Donn King's Corner

People who aren’t used to speaking, and even some who are, seem terrified of microphones. Others don’t respect them enough (a client told me about one of her people who wound up with chewing gum stuck to a stage microphone!). They’re tools. That’s all they are. But they are good tools, especially when used properly.

Here are some things to remember when you’re speaking with a microphone. Read more »

Lama Norlha Rinpoche

I heard Lama Norlha Rinpoche recount last night his harrowing escape from the Chinese invasion of his homeland, as well as subsequent events that brought him to our little corner of Tennessee.

His speaking situation was not one that many speakers would want to face. Read more »

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The following is a guest post from Katheryn Rivas.

The human psyche is a place of many quirks, idiosyncrasies, and phobias.  But of all the fears that loom in our collective minds, the fear of speaking in public remains the most terrifying to the average American, and is considered worse even than death by most.

Volumes upon volumes could and have been written about this peculiar fear, but what is often overlooked in these studies and inspirational tomes is the content of a speech and how it relates to the confidence one feels while delivering it.

It is true that a dull or timid performance of a speech can diminish its power, a bad speech spoken badly is even worse.  Examples of this abound, especially in popular media.  Consider a movie you expected to be excellent, given the actors and directors starring in it, but turned out to be trite, melodramatic, and cliché, even despite good performances. Even the most talented actors can only do so much with a poorly written script.

And the same holds true for a speech.  You might not be a brilliant orator, but if you craft an excellent speech, your audience will be much more likely to forgive your delivery, and will admire your rhetorical skills all the same. Read more »

Budding politician?

You don’t have to know a lot about history to know that people used to think illness could be caused by too much blood, and so the way to cure illness was to bleed the patient. I heard that George Washington died as a result of being bled to treat pneumonia (turns out it was actually “acute epiglottitis“). We just shake our heads and sigh at the ignorance.

You may not realize that the idea of “having too much blood” made perfect sense, supported by evidence and observation. Read more »

The following is adapted from a piece I originally wrote a decade ago, but it certainly still applies today.

Not long ago I heard a student give a speech that I know would have killed her had she been forced to sit in a classroom and listen to a professor lecture that way. She stood still as a statue, holding her notes in front of her, and read most if not all of the speech in a flat, sing-songy tone, the kind that movies use to stereotype boring speakers and teachers.

If you read a written “speech” out loud to the audience, why are you bothering to speak to them?

Wouldn’t it be simpler, easier, less nerve-wracking, and more time-efficient to just photocopy your manuscript? Read more »

Experts only by kevin dooley, on Flickr (Creative Commons licensed)

Let me tell you right now that I am an affiliate for the Speaking Expert Teleseminar. But let me also tell you that I paid for it up front because I recognized five out of the seven experts and knew their work to be well worth the price, and I wanted to ensure I got access to every bit of their expertise. Read more »

Some colleagues and I are exploring the possibility of setting up a mutual support community for up and coming speakers. This would include new speakers as well as experienced folks who are seeking to “move up” in the world of professional speaking where we can share what we’re discovering. I’m grateful for the mentoring that comes from more experienced speakers, many of whom are very willing to provide guidance. But there are some things that we all have to work out on our own, and we think mutual support might help that.

In a sense, speakers are competitors, but much more true is the fact that each speaker is so unique that no one really competes with anyone else. When we share what we’re learning, it’s like the rise of the tide: everyone’s boat floats higher. Read more »

"Dear God, he's right behind me, isn't he?"

If you have a speaking habit that gets in the way, you can obsess it, or you can fix it.

Vicious dog, aka Tinkerbell

I’ve been fighting a situation in my house for months. I have a chihuahua and two cats. (The picture above isn’t my chihuahua, but she’s very close. The one to the left is my chihuahua.) They don’t like each other. As far as the dog is concerned, the main use for the cats is exercise. The only things on earth that the dog isn’t afraid of are the cats.

Whenever one of the cats ventures near, Tinkerbell nips at it. The cats are always nimble enough to avoid her. One cat, Angel, the classic “fraidy cat” stays as far from the dog as possible. The other older cat, Annie, tolerates the dog, humors her mostly, although she weighs twice what the dog does, and will shred Tinkerbell if she is ever so foolish as to actually push it. Read more »

I’ve read a few posts lately mentioning that eye contact is hard for a speaker, even experienced ones. (One place I just saw it is in the very good article “5 Public Speaking Tips that Build Relationships.”) I agree! But I also want to push a little beyond the initial resistance we have to it.

As Dr. Michelle observes, “Making eye contact allows you to connect with your audience.” The emphasis here is on genuine contact. The old saws about picking out a spot on the back wall or looking at their foreheads do not work simply because they don’t establish contact. While the idea of contacting a stranger that intimately seems threatening at first, once you do you’ll discover something very pleasant: there is no such thing as an audience! Read more »

I once had a student who was stuck. She was supposed to speak in a speech round starting on Friday, and she came to me on Wednesday complaining that she couldn’t get started. She had come up with about a minute’s worth of material.

“What are you trying to develop a topic on?” I asked.

“The history of the United States,” she said. Read more »