Читать книгу Unlock Your Public Speaking Potential - Antony Boone's Zogg - Страница 3

Over the past 10 years, I have been on a fascinating journey to overcome my intense fear of public speaking. I have had the privilege of being able to observe and evaluate people who have public speaking skills that range from absolute beginner through to advanced levels. Likewise, my speeches have been observed and evaluated by a range of speakers from entry level to accomplished, and by audiences of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, professions and cultures. I have participated and judged in public speaking contests at club, area and regional levels in New Zealand. I am currently a judge for the prestigious Cyril Basset, New Zealand Secondary Schools Public Speaking championships. I have attended conferences and conventions run by public speaking organizations and attended educational sessions designed to hone a person’s public speaking skills. Over the past decade I have assessed keynote speakers at the numerous business conferences I have attended for their overall effectiveness as speakers, and noted what they did well and where they could have improved. I have also read numerous articles on public speaking online, and in the newsletters of public speaking organizations such as National Speakers and Toastmasters that I have belonged to over the years. There was an awful lot of myth and junk that I had to filter out, but what I did notice was that certain tools and methodologies claiming to be effective in calming those public speaking nerves kept popping up in different publications and in the public speaking evaluations I received from fellow club members. It is impossible to attribute any one idea to a specific person or publication, so I acknowledge everybody who has contributed to the public speaking knowledge database internationally.

I then took what I learned and experimented with those ideas. I kept what worked and discarded what didn’t. It is this public speaking knowledge and my own experimentation over 10 years that helped me to overcome my fear of public speaking. This knowledge inspired me to write this e-book on what I found to be particularly useful in my public speaking experience and to add in what I hope will be a number of very useful tips of my own. Ideally when you read this e-book and as you apply what you have learned in it to your own public speaking experience, your public speaking and confidence should improve as you practice.

I acknowledge the Late Colin Perfect, my role model and mentor who accomplished more for public speaking in New Zealand than anybody else that I know. A great Toastmaster, Colin was a wonderful friend who encouraged me in those moments when I felt like giving up.