Fearless Presentations

This is part 2 of a three-part series on public speaking fear. If you've been with us for the last few weeks, I started by explaining the difference between glossophobia and public speaking fear. In those episodes, we discovered that glossophobia is an unreasonable fear of public speaking that keeps people from presenting in the first place.  Last week, I covered part one in this series about...

In the last couple of episodes, I covered the difference between Glossophobia and just normal, everyday public speaking nervousness. In the episode, I'm going to delve more deeply into where public speaking fear comes from. I'll talk a lot about triggers that make people more nervous when they stand up to speak because if you know what is causing your fear, you can better eliminate it. B...

In the last episode, I covered the difference between Glossophobia and just normal, everyday public speaking nervousness. In summary, everyone gets some nervousness when they stand up to speak in front of a group. However, a phobia is an irrational fear. So, if the fear is extreme or irrational, your fear may be a full-blown phobia.  On this episode, I'm going to give you some tips that will...

For the next couple of weeks, I will cover a quick series on Glossophobia and public speaking fear. This week, I explain the difference between the two forms of presentation jitters and give you a few tips to help.  Then, over the next couple of weeks, I'll cover more details on things that you can do to calm your nerves and become a more poised and confident public speaker. By the way, the e...

We are continuing our series on how to create great presentations. If you remember last week, I mentioned how one of the major ways to reduce public speaking fear is to design a fantastic speech. If your presentation is not that good, you will definitely be way more nervous when you present. Last week, I talked about how to deliver business proposals or sales proposals to customers or people outsi...

For the last few weeks, I've covered a number of topics about how to create great presentations. And on social media, I've received a few questions like, "What does a presentation design have to do with public speaking fear?"  The answer is simple. If you try to deliver a terrible speech to any audience, you'll be way more nervous. However, if you design a fantastic speech...

For the last few weeks, I've covered techniques that you can use to design better presentations. We talked about ways to start a speech first. Then, we covered how to design a good presentation. Next, we covered how to end a presentation.  For the next couple of episodes, though, I'm going to share a few secrets about designing presentations that may also come in handy. Today, I'll...

For the last few episodes, I've shown you how to start a speech, how to design a speech, and, last week, how to end a speech. But before we end this series, I wanted to cover one often-overlooked part of creating a compelling presentation. Today, I'm going to show you how to introduce yourself to an audience so that your presentation starts off on the right foot. Remember, when you are s...

This week, we're continuing our series on how to design presentations that are more engaging for your audience. When your audience enjoys your speeches, they will give you positive feedback, which will boost your confidence. A couple of episodes ago, I showed you a few fun ways to start a speech. Last week, I showed you a simple way to design a speech so you don't have to memorize the pr...

Last week, we started a new series on how to design presentations that are more engaging for your audience. When your audience enjoys your speeches, they will give you positive feedback, which will boost your confidence. Last week,, we covered seven ways to start your speech. Today, we'll cover a simple three-step process for designing a great presentation. When we teach presenters how to red...

This week we're starting a new series on how to design presentations that are more engaging for your audience. When your audience enjoys your speeches, they will give you positive feedback. When that happens, you confidence will go up. In this session, we'll cover a few different ways to start a presentation effectively. What most presenters find is that once they say the first couple of...

Last week, I recovered a few tips for better virtual training sessions where your entire group is participating through Zoom or Teams. This week, though, I'm covering tips to help you lead better hybrid training sessions. These are sessions where some of your team is sitting in a room with you while you teach, and others are participating virtually. This type of workshop delivery is more chal...

The last few weeks I've been traveling around delivering a series of in-person training sessions all over the world. And I noticed that when I'm delivering this training in major urban areas like Washington DC, Chicago, New York, and the like, inevitably, my client will turn on a Teams meeting or Zoom meeting as I'm setting up.  In many of these cities, coming into the office is sti...

STEVE MULTER is a veteran corporate spokesman and trainer for more than 100 global brands, including Cisco, Panasonic, Siemens, Fujifilm, HP, NTT Data, and Bayer. He is known as the chief storytelling officer for these and other brands. I wanted to have him on as a guest to give us a few tips on how to become better storytellers and use stories as a way to communicate more effectively and create m...

Do I need to get a presentation skills coach? Well, unfortunately, the answer is probably… It depends. A public speaking coach can be very helpful in certain situations. However, in many cases, a public speaking coach can also be a complete waste of time and money . (The process may actually make you more nervous as well.) In this episode, I cover the pros and cons of public speaking coaching. I g...

Today, I'm covering the importance of proper room setup and how the room that you present in will either make you more nervous or help you deliver a better presentation. The way that you set up the room before you even say a word has a lot of impact on how well you present. It also will determine how you can interact with your audience. The main thing, though, is that if your audience is comf...

On this episode, I'm going to cover a few of the biggest myths about public speaking. These are some of the things that well-meaning friends, family, and even coaches will suggest to us that are absolutely wrong. So, if you are doing any of these things, you may actually be causing yourself to be more nervous when you present. There are a number of myths about public speaking out there. Well,...

On this episode, I'm going to cover the dreaded errs and uhms. Yup, those filler words that High School teachers and Toasting Clubs try to eliminate from the speeches of their students and members. However, I think you will be shocked to learn that just about everything that you have ever learned about those errs, uhhms, and other filler words is just flat-out wrong. So stick around, and I wi...

Have a team that needs to build communication skills as a group? Well, just as an FYI, business presentation training is quite different from university-level public speaking classes or what you might pick up at a tasting club. For instance, a good presentation that you deliver for your friends or coworkers may actually backfire if you deliver the presentation to senior executives. In this post, I...

This week, I'm going to give you my secret to delivering boring presentations. In fact, this secret is the absolute most important thing that you have to know to have every audience fall in love with you as a speaker. I'll give you a hint... There actually is no such thing as a boring speech or a boring topic. There are only boring speakers. But you don't have to be one of them. Ent...

This week, I'm going to give you a few simple ways to create some very effective presentation handouts. A couple are really easy and can be used effectively for internal presentations. The last one is the technique that I use when I create workshops and training programs. It takes a little more time but can elevate your presentations dramatically. One of the most often overlooked parts of a p...

This is part two of a two-part series on Glossophobia -- the fear of public speaking. Last week, we talked about what this phobia is and what causes it. This week, I will give you a few of my best tips to overcome this fear -- even if you fall into the camp of having a full-blown phobia of public speaking. How to Overcome Glossophobia (An Irrational Fear of Public Speaking) 1) Start Small. How do...

Want to know how to overcome glossophobia? Does stage fright sometimes make you pass up opportunities in your career? Do you feel like you have an irrational fear of public speaking? You are not alone! Glossophobia, or the fear of public speaking, is very common. I’ve been in the presentation skill industry for decades now. During that time, I realized that the statistics about this fear were conf...

This week we're getting back to how to reduce public speaking fear. And on this episode, I give you the four main causes of public speaking fear. Once you understand why you are feeling the way you are, it becomes a lot easier to reduce that nervousness. As I cover each of the four causes of nervousness, I'll give you my best techniques for eliminating that particular cause. Here Are Som...

A couple of weeks ago, I started a series on how to get paid to speak. I mentioned that a professional speaker is just a person who gets paid to give a presentation. So, teachers, trial attorneys, salespeople, and really any supervisor or manager who leads internal presentations are professional speakers. They all deliver information in presentations or briefings that their audiences need in order...