The Power Presenter: Technique, Style, and Strategy from America's Top Speaking Coach

This book is a good read, and it accomplishes it's main goal: to educate the reader on how to become a better, less fearful speaker. The author has a theory: that the WORDS of a speech are not as important as the speaker himself. In Weissman's opinion, a speaker's charisma counts for a great deal more than even the message he/she is trying to convey. I agree with the author to some extent, and he paints a very good argument for his belief.

This book would be useful to anyone who is trying to cultivate a speaking job-- as an author, I find that marketing is becoming more and more my responsibility, and part of that includes speaking in person, at book fairs, in seminars, etc.

The only drawback I saw in this book was the repeated back-patting and self-promotion. Authors must learn how to self-promote in order to be successful, but there's a fine line where this becomes excessive.

But if you can get past the political jargon and the self-serving aspects, it's a very useful book.

I don't know if Jerry Weissman is America's top speaking coach
(as proclaimed on the cover of his book, THE POWER PRESENTER),
but I can tell you that the guy knows his stuff . . . his tips
make a great deal of sense, and apparently they work--as evidenced
by the fact that he has worked with dozens of big-name business
leaders, including founding Yahoo! CEO Tim Koogle, Intuit
founder Scott Cook and Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings.

What I liked best about THE POWER PRESENTER was its
analysis of actual speeches by such notables as Martin
Luther King, Jr., John F. Kenney and Ronald Reagan . . . but
not only do you get to read what Weissman has to say, he
then proceeds to the show actual clips (via a website that only
purchasers of the book can get).

Even if you're an accomplished public speaker, there's much
in this book that you'll enjoy hearing Weissman's take on . . . for
example, in speaking to a group, he advises:

* Whenever you step up to the front of a room to present or
speak, regardless of the size of the audience-4, 40, 400, or
4,000-pick one person. It doesn't matter who: the person
who greeted you at the door, someone you know, someone
you don't know, a friendly face or an unfriendly face. Pick
only one person.

And then to establish eye contact:

* Every time you pick a person with whom to have a conversation,
look at that person at least until you feel him or her look back at you.
Feel the connection. Feel a click. Look that person straight in the eye.
Establish sincerity.

I also liked the special chapter, "What Every Speaker Can Learn
from Barack Obama" . . . this one point really struck home:

* Obama now tries to make a more personal connection with
voters. In the past, he has been accused of making his campaign
more about himself than about those who come to his rallies.
Now the word "you" is mentioned as much as the word "I."
"You're not heard. They're not listening to what you need,"
he told a crowd assembled at a rodeo site in Fort Madison on a
recent evening. "You deserve a president who is thinking about you."

That said, even if you're not aspiring to become President of the United
States, there's much you'll benefit from by reading THE POWER
PRESENTER . . . it would also make an ideal gift for anybody
needing to improve his or her presentation skills.

If you search in Amazon for books on presentation skills, you'll find that there are 10,415 books from which to choose. There is no shortage of information on the topic. What is typical among them are formulaic approaches, many of which espouse the same old adages on body language, connection with your audience and reliance on the visual. While The Power Presenter addresses that which is tride and true, it also goes many steps further. Weissman dives deep into speech, showing WHY his recommendations work. He analyzes popular speeches (supported by video clips on his website) to demonstrate where and how good technique is being used. It becomes evident that becoming truly masterful at public speaking is as hard as any discipline -- there is a lot! to practice and perfect. The very tangible case studies and analyses makes it easy to quickly recognize what you are doing right (or wrong) in your own delivery. Furthermore, he addresses the end goal of speaking, i.e., making a profound impact. For instance, he tracked the speeches of Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama in their contest for the Democratic nomination. When Obama shifted his speeches to use the word "you" more than the word "I", his popularity outpaced that of Clinton's. She, by the way, used the word "I" 35 times and the word "you" only 17 times in her concession speech. Conversely, Obama used the word "I" only 10 times and the you "26" times in his victory speech.
The end result is that there is a lot of material in this book that appeals to intellect and supports the recommendations. If you had to choose just one book on presentation skills, this should be it.

What good is advice if you can't understand it or don't have the capacity to follow through?

Jerry Weissman gives advice on speaking that everyone can use. The advice is rudimentary in some cases, but in my experience most speakers would benefit from some common sense techniques.

Speaking is like driving. Everyone thinks they're pretty good at it, but there are a lot of dented cars on the freeway.

Weissman not only instructs the reader how to be a better speaker, he provides links to videos of famous speeches to that illustrate what works and what doesn't.

For example, everyone knows that the first few minutes of a speech are critical. The author dwells on this and then adds an anecdote about how the San Francisco 49ers (and probably other football teams) script the first ten plays of a game to get off to a strong start.

Speakers would do well to script the first ten sentences of a speech. This improves flow, helps the speaker acclimate to the audience and vice versa. This advice is common sense, but almost no speakers do it.

As a veteran speaker with over 2,000 keynote speeches and other presentations under his belt, I assure you that the basics never go out of style.

"The Power Presenter" is an excellent sequel to Jerry Weissman's best selling "The Power Presenter." Weissman is the top "presentation coach" in Silicon Valley (and now recognized as such across America) and has worked with the top executive teams of both development stage and more mature growth companies. He specializes in helping a company develop and tell its story as it embarks on raising capital from private and public markets...and he is excellent.

Weissman's first book, "Presenting to Win," covers the creation and the telling of the company's "story." It also includes excellent suggestions on how to integrate the story with an effective presentation - including an excellent DVD with effective presentation tips.

"The Power Presenter" builds on the first book but focuses more on the presenter: speaking style, body language, creating audience empathy, butterflies, mental and verbal preparation, and content. Weissman includes chapters on the "Masters of the Game," (Lincoln, Churchill, Kennedy, Billy Graham, Reagan, McCain) and "What Every Speaker Can Learn from Barack Obama" - both providing excellent examples of principles he espouses.

New to this book are the many references to web sites illustrating key points with examples. Interested readers can go to www.powerlid.com/tpp to view an example.

Anyone interested in learning how to speak and/or present better would be well served by getting not just "The Power Presenter," but also, "Presenting to Win." These are probably the best one-two punch on the market. But as Weissman points out over and over again, the books are a starting point as serious practice is ultimately the most important contributor to success.

Watching football is one thing, playing it is a completely different experience. The same is true of effective public speaking.

(Weissman's blog on Amazon.com is also an excellent resource)