Public Speaking: Audience Gags

Audience Gags

Audience gags are offbeat jokes that occur unexpectedly during a presentation.
Dr. Joel Goodman, from the Humor Project, does one where a telephone rings
during his presentation. He answers the phone that was hidden in the lectern and
pretends to talk to his mother. The same joke would be called a running gag if
the phone rang at several other times during the program.

Ten Wanted Men

I staged a gag at a seminar one time that was loads of fun and took less than one
minute to complete. Before the program, I picked out about 10 fun-loving
audience members to help me. I gave them secret instructions that were to be
carried out on a certain cue during the program. To start the gag, I had my
assistant interrupt the seminar to give me an important note. The note read (I
used a serious expression):

"It appears that someone is in attendance today with another man's
wife. There is a large and irate man on his way here right now. If
you want out, there is a backstage door you can use to escape
quickly."

At this point, 10 men jumped up out of their seats and ran keystone cop style out
the door. Once they realized what was happening, several women jumped up and
ran out too. It was great fun and the gag sure woke up everyone who had a heavy
lunch.

Get more great gags to wake up your audience!

Public Speaking: Uploading Your Public Speaking Videos to YouTube

How can you show your public speaking videos to thousands of people quickly? Upload them onto YouTube, a website where public speakers and other users can upload and share videos. Before you broadcast your videos on YouTube, you will need a user name. Though you can upload videos from a mobile device like an iphone or record from a webcam, this article discusses uploading videos from a computer.

Login
Go to the YouTube home page and enter your login. You’ll see an “Upload Button” on the upper right of the screen.

Click the “Upload” button. The “Video File Upload” page will display.
Just below Video File Upload, you will see the comment, “Press Upload Video to select and upload a video file.” Follow the instructions and click “Upload Video.”

Using the “Browse” field, navigate to the location on your computer where you saved your video file. Click on the file and then click “Open.” As the file is uploading, a blue progress bar will display across the screen.

A title bar will display below the blue bar where you can enter the title, description and tags. You can also enter a category, which also helps people find you through searches. Fill in the title, description and tags. Remember to use your primary keyword in the tags to help search engines find your videos.

Next, choose your privacy options. There are two: “Share your video with the world” or “Private.” If you are uploading a business video, select “Share your video with the world.” If you choose Private, the only people who will be able to use your video will be the people on your list of users. Even then, you would have to know their YouTube user name and send the video to them.

When the video is successfully uploaded, you’ll see a green checkmark, along with the word “Success.” At that point, click “Save Changes,” located under the privacy option. The phrase, “Your video settings have been successfully saved,” will display. YouTube will begin to check and process your video.

If you want to make edits …
If you want to add annotations, more tags or delete the video, go to the top right side of YouTube and place your mouse over your user name. A drop-down menu will display. Click “My Videos.” YouTube will show you the most recently uploaded video. Select the video and make your edits. You can to edit immediately after uploading, though YouTube will still be processing it.

Why should you make videos for your business?

Public Speaking: What Is A Great Speaker?

=> Most great speakers actually do or live what they talk about.
This translates into high credibility. They are not simply giving
book reports.

=> Great speakers have become well known enough in their circles
of expertise to carry even more credibility along with their
words. This is very valuable to the audience because it reduces
their resistance to the believability of the speaker's message
and allows them to focus on the message.

=> Great speakers know a tremendous amount about their audience.
They research the organization and in many cases interview
audience members. They choose their final comments carefully
based upon what they have learned from their research.

=> Great speakers think long and hard about developing visuals
that enhance their message instead of overshadowing it. They
don't allow their visuals to take over the show. These visuals
could be projected images, props, foam boards, costumes,
flip charts etc.

=> Great speakers when possible come early and stay late to best
connect with the audience members. Being aloof has some
advantages, but unless you are a celebrity already, being aloof
in most cases will slow your progress.

How can you be a "great" speaker? It's easier than you think...

Public Speaking Marketing Tips: Referral Fees

You can be a really great platform speaker and still not get
people to refer you for other speaking engagements.

I don't know why that is. I suspect that people just get busy
thinking about their own lives and problems and -- can you
believe it? -- They just don't dedicate themselves to telling the
world how great you are.

One way to encourage people to spread your name around is to
offer them an incentive in the form of a referral fee. When money
is involved somehow people remember your name more.

I offer up to 20 percent of my speaking fee as a
commission/referral fee if someone calls up and says, "Joe, saw
you speak and said we have to have you at our next convention.
Are you available . . ." This means that Joe did my selling job
for me and all I have to do to close the deal is check my
calendar book and send the contract.

I offer 10 percent if someone calls because of Joe and makes me
jump through all the normal hoops to send press kits, demo
materials and keeps me on the phone for hours to see if I'm the
right fit for their audience.

In the first case, Joe either had the clout or did such a great
selling job for me that he deserves more money. In the second
case Joe didn't have the clout and didn't do a good enough
selling job, so he gets a little less. Either way Joe and I both
win.

A colleague of mine and professional speaker Bill Cates wrote the
book "Unlimited Referrals." I suggest you get a copy for tons of
other ideas on getting people to refer you.

Increase Your Referral Fees and Grow Your Speaking Business!

Presentation Skills: Good Presentation Tips

Making a good presentation is easy when you know the right techniques.

Learn to build a speaking business of your own!

Public Speaking: Creating Material Out Of Adversity

It's 5:30 AM Eastern time. I'm the only one sitting here at the gate area at Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport for my 6:25 AM flight back to Norfolk. While I'm sitting here I had one reminder and one revelation.

The Reminder
As I sit here freezing to death after my brief shuttle ride from the
hotel I'm reminded that I broke my own rule of not going north for any reason in the
winter. Why I broke this rule, I really don't know. I don't like snow. I don't like slush.
And I don't like the cold. I must be getting senile.

The Revelation
Being the upbeat guy that I am I decided to see how I could turn this
situation into a positive. That's when I came up with the revelation/idea that is
destined to change the world and is about as "green" as you can get.

My idea is for the United States to purchase the northern part of
Mexico. How much could it cost? A couple hundred billion or so? Who cares? Whatever the
price tag it will be worth it when you hear the rest of my idea.

After we make the purchase and attend the closing (this won't cost much
because so many real estate attorney's are hurting for business) we shift the entire
northern United States to the south. Can you imagine how much natural gas, oil, coal,
electricity and wood we would save? It would more than pay for the purchase.

Also, our population growth would stabilize because people would be able
spend way more time outside instead of accidentally spawning way too many kids in an
effort to keep warm using body heat.

I suggest you begin immediately contacting your local congressperson to
move this idea forward.

=====================

Note to speakers from Tom: Do you see how you can come up with
bizarre/memorable/funny material for your speeches just by forcing your mind to look for the
bright side of any situation. Oops. They're boarding now. I'm heading south.

Learn More Great Speaking Tips. Get 30 days of public speaking training for only $5.00!

Even Beauty Queens Need Good Presentation Skills

Guest post by Diane Diresta

You say you don't need presentation skills? You're not a public speaker? Think again.

Beauty pageants aren't just about beauty. Did you know that the interview is 40% of the grade? That means if a contestant flubs the presentation there's a good chance she won't win the crown.

It's no different in business or the workplace. I've known very bright, competent people who lose instant credibility because of an inability to communicate or speak in public.

But don't take my word for it. See for yourself.





Diane DiResta is CEO of DiResta Communications, Inc., a New York City consultancy serving business leaders and entrepreneurs who want to communicate with greater impact — whether face-to-face, in front of a crowd or from an electronic platform. DiResta is the author of Knockout Presentations: How to Deliver Your Message with Power, Punch, and Pizzazz, an Amazon.com category best-seller and widely-used text in college business communication courses. For a free audio course visit: http://www.diresta.com

Public Speaking: Motivational Speaking

Learn The Business Of Public Speaking From Tom!

Public Speaking: Facing Your Fears

Learn The Top Ten Ways To Make Money Speaking!

Great Public Speaking: Male vs. Female Audience

Tom With Mark Victor Hansen

There is nothing I like better than an all female public speaking audience. All female audiences tend to laugh more easily and louder than all male audiences. All-male audiences are the toughest because the male ego gets in the way of laughter. They look around to see if anyone else is laughing before they laugh, and they won't laugh as loud because they think they will look less powerful.

If you speak to an all-male audience it is more critical to bond and be "one of the guys" especially if you are a female speaker. I'm not being sexist here. I don't believe in sexist language. I'm just giving you the thoughts to keep in mind if you are a female speaker and you want to be successful speaking in front of a general all-male audience. You must realize: not all males out there in the business world are as sensitive as me (send all big hugs to me in care of my publisher). If your all-male audience consists of a general public audience not from the same company or field, stick to sports, business, and money to best connect with them.

One of the hardest audiences to deal with consists of a group of executives from the same company when the CEO is present. If you say something funny, the executives will start to laugh, but they choke it off until they check to see if the CEO is laughing. If he or she is laughing, then they go ahead and laugh. This kind of audience will create timing nightmares for you. If you are the CEO and you are in the audience for a presentation, it is your obligation to laugh and at least act like you're having a good time to "give permission" to everyone else to laugh. As a good public speaker, you can sometimes take it upon yourself to gently explain to the CEO how everyone will look to him or her for approval.

Audiences that consist of more than 50 percent women are good too because . The presence of the females provides a good buffer and makes it OK for the men to laugh, since so many other people are laughing.

Tips, Tricks and Techniques to be the best presenter possible!

Public Speaking: Start Out Low

Unless you are doing some type of surprise or big rah rah opening in your public speaking engagement, consciously start out with a slightly lower than normal voice inflection. In the excitement or nervousness that many of us feel at the beginning of a speaking engagement, it is easy to go the other way and start out with a voice inflection that is too high.

The problem with this is that if you are already at a high range when you start, you have nowhere to go as you attempt to crescendo the audience to a big peak of excitement at the end of your program.

When you present in public . . . start low.

Learn To Make BIG Money Speaking!

Public Speaking: Executive Public Speaking

Public Speaking: Do Your Research

Many people that know me or have had me do a public speaking engagement for them know that I am a real stickler for pre program research. This research allows you to connect with the audience on much deeper levels than you could have without it. There are many ways to do this research.

You can review trade publications, do Internet searches, secret shop retail establishments, and use a pre program questionnaire. I do most of these research techniques for every presentation, but the technique that is most effective for me is the telephone interview.

Interview at least 15 people before you speak at an event. Try to speak to a cross section of the people that are going to be at the meeting. If they are all of the same rank and same job responsibilities, make sure that you get cross section from geographics, short timers versus old timers and/or male versus female. Be sure to get a wide range of views. Ask some variation of these questions:

What are the three biggest challenges you have in getting your daily duties done.

* Tell me about the organizational successes.
* Tell me about the organizational failures.
* Tell me anything funny that has happened.

Now we will look at how to use the information you get. One of my overriding principals of public speaking is to make the audience the stars. One way to do this is to use a very positive or insightful statement that you got from your phone interviews and project it or put it in your handout in a prominent position. Many times my entire customized presentation is based around the quotes I got from the people I interviewed. I weave my material in and around what they have told me. I then give the overhead or disk to the person who gave me the information.

Overheads are much better for this because I have seen them hanging on the bulletin board in the organization. Of course, my name and company are on it too. Your pre-program research will also help you build rapport and gain an 'insiders' position because you will be exposed to the terminology of the group, i.e., you might have used the generic term manager, but you learned that the term 'team leader' is used by a particular organization.

The information you receive can also be used to plant the seed for a future presentation or to land consulting work. You might say during a presentation, 'Joe, also told me about XYZ. We don't have time to discuss that today, but it certainly warrants some attention.' Besides promoting you, it shows you did your homework and that you know what is going in a the group to which you are speaking.

Learn About The Highest Paid Profession In The World!

Public Speaking: How To Pick On Someone Part 1

You may have heard many times that humor should not occur at
anyone's expense. That's mostly said by people who are not good
enough speakers to pick on someone else successfully. This
article will tell you how to do it.

First of all you better be pretty good using humor already to try
this technique. I'll also give you fair warning that if you do
this wrong it could backfire, so pay close attention.

STEP 1 RESEARCH
When you are doing pre-program research, ask who are the real
hams that are going to be in the audience. Ask for traits about
them that everyone in the audience will know about. Start a list
which includes the highest ranking people that will be in the
audience.

STEP 2 ASK PERMISSION
Call up the people on the list and ask them if they mind if you
tease them a little. Tell them you heard about how much they love
golf, or whatever else you have learned about them already. Tell
them you plan on teasing them and giving them lines to say back
at you. You will most likely get a resounding yes if they are
truly hams.
NOTE: BE CAREFUL OF PICKING ON LOW LEVEL PEOPLE. IT MAY APPEAR
YOU ARE BEING MALICIOUS. IT'S BEST TO PICK ON THE HIGHEST RANKING
OFFICIALS, THE SALES LEADERS, WELL-LIKED PEOPLE, ETC.

STEP 3 WRITE OR RESEARCH HUMOROUS LINES
I suggest buying yourself a roast/insult book. Here's some
examples:

"Some people believe that Joe is one of the best, most prolific
salespeople this company has ever seen . . . (pause) and some
people believe in the Easter Bunny.

"I've got good news and I've got bad news. The good news is Sally
is taking golf lessons. The bad news is she's taking them from
Fred (Fred would be a guy who is always bragging about his golf
game, but he's really not that good)

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Public Speaking: Web Based Finance Option

More and more speakers are getting smart and realizing that
selling their products leads to more speaking engagements. They
are also realizing that bundling products together allows them to
get a much higher sale per person and it also means that the
speaker can gain revenue from sources that would never hire that
speaker to speak.

This article is going to focus on a very specific way to sell
larger ticket or bundles of products either to consumers or to
small companies AND automate it on the Web.

All of you hot shot corporate speakers out there that pooh, pooh
this idea because you're used to selling big packages at full
price to corporations better take heed if you want to keep your
overall revenues up in the face of corporate belt tightening.

There is an enormous additional revenue source out there just
waiting to be tapped if you take your knowledge and package it in
a fashion that is both affordable and relevant to small companies
or individuals.

HERE'S THE STEP-BY-STEP TECHNIQUE

=> You advertise your product bundle on the web with a good long
copy page.

=> You put an exit pop up box on the page that only pops up if
the person does NOT click the order button.

=> The pop up box contains compelling copy to allow you to
finance the purchase.

=> You set your shopping cart to take the original down payment
and to automatically bill the credit card in regular payments to
complete the purchase. If your shopping cart won't do this, then
I ask you why not? Mine can and it can do lots more other cool
things too http://www.kickstartcart.com

=> You spend all the extra money you made FROM PEOPLE WHO WERE
LEAVING YOUR SITE. This is an important point. The person who
took advantage of this had already decided NOT to purchase and
you converted him/her to a sale.

If you want to see this in action, visit
http://www.antion.com/speakervideo.htm Look around and then
leave the page. You'll see the exact technique I'm talking about.
I got an additional $697.00 sale on only the 17th person who had
decided not to buy.
oh by the way. While you are looking around go ahead and purchase
the video while you are there :)


Get More Great Public Speaking Tips!

Public Speaking: Opening Tips

=> Ask a funny or outrageous question like, "How many of you have ever swung from a tree like Tarzan?" Then go on with comments about it being a jungle out there.

=> Ask a deadly serious question like, "How many of you would know what to do if you went into your small child*s bedroom and the child wasn't breathing?" You may even hear gasps from some audience members (especially the moms) when you ask a question like this. You can be sure they will be riveted on what you say next, so make it good.

=> Make an outrageous statement like this, "Since 1989 there have been 250 waterbuffalos collecting social security in this district." Note to reader: After that last statement you are seriously wondering why you bothered opening this Email aren*t you? hahaha. To make this work in real life you would follow up with the following statement, "Of course, there aren*t 250 water buffalos collecting social security in our district, but ABC is happening and we must do XYQ (no ZZZZZs allowed) about it."

=> Mention something in the local newspaper that is outrageous, funny, or an example of what your presentation is about.

=> Use a funny quotation that relates to your subject. Mark Twain said, "I don*t mind what the opposition says of me, so long as they don*t tell the truth." The truth is . . ."

Get More Great Opening Tips!

Public Speaking: Reprinting Articles

I have many articles available for reprint in your publication, company newsletter, etc.

You may use articles written by me that you see in great speaking. Back issues can be viewed at

http://www.antion.com/ezinebackissues.htm

OR mailto: freearticles@antion.com for an automated listof additional articles. All you have to do is print the article in its entirety along with the by line at top and the credits, and complete contact information at the end of each article.

I would appreciate a tear sheet or electronic copy too. Thanks!

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Public Speaking: Customized, Automatic Responses

Here's your dumb question of the day. If you got a promotional email that was generic, would you read it as carefully as you would an email that was totally customized to your wants?
You can now send customized emails automatically while you are doing something else.
Here's how it works.

When someone wants information about your company, you have them fill out a form. The result of each question on the form is then sent to a company called DataBack.com
This company keeps a pre-written message that you created on file for every possible answer given in the form. When the form is completed, DataBack company sends the person that filled out theform a customized email which paragraph-by-paragraph exactly addresses that person's interests.

I.e., their email is totally customized just for them.

Example:
Form Question 1: What kind of meetings do you do?
Form Answer 1: National Association Meetings

Automatic Response Paragraph 1: I have extensive experience doing National Association meetings. You might want to check out whatsome of my other association clients say about me.

Form Question 2: Where is your meeting?
Form Answer 2: Denver

Automatic Response Paragraph 2: I noticed that your event is in Denver. We have a special no travel expense deal for Denver. I'll explain it to you when we talk.
etc., etc., etc.

Do you see the power of this technique? DataBack company is creating a paragraph-by-paragraph customized response to the person making an inquiry about your service.
The person reading the email will only be exposed to exactly what he/she is interested in which will most likely increase yourresponse from them and since it's automated you won't have to bethere to make this all happen.

Oh, and one more tip. Tell DataBack company to delay your automated response one day which will make the email seem like you wrote it yourself. If the person filling out the form gets the email back from you immediately, it will be obvious that youreally didn't send it yourself.

Shopping cart system that Tom uses: You get a five-hourorientation with Tom narrating to lead you through the basic setup and advanced sales strategies. http://www.kickstartcart.com

30 days of speaker training for only $5.00!

Public Speaking: Camcorders for Speakers

Here are the criteria for picking a camcorder that will help you in your speaking career.

1. It must have an external microphone jack. This allows you to set the camera up on a tripod and with the use of a wireless microphone you will get a perfect audio track on the video.

2. It must have a tripod mounting hole. Many of the micromini camcorders do not have this and you won't be able to mount the camera on a tripod.

3. It must have a light shoe. This is two metal rails used to mount a video light on the camera. You will not use it for this purpose. You will use it to mount the receiver of a wireless microphone. (I recommend Azden brand wireless mic for good quality and low price)

4. Right now miniDV tape is the most reliable and lowest price and most sensible for speakers. I'd avoid MiniDVD discs and I'd avoid a hard drive camera because if you speak longer than the hard drive will hold, you are stuck. A miniDV tape camera will let you simply switch the tapes and record forever.

If you shoot with enough light and close up enough, you can get usable demo footage with just about any modern camcorder. A good editor can cut the footage to make you look great (unless you really suck that is).

Also, you can use the camcorder to critique yourself and make video products to sell.