When I started growing on LinkedIn last year, I was approached by a number of influencers from the LinkedIn community to coach them to become thought leaders on stage.
These were strong personal brands like Lara Acosta, Ruben Hassid, Mando Sallavanti III, Nigel Thomas and Nicolas Boucher.
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They all had these 2 things in common:
- They were already “good” speakers – confident and competent. But they weren’t “exceptional” (yet).
- They wanted to extend their influence beyond LinkedIn and speak on global stages.
So we worked together to elevate their speaking skills from good to great.
And that’s a challenge I see a number of founders and entrepreneurs like you have. You don’t have crippling stage fright. You can face an audience and speak.
But you’re not doing justice to your brand and expertise when you do.
- You’re not being concise.
- You’re using too many filler words.
- You’re speaking too fast and aren’t in control of your pace.
The worst part?
You might be doing these without even being fully aware.
But these speaking habits decrease your credibility, authority and impact.
So today I’m sharing with you the exact coaching framework I used with these impressive personal brands to transform them from “good” to “exceptional” global thought leaders:
Step 1: Find your Spark to become a thought leader
The first step towards becoming an exceptional speaker is to become aware of your own strengths and opportunity areas.
I’m a firm believer in maximizing your strengths – that’s the quickest way to get to the exceptional level.
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But a lot of folks aren’t fully aware of how they speak.
So the first step is to do a deep dive into your speaking skills.
- Do a self-assessment of your speaking skills.
- Do a peer assessment: clients & team members.
- Take notes on what you like in speakers you admire.
- Record your next meeting, watch it back and analyze.
- Seek feedback on your last podcast, webinar, presentation.
Step 2: Ignite your speaking skills
Now it’s time to start learning the tools that every strong speaker has in their toolkit. Using these tools brings you clarity, energy, confidence in every talk and presentation.
You might already be using some of these tools “naturally”:
Speaking at an appropriate volume, smiling, using your gestures.
But there are other strong speaking habits that you’re missing out on:
Taking pauses, controlling your pace and pitch, using your space effectively.
These are the basics of strong, impactful speaking that I recommend everyone to learn (and the exact ones I teach):
- Command over your voice: pitch, pace, pauses, projection, enunciation.
- Using effective body language: gestures, expressions and posture.
- Speaking with the right level of energy for any talk or podcast.
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P.S. At this stage, I also recommend working on any mental blocks that prevent you from speaking as your most impactful self.
The goal is not to perform confidence, but to express the natural confidence you feel.
Step 3: Fire it up
Take the show on the road. Use these steps to concretize the tools you’re learning:
- Start practicing your new speaking skills in all your meetings.
- Record yourself speaking using a single new tool at a time.
- Analyze your performance, pinpoint the highs and lows.
- Aim to improve at ONE tool the next time you speak.
- Seek out low-stakes “real world” practice spaces.
Don’t wait till the next time you have to speak on a big stage.
For example, when we started working together, Ruben Hassid had booked several global stages to speak at.
But he was feeling rusty speaking in person, in front of a live audience.
So we sought out informal storytelling open mics for him to practice. In those low-stakes rooms, he built comfort and ease in front of a live audience before he had to face the big stages.
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That’s the entire framework that you need to go from good to exceptional any time you speak.
Now over to you, rockstar.
What are your big speaking goals this year? Reply to this email and let me know!
