Before you can be a great speaker, make sure you’ve worked on the fundamentals.
Crafting a great story, persuading your audience to action, and bringing a crowd to tears are all signs of a great speaker. But in order to achieve these feats, the fundamentals of speaking must be mastered. In today’s episode, you’ll hear five questions that bring us back to basics. These questions were asked during recent presentations I gave and reminded me that before we’re great, we must be good. We go into the following:
- How to avoid being a swaying palm tree on stage and having a stronger presence
- How to not be mechanical and boring on stage
- How to control the tendency to speak quickly
- How to ask good questions at the beginning of a speech to engage the audience
- How to determine if you should use slides or not
Watch Simon Sinek’s talk to get a good sense of how to give a strong presentation without slides. Read Seth Godin’s post, “Really Bad Powerpoints”.
If you’re doing the Tiny Summer Challenge, send me your success stories! I’m going until September and would love to read and/or share your big moments.
Also, Speaking School for Women is back in late September. I have a waiting list started and if you’d like to get the early registration link, email me to get on the list! Angela@speakersisterhood.com. Learn more about Speaking School for Women.
Angela Lussier is the founder of the Speaker Sisterhood and also an award-winning speaker, three-time author, and two-time TEDx presenter. She is the host of Claim the Stage, a public speaking podcast for courageous women. Her motto: Stop waiting. Start creating.
Speaker Sisterhood: Discover, Awaken and Create Your Voice 