The Ideal Communicator

This is a reprint from Seth Godin’s blog post from April 18, 2010.  He talks about the effectiveness of marketing that preys on people’s rational (or irrational) fears.  Which is so much like the fear of public speaking. Many of us have it; we can control it, or become overpowered by it. But I especially loved what he had to say about it in the last paragraph:

“If your fear keeps you alive, embrace it. The rest of the time, the best strategy for success is figuring out how to ignore it, befriend it or use it as a compass to find what matters.”

Amen to that.

Here’s the full post from Seth’s blog: Read the rest of this entry »

For an air-tight example of an excellent speech introduction, look no further than Seth Godin’s speech about sliced bread at www.ted.com. In a little over two minutes (from minute 0.25 to 2.35 on the video), he not only tells the audience exactly what he’s going to talk about in an concise, interesting, and engaging way, but he includes the all-important WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) factor to really draw in his listeners.

How does he do it?  Watch the first 2 minutes of this speech for clues…

1. He immediately introduces the four specific examples that he’s going to talk about, including one of his own failures (Seth Godin failed at something?  I don’t believe it…) Read the rest of this entry »