If you do any public speaking, or ever want to do some, you must read Dave Pollard’s excellent blog post about public speaking, blogging and comunicating called “As Long As You Believe It.”
There is a ton of indispensable practical advice in this post. You’ll also find a great summary of lessons long-time speakers will have observed and learned over the years. It’s essential reading.
The money quote gives you three key lessons:

1. Know your stuff,
2. Focus on what’s really important, really novel or really interesting, and
3. Only speak on subjects you care about to audiences you care about.

I agree with Pollard that point #3 is the big one. He says, “As important as knowledge and focus are, passion is even more important. I’ve seen nervous, tongue-tied speakers muddle through presentations extraordinarily well simply because they obviously felt very strongly and deeply about what they were saying — so the audience made allowances. When people sense that you really care about and believe in something passionately, and want to convey that passion to them, they will go out of their way to pay attention.”
He concludes with some words that you will want to keep in mind: “In writing, as much as in oral discourse, what you know and what you can tell are interesting and useful, but what you really believe in, what you instill with every ounce of passion in your heart and soul, is what people remember, what changes them. And what can save the world.” The name of his blog, of course, is “How to Save the World,” and I thoroughly recommend that you spend some time there.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
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