Fearless Presentation

If you practice great presentation skills, and focus on designing your presentations on what your audience needs and wants, the last thing you will have trouble with is hecklers. However, it only takes a single mad-at-the-world heckler to quickly turn your presentation masterpiece into modern art. So, when you are rudely interrupted in front of an audience of strangers, you will want to have a strategy for how to handle hecklers.That is, one that calms the heckler and makes you continue to look like the expert in the room. Throughout my years of experience in public speaking, I've had my share of hecklers, and one of the most important things you can do is to remember that you're a professional speaker. Rather than getting worked up and losing your cool, the best thing you can do is respond professionally and with class.One of the more recent occurrences in social media is the birth of “internet trolls.” While internet trolls and hecklers have a couple of things in common, such as offensive language and negative comments, internet trolls are able to hide their real identity in fake online accounts. The majority of them aren't really mean in real life. Hecklers, on the other hand, are braver in a way that they're confident in attracting negative attention to themselves without masking their identity.Online trolls can be ignored. Ignoring a heckler while giving a speech is not so easy, though, and can cause you to lose credibility in front of your audience. So, on this episode, I cover four strategies for handling hecklers while giving a speech.Show Notes: 4 Tips on How to Handle Hecklers (Like A Professional)(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/4-strategies-for-handling-hecklers-while-giving-a-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. You've done it! You've reached the end of the 30 Tips in 30 Days series and with it, you have learned a pile of simple, easily applicable ideas you can start including in your presentations to instantly improve them. Thank you so much for sticking around! The very last tip is the most important. Almost every single tip I have talked about in the last 29 days has been centered around upping the engagement of your presentations. Making them more entertaining to watch and listen to, and whenever it comes to engagement, energy is the thing that does 90% of the work. If you have nothing else but contagious, addicting energy, people will instantly fall in love with your speech more quickly than applying anything else we've taught you to this point. Thank you again for listening, check out the YouTube channel to see some reels of this series along with longer versions of almost every tip in this series, as well as make sure to check out the blog post 101 tips below. That is where all these tips are pulled from and there are 3 times more tips to learn from. See you next Monday!Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Speeches are only partially about the words that you're saying. Even a great speech delivered limply at a podium with zero movement or awareness of what your body is doing will fail every single time. Use your hands, legs, head, full body, everything to emphasize your points, physically convey words you're saying, and just all around be more engaging to watch on stage and you'll instantly find people enjoying your speeches more and more. Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. There is nothing more normal when you're about to give a high pressure speech (and not everyone's version of a high pressure speech is the same) than butterflies in the stomach. It's your body telling you that what you're about to do is new, harrowing, or something you think you're not experienced enough for. The thing is, if you've prepared and done every bit of prep you need, your body is wrong. You are ready and the butterflies are normal and everyone, no matter how experienced, gets them. It's just about recognizing that they are normal, incorrect, and you are experienced and prepared for the speech.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. We are our own biggest critics. Think about how many presentations you've sat through in your life. Every speech, lecture, class, presentation, everything. Chances are, you maybe recognized the nerves of a specific presenter two, maybe three times ever. We very rarely are focused on the little mannerisms of the speaker unless we are outrageously bored, so just focus on making your presentation entertaining, engaging, and informative and nobody will notice wet palms or sweaty brows.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Yesterday I told you about how recording a video of yourself is the absolute wrong way to critique your presentation and how getting a coach is the absolute best way. But what do you do if you can't afford or get a coach right now but still want to critique your presentation? While it's not as good as having a trained professional critique your technique, getting a friend, partner, coworker, or family member to tell you what's engaging and not in a presentation is certainly something that will help you figure out the strong and weak points in your speech.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. ABSOLUTELY DO NOT VIDEO YOURSELF IF YOU WANT TO OVERCOME NERVOUSNESS. This is one of the absolute biggest mistakes I see in new presenters who are trying to improve their confidence. They think "oh if I can just watch back my presentation I can pick out the issues with it and focus on improving them.". What will actually happen is you will watch it back, nit pick the problems that are barley actually there, and likely leave with even lower confidence of yourself as a presenter. Getting a coach to point out the issues to you without lowering your confidence is a million times better than trying to be your own coach. This does not apply to more advanced speakers though, if you are already confident and are just trying to marginally improve your performance videoing can be a great tool. Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. This does not mean you shouldn't use slideshows or PowerPoints. They are still the standard for a reason. But they are also not the only form of visual aid that works at conveying your presentation to people in the audience.Mixing it up with things like posters boards, props, samples, handouts, or videos can spice things up a bit and, in many cases, are actually better than just going with the safe slideshow.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. The 6x6 rule is one that's kind of old school but it definitely is something that still applies and can make a lot of people's mediocre PowerPoint's instantly a lot better. The 6x6 rule is simple. You should (usually) never have more than 6 lines of text on a slide and you should (usually) never have more than 6 words in each line on the slide. Brevity and glance-ability are the strongest traits that words on a slideshow can have. If your audience is squinting trying to read the entire paragraph you have on screen then you have failed. Likewise, if you have a single word up on the screen that isn't something incredibly important or applicable to your presentation, you've also failed.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Going all the way back to the very first tip in this series, over-designing your slideshow or prioritizing your PowerPoint over your speech is one of the most common mistakes there are in speech writing. We have an old blog post on our website with videos being released on the Fearless Presentations YouTube right now over the amount of slides you should be including in your presentation (depending on the length) and chances are, it's quite a bit less than you are doing now. So go check those out to get a full understanding of the tip.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Not only is your presentation important for the information it has to deliver, it's also important as a piece of entertainment. Nothing you say will be delivered the right way if you are boring, uninteresting, and not thinking of the speech as something that people have to stay engaged with for a long period of time. So whenever you are trying to think of the best way to present the information you have to give, realize that the absolute best way to present it is in a way that people will enjoy consuming it. Adding a bit of pizazz to your speech in the way of physicality, fun stories, funny anecdotes, and pre-planned structure is the best way to go about it.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. This tip is very specifically worded because it's very easy to misinterpret and actually end up hurting your speech more than helping it. Quotes can be a very useful tool. If you are trying to add credibility to a position or decision you're presenting, directly quoting someone successful with your position or decision can make people think "well it worked for that successful person, maybe it's worth hearing out". So quotes are great, the chasms you can fall into come with how the quote is presented. Putting the quote up on the board, struggling to remember the speech, or misremembering it are all things that may actually hurt you more than help you.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Humor is the great unifier. Even when people are annoyed, hate, or disagree with something that you're saying, a good joke will still make them laugh. Finding ways to sneak funny anecdotes into your speeches, especially when you feel like you're losing your audience, is one of the best ways to instantly win them back over. Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. When I first started doing public speaking coaching about 20 years ago, the average attention span of a person was about 2 minutes in a speech. Now, obviously, that attention span is getting lower and lower by the year. It's never been more important than it is now to consistently incorporate stories into your speeches. Stories and examples keep engagement high so utilizing that tool of engagement as often as you can afford is necessary to seeing any success as a public presenter. Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Kind of building off the tip from yesterday, you don't want to just limit your points down to only a few, you also want to make sure they are audience focused. Having a confusing or boringly basic point is a sure-fire way to making your audience rapidly uninterested. Keep you points easy to convey, short and to the point, but not so broad that everyone's left confused and audience retention will quickly improve.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Getting the audience to remember much from a presentation (especially a really long presentation) is incredibly hard. Giving audiences a huge list of points to remember and hone in on is even more-so fighting a losing battle. Limiting yourself to 5 or fewer points ensures that people can reliably remember everything, aren't overwhelmed, and each point has a proper amount of substance to it. Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. The title of your presentation is the very first checkpoint your audience goes through of deciding whether or not they're interested in hearing what you have to say. If you give them something super vague, general, or even hyper specific it's very likely that you'll lose them before you even start talking cause they'll start off confused. Make your title something that gives the entire concept of the presentation while still allowing enough room for the details of the presentation to fill in the gaps.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Not all speeches are the same amount of time, but that doesn't mean you can't make all of your stories work each for them. Finding different ways to convey the same information in more and less time without sacrificing any content or making the whole thing drag is a vital skill for new speakers. Learning to develop it through making different length versions of the same story is a great way to train that. Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. We use these stories for a very specific reason. Stories in a presentation are not just there for speech dressing to make it more fun, they are there because they also need to convey something necessary. With the end of the story being the moment that the most people will be captivated (they've already sat through the whole thing, might as well hear out the end), that is the moment that you need to be putting the mean that matters the most to your presentation. In almost all cases, that's an action or benefit statement.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Stories are all about captivating the audience and then conveying information through that captivation. The problem comes if the story that you are telling isn't even captivating to begin with. One of the safest ways to ensure that a story, even with subpar detailing or energy, is captivating, is to make it feel like it's building to something. Even a good story with a nothing, rushed ending is disappointing, so making sure you are building to something is vital.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Okay, now that you have established the who, what, when, and where of your story, now is the time that you can start getting to the fun. A good storyteller can completely convey a world purely with words. Nothing enthralls and engages an audience more than allowing them to paint a complete picture of the story that you are telling, so make sure to include just enough interesting details to make that picture easier to paint. Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Whenever you're starting to give a presentation or speech, it's really easy to get carried away. Jumping right into the details of the story you are wanting to tell, or present the clever way you thought of to connect the story you're telling to the point of your presentation. But before you get into all the details and cleverness you're excited about, it's important to establish the setting. The who, what, when, and where are all necessary to make sure the audience has a complete understanding of the situation before any of the fun details can be told to them.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. As we learned in the tip yesterday, stories can be one of the most powerful tools in a speakers tool belt. However, it's completely possible to make a story hurt your presentation. Even if the story is told well, if it's not at all related or able to be related back to the point of your presentation, it can leave everyone even more confused and uninterested than they would have been without the story. So make sure to go into every story with a clear point and a clear way to connect it back to your general presentation.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. One of the absolute most powerful tools in a public speakers tool belt is the story. There's nothing that incites us, keeps us engaged, like a good story. Even if the presentation is over a topic that really interests us, just showing graphs, stats, and data won't keep anyone's attention for long. Learning how to communicate everything in the form of a story (and a good story at that) is one of the absolute fastest ways to start excelling as a presenter. Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. And tip number 7 of November is entirely about your physicality. How you present yourself to the audience can be just as important as the words that you say. So if you are trying to be clear and evident in your appeals for attention, the very least you can do is stand up in a room of people seated. Standing also has other benefits that come with it like allowing you to move around the stage, change your speed for emphasis, and project your voice better.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Tip number 6 of this month is to speak on topics that you are actually an expert on. No matter if you're an excellent presenter or a terrible presenter, audiences are really good at sniffing out who knows what they're talking about. A great presenter trying to lie their way through a speech on a topic they know absolutely nothing about will usually be worse than an average presenter speaking passionately and knowledgeably about what they know. So choose your topics carefully.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker.One of the biggest falsehoods people hold whenever they get up to give a speech is that the audience doesn't want to listen to you. "Why would these people want to listen to me, they're clearly against me from the moment I start speaking.". The truth is though, if you have an audience listening to you, it's obviously because they actually do want to know what you have to say. Now you can absolutely lose that interest through a bad speech, but looking for interested audience members to boost your self confidence from the beginning is a great way to keep confidence throughout a speech.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Few things calm the nerves like a good deep breath. Not all tips have to be some crazy secret you've never heard before. Some tips are simple things that people often overlook or think won't help much. In the case of having a good breathing exercise before going on stage, it is one of the quickest and easiest ways to diminish nerves. So just start doing it!Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Tip 3 is building off of yesterday's tip. Reciting a speech word for word is a waste of effort as so much of your energy that should be focused on the delivery of the speech is spent on remembering the words. And if anything happens, your speech completely falls apart.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. Our second tip this month is to never write your speech word-for-word. Speeches are about passion and clear knowledge about a topic. Writing your speech word-for-word allows for little of that passion to come out in the actual presentation of the speech. It also can be quite a waste as writing a speech word for word leads to you remembering it word for word which, as you'll learn tomorrow is also a mistake. Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Welcome to 30 Tips in 30 Days! Over the entire month of November, I will be releasing a short, bite sized episode of Fearless Presentations every morning covering things that are absolutely essential to being a better presenter. Whether you've been speaking professionally for years and years or are looking to just start your public speaking journey, applying just these 30 tips I cover here will instantly and easily make you improve as a speaker. To kick off this series, our very first tip is to design your presentation first...then design your slideshow. One of the biggest mistakes beginning speakers (and even some advanced ones) make is that they rely on having the structure of their presentation already thought out in their head and jump ahead to making the PowerPoint. Both your presentation and your slideshow will turn out so much better if you draft out what the structure and topics of your speech will be first, then leave making the slideshow for the very end. Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Last week, I did a quick session on why people feel nervous speaking in front of a group -- even though, they are doing things to reduce that nervousness. This week, I cover what to do if you just absolutely bomb a speech.If you just delivered a terrible presentation and feel like yo fell on your face, take heart. The tips I give at the end of this episode can help.But first, we'll talk about how even the most embarrassing and difficult challenges you face public speaking can be something to learn from.I'm not saying these challenges are necessary. But, if and when they do happen, changing you attitude about the speech and using it as a stepping stone to presentation success can really help.Show Notes: How to Recover from a Terrible Speech (Bombing on Stage)(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-recover-from-a-terrible-speech-bombing-on-stage/)

One of the most common things I still hear from people who are talking to me about public speaking is "why do I still get nervous when I'm giving a speech?". Now the preamble to the question is always a little different. The person may have already gone to classes or toasting clubs, maybe the person had already been speaking for years and years and years, but for some reason they still suffer with nervousness every single time when they're trying to deliver a speech.It doesn't matter if they've had the best coaches and the best training, for some reason with all that practice the base level nerves still persist and this can cause them to get frustrated. They might start feeling like nothing they have worked towards has mattered or that they'll just never become a great public speaker cause, to them, great public speakers never get nervous. Well on today's episode I'm gonna dive into the reason that basically everyone still has this question, why you still suffer from it, and how to either fix the problem at it's roots, or find comfort in it.Show Notes: Why Do I Still Get Nervous When I Speak in Public?(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/why-do-i-still-get-nervous-when-i-speak-in-public/)

I'm gonna do something a little bit different in this weeks episode. This week, we're covering the top 5 biggest public speaking myths, and I'm also debunking each and every single one. Just so you can get an idea of the myths I'll be debunking, this is a look at what they will be. 1. Good speakers are naturally good. 2. You are way more nervous than every other speaker out there. 3. Constructive criticism is the best way to improve at public speaking.4. Video feedback is really valuable for learning. 5. It takes years and years to become a great public speaker. If you have ever been told any of these myths or find yourself believing they make sense, than stick around, and find out just how wrong these seemingly sensible ideas can be.Show Notes: 5 of the Most Common Myths about Public Speaking Debunked(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/top-5-myths-about-public-speaking-fear/)

Last week, on the first over glossophobia we went over what the fear actually was. We discussed how phobia may not be the best way to describe it and how a terror is probably more accurate. It's intense, it's dramatic, and it's something does effect your everyday life. If you believe after listening to last weeks episode that you are one of the many that may suffer from glossophobia or symptoms that align with glossophobia, this week, we'll work on solving that. This week, we will we be discussing and looking at a few excellent ways to actually tackle that public speaking terror you and many others suffer from. While fully eliminating the fear can be and impossible task, there are certainly a few things that have helped millions control their fear, even to the point of being able to give speeches.So if you're interested in solving that issue and making public speaking a manageable concept, stick around for a few excellent ways to tackle that fear. Show Notes: How to Overcome Glossophobia (The Fear of Public Speaking)(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-overcome-glossophobia-an-irrational-fear-of-public-speaking/)

Last week, I discussed the fastest and easiest way to solve public speaking fear (utilizing stories and examples), and I mentioned on that episode that most people have some type of nervousness when they stand up to present in front of others. But what do you do if your fear is more intense than just little jitters. Well, on this episode I'm going to tell you all about glossophobia, the extreme fear of public speaking. I'll tell you a lot of the misconceptions people seem to have with this "phobia", how many people really have it, what the symptoms are, and how you can know if you truly have it or not. Public speaking is a vital part of most working people's day to day life and knowing the difference between typical public speaking nervousness and actual glossophobia can make treating your fear correctly way easier and save you wasted time. So stick around as I go over Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, and keep an eye out for the next episode later this week where I tell you all about how to treat it.Show Notes: How to Overcome Glossophobia (The Fear of Public Speaking)(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-overcome-glossophobia-an-irrational-fear-of-public-speaking/)

One of the absolute fastest and easiest ways to reduce your public speaking fear is to start introducing stories and examples into your formal presentations or PowerPoint deliveries. So when participants first come through our public speaking classes or our training classes, we introduce this technique and, a lot of times, a lot of folks will sort of resist it. They'll say things like "my presentations are a lot more fact focused/data driven/number oriented, I don't think people will really be interested in hearing stories they just want the numbers. What they don't realize is that they are completely missing out on a way better way to solidify the data they are sharing and better convey the statistics they are using. Stories make your presentations easier to follow, easier to understand, easier to deliver, and way more memorable. So stick around for a few reasons you should really start implementing stories, a few tips to start implementing them, and a few ways to come up with the stories in the first place.Show Notes: How Stories and Examples Reduce Public Speaking Fear(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/stories-and-examples-reduce-public-speaking-fear/)

We often talk on the podcast about how to improve your presentation skills or how to reduce nervousness so that you feel more confident or poised when you stand up to speak. But one of the things that we haven't covered a lot, or at least in a while, is why you should improve your presentation skills.The time and money you spend on improving your presentation skills has the highest return on investment compared to basically anything else you can do. For instance, let's say you go out and buy a new piece of equipment for your company. That equipment will bring your company new profit for a certain amount of time but eventually that equipment will age. The maintenance costs on it will go higher than the amount you're making from it. And it will no longer be worth your investment. Presentation skills are evergreen, growing them once improves your personal growth and profitability to the company for the rest of your life. So find out just a few ways to advance in your job and career by just learning this one set of skills!Show Notes: 7 Ways to Advance Your Career Using Presentation Skills(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/7-ways-to-advance-your-career-using-presentation-skills/)

There's something really special about group presentations.Group presentations are way, way more different than a normal presentation than most people believe. In fact, I've spent years and years (really the better part of a decade) studying everything that I could about presentation skills and how to deliver powerful speeches and then years later, that study kinda led me to becoming a presentation coach. I felt confident in my ability as a presentation coach and had proven success training hundreds of people, but on one random day I got a very interesting call. It was a prospective client that said "hey, we've got a group of 5 presenters that are competing for a 300 million dollar contract, this contract is vital for the companies success, can you make sure that the team gives the best possible group presentation they can. That one call started me down a multi-year road that's been a fantastic accomplishment for hundreds of groups looking to give presentations together. Let me tell you a little bit about how to run an exceptional group presentation I have learned on that long, long road of experience.Show Notes: Group Presentation Guide: How to Give Presentations As a Team(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/group-presentation-guide-how-to-get-your-team-on-the-same-page-for-a-group-presentation/)

On today's episode we're gonna talk about designing training and development  programs for employees in 2025, and it's interesting. Even several years after the COVID-19 pandemic has ended, it really left a lasting mark on the way we kind of do things. It significantly altered the way people communicate, the way that we interact, and while some of the most extreme changes were more temporary, many have caused long term shifts in how we still do business. One of the absolute biggest changes the pandemic left behind for business is how we kind of structure our training programs for employees. In the past how we did it was companies would create a product or fill the need for a service then bring it to market and see how it does. Now companies are constantly having to adapt. Changing every aspect of their internal structure and way they do business and the product or service they provide at a really, really rapid pace. Let's look at some of those modern examples and practices of training and development within companies that can help you stay ahead of the curve and not fall behind. Show Notes: Creating the Best Training and Development Programs in 2025(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/modern-examples-of-training-and-development-programs-for-employees-2020/)

A couple of years ago, I was teaching a public speaking workshop in Detroit and three of the people in that class happened to be job placement coaches.Throughout the course, I noticed a couple of really interesting things as the class went on. First the three of these folks that all did the same thing kept mentioning over and over again how the lessons I was covering in the public speaking class were similar to the lessons that they were teaching, one-on-one, to the people in their job development sessions. And then the second thing I noticed was the three of them, these three folks that were in the class, had picked up everything I was teaching way quicker than usual people. I realized later that those three in particular picked up everything so quickly because they all already had great communications skills one-on-one in the workplace.There are very, very few skills you can learn for the workplace that are more important than communication and presentation skills. Today I'm gonna cover just five ways those skills can help you in the workplace in ways you may not have thought of. (And also one way that they can help you land the job in the first place)Show Notes: The Importance of Presentation Skills in the Workplace (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/the-importance-of-presentation-skills-in-the-workplace/)

Today I'm going to show you use the way that you speak to become a better leader because if you want to strengthen your presence and really motivate your team to a higher performance. One of the fastest ways to do that is to be able to deliver inspiring speeches that energize, engage, and really align with your team. So in this session I'm going to teach you how to turn your standard business update into an inspirational speech that leaves a more lasting impact. Even though people like keynote speakers or motivational speakers probably are the ones that come to mind for having to speak inspirationally. Every manager, leader, or even team member can really benefit from the strategies that those types of speakers use.Let's learn a few of those techniques and strategies motivational speakers use to really connect with their audience more effectively. Show Notes: Deliver Inspiring Speeches at Work(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/deliver-inspiring-speeches-work/)

Today I'll give you 7 compelling reason why you should focus more on improving your presentation skills. And, I know that I'm preaching to the choir because you're listening to the podcast.However, most people who subscribe to Fearless presentations typically subscribe to solve a single issue. Perhaps they have a big speech coming up and they want to feel more comfortable.Then, once that person feels like they conquered that challenge, they may stop listening. I get it. There are only so many hours in a day. We have to prioritize.Well, that's why we created this episode. Once you understand how developing this one specific skill can open up doors to success and additional income, it will likely move developing this skill up on the priority list.Folks who go through our public speaking classes will often reach back out to us six months or a year after attending telling how they got promoted or their company's growth exploded shortly after taking the class.What we cover in this episode will explain why that happens and why it is so common.Show Notes: The 7 Best Reasons to Focus on Presentation Skills Training(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/top-5-reasons-to-improve-your-presentation-skills/)

On this episode, I'm going to share with you the most popular tool that we ever published on the Fearless Presentations website. And it's funny because, in the 300+ episodes of the show, I don't think I've mentioned this tool more than a couple of times -- and it's always in passing.So, I apologize for that. But with all of the new AI tools like ChatGPT and Grok, I think it's time to tell you a little about one of the best tools designing a presentation in minutes versus hours or days.It's called the Online Speech Creator, and it is by far, the most popular page on the website. Tens of thousands of people from around the world use it each day to help them organize their thoughts and create a compelling presentations. On today's episode, I'm going to walk you through it.Show Notes: Online Speech Creator(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/online-speech-creator/)

As presenters, we often focus on how we look, what visual aids we will use, and how we sound to the audience. But Sight and sound are just two of the senses. On today's episode, I'm going to show you how you can add a few simple things to your presentation to enhance the additional senses of touch, smell, and even taste.Now, obviously, if you are presenting the financial report to the board of directors, you can probably just move onto the next episode. But, if you are wanting to create a memorable experience for your audience, been seen a different from other presenters, or if you are trying to win your audience to our way of thinking, some of these ideas can be a great way to set yourself apart.The goal is to engage the audience in a way that most boring presenters don't. If you want to be seen as a capable presenter, you'll want to do things a little different. And many of these ideas are small and memorable. And they also allow your audience to participate in the presentation.Show Notes: Use Audience Participation to Engage All the Senses(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/audience-participation-in-business-presentations-inspires-the-senses/)

Even great content can fall flat if it's delivered poorly. One awkward phrase, one outdated cliché, or one moment of uncertainty can derail your entire presentation. That's why knowing what to avoid in a speech is just as important as knowing what to include.You might have years of experience or the perfect PowerPoint presentation, but if you open with a weak phrase, or worse, a cringe-worthy one, you risk losing your audience's attention before your message even begins.In this episode, we'll go through the phrases to avoid in a speech, why they're harmful, and how to replace them with stronger, more effective alternatives. Whether you're presenting to a small group, a packed auditorium, or a few coworkers in a meeting room, this guide will help you become a more effective speaker. Show Notes: 13 Phrases to Avoid in Your Speech at All Costshttps://www.fearlesspresentations.com/6-phrases-you-should-avoid-in-your-next-speech-at-all-costs/

I taught a public speaking class in Houston last week for a great group of people. We had an absolute blast. But the class was a little smaller than normal. And it got me thinking about a topic that I covered a couple of years ago, but we haven't really delved into a lot -- public speaking coaching.If you'd listened to a few episodes, you'll know that I am a big fan of public speaking classes because classes allow participants to practice speaking in a controlled environment. They are a safer way to experiment and try different techniques out. And, since everyone in a public speaking class is working toward the same goal, they are typically very supportive.But what about public speaking coaching? Especially, one-on-one coaching. Is that really effective? So, on this episode, I give you the pros and cons of public speaking coaching.Show Notes: The Pros and Cons of Public Speaking Coachinghttps://www.fearlesspresentations.com/public-speaking-training/presentation-coaching/

This week, I'm covering how to master Q&A Sessions in a speech. This is the part of the presentation that most people dread because it is spontaneous and unplanned. And, because it is spontaneous and unplanned, it can be terrifying for new presenters. So on this episode, I'm going to show you how this couple of minutes can be your secret weapon as a presenter (especially if you are trying to sell or persuade your audience.) I also give you five tips to help you master the Q&A session of your speech. The key to performing well in a Question-and-Answer Session during a presentation is to prepare in advance. If you just try to "wing it," and someone stumps you with a tough question, your confidence can shatter. And, since this is the last thing the audience sees, you'll have a tougher time recovering and leaving the audience with a good impression of you.

This week, I'm going to give you a very simple, step-by-step process to help you improve your public speaking skills in just one week. This process is very similar to the one we use in our public speaking classes. And itis designed to help presenters create new habits that lead to better presentations.If you follow the process, you'll only need to put in 10 to 30 minutes of work on each of five workdays. And by the end of the work week, you will have created a pretty good persuasive speech that will be easier to deliver.If you are listening to this episode on an audio podcast like Apple or Spotify, I'd suggest listening to the entire episode once from start to finish. Then, go back to day one and follow the assignment for the first day. Next, pause the episode until day two and resume the episode.If you use this process, the episode will stay on top of your listening schedule so you can come back to it as you put more of the strategies together.Show Notes: How to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills in One Week (or Less)(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-improve-your-public-speaking-skills-in-one-week-or-less/)

A couple of weeks ago, I started a series on how to get paid to speak. In week one, we talked about different types of motivational speakers and what a professional speaker is. Then, last week, I covered a few things that you absolutely need to do in order to get clients to pay you as a speaker.This week, I'll show you how to cash in on one of the most lucrative industries on the planet. We'll cover three ways to get clients to pay you to speak. Remember what we covered in the first session a couple of weeks ago -- the expertise that you have is very valuable. If you play your cards right, you can use that expertise to generate additional revenue for you.You can make a fortune speaking for a living by doing these three things.First, solve a difficult problem for your audience.Second, catalog your knowledge and repurpose your content and collect money for it.Finally, you have to position yourself as the “Go To” expert on your topic.We'll cover each of these things in detail on the episode!Show Notes: Get Paid to Speak: How to Make a Fortune Speaking for a Living (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-make-a-fortune-speaking-for-a-living/)

Last week I started a series on how to get paid to speak. And if you are a new listener to Fearless Presentations, you might be thinking, "How can I get paid to speak if I'm scared to death to stand up in front of a group?" If that is the case, just go back to some of the earlier episodes for tips on how to reduce nervousness. In this episode and the next couple, I'm going to show you how you can cash in on one of the highest-paid professions in the world.This week, I cover the five things you will need to do to become a professional speaker or a motivational speaker. These five things are not non-negotiables... But they are pretty close.The first couple of tips are about your presentation skills. A couple of the tips are about your confidence, attitude, and how to become the expert in the room. And one of the tips is a way to increase your income on each gig. In fact, in some cases, you may give the speech away to generate income in a totally different way.Show Notes: How to Get Paid to Speak (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/want-a-career-as-a-public-speaker-ways-to-build-public-speaking-credentials/)