My New Public Speaking Book Will Help You...Guaranteed!

I am really excited to announce that my new book Public Speaking in the Semiosphere: Creating a Meaningful Experience for Your Audience is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. It will be officially released on April 30th, 2015. Written with my colleague Howard Miller, the book promises to help make you a speaker distinguished by your authenticity and ability to present meaningful messages.

At the root of our approach is a semiotic sensibility. My graduate work in Communicology  focused on semiotics (the study of signs and how people give meaning to the world around them). As a result I have always had a slightly different approach to public speaking than most. Rather than teach people to conform to arbitrary conventions, I encourage them to create "signs" that the audience will interpret positively. This perspective results in a presentation that resonates with the audience.

Have you ever seen  speakers that breaks all the "rules" and yet are tremendously successful and/or popular? That's because they made choices to create something unique to them and their style. They chose to create a meaningful experience for both themselves and the audience. We will teach you to do the same.

Audience members perceive your speech through the lens of their own lived-world. One of the keys to creating meaningful experiences is to tap into their lived-world as you select material. In the book, right in Chapter One, I lay out multiple techniques for creating a meaningful experience.

This really is a unique and valuable resource for speakers from all walks of life. Whether you are a teacher, student, preacher,politician, lawyer, or business person you will want to read this book. Short easy-to-read chapters range from overcoming anxiety about speaking, to how to use visual aids in a manner people will love (avoiding the dreaded "Death by PowerPoint"). It also features chapters devoted to informative speaking, persuasive speaking, and speaking on special occasions.

We aim to train you you to speak extemporaneously, not read scripts or PowerPoint slides. Extemporaneous speech is natural and conversational, with the vocal variety essential to engage listeners. We take you through the entire speech preparation and delivery process.

If you do any kind of public speaking, even a one-time wedding toast, do yourself a favor and check out this book. I promise you it will result in a great experience for both you and your audience!

Name Change

If you have visited my blog before you probably noticed the new name, Speaking in the Semiosphere.

During some research it came to my attention that there was a blog out there called "Professionally Speaking", and another called "Professionally Speaking..." and since they were in existence before mine I thought it only right that I should change my blog name.

Speaking in the Semiosphere was the obvious choice for a couple of reasons. First, my consulting company is called Semiosphere Consulting and so it was a natural fit. Perhaps more importantly it does give some idea of my theoretical foundation as a communications professor and practitioner.

"Semiosphere" was a term coined by Russian scholar of cultural semiotics Yori Lotman. It is essentially the world of signs in which we dwell. Each person is both consumer and producer of signs. A sign is anything which stands for something else and each moment of our lives we are both taking in and sending out signs. And each time two people encounter each other it is a collision of embodied sign systems, from which two distinct meanings emerge.

It's all quite complicated of course, and I'll spare you the advanced Semiotic theory. However, when I analyze a speech, speaker, or any instance of communication, this is where I am coming from. It is what makes Semiosphere Consulting unique. And it's the insight provided by this unique analytic perspective that people are willing to pay me for. The academic term is semiotic phenomenology or simply Communicology. It is better understood though as simply how people make sense and give meaning to their surroundings (including the messages being sent by others). Mostly I apply this to public speaking but it can be applied to any act(s) of communication.

If you would like to read more about it, one of my mentors Dr. Richard Lanigan maintains a site for the International Communicology Institute and lays the philosophical groundwork in this brief essay.

The content of the blog will not change dramatically, as I will continue to record my thoughts about public speaking and communication as always.

Be well, speak well, and as always, thank you for reading.

If you are interested in learning more about Dan Leyes consulting work visit Semiosphere Consulting.