After thousands of coaching calls and trainings that I have personally conducted, I have found that people have similar challenges when presenting and influencing in front of groups. Here is a short list of the 20 most current problems and mistakes that I have helped presenters, speakers, executives, business owners, service professionals and sales professionals overcome:

1. Fear of public speaking and group presentations

2. Anxiety and stage fright

3. Lack of confidence

4. Low self-esteem

5. Rambling and cluttered messages

6. Lack of presentation structure

7. Lack of humor

8. Monotone presentations

9. Poor closing (or commitment) ratios

10. Weak call to action (CTA)

11. “The great presenter syndrome” (where your audience tells you that you are a great presenter but they do not buy from you)

12. Lack of audience control and participation

13. Poor buy in (This happens when managers conduct meetings but their employees do not commit to the ideas fully.)

14. Lack of presentation balance (either too logical or too emotional)

15. Death by PowerPoint (very common nowadays, people rely on PowerPoint to present)

16. Poor PowerPoint design and imagery

17. Poor storytelling

18. Poor voice control

19. Poor application of the 10 Laws of Influence (Most people are not even aware of the 10 major influence laws.)

20. Presentations are too long (This makes the presenter speak too fast and he or she runs out of time.)

Ok, I promised 20, but I will give you a bonus one because this is a big one:

21. Procrastination. People procrastinate when preparing and rehearsing for presentations, and that behavior ends up costing them immensely. Also, a lot of my clients have this dream of becoming speakers and presenters and they procrastinate as well, never following through with that dream. (Yes, I will help you with that as well.)