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Sometimes we think we know what we’re trying to communicate when the reality is we don’t have a clue.

Our speech is titled “Making Money off Social Media” but the reality is that we spend about 30 brief seconds mentioning that and the next thirty minutes passionately describing the in’s and out’s of Facebook fan pages. What we didn’t realize is that our topic wasn’t our topic. We would have been better off titling our talk “Why Facebook Fan Pages Rock!” That’s really what we were trying to communicate.

Sometimes we have five points to our talk but it’s really point number three that is grabbing us. Don’t make the mistake of rushing through the other points so you can talk about number three. Make that your speech! We’d be much better off ditching the other four points and focusing in on that thing- it’s actually our topic anyway, despite the title at the top of the PowerPoint presentation.

Clarity is essential for effective communication. It may be the most important thing.

Photo Credit: tuxthepenguin84

The Dilemma

Public speaking can strike fear into the heart of the bravest among us.  There we are – singled out, with all eyes on us, our palms are sweaty, butterflies dip and soar in our stomach, and our heart is beating so hard we’re sure everyone can see our shirt palpitating to the rhythm in our chest.  Good God it’s terrifying! Read the rest of this entry »