Claudia Raab's Blog

For some incredibly valueable advice regarding successful public speaking you don't necessarily have to turn to elite educational institutions like Harvard University as we did on Monday. Some lessons are brilliantly taught by skaters - probably half your age if not less - at one of your local Skate Parks just around the corner. For free, by the way.

Never been there? Well, I strongly recommend you go there, sit down and "hang around" for a while. Not only because of the amazing stunts and loopings you can watch that inevitably will take your breath away apart from dangerously making your heart stop for a while.

There's much more to your visit: Watch and listen how these amazingly skilfull kids and teenagers actually get their skills. If you have ever tried to hop on a skateboard and skate away, you'll know how easy it looks but how hard it actually is to gain control over your board and body. Big things don't happen over night. For a stunt pictured in this blog entry weeks of practice are required. That's exactly the point. Watch the kids: What ever figure they want to learn, they pick up their board, hop on and try it again and again and again and again.

Yes, they loose their board, fall over, come down at the wrong angle, twist their feet, get hurt. However, they get back on the board and do try the same thing until it's perfect. Giving up is not an option for them. Instinctively they know:

1. Focus, practice and persistence leads to perfection combined with
2. a healthy portion of risk taking and
3. a lot of encouragement by your friends and coach.

Ingredients that are all equally important if you want to improve your public speaking skills and advance in your career: Focus, practice, persistance, taking the risk to try new techniques, use new words, new body language and a lot of encouragement along the way by your public speaking coach who supports you and keeps you on track, making sure you achieve your goal, deliver that great presentation that will make you stand out and earn your well deserved credits.

We're here to help you learn how to skate brilliantly on the public speaking arena! It's easy simply give us a call on 0425 785 143 or email celine.dubois@raabconsulting.com now!

PS: Want more info about skating? How about checking out Skating in Melbourne and Skate Australia. Have fun!

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We normally speak at 100 to 175 words per minute (WPM). However, according to research our brain can intelligently listen, decode and  process up to 400 to 600 words per minute. That's important to keep in mind when preparing your next speech.

If you need to give a persuasive speech aim for 140 to 160 words per minute to make a positive and long lasting impact that triggers actions and maintain the attention of your audience at the same time. Deliver your speech slower and you'll risk loosing your audience's attention since it gets bored and their brain will wander off to keep busy. Deliver your speech faster and you'll risk loosing your audience's attention since it can't follow your train of thoughts easily.

Speed - or pace - is one of you key features to control your speech success. If you are not sure about how fast or slow you talk, record a conversation with a friend and yourself for one minute (with his or her permission) and then replay it and count the number of words you used per minute!

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Last week we mentioned that according to a research conducted by the Department of Education, Sience and Technology and the Australian National Training Authority job applicants with excellent communication skills are more likely to stand out of the crowd, catch the eye of an employer and end up as happy winners of the job.

The ability of being a good listener should therefore be like second nature to you since it's an ability that is rarely find in our fast-paced world and is a communication skill that guarantees you respect and good will.

A pre-requisite is concentration and focus on the person who is speaking and actively listening to him or her by giving nonverbal feedback like nodding with your head from time to time or verbal feedback like asking questions to receive a better understanding or reconfirm what the speaker has just said.

Some more active listening tips are:

• Be aware that acitve listening takes time.
• Eliminate destractions - looking at your watch or checking your phone for an SMS are an unforgivable no-no.
• Contain eye contact.
• Lean a bit forward to demonstrate your interest.
• Maintain an open body language throughout the conversation and
• Smile encouragingly when appropriate.
• Enter the conversation with on open frame of mind welcoming new ideas and point of views.

Active listeners are always winners. Be one of them!

 

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