Articles by Larry Chase - Internet Publisher, Speaker, Author and Consultant

Larry Chase - Internet Marketing Consulting

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Speaker Packaging

For those of you who are interested in polishing your speaker skills, I thought I'd share a few impressions of the National Speakers Association annual conference recently held in Washington, D.C. The tapes of the speeches mentioned below are available at http://nsaspeaker.org.

The general sessions offered excellent examples of style, timing and platform skills. Jeanie Roberts interlaced themes and humorous threads throughout her presentation. She is one funny and sophisticated woman who commands a space and room with grace and substance. She advises the use self-directed humor to make yourself more accessible to the audience.

Zig Zeigler hosted the last general session, "Magic Moments Past," which featured many of the masters such as Earl Nightengale, Cabot Robert, and Dr. Norman Vicent Peale, who noted wryly that dead people have no problems and therefore problems are to be seen as a sign of life. After seeing this session, I went pell mell to the tape counter and purchased the vid for myself.

In a breakout session, Bill Caits suggested you have a debriefing session a week or two after the engagement in which you ask for the all-important testimonial letter and referrals (which may also be requested in the initial contract), assuming you do well.

Les Brown was nothing short of spectacular in deconstructing how he builds a story and insight on the fly. High content, high energy. Like Jeanie Roberts, he brought down that fourth wall between speaker and audience. His message sticks with you long after the conference is over.

Watching and listening to these masters work is inspiring. If you find yourself on the platform from time to time, you owe it to yourself and your future audiences to learn from the pros and your peers. Not being afraid to speak publicly and being a good public speaker are decidedly two different things. It took me years to learn that.