Last week, I pooh-poohed the mirror, I know. And this week, I’m asking you to take a good look at yourself … Are you really as interesting as you could be?
A couple of litmus tests for when you’re preparing to address a group:
- 1. Do you have something super useful, meaningful, or beneficial to leave them with? Regardless of your topic, you need to think about and identify what that little nugget of value might be. A play on words to help you remember: Give your audience a present when you present.
- 2. Are you talking about yourself or them? And if it’s about you, are you relating it to them? They say that a person’s attention span is significantly heightened when they hear the sound of their own name. Take a lesson from that; people like to hear about themselves.
- 3. Have you found a way to be entertaining or memorable? Do you have some presentation bling? Have you thought about what that might be? Anything from stories to poetry to pictures works. Think about what you might have in your arsenal.
If you can pass these litmus tests, you’re probably pretty interesting, congrats! If not, give some thought to the above … and we’ll talk.
Communications Coach at SmartMouth Communications
SmartMouth Founder and Principal Beth Noymer Levine is a Communications Coach who is emerging as one of the country’s leading voices on how to prepare and deliver speeches and presentations that actually work for both the audience and the speaker.
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Awesome, Beth! 🙂 What a fun job!
Great tips, Beth. I just signed up to follow your blog!
-jan
Wow, thanks for these comments! Sorry I hadn’t seen them until now. We’ve just updated the blog so that you can subscribe via email (versus following). I blog weekly, always a tip! Thanks!