January 14, 2024
Inspiring speakers and presenters aren’t born, they’re made.
I’ve helped 700 professionals get there, and in this presentation skills training you’ll uncover the 25 lessons that have helped them the most.
99% of people I coached started their speech in the most unmemorable way possible!
“Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.”
While it’s not terrible, it’s a missed opportunity.
Lesson #1: Start Strong
You only have one chance to leave a first impression. Make it count.
Grab their attention with something unexpected, a story, a question, or a surprising statement.
“400. The average desk has 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet. Today, we’ll talk about workplace hygiene.”
Last week, someone in my workshop shared the intro of her speech.
“Today, I’ll show you how to do XYZ.” “I’ve been working here for 10 years…”
It was “I, I, I.”
But I told her: your audience doesn’t care about you—they care about themselves.
Lesson #2: Lead with a Big Promise.
Instead of talking about yourself, tell them what’s in it for your audience.
Let them know what they’ll gain from listening to you.
“In today’s session, you’ll learn how to connect with anyone—without ever talking about the weather.”
Here’s a crucial mistake I made when I was in my 20s.
I moved to the side of the slides. I read the slides. I made my slides the hero of my speech.
Only later did I realize my audience isn’t here for my slides—they’re here for me.
Lesson #3: Hide The Slides.
Don’t let your slides steal the spotlight. When they’re not needed, hide them.
When you’re in presenter mode, just press the B key on your keyboard to turn your screen black or the W key to turn it white.
This brings the focus back to where it belongs: on you.
Most people wait for those big opportunities to practice public speaking—
The weekly Toastmasters meeting or that quarterly presentation at work.
But why wait?
Every conversation, every interaction you have is a chance to become a better speaker.
Lesson #4: Make Your Life the Arena.
Stop waiting for the perfect opportunity.
Use those everyday moments with strangers, friends, or coworkers to evolve as a speaker.
Those are the moments where you can try out a new story, speak louder, or pause.
Make your life the arena!
There is one thing guaranteed when you present:
Something will go wrong.
The lights might go out. You might spill coffee on your laptop. Or the screen stops working.
Inexperienced speakers panic in those moments.
Advanced speakers? They thrive.
What differentiates those speakers is that they trust themselves to handle whatever comes up.
Lesson #5: Welcome Failure.
Put yourself in situations where you’ll fail. Say yes to a presentation you’re not ready for. Join an improv group. Share a story at a story slam.
Every time you survive one of those tough situations, you teach your brain, “Man, I can handle anything.”
This is how you build unshakable confidence.
The best way to learn how to stay calm when unexpected things happen and things go wrong is improv.
When you improvise, you’ll mess up.
You’ll forget a detail, you might blank out, or you’ll say something completely ridiculous.
But you’ll learn how to be okay with that.
Lesson #6: Give Impromptu Speeches.
Just pick a random topic, set a timer for 2 minutes, and improvise a speech, speaking out loud.
No script, no prep, just go.
On that one: I’ve actually developed 12 improv games that will make it very easy for you to master impromptu speaking. You can check them out at speaking.games.
The more you improvise, the more confident you’ll become.
There is one reason why people are so terrified of public speaking.
“What if they don’t think I’m smart enough?”
“What if they realize I have no clue?”
They worry way too much about how other people perceive them.
And that puts them into that anxious, insecure mode.
Lesson #7: Give Less F*cks.
You can learn how to give less f*cks by doing a practice called Constructive Embarrassment.
Put yourself in awkward situations on purpose.
Anything. You can go and hug a tree in public, do some yoga poses in a supermarket, sing in the subway—really anything.
The less you care about what others think, the more comfortable you’ll be speaking in public.
Most presentations suck because the speakers show up as a “Taker.”
When they speak, they want something from their audience.
Applause. Admiration. Sales.
But here’s the thing: people like you can sense it.
Lesson #8: Show Up With a Giver’s Mindset.
A Giver wants to help their audience.
They want to inspire, teach, or change perspectives.
How can you make that shift?
Don’t memorize your entire script word for word!
When people do that and suddenly forget one line, they’re screwed.
It completely throws them off, and they can’t remember anything.
Lesson #9: Internalize Your Speech.
You can do that by practicing your speech in different lengths:
This will help you understand the core of your message, speak naturally, and adapt to anything unexpected.
This is not for everybody, but about 30% of people I’ve coached struggle with this.
They speak like this:
“Welcome everyone, I’m excited to be here.”
They speak at a volume of 3 out of 10.
Lesson #10: Raise Your Baseline Volume.
Aim for a 5 or 6—not shouting, just clear, steady, and confident.
How can you practice that? By raising your volume in those everyday encounters:
For example, at the supermarket, don’t mumble, “Hi, how are you?” Say it with intention: “Hi, how are you?”
I used to take public speaking very seriously.
“I need to get this exactly right.”
“I need to show that I’m very professional.”
Later, I realized that thinking was holding me back the most.
Lesson #11: Make It Fun.
Instead of thinking, “I have to do this perfectly,” tell yourself, “I’m here to have fun. I’m here to have fun. I’m here to have fun.”
When fun is your goal, everything changes.
Your energy lightens, your nerves go away, and you start connecting with your audience.
In 2014, Harvard Business School professor Alison Wood Brooks ran a fascinating experiment to understand how simple words impact your confidence.
She asked participants to do one thing before a big moment:
Instead of saying, “I’m nervous,” they were supposed to tell themselves, “I’m excited.”
She found that participants who made this simple shift performed better in karaoke, scored higher on math tests, and were rated as more confident speakers.
Lesson #12: Reframe Anxiety as Excitement.
The next time you feel nervous before speaking, don’t fight it—reframe it.
Say to yourself, “I’m excited. I’m excited. I’m excited.”
Here’s one thing that I struggled with the longest, and it still creeps up once in a while.
I speak normally, but then when I go on stage, I suddenly become a different person.
I stand differently, my voice changes, and suddenly, I sound more like a motivational speaker.
I go into performance mode.
But that just sounds and looks fake.
Lesson #13: Talk Like You’re Chatting with a Friend.
Tell your speech the same way you’d share it with a close friend.
Speak naturally, don’t obsess about all the techniques, just have fun.
“Are there any questions?”
[Silence.]
“No? Ok, cool.”
That’s how most Q&A sessions go.
Very awkward.
Lesson #14: Be Strategic About Your Q&A.
Instead of asking, “Are there any questions?” say: “We have time for 3 questions. What questions do you have?”
Why does this work? Because:
1.It tricks your audience into believing that there are questions, so they’re more likely to ask one.
2.It helps you control the energy in the room. Sometimes Q&A sessions can drag on forever. But by saying there is only time for 3, you make sure to end your presentation on a high note.
What do you do in the 5 minutes before your presentation?
Most people go through their notes, trying to remember what they wanted to say.
“Here I will say this. There I will say this.”
That is a terrible idea.
Why?
Because they won’t be in the best energy when they start.
Like that, they’ll feel nervous, distracted, and overwhelmed.
But the good thing is, there’s an easy hack to step on stage in the highest, most charismatic energy possible.
Lesson #15: Do a Warm-Up Routine.
Do a 5–10 minute warm-up routine before your speech.
Here’s what I do:
First, I shake out my body for 1–2 minutes to release stress.
Second, I breathe deeply into my belly to calm my nerves.
And third, I look at a picture of a loved one. In my case, I often look at a picture of my niece. That puts me in this mode where I feel relaxed and just want to help.
99% of presenters transition between their slides in an incredibly awkward way.
“This was section 1. Now, let’s move to the next slide…”
Then they click, read the slide, and only say, “Ok, on this slide you see…”
This just ruins the flow and kills the excitement.
Lesson #16: Nail the Transitions.
Anticipate the awesome stuff that is about to come.
“This next technique is my favorite. Out of all the techniques, it’s the one I use the most. You’ll love it.”
When you do this, your audience can’t help but lean in, dying to hear what you’re about to say.
5%. We only remember 5% of the information when we hear someone speak.
But the problem isn’t our memory—it’s how the content is communicated.
Most speakers deliver those mega-long, one-sided monologues.
No interaction, no engagement. And as a result, no retention.
Lesson #17: Turn Students into Teachers.
If you want your audience to remember 90% of what you say, make them the teacher.
Here’s how: after sharing a key point, ask your audience to turn to a neighbor and explain the concept in their own words.
Once they teach the information, they’ll remember it for the rest of their lives.
This was killing my confidence for years.
After I gave a speech, I started analyzing what I did wrong.
“Aww, I think I lost them there.”
“Why did no one laugh at my joke?”
That is a terrible thing to do.
It programmed my brain to associate speaking with stress and failure.
Lesson #18: Celebrate Your Wins.
Instead of focusing on your mistakes, reflect on what went right.
After your speech, ask yourself: “What are 3 things I did well?”
By focusing on the positives, you’ll build lasting confidence.
You’ve probably given a few presentations, but you might have no clue how you actually come across.
When I started sharing stories, I often looked like this grumpy teenager. But I didn’t know.
I only realized it once I saw a video of me speaking.
Lesson #19: Record Yourself.
Yes, it can be very awkward at first, but it helps you understand how you come across.
Once you’ve watched yourself, you’ll know what things you can improve on.
Most presenters know that they need to hook their audience at the start, which is great.
But they somehow think that’s enough.
After the hook, they just bombard their audience with information, stats, and slides.
Have you ever seen a movie that only hooks you at the beginning?
Of course not. Great movies keep re-hooking you throughout—otherwise, you’d switch to something else.
Lesson #20: Re-Hook Your Audience.
Re-hook them every 2–3 minutes. Tell a story, ask a question, do a quick show of hands, or start a group discussion. Do something to keep their attention.
In case you don’t know how, I’ll actually include my 20 favorite engagement tools in the description below.
Recently, I coached a director who insisted that he didn’t want to have more than 5 slides because anything more would be too much for his 10-minute presentation.
While it sounded logical, it created a much bigger problem:
That director crammed way too much content onto those 5 slides.
Multiple charts, numbers, and way too much text in tiny font size.
It was impossible to read.
I suggest: don’t worry about the number of slides, but worry about the amount of content per slide.
Lesson #21: Focus on One Idea Per Slide.
Not two ideas. Not three. Just one clear idea.
One idea will help your audience process the information faster and remember it longer.
Out of all the delivery skills, the pause is the most important one.
I know—pauses sound boring. You’ve heard about them before.
But here’s the thing: most people don’t truly understand why they matter.
They think that a pause is used for dramatic effect.
Which is good.
But for me, pauses are a tool for something much deeper.
Lesson #22: Pause to Relax & Refocus.
As speakers, we often rush, tense up, or get lost in the flow of our speech.
A pause is your chance to breathe, ground yourself, and refocus.
When you pause, take a deep breath in and out and ask yourself, “What do I really want to say next?”
Animations have had a wild ride.
When they first came out, people were obsessed. Text flew in like airplanes, images jumped onto the screen, and slides melted away.
But then people got tired of them, and animations gained a reputation for being unprofessional.
And so people stopped using them.
But that’s not great. If all the information appears at once, your audience has no reason to keep listening—they already know where it’s going.
Lesson #23: Use Animation—If It Doesn’t Distract.
Animations are a great tool to raise anticipation.
But don’t use an animation that explodes or melts, because that just distracts from your message.
The better way is to keep it simple.
Use the classic “appear” function to animate the objects on your slides.
People ask me so many times,
“Should I raise my hand here? Gesture there?”
They obsess over body language.
That’s the wrong approach.
Body language is less about adding more gestures.
It’s more about removing behaviors that are distracting.
Here are some common behaviors I see a lot:
All of these distract from your message.
Lesson #24: Relax Arms at Your Side.
Just take your hands up, let them fall, and rest them naturally at your sides.
This position is your home base. Keep your hands there most of the time, and sometimes bring them up when you want to highlight a key point.
Don’t end your presentation like this:
“Ah, thanks for listening. That’s it for today. Are there any questions?”
This will be the last impression people have from your speech.
This will be what they remember.
Lesson #25: End Strong.
The better way is to end with a planned closing statement.
A statement that inspires them to take action.
“Every single day, you have the chance to become a magnetic speaker. Don’t wait for the stage—embrace every conversation, every interaction, as your opportunity to improve. Make your life the arena.”
That’s it for today’s presentation skills training. These 25 principles have shaped the way I connect, influence, and inspire—and I hope they’ll do the same for you.
Which principle resonated most with you? Hit reply and let me know—I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Today, we went deep into presentation skills.
But one skill we didn’t talk about today, but that is fundamental in presentation skills, is storytelling.
I’ve recorded a similar video like this, but just on storytelling.
Check it out and unleash the storyteller that is within you!
Enjoy!
Are you ready to transform your storytelling skills?
Discover how your storytelling skills score and uncover useful insights to help you become a charismatic storyteller:
