Comments on: Public Speaking Myths: Would Steve Jobs Ever Use Note Cards? http://unconditionalconfidence.com/blog/2007/06/13/public-speaking-myths-would-steve-jobs-ever-use-note-cards/ Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:10:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Eric http://unconditionalconfidence.com/blog/2007/06/13/public-speaking-myths-would-steve-jobs-ever-use-note-cards/#comment-63 Eric Wed, 27 Jun 2007 12:47:20 +0000 http://unconditionalconfidence.com/?p=67#comment-63 Interesting post Nancy! What I thought was extremely helpful for our readers is to allow them to see both sides of the coin - Should we use cue cards? At the end of the day, the question is on the workability of your cards i.e will your cue cards distract or forward you? If having cue cards prevent you from connecting and relating with your audience, then I say go without. On a another note, it could also mean that the cue cards are not written well enough, which causes the speaker to READ from the cards instead of just glancing to get clues of what to say next. So at the end of the day, two qns to ask: (i) will cue cards distract or forward me? (ii) are my cue cards written effectively to help me on stage? Cheers, Eric http://blog.ericfeng.com Interesting post Nancy! What I thought was extremely helpful for our readers is to allow them to see both sides of the coin - Should we use cue cards? At the end of the day, the question is on the workability of your cards i.e will your cue cards distract or forward you?

If having cue cards prevent you from connecting and relating with your audience, then I say go without.

On a another note, it could also mean that the cue cards are not written well enough, which causes the speaker to READ from the cards instead of just glancing to get clues of what to say next.

So at the end of the day, two qns to ask:
(i) will cue cards distract or forward me?
(ii) are my cue cards written effectively to help me on stage?

Cheers,
Eric
http://blog.ericfeng.com

]]> By: Australia's public Speaking Coach http://unconditionalconfidence.com/blog/2007/06/13/public-speaking-myths-would-steve-jobs-ever-use-note-cards/#comment-62 Australia's public Speaking Coach Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:12:52 +0000 http://unconditionalconfidence.com/?p=67#comment-62 Great post!!! While I am generally against notes, they are not the worst thing that can happen. Mis-using notes is. Some people don't have the ability (or have not been trained in the how too) to speak with out notes. A little practise can help with public speaking and using notes. Unfortunately there are too many "rules" in public speaking that people say that you have to follow. Yes there are a number of rules that you have to know, but do not have to follow. Case in point: Never ever turn your back to the audience while speaking to them. If you have ever been to a Toastmasters club, you will have been advised of this "rule". However, I recently broke it in spectacular fashion and made a huge impact with it. I was speaking at the District 73 Toastmasters Table Topics Competition. This is the Final. About 2000 people had competed in the competition up to this point. There were 7 people left, and I was one of them. The topic we had to speak on (with no preparation time) was "if you break all the rules you miss out on half the fun". I decided to break some speaking rules and see how much fun I could still have. I turned my back on the audience and began to speak. The audience was in fits of laughter as I spent 20 seconds talking to the back of the stage. I then proceeded to break as many rules as I could in my 2 minutes. What was the result? Well I won the competition!!! So, even though Toastmasters has a rule saying that you should not turn your back on the audience, i did and still won!!! The trick is to know how to break the rules. You can get a full write up of my speech at www.AustraliasPublicspeakingCoach.blogspot.com Cheers Darren Fleming www.executivespeaking.com.au Great post!!!

While I am generally against notes, they are not the worst thing that can happen. Mis-using notes is.

Some people don’t have the ability (or have not been trained in the how too) to speak with out notes. A little practise can help with public speaking and using notes.

Unfortunately there are too many “rules” in public speaking that people say that you have to follow. Yes there are a number of rules that you have to know, but do not have to follow.

Case in point: Never ever turn your back to the audience while speaking to them. If you have ever been to a Toastmasters club, you will have been advised of this “rule”. However, I recently broke it in spectacular fashion and made a huge impact with it.

I was speaking at the District 73 Toastmasters Table Topics Competition. This is the Final. About 2000 people had competed in the competition up to this point. There were 7 people left, and I was one of them. The topic we had to speak on (with no preparation time) was “if you break all the rules you miss out on half the fun”. I decided to break some speaking rules and see how much fun I could still have. I turned my back on the audience and began to speak. The audience was in fits of laughter as I spent 20 seconds talking to the back of the stage. I then proceeded to break as many rules as I could in my 2 minutes.

What was the result? Well I won the competition!!!

So, even though Toastmasters has a rule saying that you should not turn your back on the audience, i did and still won!!!

The trick is to know how to break the rules.

You can get a full write up of my speech at http://www.AustraliasPublicspeakingCoach.blogspot.com

Cheers

Darren Fleming
http://www.executivespeaking.com.au

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