The tone of their speech, the way they sit, their facial expressions and of course their knowledge all play a huge role of being a great speaker.

There is a cool website called Meet The Boss TV that offers free video interviews with top business leaders and Fortune 500 CEOs that I would like to share with you guys.

Let me know what you think about the leadership training videos at http://www.meettheboss.tv and please share any resources you may have.

Cheers!

I like splitting semantic hairs, since words are the heart of what I do.

To learn something is, to my way of thinking, to gain insight, knowledge, or skill. Learning improves what we know or how we act. If I keep doing the same thing over and over again, whether it’s good or bad, I may get conditioned — as you say — but I don’t think I’ve learned anything. I taken a bad habit and reinforced it so it’s even harder to break.

Thanks for sharing how you learned to speak. You confirm my belief that we have to work at it. In my training classes and with my coaching clients, I always help them observe and analyze other speakers. It’s what helped me. It helped you. I think it’s a great practice.

Best, Chris

As far as learning how to speak, I did exactly what you said — I took hundreds of pages of notes over the course of a year or so. Every speaker I watched got observed from a “what works, what doesn’t?” standpoint. Eventually those things became ingrained in me. I then tested them in a lab setting (my classrooms — I’m a trainer) and followed up with some very specific and analytical evaluation using video and audio recordings. And I partnered along the way with like-minded folks who would tell me the truth and not just say “I loved your talk!”

I’ve got video to prove I got better. I took notes today and will video my next effort because I believe I can get better still.