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Platform masters know how to be authentic. They know how to own the spotlight. They know how to create magic moments! Today, we begin a conversation about how to cross that undeniable line from being good to being a master… and that line is called 'Showmanship.' There are three areas I want to talk about that best defines how to be the right kind of showwoman or showman, in the right way for you… no matter what your style or personality. First, we will talk about (1) Being True To My Authentic Self, then we will look at (2) Owning the Spotlight and (3) Create Magic Moments.   Being True To My Authentic Self Authentic means being true to who you are. Genuine. It means not allowing anyone to change your way of speaking or behaving. I’m not saying there is a need for you to lift your game, or for you evolve and change over time. That’s part of life… if we stay still… we die! Everyone needs to have a ‘forward facing’ goal for their professional and personal development. Some of us are very fortunate to have great role models and mentors come into our lives and they help us evolve. I’m blessed. I’ve had several influential people who have strongly influenced my speaking personality. Let me take you back to 1974 when I was a 14 year, bucktooth, spectacle wearing teenager who was mowing the back lawn one day, grudgingly I might add, when my dad approached me signaling for me to turn the lawn mower off and said to me, “Son, how would you like to preach this Saturday at the youth gathering, before the main service?” I can still remember that day. I can remember the feeling... the surge of adrenalin, the rush of emotion. I felt it all... the fear, excitement, and anticipation all rushing to get to my face and show itself first. I smiled, then I smiled really big and then I said, “Great. That would be great.” In hindsight, I’m sure I could have said something more profound… but ‘great’ was all I could get out. Dad turned and walked back to the garage which had been converted into his office and I resumed mowing the lawn… with renewed energy and a mindset on imagining… developing a vision of who I wanted to be when I stood behind that lectern. Let me give you a little backfill… In 1969 my mom and dad became mission

As a business presenter and public speaker, you are fighting a war on two fronts; an Internal war and an external one. A lot of people fall victims in this war and I’m here to change that. I want to show you how to turn defeat into victory. My name is Eugene and this is what I do. I help to unlock, inspire and enable platform mastery in business people and today I’m bringing you a 12 minute coaching session on how to win in the battlefield of public speaking, using a key principle from The Art of War for Public Speaker’s, published by Moreau Publishing and available January 2018.   Let's get into it... Sun Tzu Principle: “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” Every speaker, no matter how polished or how comfortable they look, will have fought in the battle of nerves, or against sabotaging self-belief, poor preparation habits, mistaking audience style and knowledge, or against losing control of content delivery, shuffling feet, and unfocused eyes. For many, standing in front of an audience, of any size, is like being in a war, make no mistake about it. We know from countless research reports and surveys that 75% of the business population experience fear when they stand in front of an audience. We also know that when a person experiences fear something happens inside them, a little switch is activated… fight or flight. Here, picture this with me, you are standing in front of an audience… let’s say 200 people… all of whom are staring right at you… waiting for you to start talking. Just staring… watching! Suddenly you notice your mouth is dry, your palms start to sweat… you hear your heart beating through your chest. Then… your voice, out of nowhere, develops a strange, shaky, nervous pitch, and, somehow… you forget how to start… despite practicing your presentation at least 50 times. What’s going on? Let me tell you. The brain is responding to the stress of being in front of all those staring expectant eyes and without any help or permission from you, activates a little ‘engine’ which is responsible for emotions, survival instincts, and memory. This engine sends a message to the adrenal glands… with specific instructions to do something!!! An

A platform master uses the whole body to engage, persuade, impact and compel their audience. The whole body includes your eye’s and your voice and they work together. If you have the ambition of being a Platform Master, then it is vital to develop the seventh Constant Factor of Platform Mastery, which is Posture. Let me define what I mean when I say, Posture. I gave this definition in Episode #75 Showtime: The Art of Striking the Pose. Most people will interpret Posture to mean a position in which someone holds their body when standing or sitting. That’s not what I mean when I say, Posture. When it comes to Platform Presence, we say to behave in a way that is intended to position and impress... is to have 'Posture.' Imagine someone walking into a room, and there is an attitude surrounding them… an air of confident assurance. When they take the center stage or the spotlight… or when all the eyes are on them, they take command. They have ‘Posture.' Platform Mastery Posture only comes from a position of inner confidence. It carries an authority based on ownership. There is no pretense. There is no ‘Fake It Till You Make It.' We’ve already looked at Posture from two of three perspectives: Vulnerability and Mindset in Episode #76 Showtime: How the 93% Principle can save your reputation! In that episode we talked about three subjects: (1) Communication Noise, (2) How to use Movement and (3) What to do With Your Hands. Today, we close out Posture by dealing with the final two elements of Physicality, which are Eye Contact and Vocal Image. Let me have your imagination for a minute... Let me have your imagination for a couple of minutes as I take you back a few thousand years. We are part of a group of 20-30 ambitious, idealistic students following our sage, our teacher, our leader as he walks and talks, making our way through courtyards and tree-lined paths, leading to natural pools and creeks. We are following a stocky old man. We are captivated by what and how he was talking with us. Can you see it? Are you in the group with me? Suddenly, he would st

I want to go on record right from the get-go! Poor delivery of your message will slap you in the professional face AND can possibly derail your career! Over the years I’ve had the great honor of working with numerous high-performing managers, business owners, and leaders who literally put themselves in danger of losing their credibility, at the very least, because of their poor platform presence. Here are some comments I've heard along the way that helps to explain what I mean. ... “He doesn’t inspire confidence when he speaks to board members, employees, or senior executives.” ... "She’s meek and lacks presence, especially in meetings.” ... “He graduated high up in his MBA Programme but when he gives presentations he’s stiff, dull, boring, and really confusing.” Translation? You can have the most respected degree in the world, BUT if you cannot communicate your ideas effectively THEN it doesn’t matter! You can lose your credibility... or worse! You can come in as a bridesmaid in a competitive pitch, or be passed over for that promotion... all because of that inability to stand and deliver. I was asked several weeks ago, “Who is your podcast aimed at?” My response was quick and assured, My response was quick and assured, “Anyone with a dream or an ambition of standing in front of an audience and nailing it! Could be business students, a manager, a CEO or an aspiring leader… could even be a coach, a consultant or a marketer." Here's what I know. It’s not your choice of a career that determines whether or not you need to have what I'm talking about in this podcast. The truth is, all careers have a requirement to talk about the business in some way. It could be in a large environment where the audience is hundreds or possibly even thousands or in an office with one or two others... let me tell you what very few will tell you… you are being judged by how well you speak in public and how persuasively you deliver your message. The purpose of The EPIC Thought of the Day Podcast… as well as every book and online coaching program in the Foundations of Platform Mastery Programme… is to open your awareness to the knowledge, skills, attitude and resource you need to protect and enhance your personal and professional

Several weeks ago we began a series of conversations around the Eight Constant Factors of Platform Presence. Our position is you must have all eight of these factors in play for you to be a platform master. These eight constant factors work together, harmoniously. They co-exist in dynamic fluidity. The absence of any one of these eight factors results in… loss of presence. These eight constant factors work together, harmoniously. They co-exist in dynamic fluidity. The absence of any one of these eight factors results in… loss of presence. We started with the first Constant factor, which is Engagement and we said Engagement is a relationship between a speaker and an audience… a relationship based on trust, respect, information, and interaction! Based on a number of research findings, we know that if you do not have engagement… you lose the battle for audience attention. We introduced this idea of engagement in Episode #55 where we used Dr. Ivan Pavlov, the 1904 Nobel Prize winner, and his experiment where he measured how and when a dog would salivate. It went like this… step one, bring a dog food and step two, the dog salivated. I know it sounds profoundly simple and obvious, doesn’t it? Well, Dr. Pavlov inserted a special device that measured how much saliva a dog produced when food was brought to it and through a series of actions which involved synchronizing a ringing bell with the dog having access to food. After doing this conditioning for a period of time, Dr. Pavlov removed the food but kept ringing the bell and the result was the dog would start to salivate when the bell was rung... even though there was no food. We connected that example to what an audience experiences… without the salivating of course. An audience has been conditioned to respond as a spectator… someone who sits and waits for food to be brought to them. They have been conditioned to through the numerous conferences, workshops, seminars and meetings they have had to endure. Then the platform master comes along and starts ringing a bell, changing the rules of engagement. Within the first 90 seconds, the audience experiences the effect of a platform master… an ethical, undeniable pull strategy that engages the emotion and logic of the au

I have been privileged to personally be part of an audience and experiencing the wonderful performance of more than 30 outstanding platform speakers in my life. What’s made them ‘outstanding’ was subtle. For many years, it remained a mystery to me as to why these speakers were so memorable… why they are what I describe as my top 30 experiences as an audience member. I’ve read the transcripts and listen to the available audios of the top 30 political speeches ever given in the USA. I noticed, they too had this mysterious quality… and then one day, it dawned on my… they all had one thing in common. They all possessed a certain quality called rhythm. Today I’m going to talk about the EPIC Effect of Rhythm and how you can have it as a communicator. No matter where we are, in a client’s meeting room sitting around a table on a platform in front of thousands… the principles I’m going to share with you today will work. Now, just to remind you, EPIC is an acronym for Engaging, Persuading, Impacting and Compelling. Since 'definition is critical for clarity', let’s start by defining what we mean by 'having rhythm' as a business communicator. The word rhythm literally means ‘a strong, regular repeated pattern of movement or sound’. A real in-depth look at the meaning of the word can be found on Wikipedia. The late Maya Angelou was a profoundly wise voice and amongst many of her insightful... and life enhancing saying was, “Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.”   As a speaker, when you have rhythm... you dance. You flow. You are a relationship of connections. When you picture a speaker using rhythm I want you to see them speaking with a cadence. The effective use of cadence is the ability to use a phrase with disciplined repetition. It’s this disciplined repetition that connects the words into the ear for greater rhythmic impact and memorability. Probably the best example that everyone will recognise immediately is the famous “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. To Listen to the entire

Note: There is content in the audio that is not in the written part of this episode. The need for purpose is one of the defining characteristics of a human being. We crave purpose, and suffer serious psychological difficulties when we don’t have it. Purpose is a fundamental component of a fulfilling life. Purpose enhances self-esteem. Purpose instills confidence. Purpose give legs to action. Clarity of purpose leads to ability to focus and its focus that inspires passion… the flame we talked about in the last episode. It’s passion that puts the 'act' in action. Purpose is the fiber of commitment and commitment is what it takes to execute with excellence. So, you see… purpose is the starting point of excellent execution. Purpose helps a speaker connect and communicate with authority. Today we talk about purpose and how it can help you find your voice of authority as you continue your journey to platform mastery. In September of 2013 we lost a very insightful, talented and wise man by the name of Wayne Dyer. I never had the chance to meet him and I never truly appreciated or fully understood the simplicity of depth in the principles he taught. I want to share a little of what I have discovered about him and how it’s connected to our topic today… Find Your Purpose. Find Your Voice. 15 of the most powerful words I know came from Wayne Dyer. Here they are, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” I’ve come to apply those words in helping people become platform masters and here’s how it works, “When you change the way you look at yourself as a speaker, the speaker your audience sees will change.” Here’s a question to engage your thought for a moment or two. 'Why do you want to be a public speaker, or a business presenter, or communicator?' The right answer will be your purpose. I was once asked the question, “When do you feel closest to God?” I’m pretty sure the person asking that questions was expecting some deeply profound religious moment. But my answer was, "When I’m standing in front of an audience, engaging them as a speaker. I feel I am in my calling. My purpose feels fulfilled." Wayne Dyer had this same approach… here, let me tell you a quick sto

Okay, audience participation time. Hands up those of you that have been awake late at night and found yourself voluntarily ‘trapped’ by an infomercial? You know what I’m talking about, those professional actors, all on high octane energy pills, pitching products, interviewing the over the top owners or creators of these products that will literally change your life! Yes, their presentations are well rehearsed. Yes, they are definitely polished. Yes, they follow all the rules. Yes, their story is well scripted and they even toss in a few psychological triggers just for the fun of it… you know… a limited time offer with a digital clock ticking over on the screen… tick-tock-tick-tock. Or scarcity… “once these are gone, that’s it… they will never be at this price again! Yeah, all the tricks, bells and whistles. But almost all of them are fake! Something is missing. Sure… it’s all so very well-choreographed… but still, something is missing. Yes, I know, they all look sincere… but something is missing. After watching a particular fitness infomercial, I determined to find out why I felt manipulated instead of motivated. Instead of being ‘inspired to move’ – which is the definition of motivation. Manipulation, on the other hand, is an effort to be coerced or forced into a certain course of action or outcome that is not necessarily in your best interest. Or put another way, manipulators will use tactics like fear, guilt or shame to bend you, coerce you, control you into acting their desired outcome, no matter how needed or required it is for you. Anyway, after watching this one particular fitness infomercial I was not feeling inspired to move, to take action, I was feeling coerced so I decided to examine, from a professional, objective point of view, what the presentation elements were. It had all the elements I mentioned before, It was well scripted, well performed, had the big name celebrity and the inventor of the product… it was all there but still, it was missing something that cannot be manufactured or faked. It was missing that ingredient that cuts right through the layers of hype and settles next to the primal, instinctive motivator for action. It was missing passion. Oh it had excitement… but not passion. Yes, it had high octane energy in the voice and graphics galore… but not passi

Today we launch into a new format. Instead of producing 3 X 5 minute podcasts each week, we are going to now produce one 25-30-minute episode a week. In addition to making each episode more content rich, we are also going to enter the ‘guest interviewing’ arena, inviting seasoned professionals to come and share their wisdom, knowledge, and expertise. In this way we are able to learn through their experience and expand our relentless focus on helping you become platform masters. Today, we are switching it up and switching it on as we take Epic Thought of The Day to a new level of engagement in your development of the mindset of the platform master. I look forward to your feedback. If you like what we are doing here, spread the word. Share the podcast amongst your colleagues. Okay, let’s get into Episode #71, The Pygmalion Effect in Platform Presence. Have you heard of the Pygmalion Effect? For those of you who have heard of it before, you are probably asking, “What’s it got to do with business pitching and presenting, or public speaking?” That’s the question I’m going to answer today. But before I got there, let me quickly provide context for those that aren’t familiar with the Pygmalion Effect. In the story told by the Roman poet Ovid, Pygmalion is a sculptor who falls in love with a statue he has created. In time, Aphrodite's festival day came, and Pygmalion made offerings at the altar of Aphrodite. There, too scared to admit his desire, he quietly wished for a bride who would be "the living likeness of my ivory girl." When he returned home, he kissed his ivory statue, and found that its lips felt warm. He kissed it again, and found that the ivory had lost its hardness. Aphrodite had granted Pygmalion's wish. So, what does all of this have do with being a platform master? One word, Expectation. We’ve been engaging in a conversation around the question, “What does it take to be a compelling platform master?” In the last episode, we talked about how to become a compelling platform master through creating anticipation with your audience using inductive language, as opposed to deductive language. Today, we look at the second element of being a

The Pulitzer Prize winning poet Carl Sandburg, was asked the question once in an interview, "In your opinion, what's the ugliest word in the English language?" Carl frowned. "The ugliest word in the English language?" His brow furrowed… he stared off into space, "Ugliest?" he muttered to himself. "Ugliest. The ugliest word?" he asked the reporter. He reflected awhile, face knotted in thought. After a long, pregnant pause, Sandburg's eyes brightened and he focused in on the reporter, then said, "The ugliest word is - 'exclusive." Today we are talking about how to be a compelling platform master, a speaker with true platform presence. This is one of the eight constant factors of being a platform master and what Carl Sandburg did, was compelling. He created, anticipation. Sandburg's choice of a word ‘exclusive’ is not the story here. It’s how he arrived at the story that’s most powerful. He created anticipation with effective use of pauses and repetition and physical reactions. He didn’t just answer a question, he created a moment. Creating anticipation - a moment - in your audience is what signals to your audience that you are a platform master. When we create anticipation, we turn our audience from being observers into being partners. Instead of being passive listeners they become companions on a journey. So, we are going to explore how you can create a ‘anticipation’ with your audience that results in a compelling moment they won’t forget. A speaker who uses anticipation to compel will use inductive language, as opposed to deductive language. What’s the difference I hear you ask. A deductive speaker appeals to logic while an inductive speaker appeals to emotions. A deductive speech appeals to rational thought and an inductive speech appeals to the senses. Here, let me tell you a story that we all know end result of. Here’s the deductive version… "Bricks are a superior building medium, as proven in the field." Now, I can hear you mumbling… "What?" - raising your eye brows. Now let me create anticipation using inductive language. “Once upon a time there were three little pigs. One pig built a house of straw while the second pig built his house with sticks. They built their house