Question: What do overcoming the fear of making a speech and gift-giving have in common?
Answer: We use the same principles to give a speech or to give a gift!

When we think of the folks on our gift list, whether they're the people we work with, live with, or network with, we take into consideration their likes and dislikes, the financial limits we agree to observe, and then try to come up with something they'll appreciate that they didn't have before and will make them feel we care about them. And when they smile and say, "Thanks, I love this, it's just what I need!," they'll really mean it.

This is a great technique for overcoming the fear of making a speech.

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"What is the most important thing to remember when you’re speaking on video?"

There are probably as many answers to this question as there are public speakers. Here's mine: That your listeners hear you and understand what you’re saying.
I don’t mean that the volume on their computers is turned up to an optimum volume. I’m talking about coming across to them as someone they’ll like to listen to for the entire length of your presentation. This is critical. How easy is it, if you’re doing a podcast, for example, for a listener to just hit Delete and end your talk before you get to your most important point?

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An accountant I know wants to improve her speaking ability. She's very good at her profession, has no problem with tax returns, profit & loss statements, anything else financial that pertains to running a business.

But when it comes to telling potential clients just how good she really is and why they should work with her, suddenly she freezes and can hardly remember her own name.

Gina sees so many entrepreneurs making financial missteps that could easily be corrected. Most of her business is by referral, but recently, like so many of us during this pandemic, the pipeline hasn’t been as full as it used to be. She’s been thinking about ways to offer her expertise to larger groups on video. She’s never done a teleseminar or webinar, but for several years now she's been thinking about it... and thinking about it... and thinking about it. She's expert at playing the procrastination game.

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Does this ever happen to you?

You need to write a speech for an important occasion, but you suddenly realize that organizing your thoughts into a coherent message that the audience will appreciate is just too hard. You know what you want to talk about. You want to be appealing, persuasive, smart and funny. But you haven’t a clue how to begin.

Actually, you know more than you think you do. Writing a speech is a skill you've been learning since you first went to school, even if you never took a speech class.

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Often, when people learn I’m a speaker’s coach, they say to me, "I'd really like to be a better speaker."

"Great!" I always respond. "How can I help you?"

"Oh, well,” they often reply. “I'm doing all right at the moment, I'd like to speak better, but I've got other things I have to take care of first. But someday I'd really like to talk to you about it."

Are you a Someday Speaker? Are you a Someday Book Author, Article Writer, Workshop Presenter, or... you name it, there's probably something connected to your business that you fully intend to do "Someday".

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What is a speaker's worst nightmare? Ask ten people and you'll get ten different answers.

All of us who feel fear when we're asked to get up to speak harbor some kind of worst case scenario, the thing we dread happening that will let the audience know just how incompetent, unprepared, or uncomfortable, we are. That same sort of fear is plaguing us these days when we face the new normal… life under the threat of the coronavirus.

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