| Show i the furniture’s a stage and other speaking tips Ail Forget practicing in front of mirrors! Instead look a chair straight in the eye Lyndon Johnson once said that Gerald Ford was the only man he’d ever met who couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time That was a bum rap really because Mr Ford was actually one of the most athletic presidents we’ve ever had True he used to fall down a lot but there’s no evidence that chewing gum caused it Inability to walk and chew gum is fairly rare Far simultaneously more common is the inability to think and stand up in front of a lot of people Otherwise sensible articulate men and women have often complained that something terrible seems to happen to them when called upon to speak in public Their hands shake their voices tremble their tongues thicken Worst of all their minds go blank This is not just inconvenient it’s dangerous To get up there in front of everybody and talk without having your brain in gear is asking for trouble At the very time you want to be at your most charming you turn into some sort of idiot intelligent and persuasive This is one of the reasons why for so many of us public speaking ranks right up there with a root canal as our least favorite activity Yet if you want to get ahead in the world if you want to be a leader you’ve got to get up there and do it What I’m talking about is stage fright Microphone fright and camera fright are variations on the same theme I know all about this stuff firsthand The first time I anchored a television newscast Mike Wallace told me I looked as if I was about to be executed That’s about the way I felt too One of the friends who helped me get over it was Lilyan W'ilder the speech coach who has trained more broadcasters politicians and business executives than anybody Lilyan has turned some pretty hopeless cases into effective speakers The “trick” if you can call it that is to turn public speaking into private speaking and to express yourself to hundreds in the same personal way you would address an audience of one In her new book Professionally Speaking (Simon and Schuster $1695) Lilyan describes how to do that giving some practical suggestions on how to prepare and how to deliver Some coaches will tell you to rehearse in front of a mirror Lilyan says not to do that You won’t be watching yourself when you give the speech she points out But she says “If you are going to be speaking to a large group do create an imaginary audience for yourself Turn a lamp a TV set or a chair into your listeners It is one thing to do this if you live alone But if other members of the family used to give you funny looks when they caught you talking to yourself in the mirror imagine how odd they will think it is when you start lecturing the furniture Never mind You’re the one who has to give the speech I used to practice by talking to the dog but the dog would get up and walk out The beauty of a chair or a lamp is that it will never walk out no matter how boring your speech is Cal! the hot line and let’s talk turkey Turkey time is three weeks away so here are some turkey facts to whet your appetite: Of the 900 million pounds of turkey eaten each year in the USA most is consumed on Thanksgiving For 85 percent of us it will be the main course Forty-sipercent of turkey eaters will be cooking the bird and this can lead to “turkey trauma” say the peoFor ple who staff the Butterball Turkey moral support call (800) Butterball is expecting 100000 calls USDA’s Meat and Poulcan also help try Hot Line (800) Source: This Inc How we spend our free time The kids are settled and back in school and you still have about a week before you have to start thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping So what are you doing with all that leisure time? Compare your leisure activities with what others do when they aren’t watching TV: 453 434 People who earn more than $30000 eat more nuts than those making less And if you live in the West you prefer nuts more than people living in any other part of the USA Source: 434 is absolutely nutty Research Alert Mediamark Research Percentage of people who participate VF Inc r Good news at the dinner table Feel an urge to eat something nutritious? Maybe it’s because this is Good Nutrition Month The Food Marketing Institute started tracking our nutritional savvy in 1985 and here’s how it’s changed in only one year: 1985 ° 0 1986 rf6 Source: & Sunset Western Marketing Almanac Graphics by Elys McLearvlbrahim worth more than hoops Diamonds Basketball stars are working hard for their as the NBA season goes into its second week Their average salary is $340000 — only baseball players hit greater heights at an average of $371000 In contrast pro football players carry home an average of $191000 Source: Life’s Sports Illustrated The Wall Street Journal more convenient in the South The next time you swing by a convenience store to pick up milk and bread consider this: About 36 million people visit the nation’s 58000 stores each are the most frequent cusday Men ages tomers And they’re more likely to find convenience stores in the South and Southwest Oklahoma is saturated: There’s one store for every 985 people New York has one for every 6389 people Source: American Demographics — 1S2HEE3 COME Rules 00 LADY TRE are veryclEar Regina Dennis |
