The podcast interview I mentioned has dropped already. If you want to check it out, pour a coffee, relax and enjoy... 😉

Tomorrow morning (my time) I am being interviewed for a podcast - From Page to Stage, which is for authors who want to promote their book. When it is published I will share it here, but these things may not publish for weeks... But it made me think: -Are podcasts something you want to know more about? My friend Steve Brossman is THE expert in this area and I am sure I can do an interview for the community if it is something you are interested in. I have a podcast. But it isn't the traditional sort, I don't have guests, and we didn't start it to help a business or to make money, we did it for fun! (I know, weird right?!). The Chris and Sam Podcast has been going for around 11 years, with 559 weekly episodes. I don't usually 'advertise' it, because it is for fun, and it certainly isn't for everyone. But it does mean I have some experience in the podcast world. In addition to TCASP, I have been interviewed on other podcasts, maybe a dozen times? I have also been a speaker on many virtual summits. So if any of this is interesting, let me know what you are curious about, and I will see what I can organise for you.

Picture this: You are on the stage. The room is silent as they listen to you in rapt attention. You are not anxious because you have rehearsed for this so much you were getting sick of it. But now the moment is here. There are nerves, you can feel the electricity of them running through you, but it makes you feel alive. You know your talk so well you can almost go through it backwards, but this means you don't have to worry about it at this moment, you are fully present with your audience, with the subtle cues they are giving you as you go through. You can adlib, in order to increase the impact of what you are saying, and to meet the feedback of your audience. This is the benefit of being totally present in the moment. Time telescopes. You feel like you are on that stage for an eternity, yet it feels it is over in the blink of an eye. As you accept the standing ovation and walk from the stage you understand what people mean when they say 'walking on air' of 'my feet didn't touch the ground', as you feel like you float from the stage. Already excited to do it all again. This is an experience I have had several times. It is an experience I feel everyone should have at least once in their lives, and I have been fortunate enough to help many people to experience it too. That is why I do what I do. It is why I volunteered for TEDxRuakura to coach speakers for free, and it is why after a decade of doing this I am still doing it for speaking clients, business clients and other events.

I forget where I learned it, probably from Dan Kennedy or someone in his orbit, but it has stuck with me. If you want to build something start with the sales letter. It doesn't matter if it is a product, a course, a book, or a workshop, write the sales letter first and make it as impactful and enticing as you can. This then becomes the blueprint for what you will build. -Especially if people respond well to the sales letter. I started this community with the goal of eventually building it up into something more, but initially it was to help the 14 speakers I was coaching for TEDxUoWaikato. Now that the TEDx event is done, I can get back to building this community. And I have written my sales letter. The community hasn't yet got all these things, but as I say it is the blueprint, so if the response is right I will build them. I am keen to see what your reaction to it is, so have a read and leave a comment: ----------------------------------------- WARNING: Do You Make This "Empty Room" Mistake When You Try to Change Minds? Your message is everything. It’s your legacy. It’s the seed of the change you want to see in this world. You’ve spent nights staring at the ceiling, your talk or pitch playing on a loop in your mind. You know it could be powerful. You know it could move people. So you practice. In the shower. In the car. You deliver your brilliant talk to the most critical audience imaginable: yourself. And it falls flat. It feels… hollow. Why? Because you’re practising in an empty room. There’s no feedback. No friction. No unexpected question from the back row that makes you see your own idea in a new light. No diverse perspective that sharpens your blunt argument into a razor-sharp point. You are trying to become a compelling communicator in a vacuum. And it’s killing your impact. Stop it. What If You Had a "Private Sounding Board" of Unlikely Allies and Cheerleaders? Imagine this: You’re workshopping your TEDx talk about sustainable aquaculture. In the room (the virtual room, that is) you have:

I have a different take on this. - DON'T! I was recently reminded by a great speaker coach, Miriam Chancellor (whom I met several years ago at the New Zealand Public Speaker Association, where I was presenting). Miriam suggested that focusing first on Effectiveness is far more important than focusing on Authenticity. I agree. But I would go further. As long as you are focused on your message and not trying to be someone else, you never have to think about Authenticity. You may have heard that writers take some time to find their 'voice'. -That is how they 'sound' or feel in their writing. Are they being inauthentic because their writing doesn't match their day-to-day speaking voice? Not at all. We all have different voices in our lives. We have our work voice, our sports voice (for whatever pastime you pursue), our family voice, our Zoom voice, our big occasion voice, our intimate voice. And yes, our stage voice. We will talk a little differently from the stage than we will in other contexts. That is to be expected. And that voice we use is still our voice if we are true to ourselves and our message and we are not trying to be someone else. The fact that we each have this multitude of 'voices' does not make us inauthentic. It makes us versatile. - Go have a great day. 😃 And see how many voices you use over the course of the day.