The absolute worst thing you can do in front of a group, in my opinion, is something like this:

"How's everyone doing this morning?"

The audience gives a reasonable cheer.

Then comes the true horror: "Come on, you can do better than that. How's everyone doing this morning?"

By that point, my thoughts have turned to murder.

At the same time, part of you grudgingly respects the energy and confidence that person has in front of a room.

Mine came from being a ham: I was in lots of plays as a younger man, and I came to enjoy being in front of people. At the very time I was writing Meltdown in 2008 I was acting in an Auburn (Alabama) production of The Odd Couple.

It was great fun, except one of the actors could not remember his lines. (Such is community theater.) Every night it would be a different line he'd forget. And every night I'd step in to ad lib and keep the thing going when he'd forget something, and I'd never know exactly when it would happen.

Next to that, public speaking was a breeze!

You can learn public speaking from a book, but surely that's not ideal. You should learn it from somebody who actually does it, and who can talk to you about how to do it successfully and well.

Results:

--Respect from your firm and your professional colleagues

--Inspiring others, particularly when you're conveying an important message
--More and more speaking invitations, which means a bigger and bigger bank account

--More clients

--Greater confidence

--More business opportunities and expanded professional network

--Higher fees

All from just one skill.

Everyone else is too afraid to try.

Not you!

You're going to click and sign up for the free masterclass series that starts tomorrow, taught by someone (not me, sadly, but actually better) who makes a fantastic living as a speaker:

https://www.tomwoods.com/speaking

Tom Woods