The Path to a Profitable Speaking Career

What follows are excerpts form Mike Moore’s popular manual Public Speaking for Profit and Pleasure. Every month I receive numerous emails from people all over North America asking how I got into the speaking business and how they can too. To respond to these many inquiries I wrote Public Speaking for Profit and Pleasure. Here are ten timely tips, from my manual, to get you started on the path to profitable speaking. 1. You know that you might have what it takes to become a speaker if you feel compelled to speak. The fact that you were drawn to this article and clicked The Path to Profitable Speaking indicates a definite interest and a possible compulsion. If you feel compelled to speak you can easily learn how. You can accomplish whatever you putyour mind to. 2. Good... Read more »

How to Boost Staff Confidence and Performace with Public Speaking

Public speaking builds confidence. When you experience the thrill of holding an audience in the palm of your hand and receive their appreciative applause your confidence soars. Public speaking boosts your self esteem. When you see the audience relate to you as someone who really knows what you are talking about your self esteem increases. And we all can use an increase in self esteem. People start looking at you in a more positive way. Even if you never use your public speaking skills in giving formal presentations, people will notice that you are more articulate and... Read more »

The Art of Storytelling in Public Speaking

It is important for speakers to remember that human beings have an insatiable appetite for stories. From the time we were children when we constantly asked our parents to, ” Tell me a story″ until the present time nothing has changed. We love to listen to and tell stories. Life is filled with experiences and when we share these experiences we are telling stories. When we listen to the experiences of others we are sharing their stories. Can you imagine life without stories? What would we talk about? To validate this human hunger for stories all you have to do is observe what happens when you meet an old friend you haven’t seen for some time. The first thing you want to do is find out what they′ve been up to. This is a request to be told stories. At a party... Read more »

Fear of Public Speaking - Physical and Mental Manifestations

This article addresses some of the key issues regarding fear of public speaking. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about fear of public speaking. Fear of speaking in public is number one in the list of “phobias” which Americans have. Phobia is defined as a persistent or intense fear of a certain object, activity or situation. Fear of public speaking is one type of social phobia which is often associated or developed through a person’s adolescence. How would you react if your boss suddenly tells you that you have to do a presentation... Read more »

Four Basic Questions Every Author Should Answer Before Choosing A Niche Market

You might think the saying, pick a niche and grow rich is just some silly cliche. The truth is if you try to write to everyone, no one will read it. But when you laser focus on a specific topic and target market, you can sell more to fewer people than selling less to more people. Joe Garris, creator of Product Idea Profitability Evaluator (PIPE) Software, suggests answering four basic questions before choosing a niche market… 1. Is the market easily defined and reachable? - Where do they hangout? - What publications do they read? - Do they have clubs or events that bring them together? - Are they looking for information online? 2.... Read more »

6 Guidelines For Effective Public Speaking

Public speaking is something we cannot avoid in our life. The situation will arise when we are called upon to stand up and speak our minds out. When that situation comes are we ready deliver? Public speaking is one of the most feared activities in a person′s lifetime. Anxiety and stress will usually attack once you get off your seat and start to speak. Sadly, this fear is the cause of lost promotions, low self esteem, miscommunications and similar situations. But why do some people excel on it? They make it look so easy - I guess through... Read more »

Contributing Good Information To Conversation

If we are well-informed, then the goal in conversation is to select subjects in which all those taking part have an interest. When two people meet, the overlapping of their experiences produces subjects for conversation. Mutual experiences develop interest. How enjoyable it is to talk to someone who visited Mexico last summer as you did! What fun it is to talk to someone who is interested in fly-casting, as you are! So, the good conversationalist is, first, well-informed, and, second, one who chooses from his information a subject that is interesting to... Read more »

How to Tell a Story Well

The tempo of storytelling should usually be faster than the normal speed of conversational delivery. Listeners like to feel the story is progressing. Action must take place. You can emphasize this feeling of progress by telling the story briskly. To use a rule of thumb, if it takes you four minutes to tell the story the first time you try, work until you can tell the same story in only three minutes. Practice the Story Stories improve as they are told and retold. Needless details drop out. Interesting additions are included. The fables, the folk stories,... Read more »

Experience in Speaking Well

My first contact with the talk of the world outside my home was with the boys in a rural school. It was not pleasant. All the boys were too bashful to talk with the girls. And even among the boys, the younger and possibly also the nicer boys were usually too bashful to participate in the general talk sessions. And the talk of the others, the older boys, was not only painfully silly and repetitious but shockingly indecent. People simply will not bring themselves to believe this - but it is literally true - and I fear the same is still true in most nondenominational schools. I say this because when... Read more »

How to Gain the Confidence of an Audience

The first thing for the public speaker to do is to gain the confidence and sympathy of his audience. Under no circumstances is he to antagonize or prejudice his audience against him in the beginning. A favorite method is to begin by telling a humorous story bearing upon the subject, or an apt quotation. Let the story be fairly well told and it will not fail to capture an audience. The introduction if rightly prepared and given will do much to win an audience at the very beginning and secure to the speaker sympathetic attention and confidence. A careful study of the following... Read more »