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Virtual, instructor-led training is here to stay. 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...

This week, I was looking back over the 100 plus blog posts and podcast episodes that we have released. One of the things that hit me was that there is a very important part of the presentation that I have totally overlooked. In fact, this is one of the first things...

Have a team that needs to build communication skills as a group? Well, just as an FYI, business presentation training is quite different from university-level public speaking classes or what you might pick up at a tasting club. For instance, a good presentation that...

Audience Participation is an excellent way to make a good presentation into a stellar presentation. It can also be the scariest. That is why most speakers -- even seasoned professionals -- avoid asking their audience questions. It is too risky. Or is it? The truth is...

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...

Looking for a few ways to start a presentation that are dynamic? The opening is really the most important part of your presentation. You want to make a good first impression. In addition, you also want the audience to see as a subject matter expert. Of course, we’ve...

We are continuing our series on How to Start a Public Speaking Career, and in this session, we will show a shortcut by working for an organization that is already established. While our first post mentioned a wide variety of approaches, one of the advantages of...

One of the easiest ways to become a professional public speaker is by speaking to groups within your current industry. In this article, we will show you a number of ways to get paid as a professional speaker without having to change careers. This article is a...

Want to know how to overcome glossophobia? Does stage fright sometimes make you pass up opportunities in your career? Do you feel like you have an irrational fear of public speaking? You are not alone! Glossophobia or the fear of public speaking is very common. I've...

You have identified a problem or opportunity for your company. Now you need to get approval. So, how do you present a proposal to management that will get approved? The process is actually pretty simple. The method of how to present a proposal to management that we...

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when you present a proposal to a client. Here is the scenario... You have done your homework. A team at your company painstakingly created the perfect sales proposal. In fact, the potential client was so impressed, that they moved...

Want to learn how to write a persuasive speech? Want to make sure that you persuade your audience without raising resentment? Well, if you use the techniques that you likely learned in school, you will often fail at both of these goals. In high school, you most likely...

Feel nervous about speaking in public? Tell a personal story in your speech (early), and you can reduce public speaking fear dramatically. One of the first public speaking secrets that we share in our public speaking training classes is that stories are your friend....

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...

Looking for a few great options to end your presentation with a bang? So you've spent days (maybe weeks) putting together a killer presentation. Now, you stand up with confidence, present every bullet point with poise, and then you get all the way to the end... and...

Below are 5 top hybrid presentation tips when you are meeting in person but also have virtual attendees as well. In the last few weeks, I've had a number of odd things happen in my in-person meetings and training sessions. The first occurred when a big client called...

Short anecdotes for speeches are a fantastic way to end a presentation with a bang. These stories can be fiction, actual incidents from history, or even just funny stories from your own personal life. When you deliver them well, though, they have a lasting impact. I...

Looking for an easy way to create killer content for your blog? Or, are you trying to design a motivational speech for your team? In this post, I cover a simple way to create content that your audience will love. The technique works equally well if whether you are...

Continuing in our three-part webinar series, in this episode/post, we'll cover how to create webinar content to help you maximize audience retention. In the last episode, we covered 7 Important Things that You Should Know about Online Meetings before you start. Next...

People who become Engineers or enter any number of technical fields usually have a specific type of brain. In other words, they simply "get it" when it comes to an understanding of how certain things work, whatever that one exact "thing" maybe for them. You know who...

The Covid-19 virus has significantly altered the way that people communicate and interact with each other. These changes may be temporary. However, many of these changes are likely to cause a significant change in the way we do business. One of the main changes is in...

This is part three of our posts on How to Use Public Speaking in Your Career. In this session, we are going to show you a few simple ways to use public speaking to promote or market your product or service. In fact, using a speech to promote a product or service is a...

What happens when someone forces you to deliver a bad presentation? You didn't design the speech. You didn't even create the endless slideshow. However, you are the one who has to stand in front of the group and deliver this gem. So, how do you deliver a bad...

Do you need a business presentation coach? Well... It depends... Last week, I gave several different reasons why presentation skills are important to business success. Great presentation skills can create opportunities for advancement and increase income. How exactly...

I was reminded this week about the importance of presentation skills in the workplace. Three participants in my presentation skills workshop in Detroit taught job placement skills. I noticed a couple of interesting things as the class went on. First, these...

Looking for an elevator speech template? In this post, I'm going to explain how to create a 30 second commercial (elevator pitch) for yourself. (Or for your company.) This elevator speech can be used to introduce yourself to a new contact, help you get an interview,...

One of the most important aspects of many speeches is the ability to be persuasive. There is an art to creating a persuasive speech, but there is also a lot of communication skills that are important to the process as well. In this session, we will help you develop...

Eventually, if you present often, you will be required to deliver content that the audience either isn't in agreement with or, about which, your audience will be argumentative. It takes a skilled presenter to be able to deliver content like this in a way that doesn't...

When you stand up to speak in front of a group, yes, you want to appear confident. However, it is equally important to have the ability to build trust and rapport with your audience. Your audience will not believe you unless they first trust you. In this session, we...

If you practice great presentation skills, and focus on designing your presentations on what your audience needs and wants, you will likely not have much trouble with hecklers. However, it only takes a single mad-at-the-world heckler to quickly turn your presentation...

A good communications coach (formal or informal) can help you identify communication strengths and weaknesses. Years ago, I was having coffee with a colleague. He mentioned that he had just had a session with his "personal coach." During the session this coach helped...

So how do you create an online training course that people don't hate? Six months ago, we set out to recreate the online version of The Fearless Presentations ® Course. To be blunt, when we started, I just assumed that we would just update the videos of the old...

I was teaching a presentation skills class in Houston this week. I had two separate participants pull me aside at two separate breaks and ask the same exact question... "Why do I still get nervous when I speak in public?" This question is very common (both during a...

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...

It happens to all of us sooner or later. We prepare well. We practice over and over. But then, something happens that is totally out of our control, and we bomb. So, how do you recover after giving a terrible speech and bombing on stage? Whether the challenge occurs...

The Importance of Self-Confidence People will judge our COMPETENCE by the CONFIDENCE that we show. For example, let's say that you are going in for surgery, and just before you go under, the surgeon walks into your room. His posture is slouching, as he speaks, he...