Bill
McGowan and Alisa Bowman’s book is a prescription for public speaking success.
It hits the mark though more so for those with some prior public speaking
experience. For novices, there are likely better places to start and ‘graduate’
to Pitch Perfect.
The
attempt to package McGowan’s ideas (it seems Alisa Bowman is a collaborating
writer helping with copy) using catchy, easier to remember principles, e.g. the
Pasta Sauce Principle, the Draper Principle, doesn’t work as well as McGowan
may like to believe. They make sense while reading the chapters but is one
really going to remember the Draper Principle based on the name of some
television character?
Nonetheless,
the book is a thoughtful ‘contemporization’ of presentation principles for the
Social Media age. Public speaking is not what it used to be before the age of
live streaming on social media and just because a speaker is learned and has
many acronyms (Phd, MPhil, etc.) attached to his name doesn’t make her speech a
must see. Indeed, academics and senior corporate types stuck in their world of
jargon and knowledge delivery may benefit most from such self-help books.
For
those wishing to perfect public speaking techniques Pitch Perfect will strike a chord though perhaps not too loudly.
Like any good self-help book, the author has shared his expertise in the field
but to benefit the reader must practice constantly by applying the principles
highlighted by the author. Not always an easy thing to do, even for those with
regular public speaking engagements.
__________________
Imran is a Singapore based Tour Guide with a special interest in
arts and history. Imran has lived and worked in several countries during his
past career as an international banker. He enjoys traveling, especially by
train, as a way to feed his curiosity about the world and nurture his interest
in photography. He
is available on twitter (@grandmoofti); Instagram (@imranahmedsg) and can be
contacted at imran.ahmed.sg@gmail.com.
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