Raise your hand if the thought of speaking in front of people makes you cringe. My, there’s certainly a lot of you.
But I’ve got good news for you: you just learned a public speaking strategy while you were reading the first sentence of this blog post, and you probably didn’t even realize it. Don’t worry, I’ll explain in a little bit. First, though, we need to talk about what it means to speak publicly.
Just What Is Public Speaking?
If, when you hear the words “public speaking,” you immediately think of making speeches to huge crowds, you’re only partially right. There’s lots of reasons why you might need to speak to a group of people: you could be pitching a new idea to potential investors, hyping up your team for the next fiscal quarter, or simply getting to know your customer base.
Why Do I Need To Be Good At Talking To People?
If you’re an entrepreneur just getting your brand off the ground, or a well-seasoned business owner who is expanding your company, then you already know the importance of speaking. You know that you need to be able to express your business concepts and plans to all kinds of people, from investors to bankers to clients to partners to employees.
Being able to express yourself clearly and concisely, without ego or guile, could mean the difference between your business’s success or failure. Failing to provide all the relevant facts or present yourself as a trustworthy person could cause you to lose some amazing opportunities for growth. And we mean growth in both the business and the personal senses.
Who Is Arel Moodie?
So who is Arel Moodie? Why, he’s the man with the public speaking plan. He founded Message to Masterpiece where he provides one-on-one public speaking coaching. And as if that wasn’t already an incredible accomplishment, he also has a podcast called The Art of Likeability where he teaches people how to be truly likeable so that they can be heard.
He also taught you your first lesson in engaging your audience.
According to Arel, you should “never go down to your audience’s energy. You always bring your audience up to your energy.” One way he accomplishes this energy-raising magic trick is to prompt his audience members to raise their hands. This gets them engaged and sets the standard for how they should plan to react during the rest of the speech.
These are the types of strategies that Arel is best at providing. His mission is to “get folks to realize how valuable the idea of community within the workplace actually is.” That’s why he coaches business owners and entrepreneurs to interact with their audiences, and take an interest in them for their own sake and not for selfish gains.
So many public speakers love the sound of their own voices. But it’s the people who don’t think they should be public speakers that should be, according to Arel. These are people who are humble, who know that their story doesn’t matter unless it can help their audience.
This is how our Stride 2 Freedom podcast listeners can build trust in their clients and grow their business: by speaking to them with the goal of focusing on their audience, and to help their audience succeed.
Who should I interview next? Please let me know.                 
In this Freedom Speaker Series episode with Arel, you will learn:
- How successful public speaking leads to a sense of community in the workplace
- Why your story is only as important as what your audience can learn from it
- How to raise the energy of your audience
- Why you don’t need to be ego-driven or even very confident to speak publicly
We are fortunate to have Arel available to spend time with us on this edition of Stride 2 Freedom. If there is a speaker you’d like us to interview, let us know. Stay well. Stay safe. Stay healthy.
Show Notes and Links From Episode:
Arel Moodie
Arel Moodie LinkedIn
Message to Masterpiece
