Interview at Public Speaking For All

Blogging friend, Eric Feng of Public Speaking For All interviewed me recently about public speaking. You can check out the entire interview here.

One of the questions Eric asks me is what makes a great speaker. I responded by saying that speaking is simply a medium, being a great orator means being able to accomplish what you want through a speech. There aren’t any rules to public speaking, just what is most effective. If you get caught up in mastering a medium as a skill, you may lose sight of the message which is most important.

A lot of people confuse medium and message when it comes to their identity. These people define themselves as programmers, speakers or business owners. Although that is a simple way of describing it, these mediums are empty without the message they contain. What does your program, speech or business communicate?

Don’t be filler. Without a unique and valuable message your medium is just noise. A beautiful piece of software that doesn’t have a needed function. A speech that doesn’t inform, entertain or engage. A business nobody wants to buy from. A bad use of the medium can kill your message, but without a solid message, you’re just noise.

Check out the rest of the interview, here.