Effortless Public Speaking

By Liam Sandford and Derek Moore

"Liam and Derek provide clear, actionable advice that makes becoming a confident speaker achievable even if you are afraid of public speaking right now."
- JORDAN HARBINGER - Host of the Jordan Harbinger Show, awarded a Best of Apple Podcast 2018

 

"I love that with this book, Liam and Derek are helping people to build a daily speaking habit. Anything that can help make speaking an effortless experience, gets my thumbs up!"
- VERITY PRICE - 2021 Public Speaking World Champion

 

"If you want to overcome your fear of public speaking, then this is the book for you."
- ALEX BANKS - Host of Through the Noise Podcast

Public speaking is an extraordinary skill that everyday people can leverage to gain a competitive advantage. The problem is most people are deftly afraid of it or lack speaking confidence due to being taught the wrong things. The all-too-familiar stress, racing heart, and sweaty palms can be significantly reduced or eliminated by learning steps to remove barriers and roadblocks.

Effortless Public Speaking showcases how to calm your mind and maximize your environment to be able to focus on what matters most. It has never been easier to find opportunities to speak in public. Effortless Public Speaking is your roadmap to learn how to speak stress free, reduce fear, and become a confident speaker without the need to master difficult techniques.

This book will be a staple on your shelf as a speaking reference every time you come to deliver a presentation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Liam Sandford
• Release date: Dec 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201132903

Book preview

In Effortless Public Speaking, Liam and Derek provide clear, actionable advice that makes becoming a confident speaker achievable even if you are afraid of public speaking right now.

- Jordan Harbinger, host of the Jordan Harbinger Show, awarded a Best of Apple Podcast 2018

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I’ve always said that speaking is a learn by doing skill. That it is something that everyone can get better at, and eventually excel at. But you have to start somewhere. I love that with this book, Liam and Derek are helping people to build a daily speaking habit. Anything that can help make speaking an effortless experience, gets my thumbs up!

- Verity Price, 2021 World Champion of Public Speaking

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Liam and Derek are full of practical tips and techniques that will help you become a better public speaker. You'll learn how to control your nerves, engage your audience, and deliver a powerful message. If you want to overcome your fear of public speaking, then this is the book for you.

- Alex Banks, host of Through the Noise Podcast

Effortless Public Speaking

How to Speak Stress Free, With Confidence &

Make Speaking Your Competitive Advantage

––––––––

Liam Sandford

Derek Moore

Effortless Public Speaking

Copyright © 2022 Liam Sandford & Derek Moore

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission from the authors.

Contents

Introduction: You Were Taught the Wrong Things

1 Superpower of Public Speaking: What Is in It for Me?

2 It Has Never Been Easier to Become a Good Public Speaker

3 Become a Confident Speaker

4 Calming Your Mind to Speak in Public

5 Build Once, Use 1000 Times: The Only Structure You Need for Public Speaking

6 Prepare Yourself to Speak in Public

7 Practical Techniques for Public Speakers

8 Tell Powerful Stories

9 Effectively Manage Your Audience

10 Navigating the Environment

11 Why PowerPoint Slides Are Ruining Your Presentation

Conclusion: An Extraordinary Skill for Everyday People

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Acknowledgements

Notes

Index

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Introduction

You Were Taught the Wrong Things

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My heart was beating out of my chest, I had clammy hands, and my face was visibly sweating. This was not the first time. You guessed it, another public speaking experience. Although this time it was different.

Sitting in a university lecture theater, the lecturer announced he would be choosing people to answer questions. Three people had been picked on already, and the closer it got to potentially being my turn the more I (Liam) wanted the floor to open and swallow me up.

I did not get asked to speak that day, but the thought of speaking in public filled me with dread. That was a problem. At just the idea of speaking I was overwhelmed. It is fair to say I had a fear of public speaking. Something had to change.

Studies show that up to 75% of the population has a fear of public speaking.

The scary sounding technical term for that is ‘glossophobia’. The good news is that even if you are bad at speaking, just getting over your fear means you automatically jump into the top 25% in the world. You might be surprised just how easy it is to vault into the top percentiles of public speakers everywhere with a little purposeful practice and training.

Part of the problem is you were taught the wrong things in school about public speaking.

Or maybe you took advice from friends and colleagues that was well intentioned but not helpful.

All feedback is not created equal. When it comes to public speaking, feedback usually comes in a range of areas; the content, delivery, pauses, how fast you speak, eye contact, audience participation, and the list could go on. Maybe it caused a bad experience that has prevented you from trying again or believing you can become a confident public speaker. The reality is that even those exceptionally talented at something cannot necessarily teach others.

Hall of Fame baseball player Ted Williams was arguably the greatest hitter to ever play the game.

In 1941 he hit over .400, a feat not achieved since. Yet by all accounts when he took up managing a team, he failed. Reports say he could not teach his players the skills that came so easy for him. Actionable feedback and coaching needs to be done in a certain order and at certain times.

Importantly, feedback should be specific and targeted at what will make the most difference to you. That level of specificity requires a cause-effect understanding of what works to reach successful outcomes.

If you have had any formal public speaking training, you were probably told to stand up behind the podium with your hands firmly grasping the sides.

Or to get over your nervousness, picture the audience naked. This unhelpful ‘advice’ does not merit a response. You might have been told to memorize your talk but that only dials up the pressure, and if you forget something, it only increases anxiety.

As a public speaker you are playing the attention game. You hope to capture the audience in your opening and make your talk memorable long after the event. But it is not always that simple.

Have you ever been at a conference and witnessed speaker after speaker open with ten minutes outlining what they are going to say, then saying it, then spending the last ten minutes summarizing what they spoke about?

It is not their fault. That is what they were taught. But there are ways to structure your presentations that do not have audience members checking their watches or planning their early exit. Ways that will make you stand out and be different in a very positive way.

In the coming chapters we will help you understand how many of the myths of public speaking are holding you back.

Speaking is a learned behavior, and you can become good even if you are afraid of speaking in front of people right now. By starting small, you can improve quickly and build confidence to speak in public.

When you practice with intention and adopt the techniques from this book, your confidence and ability to speak well in public will improve exponentially. Learning how to separate the logistical and operational challenges with the craft of speaking will help to remove barriers that are preventing you from being confident in your ability.

Think of public speaking like building a house. You have to lay the foundations first. You do this by learning how to prepare in the best way for you and coming up with a consistent structure that is engaging. Once the foundations are down it is time to assemble the house. Every time you speak in public another brick gets added. In the grand scheme of things, a brick is very small, but if you lay just one a day, you will eventually have a house. By starting small and replicating your speaking success with a series of building blocks, you will realize your speaking goals.

Most speaking advice is not good advice because it focuses too much on technique and not enough on how to scale up from speaking in front of one person to speaking in front of thousands.

In its most basic form public speaking is just a conversation.

Throughout this book we will introduce you to the nano speech which is designed to incrementally improve your skills and confidence to be able to speak in public stress free, in front of any audience. By performing the nano speech consistently, you will notice fast improvements in your ability and confidence when speaking in public.

If you have always wanted to overcome your fear of public speaking, or simply reduce the stress you feel before a presentation you have come to the right place.

You can do this!

With intentional speaking practice over time, you can turn what is now a stressful experience into one that is effortless.

Chapter 1

Superpower of Public Speaking: What Is in It for Me?

There is a famous saying from Sir Francis Bacon that knowledge is power. When you combine knowledge with being good at public speaking, you have a superpower.

You could have the greatest knowledge in the world but if you cannot communicate it in a simple way that is clear for people to understand you will have less impact. When you can marry your expertise with the ability to communicate well, then you have got something.

This does not just apply to getting up on stage to address a crowded room. Think about how many situations would benefit from developing the ability to captivate people’s attention through what you are saying. You could:

Increase your chances of being the preferred candidate at a job interview.

Nail a presentation that increases your chances of a promotion at work.

Improve your relationship building skills through telling stories.

Feel more confident in landing a message with your audience.

Communicating effectively has endless benefits.

Just because you are not directly being paid as a professional speaker does not mean you will not profit from developing your speaking skills.

How often have you seen someone with more knowledge passed over by someone else? I (Derek) remember running into a friend and learning they became the IT Director at their company. Surprised, I said, ‘you don’t really know anything about computers?’

‘No’, they said, ‘but I know how to build relationships with clients, and I understand how to explain what they want to the tech people who get frustrated when clients have no idea what they are talking about.’

They explained they were paid to translate back and forth even though they knew very little about technology. They were the ‘glue person’. Every organization needs glue people – those who can communicate ideas between disciplines.

Now, imagine an IT expert had the power of confidently communicating technical information in a clear and simple way. They would surely excel in every environment. This conversation illustrates that confident speakers excel over pure skill and knowledge. You might be tempted to say you do not need to improve your communication or public speaking if you are never called upon to give a presentation. But every day relationship building and communicating information to people is a skill that scales up.

You will come to find that if you can speak to one person, you can speak to 10,000 people.

What Dogs Can Teach Us About the Power of Communication

My (Derek) dog has an insatiable love of eating ice cubes.

He is always asking for them. Anytime we grab water from the dispenser in the refrigerator, he looks longingly hoping we will recognize his request by grabbing a handful and putting them on the ground. One day he figured out how to reach up with his paw and push the lever.

It was funny and entertaining for a day to just hear the ice dispenser going off.

That was until he hit the water button by accident and after that soaking, he has not tried it since.

So how does this relate to public speaking? You see, my dog cannot use words and is left with sitting down and looking, tilting his head, or barking in the hope that somehow, we will figure out what he wants. Without the ability to communicate, you leave people guessing and hope they figure out what you need and when.

How many times have you been to a meeting at work, and somebody goes around the houses, skirting around a topic and uses a lot of words without saying much? This is unhelpful. A famous