Public Speaking Training Article on Improving Your Presentation Skills

: Let me ask you a question:

Would you do brain surgery on yourself?

Even if you're a brain surgeon, your answer is sure to be no.

So why would you try to do your own public speaking training?

To be fair, you can learn a lot by reading books and by studying the public speaking training articles on this site.

Think of it this way: if you wanted to learn how to do Karate, you could learn a lot from a book - but think how much faster and easier you'd learn and develop if you trained with a Karate Master.

It's the same with public speaking training; you can learn a tremendous amount from this site, no doubt about it - after all, that's why this site exists!

Here's another way to think about it: pick up any library book on public speaking presentation skills, and they'll tell you that you should video yourself speaking so you can find ways to improve.

That's a terrible idea, and here's why:

First, sure you'll probably be able to make some small improvements like correcting awkward gestures you weren't aware you were making, but the reason it's a bad idea is that if you knew what to improve, you'd already know to improve that!

Let me explain it this way: you can't know what you don't know. What that means is that you don't have an expert eye to know how to improve your skill in presenting.

Frankly, I do: I have an eagle eye and can spot ways you can improve that you'll never be able to see. Why? Because that's what I'm an expert at doing. I'm a brain surgeon in the area of public speaking training.

If you hire a golf coach, they can see things in your swing and your game that you'll never be able to see. They'll have that eagle eye to catch what you'd never see even if you did watch video tape of yourself.

Here's another example: if you hire an expert tennis pro, they'll see things in your game that you'll never be able to see.

So sure, go ahead and video tape yourself to try and knock out those awkward gestures and nervous pacing you're doing, but don't try to do brain surgery yourself. Get an expert to train you and you'll develop much more quickly.

Also, by training with an expert at public speaking training you'll avoid developing bad habits that have to be broken later. The smartest thing to do is just get the best public speaking training right from the start.