I was going through my email this morning and a friend of mine had forwarded me an article that I found interesting. Thought you all may enjoy it. It's written by Felicia Slattery.

Public Speaking - Top 5 Mistakes Speakers Make While On Stage
By Felicia Slattery

Public speaking is known as one of the most powerful ways to market your business. As a public speaking trainer, I have the opportunity to see many great speakers first-hand. Lately I've noticed more and more entrepreneurs using public speaking to market their businesses. And it's great!

In the spirit of constructive criticism and realizing there is always room for improvement with even the best speakers, the information in this article is meant to help. Although I have had more than 30 years experience speaking in public, I know I'm not perfect, either. With that in mind, I have noticed some good speakers making some mistakes. Hopefully knowing these top five mistakes will help you for the time when you get out there in front of a live audience.

Mistake 1: Rambling

Plan you presentation. Have a clear and focused goal and point of your speech. Follow it. Help your audience follow you.

Mistake 2: Too-Crowded Visuals

Don't write every word of your speech on a Power Point Presentation and call that a visual aid. It's a crutch for you and difficult on the audience. You're better off without it.

Mistake 3: Using Filler Words

A presentation should feel like a conversation with your audience, yes, but there are a few things that may be acceptable in one to one conversation that you should avoid in a speech. Filler words like "you know" don't do much to enhance a conversation in general, but truly don't belong in any speech.

Mistake 4: Being Too Casual

Some people downplay the importance of dressing the part of a successful professional. However it is appropriate to follow through on your branding. For example my friend, Carrie Wilkerson, calls herself the "Barefoot Executive" so when she kicks off her shoes during a presentation that works for her.

Mistake 5: Not Having ANY Offer

Not every speech should have the purpose of selling something, but it's a mistake to leave the stage without offering your audience reason for them to stay engaged and allow you to follow up with them after the event has ended.

Public speaking is one of the most effective ways to market a small business. I invite you to discover how to create your own talk and the 5 easy steps you can take today to get started with this powerful marketing tool. Pick up a FREE recording where you'll get all the secrets of marketing your business with a speech. Go now to Signature Speech Secrets

Felicia J. Slattery, M.A., M.Ad.Ed. is a communication consultant, speaker & coach specializing in training small and home-based business owners effective communication and public speaking skills so they can see more cash flow now.

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Interesting! The one crime I always compalain about bad presenters making more often than any other is kind of related to number one above... it's this: "Telling the audience everything they know".

Presentations aren't for saying what you know, they're for telling the audience what they need to know! Sometimes that's the same thing, of course, but far too many presenters assume it's the same thing and don't stop to check!

S

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Josh very well written... Thx

simonraybould, I totally agree..... The speaker needs to teach the unknown topics that is why they attended the event anyway..

I normally make it a point to toss out a few starter questions that are low level and then toss a high level to see where my audience is. This way I know if I am going to fly an airplane past them and get the deer in the headlight look.

I am still new at speaking myself and find myself going to technical, some like it and some don't every audience is different..

I think as in everything you get better with experience and having a well written topics card with bullets of talking points can keep you on track and provide a well balanced event.

Here's a public speaking tip I think you'll find very helpful. It's also the quickest way to develop your speech and eliminate every fiber of fear.

If you have an opportunity, ask the audience before your presentation to tell you the single most important thing they want to know about your subject. You can do this in an on-line questionnaire or just call a handful of people who will be in attendance. In doing so you will quickly get a very good idea as to where your audience is with respect to your subject.

Then take those questions and outline your talk with them.

If you've been speaking for any length of time, you know that the Q&A period is by far the easiest part of the talk ... and usually the most valuable to your audience. So why not give your audience exactly what they want at their level of understanding and eliminate your fear of having to memorize your talk when you can do it the easy and effective way.

The best part is, your audience will never know what you're doing. They'll think you're a brilliant speaker who has the ability to read minds.

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Josh,

You said:
I think the biggest mistake a speaker can make is not to "hook" their audience immediately. A speaker makes an "impression" on their audience after the first 30 seconds of their speech. If the audience is not "hooked in" and interested, then they "tune out" the speaker. And, following up on Simon's point, always "leave them wanting more". The goal is not to tell the audience evrerything you know or even everything the audience wants to know, the goal is to get them "hooked" on your speaking so they will want to hear and learn more from you.

Hooked,

Tim

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Tim, very good points... and welcome to the forum.

Excellent Take Away...

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These are great points! They're so simple but easy to forget. Thanks for sharing the article

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James
Motivational and Business Speakers

In my teaching practice I used to be so so so guilty of Mistake #1 and #3. Took me some time, but though I am not perfect currently, but I am far cry from where I used to be.

Nice article.

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I passionately hated Public Speaking, well until I solved my stammering

Hi Tim - please forgive me if this sounds rude - I'm not meaning to but I do have an issue with something you suggest.

I agree with you about leaving the audience wanting more, but there's a "BUT". For me the 'but' is why you leave them wanting more. Doing it as a policy so they want to hear you again is a bit of a cheap marketing ploy, isn't it? Surely the whole idea of being a speaker is to give people what they need.... leaving them wanting (needing?) more is a little disrespectful, IMHO. After all, the audience is the most important thing, not the speaker.

Deliberately leaving things out (because you want then to want more, not just because of time etc) is a trick for those who want to speak-for-the-sake-of-being-a-speaker.... not those who want to speak-because-they-have-something-to-say.

Okay, I'm overstating things for the sake of a discussion, but....

Simon

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Presentation skills training for groups: presentation skills training for individuals.

I never actually thought of that - it is pretty disrespectful to leave your audience without answers to questions you've set up already. It's like they didn't get what they came for and they may always remember the speaker as not delivered on their promises - although to leave them wanting more because you are so entertaining is a different story!

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James
Motivational and Business Speakers