The Successful Speaker

June 2009

Contents This Month

· Lights, Camera, More Lights

· Focusing on Your Audience’s Objectives

· Quotations

· Update Your Email Address

· Refer Madness

Lights, Camera, More Lights

For most of us, different presentation settings carry with them different levels of stress and nervousness. Speaking around a conference table to co-workers is fairly low stress. Presenting to an audience of hundreds from a stage with bright lights and a camera focused on us is an entirely different experience!

If you have a presentation like this on your calendar, you’ve probably already started feeling butterflies in your stomach. While I can’t get rid of those feelings, I can help you prepare a little better. Even if you don’t have one of these big presentations on your schedule, you’ll find several tips you can use.

Long before the Presentation

· Get a visual of the room. Find out if there is a picture on a website somewhere that can show you what you will see when speaking.

· Reserve a lavaliere microphone. Podium-mounted or handheld microphones limit your ability to gesture and move freely – keys to productively discharging nervous energy.

· Practice. To make your practice efficacious (nice word eh?), read on.

Hours before the Presentation

· Practice in the room. Even if you only get a few minutes, rehearse a part of your presentation.

· Contact the AV person. In addition to practicing with your content, practice with your equipment. You really don’t want your presentation to start off with “They told me that this connection would work!”

· Pick out clothing that will be comfortable in a warm environment. Your nerves and the additional lights will give you an additional “glow.” Guys – wear an undershirt!

During the Presentation

· Speak to the faces you can see in the front few rows. Fake eye contact to the shadows and objects you can’t see in the back rows. The lights will keep you from seeing the people sitting in the middle and the back of the room. By faking it, you’ll make many people think you made eye contact with them.

· Have some water nearby. Avoid ice water as much as you can! Room temperature water helps to release the mucous that builds up in our throats from nerves. Ice water constricts our vocal cords and there’s the troubling ice you have to “work around.”

Focusing on Your Audience’s Objectives

A few weeks ago, my wife sat on a plane next to a medical doctor on his way to speak to a conference. He told my wife what he was speaking about and she dutifully stayed awake even though she couldn’t understand what he was saying!

After a few minutes, she asked him a question she has learned from me. “What do you want your audience to do with your information?” He said that he didn’t really know. Unfortunately, that makes him like most public speakers. (Can you imagine how ticked off he would be to hear that?)

Before you start creating any important speech or presentation, ask yourself that very same question. If you don’t know, figure something out! A presentation without a goal for the audience is like shooting arrows without targets. Some of your possible goals:

· Use the techniques/information/processes in their jobs so they’re more productive

· Tell others about your speech

· Ask you for further information or ask you to come back

· Buy your products or services

Quotations

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” – Malcolm Forbes (American publisher)

”Don’t speak unless you can improve on the silence.” – proverb (I’ve found many sources)

Update Your Email Address

Don’t miss an issue of The Successful Speaker. If your email address is going to change, let me know about it.

Refer Madness

Share the good experience you had in my workshop or seminar. Tell people in your company, organization, professional association, or non-profit organization about me. Have them get in touch with me or you can send me their contact information. If you give me a lead that generates new business for me

· Your colleague/friend will get a powerful and fun learning event customized to their needs. I’ll deliver a session that will build skills and create positive change in their organization.

· You’ll get a check for $300 (or your favorite charity) $300 (less if it is less than a full-fee engagement). Several people have asked that the referral check be donated to a charity.

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