Division champion humorous speech analysisI won the Toastmasters division contest with this speech! This video will go over how I managed to keep it together after forgetting a critical word (and substituting it for basically an oxymoron), as well as several other valuable lessons you can learn from the speech.Posted by Potent Speaking on Monday, October 16, … [Read more...]
Analysis of my own humorous speech “Unleash your inner Stillman”
Transcript: Hey everyone, I recently competed in a Toastmasters humorous speech contest and I actually was fortunate enough to win the club level contest so I'm moving on to the area level and representing my club there soon. And what I wanted to do is take the video of my speech and do an analysis on it and show you what I did wrong and what I could improve on as well as … [Read more...]
13 practical ways to reduce public speaking anxiety
You've no doubt heard it before: people rate fear of public speaking as their number one fear. Despite some validity issues with that statistic, it's clear that public speaking anxiety is strong for a lot of people.There are plenty of articles on how to overcome this fear, but very few of them are worth your time. In reality, you will likely never completely eliminate the … [Read more...]
Pretend you’re winning when you speak
On October 7, 1984, Ronald Reagan obliterated the main opposition to his presidency. Rumors had been circulating that he was too old for the job, and that he was getting Alzheimer's.During a debate with his opponent, Walter Mondale, he quipped "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and … [Read more...]
How to connect with your audience
The style of speaking that I advocate on this website is very conversational and personal. It avoids aloofness, it prioritizes making sure your audience likes you and understands exactly what you're saying. In short, I advocate that you connect with your audience.You not only want the audience to like you, you want to like them. How to connect 1. Establish a good first … [Read more...]