By Kent Julian
5
2828 ratings
The podcast currently has 109 episodes available.
Click here to find out more about the Paid to Speak Accelerator Community (aka Mastermind Community) and to put your name on our Waiting List.
Show Notes: 7 Tips to Become a Better Speaker #7 - Record EverythingAny time you get the opportunity to speak, especially early in your career as a speaker, record it.
Preferably a video recording. But at minimum, get an audio recording.
Why?
Because nothing will help you improve as a speaker than seeing and hearing yourself speak. PERIOD.
Here are two quick thoughts...
First, be prepared because watching yourself present can be brutal, especially early on. So give yourself some grace and realize your speaking is a work in progress. And most importantly, don't give up. Everything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first.
Second, don't make recording complicated or distracting. Just set up your smartphone on a table or tripod and hit record. Or have someone else take care of the recording for you. Bottom line, if you make things too complicated, you won't do it. And if it's too distracting, you won't be focused on your presentation.
I hope these 7 simple tips for becoming a better speaker have been helpful. For review, here they are one last time:
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes. Also, share it by using the social media buttons at the top or bottom of this post.
Until next time, continue to move from #DREAMtoDO as a speaker.
Click here to find out more about the Paid to Speak Accelerator Community (aka Mastermind Community) and to put your name on our Waiting List.
Show Notes: 7 Tips to Become a Better Speaker #6 - Look People in the EyeWhy Is This Important?
It helps you make personal connections with audience members. In fact, it's probably the simplest thing you can do to enhance the impact of your presentation and persuade audience members to your point of view.
Why Is This Challenging?
Looking into another person's eyes, especially when you're on stage talking to a group of people, just feels awkward. And if you're nervous, it feels even more awkward.
How to Improve Your Eye Contact?
Finally, here are the tips we've covered so far:
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes. Also, share it by using the social media buttons at the top or bottom of this post.
Until next time, continue to move from #DREAMtoDO as a speaker.
Click here to find out more about the Paid to Speak Accelerator Community (aka Mastermind Community) and to put your name on our Waiting List.
Show Notes: 7 Tips to Become a Better Speaker #5 - Create an Experience for Your AudienceIn the previous episodes of this series, I mentioned that if you want to serve your audience well, it's best to create a speech that is both enjoyable and educational.
Yet the truth is that the vast majority of speakers today focus almost exclusively on delivering content. They might throw in a joke or two and maybe even share a short illustration, but most of the time, it's content, content, content.
Have you ever sat through a 60 or 90-minute presentation that is all content? By the end, you probably feel like you've been sprayed with a firehose. What's worse is that you don't walk away remembering anything specific because anything worth remembering was crowded out by the rest of the content. It's just too much!
So how can you avoid overwhelming your audience with straight content?
Create an experience!
If you want to become a better speaker, you need to realize that less in more when it comes to presenting. So instead of cramming more content into their presentations, they look for ways to make their content sticky (aka so memorable that it sticks with audiences after the presentation).
In fact, instead of outlining their speech in the same way they would outline a research paper, they develop their speech like a scriptwriter storyboarding a movie. They ask themselves questions like:
Here's the bottom line...
Don't just deliver content.
Create an experience that is enjoyable, educational, and best of all, sticky.
Episode ResourcesIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes. Also, share it by using the social media buttons at the top or bottom of this post.
Until next time, continue to move from #DREAMtoDO as a speaker.
Click here to find out more about the Paid to Speak Accelerator Community (aka Mastermind Community) and to put your name on our Waiting List.
Show Notes: 7 Tips to Become a Better Speaker #4 - Focus on ServingSpeaking is not a transactional business. It's a relational business.
Want proof?
Most decision-makers won't hire you until they know, like, and trust you.
Audiences won't listen to you unless you build some level of rapport and trust with them.
And nothing will destroy your speaking career quicker than breaking trust with decision-makers and/or audiences.
So, if you want to become a better speaker, how do you build great relationships with decision-makers and audiences?
Focus on serving!
For decision-makers, be an easy speaker to work with. Make them look like a hero for hiring you. Deliver on your promises.
And for audiences, create an experience that is both enjoyable and educational. You want them to walk away from your presentation feeling better than when they walked in.
Episode ResourcesIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes. Also, share it by using the social media buttons at the top or bottom of this post.
Until next time, continue to move from #DREAMtoDO as a speaker.
Click here to find out more about the Paid to Speak Accelerator Community (aka Mastermind Community) and to put your name on our Waiting List.
Show Notes: 7 Tips to Become a Better Speaker #3 - Get Your Reps In (AKA Practice)Practice starts with developing great content. Work hard on putting together a great presentation.
Then, once you feel like your content is solid, practice the mechanics of how to deliver a great presentation.
You can practice in front of the mirror or make a video recording of yourself...whatever works best for you.
But here's something you won't hear from most speaking coaches or trainers...
If you want to become a better speaker, do NOT practice to become more polished. Audiences can spot a fake a mile away.
Instead, practice to become a better communicator who authentically cares about what you are presenting.
You've been working hard to grow, learn, and develop as a Thought Leader in your area of expertise. So when you get the opportunity to speak to an audience, you don't want to come across as a fake, overly-polished presenter. Instead, you want to be a real person who is seen as passionate about the thoughts and ideas you are sharing.
Or, to put it another way, you want to speak from the head and the heart.
Believe it or not, this takes practice. Lots of practice.
So while you never want to wing your presentation, you also don't want to be over-polished either. It takes practice to truly be yourself as a speaker.
Episode ResourcesIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes. Also, share it by using the social media buttons at the top or bottom of this post.
Until next time, continue to move from #DREAMtoDO as a speaker.
Click here to find out more about the Paid to Speak Accelerator Community (aka Mastermind Community) and to put your name on our Waiting List.
Show Notes: 7 Tips to Become a Better Speaker #2 - Capture Your IdeasIn Tip #1 on how to become a better speaker, I challenged you to do all you can to learn, grow, and develop as a Thought Leader on your topic.
But...if you don't capture the ideas you discover, Tip #1 is useless.
Years ago, someone gave me advice that was so simple, yet it has become one of the most important habits I practice as a speaker.
Here's the advice: When You Think It, Ink It.
Whenever I find something that fits my topic, I write it down immediately.
But I don't just write it down. I make sure to save it in a place where I can find it later.
For some people, that place is a journal or notebook.
For me, it's Evernote. I have a speaking folder in Evernote where I capture all the ideas about my speaking topic that pop into my brain. (BTW, the main reason I like Evernote is it's much easier to search for what I've recorded than it is in a journal or notebook.)
But no matter what system you use, never forget... When You Think It, Ink It.
Episode ResourcesIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes. Also, share it by using the social media buttons at the top or bottom of this post.
Until next time, continue to move from #DREAMtoDO as a speaker.
Click here to find out more about the Paid to Speak Accelerator Community (aka Mastermind Community) and to put your name on our Waiting List.
Show Notes: 7 Tips to Become a Better Speaker #1 - Know Your TopicDo all you can to learn, grow, and develop as a Thought Leader on your topic.
If you make it a habit to do something every week to get to know your topic better, you'll establish yourself as a Thought Leader much faster and become a better speaker.
Episode ResourcesIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes. Also, share it by using the social media buttons at the top or bottom of this post.
Until next time, continue to move from #DREAMtoDO as a speaker.
4 Building Blocks of Speaking - One-Page Graphic
Speaker Mastermind Community:Click here to find out more about the Paid to Speak Accelerator Community (aka Mastermind Community) and to put your name on our Waiting List.
Show Notes: Seasons of Speaking OverviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes. Also, share it by using the social media buttons at the top or bottom of this post. Until next time, continue to move from #DREAMtoDO as a speaker.
4 Building Blocks of Speaking - One-Page Graphic
Speaker Mastermind Community:Click here to find out more about the Paid to Speak Accelerator Community (aka Mastermind Community) and to put your name on our Waiting List.
Show Notes: Seasons of Speaking OverviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes. Also, share it by using the social media buttons at the top or bottom of this post. Until next time, continue to move from #DREAMtoDO as a speaker.
4 Building Blocks of Speaking - One-Page Graphic
Speaker Mastermind Community:Click here to find out more about the Paid to Speak Accelerator Community (aka Mastermind Community) and to put your name on our Waiting List.
Show Notes: Seasons of Speaking OverviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes. Also, share it by using the social media buttons at the top or bottom of this post. Until next time, continue to move from #DREAMtoDO as a speaker.
The podcast currently has 109 episodes available.