15 August Book Review: Confessions of a Public Speaker August 15, 2010By Will Strohl | 2 MIN READ I have been doing technical presentations and training for several years now. Like any level-headed person though, I know that I don’t know everything, and that I can always use more training myself, and do plenty of other things to make myself better at what I do. So, I came across and read a few books about presenting. This is the first of three book reviews. One of the first books that popped into my head when I though to do this was Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun. I have heard of this book before from a friend who once ran a public speaking workshop that I attended. So I picked it up first from Amazon. I had no idea what to expect with this book, despite having a great review from a friend. So, upon reading, the author did a great job of telling me what to expect – and he didn’t disappoint. This book is for everyone. You may not be a professional speaker, but you likely stand in front of your peers from time to time, presenting information to them. This book is for all of you. Scott Berkun turned out to be an author of several other books, and a professional speaker. He has spoken all over the world, to all kinds of audiences, include some who spoke an entirely different language. By the time you get to the end of the book, you will definitely know that he’s experienced a little bit of everything during his speaking career. He validates many of the points he makes by telling us about those experiences. I loved Berkun’s method of story telling, which is one of the points that he tells us over and over in the book. A speaker needs to learn how to engage audience members, and the best way to do that is to return to our primal roots of story telling. Humans have been telling stories since the beginning of time. Berkun obviously does his research too. He relates many of his points and experiences to scientific explanations, and cites reference material whenever he quotes anyone or anything. He even delves into many of his real life experiences of things that have gone wrong, and things that you can do to prevent things from going wrong. What’s more, Berkun also dispels many of the myths surrounding public speaking, such as thinking about the crowd being naked. He later brings things into perspective when he tells us how and why we experience physiological symptoms when confronted with speaking in front of an audience. Overall, I really enjoyed Berkun’s writing style. It was easy to read, and fast to get through. I think you will find your experience to be the same. Why not pick up a copy for yourself? I don’t care who you are… You WILL become a better speaker after reading this book. Confessions of a Public Speaker Technorati Tags: Review,Books,Public Speaking This article is cross-posted from my personal blog. August 15, 2010By Will Strohl Personal About the Author Will Strohl Founder & CEO Upendo Ventures Overall, Will has nearly 20 years of experience helping website owners become more successful in all areas, including mentoring, website development, marketing, strategy, e-commerce, and more. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. blog comments powered by Disqus Related Posts Book Review: Presentation Zen This book review will serve as numbers 2 and 3 in the three total that I promised you in my review of Confessions of a Public Speaker. The reason being is that the first book in this review is Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. He later wrote a follow-up to that book, Presentation Zen Design. The first book focuses strictly on presentation itself, so the design aspect is somewhat glossed over. The second book talks strictly about design to make up for it. 🚀 Launching Our New Ideation Service: Strategy You Can Book, When You Need It At Upendo Ventures, we’ve always believed in helping people move forward with confidence — whether that’s through launching a product, scaling a business, or solving tough technical challenges. Until now, most of that work has happened in long-term projects or behind the scenes. Today, we’re launching something different. Something simple. Squarespace Is Going Public — What It Means to Your Business We have helped hundreds of businesses get online or improve their online experiences, so it’s important for us to keep informed about the platforms and technologies that make that happen. There is a mega-trend in the market right now and Squarespace is adapting to those changes. All of this could impact your business website and we wanted to keep you in the loop. Quoted in Solutions Review: AI’s Impact on Small Business We’re proud to share that our CEO, Will Strohl, was just quoted in Solutions Review’s AI Appreciation Day 2025 feature. How We Helped Lumberyards Steal a Page from the Big Box Playbook Will Strohl of Upendo Ventures was recently featured in HBS Dealer, contributing marketing insights for independent lumberyards. The real win? It's proof that Ideation can uncover standout ideas that resonate with any business size—or industry. User Testing Made Easy with 3 Important Tips I thought that I knew what usability was. I mean, it’s simple, right? You just make sure people can use your product. Wrong – kind of… Even though you can simplify it like that, there is so much more to consider when usability is being addressed. How do I know that? Well, one of my favorite books these days is not a technical book, per se, but rather a non-technical book that focuses on design in technology. It is called Don’t Make Me Think, written by Steve Krug.