Fearless Presentations

This is part three of the 101 Public Speaking Tips series. In the first couple of weeks we covered 53 public speaking tips. In week #1, we covered tips to create an outline of a speech, a few ways to add energy to boring speeches, and finished with a few ways to add pizzaz to the presentations. Last week, we covered a few ways to use stories and examples more effectively to explain your data. Next we covered a few ways to to use audience participation to make your speeches more interactive. And the rest of the tips on the last episode were about adding pizzaz and impact to a presentation. So, they were ways to make any speech, even a boring one, more interesting and fun for the audience. By the way, I have linked the entire checklist in the show notes. So, the next time you are presenting, just glance at the list of tips for a refresher. And, if you want more detail on any of the tips, just go to www.fearlesspresentations.com and enter the tip into the search bar or just type Fearless Presentations and whatever tip you want more detail about into Google or your favorite AI program. The search will give you the original episode content with all the additional details. Ok, so let's continue with the 101 public speaking tips from Fearless Presentations.Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

This is part two of the 101 Public Speaking Tips series. Last week, we covered 24 tips in less than 24 minutes. Last week, we covered tips to create an outline of a speech, a few ways to add energy to boring speeches, and finished with a few ways to add pizzaz to the presentations. We ended last week with tip #24.  This week, we start with four ways to use stories and examples more effectively to explain your data. Then, I'll cover eight ways to use audience participation to make your speeches more interactive. In the next seven tips, I'll give you a few of my best "impact ideas" that allow you to insert fun things into your presentations other than just more bullet points, data, or slides.  In addition, I'll give you five ways to add showmanship into your presentations. Then, finally, I'll give you four ways to organize your presentation -- these are technical tips like how long can you speak before inserting a break, etc. All in all, we'll end with #53 of 101 public speaking tips. By the way, I have linked the entire checklist in the show notes. So, the next time you are presenting, just glance at the list of tips for a refresher. And, if you want more detail on any of the tips, just go to www.fearlesspresentations.com and enter the tip into the search bar or just type Fearless Presentations and whatever tip you want more detail about into Google or your favorite AI program. The search will give you the original episode content with all the additional details. Ok, so let's continue with the 101 public speaking tips from Fearless Presentations. Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

This is episode 401, and way back on episode 101, we did a fun episode called 101 public speaking tips to coincide with the episode number. When we did that episode, it was like a summary of all the 100 episodes from the first couple of years of the broadcast. So, basically, I crammed absolutely everything that I know about public speaking skills into a few episodes. Then, on episode 201, we did it again. But, by then, the tips had changed a little because we had an additional 200 extra episodes to pull from. I know what you are thinking, though. Especially those of you old enough to remember 1980 TV "Clip Shows". Back in the 1980s and 1990s, TV shows sometimes used up their budgets and had to cut costs on episodes. So, they would have one of the stars go into a coma or, if it was a comedy, someone would have a birthday party. And the entire episode would just be "memories" from the show. They'd play clips cut out of the previous shows and splice them together with a little new stuff to create a new episode.  Most of these episode were terrible, by the way. But that's not what we are doing here. On this episode, I've listed the public speaking tips into categories, so it creates more like a cheat-sheet or a checklist for you. And I have linked the entire checklist in the show notes. So, the next time you are presenting, just glance at the list of tips for a refresher. And, if you want more detail on any of the tips, just go to www.fearlesspresentations.com and enter the tip into the search bar. The search will give you the original episode content with all the additional details. Ok, so let's get started with the 101 public speaking tips... Again...Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/)

Want to add humor to your speech? Quite often, when we are designing speeches and presentations for a professional audience, we discount the value of entertainment and humor. However, a good presentation should be both informative and entertaining. You have to have both. If you aren't providing the audience with good information, then you're wasting their time. If you aren't providing some type of entertainment, though, you will likely bore your audience. As a result, they will lose interest. So, by adding a little humor to your speech, you keep your audience engaged throughout your presentation.Stick around to find out every way you can inject some laughs without injecting some cringe while you're at it.Show Notes: How to Add Humor to Your Speech Without Being Cringe-worthy(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-add-humor-your-speech-without-being-clown/)

What causes the fear of public speaking? Why do I get heart palpitations? I mean, I like to think of myself as being an expert in your field (at least within my own company.) And I know what I’m talking about. After all, I’ve worked in my field for years. I’ve done my research. So, why do I break out into a cold sweat when I have to speak in front of groups of people?Well stick around and hear about exactly what causes these symptoms and the fastest and most efficient way to treat them!Show Notes: What Causes the Fear of Public Speaking and How to Overcome this Fear(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/the-causes-of-the-fear-of-public-speaking-and-how-to-overcome-them/#past-negative-experiences)

Audience Participation is an excellent way to make a good presentation into a stellar presentation. It can also be the scariest. That is why most speakers — even seasoned professionals — avoid asking their audience questions. It is too risky. Or is it?The truth is that the types of audience participation that most speakers use can come across as cheesy or forced. Also, our audiences have been trained to not interact with us. From the time we are in grade school, we are trained to sit still and listen to the speaker (teacher.) Here is the good news, though. Presenters who get really good at audience participation can boost audience engagement dramatically and make each presentation a positive experience for their audiences.Show Notes: How to Encourage Audience Participation During Your Presentation(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/9-reliable-ways-to-add-audience-participation-to-your-presentation/)

You have identified a problem or opportunity for your company. Now you need to get approval. So, how do you present a proposal to management that will get approved? The process is actually pretty simple. The method of how to present a proposal to management that we use works about 100% of the time. Just follow the simple steps below, and your project will easily get funded.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.Show Notes: How to Present a Proposal to Management(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-present-a-proposal-to-management/)

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when you present a proposal to a client. Here is the scenario… You have done your homework. A team at your company painstakingly created the perfect sales proposal. In fact, the potential client was so impressed, that they moved you to their “shortlist.” Now, though, they want you to present a bid proposal to the purchasing committee. 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.Show Notes: How to Present a Proposal-Create a Business Proposal Presentation(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/present-a-bid-proposal-great-sales-presentation-outline/)

How, exactly do we collect feedback on a presentation? Are there ways to solicit feedback that will help us grow as speakers? The answer is, absolutely, YES! However, the way that you typically ask for feedback may not be the best way to gain confidence as a speaker. In fact, many traditional feedback techniques can actually make you more nervous. In addition, speakers will sometimes make adjustments to their delivery based on anecdotal issues. This can start a snowball effect that leads to terrible presentation skills.To make sure that doesn't happen to you, stick around for some of the best (and worst) ways to collect feedback from your presentations!Show Notes: How to Collect Feedback on a Presentation(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-collect-feedback-on-a-presentation/)

Most of what we cover on this podcast are things that you need to do. The secrets to effective visual aids, curbs against anxiety, the right ways to present, but what about the wrong ways? You have to know what not to do in order to know what to do and, for a lot of us, we do a lot of what we shouldn't do. There are so many small habits you might not even realize you do that are actively hurting your speaking and snuffing those out as early as possible is extremely important. So lets go through those. These are the 10 deadly sins of public speaking and, if you hear something that you're already doing, I'll also tell you how to fix it. Show Notes: 10 Biggest Public Speaking Mistakes: What Not to do During a Presentation(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/10-biggest-public-speaking-mistakes-what-not-to-do-during-a-presentation/)

“I don’t present very often, so how do I prepare for a presentation?” That is, by far, one of the most common questions that we get as presentation skills coaches. In fact, most public speaking fear comes from situations where presenters just don’t speak very often. They have a hard time building up momentum. For instance, if you only drive a car once every couple of years, you will likely be nervous every time you slip behind the wheel. However, if you drive every day, the process becomes second nature.So if you're not confident in your preparation routine or want to make sure you're doing it right, stick around for the 5 best ways to prepare for a speech.Show Notes: 5 Ironclad Ways to Prepare for a Presentation(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/5-ironclad-ways-to-prepare-for-a-presentation-cut-prep-time-by-137/)

I often get a common question after people attend our 2-day presentation class. “Now that I feel more confident, where do I go to practice to continue to get better as a speaker?” “How can I continue to grow as a great speaker?” The best way to continue to grow is with continued and consistent use of your presentation skills. If you take a public speaking class and then don’t present again for a year, your new skills wither away.Today I'll be telling you just how to avoid that! Here is everyway I know of for new presenters to practice their craft!Show Notes: How to Find Great Public Speaking Venues to Practice Your Presentations(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/podcast-15-how-find-great-venues-practice-your-presentations/)

Now that you know a few of the best (and safe) ways to start your presentation right, let's get spicier. No memorable speech you've ever sat through took no risks. The bare minimum a speech can be to not be bad is inoffensive. All the introductions I gave you last week are enough to make sure you don't have an embarrassingly awful first impression but they're not enough to make an amazing first impression. That's what this week is for.So if you're ready to learn how to make a statement from the first few seconds of your presentation, stick around and find out how!Show Notes: 7 Dynamic Ways to Start a Presentation [With Examples](https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-start-a-presentation/)

The opening is really the most important part of your presentation. You want to make a good first impression. In addition, you also want the audience to see as a subject matter expert.Of course, we’ve all been there as a speaker. First, we design a powerful presentation. Then, we nervously walk out onto a stage or into the front 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. Today I'll be going over just that. How to make that first impression a good one and ensure your presentation kicks off exactly how it should!Show Notes: 7 Dynamic Ways to Start a Presentation [With Examples](https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-start-a-presentation/)

So you did it! You graduated at the top of your class. You’ve proved you are the apex of knowledge, skill, and potential within your school, and now you get to prove it with a beautiful Valedictorian Speech. Just one problem, since this is the first (and only) time you will ever do it, you don’t know how to write a valedictorian speech. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Just about every Valedictorian or Salutatorian has gone through this. You work so hard to get to the top, sacrifice time year after year, and now you have five minutes to educate, entertain, and inspire your classmates. And, of course, the task is so much easier because your classmates are so accepting and non-judgmental. (Yeah, right!)Stick around and learn just how to write a speech that both entertains and educates your antsy peers.Show Notes: How to Write a Valedictorian Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/valedictorian-speech-how-to-write-a-valedictorian-speech/)

Most of the time, if you're good at writing one style of speech, you're good at writing all of them. Speech writing is a very transferable skill no matter if it's for a keynote, a lecture, a sales pitch, or pretty much anything else. But there are some exceptions. Commencement speeches draw a weird, wobbly fine line between being casual, inspirational, funny, and reflective. You can't talk about yourself too much or it'll sound self indulgent. You can't talk about the grads too much cause that just feels like pandering. Can't be so silly you sound immature but can't be so serious you sound pretentious. But there is a way to walk that fine line. In today's episode we go over the 5 simple parts that structure an excellent commencement speech every single time. And if you're younger trying to find how to write the other type of graduation speech (valedictorian or salutatorian speeches) stick around till next week where we go over just that! Show Notes: How to Write a Graduation Speech(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-write-a-graduation-speech-graduation-speech-examples/)

Want to calm down before a presentation? Even if you don’t regularly experience the fear of public speaking, just before you start a speech, it is easy to feel anxious. This initial nervous energy can cause a speaker to have a shaky voice, dry mouth, or sweaty palms just before a presentation. The good news is that this experience is very common. Most of the time, if you start your presentation well, the level of nervousness will drop very quickly.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 stick around and listen to a few ways that are tried and tested to calm people down before speeches!Show Notes: How to Calm Down Before a Presentation | 5 Simple Ways to Calm Your Nerves(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-calm-down-before-a-presentation-5-simple-ways-to-calm-your-nerves)

Picture this: You arrive at a concert venue to see your favorite artist. The lights dim, the crowd buzzes, anticipation builds. They finally step on stage and perform the entire set with their hands stuck in their pockets. No gestures. No movement. No visible energy. Even if the music sounds incredible, something feels off. You’re listening, but you’re not fully feeling it. The performance lacks presence, connection, and impact. You leave entertained (maybe), but not moved.Whether or not you use your hands as a tool to command a room can be the difference between an impactful presentation and a forgettable one. Talking with your hands is a form of nonverbal communication that won’t replace your words, but can determine how your words are received.This week, Roma steps in for Doug to share everything she knows about presenting physically and using the full range of you to give a presentation. Learn what to do with what body parts when and why!Show Notes: Talking With Your Hands: How Positive Gestures Instantly Improve Your Presence on Stage(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/talking-with-your-hands-how-positive-gestures-instantly-improve-your-presence-on-stage/)

The quickest way to make people not believe you're qualified is to not believe it yourself. Saying that confidence is important certainly isn't the most groundbreaking thing to hear but knowing exactly WHY it's so important is what really gives people the push to develop it. After last week's episode discussing why you need to have more self-confidence in what you already know, this week we're going to talk about displaying that confidence. Believing yourself good enough is completely different than showing that you're good enough and both parts are required to give the idea that you are credible. So stick around and learn just how important displaying confidence is and some tips on how to go about doing it. Show Notes: People Judge Your COMPETENCE by the CONFIDENCE That You Show(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/people-judge-your-competence-by-confidence-that-you-show/)

Every speaker wants to become a subject matter expert on the topic they present, but here's the truth these people aren't realizing:Regardless of what industry you are in or what expertise you have, you are the expert. The knowledge that you have on a specific topic is valuable to somebody, and that's really all that matters.Becoming an expert on a subject doesn't come with some magical recognition of feeling worthy, an expert is just a person knowledgeable enough about something to speak and teach it. Many of us think just because we have more to learn that the knowledge we already possess is useless.In today's episode, I'll be going over how to grow confidence in the knowledge you have, permeate that confidence so people trust you, and navigate situations where you don't know something and still want to maintain credibility. Show Notes: How to Prove You’re an Expert (Even If You’re Not)(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/you-are-the-undisputed-expert-so-now-prove-it/)

What are the most important qualities of a good public speaker? What makes a great presenter? Just what are the fundamentals of a good public speaker that allow one orator to get up in front of an audience and mesmerize the crowd while another fails?When I first started teaching the Fearless Presentations ® classes, I did so because I knew from my own experience that the more self-confident a presenter appears to an audience, the more respect that the audience will have for that presenter. In addition, chapter one of my first book on public speaking was about enthusiasm, because I knew that out of all of the qualities of a good public speaker, enthusiasm was the absolute, most important.Over the years, though, our instructors have worked with over 20,000 presenters. Some had a natural presence in front of groups. Others, however, had to develop presentation skills in order to be perceived as being a great public speaker.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/)

In the past few weeks we've covered a couple of the best entry points into public speaking from wherever you're starting at, but what do you do if you're starting with nothing at all. If you're not already in an industry that is looking for more speakers and you've tried to apply to some public speaking companies to no avail, it can start to feel hopeless. 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/)

Over the last 2 weeks I've been going over the best ways to get started as a public speaker, and today we're delving into what I think is the easiest of those ways. Speaking on topics you already know and are passionate about takes so much of the stress away. Having real pedigree in something you're speaking on and the ability to go off-hand whenever you need to is something that eases the anxieties like nothing else. 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/)

Last week, we went over a few of the best ways to get into the public speaking industry. There's a few different entry points and over this episode and the next couple, we'll be covering, in more detail those three different ways to get started. 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/)

Being a professional speaker is a very lucrative and rewarding profession. But if you have never actually made money from speaking before, you may be looking into how to start a public speaking career.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/)

Last week, at the very end of the episode, I mentioned that one way to make your PowerPoint Presentations better is to create a good handout for the audience. And I shared a story about a breakout session I led where I spend most of the time in the presentation using the handout as the visual aid versus the slideshow.On this episode, I'm going to go into more detail about what I did. The title of the episode is Create the Perfect Presentation Handout.I'm going to give you three progressively more difficult ways to design a handout. The first one, by the way, is the one that almost everyone does, but it is by far, the absolute worst way to create a handout.And if you stick around until the last tip, I'll explain in detail how I was able to make sure that the participants in that breakout session I mentioned in the last episode actually kept and used the handout that I provided for them. It take a little more time to design, but the result are phenomenally better.And, by the way, since the podcast is audio based and handouts are very visual, I created a handout on how to design better handouts that you can download from the show notes. If you download that handout and use it as a visual aid for the episode, the ideas will make much more sense.Show Notes: How to Create the Perfect Presentation Handout(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-create-the-perfect-presentation-handout/)

Last week, on the last episode of the series on the Presentation Skills Checklist, we covered how many slides to put into a PowerPoint Presentation. This week, our topic is "3 Simple Ways to Create Better PowerPoint Presentations."By the way, if you are using the techniques I outline on other episodes of the podcast, creating a PowerPoint presentation should be really easy. Basically, in a presentation, less is more.But on this episode, I give you my top three tips that will help you kill your next presentation. First, we cover how to design your presentation first, then create your slideshow. Next, I show you how to use examples from real-life to add credibility to the text on your slides. Ad then, finally, I show you how to create collateral content -- things like handouts -- that can help your audience understand and retain the content of your presentations better.Show Notes: 3 Simple Ways to Create Better PowerPoint Presentations(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/three-simple-ways-to-create-better-powerpoint-presentations/)

I hope you have enjoyed the Presentation Skills Checklist series. So far, we covered how to know your audience. Next we helped you create a great presentation title. Then, we helped you organize your presentation outline. And in the last couple weeks we showed you how to add credible evidence to reinforce the points you created in your outline.The last step is to create your PowerPoint Slideshow. Yes, you heard me correctly. Creating your slideshow should be the absolute last thing that you do. Most people start with the slideshow.Instead, figure out what you want to say first, then create your visual aids.The question we get as public speaking coaches most often is "How many PowerPoint slides should I have in my presentation.On this episode, I'm going to answer that question and many more.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/)

If you want to be a fantastic speaker, you have to be able to make any topic really interesting -- even if you aren't that excited about it. So on this episode, I'm going to give you nine things that I call "Impact Ideas". They are different types of evidence that you can use to make your point more compelling or interesting.This is a continuation of the series we started a few weeks called the 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 (3) how to create a presentation outline focused on what the audience wants. Last week, we started covering the fourth step in the checklist -- offer compelling evidence to prove each point. And, on that episode, we focused entirely on examples and stories, because they are, by far, your most credible piece of evidence.So, if you haven't listened to that episode yet, make sure to. I cover a few secrets about how to be a better storyteller and how to use stories to reduce nervousness and make your audience want to really listen to you.Today, I'm going to give you nine other types of evidence. By the way, the reason why there are nine is that every presentation and every audience is different. I covered stories last week because it doesn't matter what you are speaking about or who is in your audience, a compelling real-life example of what you are talking about can add clarity. These other nine things, though, can be hit or miss. It really depends on the topic and the audience.Let me give you the nine things quickly1) Audience Participation: Get feedback from your audience, ask them questions, or get them to talk to each other.2) Analogies: Compare something complicated to something more common place to make it easier to understand.3) Anecdotes: A funny story or a story that makes a point is often more memorable than just a bullet point.4) Demonstration: When you show your audience what you are trying to tell them, they will often have more clarity.5) Quote: A testimonial from an expert or client at the right time can add credibility.6) Sample: Something that your audience can see, touch, and feel has more impact than just a description of the item.7) Name Drop: If you don’t have a quote, you can name drop others who agree with you.8) Non-PowerPoint Visual Aid: A spontaneous flip-chart drawing, a poster, or board will often have a greater impact on the audience than an image on a slideshow that is more temporary.9) Showmanship: Never underestimate the entertainment value of your presentation.So, now that we know the different items, let's explore how they could do very well in one type of audience and backfire i another. Let's take Audience Participation for instance. If you are in an intimate 10 person room, getting the audience to respond is much easier. But, if you are speaking to 100 people, now you have to deal with extra microphones, and your audience will be more self-conscious. So, they may not respond.Or, if you insert a funny anecdote into a training session, it will likely get people to laugh. If you do the same thing in a finance report, it could really backfire.So, on this episode, I'll walk through each of these items, and show you ways that you can easily insert one or more of them into your presentation to really elevate that presentation and how to choose the best impact idea for the best topic and audience.Show Notes: How to Make a Speech More Interesting: 7 Presentation Ideas(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/7-stellar-presentation-enhancers-that-add-impact-to-any-speech/)

Great speakers know how to tell a great story. On this episode, I'll give you the five key steps of storytelling that these great speakers know and use in every single speech that they deliver. (That's hat makes them great speakers!)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/)

A few weeks ago, I gave you my Presentation Skills Checklist. And over the last couple of weeks, we covered the first two items on that checklist, (1) how to know your audience better, and (2) how to design a catchy title.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/)

A couple of weeks ago, I gave you my Presentation Skills Checklist. And last week, we covered step one in that checklist which was know your audience. If you haven't had a chance to listen to that episode yet, the things I covered were essential in creating better presentations and reducing public speaking nervousness.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/)

Last week, I gave you my Presentation Skills Checklist. And step one in that checklist was to know your audience.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/)

On today's episode, I'm going to give you a presentation skills checklist that can make designing and delivering a presentation easier and less risky. When folks go through our presentation skills classes, they are often surprised at how simple public speaking really is. That is if you have a great structure and follow a simple checklist.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/)

!!ANNOUNCEMENT!!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 CreatorHow to Design a Good TitleHow to Design Better Bullet PointsHow to Use Better Examples and StoriesShow Notes: How to Design Presentations Quickly(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-design-presentations-quickly/)

A few years ago, my wife and I went to see the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. When I was a kid, I remember hearing Another One Bites the Dust and We Are the Champions, but I was by no means a Queen fan. I was surprised, though, how many songs from the movie I knew every word to.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/)

One of the more challenging parts of any presentation is the very first part. If you are wondering how to introduce yourself before starting your presentation, you are in good company. For most of us, once we get the first few sentences out, our nervousness will diminish pretty significantly. So, this initial self-introduction is really important. If we struggle here, our nervousness will increase. In addition, the old adage, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” is very true.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/)

After years of presentation coaching, one of the major things that I have realized is that many of the things presenters do to reduce nervousness actually cause nervousness. And because most business presenters deliver presentations so infrequently, those bad ideas get repeated over and over. Eventually, they become habits.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-Word2) Designing Your PowerPoint Slideshow First3) Relying on Notes4) Asking for Critiques from Friends/Coworkers5) Practicing Alone6) Videoing Your Presentation and Reviewing It Alone7) Cognitive DissonanceIf 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/)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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