Speaking of Empowerment

We are more interested than ever before in celebrities. The first decade of the twenty-first century passed quickly in a haze of paparazzi and glossy mags. Celebrity has done nothing but grow since the turn of the century. As if their presence in every magazine and newspaper as well as their dominance of the TV wasn’t enough, celebrities are increasingly making personal appearances.

You just can’t escape celebrities. And I don’t just mean the leftovers from obscure 1990s boybands. People with a real claim to fame are doing it too. That’s right, you can hire almost anyone, and for any occasion if you find the right agency.

I confess I didn’t see this trend coming. I had naively assumed that celebrities were too busy to attend parties and supermarket opening with us mere mortals. Not so! Perhaps it’s the effects of the credit crunch on their Prada purse strings; the celebrity at your party comes at a price after all. Or maybe a desire to be seen in the most clubs is a source of rivalry for celebrities.

But it wouldn’t be fair to make generalisations. Other celebrities have something to offer. I’m talking about people famous for being good at acting, or cooking, or intelligent. Celebrities like this can make personal appearances interesting. There are examples of celebrities using their personal appearances to do something positive: some have taught children to cook healthily, used their status to encourage charity donations and recycling. Others simply claim to enjoy getting to meet the people who support them.

People often assume that a personal appearance means a pretty woman posing in a nightclub. That type of appearances are useful for promoting businesses. However, there is so much more than simple promotion that can be achieved through personal appearances. Many celebrities are deeper than we give the credit for and have constructive input to offer on a wide range of subjects such as the environment and charity. Maybe you’re looking for a simple personal appearance to fill your club next Saturday; good for you, I’m sure it’ll help. However, if you are looking for something a bit deeper, don’t write off celebrity appearance altogether. If you dig a little deeper you might see that a celebrity could really boost your event and your cause.

People who are about to give a speech, whether they have some training in public speaking or not, have anxieties which could be helped if you know the secrets. Below are the secrets to delivering that perfect grooms speach:

Prepare in advance. This speech is among the most important, if not the most significant, speech you will ever deliver during your lifetime. What makes it so important is that it is in this speech that you will profess your sentiments towards your new wife and your appreciation to families, friends and people who are closest to you. You don’t really want to deliver this speech with little preparation. What’s more, you don’t really want to look like a fool in front of your guests. It is best, therefore, to plan in advance. Weeks before the big day, start writing materials for your speech. Once you’re done with this, you would have lesser worries regarding your speech as the big day approaches.

Practice how you deliver your speech and while practicing maybe grab a friend or two. Test how they respond to your delivery and ask them for some comments. This gives you an opportunity to polish your speech based on their comments and hopefully perfect it for the rest of your guests.

Get some sleep. Pre-wedding jitters shouldn’t bother you on the night of your wedding day. Nevertheless, try to get some rest. Although you can perfect your speech through practice, you may not be able to control the symptoms of stage fright that is worsened by lack of sleep, if you have that, once you approach the podium.

Interject a funny one liner or two. The groom’s speech is often though of as the most serious of all the wedding speeches. This speech uses of the opportunity to express your gratitude to the individuals who have helped in the wedding preparations. Nevertheless, too much sentimentality could veer towards seriousness. With that said, it would help your speech a lot if you can add a funny liner or a really funny joke in your speech to lighten your audience’s mood. In addition, jokes can encourage the listeners to lend their ears to you.

Funny lines not only do this but they also add color to the tone and message of your speech. By adding a touch of color to your speech, you can highlight some of its parts and make it sound nicer to the ear.

Maintain eye contact. As you speak, hold your audience’s attention by maintaining eye contact. Look at a section of the audience and try shifting once in a while to other sections to involve your guests in your speech. If you’re not used to doing this, try doing the alternative technique which is to look overhead. Whatever you do though, don’t look at your microphone or the copy of your speech. Also, try to always involve the crowd. Choose a few from the audience and mention their names, make sure that you mention something very significant.

At the end of the day, once you’re donereviewing these tips, remember that you’re not a professional public speaker and that your guests know about it. So just calm down while delivering your grooms speachand have fun with it.

Not many fathers have received training in public speaking but a lot of them have stage fright in anticipation for their deliver of the father of the groom speeches. To add to the problem, many also expect themselves to deliver a flawless speech. As the father of the groom, there is, generally, not much elbowroom for you to commit mistakes. To help you present yourself and your speech well, take the following pointers with a grain of salt:

Make your speech sound natural – When writing the speech, write only about subjects that are naturally close to your heart. This will let you stick with your natural self, without a need for pretentions. Don’t push yourself too hard to be romantic, funny or sentimental if these are not you personality. Because you see, even the grouch can make people laugh. Show off your unique persona in your speech no matter how much you hate yourself.

Make it humorous and light-hearted – There really are no particular when it comes to the father of the groom speech. But somehow, some conventions apply such as keeping the speech funny and light-hearted.

Have a good opening – It is in the introduction that you get the attention of your listeners. Oftentimes, this is where you catch or lose your audience’s attention. To be able to hold the attention of the audience, most fathers of the groom use funny one liners and quotes. It will also do you good if you can refrain from using very lengthy, clichéd introductions.

Involve your son – No one is better qualified to talk about his son than the father. This speech allows you the opportunity to address your son. It has become a traditional part in any father of the groom speech to address his son by incorporating a recollection of anecdotes in the speech. The audience would also appreciate if you can talk about your son’s new wife. Talk about her warmly and assure her that your family welcomes her.

Include in your speech some memorable anecdotes – Mention a few short anecdotes about your son, this would let the audience know him better.

Advise your son and daughter-in-law – It is expected for the father of the groom to give the newly married couple some valuable advices. As someone who has ‘been there and done that’, you are a good resource for valuable information about married life. But if you don’t feel good talking about it, bless the newlyweds instead.

Express your confidence about the ceremony – Let the couple know how happy you are about the marriage. This would help them become more assured about the relationship and would bring them closer to you.

father of the groom speeches are not typically delivered at weddings, but whenever they get to be a part of the wedding party, expectations are usually high. Exceed the audience’s expectations and follow the tips above.

Most guys, when they get invited to serve as their friends best man in the wedding says ‘okay’ without a thought. Nothing wrong in there, after all, it’s always nice to hear that one of your friends is getting married. But then, reality quickly sets in. You remember that the best mans speeches come with this privilege. Unless you had some training in public speaking, you’ll find this part of the job a bit anxiety-provoking. Seconds after you realize this, you’ll get hit with the thought that you’ll not only need to prepare and deliver your speech but you actually have to deliver it front of guests whom you personally know. Hopefully, the pointers below can help prepare you for this daunting task.

Be natural and sincere. It’s not like you have to electrify the audience with your speech. In occasions like this and with an audience like your friends, being natural is the best tactic to capture and hold their attention. So try to deliver your speech as natural as you can. If you do it this way, ten to one, you’ll have an excellent delivery, if not a flawless one.

Although many are intimidated by the prospect of addressing people they know, it helps to know for many that this is their comfort zone where slight mistakes are easily forgiven. So forget your notion that you need to deliver an extravagant speech. Also, it would be a lot easier for the audience to hear a natural speaker than someone who treats a best man speech like a state of the nation address.

Should you read your notes or should you not read. You always have the choice of memorizing the entire speech or keeping point cards handy. Chances are, when you rely entirely on your memory you’ll forget some parts of your speech. If you can pull off a memorized speech, well and good, but in any case you should always have some adlibs ready. It’s perfectly okay to memorize your speech but try not to depend heavily on your memory as it sometimes slip. To ensure a good delivery, keep small idiot cards handy to help you keep track of your succeeding lines. On a side note, it is not obligatory to have a script for your opening lines.

Prepare in ahead of time. It’s not a good idea to prepare your speech the night or on the day of the wedding. Even if you are confident in your skills for delivering extemporaneously, it is still better to have something prepared. This allows you to sound more natural, making it easier for the audience and yourself to go through the speech without boring them.

Keep it brief but entertaining. A speech that is longer than 5 minutes, unless you have a knack for holding your audience’s attention, could be a little too boring. So try to keep your speech concise, entertaining and naturally funny.

Keep your head clear. Don’t allow yourself near the punch bowl until after you’ve delivered your speech. Usually, although alcohol can calm the nerves, it ruins the speech, letting you to be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Follow these tips while writing and delivering your best mans speeches. Trust us, these could really help.

How you handle questions from an audience can often be the deciding factor as to how your presentation is received. If you’re pitching for business, then it’s absolutely vital to handle questions well.

1. Be equipped – As you prepare the presentation for the public, decide what you will probably be asked at the end and be ready to answer the questions. In case there would be a couple you are not ready to answer at this time, a satisfactory response will have to be ready to use for an answer.

2. Clearly state the terms of the presentation – If your presentation is first and then questions or if you take questions as you go, stick with what you stated you were going to do. Do not change in the middle of your presentation. This will throw the timing off. Bear in mind, audiences that are told a presentation will be fifteen minutes will not like listening for a half hour.

3. Do not allow questions at the very end – Ask for any questions the audience may have at least 10 minutes before concluding. Answer them and move on to your big ending. When presentations end with questions and no one has any, it is a bit awkward.

4. Pay attention respectfully – If you are being asked a question, even if is one that you have answered repeatedly, do not dismiss the question lightly. Answer it and pay attention to the person asking it.

5. Thank the questioner – It’s only polite, it shows respect and it gives you a bit more time to consider your answer.

6. Restate the gist of the question – This is often beneficial for those who may have missed the question. When you answer they may not have any idea of what you are talking about. It is aggravating not to know what was asked and this also allows you time to consider the response. In addition, it is a good control maneuver.

7. Direct your response to everyone – When answering the question direct your response to the audience, not just the questioner. This appears as if you are excluding everyone else especially if the questioner is up front and closer to you.

8. Short and sweet – Answer the question and move on. Sometimes speakers tend to get too involved in the answer. They are at ease and happy someone asked a question and their answer is too long. DON’T DO THIS.

9. No bluffing – When a question is asked that you have no answer for, say so. Tell them you will find out the answer and you will let them know. This is also a way to be able to contact them further.

There is the possibility of no questions being asked. This can cause an uncomfortable silence. It may be that your presentation is sinking in and they need time to think of their questions. They also might be somewhat bashful about asking questions. Use your own question and say ” In case you are wondering…?” If this does not work, conclude your presentation.

The better you handle this type of situation, the more professional and businesslike you will look during your public speaking presentation.