“What do I do with my hands when I’m speaking?” is a common question that I hear when I’m teaching public speaking. Your hands form an important part of your non-verbal communication, or body language, and can help you convey confidence and communicate more effectively to your audience.

Every so often we are called upon to make a difficult speech…you know the kind I mean. It might be a speech informing your employees that budgets are being cut by 25% and layoffs are required; it might be one where you communicate that the incentive trip everyone worked so hard for is canceled; it might be announcing to your faithful supporters than you are withdrawing from the campaign.

How do you deliver these kinds of messages with grace, poise and confidence?

http://andnowpresenting.typepad.com/professionally_speaking/2009/11/presentation-tip-the-difficult-speech.html

You’ve heard it said many times before - the fear of speaking is considered by many as their number one fear, outdistancing death and divorce. There are legendary stories of entertainment superstars who undergo extraordinary episodes of stage fright immediately before they perform…

They’ve experienced blurred vision, nausea, and headaches - even after performing hundreds of times. So, if these entertainers face anxiety on stage, is it any wonder that the rest of us may be fearful of appearing before groups? That anxiety may even prevent us from reaching our fullest potential since we may tend to avoid speaking opportunities altogether that could advance our career.

So how do you overcome that - reach your fullest potential?  Find out in Pivotal Magazine. http://www.pivotalmagazine.com/lose_fear.htm

There were two great orators from ancient Mediterranean: Demosthenes the Greek and Cicero the Roman.

It was said that when Cicero spoke, people exclaimed, “Great speech. Wonderful message. I couldn’t agree with you more.” And they showered him with accolades, adoration and standing ovations.

It was said that when Demosthenes spoke, people shouted, “Let Us March!”

Did you notice the difference?

Two great orators. People admired and loved the one. People were gripped and compelled to act by the other.

Cicero appealed more to logic. And reason. He carefully crafted his message to speak to the analytical and rational side of people.

Demosthenes appealed more to emotion. His message touched, tangled and transformed people’s feelings. Feelings so strong they were willing to drop what they were doing to go into battle.

Let’s travel in the time machine to the present…

Christy gave an excellent speech about her involvement with Women’s Empowerment International. They help provide small loans to the world’s poorest women, lifting them out of poverty, and creating a better future through their own hard work and ingenuity. You could say WE International is providing the dream of entrepreneurship to help poor women provide for their families, to better themselves and to live with a heightened sense of dignity.

She talked about the founder, Muhammad Yunus. She displayed a blown-up photograph of Rosario, a Mexican loan recipient who is making cheese and selling them door-to-door because her husband is no longer able to work. And she talked about what we, the audience, can do to help.

Christy had everyone’s attention. You could almost hear a pin drop throughout her talk. When she concluded, we knew she had more to share. She did a phenomenal job. Everyone loved her message.

While there were a few people who wanted to join WE International, the majority sat on the sidelines. Why is that? Why wouldn’t more people join up or donate their resources after Christy’s fine presentation?

It goes back to Cicero and Demosthenes…

While Christy’s message was technically sound, it didn’t connect on an emotional level. Her message touched minds. It lacked the ability to touch hearts. And this is huge.

Here’s the difference in a nutshell:

The audience thought WE International is a great idea. They felt good about its purpose and mission. A few donated $20 to become members.

But not one person said, “Let us march. I’m going to get involved. I’m going to pick up the WE International torch and run with it. I’m going to spread the word to everyone I know.” Not even one.

Here’s an important point…

Practice to become the best speaker you can. If your audience adores you, that’s a good thing. You’re taking up after Cicero.

But if you really want to move people to action - take up after Demosthenes. You’ll touch people on a gut-wrenching, emotional level. You’ll know by appealing to their hearts… their minds, desires and actions will follow.

PowerPoint Alternatives - From Browsers to Blogs, Part II
In Part I of PowerPoint Alternatives, I talked about presenters who use HTML to display the visual portion of their presentation. Now that blogs are popular, some speakers are using blogs as presentation tools, including Steven Cohen of Library Stuff fame. Here’s a presentation he created in a blog last February and his post on the Note that he used Blogger, a tool that is free and can get you up and running with a blog in just a few minutes. Downsides of using a blog instead of PowerPoint include a busier screen that you would find on most PowerPoint presentations. Also, a blog entry is not going to fill the screen the way a PowerPoint slide will, so it could be more difficult for the audience to read. From the presenter’s standpoint, getting the slides in the proper order is cumbersome; you need to tweak the dates and times so as to get the blogs to display in the proper order, then remove the date from the blog template, since in this context, it’s irrelevant.As with HTML, the advantages of using a blog are greatest when you be presenting using a live Internet connection. You can include the links you want to visit in the blog/web page, and easily link out to web sites. The blog also makes a great “take-away.”

Since you only die once, but you could live to give many speeches, why not learn to make public speaking easier? Here’s what I did to help me take center stage—joyously!—at my book launch event:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/self-promotion-introverts/200910/public-speaking-private-people

Use humor in presentations to make yourself more likable. Humor is a great rapport builder which knocks down audience resistance to your message. Make sure you space it throughout your presentation. You will subconsciously or consciously be tagged as trite by the audience members and out of touch if you tell a joke at the beginning and then forget humor for the rest of the presentation.

(Ref: Wake ‘em Up Business Presentations Page 4)http://www.antion.com/wakebook.htm