Short YouTube panel (Global Speakers Academy) in which experienced speaking coaches describe what elevates a speaker from good to great. Key recurring recommendations: be vulnerable and conversational so audience members can "find themselves" in your story; use storytelling and stage-side contrasts (positive vs negative) when making offers; make the talk about serving the audience rather than the speaker; balance teaching (examples, stats) with inspiration; create clear contrasts between right/wrong approaches and outcomes; and ground your physical presence so movement is intentional.
Chapters
What do great speakers do that good speakers don't? Recently, I was at Global Speakers Academy put on by entrepreneur organization, where I got to ask this exact question to legendary speakers like Pat Quinn, Danny Bursell, coach Jimmy, Renee Marino, Diane Swillinger and Hope Zavara. And mind you, these coaches, these speakers, these legendary speakers have coached legendary speakers like Tony Robbins, Grant Cardone, Daymond, John, and many, many others. Thousands of other business owners around the country listen to what they have to say.
I think the greatest speakers allow you to find yourself in their story by being vulnerable. Because so many speakers want to come out and they think, I need to be loud, I need to be a Tony Robbins, I need to be a Gary Vaynerchuk. I love both those guys. But what makes them good speakers is because they're leaning into being them. Simon Sinek's a great speaker, but he's a very different energy. John Maxwell is a brilliant speaker. And it's like talking to your dad, right? And so it's not so much that good speakers have a certain style. Style. It's how can I feel like I'm having a conversation with you from stage or on a video that you're not just yelling at me even? And you can get loud, you can get boisterous. God knows I do all the time. But what I appreciate is when people come back to me and say, jimmy, I feel like you were just talking to me. I feel like I know you. Or people that have watched my content and we finally meet in person and they're like, I feel like I already know you. Or, oh, my gosh, you are the same guy that I've seen on stage or on videos. And I think that's the difference.
Some of the things that the greatest speakers always do is you'll see them telling positive stories on one side of the stage and negative stories on another side of the stage. And when they make their offer, they always make sure to give the author on the positive side of the stage. That's something you'll start noticing from now on. You see politicians do it all the time.
Before you walk out onto the stage, get out of your own head. Don't make your talk about you look at that audience and decide you're there to help them. You're there to serve them. Don't make it about you, make it about helping them. You'll get out of your head and they'll get better results from your talk.
I think great speakers know the right balance of teaching and inspiring, or they know the balance of giving examples and giving, like, stats and figures. It's a balancing act. And we've all heard speakers where it's just like, if you tell me another number and. And read me another metric, like, I think my head is gonna explode. But we've also had speakers that spend 45 minutes just talking about inspirational messages, and they don't actually teach us something. It's the person that does both. It's like when I teach my kids, they've done something, and I'm gonna explain to them why I want them to do this a certain way. And then I encourage them on how it could look and what could happen when they do it that way. It's really about the marriage of both of them. And when done correctly, you. You do go from good to great.
What great speakers always do is create great contrasts. They don't just tell you the way it should be done. Like, you should do this, this, and this. They contrast that with the way it shouldn't be done. So they say, instead of doing this, do this. Don't have it look like this. Have it look like this. You don't want these results. You want these results. Teaching is so much more effective. Speaking is so much more effective. When you create a contrast not just with the right way to do it, but contrast the right way to do it with a different way to do it. Contrast how you should do it to how you're doing it now. The results that you would get compared to the results that you would get if you don't do it, make the contrast. All great speakers do it. It's one of the reasons we love them, and it's the big reason that we follow them.
Ground themselves. Grounding yourself means not that you don't move. It means that when you move, it's intentional. And when you find that spot on the stage, you plant yourself like a tree rooted in the ground, and you stand there, shoulders back, confident and serving from your heart.
