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This is the area where teachers and customers can find interesting and stimulating articles regarding English Language in Business. There will be cultural and general articles posted regularly which you can follow the links to.
Some of these links will be used by your consultants in helping with your Business Training.

Featured Article

"If they're laughing, they're learning"
By Johnny "Hollywood" Rotnem

I guess I need to start somewhere, so I thought I'd start out by referring to something that actually got me started with Stand-up Comedy; "Public Speaking"

"Getting people to laughs helps them learn faster.
The relaxed mood that follows a good round of laughs helps people absorb the information better."

Using humor when teaching also helps bridge cultural gaps, because people love to laugh in every culture.

Now, many of you who know me today don't realize that I used to travel throughout the States and Europe, training various Network Marketing organizations. A very enjoyable but none the less challenging task.

While as a speaker at business conventions of this kind, you usually already have the audience on your side, for they are noted for being hungry for the information you are going to provide to help them get rich, but they still want and need great content and a bit of a performance.

That's when I started studying Comedy, because I discovered something very important and this is now my speaking mantra:

"If They're Laughing, They're Learning"

I found time and time again that the presentations where I made the people laugh most were the ones that were remembered longest.

Around 14 years ago I did a speech which I titled :"Let Go of Your Peanut"8 (more on that in a later post) and people still approach me that heard that seminar back then and praise me saying they can still remember what I said because I left them laughing so hard that they were in tears. 14 years later!

That is the type of impact you want to leave. Encase your message with humor and people will remember it longer.

Now mind you, using humor isn't always possible.

War talks, funerals and divorce proceedings are places where using humor could backfire on you. But then again you could go out with a laugh. Talk about "killing".

Traveling internationally and speaking to audiences in foreign countries creates an additional challenge. Many don't understand English and on top of that their sense of humor is different.

I tried on several occasions to be funny in my presentations but found that people in places like Istanbul, Budapest or Brussels just might not get it. I'll cover performing internationally in another post.

Well that's it for today. While I was studying comedy and public speaking, one of the resources I found helpful was a book from Paul Evans called "Instant Speaking Success".

In his book he covers:

How to speak with confidence and clarity
How to find the message only YOU can share
Giving the audience exactly what they want
The secrets to passion and why it is key
Using humor to draw the audience to you and build instant rapport

So I can definitely say that I was able to glean a lot of helpful lessons from this book. You can check it out here: Instant Speaking Success

About Author:
Johnny "Hollywood" Rotnem has been involved with public speaking and coaching for over 20 years. His insights gained from being an interpretor to some of the World's Top Speakers has inspired him create the "Comedians Anonymous" comedy coaching course to help people find their Inner Funny Bone. www.ComediansAnonymous.com