Reading bedtime stories to children can make you a better speaker.

Do you read your kids bedtime stories? 

I'm 11 years older than my youngest sister, so I've been reading bedtime stories all my life.  I read her The Lorax so often I can still recite it by memory many years later (which comes in handy with my niece and nephews, especially on car journeys).

Great speech making and presentations are always about telling a story and connecting with an audience. The more you practice story-telling the better. 

Reading aloud Kids' books is not only fun, it also helps you develop a sense of rhythm, practice different characterisations, and get comfortable hearing the sound of your own voice. It's a safe space to be silly and try new things because, let's face it, kids aren't exactly a demanding audience.  

The feedback they most often give is "Again!!!" 

Young children are happy to hear a story over and over (and over) again, which gives you the chance to practice. 

So if you want to be better at presentations, try reading a few bedtime stories to kids.  It's fun, it's good for family bonding, and it's great practice for speaking.

Speaking to an audience of people who don't share your accent.

This week's tip of the week contains another strategy to adopt when speaking to an audience of people who don’t share your accent.

In previous tips I've suggested you:

• speak more slowly than usual.
• allow time at the beginning for the audience to "tune in" to your accent, before you get to the meat of your speech.
• explicitly address the accent difference, so your audience don't spend time wondering "what is that accent" and not foccussed on your content.

One more tip:

• Consider putting key words on a Whiteboard, Flipchart, PowerPoint or Keynote slide.

This can do three things.

First, it can help your audience "tune in" to your accent and make the connection between the word they see and how you say it.

Second, it is especially valuable where you are using a technical term, or a word they may be unfamiliar with.

Third, it can prevent an audience mis-hearing you all together.

For example of point one - if you are talking about "Transporting Privacy Norms to Different Cultures" - your audience can hear how you pronounce the words "transport" and "privacy" while seeing the word written in front of them (this would also be a good time to address the difference in pronunciation directly)

For example of points 2 and 3: if you were talking about your Whakapapa to an audience in the US or UK, it would be worth displaying the term, explaining its pronunciation and meaning. It's a word which isn't in common use outside New Zealand, and is liable to be misheard.

Do you have any other strategies that work well for you?

Help for Speakers: Tip of the Week 3: it's easier to incorporate humour, than it is to tell jokes.

Week 3 of Tip of the Week: Rather than tell jokes, use humour in your speech

Having an audience laugh relaxes us, and it relaxes the audience. Relaxation and laughter aid learning.

How do you make people laugh? It's much harder to tell a joke than it is to introduce humour into your speech (and almost every speech should include humour)

There are various ways to incorporate humour, but one of the easiest is by observing what is going on around you, being alive to the humour in every day life, and then sharing stories with your audiences (provided you then link the story back to the topic of your speech).

In case you missed them here are previous Tips of the Week.

Help for Speakers' Tip of the Week#2: Powerpoint is the last tool to use when writing a speech.
First you need to know what your audience cares about, why you like them, and what you want to share with them. Once you have a first draft/outline, it's time to think how your audience would benefit from an audio or visual cue. Then, and only then, it's time to open PowerPoint (or Apple's Keynote).

Help for Speakers Tip of the Week #1: Don't drink iced water, go for room temperature or luke-warm instead.
The vocal chords work best when nice and warm.

Remember - if you are struggling with a speech or marketing, or just want to find out more about me and my services, you can always ring in on the weekly Help for Speakers Q and A session every Wednesday @1.

Ring in if you have a question, need inspiration or ideas for an upcoming presentation, or want to talk about speaking as a way to get business. From New Zealand call 0800 449 288, from Australia call 1800 036 0901, and then enter the Guest Access Code 54052101#. For other details follow this link