About this event:

Public Speaking for Writers and Other Introverts
(A Skill-Building Workshop)

This will be an experiential workshop where participants first learn a skill, see a demonstration of it, then try it themselves with plenty of opportunity for experimentation and learning. Participants will practice delivering super-short presentations with peer and video feedback for maximum learning. Don’t get scared; nobody’s video will be up on the big screen.  Each participant will bring a smart phone or tablet so that they can view their own presentations privately and with directions for specific behaviors to watch for. We will focus on delivery skills for both prepared and impromptu speaking.  

We will also cover audience interaction, both getting it and managing it. Soliciting interaction, managing Q&A, and handling tough, or even hostile questions can be the most dynamic part of any presentation or book event.  The skills gathered here will help writers to shine in an area where many falter.  

Writers need special tips for readings and book launches. We’ll include tips and best practices for these events as well.  

Materials provided as well as coaching and video will aid attendees in designing their own next-steps for continued learning.

Participants should come with either a smart phone or smart pad and earphones. The devices should be charged, and with plenty of memory space to record short videos. This will be a valuable feedback tool and will help participants to not only improve their skills but create next steps for continued improvement and lifelong learning.  

The most common surprise among participants of Betsy’s classes is that they are not only informative, they are FUN. If you come with a sense of adventure and playfulness you’ll not only maximize learning but enjoy the experience as well.  

Participants will:

1. Gather simple skills that instantly help them speak with confidence, and authenticity
2. Learn techniques for engaging listeners and connecting on an emotional level
3. Get special tips for book launches, readings, and media interviews
4. Learn how to handle tough questions or challenges from audience members or media
5. Get next-step tips for continued practice and lifelong learning.

About our speaker

Betsy Graziani Fasbinder

Betsy Graziani Fasbinder is an award-winning author, a licensed psychotherapist, and an in-demand communications trainer. She has coached public speaking for the enthusiastic, the reluctant, and the downright phobic in Fortune 500 companies and public classes throughout the U.S. and abroad. She has coached executives preparing for high-level pitches, politicians running for office, and movers and shakers preparing TED talks. Regardless of position or the type of presentation, she coaches others to conquer their stage fears, to engage listeners, eliminate distracting habits, and never again allow a fear of public speaking to be an obstacle in their business and personal endeavors.

A lifelong lover of books, empowering writers is one of Betsy’s passions. After all of the work that goes into writing a book and securing opportunities to speak about it, authors deserve to enjoy their book events and trust their own speaking skills, making them the best possible advocate for their books and ideas.

Betsy overcame her own terror of public speaking by learning a set of simple techniques. She now shares these skills with writers and other creatives, helping them to inform, entertain, influence, and inspire audiences of any size. She loves helping those skilled at finding their “writing voice” to find their “speaking voice” so that they can use their platform to maximum advantage.

Betsy is the author of a novel, Fire & Water, (2013) and Filling Her Shoes: A Memoir of an Inherited Family (2017), both published by She Writes Press. Filling Her Shoes was honored with a Booklist Starred Review, a Pinnacle Achievement Award, and listed by Readers’ Favourite as a “memoir to read”.