Practice your speech before the big day or event. Speakers Alliance can be your test audience and give you unbiased, helpful feedback before you get in front of your real audience!
Each month the Speakers Alliance runs two FREE Public Speaking Practice Sessions for participants looking to improve their public speaking skills. Anyone who wants to practice a presentation, speech, sales pitch, social occasion speech, etc. is welcome to join and participate! If you do not have a speech or pitch prepared, you can still attend and listen to others practice and ask questions during the Q&A period.
Talks can be up to 5-6 minutes long. If you have a longer speech, just pick a portion you want to practice. The panel will provide feedback after your talk.
Here are our scheduled October public speaking practice sessions:
Practice your next speech at our August practice sessions!
Each week the Speakers Alliance runs a FREE Public Speaking and Pitching Practice Sessions for people looking to improve their public speaking skills. Anyone who wants to practice a presentation, speech, sales pitch, social occasion speech, etc. is welcome to join and participate! If you do not have a speech or pitch prepared, you can still attend and listen to others practice and ask questions during the Q&A period.
Talks can be 5-6 minutes long. The panel will provide up to 3-5 minutes of feedback after your talk.
Full transparency: Gabe sent me this public speaking course to review before I started working with Speakers Alliance. I was a bit skeptical, thinking I already know a lot about general public speaking tips after 7 years in Toastmasters (Overconfident much?). What I learned from taking the course is: I still have so much to learn if I want to take my speaking game to the next level!Â
Iâve asked Gabe why he calls it the A-Ha! Method. Is the A-Ha! Method mostly about the way to organize presentations with the different A-Ha! moments per talk, or is it about his public speaking techniques and advice? He said it refers to BOTH. The A-Ha! Method was developed with the A-Ha! moments per talk in mind, but it is also refers to what he has learned in his career as a speakerâthe many A-Ha! lightbulb moments he has experienced throughout his professional public speaking journey.
His advice and lessons learned can help us as speakers too, no matter where we are on our own speaking journeys. I appreciate the tips and lessons learned, so that I donât have to make all those mistakes on my own. While I will certainly make plenty of mistakes, I can limit my ânewbieâ mistakes at least by listening to and learning from professionals who have done this plenty of times before me.
Here are some of the key tips and lessons I learned from this public speaking course:
Most Helpful Tips: Organizing and Editing
Organizing your speech using the A-Ha! moments
One way to organize your speech is think about your speech in Acts 1, 2, and 3 and then organize each act effectively with an A-Ha! moment, if applicable.
The A-Ha! moments are strategically placed in your speech and have a recovery period afterwards. The A-Ha! moments are those parts in your speech that make your audience get chills or the hairs rise up on their necks and/or they are 100% focused on what you are saying.
You have to be strategic about your A-Ha! moments though. If you place them one after the other in a bulleted list, they will get lost. You have to place them perfectly in your speech so the audience feels the effect. Then you can have a recovery periodâ not where you stop talking but where you keep reinforcing that idea without letting them lose focus on that idea. Then, you will ramp up to the next A-Ha! moment.
I have probably done something similar to this without even thinking about it, however I probably did not do it well or effectively by using the recovery periods. Lots of improvement to be made there!
The Speaking Event Checklist Resource
This was very helpful in understanding the amount of information you need to collect when scheduling your speeches with the event organizers. This is a great way to keep everything organized and make sure you have all the details needed before, during and after the event.
This checklist can be used for both paid and unpaid speaking events that you schedule and also for online and on-site presentations.
I plan to use this spreadsheet as I start booking more presentations! đ
Most Relevant Tips: Slides and Virtual Talk Resources
Slides, Tech and Tactics Section
There are over 2 hours of content about slides, tech and tactics that Gabe uses to take his presentations and pitches to the next level.
Gabe suggests a general rule of 1 slide per minute and 1 idea per slide and explains this more in depth. I have worked on implementing this rule in my corporate presentations recently, and it has helped!
Watching this section, I realized how much work my slides need. I like to do a long list of bullets sometimes, and the main thing to remember with slides is to keep it simple.
I donât put a ton of effort or thought into my slides. I know there is quite a debate about Powerpoint vs other presentation software. I feel comfortable using Powerpoint, but Gabe makes a good case to look into other presentation software and improve your slides with better images/graphics and less words and text.
Virtual Talk Supplements
There are 30 minutes of bonus content on this subject, which is very relevant right now of course.
Gabe has an excellent tip of restarting your computer and having a presentations user on your computer and using that for when you have presentations. This is such a simple yet powerful suggestion to help decrease the chances of computer freezes or hiccups. I have implemented this for my big presentations, and it has helped me feel more at ease!
Also, I always need a reminder about the eyelines and focus. I have a tendency to look at the gallery view. I know better, but that doesnât mean I am always perfect at this.
Biggest A-Ha! moment when taking the course: The editing process!
Iterative and editing process
Learning about Gabeâs editing and iterative process blew my mind! Good speakers make it look so effortless that I forget how much time and effort they put into each talk. I know speakers spend a ton of time practicing their content, but this course made me realize I have some major improvements to make in this area.
Gabe recommends his iterative process over straight memorizing because it will make you come off more natural and authentic. However, just because itâs not memorized, doesnât mean he is just winging it. He practices over and over and over again until he knows his material so well that he could do it with his prepared slides or without them. Thatâs impressive!
Recognizing the amount of organization and preparation it takes to do this job was very influential and helpful to me as I continue to grow in my career as a professional speaker. Even if you donât want to be a professional speaker though, these tips are still helpful as you may have to give big presentations at work and conferences.
There are so many tips and tricks in the course, and it would be a really long article to write up everything I liked about it. I found the course so helpful in thinking about my professional career, and I realized I have so much to learn, which is a good thing! There are always ways you can improve your speeches and grow your craft, and that is very exciting to me!
Next Steps
I plan to go through the class again and take better notes and go through all the resources. The good part about the course is that it never expires or goes away once you purchase it.
The course is great for being able to organize your speeches better and effectively. However, you need to also practice these new lessons learned. Each month the Speakers Alliance runs a few FREE Public Speaking Practice Clinics for people looking to improve their public speaking skills and practice their material. We will discuss different public speaking topics, answer questions, and provide feedback for as many 5-6 minute presentations and pitches as possible. Your speech or pitch doesnât have to be fully prepped or memorized. The practice sessions are a safe place for you to practice, get your ideas out there and learn.
We will be adding practice sessions each month. Follow us on social media for the most up to date announcements.
Check out the public speaking course on Udemy and join us for a practice session or two or three (as many as you would like!). Practice makes great progress, and Speakers Alliance is here to help you with all your public speaking needs and practice resources.
We are halfway through 2021 now. How are you doing with your 2021 personal and professional goals? What about your public speaking goals?
Could you use a mid-year goals restart? Time to check-in and see what you can still accomplish in the second half of the year!
I may not be a trend setter (yet), but I am absolutely a goal setter. I am very big into setting personal and professional goals, and I talk about this A LOT on The A-Ha! Method Podcast. Sometimes I am more talk than action though. đ
I am constantly trying to improve myself, my routine, my skills, etc., which can be a blessing and a curseâblessing because I am all about self improvement, curse because it can become a bit like striving for perfection, which is an unattainable goal…even for me.
In the past few years, I have started making year-long mantras instead of goals. The mantras give me a simple, easy to remember phrase that I can repeat to myself when times are tough. My friend Susan, who I talk about in Podcast Episode 6, also makes yearly mantras with me, and we just so happened to have the same mantra this yearâ”I Am Here.”
We had different reasons for this mantra, but it’s still fun that we had the same one for the same year. My “I am Here” mantra has two meanings:
I tend to have a lot of imposter syndrome, and 2021 has pushed me out of my comfort zone a good bit so far. The “I am Here” saying reminds me that I am supposed to be at this meeting, give this presentation, talk about this subject, etc. Whether I feel ready or not, I am here, and I am going to do the best I can.
I have taken on the unfortunate habit of multi-taskingâboth at work and in my personal life. I want to be more present in life with my family and friends and not be on my phone all the time. I am here, I am focused, I am listening!
Picture of my 2021 Mantra Board that my friend Susan made me. Yes, we are in our 30’s and 40’s, and yes, I love every aspect of this special board!
So far, I have done okay with my 2021 mantra. I still want to be more present in everything I do, but that will take some time and more dedication. I have put myself out there more, and I am learning to be confident and continue to grow and learn from my mistakes. I will continue to work on this “I am Here” mantra, but now I also have some public speaking goals I want to add to the mix as well.
In the spirit of Quarter 3 just starting and us reaching the halfway mark in the year, I want to encourage you to sit down and review how you are doing with your goals so far. If things are going well, keep going and growing and glowing (this was my 2020 mantra)! If things could be improved, let’s do a mid-year goals restart and see if we can finish this year stronger physically and mentally than how we started. And if you don’t have any public speaking goals on your list yet, maybe it’s a good time to add some as well.
Here are my 3 public speaking goals/mantras for the second half of 2021 (I am putting it out on the internet, so no going back now!):
Quality over quantity
I have mentioned this on the A-Ha! Method Podcast and in other articles, but I really want this to be my big focus for the rest of this year. I want to work on crafting and developing my stories instead of just throwing out a bunch of stories and never telling them again.
I set the goal to give 30 speeches this year, but I donât have to give 30 different speeches. I would like to challenge myself by giving one speech topic five different times and truly experience the iterative and editing process. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Keep it simple
I have a tendency to overcomplicate things, like cramming lots of messages, takeaways, and lessons learned into a 5-7 minute Toastmasters speech and usually going over time.
In my sketches and improv classes, I tend to muddle the idea or forget the point of view to where you arenât quite sure where itâs going or what I am trying to say. I want to be a better scene partner and writer and a simple way to do that is…keep it simple!
I can get really wordy in my writing and also when I am facilitating meetings. Lots of run-on and long sentences back to back that really lose my audience. Keep it short, keep it simple!
Keep it easy for my audience. Make sure my message and my meaning are easy to understand, and that will go a long way in my professional career and life!
Embrace myself!
This goes back to the imposter syndrome. I listen to some of my speeches and podcasts and think, âWhy did I say that? Do I really sound like that? I really flubbed that sentence there.â I am definitely my own worst critic! I want to learn how to embrace myselfâall the things I do well, all the mistakes I make, all my passions, all my quirks, all my silliness. Embrace it and stop wishing that I were someone else or as good as someone else, and just be me.
I can keep striving to grow and fix some of these mistakes. However, if I can take the self-critic out of the situation, embrace myself, and be present, then I will take my speaking, my self-esteem, and my self-compassion to a new level. If I am constantly criticizing myself, I will forever limit myself!
I know all the SMART Goals advocates are pulling their hair out right now reading this. You have your way of making goals, and I have mine. These are my second half 2021 goals, and I am sticking to them! I will let you know how I fare at the end of the year!
Thereâs no magic time or age to wait to achieve your goals, and that includes public speaking goals. While I am using this half year mark as a chance to pause and reflect and also make more mantra goals for myself (all the mantras!), I want to remind you that you donât have to wait until next week, next month, next birthday, next year to achieve your goals. You can challenge yourself now. You can go for your goals now!
We all use filler words, and public speaking educators hate these ummm, ahhh, yeahs. But how big of a problem are they, really – and what can we do to minimize their impact?
Join hosts Dayna Gowan and Gabe Zichermann of the Speakers Alliance for another in-depth conversation about public speaking.Â
Each week the Speakers Alliance runs a FREE Public Speaking and Pitching Practice Clinic for people looking to improve their public speaking skills. Anyone who wants to practice a presentation, speech, sales pitch, social occasion speech, etc. is welcome to join and participate! If you do not have a speech or pitch prepared, you can still attend and listen to others practice and ask questions during the Q&A period.
Talks can be 5-6 minutes long. The panel will provide up to 3-5 minutes of feedback after your talk.
This week’s session is on Thursday, July 1 from 12-1pm PT.
Getting and keeping people’s attention is harder than ever as a public speaker. In this episode, hosts Gabe Zichermann and Dayna Gowan explore the techniques that public speakers use to practice and develop their work, and how this helps build confidence.
