When I began my career in broadcasting, I was a one man band. I was the news director of a small Christian radio station in Rockford, Illinois.

I would get up at 3 a.m., head to the police station to scan the police reports from the previous 24 hours, then get to the station to begin scanning the wire services, writing my stories and editing my sound bites for the news that morning.

After delivering the morning drive newscasts, I would usually head into town to attend a morning press event or cover a trial before heading back to the station for the big noon newscast.

After a nap in the afternoon, I would attend the city council, school board or county board meetings in the evenings. Then start it all over the next day.

As a speaker or communicator (writer, blogger, leader), you're on a mission. You're there for a reason. It's not idle chatter.

A speaker has a message

The first point is to remember you have a message to share, a message to deliver. Others need to hear from you. You have insights and an interesting perspective.

Are you practicing your magic skills?

If you're a speaker, you're a magician. You bring a magical, mystical approach to ideas. You create connections between ideas that seem to appear out of nowhere.

You use a slight of hand to make the audience think one thing and then introduce another.

You invite them to pick a card, any card. You shuffle your ideas before them. You spin a narrative explaining how what they believe may not hold water.

Speaking is all about capturing the video player we all have in our minds and filling it with new videos that the audience hasn't seen before.

As we speak we are producing new videos. These are stories that create new challenges and inspiration. Stories that move us to a new level of understanding.

These stories begin to play out on the video player of each audience member watching your speech.

They are funny. They are heartwarming. They are sad.

​And they are ultimately moving the audience to a new place.

​wesbleed.com

If you're looking for a model for your next speech or presentation, look no further than the remarks from Eddie Johnson, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuels' choice as the city's new interim police superintendent.

Johnson knocked it out of the park earlier this week when he accepted Emanuel's surprise appointment (Johnson hadn't even applied for the job).

"I want to focus my brief remarks on one word," Johnson said.

Great start: clear and compelling. Immediately one is prompted to wonder, what's the word?

"It is at the heart of good policing, safe communities," Johnson continued.

More about the word. More intrigue.

"And it's the simple challenge facing Chicago today," Johnson added.

Wow. It's one word. It's at the heart of good policing and safe communities, and it's a simple challenge.
​
All that, and we can't wait for him to let us in on his secret. He knows. We don't.

Continue reading on LinkedIn.

Whenever you speak in front of an audience, small group or in a business setting, the audience members are asking themselves questions. They might not even know it, but here are five of the questions they'd like to get answered.

1. Are you for real? That is, are you really as qualified and experienced as you're described in the program or in the introduction? So, part of your presentation will need to address those concerns with references to your accomplishments and credentials, but without sounding like you're bragging.

2. Is what you're saying making sense? People are listening and likely open to what you're saying, but are trying to compare and contrast it with what they already know. Help them out by being abundantly clear.

What do people tell other people about you? That's your brand.

If they say you are a good for nothing so and so, that's your brand.

Nice guy? That's your brand. Interesting and engaging? Your brand.

Cheap?

Leap Year is a great time to take stock of what we've accomplished compared to where we'd hoped we'd be in our life. We might need to leap to the next level.

Leaping forward can be one step that you've avoided making until now.

One step, yet it might as well be a giant leap.

Once you've taken that step, the next one is easier, and the next one after that.

wesbleed.com | @wesbleed

Exercise and nutrition boost energy levels and keep you sharp

Speaking in front of an audience can be exhausting. You're trying to project, maintain high energy, look and sound convincing, recall your talk and move about the platform.

That should start your pulse racing just a bit. It stands to reason, then, that speakers should be in good shape. Fitness is important.

CARDIO
Running, walking, playing basketball or tennis can improve your cardiovascular conditioning, which helps you breathe more effectively and project your voice. Every speaker should have a regular regimen that includes cardio, especially when you have to speak for extended periods of time.

It's easy to forget that communication cannot really happen unless there is a connection between individuals or groups, including various forms of media.

Why do we think that if we shout, jump up and down, repeat ourselves and generally talk too much that we've done a great job of communicating? We'll never know for sure unless we have a connection.