more about my successes or failures?

How about you?