Powerful Presenting For Leaders

Everyone who presents wants to be a presentation rockstar and absolutely kill from the stage. Yet, the thing that holds most leaders back is fear. Fear that they will be ridiculed if they share something personal. Well, David has news for you. NOT saying those things is what makes audiences pity you and think of you as beige.

In this episode, David gives two examples of leaders who took a deep breath, stepped out of their comfort zone and were richly rewarded for it.

As this is the first podcast of 2020, David thought he would reflect on a wonderful 2019 and share what lessons he has learned including what NOT to do with a client. He will also share how his lessons will change his life, his business and his speaking moving forward and how you can apply them too to your presentation skills.

David recently gave a unique talk that he has never been asked to deliver in 23 years of speaking. And for the first time in 15 years, he was genuinely nervous. In this podcast, he explains how he put the presentation together and handled his nerves.

A current Xmas advert is using an old piece of music that took David back 35 years to a very difficult time in his life. Hearing it created an immediate change in his state. You can do the same with your audiences.

Over the years David has competed in some unusual and different areas. This has included the World Memory Championships and the Over 50s British bodybuilding finals.

As a professional speaker, he has also spoken to hundreds of thousands of people in 25 different countries.

But whatever the endeavour, all the practice in the world has not come close to the experience of actually putting himself in the hot seat and doing it for real. To be a presentation rockstar, you must do the same.

Too many presentations are sterile and devoid of any personality and character. A bit more honesty and openness making them more real will draw audience members to you.

After entering the bodybuilding finals of the British Championships, David quizzed the category winner and previous World Champion as to the secret of his success. He came back with one word – consistency. 

A consistent diet and training regime is the only way to achieve the very best physique possible in bodybuilding.

In this episode, David explains how consistent application of best practice presentation skills is the only way to produce the very best version of yourself on stage.

Sometimes when he speaks and it is the right presentation with the right audience, David shares how he manages his very difficult childhood to still operate successfully as an adult.

In this episode, David explains how the same approach can be used for dealing with significant speaking barriers such as nerves.

Whatever we do, we operate between an upper and lower limit.

In this episode, David talks about how to make sure you don't drop below the lower limit and maximise your potential at the upper limit.

Well, it happened, David stepped out onto a bodybuilding stage in front of hundreds of people wearing nothing but his underpants and at least 14 gallons of fake tan. Quite an experience!

It turned out to be one of the most momentous days of his life teaching him many lessons, mainly about himself.

In this episode, he is going to share some of those lessons that can be immediately applied by you in your aim to step on stage and be a rockstar.

Not a bodybuilding rockstar, obviously....although David does know where to find a very sexy line in budgie smugglers....😉

In life, everyone falls somewhere on the spectrum of certainty from high certainty at one end (life is very predictable but can be boring) to high variety at the other (life is exciting but is never truly stable).

David was chatting to a friend on Sunday and she said that she would rather feel nervous for whole of the next 20 years doing new stuff than keep doing the same old stuff and drift through.

In this podcast, David looks at where to position yourself on the spectrum of certainty.

David's bodybuilding debut is fast coming round. When he started, it was all about diet and exercise but now other factors are coming into play like the beautification process. Yes, really.

In this episode, David will tell you what this actually involves and why it is exactly the same when preparing for presentations.

There are four levels of value. The higher up the value chain you go, the greater the type and number of opportunities you will get. And the success, fun and money that go with them.

In this episode, David shows where presentation skills comes on that chain and if you wish to, how to ascend it.

David is entering his first bodybuilding competition this year and he is really, REALLY nervous about it. He decided to go to a bodybuilding competition hoping it would make him feel more relaxed.

It didn't.

In this episode, he will explain how he is managing his nerves and how you can do the same if it is an issue for you.

David always tells people that he has no interest in their boring travel stories. As a professional speaker, he has enough of his own.

But in this episode, he relays one to hammer home the single most important point he ever makes about presenting.

David recently heard a brilliant phrase used by an internet marketer when putting together a marketing strategy.

"Divide your audience BEFORE they come in to your community or they will divide your members AFTER they have come in."

In business, you need to find out who is with you and who is against you. You know that a fox in the henhouse is a very difficult way to manage and run a business.

In this episode, David shares what he told two former prison officers so they could immediately divide those who would support their charity and those who would not.

When David asks audiences if they like honesty, everyone puts their hand up. When asked about brutal honesty, 20% keep their hand up. When asked about rip your chest open and bare your soul honesty, just 1% keep their hand up.

Problem is, without brutal and honest feedback, your speaking will not improve enough for you to reach your true potential.

In this episode, David shares how he got some brutally honest (and negative) feedback from a client who didn't think he would read it and how he brought this up when she later booked him for some work!

Everyone wants to move forward in life but very few like being put on the spot and challenged. As a leader, you are in the incredibly privileged position of being able to help people achieve significant change when you present. The key is to do it in a way which moves them in a different direction and doesn't hurt them.

In this episode, David shares the way to do just this and how, when you get it right, it will be one of the most amazing experiences you ever have when speaking.

Would you cross a river filled with crocodiles? Of course not.

What if your child was sat on the bank on the other side about to get snaffled by a hungry croc?

Success is often no more than finding out how far you are prepared to go.

In this episode, David will share what utterly useless activity he did for 6 hours a day for 6 months and why someone spent more than 20 hours preparing for a 6 minute presentation.

You need to start every presentation like a greyhound coming out of the traps with its testicles on fire. There's a picture for you. A slow start will lose the attention of your audience and once they are gone, they are gone.

In this episode, David explains how to get every presentation off to an electrifying start and why it is so important.