Haliburton County Living: Public Speaking

Erin’s Editions

A couple weeks ago my husband and I went to see Matt Andersen in concert at Massey Hall in Toronto. Andersen is an acoustic solo blues/folk rock singer hailing from New Brunswick, and a relatively new artist this far west. Playing Massey Hall was a darn big show for him and well deserved, as he is an amazing talent. Early on in the concert, Andersen had a bit of an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction. He recovered very well, played it off with some self-deprecating Maritime humour, and the rest of the concert was all about what we came to see – a man, his voice, and his guitar – and ending in thunderous applause, a standing ovation and multiple encores.

What happened to Matt Andersen is the stuff of nightmares for most. Heck, standing in front of an audience of thousands of people, embarrassing moments aside, is the stuff of nightmares for most. While oft quoted statistics regarding the prevalence of the actual clinical fear of public speaking or performance are likely overblown, getting up in front of an audience is on few people’s top 10 list of things they like to do.

Most of my jobs for the last 10 years have involved some form of public speaking, so it doesn’t really bother me too much. But it also doesn’t mean I’m wonderful at it. While I can get up in front of a crowd and speak fairly confidently, when I have listened to recordings of myself, I find it riddled with ums, ers, and uhs. Not music to my ears. So, um, I thought I might, er, get some tips on public speaking from, uh, my local public library.

TED talks have become a hugely popular source of great examples of public speaking. In Talk like TED: the 9 public speaking secrets of the world’s top minds, Carmine Gallo analyses 500 of the most popular TED talks and teases out nine common elements that make these talks so memorable.

For those of us who find ourselves using slides for our presentations, Slide:ology: The art and science of creating great presentations by Nancy Duarte, and The Naked Presenter: Delivering powerful presentation with or without slides by Garr Reynolds will help avoid the dreaded “death by powerpoint.” Duarte is President and CEO of Duarte Designs, which created Al Gore’s presentation for An Inconvenient Truth, and provides tips on enhancing your message through visual story telling. Reynolds takes a pared down approach, showing the reader how to present with simplicity, clarity, honesty, integrity, and passion.

Finally, if you’re looking for some inspiration The King’s Speech by Mark Logue is the true story of King George IV, who overcame his stammer and nervousness to deliver some of the most powerful radio addresses and speeches of World War II. The King’s Speech was also dramatized in the motion picture of the same name starring Colin Firth as King George. All of these titles are available to reserve at the Haliburton County Public Library.