The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking

I wasn't planning on giving a speech when I read this book -I just thought it would give me some ideas in case I had to do so in the future. As with Dale Carnegie's other books, "The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking" presents individual points of advice fattened by entertaining anecdotes and examples from the lives of well-known people and from Carnegie's own experience. As Carnegie himself suggests, the actual advice could be summarized within the space of a few pages (There's a summary at the end of each chapter) but the stories and examples make the the information more digestible. This edition was actually edited and released posthumously by Dale Carnegie's wife. The title is a little misleading because the number one lesson of public speaking to take away from the book is the importance of practice and preparation. There are no shortcuts. Although some of the examples are a little dated, this is still a worthwhile book to read especially if you enjoyed Carnegie's other books.

I actually didn't finish this book. It had some good pointers within it but I felt it was doing more story telling than teaching me how to calm down and deliver a speech without my breakfest or lunch wanting to errupt. Although it was somewhat interesting it wasn't doing what I needed it to and that was to teach me not to want to disappear before I got up in front of a group of people.

I loved this book. I am in the process of becoming a public speaker and wanted to be very affective with the people I speak to. This book helped me to make sure my workshop is designed in the correct order to teach from A to B rather than floundering around from one to another topic never smoothly progressing toward the ultimate goal. I am well on my way to become an excellent public speaker.

Dale Carnegie discusses several aspects of effective speaking:

1. Keep your goal before you, visualize success, and seize every opportunity to practice.

2. Prepare well and be confident.

3. Speak on a topic that you have expertise in and are passionate about.

4. Limit the scope of your talk, know 10X what you put on slides, and fill talk with illustrations and examples.

5. Talk to your listeners' interests, give honest and sincere appreciation, empathize with audience, make them a partner in your talk, be modest.

6. For short talks, give an example / incident from your life (70%), state your point and action desired from audience, and the benefit that the audience may expect.

7. For informational talks compare strange with familiar.

8. For impromptu talks, get into an example immediately, speak with animation / enthusiasm.

9. Converse with your audience, specific details help

Numerous examples reinforce the above notes. Useful and easy to apply.

Myth: Great speakers are born. Dale Carnegie's "The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking" may be a misnomer - it's not as easy as easy as the title may imply, but more importantly, he shows that it's nurture not nature that makes a great speaker. The book is filled with inspiring examples, tips and lessons. If you want to become a great speaker, this is a must read. You'll learn about the common pitfalls, the structure of the talk, the importance of introductions, conclusions, and much more. This book has stood the test of time and helped thousands of people, I'm glad to say that I'm one of them.