Westside Toastmasters is located in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, California

6 Interview the Best Presenters You Can Find

Another proven method to continue the lifelong learning process of developing and delivering top-notch presentations is to interview the best presenters you know personally or those you do not know but would agree to be interviewed. You can select people who are well-known presenters, such as professional speakers, business leaders, entrepreneurs, politicians, community leaders, ministers, or advocates, and simply ask if you can set up a 10- to 15-minute appointment to gain information and insights. You can use both your time and theirs more effectively if you do some pre-interview homework. Find out as much as you can about a specific presenter's style and/or most accomplished presentation by preparing high-yield questions regarding strategies, methods, and techniques that they found effective. Highyield questions invite the person you are interviewing to share information at the most meaningful level possible. Examples of highyield questions are: "What did you learn as you developed and delivered effective presentations that you would have liked to have known before you entered into your profession?" and, "What lessons about developing and delivering effective presentations would you want to pass on to someone who was entering your line of work?"

Alternatively, you can list three aspects of developing and delivering effective presentations about which you want to learn more. We used both approaches in interviewing the Master_Presenters who contributed their stories and expertise to this resource. We also learned and benefited greatly from their experience, and this increased the breadth and depth of our knowledge to a degree previously unimagined.

EXERCISE 8-2

---

Being very specific, list three aspects of developing and delivering effective presentations about which you want to learn more. Examples of topics are learning how to be more dynamic, more forceful, more creative, or some other aspect you want to develop. List up to three topics. Under each topic, list the names of three people who you could interview to learn more. Complete one set of interviews, learn all you can, document and record all that you have learned, and then apply some of those lessons before going on to the next topic.

---