2-Minute Tip: Be Authentic Present in a way that is true to yourself. Your content needs to resonate with you first, or it won’t resonate with your audience. When you can share a message that you are on board with, you can convincingly tell your story and you have the best opportunity to move your audience to take the action you want them to take. And isn’t that…
2-Minute Tip — Tell a story to Open The beginning of a talk is when you have the maximum audience attention. Don’t squander it welcomes, thank yous, and introductions. Instead, tell a story to engage your audience at the very start. Think about a band coming out on stage. They don’t start with banter. They go right into a big opening number to get everyone excited for…
2-Minute Tip: Increase Attendance Retention with a Take Away One challenge with webinars and live sessions is keeping folks around until the end, especially if the material is on the dry side. To help folks stick around, let them know that at the end you’ll have a give-away for them. It could be something as simple as a collection of other resources or websites. Maybe it’s a…
2-Minute Tip: Go the Extra Mile To create the life you want, go the extra mile every day in 3 separate ways. First, go the extra mile for your health. What can you do today to live a more healthful life that you might be inclined not to do? Is it eating less junk? Getting a little more exercise? Tending to a nagging health issue you’ve been…
2-Minute Tip: Make Eye Connection Look them in the eye and make strong eye contact. It helps to make the audience feel more comfortable. To make that connection, though you need to hold the eye connection for 4-6 seconds. They will feel you are conversing with them rather than talking at them. Pure Mind Magic A few months back, German podcaster, magician, and mindset expert…
2-Minute Tip: Watch Yourself on Fast Forward I met speaking coach and entrepreneur Emily Messner (AKA Sleevs) on the JoCo Cruise earlier this year and she told me about this tip. Gestures are a complicated thing for many folks. Your gestures may or may not feel natural, but it’s hard to tell how they look. We’re not watching ourselves while we speak; we have higher priorities. So if…
2018 has been a great year for 2-Minute Talk Tips, and I got to talk with some amazing people from around the world for the show, This week, I pull together the initial tip from each guest into a single episode. If you want to listen to the whole episode each tip came from or explore the guest’s background, click in the link below. Episode Guest Tip…
2-Minute Tip: Greet Your Audience A lot of speakers pace back stage or pound coffee or try to deal with nerves in other ways before going out to speak. Instead, go out into the audience as folks are arriving, and greet audience members. Have a brief chat to get to know folks. This accomplishes a few things. It gives you something to do and…
2-Minute Tip: Describe your Audience Back in 2008, Best Buy described 4 personae who represented their target customers. The even started designing different stores to appeal to Buzz, Barry, Ray, or Jill. They had detailed descriptions for theses archetypes. I’m not sure if it’s the best approach for a big-box retailer, but it can help your talks. It’s important to understand your target audience. Start by…
2-Minute Tip: Get on Stage More Ultimately, the most important way to get better as a speaker is to speak more. Find more stages and get on them. Reach out to local clubs and service organizations who are always looking for speakers in your community. Theses gigs may not pay anything, but especially when you’re starting out as a professional speaker, you need to get in the stage…