A version of this article appeared on Orbit Media a while back. The truths in it are as relevant as ever and I wanted to share it. You can find the original here. Before my career took me to the stage as a professional speaker, I spent years behind a drumkit for a ska/funk band in Chicago. What started as a college band would be a big part of my life for almost a decade, and I'm still pulling ideas and concepts from the experience that I use to this day. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was also learning a perspective that would profoundly influence how I approached being a speaker. When people ask me for advice on how to … [Read more...]
Make it Look Easy
Win the Crowd – Steve Cohen
This article was originally published a few years ago at the RockStar Success Library. Still one of my favorite public speaking guides. When you think about it, magicians are truly the masters of sales. We know that they are going to perform feats that are designed to fool us, we might even try to stay on our guard, but they always get us. And we love it – we even want more! For their illusions to work, magicians have to sell us over and over again. In becoming a top magician, Steve Cohen has also become a master salesperson and communicator. In Win the Crowd, it’s fascinating to see how he’s drilled down into the ways he … [Read more...]
Speak to Win – Brian Tracy
This article was originally published a few years ago at the RockStar Success Library. It's a great foundation from one of the icons in the biz. Big Thought Effectiveness in public speaking is a learned skill; and your ability to speak in front of others is a key ingredient in professional success. Questions, Ideas, Implications “Fully 90 percent of your success as a speaker will be determined by how well you plan your speech.” (pg 18). I couldn’t agree more. When people ask me how to improve their public speaking, they are usually thinking about their deficiencies in delivery. However, most messages falter because of poor planning … [Read more...]
How Stand-Up Comedy Can Help You Sell and Influence
Updated October 2019 Do you want to get better at persuading people? My guess is that you do because whether you are a salesperson selling a product, an entrepreneur courting an investor, or a business owner convincing your team about your vision, your success hinges on your ability to influence other people. Luckily, there are shelves and shelves of books (and information all over the internet) on how to be better at selling, public speaking, and influencing others. A lot of them are good, more of them are mediocre, and almost all of them are relatively boring. It makes it a little more challenging to slog through them. So here's … [Read more...]
Being a RockStar Public Speaker
Being a public speaker is as close as you can get to being a RockStar during the daytime. And, it involves pretty much the same steps too: develop material over weeks and months, make a ton of phone calls trying to get booked, spend a solid amount of time getting to the venue hours early so you can do a 5-minute sound check, wait until it's your turn, worry about how many people are in the audience, deliver what you hope is a great presentation, try to minimize your mistakes, collect your applause and only sometimes a check, go back home and try to get another gig. Now, I love speaking just like I loved playing in a band (although it is … [Read more...]
The Confidence that Will Make You Comfortable on Zoom, on Stage, and in Zumba
Updated March, 2021 Years ago I read through Scott Berkun's Confessions of a Public Speaker and I came across the line: Know that your response to a mistake defines the audience's response. And I thought to myself, "Dude, you couldn't be more right." It's continued to stay relevant to me as I've moved beyond my normal public speaking and into the digital realm. Because now I can often see the mistakes I make in real-time! When you have a camera on you, and a little window of yourself in the corner of the screen, it can be a little intimidating. The Audience Only Cares if You Do And now everyone is a public speaker because of video … [Read more...]