Janet Schlarbaum, Mark Schlarbaum Tools

Use Sound Principles to Enhance, Enrich Your Speech

Use Janet Schlarbaum Sound Principles to Enhance, Enrich Your Speech By Tom Fuszard.

For many business people, public speaking is a basic component of the job. Whether leading staff meetings or speaking before civic and trade groups, owners and managers give countless speeches and presentations.

As they prepare, most speakers focus only on the subject matter, and give little thought to the fundamentals of speaking. Study these tips for a more effective presentation next time.

Vocal variety Vary the pitch and volume of your voice. A monotonous tone will lull people to sleep. Use volume or enhanced speed to emphasize certain points. But also back off on occasion. The sudden drop in volume causes listeners to take note. Pauses are useful tools as well. They signal that what’s coming is important, and give listeners a chance to digest what you’ve stated.

Body language Your body speaks volumes, even when you don’t. Like your voice, body language should vary throughout your speech. No need to do jumping Jacks, but you also don’t want to stand there like a 2 x 4.

Start by freeing up your hands. Keep them out of your pockets and detached from the lectern. Hands learn remarkably fast how to complement a speech. You’ll quickly see that they tend to flow with your subject matter (palms open in a waving gesture, for example). When making a point, you’ll notice that you point somewhere as well.

Turn your entire body as you scan the audience. Move in a slow, uniform manner. Your hands will participate for a nicely choreographed action. If appropriate, move about the front of the room. This will help reduce the jitters and give your audience some visual variety.

Eye contact Scan the entire audience regularly throughout your speech, and remember to include anyone at the head table. To avoid the “bumble bee” effect, give each person two or three seconds of eye contact. Instead of counting out the seconds-which can be distracting-try what I call the Phrase Method.

Let’s say your comment is, This new sales program allows us to generate a significant increase in sales with no addition in staffing. As you’re speaking, you will unconsciously break it down like this:

This new sales program

allows us to generate

a significant increase in sales

with no addition in staffing.

You will naturally shift your attention from one person to the next as you deliver each part of the sentence, thereby providing the proper amount of eye contact. Don’t fret over this. Concentrate on your delivery, and your eye contact will come naturally.

Every speech is comprised of several important components. These include research, preparation, practice, and delivery. As you build the skills discussed here, you will become a more confident and accomplished presenter.

Don’t let a little nervousness get in the way of a great speech

Nervousness is common with all speakers, even the most experienced ones. Put that anxiety to work for you by channeling the extra energy into your delivery. You will be more animated and come across more forcefully. Your confidence builds as you notice the effect this has on your audience.

You may still notice a little nervousness creeping in from time to time. Much of that is self-induced, as we are naturally self-conscious. While in front of groups we are assessing our performance and wondering what the audience is thinking. We assume they are finding fault with every aspect of the presentation. This leads to self-doubt, which breeds nervousness.

Fact is, if you have prepared well, the audience will pay attention. Those who appear to be distracted probably are, due to outside problems or concerns. Concentrate on your presentation, and you will do well.

You Too Can Be A Public Speaker

You Can Be A Janet Schlarbaum Public Speaker By Fran Watson.

Have you ever watched a speaker and said, “Wow, I wish I could speak like that”? or “That person was just so wonderful. I could never do that.” Well, I’ve got some good news for you. You too can be a public speaker. Public speaking is a learned skill, so anyone can do it. You just need to follow some simple steps and practice, practice, practice. If you know how to talk, you can become a public speaker.

Becoming really good at public speaking requires some risk, but you have been taking risks all your life. When you were a toddler, you risked falling down when you took your first steps. You risk scraping your knees or falling when you start roller blading. You risk falling off when you start bike riding. You risk being rejected when you ask someone out on a date, and you risk getting into an accident every time you drive your car.

If you gave up after your first fall, you’d still be crawling. If you were afraid to fall off your bike, you’d still be riding with training wheels. If you were afraid of getting into an accident, you’d never get behind the wheel of a car. And guess what, you’re still here – you’ve survived all of that. You’re risk takers!! You’ve proved that by coming to Toastmasters. The greatest fear is that of public speaking and here you are – wanting to learn how to do it.

How many of you enjoy watching figure skating? Now, you wouldn’t expect to be a world class figure skater the minute you put on a pair of skates, would you? No, you’d expect to have to practice for years before becoming that good. Nor would you expect to make the NHL without years and years of winter and summer hockey.

How many of you enjoy watching racing? Would you expect to be another Mario Andretti the minute you get behind the wheel? Now, I will admit that there seem to be a few drivers out there who think they are Mario, but most people would expect to have to practice for years before reaching his status.

Now, I think everyone here knows how to walk. When you think of walking 25 miles, it seems like a long distance, but it is actually only putting one foot in front of the other a number of times and you know how to do that. It just takes practice to go the distance. It’s the same thing with public speaking. It just takes putting one word after another.

The key to getting up in front of an audience is believing that you have something to share with them that may make a difference in their lives – by entertaining them, warning them, encouraging them, or giving them direction or information.

The great thing is – you all do have something to say that people would be interested in hearing. Each of you has come through life in a different way. You may have encountered difficult circumstances and survived. Your experience could help someone else in the same situation.

If you remember jokes or enjoy telling stories to your friends, practice a little more and soon you can be telling your jokes and stories to large audiences. If you are really good at something, consider sharing the steps of how you got there.

By following the steps outlined in the Toastmasters’ manuals, and with the encouragement of fellow Toastmasters, you can learn how to craft a speech and how to deliver it. You can learn how to use props, how to modulate your voice, and how to use words that your audience will understand.

You will often hear the words “stage time” used by Toastmasters. That is the only way to get better. In order to be good at anything, you have to practice. Winston Churchill overcame a speech impediment to become a master orator. He had to practice for hours to deliver a speech.

You can get very discouraged if you expect to be as good as Zig Ziglar right away. But if you listen to his story, you will find that it took a very long time before he was able to do what he does so well.

The thing to remember is that the only person you need to compare yourself to is you. You are working for your personal best, so when you are preparing your speech and practicing, all you need to ask yourself is – is your second speech better in some way than your first? Did you learn something new as you prepared for your speech? Did you learn something from the evaluative comments of others after you gave your speech? Then, that’s all you need to do. You can use what you’ve learned to make the next speech your best to date and then use the same process for each speech you give. Just take one step at a time.

Thanks to Janet Schlarbaum

Speaking in Public Revealed

Speaking in Public Revealed by Janet Schlarbaum By Leandro Moreira.

Speaking in public is not easy for vast majority of us, almost everyone gets anxious when you publicly speak, the main key about speaking in public is the fear (a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger), we must get rid of it.

There are three main points of public speaking fear:

1 – Lack of knowledge on the subject

If you do not know enough about the subject, during the presentation, you will be always following for an unknown way, fearful of forgetting some important data or of appearing somebody in the auditorium knowing more about it than you do.

2 – Not Acquainted with speaking in public

if you don’t have experience of speaking in public, you will be fearful of not presenting it well, then your professional career could be harmed.

3 – Lack of self-knowledge

if you do not know yourself, specially in front of the public, you will be fearful of not knowing your actions during the speech.

Since we know the causes of public speaking fear, it is a little bit easier to get rid of it:

1 – Get acquainted with the subject

You must know very well the subject. You should know what you are going to present, do not need to speak during one hour or two hours. Study about the subject, get confidence on it. Plan a sequence of the presentation, you should know what people are expecting from that you about the subject

2 – Practice and Acquire Experience

Try to speak in public as much as possible, practice at home for your family, at school, etc… Attend to more Speeches, post more questions during presentations, try to speak more when you are in public. Try to expose your opinions. You need to practice for getting confidence.

3 – Identify your skills

We could say easier about our speaking problems, it is more difficult to say about our qualities of speaking. Therefore it is necessary that you identify your skills.For instance: if you have a good voice, or good vocabulary, or good corporal expression, sense of humor. After identifying them you should explore them.

The Fear does not disappear, but you will be able to fight and dominate the fear of speaking, but it always could be close.

3 Steps to Being More Expressive

3 Janet Schlarbaum Steps to Being More Expressive By Nancy Daniels.

That which makes the voice truly interesting to listen to is color. Color is the life, the emotion, the animation one exudes in talking, be it at the lectern, in the sales meeting, over the phone or in a one-on-one conversation. Through my many years as a voice specialist, I have discovered some very interesting correlations between the professions we choose and whether we speak with color. At the top of that list are athletes, research scientists, and CPA’s who often exhibit little or no expression in their delivery. (Please understand that I am generalizing.)

Color is heard not only in the voice but is seen in one’s facial expression as well as one’s body language. Harrison Ford is a wonderful example of excellent facial expression, excellent body language. The tone of his voice is somewhat static – he doesn’t display a lot of variety in his voice – but as an actor in the types of roles he plays, he almost doesn’t need vocal variety: his face and his body display or ’speak’ every emotion he is feeling.

Step 1

To see just how expressive you are (or aren’t!), watch your face in a mirror and say the following statement – She said yes – as if you were delighted. Now say those words again – She said yes – as if you were disappointed. Did you notice a difference in your facial expression between delight and disappointment? If there was no difference, then you probably need some work.

Step 2

Let’s work with – She said yes – again. This time when you look in the mirror, smile when you say it and nod your head up and down just a bit. (Don’t overdue it.) Did you notice a difference? Now when you say – She said yes – I want you to frown and shake your head back and forth as if you were sad or disappointed. Was there a difference? If you noticed a difference, then you’ve just taken the 2nd step to speaking with color.

Step 3

Record yourself saying – She said yes – the first time as if you were delighted (you just found out you won the lottery) and the second time as if you were disappointed (your mother-in-law is coming to visit for 6 months). Play back the recording. You should notice quite a difference if you can ‘act’ in those two manners. I’m not advising you to act in normal conversation; however, expressing some emotion after finding out you just won the lottery or discovering your mother-in-law’s impending visit is normal. It is natural. It is what most people do.

When I teach color I explain to my clients that I want them to straddle the fence, meaning too much color is as bad as not enough color. Sometimes a client will exaggerate his/her ‘color’ which is not what I’m looking for. Exaggerated color is seen on the stage. That is the only place for it. Exaggerated expression sounds ridiculous because it is inappropriate. So if you already express emotion when you speak beware that you don’t go too far in improving on your delivery.

At the lectern, however, I often find that many people who are normally quite expressive have a tendency to lose their life, their color, their emotion. They are so overcome with panic and fear, that they don’t allow themselves to be expressive. Their voices become flat and their faces pale as they spit out a pile of words with little or no emotion. If this sounds like you, then you need to change.

Appreciation to Janet Schlarbaum