Why most public speaking advice is wrong—and how to finally overcome anxiety | Tristan de Montebello

People tend to get into a, a public speaking voice. We'll be in a class and they'll be chatting normally and, and look super normal, and then we'll say, "Okay, now just a timer, I'm just gonna give you a speech. Just speak for 60 seconds so we get a baseline." And I click play and suddenly they say, "The important part about doing this..." And they enter into a different version of themselves, a professional version, whatever that would mean. It's so much more freeing, powerful, connecting and effective to speak conversationally. So the cue I often give people is... (instrumental music)

Today my guest is Tristan DeMontebello. Tristan is the co-creator of Ultra Speaking, which is the best public speaking workshop I have ever come across. In 2017, Tristan became the fastest competitor to reach the finals of the World Championship of Public Speaking, and based on that experience, built a very unique course that helps you quickly build the skills to become better and to become more comfortable speaking in public, and especially speaking on the spot. I like to spend time on this topic, uh, on this podcast because becoming a better speaker is such an accelerant of your professional life, and in this episode we delve into a bunch of tactics and also misconceptions about how to become a better speaker. And to make it even more fun and interesting, we go through a few of the exercises that Tristan and his team have developed live on the podcast. He goes through 'em, I go through them. It was a lot of fun. I'm excited to hear what you think. If you enjoy this podcast, don't forget to subscribe and follow it in your favorite podcasting app or YouTube. It's the best way to avoid missing future episodes, and it helps the podcast tremendously. With that, I bring you Tristan DeMontebello. Tristan, thank you so much for joining me and welcome to the podcast.

Thanks so much for having me.

So I took a, an abridged version of this speaking course that you teach called Ultra- Ultra Speaking, and it immediately made me feel more comfortable public speaking, which I have never felt doing any other course. Public speaking is something I just, like, is very s- uh, scary to me, as it is for a lot of people, but it's just something I really dread. Like, even doing these podcast episodes, every time I get nervous before doing these things, as much as it may not seem that way. So this is not my natural habitat, speaking, being in public. Like, it may not seem that way to people, but it's, it's true. And the way you approach this stuff is so unique and worked for me. And because of that, I thought it'd be awesome to just bring you on this podcast and basically try to teach people the stuff that you've learned about how to become a pub- b- better public speaker. I know we're not gonna do your course here, but just like what are some very tactical things people can immediately start to apply? And also, I wanna make this super interactive so we'll actually do some of the exercises that you, uh, use in your class. So, so that's what we're here for. How does that sound?