In a world that often prioritizes speed, productivity, and conformity, it's easy to feel disconnected from our true selves. We often rush through life, barely pausing to reflect on who we are, what we value, and what brings us joy. This reality impacts everyone, regardless of their operating system. The Root Down process will help us better understand ourselves, respect our unique qualities, and forge deeper connections with others.

Understanding the Root Down Process

The Root Down process is a concept inspired by the experiences of individuals with ADHD, who often struggle to fit into a neurotypical world. My method encourages self-discovery, self-respect, and improved connections with others.

Here’s how it works.

Know Yourself - Understanding oneself is the foundation of personal growth and well-being. Knowing your strengths, weaknesses, interests, and values clarifies decision-making and helps you navigate life more effectively. For individuals with ADHD, this self-awareness is often heightened due to the daily challenges we face. However, anyone can benefit from taking time to explore their inner landscape.

When you know yourself, you can make choices that align with your true nature. This reduces inner conflict, boosts self-confidence, and increases overall life satisfaction.

Respect Yourself - Self-respect is the cornerstone of mental and emotional health. It means accepting yourself as you are, flaws and all. The ADHD community often faces stigmatization and misunderstanding, making self-acceptance challenging. Nonetheless, it's a vital step in the Root Down process.

Respecting yourself fosters self-esteem, resilience, and a sense of empowerment. It allows you to set healthy boundaries, say no when necessary, and prioritize your well-being.

Connecting Yourself - Humans are inherently social beings. Building meaningful connections with others is essential for emotional health and personal growth. However, these connections must be based on authenticity, not masks. We must seek out like-minded individuals who understand our unique challenges.

Authentic connections provide emotional support, reduce feelings of isolation, and enrich your life with diverse perspectives and experiences.

The Root Down will transform your workplace team or conference audience. Learn more and say hello here.

As a keynote speaker, I am always working to improve my craft and my business. I find plugging peers into my ears via podcasts is a fantastic way to learn new methodologies of the craft of public speaking.

Even if you are not striving to grow a speaking business, you must admit that you can always improve how you communicate. Perhaps you will have a presentation to deliver to your board, an all-hands meeting for your staff, a pitch to investors, a wedding toast or eulogy. You can always improve how you communicate by learning from master communicators.

5 Must Subscribe Podcasts to Improve Your Presentation Skills

Steal the Show with Michael Port

Every day, there are moments when you must persuade, inform, and motivate others effectively. Each of these moments requires you in some way, to play a role to heighten the impact of your words, and manage your emotions and nerves. Every interaction is a performance whether you’re speaking up in a meeting, pitching a client, or walking into a job interview. Michael’s great voice and inspiring delivery will keep you hooked from the very first episode. Web | Apple Podcasts

Standing Ovation with Jay Baer

Standing Ovation, hosted by keynote speaker and emcee Jay Baer is where the very best public speakers reveal the secrets behind their greatest successes. In each episode, listeners hear a legendary on-stage story from a world-class speaker, and then hear Jay and his guest dissect and discuss that story. How are the best on-stage stories (some of them decades old) found, written, polished, and changed? When do they work best? When do they bomb? Web | Apple Podcasts

The Speaker Lab with Grant Baldwin

Grant Baldwin from The Speaker Lab podcast shares speaking business tactics, tips, and strategies from his own experience, case studies, and interviewing the experts. Whether you're just getting started trying to get your first booking or you're a veteran speaker looking to build and grow your business, this is for you. Web | Apple Podcasts

The Freenoter with Tamsen and Tom Webster

Introducing The Freenoter! There are lots of resources out there on how to become a paid speaker or keynoter, but what if you speak to build your business, as a FREEnoter? Each week, join Tamsen and Tom Webster as they cover all the angles of how to profit from speaking for free. If you are looking to grow your business from the stage--without "selling from the stage," this is the show for you. We will cover EVERY aspect of building your business through speaking, and even share a different craft cocktail recipe every week, just because. Web | Apple Podcasts

Good One with Jesse David Fox

(NSFW) Each week, a comedian will play one of their jokes and then break it down with Vulture.com Senior Editor Jesse David Fox. The is a podcast about - well - jokes, and the people who tell them. Web | Apple Podcasts

Each of these stellar shows will teach you the ins and outs of the speaking business. You will learn countless performance techniques and business development skills that will help you next time you are delivering a presentation or a speech.

Let me know what you think. I would love to hear from you.

Photo from Flickr by the awesome Dave Barger. Dave Delaney speaking at BarCamp Nashville in 2008.

Do a Google search for “public speaking tips” and you will find 313,000,000 results. I hope I can share a few tips here that you may not be familiar with.

This post came as a result of me doing a recent search for a specific image on Flickr. That’s when I happened upon this photo by the late, great Dave Barger. I hadn’t seen the photo in years. I was surprised to note the photo is from 2008.

I’ve been presenting to audiences for over ten years.

Dave’s photo made me reflective on the lessons I have learned. I’ve presented to audiences in the thousands and in the tens, so I decided to share a few tips I hope you find useful.

Whether you are just getting started as a speaker or you’ve been doing this a long time, I hope these lessons help you.

Public Speaking Tips You Haven’t Heard Before

I always ask conference organizers the following questions, “What does success look like in the minds of your audience?” and “Who are the most popular speakers you have had? What made them stand out?” This information helps me craft my presentation with the audience in mind.

Give the audience a way to get in touch with you after your presentation. Include a slide with your URL/email/phone number/social. Bonus points for leaving them something of value like a digital download of your presentation or cheat sheet with takeaways from your talk. I use a text-to-download service for this*. Anyone who downloads the PDF also gets subscribed to my email newsletter. This is noted before they download the document, so they can choose not to if they prefer.

* If you use such a service and you’re speaking in a different country be sure this will still work.

Always talk to the AV team before your talk. They are there to support you (not work for you). Do a mic and presentation test to be sure everything looks and works the way you expect. Test it from the stage not the AV booth. Don’t rely on a solid Wi-Fi connection. Embed videos if you plan to include them.

Avoid using other peoples' equipment whenever possible. If you must use their equipment, test it ahead of time. For example, the range of the clicker may not be wide enough for you to work the entire stage or move around the floor. 

Get as much information as possible about the audience. The more you know, the better you can make your presentation. 

Research the city. I search the city in Google News to find topics I should mention and perhaps avoid. 

Eat locally. I try to plug a local restaurant or coffee shop I discovered before the event. Audiences appreciate you spending your money locally instead of hiding in your hotel room or going to a chain restaurant. 

Be respectful to the organizers, audience, and other speakers by staying on time. I just bought a small countdown timer to pack along with my gear. Other speakers I know use their watches, iPads, and apps. Keynote and Powerpoint also include a timer if you are presenting with you computer in view.

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I hope these tips will serve you well. Leave a comment with your favorite public speaking tip. I’m always learning, even though I’ve been doing this for a while