Public Speaking - Some Attention-Gaining Devices

* Humor, of course
* Props
* Stories
* Voice inflection
* Stage movement
* Asking questions of the audience
* Showing visuals
* Playing music
* Gesturing
* Using quotations
* Reading or reciting poetry

Effective NO ZZZZZs presenters use attention-getting techniques spaced throughout their presentation to keep the audience's interest up. Each of these is discussed in detail throughout this book. The great sales and motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, hits the audience like clockwork with a joke or story every seven to nine minutes. I even shorten that more to between six and eight minutes for high content talks and several times per minute for mostly humorous talks.

So, my response to the original question "When should I use humor in a presentation?" is at the beginning, the middle and the end, or anywhere you want a peak on your intensity wave. Use humor throughout your presentation and space it at intervals to provide a change of pace and to reemphasize your message in a new and interesting way.

Make more money speaking than you ever believed.