Confessions of a Public Speaker - Get the Inside Dirt on the Industry With a Dose of Great Advice

I have a confession to make. I didn't buy this book. I won it in a contest on a speakers website called six degrees of speaking by telling the story of how a button popped off a strategic location off my blouse while I was giving a presentation. Fortunately I was wearing a jacket, so I turned around, buttoned my jacket and I don't think anyone was any more the wiser. The lesson is to check your clothes before you wear them and to use dress tape (ladies, you know what I mean).This is the spirit in which "Confessions of a Public Speaker" is written. The good, bad and the ugly of public speaking. It's an easy way for anyone who already speaks for a living, or is thinking of doing it, to learn some vital lessons in a fun way. You'll learn things you never thought you'd need to know as a professional speaker including:How to answer the inevitable question of "what do you do" without sounding like you're some kind of bad Tony Robbins impersonator
Why imagining the audience is naked is a terrible strategy, and who came up with that stupid idea
What to do when there are five people in a room set up for 500
And how not to eat the microphone.For those who don't speak for a living, but find those who do to be just a little bit interesting, this will be a journey into a totally different world. And this book would appeal to fans of business memoirs. Unless you're looking for drugs, sex and alcohol it's a good story of building a business and learning the ropes. Okay, there is one mention of having a beer while you're letting a speech idea "percolate."Scott Berkun, the author, left a full-time, cool-sounding job to speak. He had two best-selling books already published, which formed the basis of his speaking career. I haven't seen him speak, but I'll guess that he's pretty funny. His writing is wry and clever. Even when he's talking about a subject as dull as not boring people with your speech. If you've read many other books about public speaking, you know what I mean. Scott has peppered his informative chapters and segments with horror stories, "don't do's" and other experiences f
rom his speaking career.From advice on how to get rid of um's, how to build a good PowerPoint and what to do about hecklers, it's surprisingly complete as a resource for starting a career. My favorite section is called "You Can't Do Worse Than This" where a number of brave souls shared their worst public speaking experience. Whew, I may have lost a button, but at least everyone lived through the speech!

View this post on my blog: http://www.yourgamebook.com/confessions-of-a-public-speaker-get-the-inside-dirt-on-the-industry-with-a-dose-of-great-advice.html