Confessions of a Public Speaker

Excerpts from the just released "Confessions of a Public Speaker" by Scott Delves...

Mr. Berkun's book is packed with tips on how to reduce anxiety and how to speak in public with greater effectiveness. They range from common sense—arrive early, make sure you have back-up copies of your speech, practice—to more advanced tips on what to do when 10 people show up to hear you in a 1,200-person room (cluster the 10 immediately), how to cut off rambling questions and how to fall silent after making a key point, to give the audience a chance to soak it in.

To be interesting, Mr. Berkun suggests starting with an interesting topic and then taking a firm position, elaborated with clear, specific points. Putting a presentation into Power Point, he advises, should come last, if at all. A common mistake is to begin planning a presentation with slides, hoping that by some organizational magic they will turn chaos into coherence. Coherence and conviction, Mr. Berkun rightly says, are rooted in content rather than in the means by which you deliver it.

One of the key elements in good speech-making is enthusiasm. If you exude energy, your audience will reciprocate. But even peppiness has its dangers. One of the most notorious corporate presentations in recent memory was delivered at a conference by Steve Ballmer, the chief executive of Microsoft.

So the first thought for anyone scared of public speaking should be this: Take no risks and be boring. The worst you'll do is meet expectations. If you're even mildly interesting, you're a winner. If you're actually engaging, count yourself in the speaker's equivalent of the Billboard top 100.