Load a demo and view the generated results. By Dave Bricker Great words fail without great delivery, yet so many speechwriters deliver a manuscript and leave the performance up to the (often-inexperienced) speaker. Paste your speech into the box below … More ☛
I was already in my fifties when a PhD Psychologist friend confirmed that I was “slightly autistic.” That diagnosis—informal as it was—helped me understand a number of things about myself: Why I had so much trouble relating to other kids … More ☛
We’ve all heard that speaker, the one with a particular type of poor me story that can actually be dangerous. I had a wonderful career doing what I loved and making lots of money. I lived in a beautiful house … More ☛
When traveling through time, journey across the stage. Primitive men drew on cave walls with a burnt stick. Today, we create with a keyboard and a mouse. What tools will we express ourselves with a hundred years from now? Or … More ☛
Imagine a stage where there’s a wall behind the actors and one more wall on each side of the stage. The fourth wall is invisible. That’s the one the audience observes the actors through. When an actor looks at the … More ☛
Every sailor runs aground sooner or later! How do you know if a speaker really brings the experience they claim to? I was sailing along through clear turquoise water over a pure white sand bottom. A jagged line of … More ☛
When you’re asked to argue in favor of a position, your opponent may counter with the absolutist position: Let’s say the debate topic is whether or not ANY and ALL subjects should be allowable in high school debate competitions. Your … More ☛
A debate team researched their position well and amassed a stockpile of arguments that were certain to throw their opponents out of the ring by the time they finished their opening statement. And then they undid themselves: I won’t even … More ☛
Whether you’re debating alone or on a team, the way you treat your opponents will affect your credibility. When asserting the superiority of your arguments, it can be tempting to denigrate the other team: My opponents are clearly ignorant of … More ☛
The best speakers tell stories about YOU! A speaker walked onto the platform wearing a rugged jacket and hiking boots. He set an ice axe down on a small table, pulled off his snow goggles, and began to recount his … More ☛
Audience members sometimes respond timidly when you ask them questions. They may be nervous about speaking up in public, especially in front of their peers. Instead of simply repeating what they say, amplify what they say. Speaker: “What are some … More ☛
We all love dessert! If you dine at Seasons 52, you’ll be presented with a selection of tiny sweets at the end of your meal—chocolate mousse, key lime pie, carrot cake, and a host of other delectable options to enjoy … More ☛
Though I rarely perform professionally, I play guitar every day. It’s my healthy drug and I’ve been addicted to it for over forty years. If you play music or ever wanted to learn how it’s probably because you heard someone … More ☛
Abraham Lincoln‘s famous Gettysburg address has been recorded by numerous orators over the years, including Orson Welles, but few of these works suggest that the speakers did anything more than read with conviction. How do you reconstruct a speech that … More ☛
(308 words) “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” is a small portion of a longer speech delivered by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on June 4, 1940 during the Second Word … More ☛
How do we get our audiences to return their focus to the presenter when we’ve sent them off to engage in a game or exercise? Interactivity is a hallmark of effective training. We can explain our strategies and success principles, … More ☛
“I’m sorry, but I had only an hour to put this speech together.” “I’m sorry … I need to look at my notes.” “I’m sorry to get started late; the traffic was horrible.” “I’m sorry, but my slide remote isn’t … More ☛
What should I do with my hands when I speak? The first way to answer this is to consider what you shouldn’t do with your hands. Sometimes nervous energy “bleeds” into our hands and we don’t even know it. We … More ☛
My client wanted to broadcast my presentation to a satellite office and to some of their team members who were working at home. In the room were about a hundred employees from a marketing and PR firm who were attending … More ☛
“Crutch words” and “filler words” are empty stuffing that gets inserted into speech when we can’t think of what to say. Obvious examples are “like,” “well,” and “you know.” This whole thing is like, you know, some sort of bad … More ☛
Don’t Leave the Stage Until the Clapping Stops. I’ve done it. Most experienced professionals have done it. (sounds of applause) Thanks but I don’t need all that attention. I just gave my talk. That’s what I do. Really … you’re … More ☛
Dialogue… So many speakers miss this fantastic opportunity to engage the audience. When it’s time for dialogue, they narrate it. My wife walked in and she asked if I’d pick up some groceries on the way home from work. I … More ☛
If you’re the least bit human, you’ve probably battled imposter syndrome at one time or another. Who am I to be up on a stage giving advice to a room full of people I’ve never met? In speechwriting, this healthy … More ☛
One highly-effective way to confuse your audience is to use too many acronyms, especially acronyms they might not know. Skip explaining what they stand for to inspire even more blank stares. OMG! I’m LMAO … ROFL … So I … More ☛
My friend Kelly Swanson fell off the stage! She picked herself up, looked at the audience, and said, “I will now take questions from the floor!” Standing ovation! Why is it that we waste so much energy hoping and praying … More ☛
What is the speaker‘s real job? We’ve seen it too many times: A dynamic, charismatic speaker gets the audience on their feet, makes them dance, gets them to shout, “Oh Yeah!”—and works the room like a Baptist preacher in … More ☛
You’ve probably been advised to look at the camera when you speak on screen, and in general, that’s good advice. But consider another approach. If you were sitting in a live audience, would the speaker look you in the eyes … More ☛
Actors are encouraged to have monologues in their back pockets, rehearsed, and ready to go for auditions. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many … More ☛
It’s interesting that speaking “off the cuff” is such a terrifying proposition for so many people. If you and I were having a conversation, neither one of us would have any idea what was going to come out of our … More ☛
Especially if you’re in Toastmasters, you may wish to challenge yourself to compete in a speaking contest. Here are a few tips for winners. Read the ballot. The judges will score you based on a variety of factors. Why guess … More ☛
If you’re viewing this content in video format instead of reading it, you’re watching the magic of the green screen. The concept is simple: Film yourself speaking in front of a green screen. Some are fabric. Some are painted on … More ☛
Where I live here in Miami, everyone’s from somewhere else. I meet so many people who are afraid to speak because I have dees accent and I no speak zee English so good The truth: We understand you much better … More ☛
I spent 40 hours trying to memorize a five-minute speech once. And then I skipped an important line! Memorizing a speech is difficult and time-consuming… And the number one cause of memory lapses is worrying about memory lapses! The solution … More ☛
What should we do with our hands when we speak? If you’re one of those people who talk with your hands, just be yourself. Some speakers like to bring their hands to rest in a position of offering, with palms … More ☛
What if you forget your lines on stage? What if there’s a power failure in the middle of your speech? Or a fire drill? What if? What if? What if? We waste so much energy inventing and avoiding the most … More ☛
If you want to discover what the human voice is capable of, listen to Humphrey Bower narrate the audiobook version of Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. In that book, Mr. Bower emulates the voices of men AND women from India, … More ☛
Speaking nerves are normal and natural, but think about it: Most fears are rooted in things that might happen to US. We worry we’ll forget a line. We worry the audience won’t like us. We worry we’ll say something embarrassing. … More ☛
Are you stuck? How will you ever get to the next level? The concept of levels is a direct assault on our self-esteem. It’s like being rich. Is there a specific amount of currency that distinguishes the rich from the … More ☛
If you asked me a question—a deep or complex question—and I shot back a quick answer, you might conclude that I didn’t care enough to think about what you wanted to know. On the other hand, if I paused and … More ☛
Sometimes you can get a lot of mileage on stage when you leave half the conversation to the audience’s imagination. [ring] Hello … Oh, hi honey. I can’t really talk right now. I’m in the middle of giving a pres…” … More ☛
You imagine that you have to get through your speech without forgetting a word. You imagine that you’ll bomb if the technology fails. You imagine that you can’t use notes. You imagine that being on stage holds you to the … More ☛
My last video talked about the fourth wall—an acting term that refers to the invisible “fourth wall” between the audience and the stage. But what about the “fifth wall?” Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of it. I made it … More ☛
All these speaking tips—hundreds of videos. Every one of them is scripted and displayed on a teleprompter app. I don’t do that on stage, but I can load the scripts for dozens of videos into my teleprompter, record them in … More ☛
How many of you have heard speakers address the audience as a group? Is it okay to do that? What do you guys think? There are a few problems here: If I ask “How many of you,” I’m asking a … More ☛
Ideally, we can deliver our presentations without notes but there’s no law against it. The gods of public speaking are not going to consign you to the bad place for eternity if you bring a few index cards onto the … More ☛
“I loved your speech!” “Great message!” “You had me captivated all the way to the end!” “And then you ruined it!” That’s what a friend in the audience told me. What did I do to wreck my presentation? Knowing there … More ☛
Speaking involves so much more than your voice. Hand gestures, body language, stage positioning, and facial expressions all play an important role in making a speech engaging. Let’s talk about that last one. Here’s an example: My sister called and … More ☛
Sound Effects The human voice is an amazingly versatile instrument. It can not only speak, it can sing, and imitate a variety of sounds. Here’s an excerpt from a story I’ve shared many times. As I made that quick turn … More ☛
Sing! Sing! Sing! Yes, you. You don’t have to sing well. You don’t have to sing in front of your audiences. But sing! Singing will open up the full capability of your vocal cords. Singing will teach you to resonate … More ☛
No big deal if you run over, right? That’s just more value the audience will get for the same fee. Wrong. Think again. Running overtime is a big rookie mistake. Let’s say the conference you’re speaking at hired a $100,000 … More ☛
Imagine this happening to you: You’re up on stage in front of a room full of people. You’re focused and you’re determined to deliver transformation. Everyone will be more productive, less-stressed, and farther down the path to prosperity because of … More ☛
Tempo is speed, and it’s an important element of dynamic speaking. On a basic level, be aware of whether you’re speaking too fast, especially if you have non-native English speakers in your audience. We speed up our speaking when we … More ☛
Dynamics—change—is the hallmark of an engaging speech. One variable that’s often overlooked is emotional intensity. Changes in intensity offer a powerful way to cue your audience to whether you’re playing a role in a story or narrating. A lesser speaker … More ☛
So many speakers use their FM radio DJ voice … all the time. This is not dynamic speaking. Remember: “Dynamic” means “changing.” Think about how noisy little kids are on the playground. It’s astonishing how much sound comes out of those … More ☛
So many speakers miss out on a huge opportunity to engage audiences when they narrate dialogue in past tense. He said. She said. It sounds kind of like this: A friend suggested I create a series of videos about public … More ☛
The relationships between gestures and spoken words are an important part of effective public speaking. Gestures can come before the spoken words, during the words, or after them. Hand gestures can add emphasis to things you say, as you say … More ☛
Dynamics means “change,” and yet so many speakers think “dynamic speaking” means being loud and emphatic. Being a dynamic speaker means you change your volume, speed, emotional intensity, and other factors. And “Pitch” is one of those important dynamic variables. … More ☛
Winston S. Churchill gave thousands of speeches, and though he had a memory like an elephant’s, he read every one of them from a script. To deliver these speeches in a compelling way, he wrote them out in a style … More ☛
Speaking is theater but many speakers are afraid they’ll look “theatrical” or “over-the-top.” They hold themselves back and stay in the dynamic “safe zone.” And it’s true that we’re likely to deliver a bigger performance on a keynote stage than … More ☛
I coached a speaker who had entered a humorous speech contest. Her trial run in front of a supportive audience at her Toastmasters club didn’t go very well. Air travel has gotten so difficult. They shred your luggage and send … More ☛
Did you ever wish you could make yourself invisible? Did you ever wish you could just fly away? Did you ever wonder why speakers ask so many rhetorical questions? Opening a speech with questions is a powerful way to engage … More ☛
I said goodbye to my traveling companion, rowed back to my anchored sailboat, sat in the cockpit, and looked around the harbor. What am I doing here? I’m twenty-four years old, single, unemployed, and alone in a foreign country on … More ☛
One in five Americans reads below a fifth grade level! The average person spends two years of their life on the phone! 87.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot! A startling statistic (or two or three) will … More ☛
One simple way to open a speech is with questions—usually three. How will you captivate your audience at the beginning of your next speech? How will you show them you have a message they care about? How will you assure … More ☛
Who came up with that piece of advice? Unless you’re speaking at a super-model convention, don’t picture the audience naked. It’ll do nothing to calm your nerves and it could be a distraction you don’t need. And think about how … More ☛
I watched a speaker disperse the audience into discussion groups of four people … And then struggle to get them to stop talking and return their focus to the stage. The exercise was a success—the audience got caught up in … More ☛
Hopefully, you’ll never face a hostile or unruly audience but it’s worth thinking about how you’d handle one. If members of the audience are obstructive and rude to the point where you can’t continue speaking, don’t give them the pleasure … More ☛
Sometimes we say one thing when we want to say another. Maybe you need to reject someone but you want to let them down easy. It goes something like this: Oh thank you Beth. That’s such a kind invitation! (hand … More ☛
I’ve appeared as a guest on many podcasts. My hosts are almost always astonished when I refer them to the media hosts page on my website. There, they find my bio, my intro, my logo, headshots, and a list of … More ☛
So many speakers—even professional ones—are afraid to be “theatrical.” They worry that will be inauthentic or phony. A speaker I worked with told a story about a great injustice: A military leader was wrongly court-martialed and forced to retire in … More ☛
We talked about the I-infection—about people who talk incessantly about themselves. I did this and I did that. That gets old fast. Audiences want to know what’s in it for them. So how do we use “I,” “we,” and “you” … More ☛
In part 1 we defined the transformation. By knowing how we want our audience to think, feel, or act differently after they’ve seen our presentation, we can tailor our content to helping them achieve those goals. In part 2, we … More ☛
Once you have the transformation defined, map out the steps to get there. Let’s say the transformation is that we want our listeners to appreciate the peanut butter and jelly sandwich as a nutritious and healthy meal, and not as … More ☛
Lecturers deliver information; speakers deliver transformation. You may talk about finance, artificial intelligence, or real estate—and that information may be valuable—but if you just want to share data, a printed article is faster to consume and your audience can take … More ☛
Glossophobia—the fear of public speaking—is #8 on the list of common phobias—not #1 as is commonly thought—but it’s still a big concern for many people. How can we get over our natural fear of public speaking? Recognize that fear of … More ☛
If you want to become a great musician listen to great music. If you want to become a great speaker listen to great speeches. So what makes up a great speech? Here are a few things to look for: One: … More ☛
One of the most difficult skills in speaking… [pause] Is becoming comfortable and confident with long paues. Speakers and musicians are afraid that if they pause for too long, the time will break and the audience will disengage. That’s true … More ☛
Over the years I’ve spent speaking, I’ve developed special ways to explain a variety of concepts. I’ve written books, created beautiful slides, and shared a number of workshops. But as clearly as I’ve mapped out my messages, I’ve discovered only … More ☛
So many speakers think a “dynamic” speaker should use their FM radio rock and roll DJ voice all the time. [DJ voice] They never speed up. They never slow down. Their pitch never goes up. Their pitch never goes down. … More ☛
Microphones are designed to be placed a certain distance from your mouth. If you eat the microphone—if you put it on your kips like an ice cream cone—it’s likely to pick up breathing sounds and sibilance—the percussive pops, clicks, and … More ☛
A colleague was speaking and that lady in the front row was making him nervous. He was sure she wanted to kill him, and he had no idea why. After the performance, when he was posing for selfies and signing … More ☛
Blame-free problem-solving is a good practice for speakers. One of my clients was ready to speak but the AV person never set up the equipment. His slides weren’t going to be part of his presentation, and this was going to … More ☛
Often—usually—we’re asked to speak for a certain number of minutes. If we have ten minutes to speak, how can we avoid writing a 30-minute talk that has to be edited down? How can we steer clear of having to rush … More ☛
If you’re a speaker, you’re a voice athlete. Taking good care of our voices is just sensible. How do we do that? First, understand there are two pipes in your throat: The esophagus leads to your stomach and your trachea … More ☛
Some speakers get away with it, but think about it like this: You never know who’s in the audience. If your f-bomb offends one person in the room, they could be the one person who complains or who has the … More ☛
I watched a wedding guest who’d been asked to deliver a toast. As he spoke, the microphone drifted slowly down toward his stomach. If you’re uncomfortable speaking, and especially if amplifying your voice also amplifies your nerves, watch out for … More ☛
What is a “dynamic ramp?” In your speech, perhaps you share a story from many years ago and then you jump to a recent story, and then you add a conclusion at the end. That’s three distinct sections. How will … More ☛
Writing an eloquent speech is 98% of the work. Delivering that speech in an engaging way is the other 98%. Some speakers take years to discover this. They talk about being afraid or angry but they don’t speed up or … More ☛
A super way to surprise your audience is to “find the funny in the room” and use it to your advantage. Years ago, I competed in a humorous speech contest. My talk was about “my speaking journey” and how a … More ☛
It happens to all of us. We hear the recording and we immediately think: Oh my God! Do I really sound like that? The voice that you hear and feel resonating in your chest and sinuses is not the same … More ☛
For the most part, your audience has forgotten how to SHOUT unless they’ve lost their temper. They’re afraid to SING the way they did when they were kids. They rarely slow down or speed up or raise their pitch. Many … More ☛
If you’re one of those shy people who has difficulty imagining themselves up on a stage feeling comfortable in front of an audience, you’re not alone. But consider that the majority of professional speakers are introverts. A disproportionate number … More ☛
How deadly are your bullet points? There are seven elements that every speaker must consider when crafting a presentation: ✅ Timing ✅ Volume ✅ Pauses ✅ Presence ✅ Facial Expressions ✅ Body Language ✅ And Dynamics Let’s talk about timing … More ☛
Load a demo and view the AI-generated results. Speaker Introduction Wizard by Dave Bricker A strong, interesting, and concise introduction sets the stage for your performance. It builds energy and primes your audience to focus on the problem you address, … More ☛
Keep your poor me stories off the stage. My friend Tony showed me a video of a speaker who told the story of her escape from alcohol and depression and her long, hard road to personal and professional success. “It’s … More ☛
Find Your Voice … And Someone Else’s! Do you enjoy a good audiobook as much as I do? Australian actor Humphrey Bower voices hundreds of characters—men and women with accents from around the world. I’ve listened to over 350 hours … More ☛
We often hear about “dynamic speaking,” but what does that mean? The dictionary defines “dynamics” as “the forces or properties which stimulate growth, development, or change within a system or process.” Essentially, “dynamics” means “change,” and if you want your … More ☛
We all love dessert! If you dine at Seasons 52, you’ll be presented with a selection of tiny sweets at the end of your meal—chocolate mousse, key lime pie, carrot cake, and a host of other delectable options to enjoy … More ☛
I-We-You. You’re addressing an audience. When should you switch from the inclusive “we” to the more personal “you?” When is it acceptable to use “I?” When talking about your own experiences, use “I.” Listeners will follow your story as long … More ☛
