Chapter 9 Takeaway

   When it comes to public speaking, gaining your audiences attention is key in delivering a good speech. As discussed in Chapter 9, the text stresses the importance of grasping your audience's attention and pulling them in. On page 9-2 Hellmut Walters states, "To be persuasive, we must be believable. To be believable, we must be credible. To be credible, we must be truthful." Walters hits the nail on the head with this quote from the book. If I'm delivering a persuasive speech, with hopes of you buying into what I'm trying to say, if I'm not believable I'll lose my audience, which, in turn, will then lead to the loss of my credibility. Gaining the audience's attention is one of the biggest factors I focus on when delivering a speech. When I begin to notice eye contact and the look of being alert, it puts my mind at ease letting me know that I've drawn my audience in and they're interested in what I have to say. 

    To feel confident when giving a speech in public, I enjoy telling a story or recalling on a certain occasion to give myself that feeling of credibility. Relating back to a past experience allows me the certainty of speaking clearly and with truth behind my tone of voice. I look forward to expanding on my public speaking skills over the course of the class and hearing each and everyone's own story from week to week.

Zoom Call Takeaway

 Going back to last week and recapping our zoom call, I enjoyed the conversation and the introduction to what we'll be doing over the course of the class. Public speaking has never been enjoyable for me, yet I'm not one to really sit back and keep quiet. Coming from the world of sales prior to jumping ship and changing careers, I relied heavily on my social skills as well as my ability to conduct face to face meetings and present business models to small and mid-sized business owners. I can definitely say that picking up the phone and making 100 dials a day, or sitting down for a face to face meeting has greatly improved my public speaking skills and it's helped tremendously. 

    During our zoom call, we touched on being uncomfortable and speaking in public with others. Going off the small class size that we have, I hope we all can relax a little bit, be ourselves and listen to the stories that are told. Having a small class definitely makes for a "less intense" moment yet I still find some awkwardness during a zoom call lol. There's something about the process that just seems a little off to me but overall it gets the job done!