Misadventures in the world of professional speaking

If you can stop boredom from happening while you are talking, and stop doing things that bore people, you are well on your way to having an attentive crowd, according to Scott Berkun in his book Confessions of a Public Speaker. To fight boredom, you can set the pace, direct the attention of your audience, speak louder and take stronger positions than you would in an ordinary conversation, use tension and release, and get the audience involved.

Other interesting information and advice contained in the book:

• How to overcome nerves and speak with confidence
• How much some speakers get paid for their lectures
• What to do when faced with a tough audience
• Why lecturing is an ineffective teaching technique, and how to address the problems

After ten fairly brief and entertaining chapters containing stories of the author’s experiences and misadventures in the world of professional public speaking, the book provides a number of appendices describing tips and tricks used by professional speakers, how to use silence, how to fix various problems with a talk, what to do when things go wrong, and various real-life public speaking disasters.

I found the book enjoyable to read and full of useful information and tips. Perhaps the biggest takeaway is the one to which most readers will pay the least attention: the importance of practising your talks. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get better at public speaking.