Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun Read Free Book Online Page A

once or twice a
     month, which means I turn away many gigs; I’d prefer to have more time
     than money, since you can never earn more time.
    [ 16 ]
History of Public Speaking in America
,
     Robert T. Oliver (Allyn &Bacon), p. 461.
    [ 18 ] It would be nice if events explained where the profits go, if
     there are any. It’s a good question to ask when invited to
     speak.
    [ 19 ] There is an annual competition for the world’s best public
     speaker, but I bet you’ve never heard of the winners: http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/MemberExperience/Contests/WorldChampions_1.aspx .
    [ 20 ] See both http://www.success-and-culture.net/articles/percapitaincome.shtml and http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/012528.html .
    [ 21 ] I also think it would be good if salaries were made public,
     which is why I offered myfees and income. If more people did this, the overpaid
     and underpaid would be visible and more likely to be corrected. Or,
     total anarchy would ensue and civilization would end. Either way, it
     would be fun to watch.

Chapter 4. How to work a tough room

    Halfof what you pay for at a fancy restaurant isn’t the food.
    You’re paying its rent, you’re paying for the atmosphere, and you’re
    paying for the way its service makes you feel. If you’ve ever taken a date
    somewhere based on where it is, what it looks like, or how it feels to be
    there, you know this is true. Public speaking is no different; the
    atmosphere is important to the quality of everyone’s experience. If you
    had to listen to Martin Luther King, Jr., in a New York City subway
    station, or Winston Churchill in a highway rest stop bathroom, with all
    the smells, noises, and rodents those atmospheric monstrosities are known
    for, you’d be less than pleased. MLK’s most famous speech would go
    something like this: “I have a…    decibels, audience covering their ears>…drea…oh, nevermind.” His
    eloquence would be no match for the unpleasant and distractive powers of
    the environment around him. Place matters to a
    speaker because it matters to the audience. Old theaters, a university
    lecture hall, even the steps of the Lincoln Memorial are great places to
    speak, but most speakers rarely get asked to do their thingin venues this good. Most presentations are given under
    flickering fluorescent lights inside cramped conference rooms, or in
    convention halls designed with a thousand other functions in mind, which
    explains why I know way more than I should aboutchandeliers.
    While you are in the audience looking up at the stage, a stage
    designed to make me easy to see, often I can’t see anything (see Figure 4-1 ). All the house
    lights are aimed right at my face. People forget that the room, as bad as
    it might be, is set up to help the audience see, whereas we speakers are
    on our own. Whenever you see pictures of a famous person giving a famous
    lecture, you see the stage exactly the way the person with the best seat
    in the house saw it. No one else is on stage, and if someone is, he’s not
    moving around. If President Obama were giving a speech and a dozen people
    behind him were eating cheeseburgers or playing charades, everyone in the
    audience would be quite annoyed. But when I look out into the audience,
    all I see are distractions. I can see and hear the back doors opening and
    closing with every person arriving late or leaving early. I see the glow
    of laptops in people’s multitasking eyes. I see cameramen and stage crews
    moving heavy gear, flashing their lights, and making jokes, all in the
    back rows behind the crowd, where only I can see. And mostdepressing of all, on some days, the days I forget to make a
    sacrifice to the gods of public speaking, all I can see when I look
    straight ahead is the dizzying glare of the conference hall chandelier.
    These are the cheap ones, made of grey metal, covered in chipping, peeling
    gold paint. They hover