MillsWyck Minute: One Minute Speaking Tips with Alan Hoffler: Recent Episodes
Alan Hoffler
One minute Speaking Tips for the busy speaker with Alan Hoffler. Alan is a public speaking coach, keynote speaker, trainer, Executive Director of MillsWyck Communications, and author of Presentation Sin: The Practical Guide to Stop Offending (and Start Impressing) Your Audience, Silver Goldfish: The 10 Keys to Delivering Memorable Business Presentations, and The Virtual Presenter.
Why PowerPoint is NOT your presentation (and ensuring you are the central focus of the presentation).
Seek clarity and make it easy for your audience to process your favorite colors in your presentation.
Stop selling and presenting features and move quickly to benefits to see your audience respond.
You cannot share everything you know with your audience, keep it simple and let them ask questions.
As a speaker, first impressions are key to get your audience to listen to what you have to say.
If you have limited time, and you do, focus on the critical spots. The open and the close are worthy candidates.
Unless you’re one of the very very few, go bigger with your voice and your expressions.
Never turn down a chance to speak, or an opportunity to get better. Educate yourself and face your fear.
Create and edit your presentation at full size, then reduce it and compress your pictures once, right before you publish it.
If the goal of your speech is to get the audience to repeat some or all of your message, then you need to employ some sort of structure.
A single word or phrase can completely undermine a message or cause. When in doubt, leave it out.
Make sure they remember you for all the right reasons. Behave even when it's not your turn to talk.
Balancing your points throughout a presentation is key to having an attentive audience and memorable presentation.
Every audience is different. Hold audience interviews BEFORE you speak. It’s well worth your time!
Just because you make the same speech doesn't mean it has to be a carbon copy of your last performance. Tailor your message to your audience.
How to ensure the stories you tell from the stage are relevant so they connect with your audience.
Your audience needs transitional flags. How do you transition from one point to another during your presentation or speech?
What is a callback and how should you use it. Though you’re a “speaker” – when does it make sense to interact with your audience?
We each have unique life experiences. There's one key way to differentiate yourself as a speaker during your presentation.
Audience feedback is critical for preparing future content. A tip on how to get better feedback from an audience member.
Do you love or hate your voice? Learn how to love your voice and how to refine it to make it better.
Alan talks about one question a speaker can add to ANY story that will cause the audience to relate the story to themselves.
Our impact as speakers should last longer than just our time on stage or through one speech. How to be remembered.
There are a lot of details to pay attention to when you're a speaker. Take a lesson from the field of aviation -- make a checklist.
When you’re speaking, having someone say, “You rock!” is not always a good thing. Learn Alan's tip to stop swaying when you speak.
What does practice make… ? (It’s not perfect!) Why practicing your presentation OUT LOUD is the single biggest thing to make your speech better.
Alan talks about why it’s so important to practice out loud and then provides an extra, advanced tip!
What do you do when your speaking time is suddenly shortened? Maybe the speaker in front of you went long? Or the host shortens your time slot? How do you adjust for time challenges?
Is feeling “natural” on the stage important for a speaker to be effective? Not necessarily. Learn why.
Have you mastered “The Pause“? Alan gives you 3 ways to work toward mastery of “The Pause”.
What happens when you have all lecture and no interaction? What works best for the audience?
Find out why Alan recommends you never publish and/or schedule breaks if you’re speaking longer than an hour.
Does your story have a purpose and meaning to your audience? Why you shouldn't tell stories without a purpose.
We all love a good story. Why speakers need to keep a log of stories to tell from the stage.
No one likes a monotone speaker. It will make the top 3 of every survey ever given of things people hate in speakers. Alan shares how to break out of a monotone… tone!
Eye contact is essential when speaking. Share one thought while looking at one person, before you move onto the next thought and the next person. STOP = Single Thought One Person.
Speakers should embrace audience feedback. Don't shy away from it. Value the feedback you get – even seek it out!
Alan talks about making mistakes -- how should you respond when you make a mistake while speaking?