Great Speaking Coach

Do You Have the Character to WOW Your Audience?

WOW factors are the mystical, hard-to-achieve qualities that make people leave the room saying "Wow, that was amazing." Right? Well, mystical yes, but not hard to achieve.

It's thrilling to be surrounded by a cheering, stomping crowd listening to a speaker who is charismatic and charming. Your heart beats faster, you're flush with enthusiasm, your mind spins with visions of your own charmed life coming the next day. These experiences make conferences and conventions buzz and leave everyone feeling great.

You, the more down-to-earth business speaker, are not likely to create that experience for your audiences because you don't work at it day in and day out. Keynote speakers who enchant the audience spend their whole working lives making themselves that way. The typical business speaker has to fit speaking into an already packed schedule.

So how can you WOW your audiences? The answer begins with something you have right at your fingertips--your character. Character means being true to yourself and speaking from your inner knowledge with passion and authenticity. When you show your authentic self to your own audiences, you'll connect with them and give them value.

Here are my three best tips for connecting with your audience and making them glad they were there:

1) Think "conversation" not presentation and definitely not "Power Point". No matter how formal the setting, your conversational attitude must come out loud and clear.

2) Put yourself in your audiences' shoes. What path are they traveling? What goals do they have? What troubles would they like to deal with? What gets them excited? I guarantee you that when you craft all of your content with these questions in mind, you'll increase the conversational attitude and the connection. Put the audience first.

3) Rehearse ten or twenty times more than you usually do. You won't understand the value of lots of rehearsals until you do it. Once you've rehearsed 20-30 times, you'll be so conversational and authentic that you'll make them feel that they're sitting over dinner with a good friend.

Speaking opportunites occur in businesses every day. Be the one in your office to embrace them, create "WOW" and see your repute and regard grow.

Share your stories of creating "WOW" through our comment link.

Speaking...The Original Wireless Connection (TM)

Speaking is the original wireless connection: always 4 bars, never at the mercy of cell towers, instant on and realistic sound. Yet people often forget the value of connecting this way even as they upgrade their tablets and smartphones.

Connect, connect, connect with your audience. Do it three times per speech for the ultimate connection experience.

1) Attention-getting opening (AGO): put the word YOU, as in the audience, in the first few words you ever say. (Not 'thank you for that kind introduction' which is not about the audience at all). The best AGOs ask the audience to see or feel something personally. "Imagine you are...", "Take a moment to picture...", "How have you felt when...?" What follows these opening fragments should be related to your call-to-action at the end of your speech.

2) Make your story their story: a one-armed man spent 45 minutes telling the audience ( I was there) how he had managed to golf, shoot hoops, tackle, and swim even though everyone told him he couldn't because he only had one arm. While his own story was remarkable, he never once asked the audience what "limb" they were missing and how they overcame it to do something others challenged them to do. Find the human elements of your story and focus on them, not just on yourself, to make your story meaningful to your audience.

3) Call-to-action (CTA): Get your audience thinking about what they will DO next. Not think about, not talk about, not hope for, but DO. Give them time to say it out loud, share their commitment with their neighbor, write it down, take it with them. Leave them with a short, easy to remember phrase that reminds them to take action. My CTA for speeches about speaking and presentations is "Speaking, it's your ultimate wireless connection."

Please notice frequent speech or presentation elements that are NOT on this list of ways to connect with your audience:
slides
data
policies
financial status
strategic goals
business jargon
formulas such as "tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them"
agendas
corporate overviews

These elements can be incorporated into speeches and presentations as needed but you must surround them with the three ways to connect.

Invest in your speaking...your ultimate wireless connection.

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What clients say:
"Susan has a 'way with words' and can transform virtually any subject matter into interesting, understandable, and actionable material. She can help craft presentations resulting in a story that audiences will remember long after the presentation is over. She is gifted in dealing with her clients and inspires creative approaches with her calm yet passionate desire to see others succeed. I am grateful to have benefited from her knowledge, skill, and ability, and encourage anyone seeking to improve their speaking skills to consider Susan."
K.W. Sr. Manager, Defense contractor

Let Your Inner Voices Out

You live in multiple roles: you're mom or dad, husband or wife, boss, direct report, sports fan, coach, student, teacher, and many others. Without being conscious of it, you speak in a different voice as you rotate through these roles each day. Sometimes the voice of a role is actually the sound coming out of your throat. Other times the voice is more about the language you use, your posture, your emotion, your confidence or your perspective.

Wildly popular speakers bring a variety of voices to their audiences. You can do this too.

1) In your business you're both a boss and a direct report to someone. Hopefully your 'boss voice' is one of leadership: vision, encouragement, values, and listening more than talking. And your 'direct report voice' is one of confidence in your work, strong peer relationships and forward thinking. When you craft a speech or presentation be sure to incorporate both of these voices into it. Nancy Duarte says that good speeches go back and forth between "how it is" and "how it could be". These are your two voices. Don't get stuck in one or the other, instead speak with both of them.

2) Business speakers have other roles in other parts of their lives, and their audiences do too. So tap into those other roles for a variety of voices. A 'coach voice' is part observation and recommendations and part unbridled enthusiasm. When you're building up to your call-to-action, you'll be more effective with your coach voice, not your business voice. As you write and then practice your speech, allow your coach voice to take the lead on that part. You'll realize that the words you use, the rhythm and the emotion are very different from those in your business voice.

3) Subject matter experts tend to speak like professors or teachers. This is what their audiences expect and for the most part it is fine. Yet too much of a good thing is not good. So even SMEs and other tech types need to allow their other voices to emerge. A recent client wanted to use some academic definitions in his presentation, but quoting them word for word was bogging him down. So we thought about what other voice he could use and he came up with the coach voice instead of the academic voice. He'd precede the definiton with a little humor his audience would get and paraphrase the definitions in less formal language. This also enabled him to inflect more and keep the flow of his presentatin moving.

What are your top two or three voices? Take time to identify them. What words and cadence do you use with those voices? What's the emotional content of those voices and how does it differ from your 'business voice'? How will you use these voices in your speeches and presentations?

Now, let one of those voices join the conversation through our comment box!