Preliminaries -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue Rising Above the Crowd -- PART I Why Should You Care -- 1 Take Off the Bushel Basket -- 2 Tried But Not Necessarily True -- 3 Understanding the Audience -- 4 Performance Ready -- 5 You're the Star -- 6 Do I Really Need to Do This -- 7 Be Prepared -- 8 Find the Hook -- 9 Keep the Focus on You -- 10 Getting Down to It -- 11 Of Headlines Humor and Aha s -- 12 Before You Say a Word -- 13 Stand and Deliver -- 14 After the Talking's Done -- Appendix A The Speaker's Checklist -- Appendix B Research Resources -- Appendix C When Someone Else Will Write Your Speech -- Appendix D How About the ROI -- Index.