Speakers Weekly Tune Up: How To Improve Your Speaking Skills Every Day by Madeline Frank, Ph.D., DTM

When you are giving a long speech presentation, 30 or more minutes, you will want your audience to listen carefully to the tools and techniques you will be giving them.   How will you deliver these tools and techniques to them? Craig Valentine, World Champion of Public Speaking, one of my speaking coaches and mentors calls this the “Big Promise”. This tells your audience at the beginning of your speech, after your opening story, what new tools your audience will get from listening to your speech. Remember, your “Big Promise” should be “ you” focused! For example in my speech on “How to Deal with Difficult & Toxic People at work or anywhere else” I say, “In the next 45 minutes “ you” will pick up the 3 tools and techniques to deal with toxic and difficult people at work and anywhere else. This tells your audience exactly what they will get before they leave your speech presentation. By making your “Big Promise” at the beginning of your speech presenta...

Hold your Question & Answer “session about 80-90% into your speech and then close the speech in your own powerful way ” says, Craig Valentine, World Champion of Public Speaking and one of my coaches and mentors. During your Question and Answer session take 3 to 4 questions then close your speech by calling back to your major points.     Please share your thoughts and comments about this blog.  Until next week remember to practice holding your Q & A, 80 -90 % into your speech before you conclude your presentation to make your speech memorable and visual. Madeline Frank,  Ph.D., is  a 2014 Certified World Class Speaking Coach. She has been coaching and mentoring business professionals to be champion speakers for over 5 years.  She is an  Amazon.com  Best Selling Author, speaker, business owner, teacher, and concert artist. She helps businesses and organizations "Tune Up their Business". Her observations show you the blue prints ...

The last thing your audience will hear is your “Closing” so make it powerful! Craig Valentine, World Champion of Public Speaking, one of my speaking coaches and mentors suggests “signaling” your closing by saying, “Let’s wrap this message up”, “As we come to the end”, or “I’ll leave you with this.” Summarize your speech by telling your audience what  you want them to do  after they leave your speech; the  “action” you want them to take. “Call back” to the major points you have made during your speech. Reinforce them by pointing to the three spots you designated for each point. Your audience will often write down the major points they want to remember. Please share your thoughts and comments about this blog.  Until next week remember to “Close” your speech with power to make it memorable, and visual. Madeline Frank,  Ph.D., is  a 2014 Certified World Class Speaking Coach. She has been c...

To make any movement natural and fluent it takes “10,000 hours” of practicing the motions correctly. When Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, a psychologist said this, he called it his “ten year rule.” Think of a musician, an athlete, dancer, artist, or entertainer like Frank Sinatra or Paul Anka and how many times they have to practice a motion to make it fluid, natural, and automatic. This is Muscle Memory . Coach Vince Lombardi said, "Practice does not make perfect. Only  perfect practice  makes perfect."   Part of practicing is 1) getting feed back, coaching, 2) attending Toastmasters to give your speeches, and 3) taking videos of your self to watch back and see what you are doing! When I was a student at the Juilliard School in New York City I went to see on Broadway the play “Fiddler On the Roof” with the magnificent actor, Zero Mostel playing “Tevye”. I watched the play standing in the back of the theater in the “ Standing Room Only ” section.     Ze...