The fear of public speaking – people’s biggest fear, often quoted as being more powerful than the fear of death – can be overcome. In today’s world a lot of careers include public speaking of some sort. There are lots of books and courses that teach how to present a “winning presentation” or deliver a “dynamic speech” and the majority of them focus on how to organise and deliver great content. Some might also teach you how to “dress for success”.

Saskia Shakin has been a coach for the past 30 years teaching people how to become an exciting keynote speaker. Her clients have worked in the White House; appeared before Congress; run global corporations; written Broadway plays;managed prestigious law firms; and held chairs at major universities.

She shared some great insights with us during our interview. Especially when you are an expert in your field and spend a lot of time within your area of expertise or your area of knowledge is very technical you need to consider the following points:

• start from square one (beware: what you consider square one might be square 5 for your audience)
• get crystal clear on what you want to get across to your audience – define your message and your mission
• separate any “fluff” from your “mission”
• treat your audience with respect and ensure that they feel smart
• when you try and show off your knowledge you may come across as arrogant
• make sure you have fun when delivering your talk – your audience will have fun too
• remember that your audience only retains about 7% of what you say but 93% of your non verbal messages
• your non verbal messages are extremely powerful and include things like body language, tone of your voice, attitude etc.
• you may not be aware or conscious of your non verbal messages
• your words and your body language have to “mesh”, in other words be congruent

All of the above points are crucial when you want to become a successful and sought after keynote speaker. You need to know your content really well so you can become relaxed with your audience. When you are relaxed you can relate to your audience and think about connecting and not lecturing.

Saskia shared a lot more insights with us, click on the player below to listen to the interview.

Saskia’s book “More Than Words Can Say: The Making of Inspired Speakers” is a collection of stories and wisdom taken from her vast experience as a coach to speakers in positions of leadership. It will not only help you to become a better speaker but also a better communicator in general.
You may want to look at her book today.

One final thought: Remember that everything that comes from you – you can control. We create our world by the way we speak and think. Anyone can become a great speaker – if you can speak to one person you can speak to 100. It is all about how you view yourself and the expectations you hold.