Fearless Presentations

Hosted by Doug Staneart

Business Entrepreneurship ManagementExplicit

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Episodes

401

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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About the show

Want to eliminate public speaking fear and become a more poised and confident presenter and speaker? Fearless Presentations is the answer. This podcast is based on our famous two-day presentation skills class offered in cities all over the world. Each week, we offer free public speaking tips that help you develop the skill to present with poise when you deliver presentations. This is the fastest, easiest way to eliminate public speaking fear.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

August 17, 202631 min

101 Public Speaking Tips | Part 2 of 4

This is part two of the 101 Public Speaking Tips series. Last week, we covered 24 tips in less than 24 minutes. Last week, we covered tips to create an outline of a speech, a few ways to add energy to boring speeches, and finished with a few ways to add pizzaz to the presentations. We ended last week with tip #24. This week, we start with four ways to use stories and examples more effectively to explain your data. Then, I'll cover eight ways to use audience participation to make your speeches more interactive. In the next seven tips, I'll give you a few of my best "impact ideas" that allow you to insert fun things into your presentations other than just more bullet points, data, or slides. In addition, I'll give you five ways to add showmanship into your presentations. Then, finally, I'll give you four ways to organize your presentation -- these are technical tips like how long can you speak before inserting a break, etc. All in all, we'll end with #53 of 101 public speaking tips. By the way, I have linked the entire checklist in the show notes. So, the next time you are presenting, just glance at the list of tips for a refresher. And, if you want more detail on any of the tips, just go to www.fearlesspresentations.com and enter the tip into the search bar or just type Fearless Presentations and whatever tip you want more detail about into Google or your favorite AI program. The search will give you the original episode content with all the additional details. Ok, so let's continue with the 101 public speaking tips from Fearless Presentations. Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech ( https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/ )

August 10, 202620 min

101 Public Speaking Tips | Part 1 of 4

This is episode 401, and way back on episode 101, we did a fun episode called 101 public speaking tips to coincide with the episode number. When we did that episode, it was like a summary of all the 100 episodes from the first couple of years of the broadcast. So, basically, I crammed absolutely everything that I know about public speaking skills into a few episodes. Then, on episode 201, we did it again. But, by then, the tips had changed a little because we had an additional 200 extra episodes to pull from. I know what you are thinking, though. Especially those of you old enough to remember 1980 TV "Clip Shows". Back in the 1980s and 1990s, TV shows sometimes used up their budgets and had to cut costs on episodes. So, they would have one of the stars go into a coma or, if it was a comedy, someone would have a birthday party. And the entire episode would just be "memories" from the show. They'd play clips cut out of the previous shows and splice them together with a little new stuff to create a new episode. Most of these episode were terrible, by the way. But that's not what we are doing here. On this episode, I've listed the public speaking tips into categories, so it creates more like a cheat-sheet or a checklist for you. And I have linked the entire checklist in the show notes. So, the next time you are presenting, just glance at the list of tips for a refresher. And, if you want more detail on any of the tips, just go to www.fearlesspresentations.com and enter the tip into the search bar. The search will give you the original episode content with all the additional details. Ok, so let's get started with the 101 public speaking tips... Again... Show Notes: 101 Public Speaking Tips For Delivering Your Best Speech ( https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/101-public-speaking-tips-for-delivering-your-best-speech/ )

August 3, 202626 min

3 Ways to Add Humor to Your Speech Without Being Cringe-worthy

Want to add humor to your speech? Quite often, when we are designing speeches and presentations for a professional audience, we discount the value of entertainment and humor. However, a good presentation should be both informative and entertaining. You have to have both. If you aren't providing the audience with good information, then you're wasting their time. If you aren't providing some type of entertainment, though, you will likely bore your audience. As a result, they will lose interest. So, by adding a little humor to your speech, you keep your audience engaged throughout your presentation. Stick around to find out every way you can inject some laughs without injecting some cringe while you're at it. Show Notes: How to Add Humor to Your Speech Without Being Cringe-worthy ( https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-add-humor-your-speech-without-being-clown/ )

July 27, 202618 min

Recognizing the Causes of Public Speaking Fear

What causes the fear of public speaking? Why do I get heart palpitations? I mean, I like to think of myself as being an expert in your field (at least within my own company.) And I know what I’m talking about. After all, I’ve worked in my field for years. I’ve done my research. So, why do I break out into a cold sweat when I have to speak in front of groups of people? Well stick around and hear about exactly what causes these symptoms and the fastest and most efficient way to treat them! Show Notes: What Causes the Fear of Public Speaking and How to Overcome this Fear ( https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/the-causes-of-the-fear-of-public-speaking-and-how-to-overcome-them/#past-negative-experiences )

July 20, 202624 min

Get Better Audience Participation During Your Presentations!

Audience Participation is an excellent way to make a good presentation into a stellar presentation. It can also be the scariest. That is why most speakers — even seasoned professionals — avoid asking their audience questions. It is too risky. Or is it? The truth is that the types of audience participation that most speakers use can come across as cheesy or forced. Also, our audiences have been trained to not interact with us. From the time we are in grade school, we are trained to sit still and listen to the speaker (teacher.) Here is the good news, though. Presenters who get really good at audience participation can boost audience engagement dramatically and make each presentation a positive experience for their audiences. Show Notes: How to Encourage Audience Participation During Your Presentation ( https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/9-reliable-ways-to-add-audience-participation-to-your-presentation/ )

July 13, 202622 min

How to Present a Proposal to Your Boss

You have identified a problem or opportunity for your company. Now you need to get approval. So, how do you present a proposal to management that will get approved? The process is actually pretty simple. The method of how to present a proposal to management that we use works about 100% of the time. Just follow the simple steps below, and your project will easily get funded. By the way, if you are presenting a proposal to a customer or potential client , see this post. The technique below is mainly for elevator speech types of presentations (short and to the point.) If you are presenting a proposal to someone outside of your own company, you want to be more detailed. Show Notes: How to Present a Proposal to Management ( https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-present-a-proposal-to-management/ )

July 6, 202626 min

How to Present a Proposal to a Client

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when you present a proposal to a client. Here is the scenario… You have done your homework. A team at your company painstakingly created the perfect sales proposal. In fact, the potential client was so impressed, that they moved you to their “shortlist.” Now, though, they want you to present a bid proposal to the purchasing committee. Your team is one of just six to eight other companies competing for this contract. How do you make sure that the committee picks your team? Well, not to brag, but over the years, groups that I have coached have received over 80% of these contracts. Just follow this simple sales presentation outline, and your team will have a better shot at winning as well. Show Notes: How to Present a Proposal-Create a Business Proposal Presentation ( https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/present-a-bid-proposal-great-sales-presentation-outline/ )

June 29, 202625 min

How to Collect Feedback on a Presentation

How, exactly do we collect feedback on a presentation? Are there ways to solicit feedback that will help us grow as speakers? The answer is, absolutely, YES! However, the way that you typically ask for feedback may not be the best way to gain confidence as a speaker. In fact, many traditional feedback techniques can actually make you more nervous. In addition, speakers will sometimes make adjustments to their delivery based on anecdotal issues. This can start a snowball effect that leads to terrible presentation skills. To make sure that doesn't happen to you, stick around for some of the best (and worst) ways to collect feedback from your presentations! Show Notes: How to Collect Feedback on a Presentation ( https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-collect-feedback-on-a-presentation/ )

June 22, 202618 min

The 10 Biggest Public Speaking Mistakes | What Not to do During a Presentation

Most of what we cover on this podcast are things that you need to do. The secrets to effective visual aids, curbs against anxiety, the right ways to present, but what about the wrong ways? You have to know what not to do in order to know what to do and, for a lot of us, we do a lot of what we shouldn't do. There are so many small habits you might not even realize you do that are actively hurting your speaking and snuffing those out as early as possible is extremely important. So lets go through those. These are the 10 deadly sins of public speaking and, if you hear something that you're already doing, I'll also tell you how to fix it. Show Notes: 10 Biggest Public Speaking Mistakes: What Not to do During a Presentation ( https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/10-biggest-public-speaking-mistakes-what-not-to-do-during-a-presentation/ )

June 15, 202621 min

5 Ironclad Ways to Prepare for a Presentation

“I don’t present very often, so how do I prepare for a presentation?” That is, by far, one of the most common questions that we get as presentation skills coaches. In fact, most public speaking fear comes from situations where presenters just don’t speak very often. They have a hard time building up momentum. For instance, if you only drive a car once every couple of years, you will likely be nervous every time you slip behind the wheel. However, if you drive every day, the process becomes second nature. So if you're not confident in your preparation routine or want to make sure you're doing it right, stick around for the 5 best ways to prepare for a speech. Show Notes: 5 Ironclad Ways to Prepare for a Presentation ( https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/5-ironclad-ways-to-prepare-for-a-presentation-cut-prep-time-by-137/ )