Episode #21 - Are You A Confident Speaker?

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Welcome to the podcast where relationships, confidence, and

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determination, all converge into an amazing, heartfelt experience.

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This is Speaking From The Heart.

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Welcome back to episode number 21 of Speaking From the Heart.

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Today we're going to talk about another feature of my business, Your Speaking

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Voice LLC, which I started earlier this year that I provide to my clients, and

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today's topic is the one that has the most fear beyond it all, glossophobia itself,

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in which I work with so many people, and I even work on it myself: public speaking.

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Public speaking goes back hundreds of years, even to the times in which feudal

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empires even went to the town square to even talk about the taxes that were being

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raised onto the class of individuals, and we often go back to even the United

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States history, even the very beginnings of our country in which that importance

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of speaking confidently and being able to share a message with an audience

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was something of great significance.

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I know that for many of us though, we might not be in the feudal square or

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learning more about our king or maybe even protesting our king, but I would

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think that public speaking for all of us, no matter what background that we're

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at, whether it's a blue collar, white collar, whatever type of job it is, it

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has implications for all of us with all different things that we do in our lives.

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No matter if it was giving orders to a team or even providing information to

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a group of individuals that were of an informative, persuasive, or entertaining

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value, being able to publicly speak, let alone record yourself to be distributed

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to a massively wide audience that can access you, is truly important.

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I have learned in my over 11 years of doing public speaking, mostly

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because of Toastmasters International, the organization that provides

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communication and leadership development to those all across the

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world, it has allowed us to understand a lot more about what's important

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about speaking to a wide audience.

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There's a lot of things that we can work on when it comes to not only how

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we speak, but how we speak confidently and being a coach myself for many years

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in this realm, before I ever started my own individual practice, I have learned

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from time and time again that we all have different reasons and motivations

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and being able to learn how to speak.

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Let's go through some of the things that I have learned though that might be

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helpful in the general sense, meaning no matter what you're doing, whether that

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is just a small talk in front of a group of people, or even doing a bigger group,

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a large audience of over a thousand, 2,000, maybe even 10,000 or more,

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you will have to practice in order to understand how to become more effective.

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One of the very first things that I will ever share with anyone,

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especially going through my practice, is understanding who is your audience.

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That is such a big, important component of being able to form the right message,

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because if I'm not understanding who my audience is, and I'm not willing

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to understand what kinds of things that they are looking for from me as a

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speaker, I will not be effective at all when it comes to the delivery and the

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execution of that speech, and that goes hand in hand, not only with the things

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that we're doing in our conversations in our daily lives, knowing what we

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are saying at a smaller scale, but we also need to know what we are trying

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to share with that particular audience so that they are walking away feeling

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that they have spent their time doing or learning more about what you have to say.

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Some of those things that a audience should be considering, especially

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for yourself as you're preparing, is whether that speaker is qualified.

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It doesn't mean that it has to have every single credential or check mark,

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but what makes you the authority to be able to speak in front of that audience?

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Understanding how that audience might respond to you, especially if you are

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going to speak in front of them, can help you prepare for some of the remarks

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that might be given before you're ever introduced, which in itself, is an

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art that oftentimes gets confused with providing a large background about who

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you are, which might not be relevant for the topic at hand, but getting back

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to the audience, it is so important to understand that we need to provide more

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than just what is on the surface when it comes to that program, when it comes to

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knowing who you are, that headshot with two or three sentences about who you are

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and what makes you qualified to speak.

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By understanding, as a speaker, who you're talking to, you can have even

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more of a tactical presence with your presentation by having acronyms and

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other sort of information on hand that might be specific that everyone should

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have a universal understanding on, but if you have a more generalized audience

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in which has a mixture of people that might not know what those things are

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that you're trying to discuss, it will help you to form and craft that perfect

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speech so that you know that it's okay to talk about those things that might

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need to be explained a little bit more closely or more clearly for that matter.

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Those are reasons why an audience is so important to understand and be able to

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dialect with, especially beforehand, and getting to know somebody that is running

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the event is my number two of making sure that you're a prepared speaker.

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It isn't just about knowing who your audience is, but also understanding

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what the venue is, maybe the technology that is being used, the props, the

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video that might be recording you, the audio that is picking up your voice.

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Having a full understanding of all those things requires understanding who you

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are working with to make sure that the event that you're speaking at is most

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successful, and we oftentimes look over those details because we think that we

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have everything put together when it comes to content, and we don't necessarily need

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to worry about what anybody else has to say when it comes to the delivery, the

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execution, because that's what's more important, but every single piece of the

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process, all the way from starting out to developing and to executing on that

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speech requires an understanding of who you're working with, especially when

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it's a contracted event, to be able to learn a lot more about who you can be

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and how you can become a public speaker.

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By having that relationship with someone too, you will have some of those resources

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already available to you that, in a pinch, might be needed available at the

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very last minute to help you get through whatever technical difficulty that might

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occur, which leads me into my third point.

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Never assume that you have everything ready the day of because

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something will always happen.

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As a matter of fact, just recently in an event that I have attended, which we just

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talked about in one of my episodes with my guest, Ivana Miranda, I had showed up

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to the venue for the conference that I was presenting at, and I totally forgot

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to bring the dongle that I needed to connect my laptop to the television that

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was needed to present my presentation, but being the prepared speaker that I

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was and knowing that there was going to be no other resource or recourse for

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that matter, I had a backup plan already in place to present the material that

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I was going to present electronically.

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In other words, although I was going in person and physically showing my

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materials, It doesn't mean that I need to be sacrificed if I had to be able

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to not use those materials, and I could pivot into another direction on its

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own course, and I still satisfied my obligation to my client, being able

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to speak in front of my audience.

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Being able to have a backup plan, when those sort of technical difficulties

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or those moments of forgetfulness often occur, that can help you become more

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confident and even more prepared in the speaking engagement that you are

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providing with a potential individual.

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This leads me into my next point, which is about introductions.

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When you're talking about with public speaking, the ability to showcase who

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you truly are, oftentimes people think that it's all about showing what your

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whole life story is about, and as I even mentioned earlier, maybe in some

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audiences it's important to share what your life story has been about, but

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it oftentimes is not the case that you want to do that consistently, depending

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on what time limits that you might have on an audience to give a message.

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If you are giving a 40 minute talk about a certain topic, you

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certainly do not want to spend a lot of time introducing yourself.

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Have the person that's introducing you, do all that work.

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They have that extra time, but to even help them out, it doesn't mean giving

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yourself a four decade, five decade, even six decade life story about all

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the accomplishments that you have done.

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If you are there at that audience talking about a certain subject matter

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that you are specifically assigned to do, focus on what makes you a credible

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speaker as part of your introduction.

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It is perfectly okay to state your name, where you are coming from, what you do

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for a living amongst some of the more basic information so that you establish

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that basic level of trust with your audience, but once you start to get into

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more of the wildly big details about who you are, it's about focusing on what's

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truly important with those aspects, narrowing it down, and then being able

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to provide that level of information or comfort to be able to associate with

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the audience, because let's face it.

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If you provide all that information, especially since it might be already

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listed in the program book, do I need you to read it to me, and that

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should always be the question that you ask yourself when you prepare

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any sort of presentation material, which leads me into my next point.

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Don't make the audience have to read everything that you're trying

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to say, and this is really more appropriate for the visual aids that

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you might be using in a presentation.

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The old adage of a picture is worth a thousand words is exactly what it

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means to talk about this subject too, because for us, visual aids in the public

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speaking business can say so much about your subject, whether you're talking

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about electric vehicles, whether you are discussing a specific problem that

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is happening at work by using charts and graphs, maybe even in a eulogy or a

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funeral in which you're providing context about the person that you're celebrating

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the life of; having a fun photo, to go along with, it can certainly lighten the

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mood of the audience because of knowing your audience and also understanding

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how that person is when it comes to knowing the bigger picture overall.

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Visual aids can be so impactful, and most people nowadays go to the original

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Microsoft PowerPoint, which we know that nowadays there are so many more

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opportunities to use software such as Prezi, and even Canva for that matter, to

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develop your slide deck for a presentation amongst many of the other available

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tools, but the most important thing to keep in mind when you're developing your

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information and providing that context to the audience is when you start to list

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so many different words on the screen.

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That everyone's going to be more attracted to reading it and then when you flip to

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the next slide, because everyone reads at a different level and different speed,

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they will not be able to keep up with you.

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This is why it's so important to understand that pictures or images

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provide a wide variety of context and doesn't allow the audience to focus

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solely on the words that are on the screen, because the reason for hiring a

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speaker in the first place is to learn a lot more about what that speaker

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can provide to help you become a lot more knowledgeable, especially as an

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audience member, I'm sure that many of us throughout time that our speakers need

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to be more prepared than ever before, especially if we want to have a subject

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that we want to learn a lot more about.

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Being part of our presentation or conference formats.

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Even with all those tips said, I'm sure many of you are still thinking,

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"Josh, I just will never do this.

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I will never get in front of an audience to be more confident.

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What would you actually do for me that would help me to feel a lot better?"

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Well, as part of my value proposition with this sort of feature that we do, there's a

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lot of different tools that are available that you would have to pay additional

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money for if you work to work with someone else or maybe another group of people, and

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I know that with the rise of artificial intelligence, there's a lot of different

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software available that can help analyze some of the more basic crutches or even

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repetitions or even the speed in which you're giving a presentation to show the

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level of effectiveness, but through the business, Your Speaking Voice LLC, provide

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a lot more than just the simple, "Let's work review to get to that end goal",

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which is really the premise of a lot of the things that I have talked about even

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in some of my previous episodes and what I'll talk about in the future episodes

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with some of my other business offerings, but when we talk about speaking, we're

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looking at the dimensions of not just the ways in which you form content or

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even recognize the audience, or even using an introduction to empower you.

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There are things such as eye contact, vocal variety, being able to use your

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diaphragm to project, so voice projection for that matter, being clear about

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the points that you're trying to share alongside the fact that grammar and using

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filler words are often monitored to ensure that you're using and maximizing the

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time that is giving to you, and those are all aspects that we do through several

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video reviews through the business in which we record you and provide that

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level of feedback into ways in which you can improve, but we also work on the

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dimensions of the content that you are delivering so that we can see how you can

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take your original self, and see how your progress has been made through a month's

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worth, or a six week period or a two month period of just doing this work with us.

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Public speaking is a lot more than just delivering a message.

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It can be so much more if you're just willing to learn a little bit about how

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you can focus your messaging and how you can focus that information that you

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have deep inside of you to channel it to a convincing disclosure of comfort

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for the audience to allow them to walk away with the information that you are

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trying to convey in the first place, because with that sort of information

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at our hands and at our fingertips, whether we are trying to entertain, to

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alleviate the pressure that's in the room, or even to become more confident in

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the way that we deliver ourselves, both personally and professionally, we can

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become more opportunistic in the ways in which we become speaking professionals.

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Speaking and being on message is something that I truly value and very passionate

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about because of the ways in which it has transformed me to not only do a podcast

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such as this, but has allowed me to be able to speak in front of a large audience

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many times over and not feel ashamed of sharing my personal, authentic self.

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If you want to be a confident speaker, it doesn't matter what you

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want to do or what you want to say.

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It's about being able to stand in front of a room and know that you can be the best

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version of yourself by just practicing, because through practice it does make

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perfection, but sometimes having a second set of eyes and even another voice to

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help you and guide you along the way can be the best form of coaching, especially

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in this realm, to help you see not the things that you want to be, but the

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things that you can become as a result of being consistently evaluated on in a

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positive, effective way that allows you to see just what you are able to share.

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Messaging is everything, and being a messenger, especially through public

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speaking, can help you not only with your final message to your audience,

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but also can help you see a different side of you on that big stage, or

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maybe even that small camera that's looking at you right now saying

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that you have something to share and I can't wait to hear it from you.

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Thanks for listening to episode number 21 of Speaking From the

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Heart, and I look forward to hearing from your heart very soon.

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Thanks for listening.

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For more information about our podcast and future shows, search for Speaking From

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The Heart to subscribe and be notified wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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Visit us at www.yourspeakingvoice.biz for more information about potential

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services that can help you create the best version of yourself.