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Speak with Confidence
book

Speak with Confidence

by Mike Acker
December 2022
Beginner content levelBeginner
256 pages
4h 39m
English
Wiley
Audiobook available
Content preview from Speak with Confidence

Chapter 2You Are the Message

You are the message.

If all your company needed was information, then they could cancel the presentation and play the slide deck. If all they needed was statistics, an email would be sufficient. You, in your own personhood, bring an irreplaceable element to the presentation.

You are the message.

For example, I've been speaking professionally for almost twenty years and have taken more classes than you can imagine, and have read more books than you can count. Am I perfect? By no means. But I do know what I'm talking about. When I speak about speaking, it comes from inside of me. It is part of who I am. Contrast that with a politician reading a speech that someone else wrote, about an issue he doesn't understand, to people he has no connection with.

When you are asked to give a presentation, relay a report, or speak to your team, it means they need you—not your slideshow or handouts. When I first started writing, I was reluctant to share all my insights for fear of undercutting my coaching business, but I discovered that people are more likely to hire me if I “give away” everything. They understand that the message I have in me is bigger than what's on the page and that's worth paying for.

They need you—not your slideshow or handouts.

Going back to Aristotle, PowerPoint obviously cannot provide the ethos and pathos. And it can't provide all the logos either. This is something you know about. These ideas are something you have a vested interest ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781394159741Purchase Link