Effective Public Speaking
Effective Public Speaking
How to Use Content Marketing with Stories to Show Your Value
About the Book
Want to market your expertise and grow your impact? Public speaking works.
Whether you’ve written a book, built a business, or want to expand your influence, public speaking helps you connect with the right people.
You’ve probably sat through too many presentations that missed the mark. The speaker didn’t deliver on the promise. The content was fine, but the delivery was flat. Or they ran out of time before the best insights—or the audience’s questions.
No wonder so many people dread speaking.
You can change that. Turn any fear into focus and excitement. Share your expertise with empathy and energy—using stories that make your message resonate. That connection is what audiences remember.
This book will show you how to design and deliver presentations that educate, inform, and inspire. You’ll learn how to channel your enthusiasm and show the value of your ideas—without a hard sell. When your message lands, your audience wants more—and they’ll spread the word for you.
Inside, you’ll learn how to:
- Craft memorable stories that make people care
- Separate the design, delivery, and practice stages of your talk
- Use interactive activities that prove your ideas work
- Turn nerves into energy and speak with authenticity
- Decide when to speak for free—and when to ask for a fee
- And much more
You can become an effective speaker—and a trusted voice in your field. When you speak as a form of content marketing, you build credibility, expand your reach, and move people to action.
Buy this book and learn how to connect through stories—and market your expertise through public speaking.
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Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- 1Are You a “Best-Kept” Secret?
- 1.1Your Expertise Is a Specialized Product
- 1.2Attract Buyers with Content Marketing
- 1.3Add Speaking to Your Content Marketing Mix
- 1.4You Care the Most About the Value You Offer
- 1.5Writers Make Ideal Public Speakers
- 1.6Now Try This to Sell Yourself on Speaking
- 2Identify Your Speaking Expertise
- 2.1Recognize All of Your Expertise
- 2.2How Much Should the Speaker Explain?
- 2.3Offer Value to the Audience
- 2.4Your Expectations Might Create Your Fear
- 2.5Effective Speaking Requires Feedback and Practice
- 2.6Effective Speakers Avoid Selling
- 2.7Choose Your Speaking Frequency
- 2.8Speaking as Content Marketing Works
- 2.9Now Try This to Recognize Your Speaking Expertise
- 3Speak to Advance Your Career
- 3.1Speaking Clarifies the Value and Quality of Your Ideas
- 3.2Forget Most of What Your Teachers Taught You
- 3.3Remember What You Like About Public Speaking
- 3.4Help the Audience Think
- 3.5Iterate to Learn About the Quality of Your Ideas
- 3.6Become a Thought Leader
- 3.7Network with Other Speakers
- 3.8Build Your Personal Network
- 3.9Now Try This to Assess How Public Speaking Has Already Helped Your Career
- 4Learn the Three Secrets to Effective Public Speaking
- 4.1Empathize With Your Audience
- 4.2Write a Presentation Description
- 4.3Now Try This to Use the Three Secrets
- 5Design Your Presentation Flow
- 5.1Start with a Relevant Story
- 5.2Identify Your Ideal Audience
- 5.3Start With Your Audience’s Problems
- 5.4Offer a Vision of the Future
- 5.5Clarify Options to Achieve That Future
- 5.6Recap Your Message
- 5.7Design an Experience Report
- 5.8Go Meta to Design Your Presentation
- 5.9Consider This Timing
- 5.10Now Try This to Design Your Presentation Flow
- 6Fit Your Content to the Type of Presentation
- 6.1Know Your Time Constraints
- 6.2End Your Presentation on Time
- 6.3Clarify the Presentation Type
- 6.4Satisfy the Audience with Sufficient Content
- 6.5Give Yourself Enough Time to Prepare
- 6.6Now Try This to Fit Your Content to Your Presentation Type
- 7Integrate Activities into Your Design
- 7.1Define Various Activities
- 7.2Offer Participants Solo Work
- 7.3Ask People to Speak With Each Other
- 7.4Collaborative Activities
- 7.5Create Your Own Activities
- 7.6Debrief Every Interaction to Capture Learning
- 7.7Debrief with ORID
- 7.8Now Try This to Integrate Activities
- 8Design the Visuals
- 8.1Visuals Support Your Ideas
- 8.2Create a Slide Theme to Support Your Content
- 8.3Choose Images to Support Your Words
- 8.4Animate With Care
- 8.5Beware of Too Many Ideas and Words
- 8.6Consider This Checklist for Slides
- 8.7Now Try This to Design Your Visuals
- 9Practice Your Delivery
- 9.1Practice the Presentation Content
- 9.2Consider How You Will Record
- 9.3Check Your Content First
- 9.4Review How You Appear to Others
- 9.5Examine Your Speaking Style
- 9.6When You Say the Wrong Thing
- 9.7Practice Activities
- 9.8Create Checklists
- 9.9Now Try This to Practice Your Delivery
- 10Stay Present As You Speak
- 10.1Prepare Physically
- 10.2Arrive Early Enough
- 10.3Manage Your Energy As You Speak
- 10.4Make Eye Contact With Key People in the Audience
- 10.5Adapt to the Moment
- 10.6Answer Questions
- 10.7Remember to End Strong
- 10.8Now Try This to Stay Present
- 11Reframe Your Fear to Excitement
- 11.1Identify the Cause(s) of Your Fear or Nerves
- 11.2Channel Your Excitement to Success
- 11.3Examine How You Feel About This Audience
- 11.4Podcasts Sell Books and Consulting
- 11.5Become a Great Podcast Guest
- 11.6Review the Risks You Fear
- 11.7Speakers Make Mistakes and Live
- 11.8Now Try This to Reframe Your Fear
- 12Start Your Speaking Journey
- 12.1Start Public Speaking with Internal Presentations
- 12.2Attend Local Meetups to See Other Speakers
- 12.3Start Speaking for Free
- 12.4When to Charge a Speaking Fee
- 12.5Avoid these Paid Speaking Traps
- 12.6Clarify the Value You Will Receive from Speaking
- 12.7Now Try This to Start Your Speaking Career
- Annotated Bibliography and Resources
- Thinking Books and Videos
- Presentation Books
- Activities and Debriefs Books
- Videos and Podcasts That Tell Stories
- Limited Discussion of Tools for Audio and Video
- Research About Stories
- More Relevant Books and Resources
- My Slides and Videos
- More From Johanna
About the Publisher

This book is published on Leanpub by Practical Ink
Johanna Rothman's books on leanpub. Practical, frank, and often humorous tips you can put to work right now.
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