Teach the Geek: Public Speaking and Communication Skills for Technical Professionals

Seth Greenwald - Engineer & Communication Coach Seth Greenwald, a.k.a. Sherpa Seth, is a best-selling author, keynote speaker and popular communication coach for technical professionals and creative leaders. His workshops on creating spontaneous human connections for leadership excellence are in high demand at industry conferences. Seth holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial De...

David Shriner-Cahn: Engineer to Non-profit exec? David Shriner-Cahn is a former engineer and was an executive in the non-profit space for many years. He now helps former employees find their footing in entrepreneurship, doing what they love and getting paid what they're worth. He’s also the host of two podcasts, Smashing the Plateau and Going Solo. We talked about his life as an engineer, the reas...

Dr. Tara Ruttley - NASA Scientist & Keynote Speaker NASA Chief Scientist is one way to describe Dr. Taray Ruttley, but keynote speaker is another. I was interested to learn more about her journey into public speaking, her path to NASA, and her reasoning for getting her degrees (she has a lot of them).   To learn more about Dr. Ruttley, visit http://tararuttley.com/. __________________ In...

Want people to listen? Dump the jargon! If you're presenting a technical presentation to non-technical people, minimizing the amount of technical jargon will go a long way towards increasing audience engagement. I talk about it in this clip.  _______________________ TEACH THE GEEK teachthegeek.com anchor.fm/teachthegeek youtube.teachthegeek.com @teachthegeek (FB, Twitter) @_teachthegeek_ &nbs...

Dr. Deborah Thomson: musician to science policy advocate? Dr. Deborah Thomson has lived many lives. She has been a musician and teacher. She's now a veterinarian and author. I had the pleasure of reading her book, The Art of Science Communication, and was keen to ask her about it. I was also interested to learn more about her journey to becoming a vet, as well as her other initiative, One Health L...

Slides full of text? Probably not the best way to engage an audience.  Consider using images instead of text. I go over why this is a better idea in this episode.  _______________________ In STEM?  Want ongoing support in public speaking?  Join the Teach the Geek to Speak Society today! teachthegeek.com/teach-the-geek-to-speak-society _______________________ TEACH THE GEEK teac...

To improve at public speaking, visualize success! If you keep telling yourself you're poor at public speaking, you'll continue to be right. Want to improve? Tell yourself you're good at it and visualize yourself doing well at it. I offer an exercise in this quick clip. Tune in in the following weeks for more public speaking tips! ____________________ In STEM?  Want ongoing support in your pub...

Forensic Scientist turned Speaker Ciaran Phillip Ciaran Phillip is a forensic scientist who does science communication. How many of those types of people are walking around?  We chatted about his motivation to become a forensic scientist, the genesis of Sure Science Consulting, his science communication business, and his work with the Canadian Multicultural Inventors Museum.  Want to lea...

Ashley Kirkwood - attorney and speaker coach Ashley Kirkwood is a lot of things. Attorney. Podcaster. Speaker. I wouldn’t be surprised if she adds a few other things when it’s all said and done. An entrepreneur herself, she works with speakers and entrepreneurs to land speaking contracts and licensing deals. I’m interested to learn more about her journey in entrepreneurship, and the results she ge...

I created a public speaking course geared towards STEM professionals. A one-off course wasn't enough, though.  I developed the Teach the Geek to Speak Society, a monthly membership, to offer ongoing support instead.  With the membership, in addition to the course, you get: *access to an online community *monthly group calls To learn more about the Society, please visit teachthegeek.com/t...

Dr. Natalie Coleman - public speaking for those in STEM STEM educator Dr. Natalie Coleman has lived quite the life, and I’m sure there’s more in store. Combat veteran. Adjunct professor. County board member. I think she walks old ladies across the street in her spare time too. She’s also the founder of After the Peanut, an organization that provides professional development, curriculum, tutoring a...

"You know" "So..." "Umm..." Damn those filler words that occupy your conversational speech. Should you try to eliminate them when giving presentations? Tune in to this short episode to find out! ________________ In STEM? Struggle with your public speaking? Join Teach the Geek to Speak Society today! Get access to the public speaking course, Teach the Geek to Speak, a private Facebook group, and mo...

Edidiong Obot may have a background in chemistry, but she didn’t stay there. Podcaster. Host. Show producer. Speaker. Community advocate. Edidiong is a woman of many talents. I’m interested to learn more about her varied interests, and how public speaking has benefited her endeavors.  Learn more about Edidiong at https://www.instagram.com/e_chrys ________________________ TEACH THE GEEK teacht...

Career Skills for Engineers with Mark Herschberg Mark Herschberg serves as a fractional CTO. He is also author of the book, “The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You.” I’m curious to learn more about his progression to CTO, the motivation for his book, and the ways in which public speaking has benefited his work life.  Want to learn more about Mark's book? Check...

Sam Alleva started out in aerospace engineering, working for several companies before deciding to strike out on her own as a technical writer. I was interested to learn more about her decision to start her own business, why she chose technical writing, and what her future plans for her company is. To learn more about Sam, check out https://www.evergreen-ink.com/ _____________________ Download the...

Engineering manager and science fiction writer Matthew Dick.  Matthew Dick is an engineering manager in the transportation technology industry. He’s also a science fiction fan, so much so that he eventually wrote his own sci-fi book, Seed: A Hard Science Fiction Novel.  Learn more about his engineering journey, the motivation to write his book, and public speaking, of course.  Check...

Programmer to professional speaker - Pam Leinmiller Pam is founder of Vertical Vision Inc., a training and coaching in technical industries. She helps those in the tech fields hone their communication and leadership skills. She started out as a programmer, but ended up somewhere completely different. We spoke about her motivation to get into her current work, and her beginnings with public speakin...

Master communication skills with engineer turned speaker and author Debra Fine Once an engineer, Debra Fine now works with Fortune 500 companies, professional groups, and universities, offering public speaking tips for business events and client meetings. We chatted about her transition from engineer to speaker, the motivation for writing her books, and how she came to speak about small talk, some...

TEACH THE GEEK - public speaking for engineers Dr. Justin Goldston. He is a professor of supply chain management. He has organized TED conferences, spoken at them and is also author of the book, Critical Success Factors in Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation in U.S. Manufacturing. We chatted about his path to professorship, his interest in TED, and his book. TEACH THE GEEK  teachthege...

TEACH THE GEEK -  public speaking for engineers Jeff Perry is a coach for engineers and software professionals. He’s also host of the Engineering Career Coach podcast. We spoke about what brought him to coaching, the work he did before he became a coach, and what he hope people get from his podcast.  Check out the Engineering Career Coach podcast at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=...

TEACH THE GEEK - public speaking for engineers Noelle Silver is the founder of Womenin. AI and AI Leadership Institute. She’s also the head of instruction, data science, analytics, and full stack web development at HackerU. How did she get into AI? Why did she found those organizations and what can people get from them? How does public speaking figure into it all? I had questions, and Noelle had a...

William “T” Thompson (no relation has lived an interesting life. He has an Air Force pilot, a civilian pilot and an attorney. He graduated with an Engineering degree from the Air Force Academy, but ended up attending law school and working as an attorney. He’s also a board member of the National Speakers Association. We spoke about why he decided to go to law school after getting an Engineering de...

Demishia Samuels is an income strategist and business coach, as well as host of the Corporate Hustle podcast. Seems like a far way away from an Industrial engineering degree. We chatted about how she got to where she is and how public speaking figures into it all.  To learn more about Demishia, check out http://corporatehustleu.com/. TEACH THE GEEK - public speaking for engineers and scientis...

Dr. Grace Lee is the founder of Mastery Insights, and is also a podcaster and YouTuber. Her career path is quite interesting, as she got a PhD and did something I’m not sure most PhDs do. We chatted about whether that was the plan all along.   Learn more about Dr. Lee at https://www.masteryinsights.com/ TEACH THE GEEK - public speaking for engineers and scientists teachthegeek.com @teachthege...

Shannon Bumgarner is an expert in supply chain and lean manufacturing. She’s also the new host of the Empowering Women podcast and a fervent advocate for women in STEM. We chatted about what supply chain and lean manufacturing entails, how she came to be the host of the podcast, and how she works to get more women in STEM.  TEACH THE GEEK - public speaking for engineers and scientists teachth...