Powerful Presentations: Unleash Your Personal Speaking Power

By Jacques Waisvisz

Special Feature: This book offers eight unique self-evaluating exercises.

Many books have been written on the subject of public speaking. Often these voluminous books have been composed with the aspiring professional speaker in mind. However, most people do not want to become professional speakers. They just want to be able to address an audience, when required, and to deliver a presentation with grace, humour and confidence.

But most people are afraid! A study conducted by Reader's Digest and Yale University has, for twelve years in a row, concluded that the number one fear amongst 75 per cent of North Americans is the fear of speaking in front of a group of people. Why do we have this fear of speaking in public?

"Powerful Presentations" answers that question and suggests ways to overcome that fear. The book takes the reader through eight easy steps to write a presentation and eight secrets to present with power and confidence.

This practical book on public speaking will help students, managers, executives and, in fact, everyone to communicate with an audience in a competent manner.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781456621087

Book preview

1995

FOREWORD BY DENIS CAUVIER

"Your personal success is likely to be determined not by what you know,

but how well you communicate what you know."

Lisbeth Weiss

Many books have been written on the subject of public speaking. Often these voluminous books have been composed with the aspiring professional speaker in mind. However, most people do not want to become professional speakers. They just want to be able to address an audience, when required, and to deliver a presentation with grace, humour and confidence.

But most people are afraid! A study conducted by Reader’s Digest and Yale University has, for twelve years in a row, concluded that the number one fear amongst 75 per cent of North Americans is the fear of speaking in front of a group of people. Why do we have this fear of speaking in public?

Powerful Presentations answers that question and suggests ways to overcome that fear. The book takes the reader through eight easy steps to write a presentation and eight secrets to present with power and confidence.

This practical book on public speaking will help students, managers, executives and, in fact, everyone to communicate with an audience in a competent manner.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

When I first visited the Ottawa Carlingwood Toastmasters Club, in 1978, I had little idea why I was there. I knew that I had to do something about my shyness, which had developed since immigrating to Canada from Holland. You see, I had become self-conscious about the way I spoke English and someone suggested Toastmasters to me!

The first meeting was a real eye-opener! I discovered that I was not the only person afraid to speak in front of a group and that, in fact, there were many other people interested in learning better speaking, listening and leadership skills. I had plenty of company - - I was not alone. In any one year, Toastmasters International attracts an average of 170,000 members, world-wide, who enjoy the benefits this organization offers to those who accept the challenge.

It took half a year before I gained enough courage to make my first speech. But I did not stop there! I participated in speech contests, winning some, losing others. I conducted seminars in Canada, the USA and Europe, on communications and related subjects and received the Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) accreditation. In 1991, I was elected District Governor for District 61, the only Canadian bilingual district in Toastmasters International.

Today, I make my living conducting seminars and delivering keynote speeches on communication and other life-enrichment skills. It all started with that first step, in 1978, when I attended a meeting of the Carlingwood Toastmasters Club.

Enterprises, both large and small, corporations, organizations and government departments are realizing important benefits by ensuring that the appropriate corporate and personal image is projected by their executives and employees during public appearances. My Image Making seminars teach participants how to project their personal and corporate image through enhanced visual- and verbal communication skills - skills that can be learned with a little effort and practice.

When I began looking for material to build these seminars, I found that most books on presentation skills were written with the aspiring professional speaker in mind. There seemed to be a void in the market for people who would like to enjoy the process of delivering an occasional speech in a competent manner, or give workshops once in a while. I also found that there are hardly any books that are useful to students who are asked to make presentations by their teachers or for students wishing to participate in speech contests... and win!

Therefore, I wrote Powerful Presentations. I do not claim to have originated any of the material that I share with you in this book. The skills you will learn have been practiced by many speakers before me. This book is based on the accumulation of material through many years of reading, studying, going to seminars and conferences, in my search for ideas and methods that work for most people. The result is before you. The essence of presentation techniques boiled down to simple and effective formulas that everyone can understand and use.

Jacques Waisvisz

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am deeply grateful to the many people who have helped me reach my goal of becoming a professional speaker.

First, I wish to thank my mentors in Toastmasters International who have evaluated my speeches throughout the years.

Special thanks must go to two Past District Governors of Toastmasters’ District 61. Ray Swanson DTM (1990-1991) suggested some exciting changes to the manuscript. Without the special editing touches of Jane Stuart DTM (1992-1993) Powerful Presentations would not be a reality today.

Many thanks, also, are due to Martine, my wife, who proof read the many manuscripts - and who continued to believe in me!

I also want to thank Jim York, who helped me put my thoughts in proper order at a critical time in my life and Denis, of Denis L. Cauvier Seminars who was a guiding light through the first few difficult months of my full-time speaking career. He helped me to concentrate on the importance of doing first things first.

I have included some proverbs and maxims in the book. A few of them are mine; some are partly mine; some are borrowed. I have given credit to the authors, wherever possible.

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM THIS BOOK?

Here is a list of benefits that you can expect to gain, if you study this book carefully, follow the suggestions and participate in all the exercises to be found in the appendix.

01. Self confidence and self esteem

02. Ability to construct a speech

03. Ability to deliver a speech effectively to audiences

04. Development of listening skills

05. Graceful acceptance of criticism

06. Skills to give positive feedback, rather than criticism

07. Greater leadership skills

08. More effective contribution to meetings

09. Career advancement

10. Social grace

INTRODUCTION

"Most people do not wish to become professional speakers!

They just want to be able to make a competent presentation once in a while!"

Who are these people? People who make their living selling, students who have to prepare presentations, women in all walks of life who want to assert themselves, older people who want to teach others about their life experience, entrepreneurs and business owners who would like to give workshops to promote their product or service, engineers or accountants who are called upon to solidify sales presentations, managers in government departments, and people who are involved with professional, community, condominium or other associations.

In fact, just about anyone who wants to communicate effectively to a group can learn how to do it better by applying the principles taught in this book.

If you are afraid to get up and be heard, you will find the solutions on how to overcome your fear in the section The Power of Your Mind. If you want to learn quickly how to write an effective speech, Powerful Presentations contains eight easy steps to prepare a speech. It also contains eight proven presentation secrets that will help to make you a competent speaker. When you follow the steps and learn those secrets, both you and your audience will benefit.

Powerful Presentations will help you understand that the basic objective of a speech is to provide sufficient information in a manner that will be clearly understood and can be acted upon by the audience. Presentation skills are the methods you may use to deliver the speech and make it memorable. You’ll learn how to project the appropriate personal and corporate image through improved presentation skills in Chapters Four, Five and Six, how to conduct meetings in Chapter Seven and how to prepare and deliver training sessions in the last chapter.

A wise man once said:

I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but, I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant!

I hope that, by studying and working with Powerful Presentations you will become one of a new breed of speakers who say what they mean, and mean what they say - - and do it briefly and to the point.

It is my sincere wish that you and your audience will get as much enjoyment out of your presentations as I have had writing Powerful Presentations!

THE POWER OF YOUR MIND

You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him find it within himself.

Galileo

No way, you won’t get me up in front of a group of people! I would not dare! I am too self-conscious! I don’t want to make a fool of myself! Why in earth should I want to make a speech? Add to those remarks all the other excuses you have personally used and you will know why a study conducted by Reader’s Digest and Yale University has, for twelve years in a row, concluded that the number one fear amongst 75 per cent of North Americans is the fear of speaking in front of a group of people. Why do we have this fear of speaking in public? Why would most people rather die than make a speech?

Somehow we have developed a negative attitude about getting up and speaking in front of a group of people. When someone just mentions the words making a speech our subconscious immediately starts to regurgitate negative information to our conscious mind. Far too many of us tend to look at the speech as a problem rather than an opportunity for growth. And no wonder. Ever since our days at kindergarten and the show and tell sessions, we have had little opportunity to build on a positive base of public speaking experience. What little we may have had has often been a mind-numbing experience.

But let us take a few moments to examine how our minds function and how we can take control of our thoughts to overcome those negative attitudes towards public speaking and, for that matter, all other self-defeating behaviour patterns. Once we have prepared ourselves mentally to speak in front of a group, the negative emotions suffered years ago will soon disappear. The physical part of presentations will become manageable ... simply a set of skills that we can learn and use for our benefit and for the benefit of others.

Computers were built to emulate a model of the human mind. We have, on the one hand, the subconscious mind or the hard disk; and on the other hand, we have the operating system or the conscious mind. The