Don’t Get Spooked by Public Speaking This Halloween Season
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Happy almost Halloween, Sex Geek!
The thought of public speaking for many educators can be SPOOOOKY! The idea of getting up in front of a LIVE audience or appearing on TV or on a podcast can feel like having a heart attack for some of us!
Eeeeeeek! Our cortisol and adrenaline levels spike… Our sense of self-confidence plummets… And we feel & see our ability to teach and help others leaving our bodies… Noooooooooo!
But public speaking doesn’t have to be some cursed, ghoulish nightmare. ☠️
Let me show you one of the ways I’ve learned to “lift the curse” of public speaking and high-pressure teaching gigs.. It’s having a well-designed “opening routine” for whatever workshop or talk you’re going to give.
When I was appearing on NETFLIX, sitting next to Chelsea Hander, and working with Oprah’s Network for my appearance on Our America with Lisa Ling, I started each workshop with my opening routine… In fact, with very few exceptions, I use my opening routine to start every workshop and webinar. Why? Because a solid opening routine sets everyone up to win, myself included. I’ll explain more about that below…
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My Challenge To You… What I’d LOVE for you to do right now, Sex Geek, is leave a comment below and share with me one of your favorite public speaking and/or teaching tips. Would you be willing to do that for me?
You leaving a comment and sharing your speaking tricks gets to be my learning treat this Halloween! You game? How about it?
The Power of Having Your Opening Routine
I believe that every educator should have an “opening routine” at the ready for whenever they teach or speak in public.
An opening routine doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should be smart. You want to design yours with the intention of creating a win-win that serves your audience (so they can learn) AND serves you (so you can teach at your best).
If you’ve been hired to do a gig, then your opening routine’s intention expands to become a win-win-win: serve your audience, serve you, AND serve whoever hired you!*
*Business Pro-Tip: Can you make the person who hired you look GREAT for their boss, AND make the organization or company that hired you look good? Creating win-win-wins goes a long way to getting you hired again while building an amazing word-of-mouth reputation.
What Should Your Opening Routine Do?
Having a well-designed opening routine allows me to do multiple things all at once…
- Gives my audience time to “arrive,” settle in, and ground (and it also gives me time to settle in and ground, too!)
- Builds the “culture” that I would like us to have during the workshop
- Make my audience/participants feel welcomed
- Give them context so they can better understand me as a teacher (how I use humor, that I want them to question my authority & think for themselves, etc.)
The opening routine is also where I lay down the goals of the workshop or talk… It’s where I invite my audience to share with the group what they’d like to get out of our time together…
It’s when I mention my Accountability Process and inform folks that I have flyers available for them to download or take home.
The opening routine also reminds me to inform my audience if there are workshop handouts available (I usually pass around a QR Code that they can use on their phones to sign up for the download)… And to thank and introduce the venue hosts so they can share any important house rules attendees might need to know about, etc.
My opening routine lasts approximately 15-20 minutes, which also gives me plenty of “wiggle room” if folks are arriving late on Zoom or needed extra time to park and get their butts into seats at the venue before I “lock the doors.”
What about you, Sex Geek? What would you weave into YOUR opening routine? Hmmmmmmm?
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If the idea of having an opening routine is a big revelation, I have great news for you, Sex Geek! I’ve got TWO MORE bits of advice that will rock your teaching world!
Having an opening routine is just one of my three, BIG, public speaking tips, which you can nerd out about in my FREE training available HERE.
I created it to help YOU shorten your public speaking learning curve and turbo-boost your professional teaching skills! And they’re tips specifically for sex educators like you!
It’s three videos (Plus a bonus 4th!) and they’re each packed full of useful info and approaches. If you thought this article was useful, I can’t wait for you to watch the videos!
Why did I create this training?
The better we are as educators & speakers, the more word-of-mouth buzz we can generate, which means the more gigs we book AND the more bookable we are as an industry… That means more of us booking NETFLIX shows, teaching at sex toy stores, landing paying college gigs, being invited to keynote at conferences…
And it means we’re also bookable to our own fans & followers who come to our workshops or hire us 1-on-1.
The more bookable YOU and we are = the more people we reach and help, the more lives we transform, and the healthier and more sex-positive we leave our communities and the world!
Click the button below for the free training and let me know what ‘ah-ha’ moments happen for you!
Really. Check it out. It’s free and I think it will give you some great ways to strengthen your skills, enhance your impact, and expand how you think (and approach) how you teach!
Yours in truly changing lives for the better,
REiD
Ps. Click on the image below or the buttons above and I’ll see YOU inside the training, Sex Geek!
