Archive for August, 2009

Have You Seen My New Book?

Posted by etate in Energize, Educate, Entertain on August 27th, 2009

It’s official! Our brand-new book has been published… and I’m so excited to tell you about it!

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The Speaker’s EDGE: Secrets and Strategies
for Connecting with Any Audience
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This was a collaborative project by World Champions Darren LaCroix, Mark Brown, Craig Valentine, and myself, along with Hall of Fame Speaker Patricia Fripp… and it contains more than 73 years of on-stage experience! That’s HUGE! http://www.edtate.com/speakers-edge-book.html

I think you’ll get some great ideas & techniques when you read the Speaker’s EDGE book. Here’s a VERY short list of topics:

  • 7.5 Suggestions for Getting Out of Your Head
  • Six Keys to Connecting Your Keynote to Your Audience
  • Unveiling the Magic for Being a More Effective Speaker
  • How Our Audience Members Learn
  • Engage Your Audience
  • Don’t Speak Too Quickly in Front of Your Audience
  • Build Emotional Connection through Eye Contact
  • Getting Over the Jitters Before You Speak
  • Seven Timely Tips for Pre-Presentation Preparation
  • How to Lose an Audience in Ten Ways
  • Speak into the Listening That People Are Hearing
  • Appreciative Listener 40 Empathic Listener
  • Comprehensive Listener 41 Discerning Listener
  • Evaluative Listener
  • Eight Keys to an Effective Q & A Session
  • Set Expectations
  • Choose the Best Punch Word
  • Perfect Your Pause

…and MUCH more!

Click on this link to get all the details… http://www.edtate.com/speakers-edge-book.html

We really worked hard to create this quality public speaking resource for you. Check it out — you’ll love it!

Have a great day!

Ed Tate, CSP

Certified Speaking Professional
World Champion of Public Speaking
Guerrilla Marketing Certified Coach

P.S. Forgot to tell you! If you order Speaker’s EDGE today, you’ll get the e-book as a bonus! Complimentary… no charge… zero… zip… zilch… nada… http://www.edtate.com/speakers-edge-book.html

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Toastmasters 2009 International Convention

Posted by etate in Events, Success on August 20th, 2009

I’ve just returned back to the office after an eventful week at the Toastmasters 2009 International Convention.  Like so many others at the convention, I had the opportunity to meet up with old friends and to make many new ones.  Darren LaCroix, Craig Valentine, and myself arrived a few days early to host “Get Paid to Speak” Champ Camps and The World Champions’ EDGE Summit.  It was a blast!

Darren LaCroix and I put together a few video journals of our trip and I am excited to share them with you.

Video Journal – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKlBta0v7PA

Contestant Advice – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52yqGsRWO2A

Pre-conference Activities – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BcE1yYEPsk

The convention peaked on Saturday morning with the World Championship of Public Speaking Competition. Ten contestants came together after months, even years, of preparation to compete for the title of 2009 World Champion of Public Speaking. Congratulations to Mark Hunter of Australia for taking the title this year. Great job to all who competed!

I would love to hear if you attended the convention and what you thought of it. What was the highlight for you? What did you take away from the experience?  If you didn’t attend, start planning now for 2010, I’d love to see you there!

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Presentation Skills

Posted by etate in Energize, Educate, Entertain on August 11th, 2009

What an honor! I was recently featured in an article on RoundTheTable.org, the official publication of the Million Dollar Round Table…

PRESENTATION SKILLS ~

Ed Tate, a trainer specializing in professional development, shared his strategies for making business presentations memorable.

1. Stories are sticky

“What we remember most are the stories we hear,” he said. Tate encouraged attendees to use stories about their services helping people — as opposed to statistics — whenever possible in their presentations. Stories are relatable and memorable — they “stick” with you.

2. Open your presentations creatively

“In my opinion,” Tate said, “there is nothing worse than opening with ‘Hi, my name is Ed Tate, and I’d like to tell you five strategies to make your presentations memorable.’ That’s a boring opening.”

Instead, Tate recommended opening up with a story to be more creative and more interesting. After the story, he said, frame the message by explaining what you will talk about in one sentence or less. Then, Tate said, it’s time to jump into the content.

3. Four secrets of storytelling

Tate took attendees through an exercise to explain that any story has to have four parts:

1. The head — it makes you think.

2. The heart — it makes you connect.

3. The stomach — humor causes a belly laugh.

4. Heavy hitting — the message of the story.

He conceded that humor is optional. “Sometimes presentations lend themselves to humor,” he said.

Tate emphasized the importance of the heart — the connection. “The heart (or connection) is just as important as content,” he said. “Here is what most people do: They run to their computers, they create their content and spend very little time figuring out how their content is going to relate to their audience.”

4. Focus on your outcome

He advised having a call to action in every presentation. “Before you even go into a presentation,” Tate said, “focus on your KFD first.”

K — What do you want people to know?
F — What do you want people to feel?
D — What do you want people to do?

Tate recommended practicing your presentation in front of others, and named Toastmasters as a good organization to join to improve your confidence and presentation skills. “Speaking is an active skill,” he said.

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