Page 88 - How To Sell Yourself

Selling Yourself As a Speaker 87 • Notes.
“How long do I have to continue to talk to these people?”
• Nothing.
The manuscript is the most dif- ficult to deliver well. If you can learn the rhythm of eye contact for a manuscript speech, you’ll im- prove the delivery of speeches pre- pared with any other method. So we’ll concentrate on learning how to maintain eye contact while de- livering the toughest speech of all.
The first rule is: Your mouth shouldn’t be moving while your eyes are looking at any- thing but your audience.
Talking to slides or a PowerPoint presentation should be a felony.
The second rule fol- lows logically: Write short sentences. The longest sentence should cover no more than two lines of type.
Use a large font. The type should be big. Use periods. Substitute peri- ods for other punctuation.
I’m not saying you must write only simple
sentences. I’m saying you should simplify your sentences. Here are some other useful tips for preparing your text.
• Leave an extra-wide left-hand margin.
• Double space your lines and triple or quadruple space your
paragraphs. In fact, make every sentence a new paragraph
and indent.
• Don’t carry a sentence over to the next page. In other
words, every page should end with a period.
• Leave a high bottom margin.
• Cut off the text about two-thirds of the way down the page.