The Speaking Club: Mastering the Art of Public Speaking

If you're anything like me there are times in your life where your actions and performance have been influenced by 'bad' stories. These are the stories we make up that slow us down or stop us from fulfilling our potential and achieving our goals and dreams. In this show I'm sharing some of my 'bad' story moments, what happened as a result and what I do differently today. Enjoy! What you'll discove...

In the last show I told you that as a speaker you are also a marketer of your message. That's when you're on stage, but in order to get to that stage you're going to have to learn how to successfully market yourself as a speaker. A big part of that includes showing promoters how working with you will help make their event a success. That's why in this episode I'm going to share the key things you...

In this show, I'm going to be talking to you not only as speakers but as marketers of your message. That's because I've had students raising the question of how long you should be sharing the same presentation before you change things up? I have some strong views on this. I believe there are some fundamental marketing principles that come into play when you are considering this question as a publi...

With a Master's in Health Science, Verla Fortier is a former Director of Surgery at The Toronto Hospitals in Toronto, Ontario and a retired Associate Professor of Nursing at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. At 63, after a long and high-powered career, she was looking forward to retiring back to her hometown in Manitoba, when a routine visit to her own Doctor shattered her plans. I...

My mission is to help people overcome any fears they may have about public speaking, using stories or adding humour to their talks, so that they get to share the message they're passionate about in the most powerful way. My focus in my 121 coaching and courses is on teaching my students to be the vehicle for their message that could change lives. Everything I do is aimed at landing that message in...

Today it feels that stress, anxiety and depression are reaching epidemic levels, and for many people who slip into that black hole, it can take years to scramble out and get life back on track...if they manage it at all. For public speakers there are many potential triggers for stress and anxiety… the actual act of speaking can be terrifying for some, then there's the rejection to deal with, and p...

I believe your goal as a speaker is to make your talk believable, interesting and thrilling. That's because if your audience can relate to and is captivated by your message, then they will be more likely to remember it, and be moved enough to take the action you want. To achieve this goal, you need to recognise that whilst every second of your talk counts, there are some moments that are critical...

I love stories, but I love stories with humour more! So does your audience, and in fact the majority of the population. Humour brings people together, builds a connection between you and your audience and is more likely to get your message shared. The trouble is that it can seem scary and hard to do in public speaking, and that is where this episode comes in. For most of my life I've worked in the...

Last week I was in Boise, Idaho attending a conference called 'Offermind'. It was primarily about marketing and how to create an irresistible offer, but there were lots of golden nuggets that applied to speaking too! As you may know I coach and consult on marketing and speaking with a specific focus on storytelling and humour. That's because I believe that the two are so closely linked AND as well...

Over the years, I've noticed a disease that has infected many, many people…particularly those working in the corporate world. That disease is 'slide sickness'. The symptoms are nasty, and they result in the audiences for your talk slapping themselves in the face to stay awake. I know that what to do with slides pre-occupies and perplexes many speakers and since I've only touched on the topic of sl...

When you ask the love of your life to marry you, your daughter tells you she's getting married, (to someone you approve of), or your friend asks you to be best man… after the initial joy, often comes dread. That's when you suddenly remember that you have to do a wedding speech. Now whether you're an experienced public speaker or not, the stakes always feel higher in these situations. It's their bi...

I have a weird background that mixes a long corporate career with speaking, stand-up comedy, theatre, content marketing and coaching. Over the past eight years I've been drawing on that unique blend of experience to teach and coach people to connect with and captivate audiences through storytelling and humour. Throughout that time, I've learnt what works best to get results for people and now I've...

Katherine Brooke-Mackenzie helps people feel well again using alternative therapies, but particularly colon-hydrotherapy. She has spent a large part of the last 15 years happily taking people's crap. Based on what she has seen she believes that many of us are living with discomfort, pain and shame because we don't feel like we can talk about what's wrong…and she is on a mission to change that. In...

Most of us that speak in public have a relatively high level of expertise in the topic we're presenting on…and that is how it should be. But therein lies a risk and an issue that has turned many potentially scintillating talks into snooze fests.  Depending on our experience as a speaker, the context in which we're speaking and our own level of insecurities, there is sometimes an overwhelming desir...

It has taken Anthony Taylor a number of years and false starts to find his path and purpose. Like many of us he was lost for decades looking for fulfillment in status and financial reward, until he discovered contentment for him was helping people develop the mental toughness and resilience to achieve their goals. In this show he is sharing his journey, alongside his suggestions for building resil...

Helen Langford has a very nice voice, and you may even have heard it before as she does get about a bit! Having trained to be an actor, she switched to voiceover work when she discovered that not only did she like it but people liked her voice. Working mostly for corporate clients, including companies like Nestle Royal Mail, Boots, Highways England, and Cambridge English. Every day she tells stori...

There are two reasons I created this podcast episode. Firstly, I heard a story from an influencer that really pushed my buttons. This story made me realise that a lot of organisations and coaches who teach and influence public speaking may be failing to share a vital ingredient for success…and I don't want you as a Speaking Club listener to miss this out. That's why in this show, I'm going to shar...

This show happened because a listener reached out to me and told me about the difference The Speaking Club had made to her life in just one month. Engineer and confirmed techie Karin Layton hated public speaking with a passion. She had massive anxiety, which resulted in shaking and sweating when she was forced to speak at all in her job. She described the thought of speaking as a waking nightmare....

There is something that gets in the way of a lot of speakers having as much impact as they would like. This thing is stopping them from delivering their message with power, authority, passion and personality. I know this because I've had the same issue…I couldn't stop trying to be 'perfect'.   In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain in the hope that seeing my challenges and mistakes will hel...

Regardless of whether you're a motivational speaker who wants to inspire people to take action, an educational speaker that wants the audience to think in new ways, a corporate leader who wants their employees to buy into change, or someone who uses speaking to sell their products or services… to achieve your goals you need to understand how to reach people and how to influence them.   In most sce...

Jesse Brisendine was on track to have a good life when tragedy and loss shook his world. Feelings of grief and guilt overpowered him, stifling his passion and purpose and snuffing out his natural positivity and optimism. In this podcast he shares how he found his way back towards the light, and how he now uses his story and experience to touch and transforms the lives of others, through his coachi...

In order to realise your full potential and impact as a speaker, it's important that you understand and harness the power of your body language and movement in your communication with an audience.   Performers in every genre, can evoke emotion in their audience without uttering a single word. Whether it's the arch of an eyebrow that makes the audience collapse in laughter, the arch of a body that...

In order to realise your full potential and impact as a speaker, it's important that you understand and harness the power of your body language and movement in your communication with an audience.   Performers in every genre, can evoke emotion in their audience without uttering a single word. Whether it's the arch of an eyebrow that makes the audience collapse in laughter, the arch of a body that...

Carl Honore started out his career as a journalist driven by a personal mission to change the world for the better. One day he realized that in his pursuit of making other people's lives better his own was passing by at breakneck speed and he was missing the important moments.   This epiphany set him on the path to writing his best-selling book 'In Praise of Slow' and spear heading the 'slow' move...

This episode came about because someone contacted me for help two days before they were going to speak at an international conference to over 300 people. They were very scared and asked if I could give them some last-minute tips, which I did.   It got me to thinking that maybe there's others out there that would benefit from the same advice. Whether you're leading your first team meeting, or you'r...