Books: Confessions of a Public Speaker

Scott Berkun is an accomplished public speaker. Keeping himself as the central character and adopting a first person narrative, he provides insights for people who are likely to either take up this profession or address a large group as part of the daily professional life.

Scott debunks the myths and emphasizes what is required to be successful in this profession. He stresses on practicing your talk before appearing in front of the audience. He also provides valuable tips on how the material should be structured to have the maximum impact. Although there is a big money for eminent personalities in this circuit, others earn lesser. But as a public speaker, Scott gets a lot of personal time at his disposal. He also shares his experience with the TV camera while filming “The Business of Innovation” for NBC. He had interacted with many of the CEOs of major companies. He shares the lessons learnt from these interactions.

A lot of photographs are used in most of the chapters to deliver Scott’s point to the reader. This helps the reader immensely to understand the ethos of a public speaker while onstage. Through the diagrams, he also illustrates better seating arrangements that enables the speaker to spread positive energy. Some of the pictures are for fun to give a insight into the life of the author while travelling for speaking engagements.

The real treasure of the book is the material in the appendix. This is in fact a concise “How to” steps that cross references the chapters in his book. Reading this material appendix is quick way to prepare yourself in case you have to address a large audience.

Picture Courtesy: http://www.scottberkun.com/

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