Public Speaking

For my first post (in what I hope will be a nice, long series), I’ll start in the most straightforward way possible.

“Public speaking” means you, standing in front of a group, large or small, accepting your Nobel, doing a TED talk, giving a presentation, pitch, technical update, sales report, and so on. It includes speaking during job interviews, meeting with your boss, clients, subordinates, and so on.

But based on my own (possibly flawed) interpretation of Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric—it also includes pretty much all speech, professional and personal. My logic: when your thoughts, ideas, and feelings are inside your head or heart, they’re private. When you give voice to them, they become public.

Simple.

Public speaking = speaking.

Hence the focus of this series will be the art of understanding speech and learning to use words skillfully, helpfully, and authentically in all situations. Keep reading, and I’ll keep posting.

Thanks.