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The Public Speaking Playbook

This post was originally published in 2015.

I’ve struggled with a fear of public speaking for my whole life. When I was asked to present in a classroom or at college, I’d become overwhelmed and get choked up. As I got older, I would use ‘liquid courage’ (beer) to dull my senses and help me take the stage.

I avoided the spotlight and it wasn’t because I was shy. I was afraid.

This fear limited my growth, both personally and professionally. It held me back from meeting new people at conferences and stopped me in my tracks whenever I had a bright idea at a meeting. I felt nervous, embarrassed and uncomfortable when I needed to chair a meeting.

In 2010, I watched a colleague present to a panel of managers. The presentation wasn’t great - in fact, it wasn’t even good. I couldn’t understand why the management team praised him for it. It hit me - he took a step out of his comfort zone to help the managers do their jobs better. Even though his content was disorganized and his delivery was poor, the managers were happy. When I asked him about the presentation, he said “Most people don’t want to step up. When you do, you’ll set yourself apart from everyone else.”

I decided, on the spot, that I was going to improve my public speaking and overcome my fear of the spotlight.

I took classes, read books and enrolled in online video courses. I attended public speaking meetups. I practiced, practiced and practiced some more. With preparation, practice and persistence - I became more confident. I was volunteering to present at functions, events and to senior managers. I ran team meetings that the team enjoyed. I was able to take an interview for a job I wasn’t ‘technically’ qualified for and land it, which doubled my salary. That’s the subject of another book, but all of these great things happened to me because I became comfortable with presenting to audience.

I’ve spent 4 years working on this book and since there are 47,000+ public speaking resources available on Amazon, I wanted to make this something special. While there are lots of books that talk about aspirational goals like presenting at Ted Talks and becoming a keynote speaker, I knew from experience that the hardest step is always the first step.

If you are new to public speaking and afraid of the spotlight, then this playbook is for you. It’s simple and practical. Whether you want to take the stage for the first time, become a commanding presence in a team meeting or simply stop being a wallflower, you’ve found the right starting point.

Why you need to improve your public speaking skills

What do keynote speakers and skydiving instructors have in common?

Fear is a crippling emotion.

My most acute experience with fear was not when I first took the stage. It was when I went skydiving. Here’s my firsthand account:

The tiny single engine Cessna hurtled down the runway at a breakneck speed. The engine was vibrating the cabin with deafening force. I pictured the plane exploding on the runway, seconds before takeoff.

We lurched off the tarmac. The nose of the plane pitched to the sky. I grabbed hold of the safety rail with a white knuckle grip. My heart was pumping. I started sweating. My mouth was dry. It was too late to turn back. I feared for my life.

A green light illuminated the plane cabin. It was GO time. I sat next to door and the instructor gave me the thumbs up. I jumped out of the plane and a minute later, I landed on the ground.

Then I threw up.

Like public speaking, there were three missing elements that that fed my fear.

  1. I wasn’t in control. I had never met the skydiving instructor and they were taking my life into their hands. I had to blindly trust that they were an expert. They called the shots and when it was time to jump, they were in charge. They pulled the ripcord, spotted the landing zone and brought us in for a fast and bumpy landing. Instead of being in control, I was a passenger letting things happen to me.

  2. I didn’t prepare. I didn’t take any time to research skydiving safety precautions. Skydiving is a high-risk and dangerous activity, but there are dozens of rules and regulations about how a parachute should be packed, when a backup parachute should be deployed and the weather that will force a jump to be called off. I didn’t do my research and had no idea what to expect - I was setting myself up for failure.

  3. I didn’t practice. I had no idea what to expect before, during or after I jumped out of the plane. I could have tried an indoor skydiving simulator beforehand and experienced the end to end process of skydiving, without ever jumping out of a plane. This tiny investment of time would have taught me what to expect during the freefall, like the deafening noise and the feeling of weightlessness. Instead, I panicked throughout the entire freefall and wasted an incredible view.

I jumped headfirst into the unknown, so the fact that I threw up when I landed was no surpise.

New public speakers face the exact same challenge. Before a presentation, doubt will seep into your mind and you will second guess yourself. What if you forget your next line? What if you have an equipment failure and can’t present your slides? What if people start walking out mid-presentation? How will you deal with tricky questions?

All of these ‘unknowns’ can be managed with preparation and practice. Mastering the unknown gives you control over the microphone, control over your fear and control over the success of your presentation. But if you don’t take control, prepare and practice public speaking, you should expect to feel the same way - I just hope you don’t get sick like I did.

Skydiving and public speaking are skills. No-one is a born natural. We all start from the same point and the people who succeed dedicate time, focus and effort on improving their skills. When I would take the stage a few years ago, my heart would be pumping and I’d feel nervous. Now, I enjoy the view and love every second of being in front of the crowd. I will help you feel the same way, but you’re going to need to do some work.

Why Warren Buffett recommends you should improve your public speaking skills

Warren Buffett is one of the most successful businessmen of all time. During an interview in 2013, Buffett was asked “What habits did you cultivate in your 20s and 30s that you see as the foundation of success?”

Buffett answered:

“You’ve got to be able to communicate in life and it’s enormously important. Schools, to some extent, under emphasize that. If you can’t communicate and talk to other people and get across your ideas, you’re giving up your potential.”

Buffett needed to improve his speaking ability and wanted to live up to his potential, so he enrolled in a public speaking course which helped him to build his confidence and overcome his fear.

Let’s drill down into some more specific reasons about why public speaking is a great investment of your time.

You get the opportunity to help people and inspire them to take action

When you deliver useful content and are generous with your ideas, your audience will be genuinely engaged, entertained and grateful for your presentation. As a speaker, there’s a special warm and fuzzy feeling you get when someone approaches you after your presentation and sincerely thanks you for taking the time to present your ideas. That feeling is compounded when you receive an email from the same person a few weeks later and they say they applied your ideas to their business or personal life and enjoyed the rewards.

You will boost your self-esteem and become more confident

When you face your fear head on, you truly become the master of your own destiny. By taking on the challenge of public speaking, you will gradually replace anxiety, self-doubt and nerves with positivity, confidence and excitement. This shift will carry over to your career and your personal life.

You will become more interesting and build more friendships

Your ability to engage friends with entertaining stories will set you apart in social settings like parties and dinners. Have you ever noticed how the life of the party is always the best storyteller? Your public speaking skills will improve your social skills and you probably won’t even realize it.

You will improve your critical thinking skills and win more arguments

The process of preparing and articulating years of work, research and experience into a 20 minute presentation forces you to think clearly and ruthlessly cut extraneous content and distractions from your presentation. This same thought process carries over to arguments and negotiations, where you need to think creatively and dynamically to solve a problem or resolve a disagreement.

You will build a portfolio and improve your chances of being accepted as a speaker

Like artists and musicians, public speakers create a portfolio of their work. Even if you’re just starting out, you can create a webinar presentation or generate an audio recording of your presentation to kickstart your portfolio. Once you’ve got a few presentations under your belt, two things will happen:

I’ve helped organize events, which includes reviewing, accepting and rejecting speaker applications. When you’ve got a few presentations under your belt, you make a busy organizer’s life much easier.

You will be better than 99% of other speakers, simply because you tried

Improving your public speaking is hard work and that means a big percentage of people won’t even try, let alone follow through with the work. James Altucher is a highly regarded technology investor and explains:

“You just need to pretty good at something (a couple of hundred hours) and then you need to know how to give a good talk in public… so few people want to talk in public so you will stand out.”

You’re putting yourself ahead of your competition because you are taking action, which is something that most people struggle with.

You will reap the rewards and earn bonuses

As you improve your public speaking ability, the competition thins and the stakes increase. Bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell commands $80,000 for a single speaking engagement, while Bill Clinton can fetch more than $100,000. While this book doesn’t cover how to command speaker’s fees, you are still entitled to a few bonuses as a speaker. Most conferences and meetups will provide:

Over time, the rewards improve with the size and quality of the conferences and events you present at, and you may also receive a free ride to the event, which includes accommodation and travel.

You will get actionable feedback to improve your skills

The best and most actionable feedback will come directly from your audience. Presenter feedback forms aren’t the best way to measure your effectiveness, so I suggest using the level of audience interaction and engagement to measure your success. You can closely examine your audience feedback by reading their body language. If a lot of your audience have their arms crossed or are using their phone or laptop while you are speaking, you need to grab their attention. If they are on the edge of their seat with their eyes firmly focused on you, then you know you’re doing a good job. Another, even more effective way to improve is to self-review your performance - we’re our own harshest critic, so be prepared to improve.

You will put yourself in a position of serendipity and build new business relationships

Presenting to a new audience will open doors for you. A senior VP at a successful startup was so enthralled by my presentation that he offered to buy me lunch and chat further about the ideas I was presenting. During the same event, the founder of a popular career advice blog asked to interview and profile me, which will be broadcast to an audience of more than 20,000 people on their email list. When the opportunity strikes, take it!

You will build your personal brand and increase your influence

With every single event you present at, you will build your personal brand and increase your influence in your field. There is an inherent element of trust that’s given to a presenter and this is partly because the audience knows that you must have achieved something special in your career and you are given the opportunity to share your personal experience or results.

You will strengthen your ability to talk about yourself and enjoy job interviews

The skills learned as a public speaker, like organizing a presentation and clearly explaining your thoughts is a carry-over to make your job interviews a lot easier. You will be presenting in front of groups of a few hundred people about your experience, achievements and learnings, which means that you have a chance to hone your message and test the audience to see what generates a positive reaction.

You will have fun and develop a skill for life

Once you learn to transform your nervousness and fear into energy (the core benefit of following the action steps in this book), you will genuinely enjoy the process of preparing and presenting to a group of your peers. Public speaking will give you an adrenalin rush and I guarantee that once you finish your first presentation, you’ll be jumping online to figure out where you can present next.

Now you know the benefits of public speaking, but how do you rate yourself and where would you like to get to?

Take an honest inventory of your current ability and put a number on it. The guide below gives you a scale of where you fit on the speaking spectrum.

ScoreHow I feel about speaking
1I’ve never practiced my public speaking and I am completely overwhelmed by the thought of standing behind the microphone and presenting to an audience.
2I have completed a few hours of speaking practice and suffer from low confidence in my speaking ability. I can only communicate to a small group of people that I already know.
3I’ve presented in team meetings and at a few small events, but I struggle with stage fright and fear of failure.
4I’m comfortable presenting to small groups (up to 100 people). I’m no expert, but enjoy presenting and I want to improve my speaking skills.
5I’ve presented to medium sized groups (up to 250 people) and have received positive feedback from audience members.
6I’m comfortable presenting to large groups (greater than 500 people). I speak frequently (more than 20 times per year). I’m an industry expert and am often asked to present
7I’m a domain expert and am frequently invited to events to present on my subject matter of choice.
8I’m a regular fixture on the international speaking circuit and have presented at TED talks. I’m viewed as a thought leader in my industry and earn a substantial income from speaking.
9I’m a keynote speaker and I command $100,000+ per presentation. I speak alongside world-renowned speakers like Malcolm Gladwell or Bill Clinton.
10I’m the world’s greatest* speaker.

As a guide, most readers of this book will rate themselves somewhere between a 3 and a 5. An interesting point - I’ve never met a single speaker (amateur or professional) who self-rated above an 8.

The benefit of rating yourself is to have a starting point. This also introduces a concept I call feedback oriented learning, which is a very simple three step process for improving your self-rating by at least 2 points. The process is:

  1. Practice
  2. Critique
  3. Improve

This process is sequential and cyclical, which means that practice comes first, every time. Then, you will critique your performance and finally, improve your performance

Action Step

Complete the following steps:

Your why will keep you motivated when the work starts, so don’t move to the next section until this has been completed.

How to deal with your fear of public speaking

The 12 glossophobia symptoms and how you can beat them

The term glossophobia comes from the Greek γλῶσσα glōssa, meaning tongue, and φόβος phobos, fear or dread.

First time speakers can suffer from anxiety or in some cases, mild panic attacks. This is what glossophobia feels like:

  1. Nausea
  2. Dry mouth
  3. Sleep loss
  4. Headaches
  5. Dilated pupils
  6. Acute hearing
  7. Sweaty hands
  8. Shortness of breath
  9. Increased heart rate
  10. Increased perspiration
  11. Increased oxygen intake
  12. Increased blood pressure

For some people, fear of public speaking is grounded in their experience:

We’re not trained to take the stage or present to groups of people in school. For most people, the only time we present to a group is when we have to, rather than by choice. That means that our early experience of public speaking involves fumbling through some palm cards in front of a room full of uninterested students.

Speaking in public does not come naturally to us. Most people don’t want to be the centre of attention in a room filled with their peers and friends. Sitting in the audience and absorbing information is the default behavior. Stepping up to the stage and entertaining a crowd for 20 minutes requires a big change in mindset and a lot of motivation.

Lots of things can go wrong. The microphone dies. Your slide deck doesn’t work. You forget part of your presentation. You freeze on stage. People start talking while you are presenting. You don’t sleep the night before. People leave while you are presenting. There are so many variables to control as a public speaker, it’s overwhelming.

This is why people have such a hard time getting started with public speaking. Your fear is based on a limited experience, which leads to symptoms that make you feel uncomfortable, scared and sometimes, completely avoid speaking in public. Instead of pushing through this discomfort, most people settle and decide that public speaking is not for them.

A great public speaker is someone who inspires you.

They may inspire you to take action or they may entertain you with a memorable presentation. Here are 4 traits you already have in common with world class speakers. Keynote speakers are:

Nervous and anxious. All speakers deal with fear and nerves before they present. The way to overcome nerves and anxiety is through practice, preparation and routine, like a professional athlete does before a big game.

Prone to mistakes. They stumble, make mistakes and mispronounce words. But they keep on rolling. They might joke about an error or use a pause to build tension, but they never apologize for messing up.

Audience-focused. They care more about the audience than themselves. Most new speakers are very focused on themselves, rather than their audience. Building empathy for your audience takes time, but once you try to understand what motivates them, your presentations will shine.

Made, not born. World class public speakers started from the exact same point that you will start from. They put in the hard work, presented the same speech hundreds of times and are committed to being the best. Speaking is a skillset, not a gift. If you’re willing to work at improving, you can become world class too.

There are two solutions that work hand in hand to help cure your fear of public speaking: preparation and practice.

Preparation will prevent the symptoms of fear. Instead of feeling flustered or frustrated before you get started, you’ll be at ease because you’ve followed the steps of this playbook. You have a proven, step by step approach to getting started with speaking will help you save time, avoid preventable mistakes and hit the ground running. You don’t have to figure everything out the hard way.

The more you practice, the more comfortable you will become. The more frequently you speak in public, the sooner you’ll realize that your fear factor fades. When you start, you will probably feel nervous during the entire presentation. For your second presentation, you will gradually become more comfortable with the microphone, the stage and your audience. By your tenth presentation, you’ll be fired up to take the stage and give your audience all the effort and energy you have in your system.

The solution to your fear is preparation and practice.

Dealing with impostor syndrome as a public speaker

Impostor syndrome is a common issue with public speakers.

Impostor syndrome means that we struggle to internalize our accomplishments without feeling like a liar or fraud. Folks who deal with impostor syndrome say the following things about themselves:

The next biggest reason that people fear public speaking is fear of the unknown. You are stepping on a stage in front of dozens or hundreds of people you’ve never met, in a room you’ve never been in, to present about a topic that you’re not 100% confident about. There are dozens of variables that you need to address and deal with with, including a list of what-ifs, like:

Your fear goes deeper than dealing with small problems.

This quote by Marianne Williamson that will help you understand another contributing factor to your fear:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Public speaking forces you to push the limits of your own potential. That’s what makes it so nerve-wracking. You will make mistakes along the way, but that is the only way you will learn how to improve. You will also inspire others by being brave and proud enough to take the stage and share what you’ve learned with a room of people you probably haven’t met before.

Bill Hoogterp, a professional speaking trainer from Own The Room suggests one magical mantra to help overcome your fear of public speaking. It seems dismissive, but the truth is that once applied, it actually works. It’s also a great solution to a lot of other problems you have in your life, but for now, we’ll apply it to public speaking.

The answer is to get over yourself. Yes, that’s all there is to it. Bill explains that the reason that public speakers have so much trouble with nerves is because they are internally focused and worried solely about themselves. This is a natural human reaction as we’re hardwired from birth to look out for our own safety from birth. The reality of public speaking is that your audience doesn’t really care about you. It seems harsh, but it’s the truth. It’s not that the audience don’t like you, it’s just that they are more interested in how you can help them. They are looking for solutions, answers and inspiration. They’re not too concerned about who delivers them, they want solutions in an easy to understand and hopefully, memorable message.

Visualize yourself as a channel for the message to pass through, rather than being the message itself. Abstract yourself (who) away from educating your audience (how) by spending your time focused on the message, rather than the messenger. When you start to worry about the dozen things that can go wrong during your presentation, remember that even if they do, your audience isn’t really going to care. As long as you put 100% of your effort into entertaining, engaging and educating them, your job is .

Action Step

When you feel a wave of nerves or negative self-talk wash over yourself, remember that you are not the focus of the audience’s attention. Repeat the following three times:

“Get over yourself”.

This simple method will help you stop your nerves in their tracks.

Finding your voice

A secret weapon of great public speakers - honesty and vulnerability

If you take the stage and tell everyone how amazing, successful or smart you are, then your audience will start thinking:

“Why is this person trying to self-promote? I’ve already given them my attention.” “That’s nice, but how are you going to help me?” “Where’s the exit?”

You don’t need to self promote and you don’t need to impress people with your credentials, experience or amazing skillset. Instead, try to form a human connection between the story that you’re sharing and their own experience. One of the best ways to do this through honesty and vulnerability.

When you watch a movie, you’re trained to expect the last 15 minutes of the movie will be entertaining, whether it’s an action packed car chase or the tragic death of two star cross’d lovers. The end of the movie is only a small portion of what you’re going to spend your time watching. The other 90% of the time, you will be watching the struggle, the pain, the challenges and the anguish. A good movie will entertain and engage you. A great movie will create an emotional response from you.

The same rules apply to speaking public. You will feel like you are sharing your life story with your closest friends, rather than interrupting them and trying to pitch your idea. Your story will be much more memorable and authentic when you tell it from the heart.

Where appropriate, insert a story about you that is insightful, honest or entertaining. Remember - you don’t need to tell people that you’re a superstar, because the fact that you have been selected by the event organizers and the fact that your audience has self-selected into the group means that they already inherently trust and respect your opinion.

Let’s unpack three examples of using vulnerability and honesty in a public speech and how you can apply them to your presentation.

Case Study 1 - Casey Gerald

The presenter, Casey Gerald, is a Harvard Business School MBA. You can watch his presentation here. Casey is a great speaker, but the element that sets the speech apart from other commencement speeches is how Casey grabs the attention of the audience through a powerful introduction that builds audience empathy through vulnerability.

He states:

“I arrived at Harvard Business School in very bad shape.”

Most people aren’t comfortable sharing their struggles or what they could have better, but Casey doesn’t miss a beat. I wouldn’t expect an audience of Harvard alumni to be sharing their woes or challenges during events or mixers, so this introduction catches people off guard and lowers their guard that protect their attention.

“I arrived after spending a year in the hallowed halls of Washington D.C., where I developed an uncanny knack for making copies and making coffee.”

Casey adds humour into the mix by poking fun at the reality and monotony of his true work life, which is something that most professional people can relate to.

“On a single night, almost seven years ago my whole life changed. It was around 1:30 in the morning when I heard the first knock on the door of my home down in Dallas…”

Finally, Casey shares a life-changing story that is vivid, violent and shocking.

Casey earns the full attention of his audience just 3 minutes into the presentation and after this stirring introduction, he delves deeper into his personal experience and hardships. Even though he’s a graduate of the most prestigious business school in the world, his presentation comes across as a heart to heart conversation with a close friend.

Towards the end of the speech, he uses the learnings to lead into what he’s learned about life, the challenges he’s overcome and how these experiences have motivated him to help struggling business owners across the United States.

Case Study 2 - James Altucher

The next presenter, James Altucher, is a successful entrepreneur and investor. You can watch his presentation here. James has an unconventional speaking style, he bounces around the room with energy and speaks quickly, but it’s his honesty that sets him apart.

He states:

“Entrepreneurship really sucks… I hate it so much” “It’s excruciating… ”

This statement is contrary to popular belief - entrepreneurship is heralded in the media as glamorous and enjoyable, but the truth is, it’s hard work. James grabs the attention of the audience with this outlandish statement and continues to say…

“Nobody knows what they’re doing” (in relation to entrepreneurship)

Again, James is providing his opinion based on decades of experience working in technology startups. He may be wrong or he may be right, but he’s being honest about what he’s seen and sharing this with the audience. He explains how Twitter started as a podcasting application with a different name and when the original idea for Twitter came around, all of the investors allowed their shares in the company to be bought out, which further supports his opinion.

“From 1995 to 2010, I probably only slept 2 or 3 hours a night”

This statement helps the audience understand the life James has experienced and the stress and pressure that he was under as an entrepreneur. It’s a much more powerful and concise way of saying “I was losing sleep over the performance of my business for years.” The aim is not to be outspoken or sensational for the sake of it, rather you should be specific and explain exactly what happened.

Action Step

Watch the presentations by Casey and James to learn about the power of vulnerability. Reflect on their presentations and using them as inspiration, draft two relevant personal stories that you can use in your presentation.

How to get started with public speaking

Two places to start speaking in public, today!

It’s time to get practical and speak in front of… people!

These micro steps will help you build a foundation of confidence and prepare you for your first public speech.

Note: If you’re unable to complete these actions right now (for example; you’re reading in bed or on a train or bus or plane), then bookmark this page and set a calendar reminder to complete this chapter before you move forward. It’s the easiest speech you will ever present.

Home

This is the easiest and fastest way to get started with public speaking. You don’t need a script or a slide deck.

Action Step

Find the Gettysburg Address online. Read it aloud, right now.

Next, grab your smartphone and press record on your front facing camera. Either hold it to your face or put it on a bookshelf and record a few more takes. Don’t worry about critiquing your performance, but take a few minutes to watch yourself on the recording.

Then, delete the evidence.

Office

The next step is practicing in the office. Here are a few events that you can present at:

After you present, take a moment to reflect on how effective your communication is.

  1. Are people interested in what you’re talking about?
  2. Do people ask questions when you’re finished?
  3. Are attendees clear on their next steps?

If your answer ‘no’ to any of these questions, ask for feedback from the work peers you trust.

Once you’ve practiced at home and the office, it’s time to put yourself in front of an audience.

Action Step

Grab a notebook or open a document.

After each impromptu presentation, give yourself feedback on three things that worked and one thing that didn’t.

How to find your first public speaking event

You’re ready to take your public speaking skills to the next level.

Congratulations. The journey truly begins with the first time you step behind the microphone, clear your throat and tell your story. Let’s unpack how to get your first few speaking gigs, so you can build your confidence and expand your portfolio.

First, the size of the audience is not a measure of success. Our focus is the process and execution of preparing a presentation that will educate your audience. To start with, we’ll take small steps with taking on a few small engagements, like running meetings at work or presenting to a small group of peers in a more intimate meetup style setting. This quick wins approach is a simple method of making sure you crawl before you walk.

As a rule of thumb, remember to give yourself at least 4 weeks of preparation time when you apply to speak at a smaller event. Larger events and conferences have much longer lead times to lock in their presenters and this can extend your preparation time out by up to 12 weeks. Once you lock in a commitment to present at an event, you will be surprised by how polarizing this commitment will be to your work ethic. Your fear of failure will keep you up at night and have you pondering the content, presentation and design of your presentation. You’re not going to learn a lot by just reading this book and taking notes, so this section of the book is where the rubber hits the road.

To get you started, I’ve built you a list of events you can speak at and a framework for contacting, following up and building relationships with event organizers. We’ll also cover how to create a speaking portfolio, because a simple portfolio is a great way to set yourself apart from other speakers.

Where you can speak

Where you can speak depends on who you are and what you do. Here are a few personas, so take a look where you fit:

As a student, you’ve got dozens of opportunities right at your fingertips. You can join college meetup groups, debating teams and even attend open mic or improv nights. Any time you can get behind the mic will help you, so default to ‘Yes’ when an opportunity to speak presents itself.

As an employee, every meeting gives you an excellent opportunity. Whether it’s a small team update, a motivational push to the sales team or a regular team catch up, you’ve got a stage. Even though you probably won’t have a microphone to step behind, you will still have the scope to communicate and educate your audience. You have the added bonus of being able to impress your boss with your well-honed communication skills.

As a business owner, you’re in luck. You’ve got control over your time, so you can dictate where and how you invest your time. You can start by looking for local small business meetups or local conferences to get started.

If you don’t fit any of the profiles above, don’t worry. You still have as much right to speak as the next person, so think about your hobbies and interests to find groups of likeminded people to present to.

Meetups

Local meetup groups are a great way to get in front of a small group and present your ideas. Meetups are very popular with people in the technology industry, especially males between the age of 20 - 30. Meetups are typically smaller and more intimate than a conference. They are often held on weekdays outside of working hours, which means there is a much smaller time commitment for the attendees. The quality of meetups varies - I’ve attended meetups where young technology entrepreneurs only attend to get some free pizza and beer before they go back to working on their startups. Meetups are built around online communities, as they are a great way to continue an online conversation in an offline format, as well as helping people to build face to face relationships. The format of meetups varies, so make sure you do your research before you attend so you know what to expect.

Action Step

Visit meetup.com and sign up, then filter your local meetups based on your interests. From data mining through to ‘random adventures’, there are meetups available for all types of hobbies and interests. Attend a few meetups to understand what they are all about, then nominate yourself to present on a subject that will be useful and educational to the audience.

Speaking workshops

Speaking workshops are the equivalent of an open mic night in a comedy club - you get the opportunity to present to a group of strangers and you’ll likely be put on stage to talk about a randomly selected subject. This can be a little overwhelming for first-timers, but is highly recommended as everyone else who is attending is likely in the same position as you.

Action Step

Search for ‘public speaking workshops’ online and attend one.

Toastmasters

Toastmasters is the world’s most well-known public speaking organization. The network is comprised of more than 290,000 members and sustains regular meetup groups of likeminded professionals and speakers. These groups are self-organized and focused on learning through practice and action, which is exactly what you need to do to improve your public speaking skills. In my experience, the groups are welcoming, friendly and supportive - which is the perfect environment to learn in.

Action Step

Visit toastmasters.org and register to attend a session at your local Toastmasters group.

Conferences

Conferences allow you to solve a few problems in one day - you get to build your network, meet smart people and also present to a group of self-selected people with an audience that is specific to a particular vertical or audience. A great way to get accepted to a larger conference is to befriend the conference organizer and offer to present a lightning talk on a subject of your choice. Lightning talks are usually between 5 to 10 minutes in length are an excellent way to get in front of a bigger audience with a reduced amount of pressure.

Action Step

Visit lanyrd.com to find a list of upcoming conferences in your city and choose one to attend. Make sure you are prepared with your business cards and a brief summary of who you are and what you do - commonly known as your elevator pitch.

Stand out by building a relationship with the event organizer

If you follow the standard approach for applying for a public speaking engagement, it will look something like this:

  1. You spend a few minutes on your application
  2. You submit it through a web-form or to a shared email
  3. You cross your fingers and hope for a response

This is where a lot of new speakers fall flat on their face. Instead of taking the standard path to landing your first speaking engagement, take the road less traveled. It’s simple and it works.

Start by researching the event that you want to speak at. Look at past events and check out the following details:

Answering these questions will give you a clear idea about what the event organizers are looking for in a presenter.

The next step is to stand out from being a face in the crowd. It’s not hard to do, but because it takes a little bit of extra effort, you can be sure the majority of applicants won’t take this extra step. Search around to find who is responsible for organizing the event - if it’s not clear from the event website, get in touch with a few of the previous year’s speakers and ask for an introduction to the organizer. A direct referral to the organizer from a speaker is a great way to qualify yourself as a candidate.

Once you have their contact details, reach out to them with the following email:

Hi (name)

My name is (name) and I’m really excited about presenting at (conference). I’m ready to submit my application, but wanted to ask you the following questions before I do:

Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely, (name)

When you craft your questions, make sure you don’t ask questions that you could answer yourself with research about the event. Instead, be specific about exactly what you need their help with. Asking a thoughtful question will put you on the organizer’s radar and will help make you stand out when they commence the application review process.

Here are a few example questions to get you started:

If you don’t hear back from the organizer after a week, send them a friendly email to see if they can answer your question. A great way to do this is to reply to the original email, copy the entire body of what you asked and add this introduction:

Hi (name)

I wanted to bump the following email - if you could help with the below questions, that would be super helpful to me.

(copy previous email)

Sincerely, (name)

Action Step

Send 3 emails to event organizers.

I’ve landed a speaking engagement - now what?

Congratulations! The first thing you need to do is celebrate your hard work so far. Committing to an event and landing your first speaking engagement is exciting, so take yourself out for a small reward, like a lunch or dinner.

Preparation is our secret weapon against fear and nerves. It all starts with your relationship with the event organizer and the questions that you get answers to. Ultimately, you’re making their job easier and reducing their stress, so get these questions out of the way early on.

Here’s a detailed list of questions you need to ask your organizer - check with them if it’s easier to answer these questions over the phone, rather than via email. Be proactive and try to answer your own questions, but seek clarification if you’re not 100% sure.

27 Smart Questions to Answer Before Every Presentation

Audience

General logistics

Hardware

Promotion

Practice

Slides

Venue

One bonus question that you should raise is related to the reach of your presentation. If you’ve been scheduled for a shorter, ‘lightning round’ style talk, then you can nominate yourself to be a back up speaker for anyone who needs to drop out of the main group of presenters. This happens a lot - speakers are susceptible to food poisoning, flight delays, conflicting priorities or personal emergencies.

Once you’ve got answers to all of these questions, you can relax. You’ve more preparation than 99% of novice speakers, already!

Action Step

Call or email the organizer and use the 27 Smart Questions listed above to get answers to your questions.

How to create your professional speaking portfolio for free in 10 minutes

Like any master craftsperson, you need a way to showcase your work and promote yourself in a simple and clear manner. Here are the steps to create your own portfolio for free:

Set up all of the following free accounts online:

  1. soundcloud.com
  2. youtube.com
  3. slideshare.com
  4. wordpress.com
  5. flavors.me

Then, update your flavors.me account to link back to all of these different account. Don’t get too caught up in making your sites ‘pretty’ just yet, we’re focused on creating and sharing content that will help and inform people. The only thing you need to optimize are the titles and the descriptions of your files - use detailed and rich description of your content, this will help people and search engines find your presentations.

Here’s how you can use each account:

Soundcloud

To use Soundcloud, simply record your presentation with a voice recorder application like Griffin iTalk on your iPhone or use software like Audacity and a microphone to record an audio file on your computer. Once you’ve recorded your audio files, upload them to Soundcloud.

Youtube

Sharing your presentations is the key to building and improving your portfolio. If you’re recording videos, set up a Youtube account and upload them there.

Slideshare

Use the Slideshare platform to share your slide deck for free. Slideshare is a great source for people who want inspiration from presentations or a high level overview on a particular subject. Add an extra slide into the slide deck that you upload that links back to your other accounts. This will help you drive interest and traffic to the other areas of your portfolio.

WordPress

WordPress is an easy to use blogging platform. You can create a blog post that includes the details of your presentation, the actual transcript and links to your Soundcloud, Youtube and Slideshare files. The easiest way to order and format your blog post is to embed the files into a blog post in this order:

  1. Blog post URL example - blogname.wordpress.com/my-presentation-name
  2. Blog post title - Title of presentation “10 Secrets to Sales Success”
  3. Body text - Four sentences that summarize the content of the blog post

Then, embed the files in the following order to make sure the reader has the option to either listen, watch or read your presentation.

  1. Soundcloud
  2. Youtube
  3. Slideshare
  4. Transcript as text

When you copy and paste the transcript, indicate to your reader when you’ve moved onto the next slide by using titles like: “Slide 2 - About Me” and then move into the content.

Flavors.me

This platform allows you to pull all of your content and accounts onto one page, so you can have a single link that you can share with conference organizers or audience member who ask to see more of your presentations. You can also purchase a specific domain, which I recommend you set up using your first and last name, for example “johnsmith.com” to make sure that people can find you when they are looking for you online.

Action Step

Follow the steps to create and launch your very own public speaking portfolio. If you don’t have a lot of content to upload yet, don’t worry. The fact that you’ve publicly created a portfolio will drive you to keep it updated and keep improving it.

How do I prepare my speech?

Brainstorm ideas for your first public speech

What does a conference attendee do on the morning of the event? They check the speaker’s schedule and answer two questions:

Who is presenting?

They will look for well-known influencers they have read or watched before. A lot of keynote speakers arrange book signings after their presentation, so they can meet and greet the people who support their success.

How can they help me?

In reality, this is far more important. As a conference attendee who’s paid tens of thousands of dollars to travel to and attend events around the world, I always look for the best return on investment. If I can find one presentation that sounds like it might be able to help me in my personal or professional life, I will choose it over any celebrity presentations at the same time.

Sometimes, there are multiple speaker ‘tracks’ or presentations running at the same time, so an attendee will circle or mark the presentations they want to watch and use the speaker schedule as their guide. A common question between conference attendees is “What are you heading to next?” - attendees will compare notes and justify why they are excited about a particular presentation, which is something to keep in mind.

You’re a brand new speaker, which means that only a few attendees will know who you are. Don’t be disheartened. You simply need to find a way to grab people’s attention and get their interest in what you’re speaking about. The secret to grabbing their attention is to write a compelling headline that will make attending your presentation an absolute no-brainer.

Please don’t take a shortcut and search for ‘speech topics’ online. It’s hard to create an authentic, engaging and energetic presentation by borrowing someone else’s speech content.

Action Step

Grab a notebook or open a document and write down the following items.

7 Things I Love To Talk About - typical answers to what these ‘things’ could be are: your family, hobbies, interest, sports or politics. If you get stuck, look at your last five Facebook and Twitter updates and you will be able to fill out this section.

7 Things I Have Expertise In - the definition of expertise is not a Masters level education, rather areas of interest where you have more knowledge than the average person. For example, my personal areas of expertise include: writing, public speaking and small business marketing. If you get stuck here, ask your family or friends what you are good at and they will help you complete this section.

7 Things My Audience Cares About - you don’t need to be a psychic to answer this question. Instead, use the data that you’ve got in front of you. What is the topic of the conference or meetup? Who will be in the audience? Think about your audience member’s persona. Are they a stay at home mom who is interested in how they can improve their parenting skills or a 22 year old technology entrepreneur from Silicon Valley with a dream of becoming the next Elon Musk or Steve Jobs? Get inside their head by researching the type of blogs they read and spend time where they hang out online.

Now, come up with three talk ideas and capture them at the bottom of the document.

How to craft an irresistible headline that will attract conference attendees

You started with three ideas and after you speak to the organizer, you have whittled your idea down to a single presentation topic. Now it’s time to lock in a speech headline that will grab the attention of the attendees.

Claude Hopkins, an advertising guru, once said “The purpose of a headline is to pick out people you can interest.” Your speech headline needs to do 80% of the work of your presentation, because it is the first and often, only part of your speech summary that people will actually read when they are selecting which presentation to attend next.

Headline writing is a fun, creative and challenging process. An easy formula to use for your speech is explained by Lenka Istvanova:

Numbers + Adjective + Target Keyword + Rationale + Promise

For example:

7 Lessons Learned About Artisan Cheese That You Won’t Believe 10 Life-Changing Stories From Failed Startups That Will Help Your Business 102 Incredible Headlines That Will Help Speakers Grab Their Audience’s Attention

There are three additional elements you can incorporate to make your headline really stand out.

Build the Mystery

You need to pique your potential audience’s interest by creating a sense of mystery and prestige. Let your words do this work for you - so try terms like ‘secret’, ‘quest’ and ‘seduce’

Create Prestige

To build the mystery and ‘ultimate’, ‘best practice’ and ‘essential’ to create prestige around your presentation.

Be Concise

Don’t waste a word.

Action Step

Open the Craft Your Headline resource and compile your top twenty headline ideas. Here are ten great headlines that will inspire your ideas:

Need more ideas? Visit this link to grab another 102 sample headlines that you can use to create your speech headline.

Then, take your top three and put them at the bottom of the document.

The 30 sheet method of speech preparation

The 30 sheet method is the fastest and simplest way to outline your ideas for a presentation. I’ve tried dozens of other ways to do it.

All you need is 30 pieces of blank paper, a Sharpie and an hour of time.

The high-level process looks like this:

  1. Write your ‘before and after’ for one audience member
  2. Start with an interesting story that will grab their attention
  3. Drill down into your takeaways
  4. Fill in the blanks
  5. Get organized

We’ll use my presentation on Building Business Relationships as a case study.

  1. The before and after

Start with the end in mind. This means you need to really think about what you want your audience to feel once you’ve finished presenting. Maybe you want to inspire them or perhaps you want them to take one action that will help their business. You might want to inform them and share data in a meaningful way, rather than delivering a tired old presentation that puts them to sleep. To get clear about what this one takeaway will be, write it down.

To frame it, take the audience from where they are before your presentation to where they will be once it’s completed. But instead of referring to your ‘audience’, focus on one particular audience member and tailor the message towards them. This means you put yourself in their shoes and understand their challenges. To do this, grab two pieces of paper: label one Before and one After, then fill up one side with notes about how your audience member feels.

Before presentation

Notes

Once you’ve got a few notes, you can flip the piece of paper over and draft a rough narrative for the audience member.

Narrative

Jim has a growing business and is interested in partnering with other companies. He wants to build business relationships but doesn’t know where to get started. He doesn’t see himself as an outgoing person and he doesn’t like traditional networking events. He’s tried to use social media to connect with influencers and build relationships out of thin air. This hasn’t worked for him.

Then repeat the process for the sheet labeled after.

After presentation

Notes

Narrative

Jim has a step by step approach on how to successfully build business relationships. He understands the three different types of relationships, how to build them and has specific examples for each. He has a clear idea of the next steps to take and has one call to action for after the presentation.

  1. Start with an interesting story that holds attention

Lead with a powerful, memorable story. The best story you can tell is one that feels authentic, natural and is easy for you to remember. This will help you to ease into your presentation with comfort, rather than feeling like you need to formally introduce yourself and meet the audience’s expectations. Most presenters will start with the regular old ‘My name is Joe and I’m here to talk to you about this’. The problem with this introduction is that you are wasting your audience’s limited attention span, so start with something unexpected and interesting.

Grab a piece of paper and write the heading ‘Story’ and fill one side up with notes about how you’ll lead into the presentation.

Notes

Story

You’ve got a pounding headache.

You’re a stressed out, overworked business owner with 101 tasks piled up on your to do list.

Your WordPress site is giving you a migraine, but the thought of using elance or odesk makes your head pound even harder.

Instead, you want to send your issue to someone you can trust. Ahh… Sweet relief.

You stumble upon a service called WP Curve.

You trust us and will keep us on call, every month, just in case.

WP Curve is the Advil for your Wordpress migraine.

  1. Drill down into your takeaways

Next, come up with five to seven high level takeaways for your presentation. These takeaways are the statements that you will imprint on your audience’s brain.

Remember - you’re ahead of the pack because you’ve your research on the type of attendees and have a grasp of what they are hoping to learn from your presentation.

For the business relationships presentation, I wanted to explain the why, the what and the how:

  1. Why business relationships are important
  2. The three different types of relationships you can build
  3. How to build relationships without feeling sleazy

Give the audience a reason to care, what they need to know and then some specific examples of how they can do it themselves.

For a presentation to potential business partners or investors, you can choose different areas to cover. If I wanted to pitch my business for investment, I would discuss the who, the what and the why.

  1. Who the team is
  2. What they’ve so far and what’s coming next
  3. Why they should invest

For a presentation to a management team, you can discuss the what, the how and the when.

  1. What the problem is
  2. How you intend to solve it
  3. When you want to take action

Using a three point framework takes some practice, but soon you will use it every time you need to prepare a speech.

Now we’ve got our takeaways. Use points and examples to support each takeaway. To do this, grab another piece of paper and title the sheet with the takeway, then brainstorm the examples and points that you want to make for each takeaway.

I used the following points and examples:

Networking events suck

Building a relationship with your audience is extremely important

The idea is to keep the points and examples at a high level. You may find that once your ideas start flowing, you need more pieces of paper - use them! Document all of your ideas - you can always cut out extra bits and pieces later on. Don’t get too caught up in feeling like you need to do research or refer to hard data just yet, we’ll add that in when we write the script. As you go along, feel free to sketch ideas for images that you’d like to use in your presentation.

  1. Fill in the blanks

Grab some pieces of paper and label each one of them as follows; noting the following points:

Title slide

About me

Slides link

Conclusion

Call to action

Last slide

  1. Get organized

You now have a big pile of papers, covered with headings, notes and ideas for images.

Take a few minutes to organize these slides into a logical flow, then use a paper clip or staple to secure the pages.

You’ve survived the creative process - now it’s time to dig deeper.

How to write an excellent speech script to support your presentation

Writing your script is the heavy lifting of public speaking.

You know your content is the most important part of your presentation and because content is king, it’s where you will invest the majority of your research, writing and editing time.

It’s important to understand your words per minute speaking rate. According to The National Center for Voice and Speech, the average person speaks at a rate of approximately 150 words per minute. This means you will need around 1,500 words for a ten minute presentation and 3,000 words for a twenty minute presentation. If you’re concerned that you’re a very fast or very slow talker, grab your phone and record how long it takes you to read from the ‘How to..’ title heading of this section to this point. This section was approximately 150 words, so adjust your word count accordingly.

We’ll take an iterative approach to your script, which means that you’ll work on the script, present it, refine it, improve it and then repeat the process.

Grab your 30+ sheets of slide outlines and let’s dive in.

  1. Research one takeaway at a time

You might feel compelled to write your entire presentation in one sitting, but this rarely works. Instead, use a simple table format to take a first pass at the research for one slide.

I use the annotations < > as placeholders for imagery, to-dos or statistics found in research and --- to space out ideas.

SlideScript
Building a relationship using content(show screenshot from Google Analytics) (dig out raw number for pageviews) (highlight top 5 articles) (Explain specific results of a few blog posts)
  1. Write a rough draft

Once you’ve found some data and evidence to support your points and examples, you can start to write your content. Remember to match your tone to your audience - if it’s a formal presentation, try to avoid slang and if it’s a non-technical audience, avoid using detailed technical terms that they won’t understand. Writing one section at a time will help you to make sure that each section of your presentation gets an equal amount of attention and effort, which means that your entire presentation will be rock solid.

SlideScript
Building a relationship using content(show screenshot from Google Analytics) (dig out raw number for pageviews) (highlight top 5 articles) --- Content is a great way to have a one to many conversation with your audience. You can answer peoples questions, solve their problems and deliver value through your writing. (Explain specific results of a few blog posts) Transparency works, but only do what you’re comfortable with.
  1. Present it

Do not commit a single word to your script until you have practiced presenting it. You will notice that there is a significant difference between what makes great reading and what makes a great script for a presentation. This usually comes down to simplicity and clarity. As you read through your draft, you’ll notice filler words and a redundant points, which you will remove to help drive home your message in a crystal clear format.

  1. Improve it

You will need to simplify words, reduce jargon and move sections around and structure the presentation to have a better flow. Another common issue is that as you build out more and more slides, you may repeat yourself and create duplicate slides or areas of content. You avoid this by doing one thing at a time, instead of trying to do the whole presentation in one go. Once you’ve improved the script, present it aloud and look for areas that you can simplify and improve. After a few iterations, you’ll have a stage-ready script.

One drawback of taking a section by section approach to your script is that you might find it hard to loop in a consistent theme throughout the presentation. Your theme can be taken directly from your ‘Before and After’ audience profile - for the example presentation, the theme is that ‘Building relationships is easy and authentic, you just need to know the steps’. Work on your script until you’ve finished 80% of your slide content and then check that you’ve worked your theme throughout.

Fill your entire script with useful data and simple words, then it’s time to polish your presentation.

The golden rules of preparing an excellent slide deck

Preparing a slide deck can be a major roadblock for a new speaker.

The reality is that you only need to spend a few hours of effort on preparing the visuals for your deck. When it comes to your presentation production value, 80% of your effort should be on the content and script and only 20% should be invested into your slide deck.

Here are six rules to keep in mind when you prepare your slide deck:

  1. The fewer slides, the better. As you work through your presentation, you’ll notice that navigating through your slideshow interrupts the flow of your delivery. Even if it’s just a minor pause or moment that you lose, your audience recognizes this. As a general guideline, you should target between 15 - 20 slides for a 20 minute presentation.

  2. A deck is only an aide. You should plan to present without your slides. The adage that the show must go on is true - it’s also surprising how frequently audiovisual equipment fails, even when it’s been tried and tested by other speakers before you. Be prepared.

  3. Use high quality photos or professional stock images. You should avoid using clip art, videos and clicking through to live links on websites from your presentation. Surprisingly, a lot of presenters do this and lose their momentum when their video doesn’t load or the venue WiFi doesn’t work as expected.

  4. Use standard fonts and templates. Custom fonts and templates add a layer of complexity to your presentation. If you need to load your slide deck onto someone else’s computer, there’s a high likelihood that your custom design elements will not work.

  5. Avoid fade ins, transitions and animations. These ‘extras’ are prone to loading slowly and distracting your audience from the core message of your slide. Vibrant, static imagery will do the job.

  6. Keep it simple. This is the golden rule of slide deck presentations - so keep the ‘one slide, one message’ mantra front of mind as you design your slides. To achieve this, stick with a word budget for each of your slides and avoid filling your deck with the content from your script.

To find examples of excellent slide decks for inspiration, visit http://www.slideshare.net/popular/all-time

The 15x method of practicing your public speech

The steps outlined in this book give you everything you need for preparation, but there’s one thing this book can’t do for you. Practice.

The only way to confidently present your public speech is to practice and it’s no surprise that this is where amateur speakers struggle the most. Have you ever had the nightmare of going to an exam without knowing it was on or even studying for it beforehand? This is the equivalent feeling to walking up on stage, like you’ve just been picked out of the crowd at random. This is not a position you want to be in, as on stage ‘improv’ does not come naturally to most of us.

Preparing for a presentation is taking care of the tactical issues that pop up as you are working through your content, including:

This is not practice. Practice is presenting, recording and improving your presentation. This is the most action oriented section of this guide, so get ready for some action steps.

Action Step

Lock in five one-hour practice sessions each week before your presentation. Block these in your calendar and protect this time.

Next up, it’s time to set up your practice zone. You can use a home office, a bedroom or a meeting room. You need to have enough space to stand up and move around, just like you will on stage. Next, set up a recording device - whether it’s your computer or camera on your phone. Then, for each slide that you’ve created, you present it 15 times, back to back. Think of it as going to the gym and doing repetitions. These repetitions create muscle and cognitive memory, so you know exactly what’s coming and how to present it.

Former Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger likened his approach to practicing a public speech to be the same mindset required to build a physique. His mantra was ‘reps, reps and reps’ - this means that he would practice until the movement and speech was second nature. For one public address, he practiced the same speech more than 50 times to get it right. This approach and work ethic is highly recommended, as more practice means a lower likelihood of mistakes, higher confidence and a more natural sounding presentation, which means a better experience for the audience.

When you finish your 15th repetition, go back and review the slide review the video of the lost five slides could take your presentation a delivery got some guys to prove it then revisit and present the same slide five more times. It may sound a little excessive but remember that H slide should be practice I ran 20 times before you take it to the stage and the reason is this let’s say the all of website is a power outage in the public speaking presentation or that you’re working from? What are you going to do? Unlike everyone else you’ll be highly prepared to present with at visual aids like a slide deck why even without a script if you really with pursed today say of course you’ll have a back up of your script on you’ll find a backup of your slides on your fine and you can still take the stage and present your content with comfort and authority.

Action Step

Next, review how you feel about your practice.

Does your content feel like it is all over the place? Sit down in front of your computer and make changes to the structure and organization of your ideas. If you feel like the presentation doesn’t flow, you can guarantee your audience is going to struggle with keeping up.

Are you forgetting your lines? Review the script and make sure you’re using simple, easy to navigate language. You’ll be very surprised how a few misplaced words can throw off the flow of an entire presentation.

Are you lacking energy? Listen to some uptempo music, have a cup of coffee and watch a few motivational speeches. Do whatever it takes to get yourself in the zone and go back and record yourself presenting the slide again.

Now it’s time for you to graduate to your very own live, studio audience.

Action Step

It’s time to ask for a little help from your friends and family. As soon as you’ve practiced your presentation 15x for each slide, step up to the big stage in your living room or dining room. Ask for your audience’s undivided attention, then get down to business. Once complete, ask them for three things that you did well and one thing you can improve on.

Find your comfort zone during your first presentation

Now that you’ve prepared an excellent deck, practiced your speech multiple times (including in front of your very own audience), as well as finished your recon on the venue you’ll be presenting at, you’re ahead of the game.

Remember, most first time speakers stumble, stammer and umm and ahh through their presentations. You, on the other hand, are ready for the challenge.

Here are a few things to consider before you step out on stage.

Take your time

There’s no rush. You don’t need to machine gun through your content to make way for the next presenter. Your allotted time is just that - your time. You can use it as you please.

Wear comfortable clothes

You’re going to be the centre of attention, so you should present your authentic self. If you usually wear a t-shirt and jeans, feel free to wear them. It doesn’t matter if everyone else is wearing a tuxedo, you should focus on what makes you feel at ease.

You’re human

The probability of you executing a world-class presentation your first time around is extremely low. You can’t expect to remember every single word, seamlessly navigate through your slides and masterfully hold 100% of your audience’s attention for the entire length of your presentation, the first time around. That’s OK - so embrace the fact that you’ll make a few mistakes. When you make a mistake, keep going.

When you make a mistake, keep rolling

The majority of your audience isn’t going to notice when you stutter or stammer on a few lines, so be sure not to apologize or draw attention to any shortcomings you may have during your presentation. If you go off topic or lose your place in the presentation, pause. Spend a few seconds finding your position and carrying on.

Action Step

Take a deep breath and visualize yourself giving a knockout presentation. Then, dress in the clothes that you will wear for your speech and practice your speech to your own test audience.

Your words are powerful - don’t waste them

Comedians. Get. Words.

Simply put, world class comedians understand the power and impact of the words they do and don’t speak.

Watch Louis CK, Eddie Murphy or Aziz Ansari and listen between the lines. They are deliberate in what they say, but just as deliberate in what they don’t say. They remove filler, unnecessary slang terms and anything that might distract or reduce the impact of their content. They never use confusing terms or words that are difficult to understand. They know that the quality of their content is just as important as the quality of their delivery.

Take these two examples and compare them by reading aloud:

Example 1 - Have you ever, umm, wondered about, uhh, how they put a, umm, man on the moon? Example 2 - How did they put a man on the moon?

Unnecessary words reduce the impact and power of what you say. Here’s a hitlist to look out for during your presentation practice:

Questions

Short fillers

Long fillers

The ‘lllys

Action Step

Watch your practice recordings. Mark down which words you frequently say by ticking next to the word. If you use a word that’s not on the list, add it.

Then, dedicate one practice session to focus on removing one tic.

Get comfortable with making eye contact

When you can maintain eye contact with your audience, you exude confidence. The surprising thing about eye contact is that you only need to make it with four people in the room, because to the rest of the audience, it’s going to seem like you are giving them your full attention.

Imagine an X drawn around the crowd from the front to the back of where you are speaking. To maintain your eye contact with ‘everyone’, all you need to do is pan around your X from extreme corner to corner with a slow gaze. A few tricks to better prepare for this experience:

Get There Early

Jumping in front of the mic without understanding the technical setup or the floorplan is a recipe for nervousness and discomfort. Instead of diving in headfirst, arrive to the venue early a half hour before the event starts so you can get a feel for the stage and the scope of the room you’ll be presenting to.

Practice Staring Competitions

This is a simple, but useful trick to becoming comfortable with being able to hold your gaze with members of the audience for an extended period of time. You can do this with your significant other, friends or if you need to, your pet. Hold your focus for 30 seconds at a time, this will make it much easier to look into the eyes of a stranger for 5 seconds.

Hack your eye contact by going side to side and front to back.

Action step

With your webcam or front facing camera, practice two different rehearsal approaches. For the first rehearsal, don’t worry about making eye contact with the camera. Present your content as if you were presenting to a friend and don’t worry about being recorded.

For the second rehearsal, stare dead-on into the camera lens for 10 seconds before you press record. Next, imagine a 2 inch-high X that sits over the camera and work your gaze around that marking so you can become comfortable and familiar with maintaining your eye contact.

Now, review the first and second video and give yourself an honest review. Which video was more engaging? If you were watching this video on Youtube for the first time, which one would maintain your attention and why? Continue to practice this approach until you get the opportunity to present the same content to your significant other or friends. As you work your way through this presentation, focus on locking in on your eyes on them and confidently presenting to them.

Simple ways to engage your audience throughout your presentation

Peter Shankman is a professional keynote speaker and makes the point that the average human being has an attention span of 1.27 seconds.

Every second that ticks by is one that you need to fight for.

There are a few simple ways to engage your audience as you work through your presentation, with examples listed below:

Involve your audience. Ask the audience for feedback - you can ask questions like:

You should also acknowledge their impromptu feedback - whether they react, call out or interject during your presentation, make sure you recognize them and keep the conversation going.

Have a sense of humor. Your audience wants to be entertained, as well as informed. Test a few jokes out and don’t be afraid to poke fun at yourself.

Tell stories. Research and data are great, but make sure you package your hard work in a way that’s entertaining and useful to your audience.

Keep on rolling. Don’t sweat it if you make a few mistakes, but never apologize for messing up a slide or a section. Roll with the punches and you’ll be surprised at how few of your audience members actually point it out.

Give them a break. Break up your presentation with interesting slides, thought-provoking points and variety in content. If you drone on and on about the same points for 20 minutes, don’t be surprised if you hear snoring in the audience.

Use 101% of your energy. Your audience will give you back what you put into them, so make sure you are fueled up and ready to give them all of your energy. When you leave the stage, you should be completely worn out.

Make it easy on the audience. The content you present needs to be clear, concise and jargon-free. As soon as you start using terms or slang that members of your audience don’t understand, their barriers will go up.

Underpromise and overdeliver. When you set up the presentation in your introduction, don’t oversell your message. Keep your overview brief and specific; then blow your audience away with amazing content and research.

Action Step

Insert three specific audience engagement efforts into your presentation.

6 questions that will improve your speech delivery

When you critically evaluate your speech delivery, you will be surprised with how focusing on just one area during your next presentation will dramatically improve your speech.

We’re laying the foundation for your first presentation, but your delivery can be world-class if you ask yourself these questions after every practice session.

Is my voice confident or shaky? If it’s shaky, it means you need to continue to practice and spend more time learning your material. You’re an authority on your subject, so make sure you know your material well enough to confidently explain it.

Do I speak fast? This can help to focus the attention of the audience, but if you rush through all of your content, your message might miss its mark. If you’re already a fast talker, don’t try and slow down - instead, use pauses to break up your delivery.

Do I speak slowly? Emphasis on par-tic-u-lar words helps to make them more impactful and resonate. If you’re taking a long time to get through your content, you can either simplify your script or attempt to speed up.

Is my pitch low or high? Varying your tone and inflection will help your audience stick with your story. If your pitch is too low for too long, you run the risk of boring your audience. Also - beware of rising inflection, which makes every sentence sound like a question? To address this, focus on your breathing and consciously remember that you’re making statements, rather than asking questions.

Am I loud or quiet? Volume is a secret weapon of amazing delivery. You don’t need to yell at your audience - instead, vary your volume to make strong announcements with vigor, and when the time is right, whisper secrets to your audience.

How frequently am I… … pausing? You can use pauses to organize your thoughts, slow your speech down, build anticipation and break up the sections of your presentation. The pauses that politicians make in public addresses help the audience to better understand their message, which is exactly what a presenter needs.

Remember - your audience will forgive missteps and verbal tics, especially when your content is excellent.

How to get the feedback you need to improve your public speaking

As a public speaker, you are vulnerable to the criticism of your peers. You should exploit this.

I had an opportunity to be interviewed on FOX News and I prepared for at least 20 hours in total. The segment was a one-shot, six minute long special. 20 hours of preparation sounds ridiculous, but I wanted to make a great first impression. When the interview started, I felt nervous and the rising inflection in my voice almost made it seem like I was answering questions with questions. After the first two minutes, I relax into my groove and feel comfortable and confident. That’s was my preparation, taking over.

The most valuable part of this experience was the feedback that I was able to gather from people who care about my image and career. I sent three people an email with the link to the clip and a note that explained I was looking for critical feedback to improve my presentation and delivery. I sent this clip to people who either had experience presenting on TV or were accustomed to presenting to large groups of people. Even though they were experts in their respect field, they each person replied with a variation of “that was a great effort”, but avoided critiquing what I could have better. I had to press them for specifics of what I needed to do better next time around and I received some insight and useful feedback about my the volume of my voice, my demeanor and how I framed my answers. I took their feedback on and used it in later interviews and presentations.

Even though we try to protect our ego, we know that if we can improve our content, our delivery and our presence, then our audience reaps the benefits. When you’re seeking feedback, take yourself out of the picture and remember that public speaking is a skill and a process, rather than a version of you - you’re simply learning as you go along.

You can also judge how successful your presentation was based on how many people want to speak to you when your speech and Q&A time finishes. You’ve moved these audience members to action, so be sure to press them for something you can improve on next time around.

Truly masterful public speakers are open to external feedback because this is the fastest way to improve.

Action Step

When you complete your next presentation, demand feedback from your audience and your peers. If you struggle to get a straight answer, ask the person for one thing you did well and one thing you could improve, then promise you won’t take their feedback personally.

Prioritize the feedback that you get and focus on fixing just that one element in your next practice session. Record yourself, implement the improvement and iterate.

Get ready to take the stage

We’re going to point your nervous energy to last-minute preparation activities. Instead of racing around and worrying about the things that could go wrong, you will be on the front foot. Let’s walk step by step through the 24 hours that precedes your presentation.

The night before your presentation

First, pack everything you need to bring along to the venue. These items include your:

Bag - include some water, fruit and an energy bar. Laptop - make sure it’s fully charged. Mouse / pointer - bring these along as backups, they often go missing. Cables - make sure you’ve got VGA and HDMI connectors for your laptop. Business cards - members of your audience are going to want these!

Next, reduce unnecessary stress with a bit of extra organization.

Backup your slides - upload your presentation to Dropbox and also back it up to a USB drive. Organize your outfit - iron your clothes or collect them from the dry cleaner. Organize transport - if you’re driving yourself to the venue, check out the directions and work out the fastest route. If you’re new to the area, do not take public transport to the venue. Instead, spend a few extra dollars on a taxi or uber and get there on time.

Don’t party too hard the night before. The combination of nerves and excitement (especially if you’re in a conference environment) might cloud your judgment. Instead, have one or two drinks and retire to your room for an early night, there’s no reason to wreck your presentation because you are hungover.

Set two alarms on your phone and if you’re staying in a hotel, arrange for a wake up call too.

You’re ready to go!

The morning of your presentation

Nutrition experts claim that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so even if you’re someone who typically has a coffee to start the day, you need to fuel yourself with something substantial. Eat a carbohydrate laden breakfast and you will go the distance. I recommend foods including bagels, toast, waffles, oatmeal, yogurt, bananas and dried fruit to give you the long lasting energy. If your nerves are getting the better of you, you can stick with liquid carbs like smoothies, juices or even sport drinks to make sure you get enough energy into your system. You’ll notice that these meals are the same as what a marathon runner would eat pre-race and there’s a reason for that - you are going to be burning through energy at a faster rate than you typically would, so give yourself a head start.

1 hour before you present

Your mileage will vary, so do what comes naturally to you.

I prefer to get some fresh air and practice my speech in the great outdoors, while pacing back and forth to burn off the excess nervous energy that I’ve been holding onto.

You might prefer to listen to music or maybe read over your script. I would not recommend spending too much time watching the presenter before you, as your brain will go into comparison and competition mode. You’ll be thinking so deeply about how you’re going to own your presentation that your self-critique may overflow onto to the person that you’re watching.

Instead of worrying about them, focus your energy inward and clear your head.

Taking the stage

Here’s a list of tips you can use before you take the stage:

Airplane mode

Put your phone in airplane mode. As soon as you mention a twitter handle, notifications and good vibrations will be sent your way. This is very distracting when your phone is in your pocket, buzzing away.

Big smile

As you walk on stage, flash a big smile to the audience. You will be surprised how many people smile back at you.

Brighten up

Make sure you laptop screen brightness is as high as possible - this will help you if you need to check your script or slides throughout the presentation.

Check your technology

Make sure your laptop is plugged in, your remote clicker is working and your slides are projecting onto the screen behind you.

Deep breath

Take a deliberate and focused deep breath before you start the presentation. This will help you calm down, but also give your introduction the vigor and energy it needs to grab the audience’s attention.

Hydrate

Grab a fresh bottle of water and put it on your lectern. You can use a water break to slow your pace and calm yourself, if you get too carried away.

Presenter view

Customize your presenter view to show you what you need to see. This will show your notes, the current and next slide and a timer - it’s a public speaker’s swiss army knife.

Stand up straight

Pull your chin up, pull your shoulders back and push your chest out. Standing confidently will give you extra confidence as you ready yourself.

Action Step

Practice your setup ritual 3 times before you actually take the stage.

Post Presentation

Congratulations!

Your presentation is and… you survived! I told you it wouldn’t be that bad.

You’ve started your journey on the public speaking path - which means you are building your platform, authority and personal brand.

Action Step

Buy yourself a reward - whether it’s an alcoholic beverage or a nice dinner, you’ve earned it.

How to navigate the minefield of tricky Q&A sessions

The thought of a post-presentation Q & A session can send shivers up your spine.

At most conferences, the speaker will present for an allotted time and be given a window for a brief question and answer session. Here are some tips to help you survive your first question and answer session.

Repeat the question. When you’re asked a question, attempt to summarize what the person is asking you. This helps you by giving you more time to shape your answer and also allows you to specifically confirm what the person is asking. It’s better to be 100% clear on a question than deliver an answer to the wrong question.

Ask for clarification. If you repeat the question, but if you’re still not sure of how to answer, ask for more information. To do this with tact, ask for examples or ask the person to be more specific about what they need help with.

Respect your audience. I’ve been to dozens of conferences and meetups and unfortunately, there’s always one or two public speakers who abuse their authority and time behind the microphone. If someone asks a seemingly obvious question or you specifically answered it in your presentation, don’t make an example of them. Simply answer the question and move along to the next person.

Take it easy. From time to time, you’ll deal with people who have firm opinions or beliefs that don’t match yours. That’s OK. There are a few different ways to deal with people who are using their question time to make a thinly veiled statement or pass criticism on your presentation. Your mileage will vary with each of the following approaches. You can ask them to specify whether they actually have a question, you can politely interrupt them if they take too long to get to the point or if they ask a pointed or controversial question that you haven’t prepared for, feel free to exercise your freedom of speech. “I’d prefer not to comment on that, thanks” is a much more tactful way to deal with a potentially dangerous question.

Be honest. Finally, if someone asks you a question and you don’t know the answer - own up and tell them that you don’t know. You will gain the respect and trust of your audience by being transparent and honest.

When you finish your Q & A session, thank the audience for their thoughtful questions and make a quick note of the questions you answered. You may discover that you’ve got a number of small holes in your presentation that you can patch with the answers from your Q & A session.

Close the loop and thank the organizer

You’ve finished your presentation and it was a success. Congratulations!

Now it’s time to spread some positivity and give back to the team that helped you get there, especially the organizer that was helping you coordinate the details of your presentation. Organizing events is a thankless job, but because you’ve got a plan, you’re going to do something that 90% of conference speakers don’t bother to do.

Sincerely thank the organizer.

I’ve spoken to dozen of event organizers over the past two years and I’ve witnessed their reaction, time and time again. They are amazed that someone is recognizing the countless hours that they put into an event, including the very unglamorous efforts, that include chasing presenters for their slides, organizing and setting up the stage and technology for the presentation and answering conference attendee’s questions.

You should spend at least a few minutes chatting with the organizer after the event and explain how grateful you are that they gave up their time. Their efforts allowed you to present to an audience of your peers. A little gratitude goes a long way.

The next step is to send the organizer a sincere thank you card (or email, if you’re really pressed for time) and include a small gift as a token of your appreciation. The gift could be a gift card for a Starbucks coffee, a bunch of flowers or another small but sincere gesture.

If you want to take your follow-up to the next level, check out Action Step 2 below for a tactic to get feedback, testimonials and land more speaking opportunities.

Action Step

The action steps below should be completed in the order shown.

Step 1 - Send the organizer a small token of your appreciation. Remember, a lot of speakers don’t even bother to acknowledge the organizer, so you will stand out from the crowd.

Step 2 - Once you’ve sent your gift, wait a week and send a follow-up email to ask the organizer to be considered for their next event, as well as ask them for a testimonial / critical feedback of your presentation.

Conclusion

You’ve successfully completed your first public speaking engagement. Congratulations!

Post proelia praemia - ‘after the battles, come the rewards’.