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Troubador Publishing Ltd - Ian Nichol

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153 pages

English

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Expert speaking coach Ian Nichol writes a thorough and authoritative guide to public speaking. Written in an engaging and informative style, with a great undercurrent of humour, Stand and Deliver! makes for a relaxing and highly enjoyable read, which reinforces Ian's no-nonsense message on how readers can dramatically improve their speaking performances. Ian's unfailing honesty when setting out his personal experiences of triumph and disaster will inspire readers, teaching them that what works for one person may not work for another. Stand and Deliver! provides countless practical tips and suggestions in a highly pragmatic text that will boost readers' confidence. By demolishing destructive myths about public speaking, Ian shows readers how to think positively about nerves and use them to help, not hinder. Offering straightforward advice this book demonstrates that everyone can speak confidently in public by challenging preconceptions and providing a wide range of tools to success.

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Marketing et communication

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Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	28 juillet 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781789010770
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Copyright © 2018 Ian Nichol

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publisher, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publisher.

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information contained in this book, as of the date of publication. The author specifically disclaims any liability, loss or risk that is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of the contents of this work. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and not of the publisher.

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ISBN 978 1789010 770
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction

THE KEY PRINCIPLES
1. If you can drive a car, you can speak in public
2. Have a positive mindset
3. Welcome the fear
4. Focus on what you want to achieve
5. Prepare, prepare, prepare
6. Enjoy yourself!
7. It’s all about emotion
8. You are special, so be yourself
9. Know your subject reasonably well
10. Get the audience on your side
11. Keep it simple and forceful
12. Don’t worry about your body language
13. Be relaxed about your mistakes

THE KEY PREPARATION
14. Get to know your audience
15. Devise a striking title and a strong blurb
16. Save time on research
17. Plan what you are going to say
18. Use the right speaking aids
19. Avoid death by PowerPoint
20. Watch your language
21. Concentrate on the first few minutes
22. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
23. Beware of handouts
24. Case the joint
25. Manage your medication
26. Use a checklist

THE KEY TECHNIQUES
27. Use these simple methods to control your nerves
28. Manage your voice
29. Control the technology
30. Make the most of visual aids
31. Tell stories
32. Don’t be afraid of using humour
33. Use other ways to bring variety into your talk
34. Slow down!
35. Use the last five minutes to advantage
36. Have a painless and profitable Q&A session
37. Survive the speaking engagement from hell
38. Celebrate success
39. Carry on developing as a speaker
40. Put it all in context

About the author
Acknowledgements
I wrote much of this book while commuting between Rugby and Birmingham in the Midlands. My thanks go to two rail companies, Virgin Trains and the sadly now defunct London Midland Trains. Their relaxed approach to the observation of timetables gave me more time for committing my thoughts to paper than I had any reasonable right to expect.
My deeper gratitude goes to a British journalist and politician called Spencer Leigh Hughes, often referred to simply by his initials SLH, who wrote about public speaking a century ago and is the expert I quote most often. He was said to be the cleverest after-dinner speaker of his time. His 1913 book The Art of Public Speaking stands out for its common sense and good humour, a surprisingly rare combination in works on the subject, and he has become my guiding mentor from afar. I hope that his spirit lives on here.
Beyond SLH, I have made many references to past and present writers on public speaking who have inspired me. If I have inadvertently infringed anyone’s copyright, please let me know at ijnichol@btinternet.com, so that I can put matters right for any subsequent edition.
Thanks go to a fine teacher called John Dascombe, who adjudged me the winner of the Tiffin Boys’ School Public Speaking Competition in 1968, when I was a mere thirteen years old. That changed my life.
Several writers and editors have made major contributions to this book through their constructive comments – Gary Smailes, Karin Fancett and John Paxton Sheriff. Their detailed review and encouragement were exactly what I needed during the writing process, and gave me added momentum to see my project through to publication. They could not have been more helpful.
Finally, I record appreciation beyond measure for my parents, Tom and Joan, who first encouraged me to speak in public.
Introduction
This is a book about public speaking, but it only came about thanks to a comment from my personal trainer, Katie, one Monday morning at the gym. I was complaining that my creaky sixty-something-year-old body would not do what I was politely asking of it.
“Ian,” she said, and I always pay extra attention when people get my name right, “you are much fitter than most people your age.” She went on to make some complimentary comments about my ‘guns’, ‘abs’ and ‘pecs’, which I did not quite understand.
I was pleased, since long ago at school I was the weed of the class, the boy who tried to get out of PE lessons, who never learned to swim, and whose greatest achievement in sports was to come in last but one in cross-country running, thus avoiding the wooden spoon. Forty-five years later, I’d come to have a reasonably decent body shape and level of fitness for my age. This was mainly due to great coaching from Katie, coupled with a combination of commitment, hard work and enjoyment on my part.
If I can do it, I thought, anyone can do it.
It struck me that I could equally be talking about public speaking, one of my great passions in life. Public speaking is the subject of a needless air of mystique and of unhelpful misconceptions.
There are so many destructive but pervasive myths that deter would-be speakers: that speakers are born, not made; that being nervous in anticipation is somehow a sign of failure; that success depends on some magical form of body language, or perhaps on an exhaustive understanding of how to create beautiful PowerPoint slides. That’s to name just a few of the old wives’ tales.
As someone who has been a mentor to novice speakers over many years, I know that the reality is utterly different. Almost anyone can become a good speaker through enthusiasm and effort, and have a lot of fun on the way.
There is no such thing as a born speaker.
Nerves and even fear should be welcomed as friends. Body language and slides are just supports, a sideshow. What matters is you, the speaker, the personality you display and the words you use. There is nothing mystical about any of this, and I aim to be a Katie of public speaking to prove it.
How this book can help you
This book will provide you with tips and techniques to make you a better speaker. In the process, it will make the act of talking to an audience more enjoyable for you, and not only for you: when you come to associate speaking in public with having a good time, it is much more likely that the people listening to you will relish the experience as well.
I will set out what a speaking career of nearly fifty years has taught me, the things that would have made my own learning curve smoother. Over those years I may not have read every book ever written on public speaking, but it felt like it. And I found that the traditional textbook approach is strong on things like rhetorical devices and voice projection; but it is less impressive on what to do when your brain is not working, or most of the audience are drunk, or hardly anyone turns up, or your listeners know the subject better than you.
This book is the practical manual I wish I had possessed when I started out.
What’s the catch?
To be honest, no book alone is going to turn you into an invariably outstanding speaker. Indeed, I’m not sure there ever was such a being: even Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King Jr had their off days, as Barack Obama does now. There are simply too many factors that can go wrong on any particular occasion: a bolshie audience, terrible acoustics, malevolent slides, a lifeless auditorium or an utterly dull subject.
I reckon, however, that the pragmatic approach adopted by this book can help people to perform dependably in the top 20% of speakers. It will not necessarily make you the best in the world, or even in your town, but it should be all you need for personal satisfaction and contentment for a job well done, not to mention audience approval and job success.
Public speaking truly can be fun
I subscribe to the theory that we all have an exhibitionist gene within us. Admittedly, we may have stifled it since the days of childhood, but public speaking gives us the chance to regain that youthful enthusiasm, to rekindle the fire while also communicating our enjoyment to a contented audience. We can engage with each member of the gallery, change their outlook for the better and cheer up their day.
I can honestly say that speaking in public has been the finest thing that ever happened to my self-esteem, and a successful talk will keep me bubbling for days or weeks afterwards. Apart from anything else, as a speaker you get to dominate a captive audience for periods of up to an hour or more at a time. You do not get that chance very often in life. Younger readers may be less likely to mourn its loss, but for older ones who are married it can be an unmissable opportunity.
How hard can it be?
Nothing in this book will be rocket science.
Quite simply, public