How comfortable are you when speaking in public? Whether you love it or hate it, as a leader, you have to do it. Your words have a tremendous impact, and if you can improve your public speaking, it will increase your leadership effectiveness.

Helping you improve public speaking skills is the goal of this week’s Construction Genius episode. My guest, Robbie Crabtree, is an expert in the field. We discuss why so many people struggle with public speaking and how it’s possible to become confident in this area. We also talk about strategies that will help you connect with your audience and the impact that words have on people. Robbie also gives practical advice on how to make sure you’re not boring your audience. 

Interested in upping your public speaking game? This episode is for you.  

Discussion Points:

0:00 Introduction 
2:11 Why do people struggle with public speaking?
4:00 Imposter syndrome
5:36 How to move one’s self to be someone who wants the ball 
6:27 Fear setting 
8:12 Strategies to connect with an audience
10:16 Handling the disconnect in communicating to your audience 
13:57 Pitfalls to avoid when practicing public speaking 
16:09 The power and impact of a leader’s words 
17:58 Framework for crafting a speech 
21:53 Preparing a speech for an executive environment 
25:16 Number of examples/stories in a speech 
25:54 Avoid boring people when speaking 
27:36 Advice to those who want to improve and polish their speaking skills  
29:05 How to remove filler words 

About the Guest: 

Robbie began his career as a trial lawyer, where he went to jury trial 102 times in cases including murders and child abuse. During his 5th year, he began teaching persuasive speaking and coaching the national mock trial team at SMU Law. Over the years, he started getting messages from politicians, entrepreneurs, and salespeople on how they could learn how to be great speakers and storytellers.

Robbie developed the Performative Speaking philosophy and started a coaching and consulting company around his experience. He also created an educational technology company around this idea that was acquired by On Deck in December.

Robbie works with people every day, from tech companies in Silicon Valley to lawyers in Texas to salespeople in the midwest or east coast, to turn speaking into a superpower.

Resources: 

• Do Your Project Executives Need to Become Better Leaders? Book a 10-minute call with Eric Anderton (https://10minutes.youcanbook.me/) 
• 1-page notion document from Robbie (https://www.notion.so/Hi-I-m-Robbie-9dc3517ab28741c0b333f86d4aa3b812) 
• Visit Robbie’s website (https://www.robbiecrabtree.com) 
• Subscribe to Robbie Crabtree’s newsletter (https://robbiecrab.substack.com/) 
• Reach out to Robbie through his social media accounts
• • Twitter: @robbiecrab
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therobbiecrab/
  • Linkedin: @therobbiecrab

Recommended Restaurants  

• Ninfa’s https://ninfas.com/
• Hugo’s https://www.hugosrestaurant.net/
• Xochi https://www.xochihouston.com/

Connect with me on LinkedIn. For more podcast episodes, you may also visit my website. Tune in and subscribe to the Construction Genius: A Leadership Master-Class Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.

Thank you for tuning in!