Many of you know my background. I didn’t set out to be a presentation skills coach. I was just a guy who had a challenge with public speaking. I studied and practiced for years, and I figured out a few secrets that make presenting much easier. I spent the first 10 years of my career learning everything I could about public speaking. I spent the next five years training thousands of people in the skill. Eventually, though, I got to a point where I didn’t have any more time. So, I began to train o...
Aug 20, 2018•27 min•Ep. 48
This part three of a three-part series on webinars. In this episode, I’ll show you a few of the technical secrets about how I deliver the actual webinars. I’m going to cover which of the paid-for webinar services that I recommend, how to deliver webinars for free, and which platforms are trending right now. If you missed either of the first two sessions, you can access them by clicking these links. The first session was 7 Important Things that You Need to Know about Webinars. I told you types of...
Aug 13, 2018•45 min•Ep. 47
Continuing in our three-part webinar series, in this episode, we cover how to create webinar content to help you maximize audience retention. In the last episode, we covered 7 Important Things that You Should Know about Webinars before you start. Next week, we’ll cover a few of the technical aspects of how to deliver webinars. These are some of the most useful ways that I have found to create webinar content and maximize audience retention. Start by determining if a webinar is the best medium fo...
Aug 06, 2018•44 min•Ep. 46
One of the most common questions that we receive in our public speaking classes is, "Do the things that you are teaching us about in-person presentations change when you are on a webinar?" The answer to that question is both "Yes" and "No". The way that we teach people to design presentations is based on (1) focusing on the audience and what the audience wants and needs to know, and (2) make your content concise and entertaining. So, in those respects, yes, webinar creation is pretty much the sa...
Jul 30, 2018•28 min•Ep. 45
Last week was part one of How to Create the Perfect Presentation Handout. In that article and podcast, I gave you three easy ways to create helpful handouts to accompany your in-person presentations. This week, I’m going to show you how to style your presentation handouts so that they look really professional. The good news is that you don’t need any special graphic design skills, and you don’t need any special software. You can make everything that we are going to talk about today with just an ...
Jul 23, 2018•25 min•Ep. 44
Have you ever wondered how to create the perfect presentation handout? You’ve been asked to give a speech, and you’re excited to give the best presentation possible. You put all kinds of preparation into putting together an amazing presentation and finding the perfect examples to prove your points. Your presentation is infused with memorable anecdotes, terrific insights, great visuals and even a wry joke here or there. You’ve covered every possible angle – or have you? Have you thought about wha...
Jul 16, 2018•31 min•Ep. 43
Whether you are brand new to speaking or you have been presenting for years, you will want to look confident when you stand up to speak. This can be a challenge though if you are really nervous. We are always afraid that the nervousness that we feel will be obvious to the audience. So, how do you look poised and confident in front of a group, even if you don’t actually feel confident yet? SHOW NOTES: https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/presentation-gestures-and-movement/...
Jul 09, 2018•22 min•Ep. 42
It happens to all of us sooner or later. We prepare well. We practice over and over. But then, something happens that is totally out of our control, and we bomb. So, how do you recover after giving a terrible speech and bombing on stage? Whether the challenge occurs as a result of nervousness or presentation anxiety, or if nuclear reaction came from improper preparation, it happens. Even public speaking pros can bomb a speech every now and then. These are a few things that you can do to recover....
Jun 25, 2018•25 min•Ep. 41
I like to think of myself as a pretty good speaker and writer. I always hated English class in high school and college, though. So, I always got confused between what was a metaphor, what was a simile, and what was an analogy. To me, these parts of speech were so similar, that I didn’t really see a lot of difference in them. (Still don’t, by the way.) However, these often confusing parts of speech are the special sauce to really great presentation burgers. If you use them just right, these items...
Jun 18, 2018•37 min•Ep. 40
So you have written a great presentation, but now you want to make it phenomenal. These 9 stellar presentation enhancers will add impact to any speech. In this series of podcasts, Doug Staneart breaks down his public speaking “Impact Ideas” that can be inserted into any speech to really make them come alive. Below is a list of all nine items. Each item links to more details below as well! Anecdotes: A funny story or a story that makes a point is often more memorable than just a bullet point. Dem...
Jun 11, 2018•45 min•Ep. 39
Audience Participation is one of the most effective ways to make a good presentation into a stellar presentation. However, it also has a lot of danger. A good, thought-provoking, open-ended question to the audience can help you persuade even the toughest audience. However, if the audience believes that your question is being used to manipulate them they may respond negatively or shut down entirely. SHOW NOTES: https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/9-reliable-ways-to-add-audience-participation-to...
Jun 04, 2018•43 min•Ep. 38
The Importance of Self-Confidence People will judge our COMPETENCE by the CONFIDENCE that we show. For example, let’s say that you are going in for surgery, and just before you go under, the surgeon walks into your room. His posture is slouching, as he speaks, he stumbles over his words somewhat, and when you look at his hands, they are trembling a little. Now, it doesn’t matter how good of a surgeon he is, you’ll probably want a second opinion (maybe even a third opinion) — Fast! Well, it’s the...
May 28, 2018•24 min•Ep. 37
The word complacent may just be the biggest enemy of success. In fact, I’ve noticed that, if you look at history as well as the current business climate, you’ll find that past success almost always limit future successes. That is unless you are constantly looking for new ways to improve yourself and your organization. I have to admit, I have been both the beneficiary of capitalizing on others' complacency as well as being the dupe who became complacent and missed out on opportunities. Perhaps yo...
May 28, 2018•30 min•Ep. 37
We’ve all been there as a speaker. You walk out onto a stage or into the front of the room, and the audience is staring at you with skepticism written all over their faces. This stoic crown has no patience for speakers who waste their time, and their demeanor is showing that fact right now. You need a foolproof way to start your presentation so that you win over this audience. I’ve been there myself. Below are a few of my favorite ways to start a speech that will help you capture positive attent...
May 09, 2018•42 min
This is part 2 of a 2 part inspirational story about Doug Staneart — President and CEO of The Leader’s Institute ® and Creator of the Fearless Presentations ® Public Speaking Training Programs. This is my inspirational story of triumph over public speaking fear that allowed me to create one of the most successful training companies in the world!
May 04, 2018•32 min
Doug Staneart — President and CEO of The Leader’s Institute ® and Creator of the Fearless Presentations ® Public Speaking Training Programs. This is my inspirational story of triumph over public speaking fear that allowed me to create one of the most successful training companies in the world! I overcame being an incredibly shy kid who got beat up and bullied in grade school to become an NCAA football player. My first formal presentation in the business world was such a failure that it cost me m...
Apr 23, 2018•39 min
Want to actually make money from speaking? Doug Staneart shares some incites from his 20+ years as a professional speaker and trainer about how you can make a fortune as a professional speaker.Show notes at How to Make a Fortune Speaking for a Living
Apr 16, 2018•44 min
Use This Step-by-Step Process to Create Content (Blog posts, motivational speeches, keynotes, etc.) Start by determining what your audience wants and needs by using five simple techniques from the podcast. Next, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Instead, do some research and determine what other experts are saying. Add in some examples and stories to give the content flavor, and then use the secret sauce developed by great speakers like Les Brown and Paul Harvey.
Apr 08, 2018•42 min
It's time to set the record straight. ANYONE can be a fantastic, world-class speaker with a little bit of training, a little bit of coaching, and a little bit of practice. It doesn't take years of study and practice, and it doesn't take thousands of dollars of investment. One of the hardest things to get across to new presenters is the immutable fact that just about everything that you have ever learned about public speaking and creating good business presentations is flat out WRONG! The followi...
Apr 01, 2018•25 min
Are you a nervous public speaker? A majority of the population has some type of fear of public speaking. Ironically, a great deal of this nervousness or anxiety comes from well-meaning friends or coworkers who are just trying to help. When we see a friend struggling, we naturally want to help. So, we might offer a little constructive criticism as a way to help a new presenter improve his/her public speaking. However, these "helpful" pieces of advice can actually have an extreme negative effect. ...
Mar 26, 2018•36 min
Podcast 28 The Secret to Great Presentations: ENTHUSIASMIf you take only one piece of advice about public speaking, make sure that it is this pearl of wisdom. If you focus on this one simple thing, the number of times you say “uhm” won’t matter. If you focus on this one thing, your gestures and not knowing what to do with your hands won’t matter. If you focus on this one thing, then the occasional loss of train of thought won’t matter. In fact, if you focus on this one simple thing, you can brea...
Mar 18, 2018•28 min
A few days ago, I started watching a Netflix documentary on how fractal mathematics helped start Pixar. (Yes, I watch really boring stuff on Netflix, but in my defense, I was watching it in bed, at night, trying to go to sleep. It worked.) We have always had a fantastic success teaching people how to design presentations that are based on just a few (three to five) main points. However, the documentary explained how the structure of this type of presentation works and why it works so well. So, i...
Mar 11, 2018•26 min
In the podcast this week, I interview Cody Smith who is the author of the book Stage Fight — How to Punch Public Speaking Fears in the Face. It is a hilarious interview where Cody tells about all of the trials and tribulations that he experienced trying to overcome public speaking fear. Have fun listening to and learning from Cody Smith.Cody Smith is a young entrepreneur who realized very early in his academic career that public speaking fear has the ability to hold people back. His new book, St...
Mar 05, 2018•30 min
Last week, I got invited to deliver a presentation for a convention in Orlando, Florida. The session that they had me design was about how to help their attendees communicate in a more persuasive way when making recommendations to patients and customers. I decided to recap the content of that presentation in this podcast.
Feb 26, 2018•27 min
Last month, I helped a client re-design their medical training sessions so that they were more interesting and more interactive. As with many training sessions in medicine, it was important for the presenters to cover all of the steps because the safety of the patient was involved. However, when we deliver many, many steps in a single class, participants are likely to forget important parts or become confused. So, we helped this client develop training sessions that increased attendee retention ...
Feb 18, 2018•27 min
We have a great TechFind that is an Online Speech Creator. It is very helpful if you are trying to design a speech or presentation. On this episode, we step away from the how to present effectively and focus more on the why. Presentation training and communication skills are essential in today's business world. This episode explains why that is.
Dec 10, 2017•18 min•Ep. 12
A couple of months ago, my father passed away. Even though I'm the middle child, I'm the only sibling who is a professional speaker. So, my brother and sister turned to me to deliver the eulogy. Being a professional speaker, you'd think it would be very easy to design a 10-minute speech about my dad. However, I have to confess that, not only was the speech fairly difficult to create, but I was also really nervous when I stood up to speak. So, I thought it would be a great idea to let you know wh...
Nov 27, 2017•24 min•Ep. 16
Face it, most people hate meetings. Most people don't want to sit through boring presentations either. So, if you want to get your audience to want to listen to your presentation, you have to make it "Audience Focused". Focus on what the audience wants to hear, not what you want to tell them. SHOW NOTES: https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/podcast-make-presention-audience-focused...
Nov 13, 2017•22 min•Ep. 19
In the last few weeks, I had a number of clients come to me asking that we create truly customized workshops and seminars. This happens quite often, but each of these situations had a similar thread that might be beneficial to our podcast listeners as well. In today's business world, we offices and team members are often remote. So, getting everyone together, in a single location, for an extended period of time, for training just isn't that feasible anymore. How do we get the most bang for our t...
Nov 06, 2017•25 min•Ep. 21
Quite often, when we are designing speeches and presentations for a professional audience, we discount the value of entertainment and humor. In reality, though, a good presentation is both informative and entertaining. Your speech has to be both. If you aren’t providing the audience with information that they didn’t already know, then you are wasting their time. If you aren’t providing some type of entertainment along the way, though, you will likely bore your audience so much that they will los...
Oct 30, 2017•33 min•Ep. 20
