The prevailing model for speaking persuasively is a style of speaking that is enthusiastic, energetic and extraverted. The speaker is asserting a point in hopes to convince the listener to agree. However, this model can be a trap. It puts you in the position of selling. Of course others don’t want to be sold, so they have…
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Today, Sunday, March 23, 2014, The Houston Chronicle Jobs Section is printing an article entitled “Public Speaking an Important Career Tool.” This article written by Emilia Benton, a copy editor from the Special Publications of Houston Chronicle Media Group, features some of my ideas about the value of public speaking skills for career development. Ms. Benton…
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Marian Bell of www.MarianBell.com demonstrated the most powerful communication skill I know – she asked me gently for what she wanted me to do. I buy delicious food from her each week which she delivers to my house every Monday. In order to get her food, I have to place an order each week. She really wants customer’s…
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Have you experienced that people sometimes give you excuses rather than reasons? They respond, but somehow it just doesn’t ring true? Maybe their answer just does not satisfy you? I walked into the women’s restroom at my favorite pizza kitchen last week. A lovely young black woman was in the restroom talking on a cell phone. …
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Oh Wow! For all of you struggling with Stage Fright and fear of public speaking, please watch Joe Kowan give an 8 minute TED Talk on how he beat stage fright. Joe shares that he wrote a song to express the inner feelings of stage fright as a way of dealing with it. Those of…
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We can alchemically transform performance anxiety into presence in our physical body. Alchemy is a term for turning a less valuable substance into a more valuable one. The human body is a laboratory for transformation of consciousness. Performance anxiety is a distressful reaction to energy trying to flow through the body when we become the…
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Very accomplished people experience stage fright and fear of public speaking! Witness Michael Bay, director of Transformers, who froze and walked off the stage at the 2014 Samsung Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. My mission is to help heal the world of stage fright and fear of public speaking so that people can shine…
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As we lay Nelson Mandela to rest this past week, here is a lovely TED talk story told by Boyd Varty, a man who met Mandela as a child. To learn to tell your valuable and inspiring stories, join my speaking group classes at Self-Expression Center or coaching via Zoom. I am Sandra Zimmer, author…
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Recently, I have had several clients and students in public speaking classes who quit or tried to quit classes because I asked them to tell stories from their personal or professional lives. I could not figure out what was causing people to stop their progress in public speaking when they were doing so well in…
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Most people don’t know they can have a really good speaking voice. Many are surprised when they hear themselves on a voice recorder. People often tell me they don’t like the sound of their voices. And they think they are stuck with the voice they have been used to using. Having a beautiful voice quality…
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