Introduction 1
How This Book Is Organized 2
Foolish Assumptions 3
Icons 4
Beyond the Book 4
Where to Go from Here 4
Part 1: Laying the Groundwork 7
Chapter 1: Getting Started with Public Speaking 9
Dealing with Issues That Stand in Your Way 10
Fighting the fight, flight, or freeze response 10
Affirming your worth with affirmations 11
Creating reality with visualization 11
Getting rid of tension 12
Improving Your Body Language 12
Gesturing 13
Moving 14
Making eye contact 14
Adjusting Your Pace 15
Perfecting the pause 15
Supporting Your Breath 16
Boosting Confidence through Preparation and Training 17
Breathing (your own) life into speeches 18
Planning out your speech 18
Getting ready for the big day 19
Eating right to feel good 20
Honing Your Delivery 20
Articulating 20
Resonating 21
Using the right tone 21
Adding visuals 21
Getting laughs 22
Telling stories 23
Dealing with the Audience 23
Excelling in Interviews 24
Mastering the Fine Art of Conversation 25
Dropping the Ball and Still Managing to Score 26
Wearing Clothes That Spell Success 26
Chapter 2: Getting Your Brain in the Game 29
Recognizing the Pitfalls of Negative Thoughts 30
Saying no to negatives: Avoiding your triggers 31
Perfecting perfectionism 32
Nixing those niggling negatives 33
Keeping the Brain’s Fight, Flight, or Freeze Response in Check 34
Saying yes to adrenaline 34
Stopping cortisol in its tracks 35
Thinking like a caveperson 36
Leveraging the power of neuroplasticity 37
Adopting a Yes Let’s Attitude 38
Knowing When to Say No 39
Part 2: Diagnosing and Treating Common Afflictions 41
Chapter 3: Overcoming Performance Anxiety 43
Staying Loose: Tension Can Ruin a Speech 44
Proper posture: Alignment isn’t just for cars 44
Identifying the tension 47
Releasing the tension 48
Chin Up and Don’t Slouch 49
Breathing as a sloucher 49
Why feeling bad ends up sounding bad 50
Using Your Body to Battle the Fight, Flight, or Freeze Response 53
Chapter 4: Curing Common Vocal Problems 57
Vanquishing Vocal Fry 58
Recognizing vocal fry and its causes 58
Seeing why vocal fry is perceived negatively 59
Undoing Upspeak 60
Knowing why we upspeak 61
Decomissioning Devoicing 62
Recognizing devoicing 62
If you’re a natural devoicer 63
Battling Breathiness 64
How breathing works 65
What breathiness does to credibility 66
Negating Nasal Voice 66
Preventing the Push: Speaking Evenly 67
Disconnecting your thoughts and feelings 68
Wingin’ it 68
Stopping Stuttering 69
Breathing to alleviate stuttering 70
Rolling with word flubs 70
Denying the Drop 71
Chapter 5: Conquering Impostor Syndrome: You Are Who You Think You Are 73
Feeling Like a Phony 74
Diagnosing yourself 74
Critiquing the criticism 75
Understanding Why It Happens 76
Feeling a failure onstage and off 77
Lucking into success 78
Being Yourself 79
Part 3: Preparing Your Speech and Training Yourself 83
Chapter 6: Crafting a Captivating Speech 85
Planning and Preparing 86
What’s Your Point? 86
Hooking Your Audience 87
Supporting Your Point: The PIE Method 90
Point 91
Illustration 92
Explanation 93
So what? 93
Conclusion: Ending with a bang 94
Writing in Your Own Voice 95
Keeping it simple 96
Writing and reading out loud 97
Show, Don’t Tell 98
Painting a picture in the audience’s mind 98
Crafting Your Narrative: Story Time 99
You’re the boss: Acting like a protagonist 100
Telling the story of your business 101
Getting real: Enhancing your story 102
Chapter 7: Using Visual Aids 107
A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words 109
Knowing when a picture works and when it doesn’t 110
Cropping pictures to fit ideas 111
Considering color 111
Mastering Essential Slide Show Skills 113
The Do’s and Don’ts of Audio 116
Don’t let music play for a long time 117
Don’t play music too loud or soft 117
Don’t play music during your whole presentation 117
Do have a sound check in the space prior to your speech 118
Do check your equipment 118
Using Video If You Must 119
Using Other Visual Aids 120
Properly using props 120
Going old school with flip charts 121
Chapter 8: Being Funny (or Trying To) 123
Getting Personal: Revealing Who You Really Are 124
Writing Stories and Jokes 125
Questions to help you prep 126
Figuring out your own sense of humor 127
Breaking It Down: Elements of Humor 128
The rule of three 129
The importance of practice 129
The power of the pause 130
The charm of self-deprecating humor and laughing at yourself 131
The value of acting it out 132
The art of modesty 132
The dreaded cringe and how to avoid it 134
Loosening up the audience 135
Enjoy yourself and don’t take it too seriously 135
Chapter 9: Practicing Your Speech 139
Practicing Out Loud 140
Hear yourself 141
Stand up 141
Prepare those props 142
Power up those slides 142
Find an empty room 143
Time yourself 143
Get someone to watch you 144
Recording and Critiquing Yourself 145
Take video of yourself presenting 145
Record your voice 146
Work on your face and nonverbals 147
Mark My Words: Adjusting Your Script for Emphasis 148
Slowing Down: Speed Kills 150
Cutting your speech when your time is cut 150
Resisting the urge to rush 151
Making the most of tactical pauses 152
Avoiding filler words: Ums and ahs 153
Speaking, not reading 154
Breathing just enough 156
Chapter 10: Becoming a Vocal Athlete 159
Understanding the Importance of Nutrition 160
Cutting down on refined sugar 160
Cutting back on carbs 161
Refraining from alcohol before speaking 162
Hydrating with water 162
Chilling out with the coffee 163
Dialing down the dairy 163
Properly using protein 164
Making Sure You’re Fed 164
Getting Some Exercise 166
Making your heart go thump 166
Increasing your lung capacity 168
Part 4: Fine-Tuning Your Delivery 171
Chapter 11: Prepping Your Mind for Public Speaking 173
Learning to Visualize Positively 174
Visualizing opportunity 174
Building Self-Confidence 176
Becoming happier through gratitude 176
Engaging in positive self-talk 178
Cutting Yourself Some Slack 180
Shifting Your Focus to the Audience 182
Beginning with the end in mind 183
What is the audience expecting to learn? 183
What are your audience’s demographics? 184
What level of knowledge on the topic does the audience have? 185
How big is the audience? 185
Why is the topic important to the audience? 186
Going one-on-one: Addressing one person in the audience 186
Knowing when not to apologize 187
Handling hecklers 189
Chapter 12: Mastering the ABCs of Articulation 191
Meet the Articulators 192
The jaw 192
The tongue 194
The soft and hard palates 195
The lips 196
Understanding Mumbling and Why People Do It 197
Honing Your Articulation 199
Twisting your tongue 199
Voicing vowels and consonants 199
Singing 204
Improving Clarity for an Accent 204
Slowing down 205
Staying positive 205
Chapter 13: Good Vibrations: Resonance 207
Getting to Know Your Resonators 207
Why We Study Resonance 208
Putting Your Whole Body into It 209
Knowing your resonant voice 209
The throat 211
Opening up the nasal cavities 214
Exploring oral resonance 215
Releasing your jaw 216
Opening up your chest resonance 217
Part 5: Enhancing Your Speech 221
Chapter 14: Breath, Tone, and Pitch 223
Breathe, Breathe, Breathe 224
Supporting your breath 224
Adding volume for a bigger space 227
Changing poor breathing habits 228
Does breathing make you look fat? 230
Just breathe 230
Improving Your Tone 231
Expressing meaning and emotion through tone 232
Using a conversational tone 233
Harnessing the Power of Pitch 235
Chapter 15: Getting Body Language into the Act 237
Becoming a Poser (in a Good Way) 238
Adjusting your stance 238
Facial expressions 239
Making eye contact 241
Tuning In to Audience Perception 242
Looking and feeling genuine 243
Owning the room .244
Moving with a Purpose 245
When should you move? 246
Sitting during a presentation 248
Hand Jive: Gesturing with Your Hands 249
Dressing for the Occasion 252
Wearing appropriate clothing for your event 252
Suiting yourself: Clothing for men 254
Style and comfort: Clothing for women 255
Patterning the patterns 255
Wearing makeup 255
Sporting tattoos 256
If the shoe fits 256
Avoiding wardrobe malfunctions 257
Tying back your hair 257
Taking it easy with the jewelry 258
Doing your nails 258
Chapter 16: Ready, Set, Go! 259
’Twas the Night Before 260
Getting Familiar with the Space 262
Scoping out the joint 263
Warming up in the space 264
Eating for Success 265
Sleeping to Refresh 266
It’s Show Time! 266
Minding your mind 267
Visualizing using imagery 267
Breathing 268
Making the most of the microphone 269
Connecting to your audience even before you’ve met them 270
Part 6: It’s Show Time: Plying Your Trade 273
Chapter 17: Acing the Interview 275
Becoming an Expert on You 276
Becoming an Expert on the Industry and Organization 278
Checking Out the Interviewers 280
Using Body Language in the Interview 280
Avoiding the don’ts of interviews 281
Practicing the do’s of interviews 282
Public Speaking: The Interview Edition 282
Getting the questions in advance 283
Revealing what you intend to do 283
Faking it till you’re making it 284
Using your words positively 285
Looking like you already work there 286
Convincing yourself you already have the job 286
Competing factors 287
Mastering the Q&A session 288
Remembering that you are the expert 288
Admitting you don’t know the answer 288
Being vulnerable 289
Chatting like a Champ: Phone Interviews 290
Phone interview don’ts 290
Phone interview do’s 290
Warming up for your interview 291
Greeting the greeter 292
Winding things up 293
Chapter 18: Engaging in Witty Repartee 295
Minding Your Manners 297
Shaking hands 299
Staying Engaged in the Conversation 300
Remembering names 301
Adopting open body language 303
Letting go of your fears 304
Composing Your Elevator Pitch 304
Chapter 19: If at First You Don’t Succeed 307
Everyone Wants You to Succeed 307
The show must go on 309
Practicing what could go wrong 310
Making lemonade out of lemons 311
Rolling with the Punches 311
Double booking 312
Shooting yourself in the foot 312
Never having to say you’re sorry (when you’re up there speaking) 313
Chilling out: No one knows you messed up 313
Owning obstacles 314
Getting Better at Improvising 315
Improving your improv muscles 315
Practicing improvising about your subject 316
Adjusting your timing 317
Part 7: The Part of Tens 319
Chapter 20: Ten (or So) Tips for Stage Fright 321
Accept Your Fear 321
Practice, Practice, Practice 322
Breathe Slowly and Deeply 323
Use Progressive Relaxation 325
Be Up and Out, Not Down and In 326
Move Your Hands 326
Get Positive — Yes Let’s 327
Roll with Mistakes 328
Repeat an Affirmation in Your Head 328
Focus on an Engaged Audience Member 328
Slow Down 329
Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Improve Your Delivery 331
Analyze Your Script 331
Personalize Your Speech 333
Emphasize Key Words 333
Change Up Your Pitch, Tone, and Word Duration 334
Breathe! 335
Slow Down Your Pace 335
Land Your Thoughts 336
Use the Power of the Pause 337
Record Your Presentation 337
Video yourself 337
Record your voice 338
Ask a Friend or Colleague to Watch and Listen 338
Chapter 22: Ten Tips for Preparing to Speak 341
Warm Up Your Body and Your Voice 341
Get physical 342
Get aligned 342
Breathe 343
Adopt a Power Pose for at Least Two Minutes 343
Practice Your Speech While Doing an Unrelated Task 344
Eat Healthy, Drink Water 344
Visualize a Successful Presentation 345
Recite Your Speech Dressed in Your Presentation Clothes 346
Arrange Your Notes and Visuals 347
Bring Water 347
Arrive Early 347
Introduce Yourself 348
Index 349
