Great Speaking Coach

Public Speaking: Presentation Anxiety? Slides are NOT the Answer

"I lose my train of thought." "I'm afraid I'll forget an important point." "I need slides so I can give my audience a copy to help them remember what I said."

Are these good reasons to make your entire presentation a Power Point slide deck? Not in my book!

Here's how to overcome these particular anxieties:

"I lose my train of thought": You can ensure you keep on track by starting to build your presentation or speech at the end--know what your call to action is. Then build your entire presentation clearly and unmistakably to drive towards the call to action. Your brain and your memory do not work as well if you start at the beginning and hope you'll end up someplace close to your destination.

"I'm afraid I'll forget an important point": First question is 'important to you or to the audience?' Most of the time this fear is expressed when the presenter is worried about missing a point that is important to himself/herself. When you put the audience first, you'll realize that getting the overall message across doesn't depend on one specific point.

"I need slides so I can give my audience a copy to help them remember what I said": It's your responsibility to deliver a presentation that is memorable so the audience will remember you even without copy of your slides. Craft compelling content and deliver it engagingly and they will remember. There are specific attributes of speech that appeal to the human brain. Use them instead of relying on hard copies of boring slides.

How do you deal with your speaking anxieties? Share your ideas through our comment link below.

Public Speaking: Ask, Don't Tell

Your own expertise practically guarantees that you'll bore your audiences. 

"Made to Stick" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath is a fascinating study of how sticky ideas get people to change their opinions and their actions--or not. If your ideas don't stick, the audience will not budge.

Your expertise may get you invited to speak, but then it will hamper your ability to give the audience what it craves: surprise and mystery. You want to share everything--no surprise, no mystery.

At the same time the audience will resist this information dump as same old, same old. No need to pay attention--"I'll think about what interests me, thank you very much."

Analogies are one way to provide some surprise and mystery. When the audience thinks you're about to talk about financial results in terms of billions of dollars, surprise them by talking about small, every day purchases. Create a personal context they can then spend some mental energy on translating to the corporate context.

Try for unexpected analogies--instead of football teams, try something a bit less familiar-synchronized swimming for example. Instead of road maps talk about recipes. Instead of a lecture, pose a series of questions they will not know the answers to, then creatively deliver the information they need so they can answer the questions by the end of the talk.

I've been coaching CEOs, key executives and sales teams to build their presentations with leading materials.These are many different types of content, including exercises, props, handouts, stories and pop culture icons. It's the leading materials, well crafted and delivered creatively, that grab the audience and keep them. They help your ideas stick.

They may not seem in the mold of "business speak" but neither does Disney's daily, years-long analogy that makes employees into "cast members" and the parks into "stages."

What analogies do you use to surprise your listeners and what mysteries keep them paying attention? Share your ideas through our comment link.

Public Speaking: Avoid the Deadly Quotations Trap

How do you incorporate quotations into your presentations? This came up during a recent private coaching session and I realized yet again how poor power point is in helping convey the impact of a quotation.

You've gone to the trouble of finding a quote from someone who is recognizable in their field or as a pop culture figure. And you chose this quotation because it leads to one of your key points. So do NOT copy it word for word into your slide and project it.

Why not? Because what could be a living, memorable moment when delivered by you with vocal variety and gestures becomes a flat, two-dimensional inert set of words.

The audience does not need the exact text. They need, indeed they CRAVE, meaning and being touched by the idea the quote conveys. You can only accomplish this by delivering the quotation yourself.

Two simple techniques will help the quote have the impact you are searching for:

1) Copy the quote in a very large font, print it and paste it onto a heavy piece of paper. Put it in a plastic sleeve.

2) Practice reading the quotation with different types of vocal variety. Listen to how speed, volume, tone and pauses change the stickiness of the words. Once you've uncovered the most powerful delivery, practice it until it is natural. You can markthe hard copy with notes so you rememberr your vocal variety during the presentation.

What techniques do you use to convey meaning from quotations? Share your thoughts through our comment link.

Public Speaking: Be Surprising not Complacent

How's this for a spectacular definition of what makes a good teacher: "Good teachers matter because they can surprise you out of your complacency and into new views of the world. Or--and this is just as valuable--they can induce you to struggle to affirm intelligently what you've previously believed in indolent, unconsidered ways." Mark Edmundson, New York Times Magazine, Sept. 21, 2008

Great speakers demonstrate these same qualities. They step outside what is conventional to shake people up and in the process help those people think freshly about whatever they believe they know.

Most business speakers do not shake people up--they stick with every convention they know and avoid bold challenges. They don't want to make a mistake, or offend anyone. So they spout facts and figures, corporate details and operations manuals that fit neatly into the audience's mind set.

I don't get this! You're a CEO or a key individual or you're the leader of a high-performance sales team. You've got status and reputation and yet you speak the same old stuff over and over, in the same old format.

Why is there always a podium or lectern? Why read your detailed script? Why throw up power point slides, or stick to the formulaic introductions and summaries and conclusions?

I see audiences hungry for a challenge, not hungry for more of the same.

Why not make a promise to yourself that for one month--this month--you will surprise your audience out of their complacency or make them affirm intelligently what they believe they know?

How do you get your audience to think? To leave the room saying "I never thought of it that way before?" Share your thoughts through our comment link.

Public Speaking: Are You Just Boring?

What does it mean to behip, cool, or in the know? A provocative article in the New York Times Magazine challenges everyone who leads, speaks or teaches to understand that the enemy of attractiveness or being memorable is being just like everyone else--even when the audience thinks that 's what they want. It used to be that being cool was being different--now cool or hip is being just like everyone else.

Professors who crave great evaluations put themselves in the position of being the students of their students. If the students are deeply involved in social networking, the profs do it too. Kids love computers in all their forms, so the professors use them too. No one dares ban laptops in class for fear of being blacklisted and boycotted.

Business leaders also add more digital components to their speeches and presentations. They do this because they see everyone else doing it and because they believe the audience expects it.

But you know what??? When you do this you become just another digital source--not distinguished from all the rest and just as expendable. How many times have you thought or realized that if you miss something in a digital medium, it's okay--because there are more to come that are just the same.

When you speak to an audience--and I mean speak--no slides or very few crafted deliberately and to lead to your points--you'll get some grumbling. But nine times out of ten the majority of the audience will actually remember you for what you didn't do--and that will strengthen the impact of your message.

How do you avoid the trap of knowingness--being so much like the majority that you don't stand out? Think of speeches and presentations in terms of the audience's pain and the call-to-action. Craft a speech that they won't easily find anywhere else. Deliver it with passion and authenticity. That's something that will be worth your time and the time the audience puts into attending.

How do you stand out? Share your best ideas through our comment link below.

Public Speaking: Confidence When You Need It Most

You shy away from speaking opportunities because of the fear factor. Many people express fear about the actual experience of being in front of a group. I have also talked with people who are afraid of the preparation part. They think they're going to be 'bad' and get lots of criticism, so they just plan to 'wing it.' That way, if they don't do so well, they have a rationale.

The only way to speak even if you're fearful is to do it, and do it over and over.

The preparation effort must be a positive experience. I bring three fundamental attitudes and behaviors to my public speaking coaching clients:

1. You are an expert. I help you identify and concentrate on your expertise. When you speak about something you have deep inner knowledge about, and you let your passion and authenticity  come through, you gain confidence.
2. I work with you to methodically craft your speech or presentation. How do you learn to play golf, or cook, or do anything--step by step. The same holds true for speaking. My Speech Development System (TM) is crystal clear, and gives you confidence because it doesn't miss anything. You'll know your content makes sense and that you've got a message the audience wants to hear.
3. You improve your delivery by relying on your natural style qualities. I help you polish them to heighten the best elements and diminish the ones that are distracting to the audience. You'll never feel foolish or uncomfortable because you'll be true to yourself.

Any public speaking training or coaching you get should have the same approach. Run from anyone whose philosophy is 'no pain, no gain.'

What techniques do you use to work through your fear of public speaking? Post your thoughts through our comment link.

Sales: The Answer They Want or the Right Answer?

Is what they want to hear--or what you think they want to hear--the right answer? The right answer is the truth, nothing polished up and slanted, just the real, accurate truth.

You've studied your client or prospect. You've identified their immediate and long term needs, "their pain," and even gone so far as to confirm this with them. (Not all sales people do this!!!)

You're in front of them with your prepared sales presentation.It starts with a slide telling them where you are, who you are and the date--information they already know!

Then you launch into your company overview--"they need to know who we are." They don't care about you until they know you care  about them.

You start showing them what you can do and how it will benefit them. Here's where you're thinking "I am so good at this. I'll tell them everything they want to hear." And then we get back to the question I asked at the beginning of this post.

I'm not thinking about the difference between truth and outright lies. It's about accurate truth and polished or slanted truth. "We have the resources in place to get this to you in 6 days" is the accurate truth. "We have the resources in place to get this to you in about 5-6 days" is not accurate. You've given yourself some wiggle room with the word 'about' and the range of days.

When you tell the accurate truth you build loyalty. Your clients know they can count on you and that belief grows the more times you deliver exactly what you say you will.

How do you tell the accurate truth in your sales presentations? Share your thoughts through our comment link.

Public Speaking: The Power of Being Non-Conditional

You have many ways to express things you know are necessary for the future. 'I expect', 'I want', 'I demand', 'I require'. These are imperatives.

You can also say "I would like" or "it seems to me that it would be a good idea to..." These are conditionals.

Why do you and many other executives and leaders resort to the conditional when you really want to speak in the imperative?

Elizabeth Cowper, professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto, told William Safire of the New York Times (September 14, 2008): "It's (the conditional) used to express politeness or deference."

How often have you resorted to the conditional even though you represent the highest level of leadership in your company or organization? Your audience wants clear and specific direction from you. It is impolite to waste the audience's time and reduce their return on investment if you just express your call-to-action politely, with deference, as a hope.

When you use my Speech Development System(TM)--starting first of all with an audience profile that tells you what is on the minds of the audience--then you'll create a speech that takes them to the call-to-action. This is an imperative that they will be happy to execute because you've shown them how it resolves the problem on their minds.

What steps will you take to ensure you speak more in the imperative and less in the conditional? Share your thoughts thorugh our comment link.

Public Speaking: Does Negative Work?

Imagine this: a shareholder meeting where the attendees are enthusiastic, upbeat and optimistic. At another meeting of shareholders of a company in the very same industry, the attendees are downbeat and pessimistic.

Each of these meetings is lead by the CEO and the mood is reported widely in the business media. Which meeting would you rather be at?

These meetings were for Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, respectively. Certainly the financials of these airlines couldn't be more different, and it is appropriate for the meetings to reflect reality.

The American Airlines CEO painted a very gloomy picture, I suppose because he thought he needed to be realistic and business like. What about looking towards the future? Showing the audience, the media and the financial markets that there are efforts underway to stem the losses? This is the prime time when a springboard story--we've overcome obstacles before--and a future story--here is where we will be in 3 years--would move beyond the pessimism.

Leadership is far more than reporting the current situation. Leadership is about showing an improved future path and asking the audience to come along.

How do you demonstrate your leadership in your speeches and presentations? Share your thoughts through our comment link.

Public Speaking: Your Stories or Others?

In my last post I showed you a perfect example of a story that makes a key point. There's contrast between the topic of the story and the topic of the article (could have been a speech). The story grabbed you because it featured a well-known group(the Mets) and a person known to be a colorful character. It had dialog, it was short and it hit the key point perfectly.

This story was not the author's own story. That is, he wasn't on the Mets or in the clubhouse when it took place. So why did I feature it?

It is a perfect model of how a story that is not about the actual topic can make the actual topic come alive and the key point be more sticky.

I always encourage speakers to comb their own memories for stories that are their own. I do believe without a doubt that the most effective stories are the ones that come from the speaker's own experiences. When the story is crafted to make it meaningful to the audience, it is powerful and memorable and transmits the 'real content.'

Find your own stories through a simple exercise that's one of the bonuses you get with your purchase of my audio CD The Great Speakers Guide To Business Storytelling. The Guide tells you about the 7 story types, makes it easy to find your own stories and gives you tips on how to make them memorable in your speeches and presentations.

How do find stories and use them in your presentations? Share your ideas through our comment link.