Speaking

Lou Heckler, speaking coach
This master of storytelling is a beloved, astute presentation coach for many members of the National Speakers Association.
www.louheckler.com

How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less
by Milo O. Frank. This is a popular fast read on how to be heard. Frank translates techniques culled from advertising, acting, and TV that you can use to persuade in conversations or presentations. In a straightforward, down-to-earth style, he offers a condensed set of tips that are easy to understand and apply.

This is a perennial seller because it appeals to so many kinds of people who want helpful, quick, and easy-to-read ways to gain others' attention (Buy this book).

Kids Ear Saver
Learn about the adapter that permanently attaches to headphones to control volume and protect again heedless hearing loss (kidsearsaver.com).

Lou Heckler
This master of storytelling is a beloved, astute presentation coach for many members of the National Speakers Association (louheckler.com).

MP3 Soundstream
If you own a personal computer (PC) and want to create video tutorials, record lectures or your conversations or interviews, and produce audio postcards or other forms of streaming audio for people to hear on your Web site, this reputable company offers well-designed products for you (mp3soundstream.com). If you use a Macintosh computer, see Quick-Voice (quick-voice.com), also on this list.

National Speakers Association
The main professional association for professional (paid) speakers in the United States (nsa.org). Also see Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (canadianspeakers.org), National Speakers Association of New Zealand (nationalspeakers.org.nz), and Professional Speakers Association of Europe (professional.speakers.org.uk).

National Storytelling Conference
Each summer in the United States, storytellers gather to hear workshops and, in special-interest groups, to celebrate the transformative power of hearing and telling stories. On this Web site, see guilds, a magazine, members' sites, and a calendar (storynet.org).

National Stuttering Project
Provides education, experts, and other support for people who stutter and for those who live or work with them (nsastutter.org).

Plain Language Campaign
This global campaign to reduce the use of annoying words, phrases, and clichés has an annual poll, asking people to rank the most overused phrases. Recent "winners" included 24/7, at the end of the day, absolutely, thinking outside the box, and awesome. (www.plainenglish.co.uk).

Quick-Voice
Want to create audio postcards and voice "stickies" or enable visitors to your Web site to hear your voice (or others')? For Macintosh users like me, Quick Voice software and equipment provides the opportunity to send digital pictures over the Internet complete with embedded voice messages, plus other ways to be heard online. Find out about their digital voice recorder, voice e-mail, voice stickies, and CD-quality stereo recorder (www.quick-voice.com). If you use a personal computer (PC), see MP3 Soundstream (mp3soundstream.com).

The Sight and Hearing Association
This well-run nonprofit organization "is the only organization in the country working toward the prevention of, rather than the adaptation to, vision and hearing loss." From warnings about blindness from illegal fireworks to children's hearing loss through legal toys, this organization has been on the vanguard of generating media coverage and advocating changes in the law (sightandhearing.org).

Simply Speaking: How to Communicate Your Ideas with Style, Substance, and Clarity
by Peggy Noonan (two audiotapes, based on her book of the same name.) As one of the two most famous American speechwriters, who has worked for Reagan and several other Republican presidents and celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Noonan pulls no punches when she offers advice. She gives seasoned, often biting insights into crafting and presenting an opinion-altering speech in a TV-centered culture. Readers of any political stripe can use her tips to make their presentations more powerful.

Living up to her reputation for creating emotion-inducing word pictures, Noonan keeps your interest in this book as she sprinkles her advice with examples from Democrats' and Republicans' speeches -- and the media's positive, negative, or negligible coverage of them. If you want your view of a situation (product or person) to be the one people -- even your critics and competitors -- most repeat and remember, listen to this book (Buy this book).

SpeakerNet News
To get timely advice by and for speakers, coaches, trainers and consultants, sign up for this free, weekly e-zine that is edited by Rebecca Morgan (rebeccamorgan.com) and Ken Braly (kenb.com) and offers teleclasses, led by Rebecca (speakernetnews.com).

T. Scott Gross
My favorite advisor on customer service, superb storyteller, Sporty's restaurant owner, and valued friend. Along with Melanie, his wife and his editor and all-around business partner, Scott has written many books, including MicroBranding and Positively Outrageous Service. His audiences always leave smiling (tscottgross.com).

Teleclasses
To conduct teleclasses, visit Free Conference, where they provide a free phone bridge through a business model that R2K president, Richard Yien (r2k.com) characterizes as "genius" (freeconference.com). Also visit these other reputable providers in this fast-changing industry: Teleclass.com (teleclass.com) and Teleseminars (greatteleseminars.com).

Toastmasters
For what's perhaps the most organized, convivial way to overcome your fear of public speaking or simply hone your abilities, Toastmasters has long been the first choice for many. I'm honored to have worked with a strong chapter within the San Quentin prison in my country and am a strong believer in Toastmasters' method of repeated, brief practice in the presence of people who share your interest and want you to succeed (toastmasters.org).

Transom
Citizen storytelling is flourishing on this popular Web site (transom.org) started by Jay Allison and Joshua Barlow with a grant from Bill Moyer's Schumann Foundation Center for Media and Democracy. Says Barlow, "Giving people the opportunity to document using the Internet, [thereby] democratizing the media and helping to return radio to a time where you could find surprises and not hear radio that is templated or that subscribes to specific guidelines." This popular site's features include a Tools section where would-be producers can learn basic sound recording and editing techniques, learn about creation of streaming MP3s, and obtain affordable gear and other needs.

Find the "Talk" board where users can exchange ideas, comment on audio pieces featured on the site, and obtain guidance from the user community on issues such as storyline development. The Guest section offers up interviews with established professionals such as Emmy Award-winning experimental documentarian Alan Berliner (alanberliner.com); public radio's host of "On the Media," Brooke Gladstone (wnyc.org/onthemedia/gladstone.html); and Ira Glass of public radio's sensational "This American Life" (thislife.org).

Voice and Speech Trainers Association
Members include professors; performers; voice, speech, text, and dialect coaches; speech/language pathologists; otolaryngologists; coaches in private practice; and acting, movement, and singing specialists who are seeking to integrate disciplines (vasta.org).