CEA - Becoming a Better Public Speaker with Neil Thompson

Civil engineers, as with all the other professionals within the STEM sector (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), are undeniably more comfortable with the “hard skills” they are required to learn in school than they are with some, if not all, “soft skills”. However, once they start working, they realize that these soft, interpersonal skills can be just as valuable for their careers as their math-focused, college-trained competencies. Or even worse, they may end up having to use more of the former than the latter. Today’s guest is a living example that people in STEM can acquire and master such interpersonal skills to excel both in their professional and personal lives.

Neil Thompson is a speaker, writer, entrepreneur, and a professional engineer who runs Teach The Geek To Speak, an online course dedicated to teaching public speaking skills specifically to people within STEM. Neil started out his career by earning both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in product development engineering. Since his company didn’t hire a project manager, he was chosen to take on that role. However, what he didn’t know was that it included giving project status updates to senior management on a monthly basis in the form of presentations. After some failed attempts, he realized he needed to improve at this. Now, he’s combined all the things he learned over time with these monthly presentations in the form of an online course and has put it out to help others achieve the same level of mastery and further their careers.

Isaac and Neil walk us through the top tips regarding presentations, both related to how to act when giving them and how to structure our slides and visuals so that our audience can in fact listen to what we are saying. In addition, Neil paints a totally new picture of the difference between introverts and extroverts, as well as why the idea that introverts are not good at public speaking is the biggest lie ever.

Resources Mentioned

Teach The Geek - http://teachthegeek.com

Teach The Geek To Speak (Online Course) - https://civilengineeringacademy.com/teachthegeek

Teach The Geek (Youtube Channel) - youtube.teachthegeek.com

Neil’s Children’s Book (Ask Uncle Neil: Why Is My hair Curly?) - http://askuncleneil.com

Neil’s Public Speaking Book (Teach The Geek To Speak) - https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Geek-Speak-Neil-Thompson/dp/0578410117

Toastmasters - https://www.toastmasters.org

If you need exams, solved problems, or courses, make sure to check out our home base - https://civilengineeringacademy.com

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Reach out to Isaac - isaac@civilengineeringacademy.com