Publisher's Synopsis
I wrote each chapter with the assumption that you have less than half an hour to prepare for a presentation. What to do in such a short time? Where to start? What to consider to make the most of every minute? How to avoid the despair so common in these situations? The answers are all here, written bluntly and in a very practical way.
Twenty-nine minutes or less will be enough for you to learn how to write a good presentation with a beginning, middle and end and decide whether or not to use humor and presence of mind. You will know how to position yourself elegantly and how to gesture harmoniously in front of an audience. You will be prepared to adapt the vocabulary to each type of listener and be able to find the ideal speech rate and appropriate voice volume to each environment. You will know how to choose the most convenient technique according to the circumstances, always consistent with your communication style.
We've gathered here everything you need to solve the most complex issues in the art of public speaking, especially in situations where you're in a hurry.
You will see that some concepts - such as naturalness, emotion, content, voice, vocabulary, body expression and planning - are so important that they are repeated several times in different chapters, depending on the context addressed.
You will not start from scratch. In each orientation, we will help you to take advantage of the knowledge acquired throughout your life. You know how to talk, don't you? Then! Perhaps what you lack is to properly use the communication you have developed with the passing of the years. Thus, in several chapters you are likely to get the impression that the suggestions we give are already known to you. And they are. The fact that there is nothing so new in this learning is an exceptional advantage. It will avoid unnecessary efforts and allow you to skip steps that would consume time, something very important for those who are about to face the public and need perform this task well.
You won't need to study: you won't have to worry about memorizing rules or theoretical concepts. Just read, understand and put into practice. All very simple, fast, without complexity or complication. And, if you have more time to devote to this learning, which you certainly will, the assimilation will be even more comfortable and peaceful.
Therefore, you there are at least three ways to read this book. The first, which only takes 29 minutes, is to go straight to the end of each chapter to the section "To read in less than a minute", where you will find a summary of what was covered there. The second is to go back to the summary and choose the subjects that most interest you at the moment. For example, maybe you don't need to use audiovisual resources in your presentation, nor improve techniques for talking inside an elevator. So, feel free to choose the really essential chapters for the little time you have available now and skip the rest. Later, having dealt with your most urgent communication demands, you can dedicate yourself to the third way, which is more detailed and complete reading.
