A New Forum: Public Speaking
Dec. 24, 2010
We are told that people fear having to give a speech in public. Jerry Seinfeld put it this way.
According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two! Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.
I have no understanding of this. I have not been nervous in front of a crowd in 51 years. I may have been nervous when I gave my back-to-back campaign speeches for student body president in high school in early 1959. I don't recall. If I was, that was the last time.
I am not normal, it appears. It occurs to me that there are people out there who would also like to be abnormal in this respect.
I think I can teach them.
It's odd. I was discussing this phobia with my son-in-law on December 23. He gave me the Seinfeld quote. (I have never watched Seinfeld.) It struck me: I ought to start a free Website on rhetoric: how to persuade people verbally. Of all the skills that I have had over my entire adult life, this is the most obvious one. I can talk in public, and I can write. A lot of people can write. Not many can persuade an audience verbally.
People get trapped into giving a speech. They probably don't like this. They resist. But if you can accept such assignments, you gain a strategic advantage over your competition, no matter what you do for a living.
I am going to start a site. I will present videos of great speeches. Then I will analyze them, point by point, showing why they worked.
I will also present the basics of public speaking. Some techniques work for all forms of public speaking. Others are appropriate only in certain kinds of speeches. I will show people how to make the decision: which, where, when, and why.
It will take me a while to get the site online. So, until then, I am making available a forum.
If you get asked to make a sales presentation to a large group, teach adult Sunday school, speak at a sales meeting, or speak at a civics club, I'll give you help. Post your questions here: