The absolute best way to reduce the fear of public speaking is to just improve your presentation skills. Think about it. Anytime you get really good at doing something, your confidence in that area will soar. When we teach the Fearless Presentations course, we spend the first couple of hours helping the audience members get comfortable. Then, the remaining three-fourths of the class focuses on improving public speaking skills. Over the last 20 years, we have seen thousands of different ways to p...
Jun 01, 2021•39 min
This week, I've got a guest interview with Elsewine Rietveld who is an expert on reducing nervousness when creating video recordings. Just so you folks know, I had been a professional speaker for over 20 years before I started this podcast. Even with that kind of experience, the first few recordings were nerve-racking. I wished I had known Elsewine back then. By the way, she just released her book on Amazon the same day that this episode is being released, so today. If you want to purchase her b...
May 24, 2021•41 min
Your host, Doug Staneart of Fearless Presentations explains what it means to Know Your Audience. Listen to any speaking coach, go to any Toastmasters, attend any presentation seminar, you will hear a single phrase over and over. “Know your audience.” Sounds really good too. When we hear the phrase, we think, “Well, of course. That makes sense.” But what exactly does “know your audience mean?” Is there a formula to help a speaker know his or her audience better? Well, yes, there is. In fact, ever...
May 17, 2021•35 min
In this episode, host Doug Staneart interviews J. T. Compeau, CEO of The Content Interpreter. J.T. works with thought leaders, C-suite members, and entrepreneurs as a speechwriter and presentation consultant. Across industries, skill sets, and stories, he works with clients to extract their greatness and infuse it into their content. In the interview, Doug and J.T. discuss J.T.'s background in marketing and how that experience led him to help business owners be able to create both a personal bra...
May 10, 2021•30 min
Make Your Presentation Handouts Look Professional without a Graphic Designer 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...
May 03, 2021•23 min
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 wh...
Apr 26, 2021•24 min
A Step-by-Step Process to Help You Answer Job Interview Questions When Under Pressure. The best way to answer a job interview question is to answer quickly, then give an example from your experience. Remember, you are the expert on yourself. In addition, the interviewer wants to see if you have the experience to help his or her team solve problems. So, each of your interview answers shows how you have solved problems in the past, you will show that you are qualified. In this session, I cover a s...
Apr 19, 2021•39 min
Want to establish solid trust and rapport during a job interview. Prospective employers will first weed through a lot of resumes. Then comes the hard part. Because next, they want to see if the candidate is a good fit within their team. The job interview is the main way they determine this. In this session, I’m going to show you ways to relax and take charge of the interview. In fact, I’ll also show you how to take the pressure off of the interviewer. When you make the interviewer’s job easier, ...
Apr 12, 2021•30 min
One of the more challenging parts of any presentation is the very first part. If you are wondering how to introduce yourself before starting your presentation, you are in good company. For most of us, once we get the first few sentences out, our nervousness will diminish pretty significantly. So, this initial self-introduction is really important. If we struggle here, our nervousness will increase. In addition, the old adage, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” is very tru...
Apr 05, 2021•24 min
This is part 2 of a 2-part series on how to use presentations and speaking to find new customers and clients. I know what some of you are thinking… “You said we would get new clients by speaking. However, very little of what you have covered so far has ANYTHING to do with speaking. What gives?” The often overlooked part of being a great speaker is to master your craft first. You can be a great speaker, but if what you are saying is gobbledygook, you won’t build a lot of followers. I get dozens o...
Mar 29, 2021•33 min
Ways to Get Clients for Your Business by Speaking to Groups If you happen to be a great speaker, you have a number of ways to get clients for your business by speaking. (By the way, if you aren’t a great speaker yet, keep tuning in, because we can help with that.) The most important thing to keep in mind is that your goal is to build your authority on a specific topic. Once you do that, you will create an endless supply of speaking opportunities and clients. Your authority depends on a few thing...
Mar 22, 2021•34 min
This is a fun interview with Dr. Benjamin Ritter who started an entire consulting business from scratch using just seminars that were open to the public. If you want to learn how to use speaking and/or creating seminars to build your authority in your industry, make sure to listen to this episode! Connect with Dr. Ritter on his website at https://www.liveforyourselfconsulting.com/
Mar 15, 2021•36 min
This is part 2 of a 2-part series on Train-the-Trainer programs. In the first episode, we talk about how to uncover the quality of a train-the-trainer process before investing in it. On this session, we talk about the steps involved in training your trainers using the process. Train Your Trainers Using the Train-the-Trainer Model. That last story leads us into the next part of the train-the-trainer model — the actual training process. Good Presentation Skills are Essential to the Train-the-Train...
Mar 08, 2021•23 min
The Train-the-Trainer Model is very common in the business world. However, many Train-the-Trainer programs have big flaws. A good analogy of what happens during this process is the old “telephone game.” Put ten people in a room. Whisper a phrase with more than 10 words into the ear of the first person. The second person then relays the message to the third person. This process continues over and over until the phrase reaches the final person. When you compare the first message with the last mess...
Mar 01, 2021•24 min
Amazing Persuasive Speech Outline In the post, How to Design a Speech Quickly , we gave a few tips to create a quick presentation outline. In this session, we add a little more detail about how to make your presentation more persuasive. This simple, three-step process will help you persuade event the toughest audiences. Change from Feature/Benefit to Problem Solver. Identify the Three Most Important Problems that Your Product or Idea Solves. Prove to Your Audience that You Can Solve These Proble...
Feb 22, 2021•15 min
On this episode, I interview Cody Lowry who is a best-selling author and the founder of a successful advertising agency. However, Cody is actually more famous for being able to talk his way into meetings that are typically pretty hard to get. For instance, he tells us how he had a couple of extra days in New York, so he decided to audition for Saturday Night Live. He actually got the audition less than 48 hours from the time he reached out to the producer. He also got meetings with a President o...
Feb 17, 2021•38 min
“I don’t present very often, so how do I prepare for a presentation?” That is, by far, one of the most common questions that we get as presentation skills coaches. In fact, most public speaking fear comes from situations where presenters just don’t speak very often. They have a hard time building up momentum. For instance, if you only drive a car once every couple of years, you will likely be nervous every time you slip behind the wheel. However, if you drive every day, the process becomes secon...
Feb 08, 2021•46 min
This is episode #151, and this week, I interview Claire Chandler and Ben Baker. They are the authors of the new book Leading Beyond a Crisis. Ben's background is in creating a brand for yourself and your company, and Claire started out in human resources and has spent the last few years helping companies attract high-level employees and retain them. The topic they wanted to cover, though is how to communicate more effectively in this new world full of stress and uncertainty. We talk about recove...
Feb 01, 2021•46 min•Season 1Ep. 151
6 Years to a Million Dollars & 6 Months to $2 Million In this episode, I’m going to pull back the curtain and show you a few of the key things that happened in the early years of my company. It took me six years of training and learning before I felt comfortable enough to start my own company. Then, my new team and I spent another six years building a million-dollar per year income. However, we hit our second million dollars in just six more months. This is how we did it. Here Are the Lesson...
Jan 25, 2021•51 min
How do I build a million-dollar company? Better yet, how can someone build a multimillion-dollar public speaking company? Well, although I have done both of those things, I wouldn’t suggest anyone try to do what I did. I made every mistake in the book. In fact, every mistake showed me what “not to do.” Then, I’d use that lesson to get me closer to what “to do.” By the way, the reason that I am not the best role model for building a business is that I’m pretty hard-headed. It is both a blessing a...
Jan 18, 2021•40 min
This is part 2 of a multipart series. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway — From Timid to Fearless in One Year Coach Dykes kept his word. I got an excellent education… And I had to pay for it myself. My college days often looked something like this… 4:30 AM in the gym lifting weights and running. 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM Class. Since I was paying for my school on my own (I was still really poor), I took as many classes as I could each semester. I figured that the bulk of my expenses while at school was for ...
Jan 11, 2021•38 min
Doug Staneart — President and CEO of The Leader’s Institute ® and Creator of the Fearless Presentations ® Public Speaking Training Programs. This is my story of triumph over public speaking fear. 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 my first career . However, that failure allowed me to help over 100,000 people conquer the same cha...
Dec 15, 2020•24 min
I interview Tiffany Foote, a public speaking coach who helps people reduce nervousness when they have to speak in front of groups. Tiffany specializes in helping Millennials who have to present in front of their bosses or executives. For many of us, when the pressure is on, we tend to feel more nervous and anxious. She talks about how real leaders are not the people who are fearless. They are the people who feel the fear and perform anyway. The good news is that, once you start to develop the sk...
Dec 08, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 146
Doug interviews Mike Acker author of the book Speak with No Fear. In the interview, Mike covers a few of his 7 strategies from the book. These strategies will give you a new perspective, they will prepare you, and they will give you actions to practice. As you implement these strategies, your fear will begin to fade. It can easily seem like everyone is a gifted speaker when you watch TED talks or compare yourself to skilled co-workers giving presentations. Don't get caught up in the costly compa...
Dec 01, 2020•27 min
Doug Staneart has a fun interview with Jacqueline Wales who is the author of the book The Fearless Factor at Work. She offers a number of ideas on where fear comes from and how to deal with it. One of the most interesting things that come up in the interview is how there are many people out there, probably quite a few listening right now, who feel nervous or intimidated when you speak in front of a boss or other leader because you feel like they are going to look down on you or realize that you ...
Nov 18, 2020•30 min
In the past few months, many instructors and trainers have had to adapt to a virtual world. Trainers who embrace virtual platforms and adapt the best have an advantage over those who don't. So, I thought it might be a good idea to cover a few Virtual Instructor-Led training best practices. So in this session, I'm going to cover a few tools and tips for virtual instructor-led training. In addition, I'll start with exactly what virtual instructor-led" training is and how it is different from other...
Nov 11, 2020•26 min
Visual Aid Examples for Virtual Meetings. Your PowerPoint Slides Should Have More Images and Action than a Typical Slideshow. People tend to have a shorter attention span on virtual meetings. Because of this, I tend to use more images and change them more frequently. This causes the audience to be engaged more. For instance, when I am presenting in person, my slide might have three key bullet points and a single image. However, if I deliver a similar presentation through a Zoom meeting or webina...
Oct 28, 2020•20 min
So you have designed a great presentation. Now you want a few visual aid examples to make your presentation more memorable or interactive. If that is the case, you have done well, Grasshopper. You have begun to look at your visuals in the correct order. As a presenter, you always want to design your presentation first. Then, design your visual aids. Contrarily, if you are starting your presentation design here, well, you may want to organize your thoughts first. Then, come back. In this session,...
Oct 19, 2020•24 min
Looking for a few fun Zoom icebreakers for trainers or facilitators. These seven activities can be used very easily to help you start your Zoom meetings on the right foot. I was leading a virtual training session via Zoom this week. Of course, the entire group was commenting at the end about how different the session was from the typical Zoom meeting. After all of the pleasantries, I said bye to everyone and ended the meeting. Within seconds, my phone was ringing. It was the Learning and Develop...
Oct 06, 2020•33 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. It also doesn't require thousands of dollars of investment. In fact, one of the things that I tell my clients early in our coaching sessions is, "Just about everything that you have ever learned about public speaking is wrong." In this session, I'm going to debunk a few of the bigge...
Sep 25, 2020•26 min
