Fearless Presentations

One of the more challenging parts of any presentation is the very first part. If you are wondering how to introduce yourself before starting your presentation, you are in good company. For most of us, once we get the first few sentences out, our nervousness will diminish pretty significantly. So, this initial self-introduction is really important. If we struggle here, our nervousness will increase...

This is part two of a two-part episode on how to start a presentation. Looking for a few ways to start a presentation that are dynamic? The opening is really the most important part of your presentation. You want to make a good first impression. In addition, you also want the audience to see you as a subject matter expert. Last week, we covered three ways to start a presentation to help your audie...

Looking for a few ways to start a presentation that are dynamic? The opening is really the most important part of your presentation. You want to make a good first impression. In addition, you also want the audience to see you as a subject matter expert. Of course, we’ve all been there as a speaker. First, we design a powerful presentation. Then, we nervously walk out onto a stage or into the front...

In this session, I’m going to cover 10 simple ways to overcome the fear of public speaking. This is a continuation of the 3-step process to eliminate public speaking fear . In that episode, I showed you the process that a nervous speaker should go through to reduce speech anxiety. As a review, the first step is to find out where the fear of public speaking comes from . Then, do a few simple things...

Happy Thanksgiving. And for those of you outside of the United States, happy third week of November. I wanted to take a break from the normal public speaking tips and share with you this week one of Abraham Lincoln's least quoted speeches but the one that has a significant impact on US citizens every November, his Thanksgiving proclamation that created the holiday. Where did the Thanksgiving...

When folks ask me what I do for a living, I answer, “I help people eliminate public speaking fear .” It is always fun to watch the looks on their faces when they process what I said. Inevitably, I will typically get a response like, “You do what?” or “How do you do that?” The process is really simple. In fact, anyone can reduce public speaking anxiety if they follow this process. Over the last 20...

This week, I'm going to cover how to make that mental shift to where you begin to see yourself as the expert when you present. Just so you know, one of the major sources of nervousness and fear comes from people standing up to speak and fearing that the audience is going to figure out that they are not the real expert or that they are not as much of an expert as their boss or coworkers or oth...

I was shocked at the huge list of dumb exercises to improve presentation skills on the internet. When I say “dumb,” I mean don’t try those tips. They will not work. In fact, they will likely make you even more nervous. So in this episode, I’m going to dispel some of the worst exercises and give you a few really simple things that you can do to become a better public speaker. So get rid of the tong...

Want to calm down before a presentation? Even if you don’t regularly experience the fear of public speaking, just before you start a speech, it is easy to feel anxious. This initial nervous energy can cause a speaker to have a shaky voice, dry mouth, or sweaty palms just before a presentation. The good news is that this experience is very common. Most of the time, if you start your presentation we...

Are you a nervous public speaker? A majority of the population has some type of fear of public speaking. Ironically, a great deal of this nervousness or anxiety comes from well-meaning friends or coworkers who are just trying to help. When we see a friend struggling, we naturally want to help. So, we might offer a little constructive criticism as a way to help a new presenter improve his/her publi...

This week, I'm going to show you how you can make your audiences pay attention to your entire speech. If you use this strategy, you'll get the audience on your side right away and avoid situations where the audience tries to test you or put you on the spot. The strategy will also save you a TON of time and make delivering your presentation much easier as well. Make Your Presentation Audi...

This week, I'm going to show you how you can begin to develop your public speaking skills in low-risk public speaking venues. These are the tips I give to people after they come through my presentation classes if they want more practice. As I give you these venues, though, I have organized them in a step-by-step process. For instance, last week, I gave you a list of online venues that I order...

I often get a common question after people attend our 2-day presentation class . “Now that I feel more confident, where do I go to practice to continue to get better as a speaker?” “How can I continue to grow as a great speaker?” The best way to continue to grow is with continued and consistent use of your presentation skills. If you take a public speaking class and then don’t present again for a...

Congratulations! You’ve been invited to give a TED talk. This non-profit talk series is the gold standard of speeches, so you should be honored to be on the event’s roster. Not to mention how great it will look on your resume and website. You’ve undoubtedly been chosen because you’re an expert in your field, be it medicine, literature, pop culture, gerontology, or careers, but it’s not the topic t...

It is a great honor for me to have Grant Baldwin of The Speaker Lab on the show today. Grant helps people break into the professional speaking industry and shows them how to find clients and get paid when they speak. Grant founded The Speaker Lab years ago and is also the host of The Speaker Lab podcast. His specialty is helping presenters create speeches that help their audiences solve problems....

This special holiday episode is a continuation of our holiday series on great speeches in American history.  What better way to honor and celebrate the holiday than by critiquing one of the greatest, well-known speeches? Before we begin analyzing The Gettsyburg Address, let’s dive into the history and math to put it into context. David Wills invited Abraham Lincoln to give this speech as a way to...

In this episode, we will cover a few of the common situations that occur that lead to experiencing public speaking fear. As I cover each one, I will also give you a few simple things that you can do to counteract each of these causes. So if you ever feel nervous when you stand up and speak in front of a group, these tips can really help. The Causes of the Fear of Public Speaking and How to Overcom...

In this episode, I share with you my presentation skills checklist that you can use when you are being asked to deliver a speech. It is kind of like a checklist that pilots use in order to lower the risk of failure. You can use it the same way. Make sure you do each of these simple tasks before you speak, and your risk of flubbing a speech shrinks, and your opportunity to perform well in front of...

We just finished a five-part series about How to Start a Public Speaking Career. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to that series, it will help you understand the concepts that we talk about here much more clearly. 5 Ways to Promote Yourself as a Professional Speaker In this session, we are going to cover how to promote yourself as a professional public speaker. In the earlier sessions, we tal...

We just finished a five-part series about How to Start a Public Speaking Career. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to that series, it will help you understand the concepts that we talk about here much more clearly. 5 Ways to Promote Yourself as a Professional Speaker In this session, we are going to cover how to promote yourself as a professional public speaker. In the earlier sessions, we tal...

This is part five of a five-part series about how to start a public speaking career. In the past episodes, we focused on how to use public speaking within your current career, both as an income stream and as marketing. We also covered a session on how to become a professional speaker for an established speaking company. In this episode, I cover a few step-by-step items that will help you create yo...

We are continuing our series on How to Start a Public Speaking Career , and in this session, we will show a shortcut by working for an organization that is already established. While the first episode mentioned a wide variety of approaches, one of the advantages of working with an established company is that the company the speaker is representing has already done the hard work. They have already...

One of the easiest ways to become a professional public speaker is by speaking to groups within your current industry. In this article, we will show you several ways to get paid as a professional speaker without having to change careers. This episode continues our previous episode, How to Start a Public Speaking Career .  Although this is just one of the three routes we will cover in detail, this...

For the last couple of episodes, I talked about how lucrative a professional speaker career is. Last week, I gave you a few things that have to be in place before you will have a lot of success speaking for a fee. This week, I'm going to pull back the curtain and show you a step-by-step process of how to start a professional speaking career. By the way, if you don't think of yourself as...

This is part two of our two-part series on How to Become a Professional Speaker. Last week, I explained a few different types of professional speakers. This week, I give you five attributes that pretty much have to be in place to get people or organizations to pay you to speak. Hone Your Craft Before Dabbling in Professional Speaking -- Basically, get good at something else first. No one is going...