2-Minute Talk Tips
2-Minute Talk Tips helps you become a more effective speaker in as little as 2 minutes a week. Each episode starts with a 2 minute, practical tip so you get value right from that start. After that, we have a deeper discussion about issues affecting public speakers. If you've got only 2 minutes, you have time to learn stuff. If you have more time, we've got more detail. A lot of folks are intimidated by the idea, of speaking. They think that to learn public speaking, they need to become the next Tony Robbins, Ronald Reagan, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, or Cicero. That's not true, though. Don't focus on being the best speaker ever. Instead, become a better speaker tomorrow. And do that every day. That's the pathway to success. Don't get best…get better. I'm Bill Monroe. I've built a career on public speaking and training. In my work at Microsoft and Toshiba, I used these skills to teach folks how to sell technology products and to excite them about those products. Yet, while I've been conducting presentations for more than 25 years, I'm still learning and improving. I believe everyone -- from novice to expert -- can become a better speaker. With 2 Minute Talk Tips we can all become a little better every day.
Episodes
2-Minute Tip : The Stage as War Zone
Think of the stage as a war zone. Not in the sense that the audience is an enemy. The enemy is the way many folks hold back and don’t spend all their energy on stage.
To mix metaphors even further, the stage is that poker hand where you need to go all in./ If you hold chips back — if you hold energy or enthusiasm back — you won’t win. You won’t accomplish your goal.
When you get o...
2-Minute Tip: Tell Stories
Stories are how humans connect. They form the basis of our social relationships. They’re how we share history.
As a speaker, one of the best ways to make sure you connect with your audience is to tell stories — and not just one. Illustrate your talk with as many stories as possible. Generic ones are okay, but authentic, personal stories will bring you the most success.
Post Tip Discussi...
2-Minute Tip: Be Authentic and Tell Your Story
Across the different guests I talk with, the theme of authenticity keeps coming up in the tips. It’s similar in many of them which demonstrates just how important it is. Also interesting is how each of them brings their own angle to the concept.
When you tell your story and use it to connect with the message you want to convey, it’s much easier to have a memorable and auth...
2-Minute Tip: Be Your True and Honest Self
We talk a lot about authenticity because it matters. And while it may seem daunting, it can actually make things easier. When you don’t try to fake it, you don’t waste brain cycles and energy trying to maintain a façade.
There are 3 questions to ask yourself when you prepare to talk to an audience:
- Who are you really?
- What do you have to offer your audience?
- What do you...
2-Minute Tip — Connect with Your Audience
Before speaking, meet your audience members. In a small meeting, maybe that means greeting them as they come in to the conference room. At a larger event, that may mean mingling with attendees in the venue.
By meeting with some of your attendees before you speak, you start to build a connection and a more personal relationship. It can make your audience instantly more friendly ...
2-Minute Tip: Earn your Confidence
If you project confidence on stage your audience is more likely to believe you. If you are confident, you’ll feel less nervous getting up to speak.
Confidence doesn’t come for free, though. You have to earn it. And you earn it by doing to work — by planning, editing, revising, practicing and rehearsing. If you don’t do the work, you don’t deserve the confidence and probably should be ...
2-Minute Tip: Be Vulnerable
We often talk about the importance of authenticity as a speaker. Another way to think about it, though, is vulnerability.
The benefit of vulnerability as a speaker is that the audience can feel where you are coming from. It’s easier for them to connect with you.
And if they feel that stronger sense of connection, they are more likely to pursue the action you are calling them to pursue.
<...
2-Minute Tip: Know 3 Stories
While it’s helpful to have lots of stories at your disposal, there are three types that will help you in speeches, job interviews and client interactions. They are Underdog, Authority, and Fixer.
The Underdog story is the story of where you came from. It’s the obstacles life put in your path and how you got over, around, under, or through them to get where you are today.
The Authority is...
2-Minute Tip: Reframe your Anxiety
Anxiety and excitement are closely related so if you’re nervous before speaking, reframe it in your has as excitement. Tell yourself how excited you are at this opportunity. The physical symptoms — jitters, racing heart, etc. are very similar so give your brain a different interpretation of them
Post Tip Discussion: Core Confidence
Authenticity is something a lot of my gues...
2-Minute Tip: Don’t Apologize
Or more specifically, don’t start your talk by apologizing to the audience for the talk they are about to hear. It comes across as an appeal for pity. When you do that it means you are starting from a position of weakness rather than one of strength.
The opening few moments of your speech are where you can have a tremendous impact. Engage your audience with something compelling. Don’t wast...
2-Minute Tip: Slow Down
Many speakers take the stage with their adrenaline pumping as the try to stifle their nerves or live in the exciting moment. Many times, they end up speaking to quickly. So try to slow down.
When we speak, we are often excited about, or at least familiar with, our topic. Our tendency is to go quickly over the basic stuff.
But the reason folks are in our audience is that they don’t know this st...
2-Minute Tip: Record Yourself and Watch it 3 Times
Recording yourself on video used to be hard. But that’s not the case anymore. Nearly everyone has a powerful video camera in their pocket. There’s no reason not to use this tool to make yourself a better speaker. Record a rehearsal or presentation, and then watch it back 3 times in 3 different ways.
First, close your eyes and just listen. Focus on pace, rhythm, and fil...
2-Minute Tip: Don’t waste you first 10 seconds
When you go out on that stage you are a blank slate with the audience . They don’t know you. They’re not bored with you — yet. Now is when you have the best chance to grab their attention and interest.
So plan it out. Don’t leave your opening 10 seconds to chance or peter it away on, “How is everyone doing today?”
Tell a story. Tease the content. Surprise them. Comfort t...
2-Minute Tip: Take Action
The most important thing you can do as a speaker is to speak. Get one or two takes ready to go and then just focus on filling your calendar. Do whatever you can to book yourself solid. Get that stage time so you can get better.
Post Tip Discussion: Meet Candice Bakx-Friesen
Candice Bakx Friesen is essential the Nike of Canadian Real Estate. She embodies the idea of just do it. In to...
2-Minute Tip: Greet Audience Members Early
As much as practical, if you have time before your speech, meet some members of your audience. Greet them as they come in and sit down. This accomplishes a couple things.
First, it’s the start of a relationship with a new person. For part of your audience, you will no longer be just that person on the stage. Instead you will be that person they were just chatting with who is n...
2-Minute Tip: Fuel your body properly
Our bodies react differently to different foods, and to maximize our performance, we need to consume the appropriate fuel for the results we want.
That means, first of all, hydrate. That was also the very first tip in the very first episode of 2-Minute Talk Tips. But it goes beyond that.
Avoid dairy before speaking. It drives mucous production which leads to throat clearing and ...
2-Minute Tip: Just put yourself out there
Getting past intense nerves can be challenging, but there comes a point where you just have to do it. Just acknowledge your nerves and stage fright and do it anyway. If things don’t go well, the world won’t end, and (for most of us) no one will die. So just get up on stage, nerves and all, and just do it.
How can you give yourself the best chance for success? It’s no secret — p...
2-Minute Tip: Slides must help the audience, not the presenter
One reason folks audibly groan when they think about PowerPoint is that too many speakers use the slides to help them get through their presentation rather than to help the audience understand what’s happening.
We use them too often to:
- Help us remember
- To keep our place
- To just generally put too much stuff on screen
Ultimately there are 3 pu...
2-Minute Tip: Be Vulnerable
When you open up and share your story with an audience, it gives them an opportunity to connect with you on a deeper, emotional level. When you establish that connection with them, they listen more closely, relate to you better, and are more likely to retain your message or execute your call to action.
It’s not something to fake though. Audience’s can generally sense when someone is being au...
2-Minute Tip: Tell Your Personal Truth
To be effective as a speaker on the big stage, you have to be able to tell your truth. That means you have to know what it is. This may take some personal work to understand what you are passionate about — what you truly believe.
Where it really pays off is in the connection to your audience. They can sense the authenticity. More importantly, they can sense artifice.
Ultimately ...
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