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The Accidental Communicator

The Accidental Communicator

By Jim Anderson

Creating and delivering speeches that connect with an audience and cause change to happen is not luck, it’s a science. Nobody knows more about the science of public speaking than Dr. Jim Anderson.

“I don’t embrace speakers who give me excuses about why their speeches don’t work, I embrace solutions.”

Over the last 25 years, Dr. Anderson has transformed failing public speakers worldwide. Dr. Anderson will turn these ineffective talkers into powerful communicators.

Welcome to the premier podcast for quickly conquering your fears and improving your public speaking skills.
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What You Need To Do Before Your Next Presentation

The Accidental CommunicatorMar 09, 2021

00:00
08:03
What’s The Best Way To Connect With Your Audience Remotely?

What’s The Best Way To Connect With Your Audience Remotely?

More and more speakers are being asked to deliver their speeches remotely.  

On one hand this is a good thing – we are being asked to give more  speeches and we can share the importance of public speaking. On the  other hand, it can be challenging to transform our in-person speech into  a speech that works when presented on a computer screen. The good news  is that this can be done. You have the ability to give a speech that  will connect with your audience and you just may change their lives even  though you are not there with them. 

However, in order to make that  happen, you are going to have to change how you give your speeches.

Jul 26, 202208:38
How Speakers Can Deliver A Virtual Speech
Jul 19, 202207:44
Learn How To Write Better Speeches
Jul 12, 202202:57
How Can Speakers Use Twitter To Make Their Next Speech Even Better?
Jun 28, 202207:49
How Speakers Can Deal With An Audience That Is Distracted

How Speakers Can Deal With An Audience That Is Distracted

Let’s all agree on one thing: you’ve worked hard to prepare for the next  speech that you will be giving. 

When you take the stage, you are  assuming that your audience will be interested in what you have to say  and they will pay attention to you while you are speaking. However, in  this day and age, there is a very good chance that some of the members  of your audience may not be giving you all of their attention. Instead they may be using their mobile phones to text or tweet while you speak. 

What’s a speaker to do?

Jun 21, 202207:33
What Should A Speaker Do When Disaster Strikes?
Jun 14, 202209:58
How To Moderate A Panel
Jun 07, 202210:40
Speaking To Sell

Speaking To Sell

The ability to stand in front of an audience and use the importance of  public speaking is a powerful skill to have. 

It turns out that we can  take this skill one step further if we are willing to teach ourselves how to use our speaking abilities to sell a product.  The good news for speakers is that we are already doing most of the  work that is required when we create, practice and deliver a speech.  

However, when we want to use our speech to sell something, there are a few extra steps that we’ll need to take.

May 24, 202207:44
How Social Media Can Help Us To Become Better Speakers
May 17, 202207:23
What Can A Speaker Do To Be Remembered?

What Can A Speaker Do To Be Remembered?

Speakers want to be remembered.  

We’ve put a lot of effort in to creating, practicing, and then  delivering our speech. We want this effort to mean something because we  understand the importance of public speaking. We want to be remembered.  The challenge that we are facing is that we are talking to a diverse  audience. Everyone who is listening to us is different and they all  remember things differently. 

We need to understand how they remember and  then find ways to make them remember us.

May 10, 202206:42
How To Become A Persuasive Speaker
May 03, 202209:35
How Can A Speaker Persuade An Audience?

How Can A Speaker Persuade An Audience?

So why are you willing to go to the effort of giving a speech? 

If you  are like most of us, you have a goal in mind. What you want to do is to  use the, importance of public speaking to influence your audience to either change the way that they think or to take an action. If you  can do this, then you will have become a powerful speaker. 

We may all think that having the ability to influence an audience is hard to do;  however, it may turn out that doing this is easier than any of us may  know.

Apr 26, 202209:27
Sometimes It Takes A Debate To Convince An Audience
Apr 19, 202208:13
How Speakers Can Use Video To Become Better
Apr 05, 202207:10
How Can You Work Persuasion Into Your Next Speech?

How Can You Work Persuasion Into Your Next Speech?

So why do you give speeches? Is it just to hear yourself speak? 

Is it  because you understand the importance of public speaking? I suspect that  the answer to this question is “no”. We give speeches because we have  information that we want to share with an audience. Our goal for sharing  this information is to persuade and influence them in order to get them to take some sort of action that we want to have accomplished. In order to make that happen, your audience is going to have to understand your message, accept it, and then act upon it. What you need to do is to learn how to speak persuasively. 

It turns out that there are a number of things that you can do while you are speaking that will make this happen.

Mar 29, 202209:10
Dealing With A Hostile Audience
Mar 22, 202208:06
How To Speak About Controversial Topics

How To Speak About Controversial Topics

Would you like to have a big audience show up for your next speech? 

I  mean, would you like to have the room filled to overflowing? It turns  out that this is actually fairly easy to do: just agree to give a speech about a controversial topic,  you know what I’m talking about: sex, religion, or politics. The reason  that so many people are going to show up is because a lot of them are  going to disagree with what you have to say. 

Just exactly how is a  speaker supposed to go about giving a speech like this?

Mar 15, 202209:25
Using A Speech To Sell Something
Mar 08, 202207:05
Can Speakers Become Trainers?

Can Speakers Become Trainers?

Congratulation, you now have the ability to stand in front of an  audience and give a speech – you understand the importance of public  speaking. 

What comes next? Have you ever thought about branching out?  Perhaps you can use your speaking skills in a different way in order to  communicate with a group of people. One way to do this is to become a trainer.  If you think about it, being a trainer is very similar to giving a  speech. 

Just exactly what does it take to make the switch from being a  speaker to being a trainer?

Mar 01, 202209:38
How Speakers Should Handle Copyrighted Material
Feb 22, 202210:09
You Are A Powerful Speaker: Now Show It

You Are A Powerful Speaker: Now Show It

I’ve got some good news for you: you are a powerful speaker

This  means that you are brilliant. You have incredible ideas. Every question  that you ask is insightful. You have compelling ideas to contribute,  important businesses and organizations to build, and provocative  questions to share. However, there is the possibility that the way you  speak fails to command your power when you are sharing the importance of  public speaking. You may equivocate, apologize and look away as you  speak. What you are doing is subtly undermining yourself with your words  and body language. 

As a result, your ideas do not have the impact they  could.

Feb 15, 202210:09
How Should A Speaker Use A Lectern?

How Should A Speaker Use A Lectern?

When we stand in front of an audience to give a speech, not always, but many times we are actually standing behind a lectern

We all know what these look like; however, has anyone ever told you how to go about using one?  No, there are no buttons to press or levers to flip. 

However, it turns  out that a lectern can help you to give a more powerful speech – if you  know how to use it correctly.

Feb 08, 202208:17
Is There A Way To Not Forget Your Speech?

Is There A Way To Not Forget Your Speech?

I think that we can all agree that giving a speech can be a very  stressful thing to do. 

There are so many different things that are out  of our control and any one of these things can go wrong and end up  destroying our speech and preventing us from sharing the importance of  public speaking. One of a speaker’s greatest fears is that half way  through our speech we are just going to forget what we wanted to say.  Our mind will go blank and we just be staring at our audience. 

It turns out that if we don’t want this to happen, there are several things that  we can do in order to prevent it…

Feb 01, 202208:57
Your Speech Is All About How It Ends
Jan 25, 202207:31
The Secret To Connecting With Your Audience
Jan 11, 202208:47
Does Pronunciation Really Matter When Giving A Speech?

Does Pronunciation Really Matter When Giving A Speech?

When we give a speech, one of the most important things that we want to  accomplish is to find a way to connect with our audience. 

If we can make  this happen, then what we tell them just might sink in and perhaps we  can use the importance of public speaking to change their lives with our  speech. If we can connect with them, then we have a better chance of  having them listen to our message and accept what we are telling them.  

We’ve got a lot of different ways to make this connection happen;  however, one way that we don’t talk about very often is the simplest:  pronunciation.

Jan 04, 202206:56
How To Work Your Audience’s Senses Into Your Next Speech
Dec 14, 202109:05
What To Do When You Forget What To Say

What To Do When You Forget What To Say

Wow – how great would it be to have a perfect memory?  

You’d never forget anything and once you had learned something you  would be able to recall it anytime that you needed it. I can only speak  for myself, but I certainly don’t have a perfect memory. In fact, I  forget a lot of things all of the time. The one time that I really don’t  want to forget something is when I am in the middle of giving a speech.  However, even that happens sometimes. 

So what are we to do as speakers  when we are giving a speech and all of sudden our mind goes blank?

Dec 07, 202106:37
10 Ways To Make You Next Speech Even Better

10 Ways To Make You Next Speech Even Better

As speakers the one thing that I think that we can all agree on is that  we want our next speech to be the best one that we have ever given. 

The  challenge that we are all facing is that we really don’t know how to go  about making that happen so that we can show our audience the importance  of public speaking. Well, it turns out that there is probably no one  “silver bullet” that you can change or add to your next speech that will  make it your best. 

Instead, there are a number of different, little,  things that you can do that will help to move your next speech closer to  being the best speech that you have ever given.

Nov 30, 202107:53
Speakers Deal With The Art Of Noise

Speakers Deal With The Art Of Noise

So let’s spend a few minutes talking about noise.  

Yes, yes I realize that when you are giving a speech you are generating  noise and you are in control of that. You can speak louder or you can  speaker softer, but you are always in charge. What I want to talk to you  about today is all of the other noise that may be present when we are giving a speech.  

We all understand that our speaking environment is never silent;  however, it’s the amount of noise and what we can do to control it that  speakers need to understand.

Nov 16, 202108:05
Using Words To Paint Verbal Pictures

Using Words To Paint Verbal Pictures

Pity the poor speaker. 

All that he or she has to work with during their  speech is words. It is their challenge to find a way to draw their  audience into their speech and make them experience what they have  experienced only using words. In order to make this happen, we need to  find a way to paint a “verbal picture” with the words that we use. We  want our words to create a mental image in the mind of each member of  our audience. 

Just exactly how can we go about making this happen?

Nov 09, 202108:41
Lies That Speakers Tell To Themselves

Lies That Speakers Tell To Themselves

Honesty is soooo overrated. 

When we are asked to give a speech, we know  what we need to do in order to deliver a good speech. We need to make  sure that we know who will be in the audience, we have to sit down and  create a speech that will allow us use the importance of public speaking  to connect with our audience, and then we have to get up there and  deliver it in a way that will allow us to clearly communicate what we  are trying to say. How hard could all of that be to do? It turns out that it becomes a lot harder when we are telling ourselves things that just are not true.  

Our lies can have a negative impact on our speech and we really should stop saying things like this to ourselves.

Nov 02, 202109:10
What Were You Going To Say Next?
Oct 26, 202106:47
What To Do When Your Mind Goes Blank

What To Do When Your Mind Goes Blank

I’m pretty sure that we’ve all been there: we’re standing in front of an audience ready to use the importance of public speaking to give a  speech that we’ve practiced and then all of sudden, our mind goes blank.  

There’s nothing there. The speech that we’ve spent so much time  practicing has suddenly packed up and left. This has got to be the worst  feeling in the world. 

There has got to be a way to prevent this from  happening, or if not that, then dealing with it when it does happen.

Oct 19, 202107:53
What Happens When You Forget What You Wanted To Say?
Oct 12, 202108:11
How To Write Jokes For Your Next Speech
Sep 22, 202105:25
What Does A Joke Look Like In A Speech?
Sep 15, 202106:24
Using The Power Of Originality To Create A Powerful Speech
Aug 31, 202109:32
Know What To Say When The Spotlight Is On You

Know What To Say When The Spotlight Is On You

Who doesn’t like winning an award? We all do. 

When we receive an award,  it’s because we did something special or we have done something better  than anyone else has. These are great moments for us. When we get an award, we are often asked to stand up and say a few words. Oh, oh – this is where things can start to fall apart. If we don’t have  a plan for what we want to say, then we’re going to end up fumbling  over our words and we won’t do a good job of communicating. 

What is the best way to handle situations like this?

Aug 24, 202106:54
Create Better Speeches By Becoming A Better Speech Editor

Create Better Speeches By Becoming A Better Speech Editor

I can only speak for myself, but I can tell you that every word that I write when I’m putting together a speech is pure perfection. 

The words  just flow together and create a seamless whole. The very idea of going  back and editing one of my speeches after it has been written just seems  to be a travesty – who would want to mess with perfection? This is the  speech that I am going to use to show my audience the importance of  public speaking. Ok, so maybe my writing is not really all that good.  

However, the effort involved in editing one of my speeches is so great  that I often don’t want to do it. However, it turns out that if you want  to find a way to pack more of a punch into your next speech, you are going to need to be willing to do some serious editing of what you’ve written.

Aug 17, 202109:09
How To Support A Speaker

How To Support A Speaker

As speakers, we tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the importance of public speaking and how we speak. 

We try to find ways to  connect with our audience and we try to be aware of anything that we are  doing that might take away from our speech. However, it turns out that  we also have another job that we need to be doing. We have to help out our friends and colleagues who are giving speeches.  Since this is something that we have spent time trying to become better  at, we are the ones who are best positioned to be able to help them to  become better also. 

What we need to learn to do is to help them during  the three stages of their speaking.

Aug 10, 202106:50
Make Your Next Speech Better With A Single Sentence

Make Your Next Speech Better With A Single Sentence

As speakers, we all know that creating a great speech is hard work. 

All  too often we can sit down to start to create a speech and have no clear  idea where we are trying to go or just exactly what points we want to be  making while we deliver our speech despite our understanding of the  importance of public speaking. As we put our speech together, things  just tend to go from bad to worse – our words start to fall over each  other and we end up with disjointed ideas and incomplete thoughts. We  all understand that our problem is not that we can’t write words down,  rather it’s that we can’t get our words to make sense.  The reason that we are running into this problem is because we are not  being clear in our objective. 

Instead, we find ourselves trying to say  too much and, as result, ending up saying nothing.

Aug 03, 202109:29
Invite Some Technology To Your Next Speech

Invite Some Technology To Your Next Speech

How lucky we all are. We get to live in these modern times with all of  the advantages that technology can bring to us. 

Yes, giving a speech is  still a difficult thing for any of us to do. However, it turns out that  if we’re willing to invite some technology to our next speech we can make the whole process a great deal easier and do a better job of sharing the importance of public speaking. I’m  sorry to have to tell you that you are the one who is still going to  have to stand up there in front of the audience and deliver a speech.  

However, there just might be ways to better prepare you to do that and  to provide you with some assistance while you are up there.

Jul 27, 202107:36
Using Modern Audience Interaction Tools In Your Next Speech

Using Modern Audience Interaction Tools In Your Next Speech

All to often when we are giving a speech, we do it in what is called the “classic style”. 

This means that we stand on a stage and we speak to  our audience and they listen to us because of the importance of public  speaking. This is a one-directional monologue.   However, times are changing. We are no longer limited to having to give  our speeches in this way. Our audiences want more interaction with us  during our speech. 

As speakers we need to understand what new tools are  available so that we can start to work them into our next speech.

Jul 20, 202107:53
All The World’s A Stage – Are You Using Yours?
Jul 13, 202108:07
Using The Power Of The Camera To Become A Better Speaker

Using The Power Of The Camera To Become A Better Speaker

As speakers, the one thing that all of us want to do is to become better. 

We may go about doing this in a number of different ways. We may  take courses. We may watch videos of other speakers. We may have our  friends listen to our speeches and then provide us with feedback.  However good all of this is, in the end we may still not be getting all  of the feedback that we need in order to become better speakers. What we  really need to be able to do is to look at ourselves. 

We need to see how we look and how we act while we are delivering our speech. In order  to do this, we need to see ourselves on camera.

Jun 22, 202106:54
Speakers Have To Understand The Speaking & Listening Link
Jun 15, 202108:35
Using Words To Connect With Your Audience

Using Words To Connect With Your Audience

As speakers we often get a chance to hear other speakers present.  

Sometimes we’ll be memorized when a speaker puts on a show that  captivates their audience. They are able to deliver a powerful speech  for a number of reasons. Perhaps they have mastered the art of using  body language. Maybe they used props that caught our attention. However,  all too often it can be easy to get dazzled by things that are on the  surface of a speech and end up overlooking how a great speech is really  built: using words. 

The good news for us is that if we want to create a  powerful speech, all we have to do is to pick the right words.

Jun 08, 202107:49
Using Rhetorical Devices To Make A Speech Better
May 25, 202107:52
What’s The Right Way To Practice Giving A Speech?
May 18, 202108:43