Improving Our “Signals” and “Beings”

This is a book review of Dale Carnegie’s The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking.

Dale Carnegie’s name is synonymous with How to Win Friends and Influence People. He is said to be a contributor to the start of self-improvement. Though The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking is not as popular Carnegie’s all-time classic, possibly because of its narrower market in public speaking skills, I believe it lives up to the author’s name. (If you have not read Dale Carnegie’s all-time classic How to Win Friends and Influence People, with over 16 million sales, you are missing out.)

Originally called Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business in 1931, Dale’s wife, Dorothy Carnegie, revised the book, and renamed it The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking, in 1962 with Dale’s notes and suggestions before he passed away. With many improvements made possible from the couple’s speaking experiences and the Dale Carnegie Organization, this book is a great primer in public speaking.

Having taught public speaking for 40 years, Dale Carnegie has transformed public speaking into a skill anyone can develop. He has seen what works, what doesn’t work, and what works brilliantly. He has helped thousands of people overcome the fear of public speaking and present exciting speeches that hook the audience’s attention.

The book has 5 parts with 14 chapters and starts out with the basics of public speaking. You learn how to choose a topic, express yourself with excitement, and improve your speaking skills. Other bits of advice to improve your speaking skills include how to: let others know your thoughts, cut-down the number of points in your speech, and sincerely appreciate your audience.

The most repeated point made in the book is to choose a topic that interests you and get excited about it. Convince yourself that what you have is worth sharing and you will convince the crowd to listen attentively to you. Choosing a topic that excites you will make you talk with interest, vocal variety, and good body language because 93% of our communication comes from nonverbal communication when we discuss our likes or dislikes. This could very well be the secret to effective public speaking.

This book has the same style of writing as How to Win Friends and Influence People. There is many stories, easy-to-read language, clear advice, and most importantly is the practical simplicity of the advice. While it takes time to develop public speaking skills, the advice given is the easy way to effective speaking because it leverages our natural abilities and knowledge.

A brief review of the table of contents is below for your convenience:

I have left out in-depth detail of parts 2, 3, 4, and 5 because there is too many points to list here. It would take-up too much room. A full summary of each part can be found conveniently at the end of each part for quick reference so you can revise and easily memorize what you have learned.

In my opinion, the advice offered on how to give an impromptu speech (a speech where you are given the topic on the spot) is the best part about the book. I have always struggled to think quickly on my feet by speaking smoothly on a topic I was just given, and the advice given is powerful. I am quickly improving, becoming more confident, and talking longer – and these improvements will continue because you learn how to continually improve your speaking skills.

I highly recommend you get this book to improve not just your public speaking skills, but to also improve your conversational skills, remove self-consciousness, and boost confidence. Public speaking has the effect. If you have not already got yourself a copy of Dale Carnegie’s The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking, you need to go grab your copy now from Amazon by clicking here.

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I'm creator of a highly praised program called "Communication Secrets of Powerful People" program. You can read about it here and order it here.