Great Speaking Coach

Why Speeches Should Be Like Football Games

Football grabs and keeps us, week after week, season after season. Why is that?

1)    Teams play for the crowd. Every player thinks about the fans and plays hard to please them.

2)    It is exciting and unpredictable. Teams with strong or weak records can upset other teams from time to time--and you never know until the game is over!

3)    No matter how many drills or practices the teams hold during the week, they really never know how their opponent, the weather and the crowd are going to affect them. Each game requires unique applications of well-honed skills and we get to watch.

If you approach your speeches and presentations like football players approach their games you will become a speaking star!

1)    Speak for the audience, not for yourself or your company. The audience wants to feel their time with you was well spent and that they have something to take away with them--excitement, roller-coaster emotions, suspense, relief. The sense that they were someplace that mattered.

2)    Be unpredictable. Tell a story that is relevant but uses entirely different language from what they expect. Don't use slides if they expect them. Ask them tough questions and make them think. Use an unusual analogy or image that isn't typically associated with your topic.

3)    Be so well-prepared that you can immerse yourself in the environment, the audience, the atmosphere--playing off comments from the audience, riffing on other messages you've all heard from other speakers, fearlessly answering question after question. Practices and rehearsals that install and ingrain your content, your movements and your vocal variety deeply allow you to be free to be in the moment, which the audience loves.

Think about your favorite team, player or game and replicate that excitement as you prepare and deliver your speeches and presentations. You may not be eligible for the Super Bowl, but you’ll be a super speaker.

Get Connected to Your Customers

Speaking and presenting are known success-builders for everyone who has customers and clients. You invest in and deliver a presentation that improves their performance and they respond by trusting you to help them further.

Time is always in short supply and confusion, lack of confidence and an avalanche of "rules' make people shy away from investing in presentations. However successful people always make time for what is important, so I'm going to help you overcome the confusion, lack of confidence and the avalanche of 'rules'.

How? By showing you in under 3 minutes exactly what content should be in your speech or presentation and how to quickly and easily construct it.

Click to watch.

Save this link and watch a few more times until you've got the picture firmly in your mind. Then write and deliver engaging presentations and speeches that connect you to your clients and customers. Speaking is a marketing investment that definitely pays off.

How does Write a Speech Now work for you? Post your thoughts in our comment box.

You Can Prepare for Every Possible Speaking Disaster

How much more would your audiences appreciate you if you were so prepared that you could handle every disaster that could possibly happen?

My point is not that disasters will happen many times, but that preparation to that level will make you an amazing speaker. Amazing--more than confident, definitely not memorized or perfect, just really really comfortable in your own skin and therefore in front of the audience.

Comfortable in your own skin and in front of the audience. Your favorite speakers feel this way about themselves and that's why they are your favorites. If you watched 5 of your favorites and you tried to identify the top 5 techniques or style elements or behaviors that all of them show, you wouldn't be able to. They're great because they are unique and they are comfortable in their own skin.

How can you get this way? Practice. rehearse, practice, rehearse, practice, rehearse...you get the idea. Only speaking is speaking. Writing and slides and visuals and re-writing and re-designing--none of these helps like practices and rehearsals.

If you practice one presentation 10 times, you've taught yourself about the possible mistakes, forgetful moments, glitches, stumbles over words, losing track that can happen in 10 times. If you practice 20 times, you've doubled that catalog of possible problems. Ten more times and you've tripled your catalog.

Every time you practice, you add to your knowledge of what could go wrong--and you've learned how to correct yourself and keep going. You cannot have the knowledge after 10 times that you will have after 20 or 30 times.

Is this excessive? It is not if you want to truly be comfortable in your own skin in front of your audience. Being comfortable is about being prepared and confident to handle what doesn't go right. People are attracted to confidence--think about your favorite celebrities, sports figures, writers, and other stars-- so that should be your goal.

You'll never know the difference 10 or 20 or 30 practices will make until you try them. Get booked for a 10 minute speech (or presentation) to your colleagues or at a community event. Then practice  30 times. You'll experience the difference and you'll receive many compliments. Now you've proven to yourself that being prepared for every possible disaster has a huge payoff.

 

 

Speaking is a Competition So Be Sure To Up Your Game

Competitions lead to winners and losers. The most focused and skilled people come out on top. And they have become focused and skilled because they practice, practice,practice.

How is speaking a competition? You, the speaker, are competing for a professional win--enhancing your reputation, elevating your status, getting a promotion, inspiring your teams to better results.

You're also competing against every other obligation or temptation your audience could pay attention to instead of you. Think about how often your mind, and perhaps your fingers, strays to the electronic device in your pocket. Everyone in your audience feels the same urge.

I've been thinking about the huge number of people I work with who tell me they hardly ever practice their speeches or presentations. They spend more time writing text and slides than they do learning their material and being able to deliver it well.

If you think this is fine, think about a sport or fitness routine you have become proficient at. How many swings have you taken at the golf ball? How many reps are in your muscles? You are a much better golfer or weight lifter now that you've practiced hundreds of times. The very same results will occur when you practice your speeches hundreds (okay, tens) of times.

Follow this rule of thumb: practice your speech or presentation full-out TEN times. Not 4 or 6 or 8 but TEN. If you think TEN times won't make much difference, you'll really be surprised when you experience the improvement. You cannot know how much better you will be until you've tried it.

Share your experience with practices and the benefits you enjoyed in the comment box.