I also give a few top tips for improving your public speaking.

Ric Franzi is a great Peer Group Leader/business growth consultant with Critical Mass for Business, located in Orange county. I met him in a peer group I joined a few years back that helped me get through the recession.  I highly recommend peer groups for business owners.  Very helpful and also a great reality check.  It's good to meet monthly with people who have similar challenges, even if they aren't in the same industry.

(Ric is on the left in the photo below).

This edited version, highlighting the most idiotic things Governor Kasich said, is pretty funny.  The speech lasted 80 minutes or so.  Again, those poor kids.

I'm sure somewhere in the jumbled 80 minutes he might have said something of substance, this is admittedly an edited version just capturing the choice phrases, but seriously?

As Vital Speechs of the Day points out... this is the hazard of impromptu speaking.  

Nobody needs to sound this stupid.

Or look this stupid.

Someone really needs to tell this guy how to dress when speaking in public.  That shirt, tie and suit combo is atrocious, sloppy and the colors clash.  There is more to dressing than wearing a red tie.

It is actually very hard for me to narrow my favorites down to three speeches for several reasons.  First, I don't remember every speech I have heard or read, even the great ones.  Second, there are many many speeches I have found to be off the charts fantastic at the time I heard or read them, but I have never actually sat down and created a list of my own. I have several books, however, listing and re-publishing the top "xx" speeches; I guess it's time to go back to them.

Off the top of my head I cited two of my most favorite speeches, both of which have occurred in the last 50 years.

1) Martin Luther King's, "I have a Dream," given in 1963 at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington.  If you'd like to hear it, or read it, you can find it in a million places online, but my favorite isAmerican Rhetoric: "I Have A Dream."

Not surprisingly on American Rhetoric's Top 100 Speeches list, MLK's "I Have a Dream" also ranks #1.  That list was created by some of the most famous and esteemed faculty of Communications, Martin Medhurst and Steven Lucas.  I recall working from both of their texts back when I was studying for my Masters in Communication and when I was teaching undergrads how to speak in public.

The original publication of Lucas' andMedhurst's Top 100 Speeches list can be found at the University of Wisconsin - Madison's website.

I'm not going to go in to why I love MLK's I have a Dream speech right now, maybe later. I will just say - read it. Listen to it. Then read it again. Sometimes the audio recordings aren't great.  But when you read it, you'll see his use of rhetorical techniques. The turns of phrases he uses are poetic and they make the listener think.  Not just his use of repetition, but also analogy, metaphor, antithesis.  He was a brilliant speaker, no question about it. And this is my favorite speech.

I recently read a very interesting book about the history of this speech in particular, written by the son of someone in one of my audiences. I am traveling right now, but as soon as I can I will find that book and give you the information.

And my second favorite speech? (At least right now)

2) Obama's nomination speech of John Kerry when Kerry ran against Bush W.  Great speech, great delivery, made his political career skyrocket right into the presidency as I expected (though several terms before I expected it). 

I didn't have a third speech to offer up today when asked the question, but I should have.  And, like all good speakers, I though of it after the fact.

I don't know if this is my all time #3 speech, but it's up there.  It was delivered in the 1800's by Abby Kelley Foster.  

Abby Kelley was a suffragist before the famous suffragists. And she was an abolitionist before she was a suffragist.  She was courageous, outspoken and a pioneer.  You can read Abby Kelley's bio on Civil War Women Blog.

Her "Bloody Feet" speech was moving and powerful.  I don't have it here either since I am still in New Mexico, but will write more about it at a later time.  The quotable quote from that speech is,

Bloody feet, Sisters, have worn smooth the path by which you come hither.

There was a great book written by Dorothy Sterling about Abby Kelley quite some time ago called "Ahead of Her Time."

It's worth the read.

This is for the ABA's new Premier Speaker CLE Series and is free to ABA Members.  1.5 CLE units are available.  

Sign up for their announcements if you are a member of the ABA.  They expect to have some outstanding speakers during the next 12 months.

Victoria is one of the authors of the Forbes blog She Negotiates.  Check out Victoria and Lisa Gate's website, She Negotiates, for great negotiation skills seminars and training.  

I presented a shortened version of one of my attorney speaking seminars "Improving your Public Speaking Skills." The host of the event invited my company to exhibit in exchange for my presentation, which was great because I (and my staff) stayed for a great deal longer than usual and we had much more interaction with the event attendees as well. 

While walking around the exhibit hall for 2.5 days I chatted up a bunch of the attendees.  And, unfortunately, the consensus was that the vast majority of speakers at the annual convention needed public speaking training - before they presented their CLEs to the bar attendees.

I know this is a pretty common issue, since I used to be a practicing attorney and I know how bad CLE programs can get. Additionally, my company puts on 60 - 70 CLE ligitation skills training programs per year; so I even know that some speakers are resistant to public speaking training and suggestions for improvement.

What I don't understand is why bar associations don't make the investment and offer training programs, or DVDs, to the attorneys who are going to speak at the bar's annual event.  It's a small investment compared to the event budget and income and the rewards always outweigh the cost.

I understand that not all of the speakers will take you up on your offered training, but enough of them will to make a difference and to cut down on attendees' dissapointment and complaints.

Not surprisingly several attendees told me they weren't sure they would return the next year due to the quality of presentations they saw.

Here is an open plea to bar associations:

You don't have to hire me to train your CLE speakers at your annual events, but you do have to hire someone.  Or at least license someone's training program to distribute to your speakers.  

Or maybe even just buy Garr Reynold's Presentation Zen or Nancy Duarte's Slide:ology in bulk and send them off to all CLE speakers booked for your annual event.  Yes, I really wish I'd written one of these books 20 years ago when I first started complaining about Power Point.

Seriously, do something! 

Meanderthal: a person who has great difficulty expressing themselves succinctly, often giving long, unfocused presentations.

It got a great laugh out of me! I LOVE it!  And like all good magazines that provide examples of their newly defined words, Entrepreneur provides this one:

I want to gouge my eyes out every time the office meanderthal pulls up a Power Point.

Too funny! 

Not sure I have to comment much on this, other than to use it as an illustration of the fact that people:

1. don't like it when others take forever to get to the point, especially in a business setting, i.e. meander all over the place
2. don't like it when others use Power Point to take forever to get to the point

If this sounds familiar to you, as in you might be guilty of communicating in this fashion, it is time to learn how to be organized and succinct. It is also probably time to give up the Power Point addiction, even if everyone else uses it.  Trust me, your colleagues and audiences will thank you and will like your presentations a lot more.

This is the second year in a row that the California Bar Association has asked me to speak at their annual convention.  Handout materials, including 1 page tip sheets, are in the State Bar's handout book for the convention.  I'll be raffling off 2 Public Speaking DVDs and I have chocolate:

70 LSP

Public Speaking for Attorneys

Back by popular demand - Faith Pincus will present this essential workshop on public skills. “There's always room for improvement” and a lawyers' public speaking skills should be at the top of that list. Learn ways to improve your presentation skills, and how to use your voice, words and body to enhance your legal presentation style.

Friday, September 16, 2:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m

CLE: 1.5 Hours

Long Beach Convention Center. See signs or registration materials for room location

We will also have a booth in the exhibit hall: Booth #430.  I will be doing free public speaking coaching sessions while I am at the booth.  

We will also be raffling off:

• CLE programs
• Finz Case Summary Subscriptions
• Public Speaking DVDS

And, we'll have a maseusse there to give foot massages in the afternoon on Thursday and Friday.

Join the LexBlog's Director of Client Services, Lyda Hawes, and me, at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) on September 14 for a free program on "Improving your Delivery." This free hourlong program is the third in a series of four webinars that I am presenting to LexBlog clients on public speaking for attorneys.

"Improving your Delivery" will touch upon:

• Tips to help you improve your delivery style with a more dynamic and effective delivery.

• Using visual aids to your advantage.

• The best use of handouts and how to avoid speaker's death by handout.

• How your image and style affects your audience.

• And, if time, the best way to handle questions and answers (in or out of court).