Public Speaking Training and the Art of Eloquence

Author: Ma Yinchun / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: Once, Carnegie suddenly received invitations to speak from two training institutions, and he couldn’t decide which to accept. However, after separately meeting with the heads of both, he chose the latter. On the phone, the invitation from the first institution went like this: “Please, Mr., we would greatly appreciate it if you could share your speaking techniques with middle and small business managers for our company. Since I’m not entirely clear about the content of your speech, please decide on your own. The audience will likely be no more than one hundred people. Thank you for your help!” Carnegie found the speaker’s tone dull and lacking enthusiasm. It gave the impression of someone just going through the motions, without any genuine passion, leaving him with a very poor impression. Additionally, the invitation didn’t clearly state what Carnegie should do, to what extent, or how many people would be in attendance. How could he decide on the content of his speech? Naturally, Carnegie had no good feelings toward this invitation.
On the other hand, the invitation from the second institution went like this: “We sincerely request your expertise in sharing some tricks to enhance the speaking skills of middle and small business managers. The attendees will all be managers with approximately fifty employees each, and the expected audience size is seventy. We deeply understand that the era of genuine connection is becoming increasingly distant, and the traditional practice of employees acting based on their superiors’ moods is long outdated. Therefore, we sincerely invite you to speak at this event, with the main purpose of helping all the participants realize that those who cannot clearly express their thoughts through language cannot become outstanding managers. We hope the speech can be kept to about two hours, focusing on three aspects: 1) the necessity of learning speaking skills; 2) the benefits of mastering speaking skills; and 3) methods for learning speaking skills. We hope to deliver an engaging and unique speech. Thank you for your help!” P351