How to Be Twice the Speaker in Half the Time
By Akash Karia
This book about public speaking was a fresh approach to a
topic that has been written about and spoken about by many. The book was an enjoyable
and easy read that took less than two hours to digest. Don’t let those
characteristics fool you. I was pleased at the number of powerful public
speaking techniques that were thoughtfully covered and memorably reinforced.
The author, Akash Karia, thoughtfully analyzed four speeches
from the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking. Three of the four
were winners of the final round of the World Championship.
Toastmasters is an international non-profit organization
that helps people become better public speakers.
I’ve read many books about public speaking that simply
repeat the same tired ideas and sometimes outdated lessons. Akash promised in
his introduction that this book would not waste time on fluff. I believe that
he kept his promise. The book covered many powerful presentation techniques
that took me years to learn. These are techniques that I teach my coaching and
training clients.
The author introduces each public speaker, provides a speech
excerpt, a link to a video of the speech, a few thought provoking questions for
the reader and insights from the author.
This style of teaching seems to be engaging, entertaining
and enduring.
This book is ideal for Toastmasters who hope to participate
in the Toastmasters Annual Speech contests. They will see a comprehensive
approach to public speaking success. They will also enjoy the excitement of the
World Championship Speech Contest.
The winners of the Toastmasters World Championship tend to
deliver inspirational and entertaining speeches. These speeches are only seven
minutes in length. So this isn’t about delivering a training workshop or
technical report. These speeches tend to be about one key message delivered in
an entertaining way.
However, most presenters can learn effective presentation
techniques from this book. A leadership speech must be engaging and
inspirational. A sales presentation must persuade people to act. Even a
technical presentation must build rapport, illustrate points and reassure the
audience. The author points out that some techniques in these examples might appear
exaggerated because of the size of the audience and setting. Individual
presenters can certainly adapt a technique to fit their audience.
Although each presenter demonstrated similar techniques,
they also flourished because of different individual strengths. The point is
that you can learn from others and must thrive on your own unique strengths.
The four public speakers featured in this book are Craig
Valentine, Darren LaCroix, Lisa Panello
and Jock Elliot.
If you are really serious about public speaking you can
visit any or many of the five dozen Public Speaking blogs listed as resources.
I enjoyed reading this book and I’m happy to recommend it to
novice and experienced public speakers.
Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives
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