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Public speaking is one of those topics where people tend to believe advice they hear about it. This is primarily because most people associate some sort of discomfort (which can range from a minor dislike to a true phobia) with public speaking. And when we don’t understand something or lack expertise in a certain area, we tend to believe what we hear from people we perceive as experts.
As I began to study the fine art of public speaking (you probably never saw it referred to so eloquently), I started to notice a few things. The first was that there’s a substantial amount of “common wisdom” that’s found in multiple sources. This is common with any subject that has been written about in hundreds of books. But as I actually began to deal with my fears and started speaking to groups I found that some of this “common wisdom” did not work for me. And I as began teaching others how to deal with their speaking fears and improve their presentation skills, I found that some of this advice didn’t work for them either.
I’m in no way saying that everything said by every person that calls themselves a presentation skills expert is untrue. But what I am saying is that a lot of advice, some of which can be found in multiple sources, is either totally untrue or does not apply to everyone. Much of this advice suggests that speaking effectively to groups is much easier than it really is. While I agree that most people perceive the task of becoming a better a speaker to be more difficult than it really is, I disagree that it’s something that can be done with minimal effort.
So over the next two months, I’ll be tackling some of this so called advice. I invite to you to come along for the ride – you can get a preview of some of these myths in my December e-zine and keep current with the latest updates via my full feed RSS. And as always, I encourage your comments.
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8 users commented on " Secrets Revealed: Debunking the Myths About Public Speaking "
January 2 2009
Practice makes perfect. Presenters and public speakers all benefit from giving real presentations and speeches. Knowing the techniques is a good foundation but you have to apply them. And that takes time.
Peter
Presentation Training
January 5 2009
Peter,
Excellent points.
Thanks for commenting,
James
May 28 2009
[...] you to make your speech better. If it’s the first case, then work on it – unless you feel the advice is incorrect such as you didn’t grab the audience’s attention right away. If it’s the second [...]
June 12 2009
[...] someone as a friend” yet rarely does that herself. One of my biggest frustrations which many so-called speaking experts is that they tell people that they should do things when giving a speech, yet they clearly don’t [...]
September 9 2009
[...] act that way when I speak to groups), but I do see it from time to time. I’ve written a number of posts regarding bad advice on public speaking and it’s amazing how confidently someone will say “you only have five seconds to catch [...]
October 8 2009
[...] that so many self-help & personal development gurus and motivational speaker share this story. Too bad the study never happened. Since I’m a big believer in written goals and I believe that people who write down their goals [...]
October 13 2009
[...] it comes to public speaking and presentation skills. In recent months, I’ve discussed a number of myths related to public speaking – ideas, stories and advice that either doesn’t help a speaker or can add unnecessary stress to [...]
November 29 2009
[...] times, you’ll find that it’s not as scary as you thought. And the truth is that despite what a number of so-called speaking gurus tell you, public speaking simply is not that [...]