Part of what makes public speaking scary is where do we start? Oh, my gosh, let me go to Wikipedia. Let me go to Google. Let me talk to every one of my office who's ever spoken on that. Let me gather more and more and more data. Let me start taking a slide class, it seems overwhelming.

Well, let me simplify it for you. Before you do any of that, I need you to just sit back, relax. And ask yourself, what is it I want this audience to do? The people you're speaking to? Do you want them to approve a budget? Do you want them to think you're smart and not fire you?

Do you want them to invest in you? Do you want them to vote for you? Do you want them to approve plans for some new engineering project? What is it you want them to do? That's really the starting point. That's the first thing I want you to do.

In the discussion group right here. Write down in one sentence. Really one sentence, what you want your audience to do pick a scenario if you don't speak at all yet think of one where you could in the near future. And write that down in one sentence. What is it you want your audience to do? That is the starting point of every presentation, every speech you're ever going to give