Month: December 2012

Four Tips on How to Bullet Proof a Child’s Presentation

Jonathan

Four tips from theatre and public speaker expert Carl Miller on how your child can bullet-proof a presentation of his talent:

  1. Prepare ahead of time a list of public speaking problems or list of potentially difficult questions and have ready scenarios or answers to fall back to
  2. Practice the presentation while watching for pre-arranged signs and cues from your practice audience that you are not doing well
  3. Practice first several times in front of immediate family members and close friends
  4. Practice maintaining composure under all public speaking circumstances by having your practice audience deliberately create realistic problems while making the presentation

How to Pitch Yourself to Next Level of Expertise

Jonathan
Use Physical Item to Help Walk Through Presentation
Use Physical Item to Help Walk Through Presentation

Is your child trying to pitch himself to the next level of expertise in a club or asking a group for an opportunity to exercise for them an aspect of his talent? I asked for advice from my friend Carl Miller, an expert on staging yourself in theater and an accomplished public speaker. Here are some tips I came away with:

  1. Have child create a portfolio of his accomplishments, whether of the physical items themselves, or of the photos of the work, or the paperwork.
  2. Give a presentation that sounds natural by simply talking and walking through the order of your portfolio.
  3. Pass around in the audience a physical item that represents your abilities and helps the audience follow the details you want to emphasize in your presentation.
  4. Finish the presentation with a direct appeal to what your child wants and with an attitude that, because of the portfolio of accomplishments, the request is a reasonable one to make of the audience.