How to Close a Speech

One of the worst mistakes you can make as a public speaker is talking too long. Not only will you send some folks to never, never land, you will make some of them downright mad. It doesn't matter if your entire speech was brilliant and the audience came away with information that will change their lives. If you talk too long, they will leave saying, "That speaker just wouldn't quit." Don't let this happen to you! Say what you have to say and sit down. Before you do, give them a well thought out closing.

The last thing you say may be the most remembered. You must put as much time into selecting and practicing your closing as you put into any other part of your presentation. Just like your opening, your closing does not have to be humorous. It could be motivational, challenging, thoughtful, respectful of the length of the presentation, or it could restate your point in a different way. This ending segment will have a strong influence on what the audience takes home with them when you are done. Please, at sometime during your talk ask the audience to do something. Many a great NO ZZZZZs talk went no further than the walls of the meeting room because the audience wasn't moved to action. If you haven't ask them to do something by now, the closing is your last chance.

If the subject is appropriate, I happen to be fond of humorous closings for several reasons. If you leave them laughing and applauding, you will exit, but an extremely positive impression about you will remain. Another good reason to leave them laughing is that the room will not be deadly silent as you are walking back to your seat. I hate when that happens. I do love laughter and feeling good; finishing a speech humorously gives me and the audience an opportunity to feel great.Speeches that are for entertainment purposes only should generally leave the audience laughing.

Finally, if the subject is not appropriate to end with laughter, you could end with a touching story or quotation that leaves the audience thoughtful and quiet. Even the most serious public speaking subjects can benefit from humor, but the humor should be sprinkled throughout the body of the presentation. Don't put it at the end because closings are powerful and the audience will think your overall attitude toward the subject is flippant.

This same technique can be very effective in ending a mostly humorous speaking engagement. Have them laughing all along while you make your points. Then finish seriously. This contrast will create a great impact. It will convey the fact that you believe in a lighthearted approach to the subject, but the results are very serious to you.

Don't be afraid to use humor when you speak in public. Just make sure you learn to do it right.

Public Speaking: Humor To Avoid

The overriding principle is that you should not tease the audience about beliefs
that are important to them or about any topic that is currently upsetting them.
In addition, never use the following types of humor: Racist, sexist, religious,
puns, any type of off-color humor, or humor about physical or mental disability.

I was preparing a presentation for a large hotel chain and from my pre-program work I uncovered a topic that was ripe for humor. The hotel chain and the franchisees were having some clearly ludicrous contract negotiation problems. When I approached the meeting planner about the topic, he told me that the franchisees were pretty upset about the way things were going. My comments, even though they were funny, might make them think about a painful situation. I chose to cut them. Why should I take the chance? It was also another
good lesson in clearing humor before use.

When it comes to the nevers mentioned above, there are established pros who
get away with ignoring them. Dr. Jarvis has been doing a hilarious bit on
religion for twenty years without a problem. But, he has done the bit thousands
of times and knows exactly what he is doing during the rest of the presentation
to be sure the audience is receptive. I've talked to him recently and he tells me
that people are so sensitive now he uses extreme caution when using the bit.

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Public Speaking: Why Humor

Joan Eisenstodt, from Eisenstodt Associates, and former MPI Meeting
Planner of the Year says, "High content, informational speakers almost always
fall flat if they don't use some humor. I equate appropriate humor with warmth
and audiences respond to warmth." She also notes, "After twenty-five years
watching audiences and presenters, I know that even subtle humor can help the
audience respond positively to information that could be considered boring."

MAKES A POSITIVE IMPRESSION. Laughter and good humor create
bonds. Even if the audience members don't like you, they will like you better
if you can make them laugh or smile and they will leave with better thoughts
of you.

SHOWS THAT YOU DON'T TAKE YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY.
The old saying goes, "If you take yourself too seriously, no one else will." You
don't want to be known as a stuffed shirt. If you can laugh a little bit at
yourself at the right times, your audience can laugh with you and not at you.

HELPS PAINT PICTURES IN THE AUDIENCE'S MIND. The pictures
humorous storytellers can paint are what people remember, not the words.

MAKES INFORMATION MORE MEMORABLE. Joyce Saltman, a
college professor and well-known speaker in the health care field, did
exhaustive research for her 1995 doctoral dissertation Humor in Adult
Learning. She concluded that "Most researchers agreed that humor generally
aided in the retention of materials as well as to the enjoyment of the
presentation of the information."

LIGHTENS UP HEAVY MATERIAL. Appropriate humor added to heavy,
serious material gives the audience a few seconds to relax. Even Shakespeare
employed this device, called "comic relief," extensively to provide distraction
or offer respite from the serious events of a tragedy.

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Public Speaking: Driving Traffic to Your Website With Videos

Just watch a bunch of my short videos on http://www.YouTube.com/antion You don't need to watch my long ones. Just the short ones. It will give you ideas.

Here's a simple formula for YouTube videos designed to drive people to your site (as opposed to videos where people are already on your site)

=> Hi I'm [insert name]

=> I know you're here looking for information on [insert keyword]

=> Well you've come to the right place.

=> Add some of your credibility. Example: I've been working in the field of feng shui for 22 years...

=> Give them a tip.

=> For more great tips like this visit [insert your website and spell it out if necessary] where you can download [insert your freebie here]

=> I hope to see you at my site

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Public Speaking: Is This A Good Audience For Me?

I always ask the following questions of the meeting planner because I know what audience
profile I'm looking for. You will have to pick the questions for the parameters that are most important for you.

What topic do you want?
How many people do you expect?
What are their responsibilities?
Are their spouses invited?
What is the average age? What is the range of ages?
What percentage is non-U.S.?
Why are they there? Mandatory ____ Voluntary _____
What is the male/female ratio?
What is happening before I speak and after I speak? (You might get a great
audience profile, but be doomed to failure because of the program schedule)

If I decide to accept the engagement, these questions are repeated on the pre-program
questionnaire. I want as many levels of verification as I can get, so that
I know what I am getting into. Chart the answers along a continuum to see if the
engagement appears to be a good one for you. If all the answers fall to the right
of zero, it's a no-brainer. Go ahead and accept the engagement.

If some land to the left you have to seriously evaluate their weight compared to the weight you
have attributed to the factors that would make you accept. This is obviously not an exact science. When you get to the event some audiences will end up being better than you expected and some worse. At least you now have a way of eliminating the audiences that are clearly wrong for you.


Bad for me Good for me
4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4

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Public Speaking: Know Your Audience

You can't catch many fish by using food you like for the bait. You must give
them what they like. You must absolutely, positively know your audience.
You should know what the members of the audience have in common
(interests, enemies, competitors, etc.). You should know what the hot topic of
conversation is, but be sure they are joking about it themselves. It may be too
hot. You should know the restaurants where they eat, the name of their
newsletter, how much money they make, the name and record of the local
sports teams, etc., etc., etc.

The more you know about the audience, the better job you will do. Your goal should be to make that audience know that the presentation they are witnessing was created specifically for them.

If you don't present to the same audience all the time, you must have a
method for getting this information. Most NO ZZZZZs presenters use some
form of pre-program questionnaire which is sent out well in advance of their
program. I got the basis for mine from Dottie Walters at Walters International
Speakers Bureau. I made some slight changes to suit my presentation style and
I keep adding and deleting questions to tweak it to perfection.

Your conversations with the program coordinator will give you some of the
information you need. You should fill in as many of the blanks as you can
before you send out the questionnaire to save the program coordinator some
work. This also proves you were paying attention to what he or she said.

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Public Speaking: Deck the Halls with Story Ideas at Christmas

The weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's can be painfully slow at newspapers, magazines, and TV and radio stations because newsmakers are doing things other than making news.

Talk show guests are in short supply. Reporters often find it difficult to track down the people they need to comment on a particular story. And because newspapers sell more ads in December, that means more news pages to fill.

Here are ways your publicity effort can capitalize on the holidays:

· Tie your story idea to Thanksgiving, Christmas, Yom Kippur or New Year's. See Special Report #14: How to Piggyback Your Story Ideas onto Holidays and Anniversaries. (To access any special reports mentioned in this article Visit PublicityHound.com and click on "special reports".)

· Write letters to the editor and opinion columns for publication during the weeks immediately before and after Christmas, when submissions usually drop off.

· Call your local newspapers now to see what special sections they have planned during December. Your story idea might be a perfect fit. Pitch your idea immediately because these sections are sometimes done weeks in advance.

· Stay alert for breaking news stories on which you can provide expert opinion, even if the topic doesn't have anything to do with the holidays. If a story breaks, call newspapers and TV stations and offer to comment.

· Write or call magazine editors, who usually work six months ahead, with story ideas for late spring and early summer. Mark your calendar now to set aside some time before and after Christmas to pitch.


Publicity expert Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound, publishes "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," a free ezine that shows you how to generate thousands of dollars in free online and offline publicity. Subscribe at PublicityHound.com and receive free the handy checklist "89 Reasons to Send a Press Release." Contact her at 262-284-7451 or at JStewart@PublicityHound.com

Great Public Speaking: Great Closing Lines

P.T. Barnum would have trouble getting people to leave his museum so he
put up a sign that said, "This way to the Egress." When people went
through the door, they found themselves on the street. I don't want to find
myself there, so I'll finish up now . . .

You've heard that "All's well that ends well." Well in my case it's All's
well that ends. Goodnight.

When all is said and done, there is usually more said than done. I think
I've said enough. Good Luck.

When a speaker says, "Well, to make a long story short," it's usually too
late. I don't want you to feel that way about me. Thanks for having me.

If you have a Question and Answer period:
Now let's open it up for questions. Ask me anything. If I know the answer,
I'll give it to you. If I don't, I'll make something up.

Complimentary and funny:
Secretaries are the backbone of an organization. They are the structure
that holds everything together [start to get emotional and cry. Take out a
handkerchief and hidden noisemaker. Blow your nose really loudly]. I'm
sorry. I get so emotional. You're the greatest. Good bye.

Paraphrase a quotation:
The next time you're feeling down, and you look in the mirror and see a
few extra wrinkles, just remember what my old buddy Mark Twain used to
say. "Those wrinkles are where smiles have been all these years." I'm Tom
Antion. I love you.

Now I'm going to say something in the public interest.
Goodnight.

George Eliot said, "Blessed is the man [I would substitute the word person
for the word man to avoid sexist language], who having nothing to say
refrains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact."

An old-timer is one who can remember when time was marching on instead
of running out. My time is running out, so in conclusion . . .

My great, great granddaddy always told me, "When you're holding a
conversation, be sure to let go of it once in awhile." I'm letting go of ours
right now. Are there any questions?

My talks usually have a happy ending. That's because everyone is glad
they are over.


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Public Speaking: Talk About Your Family

When you are doing a public speaking engagement, one way to build rapport with an audience is to include information about your family. Most people in the audience get the warm fuzzies when you mention your spouse or kids in a positive light.

Of course, you do run the risk that a few people in the audience may not like their spouse or kids. Generally the benefits of this technique far outweigh the risks.

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Public Speaking: Bilingual Help

When going over room setup and audio / visual requirements with a foreign logistics person, make sure you do it in advance of the presentation (hopefully several times), and have a bilingual person there to ensure that both you and the logistics person are on the same wavelength.

Be in the room very early on the day of the speaking engagement (at least two hours before the public enters the room) and, if possible, have your bilingual helper there too. Terms that are familiar to most English speaking speakers are difficult to translate into a foreign language. One good idea is to take pictures of the various items you may need (overhead projector, white board, etc.) and carry them with you to the event. When you want something, all you have to do is show the picture which, when you are desperate in a foreign country, is worth a million words.

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Public Speaking: Creating Memorable Moments

When staging a practical joke you must plan the many details carefully. You certainly don't want something that is supposed to be fun to turn sour. If you plan the joke as carefully as you plan all other details of the event you will find that the benefits far outweigh the risks. I use the following criteria when planning an event:

1. The joke should not be physically dangerous in any way.
2. It should not be humiliating.
3. It should have good intent, i.e., you should be able to laugh with the group that was fooled and not at them. Most of the time key insiders are involved in the idea anyway.
4. It should be creative. If you faithfully stick to the first three criteria you can be assured that your jokes will be well received. Item number four can be fudged with little or no problem.

For instance, the idea of a clumsy waiter is not particularly creative, but when you have a talented actor playing the part, your biggest complaint will be that someone's side hurts from laughing too hard. Make sure you only deal with professional and experienced characters. Even if you plan the joke carefully, once the person or group is "on stage" they must be able to ad lib and adjust to whatever situation arises. On large productions you will need an on-site person to coordinate the action. The characters presented here are only three of the most popular gags you can pull at a meeting. You are limited only by your imagination and budget.

If you truly want your participants to have a memorable experience, then give them something special to remember.

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Great Public Speaking: The Last Speaker

The last speaker of a long afternoon or evening program should
not expect a great response, again because folks are too worn
out. Keep your presentation short and crisp and acknowledge the
lateness so that the audience knows you care about them. One time
I was the last speaker on a long program in Baltimore, Maryland,
for a food service management company. I was being introduced at
8:35 p.m. on a Monday night in the fall. What do you think the
mostly male audience was thinking at 8:35 p.m. on a Monday night
in the Fall? Of course! MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL! I got up and said:

There are three things I would never want to be: 1. a
javelin catcher; 2. the scoop man at a Donkey Basketball
game; and 3. the last speaker on a long program. (I looked
at my watch.) It's now 8:40 p.m. I'm going to limit my
remarks to 15 minutes. I guarantee you will be in the
hospitality suite in time for the kickoff. I kept my
promise.

Do you think I had more of their attention than if I had not made
the comment? You bet I did! Even though it had been a long day,
they all had a good laugh during my talk. A little care for your
audience will go a long way.

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Great Public Speaking: No Fee Talks

Many professionals speak or give free public seminars to help get clients. Attorneys, doctors, dentists, accountants, real estate agents, lawyers, home builders and many other people from a wide variety of professions give seminars to promote their business and to gain clients directly from the seminars.

To do this effectively you must not spend the entire seminar promoting yourself. You must give the participants good information with the idea of establishing yourself or your company as the expert. There is certainly nothing wrong with showing people how complicated things are and even though they can do it themselves, it might not be a wise thing to do.

For instance, you could be a plumber giving a seminar on how to remodel your bathroom. You tell the participants every little detail of how to do it and also tell them the perils if they do it wrong. No one will complain that you were just giving a sales pitch, but many will think to themselves, "Maybe this is too much to tackle by myself. Maybe I should hire this person to either help me or do it for me."

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Public Speaking: Working With Newspaper Photographers

The next time a newspaper photographer takes your photo, remember the 8 things they hate:

1. Bossy people who demand that other people be included in the photo, so there won't be hurt feelings. Never tell the photographer whom to photograph. This puts them on the spot. Usually, the photographer will oblige and take a few shots just to placate you, and then make a mental note that you're a real pain to deal with.

2. Know-it-all photo subjects, usually amateur photographers, who think they know the correct angles, lighting and backdrops. The photographer doesn't tell you how to do your job. So you shouldn't tell her how to shoot a photo.

3. Not giving the photographer enough time to take a photo. After he arrives, he might want to look around, consider several different backdrops, check and double-check equipment, make sure the lighting is adequate, and experiment by shooting you in several different settings. So don't rush him.

4. Public relations people and staff members who act like bodyguards and refuse to let the photographer talk one-on-one with the photo subject. Photographers like one-on-one contact for several reasons. It makes the photo subject feel more at ease. It also helps the photographer discover something about the photo subject that they that might not have known.

5. Inconsiderate people who leave the photographer waiting for half an hour. Call media outlets as soon as you know there will be a delay in case the photographer wants to reschedule. Every minute you make a photographer wait is one less minute they can spend helping you look good.

6. Demanding to see all the photos they have taken so you can choose the photo you want printed. Leave this decision to the photographer and photo editor.

7. Demanding that you get to keep negatives. Negatives are the property of the media outlet. They are under no obligation whatsoever to give them to you, although some media outlets will sell you a print.

8. People who ask if the photographer can send them 10 reprints--for free. Don't make this request of reporters or editors, either. Call the publication and order them yourself, and expect to pay.

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Public Speaking: Press This!

WordPress offers a neat bookmark called Press This. You can put it into your browser's bookmarks or favorites, which will let you quickly write a blog post about the website you're visiting. (This used to be called the bookmarklet.) You may have encountered this same feature as offered by Facebook, Del.ico.us, and other social networking sites.

You just have to add Press This to your browser once, and then you can use it anytime. To add the Press This link to your browser in the WP Admin, go to the Tools menu. At the bottom of the Tools page is a Press This link. Just grab it with your mouse and drag it up to your browser's bookmark bar.

Now it's available to you. For example, if you're reading a newspaper website and you read an article you'd like to mention in a blog post, just click the Press This bookmark (or favorite). A window will pop up with the Edit Post page in it and the URL of the site you're looking at already written in as a link.

You can then write whatever additional text you want, add tags and categories, and then either save it as a draft or publish it right away.

Posting via email
If you want to add a post to your blog without having to open the WP Admin and log in, you can set up your WordPress installation to accept posts sent via email. First, you have to set up a special secret email address that is accessible via POP. WordPress will check that email address and turn any emails in it into posts.

So you have to be sure not to use this email address for any other purpose!

Once you have the email address set up at your mail server, go to your WP Admin and navigate to Settings Writing. Scroll down a bit to Post via e-mail.

Now just enter the server, login name, and password into the Writing Settings page and be sure to click on the Save Changes button.

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