Find out what what qualities every great presenter from those 20,000 had in common and how you can start incorporating them into your own life!

Show Notes: 7 Qualities of a Good Public Speaker Every Presenter Needs

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/7-qualities-of-a-good-public-speaker-that-every-presenter-should-know-and-emulate/)

Luckily, so many of the best speakers out there started exactly from where you are right now. Stick around to hear exactly how those same great speakers got out of the rut of beginning!

Show Notes: Start Your Own Public Speaking Company from Scratch

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/start-your-own-public-speaking-company-from-scratch/)

Stick around and hear how to make that transition from being someone who's knowledgeable to someone who can also share their knowledge.

Show Notes: Become a Professional Public Speaker by Speaking within Your Current Industry

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/become-a-professional-public-speaker-by-speaking-within-your-current-industry/)

The first one I'm covering is joining an already established company. If the prospect of entrepreneurship daunts you and you want to go the more hands off/luck-based route, this is really your best option. There are a few big pitfalls many trip into and a few simple things they never seem to do when taking this road, and by the end of this episode you won't have to worry about either of those things!

Show Notes: Become a Certified Speaker for an Established Presentation Company

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/become-a-certified-speaker-for-an-established-presentation-company/)

In this episode, we'll be starting our series on the absolute best and easiest ways to get started on your public speaking journey!

Show Notes: How to Start a Public Speaking Career

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-start-a-public-speaking-career/)

Show Notes: How to Create the Perfect Presentation Handout

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-create-the-perfect-presentation-handout/)

Show Notes: How Many PowerPoint Slides Should You Use in a Presentation?

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-many-powerpoint-slides-should-you-use-in-a-presentation/)

Show Notes: How to Make a Speech More Interesting: 7 Presentation Ideas

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/7-stellar-presentation-enhancers-that-add-impac

This is a continuation of the series we started a few weeks ago about your Presentation Skills Checklist. And over the last couple of weeks, we covered the first three items on that checklist, (1) how to know your audience better, (2) how to design a catchy title, and last week, we covered (3) how to create a presentation outline focused on what the audience wants.

This week, we're going to show you how to add great content to that presentation outline you created last week -- specifically through storytelling.

And, based on my decades of delivering presentation coaching to people from every industry on the face of the Earth, there is a good chance -- a really good chance -- that, right now, you are thinking...

"Oh, but we don't tell stories in out presentations." Or you may be thinking, "I don't think stories will work well for me." And, if you are thinking either of those things, then sadly, your presentations are likely confusing and uninteresting.

Let me give you an example. Think about a time where someone was explaining something new to you verbally, and the more the talked, the more lost you got.

For me, it happened last month here at my office. We bought a 3-D printer. And we followed the instructions to the letter over and over and over again. But every time we tried to sample print an object, the object disconnected from the plate and caused a big mess.

Luckily, my wife knows a teenager who does a lot of 3-D printing. When I told him about what was happening, he started giving me setting adjustments, tips, and a munch of other stuff. that just made the fix more confusing.
I stopped him and said, "Has this ever happened to you?"

He said, "Oh yeah, especially when I get a new printer."

I asked, "So, what did you do... Step-by-step."

And he just remembered what he did to fix his printer, and recited those steps back to me.

That recitation of what he did was a story. And it was way easier for me to follow. Incidentally, me tell you about my printer problem and how I fixed it was also a story.

On this episode, we're going to show you how to insert these pieces of evidence into your presentation in a way that makes you presentation more interesting and easier for the audience to understand.

The clip from The Hangover.

Show Notes: The 5 Steps of Storytelling – How to Tell a Great Story in a Presentation

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/the-5-steps-of-storytelling-how-to-tell-a-great-story/)

On today's episode, I'm going to show you how to quickly and easily design your speech in a whole lot less time that what most people take to create a presentation. If you haven't listened to last week's session on how to create a catchy title, don't worry, I give a quick review at the start of this episode.

Once you go through the session, I put a link in the show notes to out Online Speech Creator. Just click the link and answer a few questions, and the website will create a fantastic speech outline for you. 

Show Notes: How to Write a Speech in Just a Few Simple Steps

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-write-a-speech-just-few-simple-steps/)

Most people design presentations by creating a long list of items they could cover. Then, they try to squeeze everything into a short timeframe. It almost never works.

So, last week, we showed you how to determine what your audience wants or needs from your presentation. If you understand that process, designing great presentations is much easier. And those presentations are also easier to deliver -- which reduces that nervousness as well.

On today's episode, I'm going to show you how to get your audience to want to pay attention to every word that you say before you even open your mouth. The absolute most important part of the presentation is the presentation title.

In fact, when you start with a great title, the presentation almost writes itself.

So today, I'm going to take you through our "Presentation Title Generator." The good news is that this process only has two simple steps. But when we show our class members how to do this in our classroom coaching sessions, they are always surprised at how dramatic the differences are in the presentations that they are able to create.

Show Notes: A Catchy Presentation Title Is the Start of a Great Presentation

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/catchy-presentation-titles-are-the-start-of-a-great-presentation/)

Listen to any speaking coach, go to any Toastmasters, attend any presentation seminar, you will hear a single phrase over and over. “Know your audience.” Sounds really good too. When we hear the phrase, we think, “Well, of course. That makes sense.” But what exactly does “know your audience mean?” Is there a formula to help a speaker know his or her audience better?

Well, yes, there is. In fact, every presenter should use this formula before creating any speech or any PowerPoint slide. Because the answers that you get from following the formula will greatly change what content you cover in your presentation. The answers will also allow you to change your delivery so that your audience is more likely to agree with you.

So, on today's episode, I'll show how to research your audience and identify exactly what they need to take away from your presentation and why. If you understand this, design great presentations and reducing presentation nervousness is a piece of cake.

Show Notes: Know Your Audience before Designing Presentation

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/know-your-audience-before-designing-your-sales-presentation/)

Before pilots take a plane off the ground, they always follow a written checklist. They don’t follow this process by memory. Instead, they check off each task one by one.

There is a reason why every pilot does this. The process takes a tremendous amount of risk out of the equation. The checklist also takes something very complex and makes it very simple.

Great presenters do the same thing. If you follow a simple presentation checklist, you make delivering the presentation less risky.

In my classes, I teach students how to design an entire presentation, from start to finish, in fifteen minutes or less. These class members are often shocked at how fast they can design their presentations. They finish in minutes what would have typically taken hours (or weeks) to complete.

On this episode, I cover a simple presentation checklist that you can use when you design PowerPoint presentations. It will help you shorten your preparation time and also reduce your fear of public speaking.

Then, in the next few weeks, we'll go into each step in a little more detail.

Show Notes: Presentation Skills Checklist

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/checklist-presentation-skills/)

We are super excited to announce the new way we will be doing our Fearless Presentations classes and if you are interested in hearing all about it I cover it pretty extensively from 2:33 - 15:32.

For those that are more of our loyal listeners to the podcast, y'all probably started listening in the first place because you were wanting to reduce nervousness when you present. Of course a lot of our episodes are built around that idea but what a lot of people seem to underestimate is the fact that a large reason they're likely nervous is they are trying to stand up and deliver a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad speech. 

Even the absolute best speaker or presenter on planet earth trying to deliver material that absolutely sucks, will almost always still end up sucking. So between you and I, most people that are struggling with nerves and fear of speaking aren't due to anxiety or anything like that, it's due to delivering a bad speech. Too many points in too little time being the main problem I see. 

So in this episode, I'm gonna cover how you can not only throw together an entire presentation relatively fast, but also end up with a speech that's well laid out and won't make you even more nervous cause of how bad it is. 

Online Speech Creator

How to Design a Good Title

How to Design Better Bullet Points

How to Use Better Examples and Stories

Show Notes: How to Design Presentations Quickly

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-design-presentations-quickly/)

But, I have to admit, the most surprising thing to me was that Freddie Mercury was a Persian Indian man who lived in England. When I listened to the songs, there was no Persian accent. No Indian accent. And there was no British accent. It reminded me of a conversation I had with one of my instructors who specialized in accent reduction.

She told me that, “Music is the secret weapon for accent reduction. When people sing, everyone sounds like they speak American English with no accent.”English is a musical language. If it were a band, it wouldn’t be a quiet little string quartet. It would be a jazz ensemble — bold, abrasive, and filled to the brim with rhythm and melody changes. And to speak American English fluently, you have to master those rhythmic and melodic changes.

There are three main components that influence your accent:

-- Vowel Sounds (consonant and vowel pronunciation)
-- Rhythm (stress patterns between words and syllables)
--Intonation (the rise and fall of pitch in a sentence)

Music mimics all three of these elements, and trains your ears and mouth at the same time. So, on this episode, I'm going to break each of these three items down and look at how real language learners have used music and speech techniques to achieve clearer communication.

By the way, although this episode is focusing on the non-native English speaker, the tips can help anyone who wants to become a better presenter. If you think of great speakers like MLK, one of the reasons why he was so popular was that he spoke with a rhythm.You can do something similar to captivate your audiences as well.

Show Notes: Music 101: A Musical Guide to Accent Reduction

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/music-101-the-key-to-accent-reduction/)

In this post, we are going to cover the best way, a very simple three-step process that will help you introduce yourself in a presentation. A summary of the steps is below.

• Start with your name and company (or organization or school).
• Tell your audience what problem you can solve for them.
• Share some type of proof (social proof works best) that you can solve this problem.

I will break down each step into a simple-to-follow process on this episode. When you get real good at this type of introduction, your public speaking fear will drop significantly because your audience will be more engaged. You'll get better feedback from them.

Show Notes: How to Introduce Yourself in a Presentation [with Examples]

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-introduce-yourself-before-starting-any-presentation/)

So, on this episode, I'll give you the seven presentation habits that actually cause public speaking fear. They are:

1) Writing Your Presentation Word-for-Word
2) Designing Your PowerPoint Slideshow First
3) Relying on Notes
4) Asking for Critiques from Friends/Coworkers
5) Practicing Alone
6) Videoing Your Presentation and Reviewing It Alone
7) Cognitive Dissonance

If you can eliminate these habits, you'll increase your confidence pretty quickly.

Show Notes: 7 Presentation Habits that Cause You to Become a More Nervous Speaker

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/7-presentation-habits-that-cause-you-to-become-a-more-nervous-speaker/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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. 


Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech
(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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. 


Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech
(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

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. 


Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech
(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

Show Notes: 5 of the Most Common Myths about Public Speaking Debunked

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/top-5-myths-about-public-speaking-fear/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

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/)

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/6-phrases-you-should-avoid-in-your-next-speech-at-all-costs/

Show Notes: The Pros and Cons of Public Speaking Coaching

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/public-speaking-training/presentation-coaching/

 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.

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/)

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.

1. First, solve a difficult problem for your audience.
2. Second, catalog your knowledge and repurpose your content and collect money for it.
3. 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/)

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/)

 (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/want-a-career-as-a-public-speaker-ways-to-build-public-speaking-credentials/)

Full Show Notes: The Best Types of Public Speaking Training in 2025.

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/public-speaking-training/)

How to stop saying Um is one of the most common public speaking concerns. Um is a filler word. And filler words are a natural part of everyday conversation. A surprising fact, though, is that you’ll actually sound strange (or even fake) to your audience if you don’t use any filler words.

However, there is a negative impact of using too many of these vocal fillers. If um, you say um, too many um, ums in your speech, the repeated use over and over will become a distraction. This excessive use of these filler words has the potential to detract from your message.

A funny example of this was in the movie, We’re the Millers. Scottie P., the young girl’s date, keeps using the phrase, “You know what I’m sayin'” over and over. And, Jason Sudeikis’ character calls attention to each of these verbal crutches in a very funny way.

The good news about Scottie P. is that what makes this scene really funny is that most people don’t use these filler phrases in everyday conversation. They show up more often when we are speaking in front of a group or delivering a formal presentation. If you understand why that happens, you can fix this bad habit very easily.

The best speakers in the world have trained themselves, over time, to minimize their use of fillers. (Notice that I said minimize, not eliminate.) Excessive use of um and other filler noises can frustrate the audience and make the speaker less credible. With a bit of practice, though, you can use fewer filler words as well.

Full Show Notes at How to Stop Saying Um When Presenting

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-stop-saying-um-when-presenting/)

The remaining three tips are ones that are specific to ESL presenters (or presenters who are delivering presentations to international audiences.) 

One of the major benefits of reducing public speaking fear if English is not your first language is that your accent will, theoretically, be less pronounced as your nervousness goes down. In the episode, I explain why this happens and how to make it happen if you find that audiences have a tough time understanding you when you present.

Full show notes are at We Help ESL Presenters Give Confident Presentations in English

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/a-step-by-step-way-to-help-esl-presenters-give-confident-presentations-in-english/)

Full Shownotes: How to Overcome Stage Fright

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-overcome-stage-fright-in-three-easy-steps/)

Shownotes: PowerPoint Tips-The 10 Biggest PowerPoint Mistakes and How to Fix Them

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/power-point-tips/)

In this episode, we cover a few tips and best practices for your virtual training sessions. The closer you stick to these guidelines, the better your training sessions will be.

Just as an FYI, though… These are tools and tips for virtual training sessions. If you are organizing a virtual staff meeting or just need to “get your team on the same page,” you only need one tip. Keep the virtual meeting short. Virtual staff meetings should take 15 minutes to 30 minutes — tops. The moment you cross that 30-minute mark, retention, and morale both go down exponentially.

With that being said, if you are teaching or training a group over Zoom or Teams, these tips can help you increase retention and morale.

Show Notes: Best Practices and Tips for Virtual Instructor-Led Training

In this episode, I cover the pros and cons of public speaking coaching. I give you a few circumstances where hiring a good public speaking coach can be very helpful. We will also cover the situations where a presentation coach can be detrimental. Next, I’ll give you a few ways to find a high-quality speech coach. Then, finally, I will share with you a list of skills where presentation and executive coaching are most helpful.

The Pros and Cons of Public Speaking Coaching.

You have a lot of options for different types of presentation training. The most common way to acquire practical tips is by reading posts or books and/or watching videos online. This option is very cost-effective. (In most cases, it is free.) The downside of this type of training is that you won’t get feedback or coaching. So, quite often, this type of training can take a long time. You can also develop bad habits that may be more difficult to correct later.

However, if you hire a good public speaking coach, feedback is built into the process. For instance, a coach can help you design a sample presentation. Then, you can practice delivering that presentation in front of the coach. Your coach will give you feedback so you can improve your delivery. So, when you hire a public speaking coach, you can speed up your learning process quite a bit. Your presentation coach may have years of experience mastering the skill that you want to improve in. This shortens your learning curve.

Show Notes: The Pros and Cons of a Public Speaking Coach

The downside is true as well. Improper conference room setup can actually make you more nervous and make delivering the presentation more difficult.

This post has two parts. Part one is about The Different Conference Room Styles. In that section, I’ll give you different conference room setup options with pros and cons of each. Then, in Part Two, I’ll give you the Best Practices for How to Set Up a Conference Room and how to set up a meeting room. These best practices will help you avoid some of the big mistakes that presenters make when they set up the tables, chairs, and audiovisuals for meetings.

One of the hardest things to get across to new presenters is the immutable fact that just about everything that you have ever learned about public speaking and creating good business presentations is flat-out WRONG! I like to tell people to do the exact opposite of everyone else, and you’ll do a lot better as a presenter!

So, in this episode, I debunk some of the biggest whoppers that are told about public speaking. Once you understand how wrong these public speaking myths are, it is much easier to reduce the fear of public speaking. You’ll also avoid terrible habits that actually increase public speaking fear.

If you find yourself doing any of these things, make sure to stop. You might be increasing your presentation jitters.

Show Notes: The 5 Most Common Myths About Public Speaking Debunked

In this post, I’ll cover a few best practices for organizing fantastic business presentation skill training classes. Effective presentations don’t happen by accident. And, when you get a bunch of “Type A” personalities who all have experience leading presentations trying to work together to organize a single speech… Well… Let’s just say that the results can be a little frustrating.

Different personalities have different strengths. So, when you organize corporate presentation training sessions, you want to make sure to help each participant maximize his or her strengths. But you also have to help your presenters create a clear message that is focused on the same outcome.

Here is a checklist of a few of the best ways to deliver presentation skills training for a business team.

Show Notes: Business Presentation Training for Your Group

If you focus on this one simple thing, the number of times you say “uhm” won’t matter. In addition, if you focus on this one thing, your gestures and not knowing what to do with your hands won’t matter. If you focus on this one thing, then the occasional loss of train of thought won’t matter. In fact, if you focus on this one simple thing, you can break just about every rule that public speakers are supposed to abide by, and you will still win over your audience.

Enthusiasm and Energy Make a Boring Speech More Interesting.

This one simple rule has transformed countless mediocre speakers into good speakers, scores of good speakers into great speakers, and numerous great speakers into world-class speakers.

This simple rule that can make or break a speaker is… ENTHUSIASM.

Show Notes: Make Boring Speeches More Interesting

Good speakers and lecturers usually give presentation handouts to accompany their speeches. As a result, a great presentation handout can make your speech more memorable. It gives your audience the freedom to listen to your presentation instead of frantically taking notes.

The handouts you provide also help them remember the key points and highlights from your presentation, making your talk even more valuable. People are grateful for good handouts and will remember you long after the talk ends. Finally, your handout can be used as an exceptional marketing piece. If it is good enough, your audience members will both keep it and share it with others.

To Download the Examples of Presentation Handouts Handout click here.

2) Look for Opportunities to Present, and then Be Courageous.

You will never conquer any fear if you simply avoid the situations that cause the fear. Instead, look for opportunities to speak where the consequence of failure is pretty low. For instance, you can offer to speak at career day at your child’s school. (If you totally bomb this presentation, so what?) Then, be courageous. I talked in the article 7 Qualities of a Great Speaker about the difference between Self-Confidence and Poise. Self-confidence comes from having a series of successes doing something. Poise, however, is where a speaker is not confident but performs courageously anyway. The more of these courageous successes that you can string together, the more self-confident you will be.

3) Document What You Did Well.

The reason that our presentation skills classes work so well is that our instructors help each student document what they do well in each presentation. For instance, the instructor will teach the student a way to make part of his/her presentation easier, show the student how to do it, and then when the presenter succeeds, the instructor reinforces that success. You can do the same after each of your presentations as well. Immediately after presenting, make a list of some of the things that you did well in the speech. Turn off your internal critic for a while. (All of us are our own worst critic, so you will have to fight this.) Then, before your next presentation, refer to the items on your list. These lists will help you reduce the phobia and build confidence over time.

4) Practice in a Controlled Environment.

If you want a faster way to conquer glossophobia, join us in one of our fear of public speaking workshops. One of the great things about being in a controlled environment like a class or workshop is that the risk of failure is reduced to just about 0%. The only way to conquer glossophobia is to string together a series of successes that outweigh, in our minds, the causes that we talked about above. As each participant masters each part of a fantastic presentation, the fear is reduced exponentially. In fact, in many cases, the growth is so fast and so dramatic that the irrational fear is replaced by confidence. The process isn’t foolproof, and it isn’t easy. However, it works almost 100% of the time!

Show Notes: How to Overcome Glossophobia (An Irrational Fear of Public Speaking)

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 confusing. Some studies say that as few as 7% of the population has glossophobia. Other surveys claim that over 95% of people experience this fear.

However, the statistics depend on the definition of Glossophobia that you are using.

Show Notes: How to Overcome Glossophobia 

Here are the main causes of public speaking fear that we see most often. If you are experiencing any of these fears, click the link to access additional information about how to overcome that specific cause of performance anxiety.

• Lack of Experience Speaking in Front of a Formal Audience.
• A Concern that Others Are Judging You.
• Insufficient Preparation (Or Just Thinking that You Haven’t Prepared Enough.)
• Past Negative Experiences or a Prior Traumatic Experience.

Full Show Notes: What Causes the Fear of Public Speaking?

However, sometimes when people feel that stage fright, they panic. When you panic in front of an audience, you will most likely experience even more nervous feelings.

So, what do you do to calm down before the presentation and calm those nerves? Below are 5 Simple Ways to Calm Your Nerves Before and During a Speech.

1. Create a Simple Presentation with Just a Few Key Bullet Points and Practice It with a Person.
2. Find a Quiet Place to Be Alone and Perform a Short Series of Exercises.
3. Interact and Network with Your Audience to Calm Your Nerves Before a Presentation.
4. Just Before You Start Your Presentation, Take a Steady and Deep Breath.
5. Start Your Presentation with a Personal Story to Calm Your Nerves Almost Instantly.

This episode covers each of these tips in more detail. For full show notes, visit How to Calm Down Before a Presentation

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-calm-down-before-a-presentation-5-simple-ways-to-calm-your-nerves/)

When we lower the unknown factors, we lower the threat, and the fear diminishes. In fact, sometimes it even goes away entirely.

Anytime you do something somewhat dangerous, your body will react. Your heart rate will increase. You may get sweaty palms or a queasy stomach. Things, like riding a bike, driving a car, flying in an airplane, or firing a handgun, are all somewhat dangerous for people without any experience doing these things.

If you’ve ever seen a four or five-year-old kid riding a bike, you can typically see the tension in the kid’s face. It’s the same with a teenager with a driver’s permit. That very first time that your plane took off and you felt that tickle in your stomach, you likely grabbed the armrests a little tighter. And police officers practice day after day to get proficient at firing their handguns because they want to be extremely confident.

The point is that fear is normal. However, if you practice in the right way, the fear will go away.

Show Notes: Public Speaking Fear (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/fear-of-public-speaking/)

Stage fright is still one of the most prevalent anxieties in the world. In fact, psychologists created a specific term for this particular social phobia. They call it glossophobia — which is a form of social anxiety disorder.

Basically, this performance anxiety occurs when a person has to stand in front of a group and deliver a presentation. Since the symptoms of this fear are so common, presenters often have questions about why it’s there, where it came from, and how do you get rid of it?

Most people feel like they are the only ones out there who experience butterflies in the stomach, a shaky voice, or shaky hands. However, just about every speaker has some sort of nervousness when presenting in front of groups. The person may have had a bad experience at a previous speaking engagement. Now, when he or she stands to speak n front of any number of people, the person may feel a lot of nervous energy. If the speech is in front of a large audience, he or she may experience a full-blown panic attack.

As a result, a lot of people who feel that stage fright will avoid public speaking situations altogether. These people can miss out on big opportunities. If public speakers don’t do something about the anxiety, it can escalate and turn into a debilitating phobia. With all that being said, though, here is some really good news. As far as anxiety disorders go, this one is really easy to conquer.

Show Notes: Public Speaking Fear (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/fear-of-public-speaking/)

However, these often confused parts of speech are the special sauce to really great presentation burgers. If you use them just right, these items will be like adding the perfect piece of jewelry to a formal dress. They will take a speech that is already pretty good and make it exceptional.

Show Notes: Metaphors, Similes, and Analogies: The Special Sauce for Your Presentation Masterpiece (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/metaphors-similes-and-analogies-the-special-sauce-for-your-presentation-masterpiece/)

Your team is one of just six to eight other companies competing for this contract. How do you make sure that the committee picks your team? Well, not to brag, but over the years, groups that I have coached have received over 80% of these contracts. Just follow this simple sales presentation outline, and your team will have a better shot at winning as well.

Don’t Get Hung Up on the Terms Proposal, Bid Proposal, Shortlist Presentation or Sales Presentation

By the way, don’t get hung up on the terms that I am using. People will often respond with something like, “We don’t present ‘bids’ to our potential clients.” In other cases, professional people may say, “But I’m not a salesperson. This isn’t a sales presentation.” My point is, don’t get hung up on the terms.

The process that I’m covering will help anyone who is presenting a solution to a person or group who will exchange money for this solution. The terms “Bid” and “Proposal” are standard procurement terms, which is why we are using them here.

I have heard this type of presentation called each of the following over the years.

• Bid Proposal
• RFP Presentation
• Shortlist Presentation
• Sales Presentation
• Present a Quote

Opportunities to close really big deals via a presentation are pretty nerve racing. We all want every, single advantage that we can get when we walk into the room. So, if you want to ace your next short-list presentation or RFP presentation, one of our coaches can help. Complete the form below, and one of our instructors will contact you.

Show Note: How to Create a Business Proposal Presentation (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/present-a-bid-proposal-great-sales-presentation-outline/)

Most people think that a single fact is good, additional facts are better, and too many facts are just right. So, the more facts you can use to prove your point, the better chance you have of convincing the other person that you are right. The HUGE error in this logic, though, is that if you prove that you are right, you are also proving that the other person is wrong. People don’t like it when someone proves that they are wrong. So, we prove our point, the other person is likely to feel resentment. When resentment builds, it leads to anger. Once anger enters the equation, logic goes right out the window.

In addition, when people use a “fact” or “Statistic” to prove a point, the audience has a natural reaction to take a contrary side of the argument. For instance, if I started a statement with, “I can prove to you beyond a doubt that…” before I even finish the statement, there is a good chance that you are already trying to think of a single instance where the statement is NOT true. This is a natural response. As a result, the thing that we need to realize about being persuasive is that the best way to persuade another person is to make the person want to agree with us. We do this by showing the audience how they can get what they want if they do what we want.

Show Notes: How to Design a Persuasive Presentation in 3 Easy Steps (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/persuasive-speech-how-to-write-a-persuasive-speech/)

Whether or not it’s your first time preparing for a speech performance in front of an audience, it’s best not to “wing it.” People experience the most stage fright when they feel unprepared. You prepare for a speech to feel more comfortable with your content, stretch your leadership skills and give you a sense of ease for the day of the performance. Each tip below provides a bit of wisdom with an actionable tip to help you overcome stage fright and reduce performance anxiety.

Full Show Notes: 5 Practical Tips to Help you Overcome Stage Fright (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/5-practical-tips-to-help-you-overcome-stage-fright-and-reduce-performance-anxiety/)

By the way, this doesn’t mean being arrogant or overconfident. It is not about being boastful or self-promoting. Instead, the process is about recognizing your own abilities and accomplishments. You also have to have the confidence to share them with others.

Show Notes: The Opposite of Impostor Syndrome-Journey to Self Confidence (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/the-opposite-of-imposter-syndrome-a-journey-to-self-confidence-and-belief-in-yourself/)

My public speaking class members often ask me questions like, “Do you still get nervous when you speak?” “How did you become a professional speaker?” And the most common, “You were a nervous speaker… How did you overcome your public speaking fear?”

The answer to the first question is, “Sure. When I deliver big presentations or do something new, yes, I still get nervous from time to time. But the nervousness isn’t anywhere close to the public speaking anxiety I had years ago.”

The other two questions, though, have both a short answer and a long answer.

So, I thought that I would back up this week and show you how I overcame my fear of public speaking. You could also call this post how an incredibly shy person beat the odds to become a confident speaker and presenter. My first formal presentation in the business world was such a failure that it cost me my first career.

However, that failure was a turning point in my life. It was horrible when I experienced it. However, it allowed me to help over 100,000 people avoid making the same mistake.

I hope that my story can help you overcome your public speaking fear as well! If a person like me can become a great speaker… ANYONE can become a great speaker. You will have to work. You will also have to embrace your fear when you speak in front of an audience. However, you will also experience great rewards when you do!

Show Notes: How I Eliminated My Fear of Public Speaking (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-a-shy-trailer-park-kid-became-a-world-class-speaker-and-how-you-can-too/)

Feel nervous about speaking in public? Tell a personal story in your speech (early), and you can reduce public speaking fear dramatically. One of the first public speaking secrets that we share in our public speaking training classes is that stories are your friend.

When you tell a story, you reduce presentation jitters and build rapport with your audience. Don’t believe me? Watch any professional motivational speaker on YouTube. You will find that their entire speech is composed of a series of individual stories that they link together. In this post, we will cover some of the major benefits of telling stories as well as the best way to do it.

In this episode, we comer the ins and out of why you should insert stories into your presentations. We also cover how, when you do this, your nervousness will drop dramatically.

Show Notes: Storytelling in Speeches (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/tell-a-story-in-your-speech-and-reduce-public-speaking-fear/)

The tips on this episode can help you improve your story structure,. However, the best way to deliver a story in your presentation is to just play the video in your head. Then just tell the audience what you are seeing. Great storytelling is really just sharing your own experience with your audience. So if following these steps is a little out of your comfort zone, start by just inserting a single personal story from your own experience into your next presentation. Then try each of these tips, one at a time, in future presentations.

This final tip isn’t really one of the steps of storytelling, but it is an important part of how to tell a story. It is a good idea to practice different versions of your story. I got this from my friend Ton Antion when I interviewed him about building a personal brand. He suggested having a 30-second version, a one-minute version, and a two-minute version of every story.

By the way, I’m not saying to have three different kinds of stories. I’m suggesting that you get good at telling your stories in different ways, so the timing of your story is the right length, whether you have three minutes to speak, 30 minutes to speak, or three hours to speak. The best storytellers can condense the whole story down in time if they absolutely have to do so.

Although I had been teaching students how to tell a great story for years, I never really taught this. I’d say, “If time is short, just condense your story down.” After Tom mentioned this tip, though, I began to pay attention to the look on my student’s faces when I said this. I’d sometimes see a little confusion. So we actually started practicing this in class. It has been a big help. In fact, we sometimes find that a well-worded 30-second story can be more impactful than a longer one. Try it yourself and see!

Show Notes: How to Tell a Good Story in a Presentation in 5 Simple Steps (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/the-5-steps-of-storytelling-how-to-tell-a-great-story/)

In fact, once you understand the concepts below, you can use our Online Speech Writer to organize and print your presentation. A little warning, though, the process is very simple if you follow every step. If you skip a step, you can get bogged down, and the process can take a lot of time. However, if you follow the steps, you can write an effective speech in just a few minutes (versus hours or days)!

Show Notes: How to Design an Entire Speech in 3 Simple Steps (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-write-a-speech-just-few-simple-steps/)

In this post, we are going to cover the best way, a very simple three-step process that will help you introduce yourself in a presentation. A summary of the steps is below.

1. Start with your name and company (or organization or school).
2. Tell your audience what problem you can solve for them.
3. Share some type of proof (social proof works best) that you can solve this problem.

I will break down each step into a simple-to-follow process.

Show Notes: How to Introduce Yourself Before a Speech (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-introduce-yourself-before-starting-any-presentation/)

Last week, we covered three ways to start a presentation to help your audience retain the content of the presentation better. This week, I give you five ways to capture the attention of even the most stoic audience right away!

If you stick around for the last six minutes, I will give you my very best tip for starting a presentation. It is a bonus tip. It doesn't always work, but when it does, it is a show-stopper. So, stick around for it!

Show Notes: How to Start a Presentation (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-start-a-presentation/)

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 of the room. The audience stares with skepticism written all over their faces. This stoic crowd has no patience for speakers who waste their time. And their demeanor is showing that fact right now. In a timid voice, we start with a simple, “Good morning.” We get no response from the audience — no warm welcome at all. As a result, our nervousness increases dramatically.

The good news is that your speech doesn’t have to start this way. Your first words will create first impressions.

So, in this session, I’m going to give you the best way to start a successful presentation so you can win over the audience members. Below are a few of my favorite ways to start a speech that will help you capture the attention of your audience and get even the most stoic crowd to want more from you.

Show Notes: Best Ways to Start a Presentation (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-start-a-presentation/)

As a review, the first step is to find out where the fear of public speaking comes from. Then, do a few simple things to reduce the risk of failure in those instances. (We will cover 10 of these tips in this episode.) Finally, you want to string together a series of successes speaking in front of a group of people. Basically, you want to get lots of practice so you can develop good presentation skills.

This is the process that we use in our public speaking classes. Your local toastmasters' club and your local speech coach might use this process as well. So, presentation tips can help you eliminate presentation fear symptoms. However, to permanently reduce nervousness, you have to follow the process over and over. Every time you use one of these key tips and have success, your confidence will grow.

That is why a good public speaking class or coach can help you move through this process more quickly. If you only give a single presentation once a year or a couple of times a year, you will find it difficult to string together this series of successes. You will become a much better speaker if you speak more often.

Remember, stage fright is a common form of anxiety. And public speaking is a learned skill. No one comes out of the womb as a great public speaker. So a good coach or class can speed up the process exponentially.

Show Notes: 10 Ways to Get Rid of the Fear of Public Speaking (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/10-simple-ways-to-get-over-the-fear-of-public-speaking/)

The process is really simple. In fact, anyone can reduce public speaking anxiety if they follow this process. Over the last 20 years, our great public speaking class instructors have perfected the best ways to reduce anxiety symptoms. And we have organized the process into three simple steps. The process works every single time!

In this session, we explain this simple process. However, if you looking for public speaking tips, see 10 Ways to Eliminate the Fear of Public Speaking. In that episode, we show you how to lower your heart rate, take deep breaths, and eight other ways to calm speech anxiety. This session is a little different, though. We are not going to give you a bunch of tips about how to reduce stage fright. Instead, we will show you how to become a good public speaker, so the nervousness goes away altogether.

Show Notes: Eliminate Public Speaking Fear in 3 Easy Steps (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/eliminate-public-speaking-fear-in-three-easy-steps)

Regardless of what industry you are in or what expertise you have, you are the expert. The knowledge that you have is valuable to someone.

When I was 14 years old, my dad owned a home remodeling company. Every winter, I crawled under houses helping him repair frozen pipes that had burst. After a couple of winters, I had so much experience doing this that I could do it in my sleep. So as a teenager, I was an expert at repairing ruptured PVC pipes.

After I graduated from college, my first real job was working for an oil company doing title work for mineral rights. Before long, I had not only gotten pretty good at it, but I had also trained a number of new people.

In my third year in the training industry, I generated a half-million dollars worth of sales for the first time. That same year, I also received a couple of awards for outstanding instruction.

It took me five years as an entrepreneur to attain my first million dollars. However, it only took about eight more months to generate my second million.

With each of these accomplishments, I became an expert at that thing. I had information that the general public didn’t have (even when my expertise was just repairing frozen pipes).

Don’t underestimate your knowledge. Your experience has made you the expert.

One of my friends in college was going to school to be an elementary school teacher, and she absolutely hated math. However, once she graduated, she found out that in the State of Texas, Math and Science teachers got paid an extra fee. This was because teachers with this expertise were in high demand. So, she decided to be a fourth-grade math teacher.

Those of us who knew her pretty well were laughing when we asked her about her career choice. For the three or four years that we had known her, she complained over and over about her math classes. These classes were her nemesis. After a little teasing from us, she replied by saying, “In order to teach fourth-grade math, I just have to be an expert at fifth-grade math.” That day, I learned a prophetic life lesson…

In order to be an expert at something, you just need to have a little more knowledge than your audience.
For instance, let’s say that you are a restaurant manager who turned around a struggling location. How many other managers are there in the world who would want to hear how you did it? You’d be the expert at restaurant turnarounds (especially if you were able to do it a second or third time). Or, if you are a dentist who is really good at getting your patients to show up for every sixth-month check-up, then other dentists would pay dearly to figure out how you do it. Whatever you do on a day-to-day basis makes you the expert at that activity.

Show Notes: You Are the Undisputed Expert (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/you-are-the-undisputed-expert-so-now-prove-it/)

Before I begin, though, there is an important point that you really have to understand. Developing public speaking skills takes time. If you have a presentation tomorrow morning and you are just now looking for exercises to improve public speaking skills, guess what? You are probably too late.

Someone called our 800 number last week looking for help with an upcoming presentation. I asked him, “How long have you known about this fear?”

He replied, “Well, I guess all my life.”

So he knew he needed help a long time ago but waited until just a few weeks before his biggest presentation to try to do something about it. That would be like a teenager just starting to learn to drive a week before taking the driver’s test. You can probably do it. However, the teen would do much better if he or she practices an hour or two every week for an entire year. If you practice the public speaking tips below a little at a time on a regular basis, you will slowly become a great public speaker. If you try to do it in a week, you probably won’t improve a lot.

Show Notes: Exercises to Improve Presentation Skills

However, sometimes when people feel that stage fright, they panic. When you panic in front of an audience, you will most likely experience even more nervous feelings.

So, what do you do to calm down before the presentation and calm those nerves? Below are 5 Simple Ways to Calm Your Nerves Before and During a Speech.

1. Create a Simple Presentation with Just a Few Key Bullet Points and Practice It with a Person.
2. Find a Quiet Place to Be Alone and Perform a Short Series of Exercises.
3. Interact and Network with Your Audience to Calm Your Nerves Before a Presentation.
4. Just Before Your Start Your Presentation, Take a Steady and Deep Breath.
5. Start Your Presentation with a Personal Story to Calm Your Nerves Almost Instantly.

This episode covers each of these tips in more detail. For full show notes, visit How to Calm Down Before a Presentation

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-calm-down-before-a-presentation-5-simple-ways-to-calm-your-nerves/

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 public speaking. However, these “helpful” pieces of advice can actually have an extremely negative effect.

This session shows how constructive criticism can actually cause public speaking fear. We’ll also cover a few ways to reduce this nervousness when we coach or mentor a nervous speaker.

Public Speaking Fear is Normal.

Public speaking is not unlike any other new skill we try to develop. When we try to speak in front of a group for the first time, every one of us will be nervous. The first time you rode a bicycle, you probably felt a little anxiety. You probably were also a little timid when you operated a computer for the first time. Remember the first time you drove a car on the freeway? You probably felt very nervous.

Each of these experiences has a risk of danger. So, the first time that we try them, we experience fear. Speaking in front of a group is no different. The first time that we do it, there is a risk of failure or embarrassment. The good news, though, is that with experience and a series of successes, your nervousness in each of these areas went down. Your fear of public speaking will also decrease if you follow the guide below.

Show Notes: How to Scare the Gooey Out of a Nervous Public Speaker (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-scare-the-gooey-out-of-a-new-public-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 year, your new skills wither away.

In fact, one of the reasons why people come to a public speaking class is to get practice very quickly. A class lets them develop these presentation skills in a controlled environment. In a small group setting like this, presenters get instant feedback and direction from a public speaking expert.

With all the positives, though, it would be impractical to go to a presentation class two or three times a year. So, where do you go to get additional practice? In this session, I share a few ways to find speaking venues that are always looking for good speakers. We’ll also cover how to build a solid reputation as a good speaker, so your reputation grows. (That way, you have meeting organizers reaching out to you to be a speaker at their meeting as well!)

*** Before a get started, though, here is a quick word of caution. Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent. So, make sure that you develop a good presentation first. Then, also work on your poise and confidence when you present. Do these two things before you start to practice. If you practice a poor presentation, you’ll get really good at delivering a terrible presentation. Also, if you practice bad habits over and over, you will have more difficulty later correcting these habits. ***

Show Notes: Find Great Venues to Practice Your Presentations (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/podcast-15-how-find-great-venues-practice-your-presentations/)

The most powerful talks all use similar tactics to engage their audience and present well. Today, we discuss five strategies for creating Ted talks to help you create that stage presence and make your Ted talk go viral!

Show Notes: 5 Strategies for Creating TED Talks (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/make-your-ted-talk-go-viral/)

Lincoln didn’t want to ignore the actions and sacrifices the soldiers made by fighting and spoke to commemorate them in what is titled “The Gettysburg Address.”

“But, wait, you mentioned math…” Yes, I did because part of analyzing anything is making sure the language and wording used makes sense and are understood.

Show Notes: 

One of the Greatest Speeches in American History (https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/greatest-speech-gettysburg-address/)

One of the most important steps in beginning is just that, to start. Otherwise, there’s no change. Just starting out gives you practice and room to improve. Improvement might be necessary because while you might have a friendly face, your body language could portray something else. While speaking, you may not connect with your audience enough, and you might need to practice making more eye contact. So start off by speaking at low-stress meetings or community centers. Don’t start out your career by jumping into corporate events- they’re likely to have a large crowd. The best thing to do is to start where you’re comfortable.

In this episode, I show you a few ways to get practice as a professional speaker and generate income by speaking within your current industry.

Show Notes: Become a Professional Public Speaker by Speaking within Your Current Industry

1. Hone Your Craft Before Dabbling in Professional Speaking -- Basically, get good at something else first. No one is going to pay you to speak if you haven't first been successful at something.
2. Create a Magnetic Personality -- Professional speakers are larger than life.
3. Become an Expert in Your Industry (or Niche.)
4. Don't Rely on Speaking Gigs Alone. Create Multiple Streams of Income.
5. Develop a Tough Skin.

If you don't yet have these things in place, make sure to keep listening. The next few episodes can help you develop these traits.

Show Notes:
So You Want to Be a PAID and Successful Speaker. Here Are Five Things You Will Need to Become a Professional Speaker.

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/want-a-career-as-a-public-speaker-ways-to-build-public-speaking-credentials/
 

By the way, if you have a famous last name, it may not matter what you speak about. (People just want to say that they saw you in person.) You will also likely have a speech writer working on something inspirational for you anyway. But what if you don’t have a famous last name to back you up? What if you didn’t win an Olympic gold medal? What if people don’t know you from another face on the street?

Since 99.9% of us are in this situation, how can we increase our fame to become professional speakers? Before we explore these tips, let’s explore the types of professional speakers.

SHOW NOTES: How to Become a Professional Speaker

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/want-a-career-as-a-public-speaker-ways-to-build-public-speaking-credentials/

“Wait… sales presentation? Oh, I’m not a professional salesperson. This may not work for me.”

Whether you are a salesperson or just trying to persuade coworkers to accept your ideas, this process is important to success. By the way, this technique works both in written format and in a speech. The best way to prepare for them is by treating them the same way. Start by creating a speech outline. Obviously, when you create persuasive speeches, you don’t want them to be scripted. A quick outline will typically work much better.

For the full show notes, visit Creating a Persuasive Speech or Sales Presentation (with a Few Examples)

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/amazing-persuasive-speech-outline-with-sales-presentation-examples/

In this post, I’m going to cover the pros and cons of public speaking coaching. I give you a few circumstances where hiring a good public speaking coach can be very helpful. We will also cover the situations where a presentation coach can be detrimental. Next, I’ll give you a few ways to find a high-quality speech coach. Then finally, I will share with you a list of skills where presentation and executive coaching are most helpful.

For Full Show Notes, Visit Presentation Coaching-Do I Ned a Public Speaking Coach?

3) Document What You Did Well.

The reason that our presentation skills classes work so well is that our instructors help each student document what they do well in each presentation. For instance, the instructor will teach the student a way to make part of his/her presentation easier, show the student how to do it, and then when the presenter succeeds, the instructor reinforces that success. You can do the same after each of your presentations as well. Immediately after presenting, make a list of some of the things that you did well in the speech. Turn off your internal critic for a while. (All of us are our own worst critic, so you will have to fight this.) Then, before your next presentation, refer to the items on your list. These lists will help you reduce the phobia and build confidence over time.

4) Practice in a Controlled Environment.

If you want a faster way to conquer glossophobia, join us in one of our fear of public speaking workshops. One of the great things about being in a controlled environment like a class or workshop is that the risk of failure is reduced to just about 0%. The only way to conquer glossophobia is to string together a series of successes that outweigh, in our minds, the causes that we talked about above. As each participant masters each part of a fantastic presentation, the fear is reduced exponentially. In fact, in many cases, the growth is so fast and so dramatic that the irrational fear is replaced by confidence. The process isn’t foolproof and it isn’t easy. However, it works almost 100% of the time!

For full show notes, visit A Few Simple Tips to Help You Eliminate Glossophobia
https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-overcome-glossophobia-an-irrational-fear-of-public-speaking/#few-simple-tips-to-overcome-glossophobia

Glossophobia or the fear of public speaking is very common. I’ve been in the presentation skill industry for decades, now. In that time, I’ve come to realize that the statistics about this fear are confusing. Some studies say that as few as 7% of the population has glossophobia. Other surveys claim that over 95% of people experience this fear.

However, the statistics depend on the definition of Glossophobia that you are using.

You can see the actual public speaking fear statistics here.

What is the True Definition of Glossophobia? Check out the podcast episode to find out!

For the full show notes, visit What Is Glossophobia?

101 Public Speaking Tips

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips/

By the way, if you are presenting a proposal to a customer or potential client, see this post. The technique below is mainly for elevator speech types of presentations (short and to the point.) If you are presenting a proposal to someone outside of your own company, you want to be more detailed.

For full show notes, see  How to Present a Proposal to Management in Three Simple Steps

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-present-a-proposal-to-management/

Your team is one of just six to eight other companies competing for this contract. How do you make sure that the committee picks your team? Well, not to brag, but over the years, groups that I have coached have received over 80% of these contracts. Just follow this simple sales presentation outline, and your team will have a better shot at winning as well.

Don’t Get Hung Up on the Terms Proposal, Bid Proposal, Shortlist Presentation or Sales Presentation

By the way, don’t get hung up on the terms that I am using. People will often respond with something like, “We don’t present ‘bids’ to our potential clients.” In other cases, professional people may say, “But I’m not a salesperson. This isn’t a sales presentation.” My point is, don’t get hung up on the terms.

The process that I’m covering will help anyone who is presenting a solution to a person or group who will exchange money for this solution. The terms “Bid” and “Proposal” are standard procurement terms, which is why we are using them here.

I have heard this type of presentation called each of the following over the years.

• Bid Proposal
• RFP Presentation
• Shortlist Presentation
• Sales Presentation
• Present a Quote

Regardless of what your industry calls this speech, the process will still work.

For full show notes, visit How to Present a Proposal

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/present-a-bid-proposal-great-sales-presentation-outline/

Most often, it actually causes the other person to want to play “Devil’s advocate” and argue with you. In this article, we are going to show you a simple way to win people to your way of thinking without raising resentment. If you use this technique, your audience will actually WANT to agree with you! The process starts with putting yourself in the shoes of your listener and looking at things from their point of view.

For full show notes visit How to Write an Effective Persuasive Speech

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/persuasive-speech-how-to-write-a-persuasive-speech/

Once you understand the value of inserting stories into your presentation, many people want to know how to do it. So, we also covered a few specific steps in storytelling to make the process easier.

My audience members will often come up to me after a presentation asking, “How do you remember all your stories?” Actually remembering stories from your life is pretty easy. It’s keeping track of all of them and being able to recall the perfect story at the perfect time. That is the hard part. In this post, I’ll give you a few of my secrets. I’ll give you a few simple ways to remember great stories as well as how to recognize when a success will make a great story.

For the full show notes, visit Remember Stories from Your Life to Insert into Presentations

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/remember-stories-from-your-life-to-insert-into-presentations/

When you tell a story, you reduce presentation jitters and build rapport with your audience. Don’t believe me? Watch any professional motivational speaker on YouTube. You will find that their entire speech is composed of a series of individual stories that they link together. In this post, we will cover some of the major benefits of telling stories as well as the best way to do it.

Major Benefits of Telling Stories in a Presentation

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, when you tell a story in your speech, you are presenting a series of pictures. These pictures magically appear in the minds of the audience. This is where true communication occurs. The human mind thinks in pictures. So, when a speaker is able to create this series of images in the audience’s mind that is similar to the picture in the presenter’s head, the speaker has communicated effectively. Stories are a powerful tool to capture and hold the audience’s attention.

Storytelling skills are easy to master as well. After you identify the important concepts you want to cover in your speech, recall instances from your own experiences where that concept was true. Just play the mental movie in your head of that memory. To tell the story to your audience, just describe this movie in enough detail that your movie also plays for the audience as well.

For full show notes, visit Storytelling in Speeches-How to Reduce Presentation Fear Quickly
https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/tell-a-story-in-your-speech-and-reduce-public-speaking-fear/

Want to Know How to Tell a Great Story in a Presentation? The Steps of Storytelling Are Not as Important as the Story Itself.

Storytelling in our personal lives is very normal. When we get together with friends or family, we build rapport by sharing good stories about ourselves. I went to my High School reunion a few years ago. I was visiting with friends that I haven’t seen for a long time. One of the funniest things, though, was that I expected that it would be a bunch of old people reminiscing about stories from our teenage years. However, the opposite occurred. It was really interesting to hear about what my friends had done since High School. We spent hours catching up. And the way that we caught up was by telling great stories to each other about our experiences. Many of my friends had accomplished some pretty impressive things. However, none of them sounded like they were bragging.

The biggest public speaking secret that I know is that you can do the exact same thing in your speeches. When you share stories of your successes, your audience lives vicariously through your stories. I remember growing up hearing the phrase, “Experience is the best teacher.” After being a business owner for 20 plus years now, I realize how dumb that statement is. Experience is NOT the best teacher. Someone else’s experience is the best teacher. When I hear a story about how someone else accomplished a goal that I want to accomplish, I can learn from it. I don’t have to experience all the turmoil that he or she went through.

So, follow the steps of storytelling below. However, just realize that the steps, in and of themselves, are not as important as the actual stories. Pick a good story to tell, the steps don’t matter.

For the full show notes, visit How to Tell a Great Story in a Presentation

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/the-5-steps-of-storytelling-how-to-tell-a-great-story/

Put ten people in a room. Whisper a phrase with more than 10 words into the ear of the first person. The second person then relays the message to the third person. This process continues over and over until the phrase reaches the final person. When you compare the first message with the last message, they will be totally different.

This is what often happens when organizations try to implement a train-the-trainer model of employee development.

However, this doesn’t have to occur. If you put the right steps and processes in place, your employee development can be phenomenal. (It is also the best way to cut your training costs dramatically as well.)

For full show notes, visit How to Create a Train-the-Trainer Course
https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/train-the-trainer-model-how-to-create-a-train-the-trainer-course/

In this post, we are going to cover the best way, a very simple three-step process that will help you introduce yourself in a presentation. A summary of the steps is below.

1. Start with your name and company (or organization or school).
2. Tell your audience what problem you can solve for them.
3. Share some type of proof (social proof works best) that you can solve this problem.

I will break down each step into a simple-to-follow process. By the way, if you are designing an introduction for a school speech, make sure to view the show notes for a very simple way to do this!

For full show notes and a fill-in-the-blank introduction creator, go to How to Introduce Yourself in a Presentation (with Examples)
https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-introduce-yourself-before-starting-any-presentation/

You need the best way to start your presentation so that you win over the audience members.

I’ve been there myself. Below are a few of my favorite ways to start a speech that will help you capture the attention of your audience from your audience and get even the most stoic crowd to want more from you.

Here is the list of presentation openers.

7 Dynamic Ways to Start a Presentation

1. Give Your Presentation Summary and Conclusion First.
2. Start the Presentation with a Compelling Story.
3. Use a Startling Statistic to Start a Presentation.
4. A Funny or Motivational Quote or One-Liner.
5. Start with an Opinion Asking Question.
6. Make a Powerful or Shocking Statement to Start a Speech.
7. Arouse Curiosity with a Hook.
8. A Bonus Way to Start a Presentation Is to Add Showmanship.

I added additional information and examples for each of these presentation openers in the show notes at 7 Dynamic Ways to Start a Presentation
https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-start-a-presentation/#summary-conclusion

Exercises to Improve Presentation Skills

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/exercises-to-improve-presentation-skills-become-a-better-public-speaker/

However, sometimes when people feel that stage fright, they panic. When you panic in front of an audience, you will most likely experience even more nervous feelings.

So, what do you do to calm down before the presentation and calm those nerves? Below are 5 Simple Ways to Calm Your Nerves Before and During a Speech.

1. Create a Simple Presentation with Just a Few Key Bullet Points and Practice It with a Person.
2. Find a Quiet Place to Be Alone and Perform a Short Series of Exercises.
3. Interact and Network with Your Audience to Calm Your Nerves Before a Presentation.
4. Just Before Your Start Your Presentation, Take a Steady and Deep Breath.
5. Start Your Presentation with a Personal Story to Calm Your Nerves Almost Instantly.

This episode covers each of these tips in more detail. For full show notes, visit How to Calm Down Before a Presentation

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-calm-down-before-a-presentation-5-simple-ways-to-calm-your-nerves/

It got me thinking, though. A year ago companies were opening back up and some team members were in the office while others were remote. We began to alter the way that we led meetings. For instance, in our office, half our team was remote and the other half came into the office every day. However, to include the entire team, each of us who were in the office closed our doors and entered virtual meetings versus having everyone come into the office. It looks like we have come full circle.

In the last few weeks, “vaccine only” offices have emerged in different cities. Most of these employers are not mandating vaccines, by the way. They are just mandating that only vaccinated people can come into the office workspace. Non-vaccinated team members have the option to work remotely.

So, we now see more organizers scheduling more hybrid meetings — in-person presentations with a few remote participants.

Best Practices for Hybrid Presentations with Both In-Person Attendees and Online Participants.

Before I get to the meeting tips, let’s set a few ground rules for delivering presentations in a hybrid world. The first thing that you want to consider is what is the best way for the majority of the audience to meet? Often, an event manager may want to schedule in-person events just because she’s tired of virtual events. However, before you decide on the type of meeting to schedule, think about what is best for your specific audience type.

When you mix a remote audience with in-person audience members there is always a chance that both groups suffer. For instance, let’s say that you work in a competitive corporate culture. Your online audience may feel that the team members who have the face-to-face experience with you have an advantage.

Or, the in-person participants may resent the virtual team being able to turn off their microphones or cameras. Just realize when you schedule your first hybrid event, you will experience challenges you didn’t anticipate. So, below are a few of the top tips to help you improve hybrid meetings.

For full show notes, visit Hybrid Presentation Tips

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/hybrid-presentation-tips-presenting-in-person-but-with-virtual-attendees/

 Typically, if you design a great outline using the ideas in the previous chapter, you will create a good presentation skeleton. In this chapter, we will put a little meat on the bones of the skeleton. Remember, we are presenting our case to the jury. So these ideas just add a little more evidence to prove that each bullet point is true. Most often, just one or two of these ideas added to each bullet will create fantastic content that your audience will both enjoy and believe.

 Proceed with a little caution, though. 

 These impact ideas will make good presentations great presentations. However, if you have a poorly designed presentation and add in these enhancers, you will likely make the presentation worse.

 If you have a good presentation centered around just a few key bullet points, then adding a couple of enhancers under each bullet for reinforcement will work well. If you have 50 slides already prepared and add in additional content, you’ll likely make the presentation worse.

 Typically, if you design a great outline using the ideas in the previous chapter, you will create a good presentation skeleton. In this chapter, we will put a little meat on the bones of the skeleton. Remember, we are presenting our case to the jury. So these ideas just add a little more evidence to prove that each bullet point is true. Most often, just one or two of these ideas added to each bullet will create fantastic content that your audience will both enjoy and believe.

 Proceed with a little caution, though. 

 These impact ideas will make good presentations great presentations. However, if you have a poorly designed presentation and add in these enhancers, you will likely make the presentation worse.

 If you have a good presentation centered around just a few key bullet points, then adding a couple of enhancers under each bullet for reinforcement will work well. If you have 50 slides already prepared and add in additional content, you’ll likely make the presentation worse.

So, unless you can hone your talk into just a few points, your audience will have a tough time retaining your information.  It’s okay to give additional information, but the more information outside of the scope of the main points, the more diluted your entire message will be. 

 So How Many Points are Ideal in a Presentation?

 Well, it depends on the purpose of the presentation. I suggest between a single bullet point (rare but effective in certain speeches) up to a max of about five bullet points.

 When you want to design a presentation, picture the structure like a put-together storage cabinet unit. (Picture one of those stand-alone units with double doors and adjustable shelves on the inside.) The cabinet itself is the presentation. The shelves inside the unit represent the main items (or bullet points) that you’ll cover. The interesting things that you will put on the shelves are what we call “impact items.” These are presentation enhancers that use to reinforce each bullet point (we will cover these in the next chapter.)

 These put-together storage cabinets come with several adjustable shelves. Technically you could cram a lot of shelves into the cabinet. However, every time you add a new shelf, the storage space per shelf gets smaller. The problem that a lot of presenters make is that they think that people buy a cabinet to look at the shelves. “If I have a lot of bullet points, then my presentation is going to be better.” That is like saying, “The more shelves that I have, the better the cabinet. Who cares if I can’t actually store anything in it.”

 The “Presentation Cabinet” that we teach in Fearless Presentations ® is called “The Three-Point Talk.” It is a flexible structure that can easily be adjusted based on the purpose of the presentation. In the class, we focus on designing a presentation around three important points (bullets.) The reason why is that three points provide the most balance between solid content and entertainment. If you have too many bullet points, your presentation will be boring and hard to deliver. On the other hand, if you design presentations with too few points, the content will seem fluffy (vague.)

To access the show notes, go to the Online Presentation Guide

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/audio-guide/

1. Start with a Great Title to Quickly Capture the Attention of the Audience. 
2. To Be More Concise, Limit Your Content to Just the Absolute Most-Important Points. 
3. Develop Compelling Support for Each Point to Make Your Presentation Believable. 

 In this episode, we will cover how to create a great title and begin to discover the appropriate number of bullet points based on the purpose of the speech. For instance, if you create a lecture, you will create more bullet points than if you create a motivational speech.

Next week will finish creating a speech outline and show you how to turn the outline into a fantastic presentation.

To access the show notes, go to the Online Presentation Guide

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/audio-guide/

In this episode, I cover the Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech by Patrick Henry (March 23, 1775).

In March of 1775, the citizens of the 13 Colonies were divided. They were British citizens and many were patriotic to the Crown. However, in the five years prior to this famous speech by Patrick Henry, the colonies were in turmoil.

The British military spent vast amounts of gold defending the Colonies from other nations, pirates, and Indians. Since the French and Indian war ended in 1763, the British army had set up forts to protect the colonies from incursions from the frontier. King George decided that the Colonists should be responsible for funding these military campaigns. So, he instituted a series of ever-increasing taxes on the Colonists.

Angry townspeople debated in pubs throughout the 13 Colonies. However, the biggest thorn in the side of King George was Massachusetts. The Boston Massacre (1770) and the BostonTea Party (1773.) were a couple of the more famous incidents. A few months before Henry’s famous speech, the First Continental Congress sent a letter of grievances to the King. They were still awaiting a reply.

Then, a few weeks before the speech, the British military marched on Concord to confiscate a cache of weapons from suspected rebels. For the first time, the British military had marched on British citizens in the Colonies. The Second Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia. The delegates were debating whether or not to join the revolution.

Meanwhile, in Richmond, Virginia, local delegates also debated about which side Virginia would back. Would they support the war effort in Massachusetts or would they support the Crown?

Patrick Henry Delivers “Give Me Liberty or Give Death” Speech to Virginia Convention.

Delegates at the Virginia Convention debated both the pros and the cons of the revolution. Some favored British rule. Others favored independence. That is until local attorney Patrick Henry stood to deliver one of the great American speeches of all time. In the assembly were future presidents George Washington and John Adams.

The first written documentation of the full speech took place 41 years later by William Wirt. Wirt created the text based on memories of men who were in the assembly. So it is had to say how accurate the text that we have today actually is. What is a fact though is that after this famous speech, the Virginia delegation because staunch supporters of the American Revolution.

Along with the “shot heard ’round the world” just a few weeks prior, the famous line from this speech became known as the start of the revolution.

For full show notes, visit 

The Greatest Speeches in American History 

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/the-greatest-speeches-in-american-history-from-revolution-to-leaders-of-the-free-world/

When You Use an Anecdote in a Speech, Tie the Story to the Greater Meaning of Your Presentation.

The anecdotes themselves add entertainment and humor to a speech. But when you use the story to relay a greater message, they almost have a magic quality. When you tell an anecdote in a speech, spend time at the end tying the incident back to the main point of your presentation.

When my daughter graduated from High School, a local pastor delivered her commencement address. He used a well-known anecdote in a masterful way as the start of the commencement speech. Since he was a pastor, he told the story of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. Being a professional speaker myself, I wondered exactly how he would tie that story to a graduation ceremony.

He went on to explain how many Christians might see a “Baptism” as the ending point. However, Jesus started his public ministry at his baptism. The pastor then shared with the graduating class that many of them are likely seeing the ceremony as the end of their schooling. In reality, though, commencement means the beginning. The speaker used the anecdote really well and inspired the graduating class with the short story.

So, I thought that it might be fun to just jot down a few of the most inspirational (or just funny) short anecdotes for speeches that I have come across in my career. Perhaps you can use them in your next presentation.

For full show notes and text of each of the parables and anecdotes, visit Short Anecdotes and Parables for Speeches and Presentations

https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/short-anecdotes-for-speeches-and-parables-to-amaze-your-audience/

After training over 20,000 class members, our instructors have discovered a few simple truths about stage fright and speech anxiety. Once you understand these secrets, you too really reduce this fear.

Below are a few facts about public speaking fear that can help.

What Is Public Speaking Fear?

Stage fright is still one of the most prevalent anxieties in the world. In fact, psychologists created a specific term for this particular social phobia. They call it glossophobia — which is a form of social anxiety disorder.

Basically, this performance anxiety occurs when a person has to stand in front of a group and deliver a presentation. Since the symptoms of this fear are so common, presenters often have questions about why it’s there, where it came from, and how do you get rid of it?

Most people feel like they are the only ones out there who experience butterflies in the stomach, a shaky voice, or shaky hands. However, just about every speaker has some sort of nervousness when presenting in front of groups. The person may have had a bad experience at a previous speaking engagement. Now, when he or she stands to speak n front of any number of people, the person may feel a lot of nervous energy. If the speech is in front of a large audience, he or she may experience a full-blown panic attack.

As a result, a lot of people who feel that stage fright will avoid public speaking situations altogether. These people can miss out on big opportunities. If public speakers don’t do something about the anxiety, it can escalate and turn into a debilitating phobia. With all that being said, though, here is some really good news. As far as anxiety disorders go, this one is really easy to conquer.


For more information visit our website Overcome Public Speaking
https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/fear-of-public-speaking/