The Fearless Presentations Workshop in Washington DC was another total success. The class was full of determined individuals wanting to improve their presentations and public speaking skills. The quality of the instruction was equaled to the efforts of the attendees. The overwhelming consensus of the people was that they felt like the class greatly reduced their anxiety for speaking in front of groups. Also the instruction of how to design a presentation with the audience in mind was very helpful in preparing very effect presentations. Washington DC is known for their incredible orators…you can add another 13 to the list. The improvement was very evident from the group from the beginning to the end.
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Category Archives: public speaking classes
Participants in the Fearless Presentations class in Phoenix, Arizona Eliminate Fear of Public Speaking
Fearless Presentations® class in Phoenix, Arizona helps participants become more confident speakers. Many of the participants in the class experienced a fear of public speaking and nervousness that was holding them back in their careers.
In the Fearless Presentations® class, participants are able to overcome the fear of public speaking by immediately practicing the exercises that the instructor explains. By no means is this a passive, lecture-based class. Participants spend more time out of their seats than in their seats! When they leave the class, they feel more confident not only about speaking in front of a group, but also about the future of their careers.
Phoenix, Arizona is just one of the cities the Fearless Presentations® class comes to in the U.S. throughout the year. Participants are guaranteed to reduce their nervousness and improve their public speaking skills.
Pre-Holiday Public Speaking Workshop in Chicago Illinois Helps 9 People become Fearless
While many people are thinking about buying presents and preparing for the holiday season, the 
9 people who attended the Fearless Presentations Public Speaking Workshop prepared for a more successful future by improving their public speaking skills. They came from as far away as Paris, France to Chicago, Illinois, with a common goal — overcome their fear of speaking in public and learn a more effective way to deliver presentations. Mission accomplished. Everyone experienced major improvement in the increased confidence in their newly developed skills in public speaking. They each got up in front of the group and delivered five well thought out and delivered presentations. The Fearless Presentations Public Speaking Workshop is centered on the philosophy is that we have to have right attitude to develop a new skill, we must learn the proper techniques to be a great presenter, and to practice the new skills. But, participants found that the biggest difference between this workshop and others they have attended was the Real Time Coaching performed by one of the Leaders Institute’s qualified and experienced instructors.
Don’t miss out on your opportunity to improve your ability to communicate by signing up for one of the Fearless Presentations Workshops in your city, or one close by.
Participates in New York Public Speaking Workshop See How Personalities Help or Hurt Presentations
Participates of the Fearless Presentations public speaking workshop got to enjoy the fun of shopping in 
Manhattan, New York during the holiday season as well as strengthen their confidence in their ability to speak with confidence. One of the Gifts that they received in the workshop was an understanding of how their personalities are their greatest strength as well as their weakness when delivering a speech. Regardless of someone’s personality, the key is to overcome the fear of speaking in public first. Once the anxiety is overcome, people with outgoing personalities have the strength of sharing their presentations with passion and enthusiasm, while the introverted people will usually use facts and data to get their points across. An extrovert could benefit from including more evidence with their presentations, while the introvert will benefit by delivering their presentations with a little more enthusiasm and excitement.
Make sure to sign up for the Fearless Public Speaking Workshop next time it’s in New York in Early 2012 by going to www.FearlessPresentations.com .
Participants of Presentations Skills Class in Dallas Texas Deliver Concise and Compelling Presentations
Presentation skills class in Dallas, Texas November 17-18 provided a great opportunity for participants to deliver concise, compelling presentations.
The Leader’s Institute® held its two-day presentation skills class in Dallas, Texas with a very energetic and enthusiastic group. Participants were able to get rid of the fear of public speaking and deliver dynamic, engaging presentations. By the end of the second day, each participant delivered their presentations with ease by learning how to use a clear, easy-to-follow structure. They were able to design these presentations in 15 minutes or less! Then they added more flavor to them, by incorporating stories, analogies, demonstrations, and audience participation questions.
The Leader’s Institute® offers more than just a presentation skills class. It’s truly a life-changing experience! Classes are offered approximately every 3 months in Dallas, Texas and across the U.S.
Fearless Presentations Public Speaking Workshop comes back to Sunny Miami Florida
Another successful Fearless Presentation Public Speaking Workshop was completed in sunny Miami on November 15 and 16th 2011. The participants met at a beachside hotel to improve their presentation speaking skills. It was once again, as usual for Miami, a multi-national that had two goals in mind, to overcome their anxiety for speaking in public and to learn to design and deliver a more effective presentation. Countries like Croatia, St. Thomas Virgin Islands, and Canada, as several people from the United States participated in a two-day presentations course. The one thing that they all learned is that the fear of public speaking is universal, but something we can all do if we understand that public speaking is a skill that can be developed and mastered. The class saw significant improvement at the end of the second day felt much more confident with their ability to speak clearly and concisely. Fearless Presentations will be back in Miami in February of 2012, make sure to sign up today and take the next step to improving your public speaking skills.
The Fearless Presentations Public Speaking Workshop returns to Historic Boston Massachusetts.
The Fearless Presentations Public Speaking Workshop returns to Historic Boston Massachusetts. Just as Paul Revere w
as able to ride up and down the streets of Boston yelling, “The British are coming, the British are coming,” with confidence and conviction, the participates in the Fearless Presentations class were able to speak with the same confidence after the went through the World Renowned Public Speaking Workshop put on by The Leaders Institute. The group learned 10 ways they could reduce the Anxiety that they, and most people feel before giving a presentation. It was another highly successful two days of building the skills necessary to have poise and confidence in public speaking. Don’t miss out on the next workshop in Boston in early 2012.
YMCA of the USA includes Adding Impact to Presentations breakout session at their annual conference in Chicago, IL
I had a great time in Chicago recently with more than 60 staff from the YMCA of the USA offices from around the country as they held their annual conference, which included a breakout session workshop on Adding Impact to Presentations. The YMCA of the USA is the national organization that umbrellas the YMCA branches found in more than 10,000 communities across the US. This organization has been around for 160 years and serves millions of children and families every year. As one of our partner recipient organizations for our Build-A-Bike team building workshop, we were excited to have the opportunity to work with the Y in their staff’s development.
With only an hour together, it was a fast-paced workshop from the start! We talked about several powerful presentation skills tools for adding impact to any public speaking situation, and then did two exercises that gave everyone the opportunity to try them out. Storytelling is one of our most powerful tools, and the participants had a great time learning more about each other as they practiced our specific format.
“Everyone loved the presentation skills workshop! It was the first one to fill up when we offered it at registration, and it exceeded everyone’s expectations. Ellen was wonderful to work with before, during and after! We will definitely do this again in the future!” — Jackie Gordon, YMCA of the USA
Even hour-long breakout sessions can prove highly effective for enhancing your team’s presentation skills. The interactive style of workshop gives everyone the chance to try out what they are learning. If you want to give your next conference breakout sessions a boost, consider one of our many presentation skills or team building skills workshops!
Public Speaking Tip-Stories and Examples Reduce Public Speaking Fear
Stories and Examples Reduce Public Speaking Fear
The fastest and easiest way to eliminate public speaking fear is to insert more examples and stories into your formal presentations or PowerPoint Slideshows. When participants in public speaking classes are first introduced to this technique, many of them will often resist the advice thinking, “My presentations are technical (or numbers oriented or academic) so my audience isn’t really into stories.” When a presenter has this attitude, he/she is missing out on a fantastic opportunity to make their presentations easier to follow and understand, more memorable, and easier to deliver. Your audience not only wants examples, but they also expect examples to help them better understand your content.
Stories Make Presentations Easier to Follow and Easier to Understand
The more technical a presentation, the more vital it is to include stories and examples. A technical presentation without examples is purely theoretical, whereas a technical presentation with examples is extremely practical.
For example, let’s say that I’m delivering a presentation on last quarter’s financials for my company. If I just give the audience the numbers… Last quarter, we had a 15% increase in revenue, but profit was down 1.2%, I’ve given the audience the technical aspects of the presentation, but the audience is likely to be unclear of exactly WHY the numbers came out the way that they did. So in order to give the audience a clearer understanding, I’d need to include the story behind the numbers. What happened to cause the increase in revenue and why did profit suffer?
The presenter could relay the explanation in a story by telling the audience how in the middle of the last quarter, the company invested in some new advertising that finally hit in the last month of the quarter. As a result, for the last few weeks, the phones have been ringing quite a bit more frequently, but not all of the new leads generated from the advertising have closed yet, so profit should return shortly. For example, Chris, one of our telephone sales reps got a lead two weeks ago from Microsoft in which he is in the process of negotiating a big $80,000 contract. He expects that contract to close in the next 10 days. We have another seven pending contracts that should close in the next 30 days as well.
The example clarifies the data and makes it easier for the audience to understand—even if they are unfamiliar with the technical side of the business. You don’t have to be an accountant to understand how the revenue can be up and profit down temporarily if you’ve just listened to the story above.
Stories Make Presentations Easier to Remember
When we give our audience a list of facts, figures, and numbers, most often, the audience will remember only a small percentage of the data that is presented to them. However, when we give the data in a story format, the data becomes much more memorable. For example, year to date, Joe’s closing ratio is 12.3%, Colette’s ratio is 21.7%, and Bill is at 7.5%. The average ratio is 13.83% which 3.8% higher than our 10% goal that we set in January. Many presenters will give lots of data in a format such as this (a list… a chart… a graph), but if we just recite the data and numbers without the context, the figures are very challenging to remember.
So let’s test the theory. Without looking back at the numbers above, who had the highest closing ratio, and what was that ratio? If you were able to remember the number, then congratulations. You are in a vast minority of people. Most people forget numbers the moment that they hear them. Now let’s deliver the numbers in a story format and see if it’s easier to remember.
At the beginning of the year, we set a goal of have a 10% closing ratio for our sales team. One of the ways that we wanted to accomplish this goal was to focus more on repeat business. Colette, who is one of our best sales reps, took this goal to heart, and she has really focused on working with her current customers. For example, last fall, she worked with Jet Blue on a series of contracts that brought in about $50,000 in business in their New York hub. Since they are such a good customer, she started working with them to do similar programs in one more of their hubs in Salt Lake City. As a result, she was able to generate an additional $50,000 on the West Coast last quarter. She increased her personal closing ratio to 21.7% because she is getting multiple contracts off of the same lead.
After reading that story, who is our best sales rep? What was her closing ratio? How much total revenue was she able to generate from Jet Blue? If you were able to correctly answer these questions, you’re now seeing the power of stories.
Stories Reduce Public Speaking Fear
Just as a long list of numbers and statistics is hard for an audience member to remember, it’s equally hard for the presenter to remember. As a result, when we stand up to recite a list of facts, we put tremendous pressure on ourselves in increase nervousness dramatically. However, when we deliver the facts and figures in a story format, the delivery is much easier.
Basically, when we tell a story from our own first-person experience, all we really have to do is play the video tape in our head of what actually happened and just recite it as we remember it. This takes away a lot of the pressure. One of the most dramatic changes that class participants receive when they learn this secret is a dramatic reduction in public speaking fear. In fact, if you can use stories or example to prove or verify your bullet points, you’ll wow your audience and pretty much eliminate your fear of public speaking. It’s a win-win solution to public speaking nervousness.
This is an embarrassing example, but it really shows how this works. I was hired to deliver a keynote speech for an association in Chicago, so on the plane trip into ORD, I wrote out the speech that I’d be delivering a couple hours later. (Since I teach people how to write presentations pretty quickly, this is kind of a normal habit for me.) Well, about three or four minutes before I was introduced, the director of the organization introduced me to the president of the organization and let me know that the meeting would be called to order shortly. He said that he would start with a few points of order, but that I would be introduced shortly after the start of the meeting. As I sat down in my seat, I looked over at the seat next to me, and it had a meeting agenda sitting on it. As I looked down at the agenda, I noticed that it had my name listed as the keynote speaker, but the topic of my speech was total different than the one that I had designed on the plane. My heart dropped, and I started to feel a little dizzy. Panic was just about to hit me, and I paused, thought about the topic, came up with a few tips, and basically wrote the whole speech as I was walking up to the front of the room to deliver it. When the speech was over, I got a standing ovation. What made the speech work, though, was that I reinforced each of the tips with a simple real-life story of how to use it. Every time I completed another story, my nervousness dropped. It worked perfectly, and the audience loved it.
So give examples and stories, and you’ll feel more comfortable and your audience will love you.
Fearless Presentations® Class in Phoenix, Arizona Allows Participants to Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking at The Core Institute
The Leader’s Institute® held its Fearless Presentations® public speaking class in Phoenix, Arizona, where a group of 15 enthusiastic participants from The Core Institute were able to overcome the fear of public speaking in a 2-day public speaking class.
By getting up in front of the group and practicing the techniques taught by the instructor, The Core Institute participants were able to get rid of the sweaty palms, shaky voice, and other symptoms of nervousness that often come with public speaking. One participant mentioned how much she was dreading the class beforehand, but by the end of the 2-day class, said how much she enjoyed the class! Delivering presentations can truly be fun after eliminating the fear of public speaking.
The Fearless Presentations® class is offered in Phoenix, Arizona and in cities across the United States. The class is also offered on-site to meet a specific company’s needs.
