Networking Success: The Right Way to Make Referrals

NetworkingRelationships are the key to networking success and the sign of a great networker is to have a wide variety of people in his or her network that can be tapped when you or someone you know is in need of something. So perhaps you have a friend looking to relocate that needs a real estate agent to sell a house. Your neighbor is a real estate agent, so you connect her with your friend and you look like a hero for bringing the two together, right? Not so fast.

Toastmasters Success: Ten Tips to Become Presidential Distinguished – Part 2

Public SpeakingIn the first part of this series, I covered a little bit about my own experiences as a club officer and some of the positive things that one can do to improve the overall health of a club. In this part, some of the tips will focus on the challenges that club leaders face.

As much as we do our best to make the club environment a positive, professional and supportive one, challenges do occur. I’ve seen evaluators rip apart speakers because they disagreed with their points on more than one occasion (and I’ve had it happen to me). I have also seen people start up conversations, both with the person next to them and via their cell phone, while someone else was giving a speech. I’ve also known of situations where conflicts have caused people to quit a club.

Toastmasters Success: Ten Tips to Become Presidential Distinguished – Part 1

Public SpeakingWould you like to know how to make your club Presidential Distinguished? With the Toastmasters year rapidly coming to a close and clubs preparing to transition from this year’s officers to next year’s, I figured that this would be a great time to talk about ways to accomplish club goals. This is along the same lines as my prior post on Tips for Toastmasters.

My Toastmasters Experience:

Public Speaking Success: The Effect Public Speaking has on Your Confidence

Confidence and successWhenever I have casual conversations about public speaking, I’m often asked about the benefits. Why would anyone want to speak in front a big group? What if you mess up? Why bother putting yourself in such a scary situation to begin with? These are just a handful of the questions I’m asked by people looking at me as if I have two heads.

Personal Power: Should you Focus on your Strengths or Strengthen your Weaknesses

Personal PowerStrengths and weaknesses – why do we obsess so much about them? It seems like you can’t go on a job interview without someone asking you what you’re strengths and weaknesses are. If your employer reviews you, chances are they help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. If you own a small business, prospective clients will compare your strengths and weaknesses with that of your competitors. So chances are you are at least somewhat aware of some of your strengths and weaknesses. Now what?

Public Speaking Success: What to do when they don’t laugh at your jokes

boredIt’s every speaker’s nightmare: you’ve told that joke that you think is funny (you practically chuckle yourself as you tell it) but the audience doesn’t react. Did you tell it wrong? Do they just not get it?

Humor is one of the toughest things to execute during the speech. In order for an audience to laugh, you have to do the following when you tell a joke:

  1. Ensure that your joke is funny to begin with.
  2. Ensure that the audience has the ability to laugh about your joke.
  3. Deliver it in a way that encourages the audience to laugh.

Public Speaking and Presentation Skills Blog Carnival – Edition 1

Presentation Skills
Welcome to the May, 2008 edition of the Public Speaking and Presentation Skills Blog Carnival. We’ve got some great entries in this first edition on a variety of subjects. If you’d like to participate in a future edition of this carnival, you can learn more about the carnival or go right over to Blog Carnival to submit a post.

 

Professionally Speaking

 

Eric Feng presents Here’s Why Some Speakers Are Paid $10,000 For Just A 40 Mins Speech posted at The Public Speaking Blog.