Media Training Worldwide’s TJ Walker Gives Insights On Public speaking & Media Training

TJ’s Insights

April 26, 2005

New Books, TJ Walker’s “Media Training A-Z”
http://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com/mediatrainingaz.html
“Presentation Training A-Z” http://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com/presentaz.html

Form Handouts for Presentations

In general, I am against giving audience members handouts during or before a presentation. Why? Because I want the audience listening carefully to me the speaker, not ignoring me while reading ahead. Your audience can read a lot faster than you can talk.

However, there is a system that many speakers, including world-renowned gurus like Anthony Robbins use. These speakers give people booklets that have lots of blanks, sentence fragments, and spaces for writing. They are workbooks, not simply data filled handouts.

The difference is that with a workbook an audience member is not tempted to read ahead because it doesn’t make sense. There are too many holes, blanks and other items missing. The speaker remains in control of the audience, even though there is the distraction of the workbook in front.

If you are going to use a workbook, however, several factors must be present.

1. Your audience must be highly motivated to write stuff down, because writing is work. So if you just paid $795 of your own money to attend an Anthony Robbins conference, you are most likely highly motivated (at least for that weekend!). However, if you are listening to a sales pitch from a prospective vendor, you are unlikely to be motivated enough to write things down, just because the presenting vendor asks you to do so.
2. The speaker must be perceived as either a guru who has special knowledge or be in a position of authority over the audience. If you are the president of your own company and you ask new employees to write things down in their orientation manual, they are likely to do so.
3. Your audience must have pens and they have to have enough light to write!

So keep the “workbook handout” as an option, but make sure you meet the above criteria; otherwise your audience will toss it away and find it annoying that you asked them to become engaged at that level.

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Author of Media Training A-Z
& Presentation Training A-Z

TJ Walker
Media Training Worldwide
212-764-4955

Media Training Worldwide provides more media and presentation training workshops and seminars (54 separate courses) than any other company in the world. Media Training Worldwide also publishes more than 100 presentation training books, DVDs, CDs, and other information products and is the largest presentation/media training publisher in the world. For a product catalog or more information on training services call 800-755-7220 or visit http://mediatrainingworldwide.com/mediatrainingcatalogapril2004.pdf.

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