Great Speaking Coach

Speaking Mentoring for Business Speakers

You've been speaking for years as part of your professional work. Sometimes you think you'd benefit from some new ideas about how to pump up your energy on the platform. Maybe you'd like to stop getting hung up on slides. You'd like to respond to your creative impulses but you're not sure how that works for a serious business speaker. You don't need detailed and extensive speaking coaching. Is there an alternative?

Speaking Mentoring is the answer. Speakers and their mentor have a formal relationship that lasts over a period of time, and the mentor is available to provide expertise just as needed in response to specific requests from the mentoree. Need to bounce an idea off an expert? Want some help crafting a particular story or more effectively using some research, statistics, or trends? Not sure if the speech flows as smoothly and clearly as needed from attention-getting-opening to call-to-action? Prepping for an audience that's different from those you usually speak to?

Your mentor is the person to turn to. These are "spot" needs and a confident, experienced business speaker easily will be able to incorporate the mentor's advice or recommendations into the speech and delivery.

I've coached hundreds of speakers over the past thirteen years. As their coach, I help my clients dig deep for confidence, persistence and patience. We work on every skill, from understanding the audience to the final, live delivery. Coaching is highly valuable for many people.

Many of my coaching clients come back to me for targeted, specific, quick help now and again. This is Speaking Mentoring.

If you've been speaking for business for years and are looking for on-demand, targeted advice and pointers, consider joining my Speaking Mentoring program. You'll get unlimited access to me during business hours by email and phone. You can call or write if you think Speaking Mentoring might be just the help that will help you raise your reputation as a business speaker to a higher plane.

Like a News Story? 3 Steps to Fit It into Your Speech

Every week a new human-interest story captures our attention: hurricanes, attacks on innocent citizens, sports contests such as the Olympics or year-end championship games. Speakers are so tempted to look for great stories of the people and their experiences in these events. "If I just tell so-and-so's story, I'll be able to grab and keep my audience's attention" you think. Yes, you could do that and later find out that you're the umpteenth person to repeat that story. Then you get known for sharing old news and that's not a reputation you want to cultivate.

Here are three ways to make well-known news stories fresh and meaningful for your audiences and get a reputation as a sparkling thinker and inspirational speaker:

1) Find a person involved in the event whose back story reminds you of your own. Look for similar home situations, family size, competition with siblings or classmates, financial challenges, psychological stumbling blocks, cultural stereotypes, physical obstacles. You only need one that matches your life experience. Let's say you select an Olympic athlete.

2) Look deeply at this one match between this athlete and you. How are they the same? How are they different? What were the reactions from family, friends, coaches and teammates for the athlete and for you? How did you respond to these reactions and how did the athlete respond? Make a list of similarities and differences.

3) Craft a simple story: hero (the athlete), crisis ("you can't do that!"), obstacles to overcoming the crisis (no money, no coach, poor physical condition), steps taken to overcome the obstacles, and the outcome. One story for the athlete, one story for you.

Put these two stories together in your speech. Open like this: "Imagine being 8 years old, dreaming of gymnastics day and night, yet only having access to the neighborhood gym: some tattered mats, an old balance beam, a pommel horse that had seen better days. You're surrounded by family and friends who love you but have no clue about how to help you fulfill your dreams. That was (Olympian's name here) life and that was my life too. I (add a few details of your story). I imagine that if she and I were to talk about our childhoods, we'd have similar stories."

Your audience is now connecting to you because you're telling your own story, rather than the Olympian's story. This is powerful because you are there right in front of them and you can look them in the eye and connect with them. You can convey that you know they've been there too. The Olympian, no matter how personable, is not there in person. And your story is fresh to them.

As you continue to weave your story in and out of the Olympian's story, you also ask your audience questions. "Remember a time you felt that (one of the crises or obstacles here)?" The audience nods as they remember. "You probably had a well-meaning (mother/foather/coach) who didn't want you to get hurt." They nod. And so on. Every time you share an additional story element, you ask the audience to recall something similar from their own lives.

This method of weaving three stories together--the Olympian's story, your own story and the audience's story--is how you make known news fresh and new for each and every audience. Complete this inspiration with a call-to-action that invites the audience to become an Olympic champion in their own worlds.

Current events will fade from the news and other world events will become prominent. Use this method of making known news new and fresh each and every time you speak and you'll grow your stature as a business speaker with a message that is meaningful to everyone in your audiences.

 

Focus on Outcomes, Actions Will Follow

Which will inspire you more: visualizing every single step of a half-mile walk or imagining the sense of accomplishment you'll feel when you complete the walk?

The same contrast exists between long 'to-do' lists and short lists of outcomes and the benefits you'll enjoy from those outcomes. Stop making your chores, tasks and obligations the focus of your work. Instead make a list of what you want to accomplish each day and week, and then just do what needs to be done to reach those goals. Achieving one outcome per day will make you feel happier than crossing off a dozen items from a task-heavy to-do list.

Business speeches and presentations are always about outcomes, not about to-do lists. Don't start with a to-do list such as: decide on topic; pick slide format; enter bullets & images; write speaking notes; practice; make sure laptop works.

Start with the desired outcome, which first must be audience-focused: what does this particular audience want to be able to accomplish after listening to my speech or presentation? The answer defines your call-to-action and the rest of your content.

The secondary desired outcome is what you hope to accomplish with the speech or presentation. Your desired accomplishment must be in harmony or alignment with the audience's desired otucome. Keeping this in mind will help guide you as you select your high impact content. For example, using statistics, stories or trends that support your desired outcome will also help the audience achieve their desired outcome.

Once you've clearly articulated the audience's outcomes and your own, you will go ahead and DO what needs to be done. At the end of the work, you'll be able to check off the accomplishment and feel a sense of satisfaction for a job well done.

Focus on outcomes and then take the actions that are natural to achieving the outcomes. At the end of each week, give yourself time to savor 5 accomplishment and the benefits they generated for you.

Share how you feel when you focus on outcomes compared to your feelings when focusing on to-do lists in our comment box.

 

 

'Elite' Shouldn't Be a Dirty Word

There's been lots of talk, social media and press about people who are labeled 'elite'. Athletes, candidates for office, very wealthy CEOs and business owners, entertainment stars. Too often the label 'elite' carries a negative connotation: out-of-touch, too big for their breeches, arrogant, excessive consumerism, outsized ego. The mixed message we get is that being 'elite' gets you lots of recognition, but we don't really think you're a nice or good person. So that makes it hard for many to strive to be elite in their own fields.

I see this manifest most often in the way people use their time. Time is limited, so how you use it will contribute or not to your reputation. Those who want to become elite guard their time more carefully than any other resource and use it wisely. They prioritize aggressively and never use time for activities that don't clearly propel them along the path to elite status. Among the activities that propel them along the path to elite status are those that enhance their strengths. They invest in themselves.

Once you've decided to become elite in your realm, you'll become less 'busy' and more productive. Too often 'busyness' fills your time without propelling you along the path to elite. You have to ruthlessly halt the busyness and use the time for investment.

One investment that will get you to elite is coaching. Do you think that anyone among the elite hasn't worked with coaches of various types? It's easy to imagine athletes being coached, but executives, entertainment stars, candidates for office and others invest in themselves through coaching.

The next time you think you're too busy to invest in coaching, stop and ask yourself what your favorite elite person would do. They'd choose coaching over any other use of their time, because when you're elite, you increase your discretionary time as well as your financial strength. You can spend the time on coaching now or you can spend the time on making up for your weaknesses later.

Who's your favorite 'elite' and how are you going to emulate them so that 'elite' is no longer a dirty word? Share your thoughts in our comment box.

 

Key Words AND Creative Words Help You Speak

You're making notes on index cards to help guide you through the content of your speech or presentation.  The notes should consist of 'trigger' words, words that prompt you to speak from your passion, inner knowledge and expertise.

You've crafted your speech or presentation following the 5 Steps to Transformative Speeches and Presentations, which means you have an attention-getting opening, high impact content, key points and a call-to-action. Here are three pointers about what you should write on those note cards:

1) Key words: one word that reflects the subject of each specific element. If your attention getting opening is a story, your key word would be the one word that triggers your mind to focus on that particular story. Perhaps it would be the location, the event, or the predominant feeling the experience generated.

For high impact content such as a quote, some trends, an event in the news, or some statistics, your key word might be the person who said the quote, the topic of the trend, the familiar name of the news (e.g. Hurricane Katrina), or one remarkable number.

2) Creative words: these are triggers to your interpretation of the key word. For your story, the creative word could be the emotion the story elicits, a question you want to ask the audience, or the surprising outcome. For your high impact content, the creative word also could be your interpretation, the question you want the audience to consider, or what it is an analogy for. The creative word notes remind you to make the content your own, which is what the audience values most highly.

3) Vocal Variety notes: The best crafted content will be enhanced with the addition of some variations in your voice. Include notations about the vocal variety effect you want to associate with your high impact content. The easiest and most effective vocal effects are: speed (faster or slower than your normal speed); volume (louder or softer than your normal volume); and pauses (to create anticipation or to give the audience time to process what you just said). When you make notes about vocal variety, you don't have to worry about remembering them. After a few practices, they will become second nature, but having them in yournotes will give you security in front of the audience.

If you aren't in the habit of using index cards for notes, I strongly recommend that you get in the habit.

 

The One Critical Habit for Speaking Preparation

Is there actually one critical habit for preparing to speak that will make you a better speaker/presenter? Yes, there is!

Handwritten note cards.

Let's take a look at how they make a difference to speakers and presenters and their audiences.

1) They separate you from pages of text or slide decks. Note cards (4"x6" index cards) force you to extract the essential content from the written text of your speech or from the details of your slides.

2) This is good for your audiences because audiences hate being read to. If the audience is happy with your delivery, you will gain in reputation and status.

3) Note cards give you confidence. You realize that you truly know your content and can speak it under any circumstances.

4) Note cards help you add 'oomph' to your delivery. With just a few words per card there's room to make notations about delivery style, particularly vocal variety.

5) Note cards make it very easy to practice and rehearse. You just have a handful of cards, with a few words on each one, so you can practice anywhere. You can practice without slides because the note cards remind you of the order and emphasis of your speaking content and you realize you can make sense without defaulting to the slide. The more practice, the better the perfromance.

6) Note cards help you listen to yourself as you practice. Having just a few words to glance at frees your mind from the writing and allows you to focus on the speaking.

7) Note cards allow you to repeat your practice on the sticky spots. When you hear yourself getting stuck on spots here and there, you can extract those cards from the bunch and repeat your practices until you've smoothed them out.

Many business speakers tell me they never use, or can't use, or won't use note cards. They have all sorts of reasons but I haven't found one that stands up to, and outweighs the benefits of, using them.

• Can't read without glasses but don't want to speak with your glasses? Make the notes large enough, or learn your content so well you don't need the cards at all.
• Get confused going between the text or slides and your notes? Forget the text or slides and rely only on your notes. That's what they're for.
• Think you look like an amateur with note cards? You look much more like an amateur when you read from a script or read from your slides. Speaking is not theater. Audiences want good content delivered well that makes a difference to their lives. Note cards allow that to happen.
• Don't have the time to make note cards? That means the time you do spend on the speech or presentation will be wasted altogether because your delviery will be poor and the audience will dislike you. Spend the time on note cards to make all the prep time and the actual delivery beneficial to the audience and thereby to you.

Only speaking is speaking. Reading about speaking isn't speaking.Talking about speaking isn't speaking. Writing about speaking isn't speaking. Writing your speech or presentation isn't speaking. Only speaking is speaking. Using handwritten note cards is the one critical habit for speaking preparation that helps you speak. Only speaking is speaking.

 

 

 

Interpret Classic Ideas to Inspire Audiences

So many quotes, so often repeated! My social media streams are filled with verbatim repetitions of other peoples ideas, just passed on ad infinitum. You can do better.

Take these three steps the very next time you are tempted to post or speak a well-known quote:

1) Ask yourself "Why this quote now?" What was happening in the moments leading up to the instant when the quote came into your mind? Were you excited, stressed, puzzled, struggling, hopeful, burned out, in despair, elated?

2) Think about how the experience of that moment is connected to the quote that came to mind. Does the experience reflect the same sentiment as the quote? Is it the opposite? A variation? Do you agree or has your experience shown you that the quote no longer holds true? Is your reaction very personal to you or could it be universal?

3) Share your own thoughts about the quote instead of just the quote. "While so-and-so said (quote here) my own perspective is that (your personal idea here)." Now you have added value to the quote and you've provoked your audience or reader to think deeply about the quote.

Audiences and readers want to know what you think and how you experience the world. Stop adding to the stream of repetition. Articulate your interpretation and share that instead.

Join the conversation! Post your intepretation of a well-known, oft-repeated quote in our comment box.