What are the most important qualities of a good public speaker? What makes a great presenter? Just what are the fundamentals of a good public speaker that allow one orator to get up in front of an audience and mesmerize the crowd while another fails?

When I first started teaching the Fearless Presentations ® classes, I did so because I knew from my own experience that the more self-confident a presenter appears to an audience, the more respect that the audience will have for that presenter. In addition, chapter one of my first book on public speaking was about enthusiasm, because I knew that out of all of the qualities of a good public speaker, enthusiasm was the absolute, most important.

Over the years, though, our instructors have worked with over 20,000 presenters. Some had a natural presence in front of groups. Others, however, had to develop presentation skills in order to be perceived as being a great public speaker.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes: Start Your Own Public Speaking Company from Scratch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes: How to Start a Public Speaking Career

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

Last week, at the very end of the episode, I mentioned that one way to make your PowerPoint Presentations better is to create a good handout for the audience. And I shared a story about a breakout session I led where I spend most of the time in the presentation using the handout as the visual aid versus the slideshow.

On this episode, I'm going to go into more detail about what I did. The title of the episode is Create the Perfect Presentation Handout.

I'm going to give you three progressively more difficult ways to design a handout. The first one, by the way, is the one that almost everyone does, but it is by far, the absolute worst way to create a handout.

And if you stick around until the last tip, I'll explain in detail how I was able to make sure that the participants in that breakout session I mentioned in the last episode actually kept and used the handout that I provided for them. It take a little more time to design, but the result are phenomenally better.

And, by the way, since the podcast is audio based and handouts are very visual, I created a handout on how to design better handouts that you can download from the show notes. If you download that handout and use it as a visual aid for the episode, the ideas will make much more sense.

Show Notes: How to Create the Perfect Presentation Handout

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

Last week, on the last episode of the series on the Presentation Skills Checklist, we covered how many slides to put into a PowerPoint Presentation. This week, our topic is "3 Simple Ways to Create Better PowerPoint Presentations."

By the way, if you are using the techniques I outline on other episodes of the podcast, creating a PowerPoint presentation should be really easy. Basically, in a presentation, less is more.

But on this episode, I give you my top three tips that will help you kill your next presentation. First, we cover how to design your presentation first, then create your slideshow. Next, I show you how to use examples from real-life to add credibility to the text on your slides. Ad then, finally, I show you how to create collateral content -- things like handouts -- that can help your audience understand and retain the content of your presentations better.

Show Notes: 3 Simple Ways to Create Better PowerPoint Presentations
(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/three-simple-ways-to-create-better-powerpoint-presentations/)

I hope you have enjoyed the Presentation Skills Checklist series. So far, we covered how to know your audience. Next we helped you create a great presentation title. Then, we helped you organize your presentation outline. And in the last couple weeks we showed you how to add credible evidence to reinforce the points you created in your outline.

The last step is to create your PowerPoint Slideshow. Yes, you heard me correctly. Creating your slideshow should be the absolute last thing that you do. Most people start with the slideshow.

Instead, figure out what you want to say first, then create your visual aids.

The question we get as public speaking coaches most often is "How many PowerPoint slides should I have in my presentation.

On this episode, I'm going to answer that question and many more.

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

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

If you want to be a fantastic speaker, you have to be able to make any topic really interesting -- even if you aren't that excited about it. So on this episode, I'm going to give you nine things that I call "Impact Ideas". They are different types of evidence that you can use to make your point more compelling or interesting.

This is a continuation of the series we started a few weeks called the Presentation Skills Checklist. And over the last couple of weeks, we covered the first three items on that checklist, (1) how to know your audience better, (2) how to design a catchy title, and (3) how to create a presentation outline focused on what the audience wants. Last week, we started covering the fourth step in the checklist -- offer compelling evidence to prove each point. And, on that episode, we focused entirely on examples and stories, because they are, by far, your most credible piece of evidence.

So, if you haven't listened to that episode yet, make sure to. I cover a few secrets about how to be a better storyteller and how to use stories to reduce nervousness and make your audience want to really listen to you.

Today, I'm going to give you nine other types of evidence. By the way, the reason why there are nine is that every presentation and every audience is different. I covered stories last week because it doesn't matter what you are speaking about or who is in your audience, a compelling real-life example of what you are talking about can add clarity. These other nine things, though, can be hit or miss. It really depends on the topic and the audience.

Let me give you the nine things quickly

1) Audience Participation: Get feedback from your audience, ask them questions, or get them to talk to each other.
2) Analogies: Compare something complicated to something more common place to make it easier to understand.
3) Anecdotes: A funny story or a story that makes a point is often more memorable than just a bullet point.
4) Demonstration: When you show your audience what you are trying to tell them, they will often have more clarity.
5) Quote: A testimonial from an expert or client at the right time can add credibility.
6) Sample: Something that your audience can see, touch, and feel has more impact than just a description of the item.
7) Name Drop: If you don’t have a quote, you can name drop others who agree with you.
8) Non-PowerPoint Visual Aid: A spontaneous flip-chart drawing, a poster, or board will often have a greater impact on the audience than an image on a slideshow that is more temporary.
9) Showmanship: Never underestimate the entertainment value of your presentation.

So, now that we know the different items, let's explore how they could do very well in one type of audience and backfire i another. Let's take Audience Participation for instance. If you are in an intimate 10 person room, getting the audience to respond is much easier. But, if you are speaking to 100 people, now you have to deal with extra microphones, and your audience will be more self-conscious. So, they may not respond.

Or, if you insert a funny anecdote into a training session, it will likely get people to laugh. If you do the same thing in a finance report, it could really backfire.

So, on this episode, I'll walk through each of these items, and show you ways that you can easily insert one or more of them into your presentation to really elevate that presentation and how to choose the best impact idea for the best topic and audience.

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

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/7-stellar-presentation-enhancers-that-add-impact-to-any-speech/)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The clip from The Hangover.

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

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