Bill's Notebook

I like this book!  Scott Berkum has written a book that I wish I had when I was teaching the communication practices because this is the kind of real world advice students need to be successful public speakers.  Scott’s confessions about his speaking career bridges the gap between the basics of speech communication and the secrets of highly-successful speakers (although Scott is a highly-successful speaker).  No, what is good about Scott’s advice is that he shares his lessons from the mistakes he made starting out.

My favorite chapters?  “The science of not boring people;”  “How to make a point;” and “What to do if your talk sucks.”  An especially motivational chapter is “You can’t do worse than this” in which Scott shares stories of famous speakers and their worst speaking moment.  There is nothing really new here but the advice of rehearse your speech, come early and check out your speaking arrangements, and don’t read your slides needs repeating (over and over in some cases).

I think where this book will be most helpful is in training federal government speakers.  I’ve seen some good briefings but your average speech by public officials can be a painful event.  Granted, most topics are of a highly technical nature and dense with policy points and regulatory language but the presenter can at least work to engage the audience.  With Scott’s advice, the presenter can successfully engage the audience.