For decades, I have enjoyed a successful career as a keynote speaker and speech coach for executives, sales teams and other professional speakers. My social media posts, articles, books and online learning platform Fripp Virtual Training FrippVT are designed to help ambitious professionals like you gain a competitive edge.
Here you will learn the Not-So-Basic Basics.
It never ceases to amaze me that intelligent, well-educated, and ambitious professionals often overlook developing the number-one skill that is guaranteed to put them ahead of the crowd.
Namely, developing the ability to stand up and speak eloquently in public, or at least stagger to their feet and say anything at all.
What is it about public speaking that terrifies so many? Most likely, it’s because we don’t want to look, feel, or sound stupid in front of others.
As a speech coach, when I first meet my clients, I often hear, ‘I am a terrible public speaker.’
To which I reply, “No. You are an untrained speaker.” My second comment is, “Stop telling yourself what you do not want. This is reinforcing what we are going to change.”
Don’t be so harsh on yourself. You have invested your entire career in training and perfecting your skills. How do you expect to be good at what you have not focused on?
Great news! To become a powerful, professional-sounding presenter is not rocket science.
However, it is a tad more complex than you realize.
Don’t worry, that is why I am here. Consider me your personal speech coach.
Perhaps you have some natural talent, and you are comfortable getting up in front of an audience.
Even then, you will be well served to learn timeless techniques and proven principles that are little-known or frequently overlooked.
Sign up for my Good to Great Presentation Skills Masterclass?
These techniques and principles are shaped by my 30-plus years of experience.
I have delivered and learned from over 3,500 live presentations and hundreds of virtual ones.
My goal is not to impress you. Instead, to impress upon you, it is these skills that took me from behind a men’s hairstyling chair to stages on five continents.
Now I have the privilege of coaching executives, engineers, sales teams, and ambitious professionals in all industries to improve their essential presentations.
Perhaps you are thinking, “I’m not a professional public speaker.” You are. All speaking is public speaking.
Let’s be realistic: in the business world we live in, much of our team, customer, and sales meetings are now conducted virtually from our homes.
For our purposes, public speaking is defined as any meaningful conversation or communication you deliver in a business setting. These may include virtual, live or prerecorded messages.
Public speaking for business includes speaking at team meetings, reporting to senior management, and conversations or presentations to drive more business, as well as speaking at industry events and User meetings.
Public speaking is also welcoming recruits to your company and answering the frequently asked question, “What do you do for a living?”
Anyone can stand in front of an audience or behind a webcam and deliver a good presentation. Everything we do and say adds to or distracts from our message.
Each presentation we deliver increases or lowers our reputation and credibility.
When we develop the ability to speak clearly and concisely, our message will be more likely to be remembered and repeated.
In other words, when we deliver our message well, we are speaking to the audience of our audience as our ideas and suggestions are repeated.
Great presenters enjoy a competitive advantage at every stage of their career.
Consider the benefits of mastering public speaking and sounding like the powerful presenter you are capable of becoming.
There are three parts to every presentation.
First, your content, what it is you are going to say. Second, your message. Make it easy for you and your audience to remember, you need a simple, logical structure as the framework for your words. This is what I call the skeleton under the flesh of your words.
Third, is your delivery, which includes your eye contact, the quality of your voice, pauses, inflexions, and how you move and gesture. All while remembering what you intended to say.
I frequently hear, “Patricia, I have my presentation together, I just need you to help me improve my delivery.” To which I reply, “Why would you want to perfect a poorly scripted and badly structured speech?”
In other words, you cannot focus on your delivery until you have a well-organised flow to your message.
A presentation is not a conversation; however, your goal is to make it sound conversational.
The written word is for the eye. The spoken word is for the rhythm. My advice is to speak in shorter sentences and phrases. One idea per sentence. This is easier for you, as you pause, you can think about what comes next.
Your pauses are essential for you to breathe and for your audience to think about what they have heard.
You may be wondering, “When do I develop the PowerPoint or visual aids?” You will save time and have a greater impact if you outline your presentation on a flip chart, whiteboard, or even a yellow pad.
Then ask yourself, “Where do I need visuals?” Building your deck first can sabotage what could be an outstanding presentation.
If you are given the deck, outline your message and then review it to change the order or remove slides that don’t serve your presentation or the audience.
Slides are not the presentation. They are visual and they are aids, not a scripting tool. The purpose of visual aids is to enhance and clarify your message, not to compete with you.
You can look forward to learning how to find content, connect to every audience, simplify the speech structure process, open with impact, tell compelling stories, and deliver like a true professional.
Remember, when you’re a good public speaker, you get noticed, get promoted, and have more options.
You can learn by yourself or shorten your learning curve by learning from an expert. Like me!
Sign up for my Good to Great Presentation Skills Masterclass?
