When companies bring you in to speak, they don’t want a cookie-cutter presentation. They want you to customize the message and the experience just for their staff. Doing so means the difference between being re-hired time and time again (and building a lucrative business without much marketing cost) or doing “one-off” speeches, burning that bridge, […]
Continue readingDo you want to connect deeply with your audience? Great, then take advantage of the spontaneous moments that occur during your prepared speech. How? Well, before we get into how, let’s look at why. Why should you use spontaneity in speaking? After all, this is supposed to be a prepared speech, right? Why Use Spontaneity? […]
Continue readingThe quickest way to connect with your audience is to share your failures and flaws. Sometimes sharing your frustrations and firsts also helps. Why Share Failures? Lots of people don’t care for motivational speakers because they’re used to hearing the kind that thinks a motivational speech should consist of bragging about their successes and then […]
Continue readingClick the arrow in the audio player below to listen to this 1-minute audio of a live Q&A I held in Saudi Arabia that teaches a lesson about how NOT to open your speech. [audio:https://craigvalentine.com/wp-content/uploads/604888DZMUEG.mp3|titles=Mic check ] So How Can You Open The Speech? Now that you see what not to do during your opening, let’s look […]
Continue readingTap, Tease, and Transport Most speakers start their stories and hope their audiences will come along on those journeys. That’s average. World Class Speakers don’t do that. Instead, they make their audiences curious so that they want to come along. So here is the secret: it’s what you do before your story that really matters. […]
Continue readingNote: This blog entry is an excerpt from my latest book World Class Speaking that I co-authored with Mitch Meyerson. 1. Do not Drop Stats off; Drive them Home Many times you will see a speaker go into a list of statistics in order to prove his or her point. Statistics are certainly desirable in speaking, […]
Continue readingWhat good is giving a speech that is quickly forgotten by your audience? In this lesson, you will find 5 tools you can use to make your speech stick in the minds and hearts of your audience members. As a result, you can get rehired time and time again. As I always say, when you […]
Continue readingWhen you build yourself up, you let your audience down. Let’s face it; there are some speakers who use the platform to stroke their ego. I may have been one of them in the past. However, when we talk about how great we are and speak only of our successes, our audience members think of […]
Continue readingKey 1: Set expectations as to how many questions you will take or how long you will entertain questions. For example, I usually say, “We’ll take 4 or 5 questions and then I’ll wrap up the message.” Or I might say, “We have 5 minutes for questions and then we’ll put a bow on the […]
Continue readingWould you like a surefire way to clarify your message, shorten it, and make it stick? One of the best ways to do this is to relate the unknown to the known. In textbook language this is referred to as activating prior knowledge. Analogies help tremendously in this area. Webster’s New World Dictionary’s definition of […]
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