PRACTICE DEEP BREATHING

“Deep belly breathing really can help. It slows down your autonomic nervous system, it slows down your breath rate, it lowers your breathing so that your voice sounds more normal. So breath work seems to be really important. And what's key is the exhalation. It's not the inhale, it's the exhale.”

“You should start pitches and presentations like an action movie. There's something there right away. A lot of people have long preamples. You need to get yourself into the audience's perspective. This is a fundamental tenet.”

“Neuroscience has taught us emotion gets into our brains differently than information. It gets in faster, stays longer, motivates behavior. So, do I want people excited or concerned? Do I want them to have FOMO, fear of missing out or be validated or just be confident? Think about that emotion.”

“So anxiety around communication looms large. We have some evidence that suggests up to 85% of people feel anxiety. And quite frankly, I think the other 15% are lying. Those of us who study it have found it in every culture we've studied. We find it develops around the same time, around when early kids, when kids become early teenagers, is when it really becomes more prominent and stays that way.”

“I like to say there are only three ways to get good at communication: repetition, reflection and feedback. You got to do it a couple of times. So you got to, nobody ever got good at speaking by thinking about it. You have to do it. That's where Toastmasters taking classes, those things really help.”