[Strategy Spotlight] Public Speaking Strategies for Communicating Leadership with Lisa Wentz

When preparing for a speech, entrepreneurs want to be seen as credible, knowledgeable, and influential. What you’re sharing is something valuable your audience wants to learn about. In this episode, our Strategy Spotlight focus is Public Speaking Strategies for Communicating Leadership with author, Lisa Wenz. She has been coaching business professionals for over 10 years and founded the San Francisco Voice Center, which offers private coaching in public speaking and communication. Her background includes extensive study in psychology and ten years of professional training for acting training and live performance. She moved to London and earned a master’s degree in Voice and Speech Studies at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. What inspired her to open the San Francisco Voice Center was her thesis on Voice and Speech in the courtroom. She felt like she could help people in a more significant way. That passion lead her to write her first book, Grace Under Pressure (April 2019, paperback, LID Publishing). Lisa shares on the Fab Fempreneur podcast key tips from her book to help entrepreneurs communicate their leadership in an effective and impactful way.

In this episode:

Tip 1: Healthy Speaker Mindset
Come prepared and confident in going in knowing what you know, know you have something to share, what the value is and knowing that people are ready to hear what you have to say. Don’t get into your own way; acknowledge your strengths and exude credibility.

Tip 2: Prepare Physically
Along with taking care of yourself mentally, taking care of yourself physically is as equally important. Learning breathing techniques to support your voice and articulating your words can make you feel centered and grounded to help convey leadership.

Tip 3: Structure What You’re Delivering
Think about the purpose and reason of what you are speaking about. Begin by creating rapport with the audience. By structuring your delivery to match your content, you not only will help your audience stay engaged, but you will also stay focused throughout your approach.

Bonus Tip for Speakers Teaching a Workshop
Pace yourself; your job is to teach and make sure the participants get value in the workshop. Also, find a way to measure their success and stay positive. Staying positive and having participants share what they learned from the exercises helps with learning.

Tip 4: Remember You are Having a Conversation
Take time to pause and be in tune with the audience reactions. Ask yourself “are you present and in the moment?”

Tip 5: The Power of Language
Apply Key Content Words and their meaning into your speech. Content words in your speech are words that your are stressing and giving an emphasis too. Stress a word to give it life and a feeling. Take your time with your speech and give key content words value. That’s what great motivational speakers do. They make us listen to them.