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The Three Bs of Public Speaking
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When I was in high school, I took a course in public speaking. Now, understand that this has been more than a few years ago, and since that time, I have done a lot of public speaking. But what I learned in that high school class has stayed with me through the years. The teacher was a crusty old guy, but he was one of those people that you listened to. You know the kind I mean. He didn”t yell or scream, but he just simply had your attention when he spoke. I think it is that magic ‘it’ called stage presence, and that”s important; but it wasn”t the most important thing that he taught me.
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The first day of class, we walked into his classroom, and on the blackboard there were three ‘Bs’ — and that was all. It looked like this:
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B
B
B
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He began his first lecture by saying that those three ‘Bs’ represented everything that anybody ever needed to know to become a successful public speaker and one that would be in demand. Then he filled in the space behind each ‘B’ like this:
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B.egin
Bebrief
Beseated
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Begin: He taught us how important it was to get the audience”s attention with your opening sentence. He made us spend HOURS writing opening sentences. ‘Get them on your side first!’ he said again and again.
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Bebrief: Through out the duration of the course, he constantly insisted that we remove words from the speeches that we were required to write. He wouldn”t stand for using ten words when five would do. If you could make the points of your speech in five minutes, there was no point in talking for ten minutes. So you either made more points — gave more detailed and relevant information — or it was time toBeseated.
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That is a simple philosophy, but it is one that has served me well through the years.

Filed under: General