Forget techniques, forget methods, forget speak aids, forget hand gestures. Most importantly, forget "How to Speak in Public" books. They're crap, and really, just draining you of your hard-earned money. According to a BusinessWeek article, it's not so surprising to learn how to rock a room: practice! The greatest communicators in the world's history, from MLK to Abraham Lincoln to Oprah, didn't need public speaking books. (Maybe, unless, you think robotic-type speakers--you know what we're talking about--qualify.) Great communicators, on the contrary, are like the rest of us. They weren't born to speak, like what popular opinion tells you. Most started out as horrible speakers, as most of us are without any public speaking seminars under our belts.

Yet, great communicators had one thing going for them: they had tons of practice.

If you want to be a great communicator, don't start with a book--start with speaking groups such as Toastmasters. Word.