Jill Foster: The Importance of Persuasion

With our persuasive speech assignment coming up soon, I was very excited to hear what Jill Foster had to say about the art of persuasion and how to implement it effectively into a speech. Right when she started her presentation, I could tell she was a good speaker. She immediately took control of the room by asking everyone how we tried to use persuasion during our group project. Foster is the founder of Live Your Talk, an organization that helps professional women with public speaking in the business world. It was obvious during the entire presenantation that Jill would be a fantastic public speaking teacher. Her speaking style was incredibly clear and articulate. She used great hand gestures and her eye contact brought the audience into her presentation. For me, the thing I payed the most attention too was her speaking pace. The issue I had most in my informative brief (according to Andi's comments) was that my pace was too fast throughout my speech and that at times, it was hard to understand what I was saying. Foster's speaking speed was perfect. I understood everything she said, but she was fast enough so that she got a lot of information out that everybody was able to understand. While Jill was obviously a good speaker, she also gave great information during her speech that will help me in all my public speaking endeavors.

Jill's specialty is teaching speaking to professional women in the business world. From her presentation, I could tell she was a very good teacher. The first thing she talked about was I prior experience of hers while working in sales at Borders Books. She talked about a time when she unfortuanatly messed up an order of one of her clients and ended up having to go and tell her client that she would not be able to get the book the client needed delivered at the time that was previously set up. This conversation escalated into the client actually cussing out Jill in Italian! This was not what Jill expected and made her have to adjust to her situation. Jill calmly listened to her clients rant, determining her argument and deciphering how she would respond. In the end, Foster was able to get back control of the conversation and convince her client that she would be able to get the book to her soon and that the error was a one time thing. She kept her client and her story proved the usefulness of good persuasive techniques even in a nontraditional setting.

After the story (which Foster used very well as a thread for her presentation) she introduced for questions to use when analyzing a conversation or speech.

1.What point of view did you represent?

2. What was the audiences point of view and did it have merit?

3. What was at stake in the conversation?

4. How did your emotional resolve persuade the outcome?

She said that these questions are what she now uses to analyze different speeches she gives and conversations she's in. I thought that these questions are very good ways to look at speeches and I may have to use them in the future, especially for my persuasive speech. She also talked about the importance of social media, both in the professional world and in persuading people about different subjects. She also said that one of the best ways to persuade people during a speech was to continue to repeat your main point so that it would be clearly understood.

In conclusion, I though Jill was a great teacher and a fantastic speaker. I will look to implement many of the things she said into my persuasive speech for class and for speeches and conversations. It was awesome that Jill came and talked to us and I can say for certain that my speaking will be better because of it.