Become An Inspiring Speaker

https://dreamuniversity.infusionsoft.com/go/VisionaryGift/franwats/Everything You Need To Achieve Your Dreams

Message from Marcia:


"Over the years, many people have approached me after a keynote or at the end of my workshops and said, "I want to do what you do. I want to be a speaker." If this is your dream or you want to confidently deliver an inspiring message, read on. Whether you are a novice, intermediate, or even an advanced business presenter or professional speaker, you can benefit from this program."

•Hear secrets, shortcuts and the mistakes to avoid, saving yourself money and cutting years off your learning curve.


•Learn to design and deliver an inspiring message.

•Create your own authentic and confident "Presence & Persona".

•Develop a new relationship with your voice and essential skills to step into your power and build rapport.

•Practice using stories, spontaneity and humor.

•See how to market yourself to get booked.

•Learn about producing and selling Back of the Room (BOR) products – a huge income potential.

 
Check it out now

Fran

P.S.  Go here to pick up a free gift

Humour in Public Speaking

Public Speaking - 7 Types of Humor You Can Use

In public speaking, the ability to use humor is an important skill to possess whatever your natural ability is. Most people like to smile, to laugh, or to enjoy a listening experience. Humor adds sparkle and interest to a speech. Humor when used should be good willed and not given in a manner to show how witty you are.

It is probably impossible to catalog humor completely. Here I have listed the 7 kinds of humor commonly used in public speaking.

Turn of Phrase

In this type of humor, you get the laugh by starting to make a serious point in one direction and suddenly an unexpected meaning is revealed. Mark Twain used this technique when he said that "youth is such a wonderful thing, it is shame to waste it on children."

The Pun

A word is used to evoke a serious meaning and then used in a completely different meaning altogether. The second meaning gives a whole new viewpoint to the speaker's remarks. To be funny the meaning should not be stretched too far or it will evoke groans rather than smiles. For example, the organiser of an event may ask a member of the audience if the guest speaker was an able speaker. The member of the audience may reply "Yes, the guest speaker was able. He was able to stand up all the way through his speech."

Exaggeration

This is where a small thing is made into a larger important issue. This is similar to the how a cartoonist will exaggerate the features of a politician for effect.

Understatement

This is the opposite of exaggeration, and words are used to underplay the importance of an event or issue.

Irony

Here, the face value meaning of the words is different to the intended meaning. An example is the phrase "as pleasant and relaxed as a coiled rattlesnake" used by Kurt Vonnegut in one of his books.

Sarcasm

Sarcasm is a cutting form of wit and should be used with care. To be funny the audience should not have much sympathy for the intended target. If they do it will not work in your favor.

Satire

Satire is an attack upon something worded in a way as to be pleasant but clear in its meaning. Will Rogers at a bankers convention asked "I have often wondered where the Depositor's hold their convention."

To be funny, the humor should be said in a spirit of fun. However, for best effect, humor should be unannounced and told with a straight face (you don't want to laugh before your audience does). It requires more practice and preparation than other parts of your speech. The humor will die if you fumble over words or stumble during the punch line. In public speaking, as it is with conversation, the telling of humor should be effortless and natural.

To be effective in public speaking the humor should be relevant to the points being made. It is woven into the fabric of the speech. With practice and preparation it is possible to employ the 7 types of humor listed, regardless of how dry and shy you maybe.

Author: Edward Hope ... Add interest to your your public speaking and conversation with "The Art of Great Conversation." To claim your free preview visit http://www.selfconfidentspeaking.com/


Keep them laughing

Fran Watson

http://www.franwatson.ca/PublicSpeaking/index2.html

Leadership Tips

Leadership Exposed: Things You Thought You Knew About Leadership


Much has been written about leadership: rules, pointers, styles, and biographies of inspiring leaders throughout world history. But there are certain leadership ideas that we ourselves fail to recognize and realize in the course of reading books. Here is a short list of things you thought you knew about leadership.

1. Leaders come in different flavors.

There are different types of leaders and you will probably encounter more than one type in your lifetime. Formal leaders are those we elect into positions or offices such as the senators, congressmen, and presidents of the local clubs. Informal leaders or those we look up to by virtue of their wisdom and experience such as in the case of the elders of a tribe, or our grandparents; or by virtue of their expertise and contribution on a given field such as Albert Einstein in the field of Theoretical Physics and Leonardo da Vinci in the field of the Arts. Both formal and informal leaders practice a combination of leadership styles.

· Lewin’s three basic leadership styles – authoritative, participative, and delegative

· Likert’s four leadership styles – exploitive authoritative, benevolent authoritative, consultative, and participative

· Goleman’s six emotional leadership styles - visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding.

2. Leadership is a process of becoming.

Although certain people seem to be born with innate leadership qualities, without the right environment and exposure, they may fail to develop their full potential. So like learning how to ride a bicycle, you can also learn how to become a leader and hone your leadership abilities. Knowledge on leadership theories and skills may be formally gained by enrolling in leadership seminars, workshops, and conferences. Daily interactions with people provide the opportunity to observe and practice leadership theories. Together, formal and informal learning will help you gain leadership attitudes, gain leadership insights, and thus furthering the cycle of learning. You do not become a leader in one day and just stop. Life-long learning is important in becoming a good leader for each day brings new experiences that put your knowledge, skills, and attitude to a test.

3. Leadership starts with you.

The best way to develop leadership qualities is to apply it to your own life. As an adage goes “action speaks louder than words.” Leaders are always in the limelight. Keep in mind that your credibility as a leader depends much on your actions: your interaction with your family, friends, and co-workers; your way of managing your personal and organizational responsibilities; and even the way you talk with the newspaper vendor across the street. Repeated actions become habits. Habits in turn form a person’s character. Steven Covey’s book entitled 7 Habits of Highly Effective People provides good insights on how you can achieve personal leadership.

4. Leadership is shared.

Leadership is not the sole responsibility of one person, but rather a shared responsibility among members of an emerging team. A leader belongs to a group. Each member has responsibilities to fulfill. Formal leadership positions are merely added responsibilities aside from their responsibilities as members of the team. Effective leadership requires members to do their share of work. Starting as a mere group of individuals, members and leaders work towards the formation of an effective team. In this light, social interaction plays a major role in leadership. To learn how to work together requires a great deal of trust between and among leaders and members of an emerging team. Trust is built upon actions and not merely on words. When mutual respect exists, trust is fostered and confidence is built.

5. Leadership styles depend on the situation.

How come dictatorship works for Singapore but not in the United States of America? Aside from culture, beliefs, value system, and form of government, the current situation of a nation also affects the leadership styles used by its formal leaders. There is no rule that only one style can be used. Most of the time, leaders employ a combination of leadership styles depending on the situation. In emergency situations such as periods of war and calamity, decision-making is a matter of life and death. Thus, a nation’s leader cannot afford to consult with all departments to arrive at crucial decisions. The case is of course different in times of peace and order---different sectors and other branches of government can freely interact and participate in governance. Another case in point is in leading organizations. When the staffs are highly motivated and competent, a combination of high delegative and moderate participative styles of leadership is most appropriate. But if the staffs have low competence and low commitment, a combination of high coaching, high supporting, and high directing behavior from organizational leaders is required.

Now that you are reminded of these things, keep in mind that there are always ideas that we think we already know; concepts we take for granted, but are actually the most useful insights on leadership.

Lead on.....

Fran
http://www.franwatson.ca/publicspeaker.html

Speaker Videos

Check these out.  These are the winning videos from a recent contest.

THE WINNER OF THE BEST SPEAKER


VIDEO CONTEST IS:

JOHN YOUNG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfbDgKHFfs0

What the judges appreciated about John's video: great energy, solid content, unique, relevant, high production quality, positions as an expert.
Congratulations John!

RUNNERS UP ARE:
Simon Bailey (commands the stage brilliantly)

http://www.youtube.com/brilliance777#p/a/u/0/veREsqHhUHg


Bill Stainton (Fun, unique, great energy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdUdKjzX2NY


Steve Shapiro (pulls us in)

http://www.vimeo.com/15265556


Michelle Ray (energy, audience engagement)

http://www.michelleray.com/demo.html


Kris Belcher (great funny stories, she's real)

http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=n7UqrBYt4QY


Congratulations Runner's Up!

And special thanks goes out to the panel: Joe Calloway and Robin Creasman, for their wisdom and expertise!

And, if you wonder why your video wasn't selected, this post called "Video: You Might Lose Me If"
might help. http://ow.ly/36WMI

See you soon Wealthy Speakers!

Comments? Post to my blog

http://www.speakerlauncher.com/blog/
 
Hope you enjoy these
 
Fran
http://www.franwatson.ca/publicspeaker.html
 
 
 

Growing Your Vocabulary

Boys flying kites haul in their white winged birds;
You can't do that way when you're flying words.
"Careful with fire," is good advice we know,
"Careful with words," is ten times doubly so.
Thoughts unexpressed many sometimes fall back dead;
But God Himself can't kill them when they're said.

—Will Carleton, The First Settler's Story.

The term "vocabulary" has a special as well as a general meaning. True, all vocabularies are grounded in the everyday words of the language, out of which grow the special vocabularies, but each such specialized group possesses a number of words of peculiar value for its own objects. These words may be used in other vocabularies also, but the fact that they are suited to a unique order of expression marks them as of special value to a particular craft or calling.

In this respect the public speaker differs not at all from the poet, the novelist, the scientist, the traveler. He must add to his everyday stock, words of value for the public presentation of thought.

A study of the discourses of effective orators discloses the fact that they have a fondness for words signifying power, largeness, speed, action, color, light, and all their opposites. They frequently employ words expressive of the various emotions. Descriptive words, adjectives used in fresh relations with nouns, and apt epithets, are freely employed. Indeed, the nature of public speech permits the use of mildly exaggerated words which, by the time they have reached the hearer's judgment, will leave only a just impression.

Form the Book-Note Habit


To possess a word involves three things: To know its special and broader meanings, to know its relation to other words, and to be able to use it. When you see or hear a familiar word used in an unfamiliar sense, jot it down, look it up, and master it.

Use a new word accurately five times and it is yours. Professor Albert E. Hancock says: "An author's vocabulary is of two kinds, latent and dynamic: latent—those words he understands; dynamic—those he can readily use. Every intelligent man knows all the words he needs, but he may not have them all ready for active service. The problem of literary diction consists in turning the latent into the dynamic."


Your dynamic vocabulary is the one you must especially cultivate.

Form the Reference-Book Habit


Do not be content with your general knowledge of a word—press your study until you have mastered its individual shades of meaning and usage. Mere fluency is sure to become despicable, but accuracy never. The dictionary contains the crystallized usage of intellectual giants. No one who would write effectively dare despise its definitions and discriminations. Think, for example, of the different meanings of mantle, or model, or quantity. Any late edition of an unabridged dictionary is good, and is worth making sacrifices to own.

Word derivations are rich in suggestiveness. Our English owes so much to foreign tongues and has changed so much with the centuries that whole addresses may grow out of a single root-idea hidden away in an ancient word-origin. Translation, also, is excellent exercise in word-mastery and consorts well with the study of derivations.

Search Faithfully for the Right Word


Books of reference are tripled in value when their owner has a passion for getting the kernels out of their shells. Ten minutes a day will do wonders for the nut-cracker. "I am growing so peevish about my writing," says Flaubert. "I am like a man whose ear is true, but who plays falsely on the violin: his fingers refuse to reproduce precisely those sounds of which he has the inward sense. Then the tears come rolling down from the poor scraper's eyes and the bow falls from his hand."

The same brilliant Frenchman sent this sound advice to his pupil, Guy de Maupassant: "Whatever may be the thing which one wishes to say, there is but one word for expressing it, only one verb to animate it, only one adjective to qualify it. It is essential to search for this word, for this verb, for this adjective, until they are discovered, and to be satisfied with nothing else."

Here is an exercise to help you grow your vocabulary: 

Find as many synonyms and antonyms as possible for each of the following words: Excess, Rare, Severe, Beautiful, Clear, Happy, Difference, Care, Skillful, Involve, Enmity, Profit, Absurd, Evident, Faint, Friendly, Harmony, Hatred, Honest, Inherent.

Subscribe to "Wordsmith" and get a word each day.

Don't be pugnacious!

Fran

http://www.franwatson.ca/PublicSpeaking/index2.html

Wild Words Contest

In order to prepare good speeches, you need to be able to write.  Here's your chance to participate in a Wild Words Contest and get some great information.


SARK just announced SARK's Wild Words Contest! It's sort of combination between a writing contest and a treasure hunt...and EVERYONE who enters wins a prize! One person will win the JUICY GRAND PRIZE, which includes being FEATURED in your own "Magical Mini-Memoir" in the program - right alongside the other inspiring writers. Enter today - the contest ends April 8th! Plus, through April 8, there is an "Early Word Special" with a really nice discount. Enter SARK's Wild Words Contest here!








 
I love SARK
 
Fran
 

Poetry In The Valley - new video

Recorded after Valley VIntage Toastmasters meeting. 

Thanks to Dan Caldwell.  Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Poetry In The Valley is our first attempt at sharing a different type of communication with fellow Toastmasters and guests.

There are as many definitions of poetry as there are poets. Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;" Emily Dickinson said, "If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry;" and Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing."


Poetry is a lot of things to a lot of people. Homer's epic,The Oddysey, described the wanderings of the adventurer, Odysseus, and has been called the greatest story ever told. During the English Renaissance, dramatic poets like John Milton, Christopher Marlowe, and of course Shakespeare gave us enough to fill textbooks, lecture halls, and universities.
 
So what is poetry?


Perhaps the characteristic most central to the definition of poetry is its unwillingness to be defined, labeled, or nailed down.

Don't shackle poetry with your definitions. Poetry is not a frail and cerebral old woman, you know. Poetry is stronger than you think. Poetry is imagination and will break those chains faster than you can say "Harlem Renaissance."


To borrow a phrase, poetry is a riddle wrapped in an enigma swathed in a cardigan sweater… or something like that. It doesn't like your definitions and will shirk them at every turn. If you really want to know what poetry is, read it. Read it carefully. Pay attention. Read it out loud. Now read it again.

There's your definition of poetry. Because defining poetry is like grasping at the wind - once you catch it, it's no longer wind.

from About.com, written by Mark Flanagan

May you enjoy all the poems you read!!

Fran Watson