The 6 Mistakes in Public Speaking that you're making

Imagine, you just had a great idea. You know from experience that the idea will help everyone do their work better, so you want to share it with your boss & coworkers.

Next week Wednesday, you are going to have a remote all-hands meeting with your team, so you decide to present the idea there. You feel a tinge of anxiety and your heart starts pounding, but you move on with it. 

Now it’s presentation day. With much effort and anxiety, you have prepared your arguments. You make your case. But even as you are speaking, you notice that your audience is not buying into your idea. 

They nod politely on their webcams, but after you finish, you only get a dismissive “Thank you”, before everyone moves to the next thing on the agenda. They didn’t even ask any questions. 

You feel like shit. Why didn’t they see how helpful the idea was? How can they be so stubborn? ​
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We could just blame them for being stubborn and resistant to change. But there is a better way. We could ask ourselves: What went wrong here? How can I improve, so that next time, my idea will be heard? 

There are some common mistakes that you’re likely making - even if you are a professional speaker. The good news? It's fairly easy to fix these mistakes. More on that later.

First, let's discuss this: Why bother learning public speaking, especially now that the entire world is isolating? 

No matter what you do, you will need to communicate. Remote or not, you'll need to share your ideas with others. This is why public speaking is critical for your future.

Doesn’t matter if you’re a leader, salesperson, researcher, teacher, consultant, entrepreneur, or train monkeys by profession. Public speaking will make almost everything you do more impactful.

Moreover, if you are good at communicating, you will be critical to any team. You are less likely to lose your job when the times are tough, because you can build trust, sell more, and lead more effectively.

You can bring people together and motivate everyone to do their best. 

It gets better. Learning public speaking is easier than you think. Because it’s scary, most people avoid it like plague. Since most people never learn to speak in public, it’s easy for you to be good - even if you’ve never thought of yourself as a confident speaker. 

I myself have grown from a shy, withdrawn kid to a professional speaker, stage host & public speaking trainer. I have hosted e.g. the Slush 2018 livestream to 30 000 viewers, and coordinated my native Finland's largest speaker training program.

These days I help others succeed on the stage, among them CEOs of tech companies, TEDx speakers, top salespersons, and expert teams of all kinds. I'm telling you this to show that you can absolutely learn public speaking.  

So, let's talk about those common mistakes. Here they are:

• You started preparing too late
• You didn’t prepare with the audience in mind
• You don’t have proper structure
• Your slides are overloaded
• You didn’t rehearse enough, or in the right way
• You try to be perfect

Fixing these will make you better able to convince your audience of your ideas. You might even find out that speaking can be fun. As a result, you will stand out in a good way, and become a better speaker.

I won't go into details here on how to fix them, because, frankly, there's a lot of stuff to be said. So instead I created a course for you. It's completely free, and you can sign up HERE. Just scroll to the end of the page, insert your name & email, and you'll get it. 

I hope it will help you along on your path to becoming a great speaker.