My ‘One Word’ this week is: BELIEVE

Public speaking is one of the most common fears out there. It requires confidence and vulnerability to share a piece of yourself with a crowd. As a motivational speaker, I’ve been on numerous stages, including TEDx, sharing my ‘One Word’ philosophy, and I’ve learned three things that might help you on the speaker circuit 🎤.

1) Take your audience on a journey—ideally, the hero’s journey. 

You have something that NO ONE else can replicate: your story. Only you can deliver it with the emotional heft and specificity needed to connect with others. The hero’s journey is a great framework to achieve this.

It tells the crowd where you started, how you failed, how you rose from that failure, and why you were able to do it. More importantly, it gives the audience a familiar narrative to latch onto as you explore how your message will help them.

2) Make it interactive. 

The quickest way to lose an audience is to talk AT them. Whether you’re speaking in front of a sold-out room or a five-person Zoom, your audience deserves to be a part of the conversation.

A powerful way to keep people engaged is interacting directly with them through exercises or questions, but you might not always have time for that. Instead, use handouts, share a poll, invite them to bring the conversation to social media or a Slack channel, or other asynchronous methods of interaction.

Crucially, if you can’t do any of those things, make sure that your presentation provides clear, concrete takeaways for your audience to think about during and after your time.

3) Tell the audience what you can do for them. 

Everyone wants your talk to touch, move, and inspire them and, ideally, teach them how to handle difficult things in their lives or solve problems at work. Almost no one is sitting there hoping to see you fail—who would want to sit through a bad talk? But often, speakers talk too much about themselves without adding value to the audience.

That’s why the crowd isn’t engaged. It’s not about saying the WHAT; it’s about devising and conveying the WHY. You could have the greatest idea in the world, but it’ll fall flat if you don’t clearly communicate what it’ll do for your audience.

Those three concepts have helped me tremendously in my speaking career, but I have one key piece that ties them together.

One Word: BELIEVE. 

You have to genuinely BELIEVE that you can help the audience. When you walk on that stage or unmute yourself on that Zoom, do so with the conviction that your message matters. Leave it all on the field.

When I left the 🔴 at my TEDx Manhattan Beach Talk, I felt euphoric because I fully believed that my ‘One Word’ has helped me evolve my identity from what I DO to who I AM. I ended my talk with the following:

‘One Word’ can do the same for you!