The Blog-A-Day Challenge

Recently, I was challenged to write a blog post every day (I apologize for spamming your Facebooks and Twitters with updates).  This challenge was issued to myself and a collection of other bloggers, but I had an unfair advantage.  I have been writing professionally for six years now, and after working for Lockflow.com for four of those six years and writing four books, I have learned how to produce large volumes of content on a daily basis.  I have gotten a few emails from aspiring writers (and in truth, I am still a young writer myself), so I thought that some of you would find my tips helpful.  At the very least, I hope it saves you a few years of trial and error.

6 Tips for Public Speaking (Bonus 4 Week Boot Camp)

I have given book readings, guest lectures, seminars, and even a convocation speech. I have also given interviews for magazines, podcasts, and radio shows. Public speaking does not scare me, and when I told a friend of mine who was about to give a class presentation that fact, she was astonished.

“When you get up in front of a group of people, you have to know that you deserve to be there,” I told her. “When you’re up there, you have to believe that you’re a rock star. You have interesting things to say, and they want to hear you speak. In fact, they’re lucky to hear you speak.”

She later told me that my advice helped her, but in retrospect, I didn’t give her the complete set of tools for effective public speaking. I didn’t tell her that my stutter used to be so bad that I physically could not speak. The words would stick in my throat, and my lips would move noiselessly. I had to learn to rearrange sentences to find a word that I could actually say. Learning to take sentences apart and rework on them fly likely contributed to my writing ability, but having a stutter made my life an emotional nightmare. I was afraid of leaving my house for fear of encountering one of my many bullies, and I became intensely shy.

That was then. And now, I am booking speaking engagements at high schools and colleges and giving seminars on writing and publishing.

A lot of experimentation and trial and error took place between then and now, but I want you to be able to skip that and progress faster than I did. Here are 6 quick tips to becoming a public speaking master followed by a four week boot camp to jumpstart your public speaking ability.

1. Your outside affects your inside.

Confidence is the core of a successful public speaker, and developing that confidence is challenging. Changing your thought process and your perception of yourself takes time, but starting with your external self can establish outwardly what you want to be reflected inwardly. Cut your hair. Shave. Put on a nice suit or a nice pair of jeans. If you are fashion handicapped, ask a friend, preferably of the opposite sex, to take you shopping. Part of acting like a rock star is dressing like one, so look the part of someone that is confident, put together, and respected. If you are not sure what image works best for you, look to someone you admire and mimic how they dress.

Opportunity and Regret: A One-on-One Conversation with 1500 Freshmen

California University of Pennsylvania invited me to speak at their 2011 new student convocation. Not to spoil anything, but nobody bought me a drink.