How to Have the Awesome Power of Public Speaking

From the preface

Eight minutes, then silence, then tears

At twenty six he was a bricklayer with limited education, fuzzy comprehension, and a desperate, compelling desire to communicate that he was prepared to trade his life for. Asked to speak for twenty five minutes at a Sunday School anniversary, he collapsed after eight, haltingly, in a state of fear, then folded, speechless and full of despair. When he got home, he wept.

So he enrolled in a public speaking class, listened to the instructor, and walked out, never to return, because the teacher's own speaking was mediocre, and he refused to be locked into a style that would never become awesome. Instead he went home to a single sentence from Abraham Lincoln.

“I will study and prepare, and my opportunity will come.” Abraham Lincoln, the sentence Daniels built five years of daily practice on

For the next five years, almost every day, he polished his diction alone with a tape recorder, correcting every flaw he could hear. When at last he preached at his own church, the response was so strong the pastor accused him of copying it from someone else, and never invited him back. The world's platforms did. This book is the fifty year pilgrimage, handed to you as twelve disciplines.

Chapter one begins where you stand

Alone in the spotlight, holding a power most people never understand

Daniels opens with the truth every speaker feels and few can name: it is lonely on that stage, ten or ten thousand faces glued to your every sound, with nothing to protect you except your finely tuned ability to create the mood and win the day.

And then the other side of it: the audience is vulnerable to you. If in your opening words you asked them to stand, they would. Sitting itself is a posture of submission, and every audience, even in prisons and barracks, is finally a voluntary one. That trust, he insists, is a great and awesome privilege, a two way street with rules, and the whole book teaches you to be worthy of it.

The system

The twelve disciplines of the platform

A Special Communication

Transferring your message to thousands with acceptance is a privilege available only to a few. Learn what the relationship really is.

Know Your Message

From your introduction to your exit, the extent of your preparation is quite clearly revealed.

Set the Scene

All public speakers are performers: staging, dress and technical details carry weight before you say a word.

Get the Tone Right

A controlled tone that suggests far more power under the bonnet than you are using.

Be Inspirational

Inspiration is elusive, an idea, an atmosphere, and a speaker must learn to catch it and project it.

Motivate Your Audience

You are a potter with clay, fashioning a mind set by what you say.

Underline the Message

Winning the audience to your side, then driving the message home in words and visuals.

Say It with Style

Attention is won at the beginning or not at all.

Have a Deep Sense of Responsibility

A professional speaker's personal principles are never up for sale.

Evaluate, Evaluate

A carpenter without a ruler is ridiculous. So is a speaker without a measuring stick.

Check Your Lifestyle

The great speakers are achievers first, which earns them not just the opportunity to speak but the right to be heard.

How the Awesome Power Is Unleashed

The final elements remain locked in the vault of the supernatural, to which only God holds the key.

From the book's own endorsement pages

Speakers, statesmen and champions endorsed it

“A book everyone, regardless of age, should read.”

W. Clement StoneChicago, U.S.A.

“Peter Daniels can help you become a better public speaker because he is a better public speaker. Learn from those who know!”

Richard M. DeVosPresident, Amway, Grand Rapids, U.S.A.

“Peter Daniels is one of the all time greatest living speakers. He has used self discipline and self initiative to go from illiteracy to self mastery, from poverty to outstanding prosperity and from obscurity to highly powerful and influential visibility.”

Dr. Mark Victor HansenAuthor and motivational speaker, Newport Beach, California

“I wish I had read this book as a young preacher. I would have gained a life long benefit from its simple but profound principles. This book is a must for every public speaker.”

Torrey M. JohnsonFounder, Youth for Christ International

“Give Peter a spotlight, a rostrum and a microphone and he will change your life!”

Sam HeyburnNational President, Australia Youth for Christ, Founder of Wordmasters

About the author

He earned the right to be heard before he taught anyone to speak

The journey in these pages ran from a bricklayer's scaffold to the offices of presidents, film stars and celebrities, through the world of high finance and into war zones where the worst poverty prevailed. Chapter eleven's discipline is his own credential: the great speakers are achievers in their fields first, and that is what gives them the right to be heard.

One of the most sought after platform speakers in the world for five decades
Built an international business career after starting almost illiterate at twenty six
Spoke everywhere from prisons and military bases to stadiums and cathedrals
Author of the Peter J. Daniels Collection of success classics
Founder, World Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies

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How to Have the Awesome Power of Public Speaking

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The fifty year pilgrimage from eight minute failure to world platforms

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Before you ask

Questions, answered plainly

What exactly do I receive?

The complete book as a professionally typeset PDF, delivered instantly to your secure member library the moment your payment goes through. You sign in and it is there, ready to read or download.

I'm terrified of public speaking. Is this for beginners?

It was written by a man whose first speech collapsed after eight minutes and left him weeping at home. Daniels built the awesome power from below zero, and the endorsers say it plainly: the book removes the false idea that speaking is a natural gift only a few possess. It is a skill, and this is its manual for apprentice and veteran alike.

Is it for preachers or for business speakers?

Both, by the evidence of its own endorsement pages: the founder of Youth for Christ International wishes he had it as a young preacher, the President of Amway commends it for business, and a communications consultancy president notes that careers stall on exactly this skill. The twelve disciplines apply to any platform.

Can I read it on my phone or tablet?

Yes. The PDF reads beautifully on any phone, tablet, or computer, and you can return to your member library from any device, any time.

Is there a physical copy?

Yes. The paperback edition is available now on Amazon under the World Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies imprint, part of The Peter J. Daniels Collection: order the paperback here. If you want the book tonight, the digital edition is the one that arrives in the next two minutes.

How long is it?

Twelve focused chapters across 108 pages, one discipline per chapter, each opened with the principle in Daniels' own words. Short enough to read before your next speech, deep enough to reread before every one after it.

One last word

Study and prepare. Your opportunity will come.

Lincoln's sentence carried a weeping bricklayer to the platforms of the world. The next time you are introduced and the room goes quiet, you will stand there with everything this book taught you, or without it. For less than the cost of a takeaway, stand there ready.

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