Public Speaking For Success

Dale Carnegie

📚 GENRE: Personal Development

📃 PAGES: 464

✅ COMPLETED: July 3, 2020

🧐 RATING: ⭐⭐⭐

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Short Summary

Public speaking and verbal communication is one of life’s most important and rewarding skills. In Public Speaking For Success, legendary self-improvement guru Dale Carnegie gives advice and guidance to help readers become great public speakers and unlock their full potential.

Key Takeaways

1️⃣ Practice! — Melting away the fear that comes with public speaking comes down to practicing it as much as you can. Find ways to give speeches. The more speeches you give, the more naturally comfortable and confident you will be speaking in front of and to others.

2️⃣ Spend Time Preparing — To deliver a truly great speech, you have to spend a lot of time preparing. Really think about the content, structure, and overall message you want to communicate in your speech. Once you have the speech written out, rehearse as much as possible. 

3️⃣ Speak In Images — Use imagery as much as possible when you speak. We like to form images in the mind. If you can speak in pictures, you have a better chance of getting your point across.

Favorite Quote

"Practice, practice, PRACTICE in speaking before an audience will tend to remove all fear of audiences, just as practice in swimming will lead to confidence and facility in the water. You must learn to speak by speaking."

Book Notes 📑

Introduction

  • This book provides the blueprint for public speaking, but you have to practice.

Chapter 1

  • If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you won’t.
  • Developing confidence encouraged and speaking takes four things:
    1. Desire to improve
      • Think of all the amazing things being a good speaker will do for you.
        • Increased confidence, social life, money, leadership.
    2. Know what you’re going to talk about and say.
      • Prepare, prepare, prepare.
      • Tip: It helps in the beginning of a speech to move something or write something on a blackboard. Anything physical will help you be calm at first.
    3. Act confident
      • Action and feeling work together and are influenced by each other. It is easier to control action through willpower, which then produces the desired feeling. This according to William James, a great American psychologist.
        • Act confident. Act courageously.
      • Tip: Always breathe deeply for 30 seconds before speaking.
      • No matter how fast your heart is beating, stride bravely. Speak bravely.
      • “Act like you were not afraid” — Teddy Roosevelt.
  • Practice. Practice. Practice.
    • You have to practice speaking.
  •  

Chapter 2

  • It is critical to be extremely prepared for a speech or presentation, or anything in life.
    • Being extremely prepared drives out fear.
    • Over prepare!
  • Preparing A Talk:
    • Choose one or two main points to hit on thoroughly.
    • Choose your topic one week, at least, in advance of the talk.
      • This allows you to think about the topic all the time for seven days.
    • Think about your topic and gather your thoughts on it constantly.
    • Ask yourself key questions about the topic that you can then answer.
    • Read about your topic. Become your topic!
    • Set aside a block of time every day to think and prepare for the talk or presentation.

Chapter 4

  • If you happen to freeze in the middle of a speech or presentation, start your next statement with the final word in your previous statement. This helps you get back on track.
    • Ex. One guy asked if his audience could hear him well, which bought him some extra time to regain his poise and thoughts.
  • Imagine your main points as pictures. If you can communicate in pictures, you can connect with the audience better. We like to think in pictures.
  • Quote: “Practice, practice, PRACTICE in speaking before an audience will tend to remove all fear of audiences, just as practice in swimming will lead to confidence and facility in the water. You must learn to speak by speaking.”

Chapter 5

  • “Enthusiasm invites enthusiasm” — Russell Cromwell
  • “The secret of success — the secret of every phenomenal success — is the triumph of enthusiasm.” — Emerson
    • People feed off your energy and attitude. Show passion and enthusiasm.
  • Passion, feeling, spirit, emotional sincerity — get these qualities in your talk and the audience will respond positively.
    • And the audience will not care about minor hiccups in the speech.
    • It helps to be speaking of something you believe in.
  • Speak with energy and boldness and with good volume.
    • Use your body. Use gestures.
  • Love your audience! Take this approach.

Chapter 6

  • Always think success. Visualize it.
    • Visualize yourself speaking confidently in front of an audience.
  • Work hard! Always work hard.
  • Visualize the man you want to be and you’ll start to become it. We become what our mind fixates on.
  • If you keep working on something and learning something consistently you will eventually become great at it.

Chapter 7

  • It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.
    • Actual words aren’t everything. It’s how you deliver them.
  • Talk to the audience as if they were individuals.
    • Pick a person in the back and talk to them.
    • Don’t think of it as talking to everybody.
  • Tip: Pose questions to yourself and answer them. It’s a good way to mix up your delivery.
  • Speak from the heart. It really helps your speech when you actually love and care about the topic.
  • You can use pitch, emphasis of words, etc. to add flavor to your speech.

Chapter 8

  • Try to limit the distractions on stage with you.
  • Dress really well. It creates confidence.
    • Look good, feel good.

Chapter 9

  • Get your audience’s attention with a strong opening line. Make it attention-grabbing.
    • It should elicit interest and curiosity. It can be a question or a quote.
    • You can include an exhibit of some sort to get the speech going.

Chapter 10

  • Begin a speech on common ground. Get everyone agreeing.
    • Get people saying “yes” to your points in the early stages.
      • Never make it you against the audience.

Chapter 11

  • When closing the speech, consider using poetry or a quote.
  • Don’t let a speech or presentation go too long.
  • Summarize and restate what you have said in your conclusion.
    • Also, appeal for action. Encourage the audience to act on what you’ve spoken about.
    • Compliment the audience.
  • Your speech should error on the short side rather than the long side.
  • Be prepared to answer questions once you’re done.

Chapter 12

  • Use imagery to communicate certain things in the speech. Give the audience visuals to work with.
    • Ex. Such and such distance is equivalent to five football fields. 

Chapter 13

  • Use facts to back up your statements.
    • Use good sources when presenting the evidence.
    • To prove a point, compare the statistic to that of another place or object.
      • Ex. Seattle’s death rate is…, this is solid compared to Chicago’s death rate of…
        • Always state your source. It gives you credibility.
  • Cumulative Speaking Technique — This is where you state your point then back it up with examples.
    • Ex. “Courage leads to tremendous trials… Courage is what led Michael Jordan to become the greatest basketball player ever… Courage is what allowed Amelia Earhart to fly a plane around the world.” 

Chapter 14

  • Use imagery as much as possible when you speak. We like to form images in the mind. If you can speak in pictures, you have a better chance of getting your point across.

Chapter 15

  • Appeal to the desires that make people act.
    • Desire for gain. 
    • Desire for importance.
  • Everybody wants something. If you can provide what they want, you can be very influential.

Chapter 16

  • Work on your speaking. Improve your vocabulary.
    • Focus on word choice.
  • Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is considered one of the best speeches ever.
    • “Work, work, work — this is the key.” — Abe Lincoln talking about personal development.