Comments on: What makes a good public speaker

By: The first five stages of speaker development

The first five stages of speaker development — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 08:45:48 +0000

[...] What makes a good public speaker Three ideas from improv to develop your speaking The 10 steps to asking questions so you get an answer every time Why most attempts at audience participation fail and what to do about it Six Secrets from a Professional Speaker on Audience Participation [...]

By: Presentation Handouts

Presentation Handouts — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:42:42 +0000

[...] your handout. I’ve been guilty of this. We’re most concerned about the actual presentation and not making a fool of ourselves up on the stage so you work on what you’re going to say and the slides, and then 30 mins before [...]

By: The one thing the best presenters at SXSW 2010 have in common | Speaking about Presenting: Presentation Tips from Olivia Mitchell

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:34:19 +0000

[...] and Julien are co-authors of Trust Agents. I’ve previously admired Chris’s authenticity and his willingness to take risks when speaking. This was my first opportunity to see him live. Chris and Julien’s modus operandi [...]

By: Casino royale.

Casino royale. — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:33:59 +0000

Casino royal….

Casino royale….

By: Olivia Mitchell

Olivia Mitchell — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:48:41 +0000

Hi Jeff,

Agree, agree, agree!

For readers in general: On the question of humor I would add that it’s not a prerequisite to being an effective business presenter (I make a distinction here between an effective business presenter and a professional speaker). If humor is not something that doesn’t come naturally to you, don’t stress over it and don’t try and force it. Jan Schultink made this point in the comments to my How to propose a toast post. As you develop your ease and your ability to take risks in front of an audience, your humor may well develop. That’s been the case with me.

Olivia

By: Jeff Hurt

Jeff Hurt — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:20:14 +0000

Olivia:

Yes, taking a risk and be willing to make a fool of yourself are key. I’ve also learned that be willing to laugh at yourself with the right kind of self-depreciating humor, on stage, helps disarm an audience and make everyone at ease. Humor, being willing to make a fool of yourself and taking a risk help others connect with our humanity. Audiences connect with presenters that are real, not those with faux veneer facades.

By: Olivia Mitchell

Olivia Mitchell — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:13:04 +0000

I use this process with success when I’m coaching people one-on-one to help them reduce their fear of public speaking. It’s a systematic desensitization process from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

By: Tobias Mayer

Tobias Mayer — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:54:35 +0000

Fair enough. As you say I probably don’t need this program. Had enough real life failure to learn to enjoy it If people find the program helpful, that’s good. Do they? Do you get good feedback on this?

By: Olivia Mitchell

Olivia Mitchell — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:08:38 +0000

Hi Tobias

Thanks for the encouragement on the Improv class.

Re: the “Making a fool of yourself” program, Yes, they’re artificial situations but that doesn’t mean people won’t suffer embarrassment when they take the actions. And the point is for people to get used to suffering small and manageable amounts of embarrassment.

From your reply, I don’t think that you need a program like this .

There are people who don’t do or say very much in their lives because they are so concerned about making a fool of themselves. If they do experience failure in real life, they just freeze up and tell themselves “I’ll never do that again!”. That’s who the program is for.

I acknowledge the potential annoyance of ringing a wrong number. But as long as its during normal hours, it causes only a tiny amount of annoyance, and for me that’s outweighed by the potential benefit the ‘ringer’ will get from taking a step outside their comfort zone.

Olivia

By: Tobias Mayer

Tobias Mayer — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:30:40 +0000

However, I am less keen on the “Make a fool of yourself Program”. Setting up these artificial situations seem i) disingenuous, ii) potentially annoying for the person your ring, etc, and iii) are situations you are in control of, so cannot really count as “failure” situations. It is more like you are making a fool of the person you target.

We all face failure everyday in our lives anyway, very small ones usually, but sometimes more serious ones. The art of embracing failure is to acknowledge, own, smile about and learn from those failures — the genuine ones.