Great Speaking Coach

Quotes in Business Speeches-Do and Don't

Quotes from known figures are appealing to business speakers crafting their own speeches. I recommend using quotes as one element in your high-impact content mix. There are three rules to follow when you use quotes:

1) Give credit to the originator of the idea. I can't stress this too much. Your audience will downgrade their estimation of you if you pass off someone else's idea as your own. So the points you thought you were making by using the clever or memorable words will hurt you badly instead.

2) Tell the audience what this quote means to you. This gives you credibility and helps the concept you're speaking about stick with the audience. While you may admire someone else's ability to frame an idea in a memorable way, you want your audiences to admire you. They will do that when you help them make the idea their own by showing them how you made the idea belong to you.

3) Be absolutely sure the idea reflected by the quote really fits with your call-to-action and your own key points. Test your quotes out with some people who will give you their honest "gut reaction" to the quote. While you may love it, you might find out that no one else does. Time to get rid of it.

What's most important for speakers is to help their audiences learn what to do with the information they hear. Quotes are sound bites of information that can be found online in an instant. When you give the quote meaning in an entirely fresh way, you create tremendous value that is not found online.

People go to speeches and presentations hoping to get inspiration--meaning, direction, a vision of the future--that exceeds the informtation. Using quotes correctly will do that for them and for you.

What's your favorite quote and how do you make it fresh? Post your ideas in our comment box.

What Makes a Rock Star Business Speaker?

What makes a singer a rock star? Out of the hundreds of thousands of people who sing and make music, only a handful achieve the status of Rock Star. What do they do and can you, a business speaker, learn from them?

Rock Stars surprise and delight their audiences. They bring something unique, even if they are in a crowded genre. Is it the words, the music, the musicianship? More likely it is charisma, which is hard to define but is recognizable when we see it. They definitely do not try to be like anyone and everyone else.

Rock stars perform their well-known songs in every concert. Their fans know these songs word for word and beat for beat. Yet in the charged atmosphere of the concert, what is important is familiarity accompanied by the excitement of the moment. Rock stars sing exactly what is expected and yet each concert is unique. If you weren't there, you missed that moment forever.

Perfection and the ability to create the pulsing atmosphere come from hundreds of hours of practice and rehearsals. Rock stars work hard--really hard--behind the scenes, internalizing getting every note just right and every beat exactly when it's supposed to be. They work up a sweat in rehearsal, knowing they will need the same stamina when they're on the stage.

Contrast these behaviors with business speakers:

Business speakers do what everyone else does. There are no surprises.

Business speakers write and read scripts so that they are perfect. They don't internalize their ideas --which is not memorization--and they refuse to create a lively environment or respond to the energy of the audience.

Business speakers rehearse very little. They speak about what they know, they rely on their scripts, and they don't make time for the work it takes to be a presence on the platform.

Which are you going to be? A Rock Star speaker or just a another business talking head?

Outstanding Content First and Foremost

When was the last time you stood up and cheered a speaker because of his posture, her gestures or whether he or she stood to the left of the screen? Without amazing content, your perfect delivery style will be worthless. When your content is great the audience will paint your delivery style with the same enthusiastic brush.

I worked with a team who had to present an proposal orally to the customer. The competition was fierce and this company had the added disadvantage of not being known by the customer through past work. They were adamant about standing to the left of the screen, the so-called "power" position.  And one person insisted upon reading, word for word, her "perfect" content, no matter how many times I coached her not to do this.

They did not win the contract. In the debrief after the fact, the chief acquisition manager told my client that the rigid position on the left of the slide and the reading of perfect--but phony sounding--text was a total turn-off!

Lesson learned? Instead of putting delivery style first and foremost, you must focus on crafting content about solutions that produce exceptional results. Then speak confidently and with passion from your inner knowledge. When you speak naturally, even with a few small conversational bumps, you are believable, and that's what wins.

Work with a speaking coach and then listen to her!

Little Speeches are What Get You to the Big Speeches

What business speakers do you admire? Steve Jobs always comes to mind. And who else? Think about your industry--who is prominent and often speaks at industry events, is a sought after keynoter and may have appeared on TED? Whose videos have you watched and forwarded to your social network?

These business luminaries began back some time ago giving short presentations to small groups. Maybe in conference rooms, perhaps for company meetings, or they were breakout session speakers at conferences. Most likely all of these. They got better and better by taking every small speaking opportunity seriously.

Compare this to your way of thinking (believe me, I know!). "It's just a short presentation to my team. I know what I want to say. I'll throw a few slides together the day before and I'll be fine."

"I'll be fine" is not the same as "The audience deserves the best I can give them. It takes time to select the right content and craft it into a meaningful and concise speech or presentation. Then I have to practice it at least ten times, so I'll be able to tune in to the dynamics of the audience. That way I'll be able to respond to their facial expressions and body language as well as their comments. I want them to take away at least one idea that makes them glad they were there."

Success as a business speaker comes from taking each speaking opportunity seriously and putting everything you've got into it. There will never be a  'big speech' if you don't make the most of the little speeches.

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.

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.

 

Overconfidence May Be Making You a Poor Business Speaker

Don't we all wish to be supremely confident? Never worrying about whether we'll remember our speech or presentation, believing that we are just the right weight and wear the very best clothes for us, and knowing we'll make a speech that leaves the audience cheering on their feet?

Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich, authors of the behavioral-economics book "Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes" ask people questions that appear straightforward--but they aren't. They point out that overconfidence makes these people believe they don't need other information, so they don't ask for it. Their answers turn out to be incorrect. This is certainly a problem for investors, and I think it's a problem for business speakers.

When business speakers and presenters have overconfidence in their speaking skills, they end up stuck at their college level speaking skills even as they climb the career ladder. They ask for coaching and then respond "I know that" and proceed to do whatever they were doing before they got the advice. Overconfident speakers believe they can skim their slides or notes a few minutes before going on and they'll be fine. They let other people write their content for them, assuming that a standard message will be meaningful to every audience.

Overconfidence is a reputation-killer! When you're boring, reading your slides or notes, and delivering a message that's all about you and your interests, you're teaching people to stay away from you. When you never make time to practice and rehearse (two different focuses) your audiences know it immediately. When you say "I can speak about anything" your audiences are thinking "yeah, he or she speaks about everything but knows nothing!"

Confidence is helpful to raising the standard of your speaking skills. Confidence in your knowledge, your passion and your authenticity are critical elements. Confidence that you know the audience and will speak about the topic in ways they want to hear is much appreciated. Confidence that your voice will carry, that your gestures will be unobtrusive and your movement around the speaking platform will enhance, not distract, is good.

Overconfidence is when you believe you are bringing all these qualities to your speeches and presentations and you are not! Work with an adviser or a coach--someone who has nothing to lose by telling you the truth--and become confident, while avoiding overconfidence. Your audiences will reward you.

 

When Speaking of Numbers Make Them Meaningful

How negatively impactful is $506 million to the American taxpayer? Given that we hear numbers such as $1.2 trillion bandied about as Congress looks for an approach to trim the deficit, $506 million is clearly a drop in the bucket.

Is this a lot of money that will have a negative impact on our country? Maybe not: $506 million is 1/100th of 1 percent of the federal budget. It averages out to $1.35 per U.S. citizen per year. You can barely buy a cup of coffee or a fountain drink for $1.35.

My point is that big and huge numbers are hard for your audiences to fathom. They can be scary or seem preposterous -- anything except real. So people tune them out.

As a business speaker you may have to make some points about very large numbers, however you must make those numbers understandable to your listeners. So instead of saying that $506 million is the barest fraction of the federal budget, the writer took it to the individual level--$1.35 per U.S. Citizen. That puts the expenditure into a context that's meaningful for the audience.

A recent client wanted to talk about 53,000,000 surface operations at airports annually. He wanted to make the point that every pilot needs to be more safety conscious than ever. A better way to make that point is to break the total number down to something meaningful to each individual pilot at the time he or she is taking off or landing. What does that mean to each specific pilot? It turns out that there are 100 surface operations every minute. Now each pilot has a context into which to put his or her actions during take off and landing.

When you speak about numbers be sure that every audience member will be able to understand them. Big numbers may make people's head swivel, but will they stick? Go ahead and say the big number, then break it down to a size and context everyone can take to heart for the long term.

Help Your Audiences Feel Special with Customized Presentations

My blood boils to this day...

The scene: 14 CEOs and Key Executives; large conference table; I'm ready to give them three (only three!) tips about increasing the positive responses from their presentationsto clients and prospects.

The Pop Quiz: For each client you should A) write a fresh presentation; B) pull slides from your old files; C) deliver your one approved presentation?

Ten of the 14 chose B or C. I was appalled but they argued strenuously with me. Why?

1) Don't have time to write a fresh presentation for each new client or prospect.

2) Want the message to be exactly the same each time.

If you were one of the clients or prospects on the receiving end of this attitude, how would you feel?

You would not feel special or important. You would feel that the speaker thinks so little of you that he or she did not make the time and invest the effort needed to customize a presentation that focused on your needs. You would think "why should I do business with this company when they don't value me at all?"

Look at the two excuses given:

1) No time. You will make time for the work you believe is important. I can't think of any use of your time that's more valuable than being face-to-face with clients and prospects. It's a precious opportunity to demonstrate that you care about them--at that moment they are the single most important people in your company's life! If clients or prospects are not important enough, don't waste their time with your generic presentation. They won't buy anyway.

2) The same message. This is your hang-up and you need to get over it. Spend time with your staff so they understand and buy in to the values of your company and can speak knowledgeably about your products and services as they apply to a range of clients. It's your job to educate and inspire your people. Then encourage them to put the customer first--what do they need and why?--and apply your company's offerings to those needs.

Facebook, Google and Amazon are generating huge revenue from advertisements because they send customized ads to each user based on what they know about each and every customer. They invest their funds and time to get better and better at this. When you customize your company's presentations for each unique audience, you send a message about value that no generic presentation can communicate.

Inspiration Can Be Activated

Isn't this a fascinating idea "inspiration can be activated"? Thus writes Scott Barry Kaufman in the Harvard Business Review blog on Nov. 8, 2011 in his article Why Inspiration Matters.

I'm known for my tag line "Inspire Them First...Inform Them Later" and for the coaching I do to encourage business speakers across the board to focus on inspiration rather than information in their speeches and presentations. My belief in this is based on the fact that information is everywhere, easily accessible and cheap if not free. So why would anyone come to listen to a speaker just for information?

Instead, speakers must focus on the call-to-action they'll encourage their audience to take. The call-to-action isn't a command, however, it is a suggestion or recommendation that the audience should be eager to adopt because your speech has been so compelling. The most powerful calls-to-action are transcendent--that is, they help the listener experience clarity and the awareness of possibilities.

Here's a brief synopsis of what it takes to create an environment that prompts inspiration:

• Exposure to inspiring managers, role models and heroes
• Openness to experiences and positive affect
• Savoring small intermediate accomplishments
• Encouraging work mastery without encouraging competition

Learn more about "Inspire Them First...Inform Them Later"

How have you been inspired? Share your thoughts in our comment box.