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10 Professional Speaking Tips That You Need To Know

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
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The Best Way To Become A Better Speaker Is To Ask A Pro

The Best Way To Become A Better Speaker Is To Ask A Pro

Editor’s Note: This article has been selected to be included in Angela DeFinis’ “Public Speaking And The New Year” Blog Carnival. This Carnival can be found online at: http://www.definiscommunications.com/blog/public-speaking-and-the-new-year/

Happy New Year! As we start yet another a new year, you may be asking yourself what is the best way for me to become a better public speaker this year? Taking a crash course in which you immerse yourself in all of the subtle tricks of effective speaking is one way. Giving a million speeches and then studying how both yourself and your audience reacted is another.

The problem with both of these approaches is that they take time. Too much time. A much better way to quickly improve is to find a professional speaker who is doing it right and ask them how they do it…

Meet A Pro

Shawn Doyle has been a professional speaker for over 19 years. During that time he’s made mistakes. Lots of mistakes. The good news for you is that he took the time to remember what he did wrong and made sure that he never repeated a mistake.

He’s come up with his list of the “top 10” things that you just can’t learn in a class. Instead, these are the speaking lessons that all professional speakers end up learning on the road. Since you are reading this, just maybe you’ll learn them here and you won’t have to learn them the hard way!

10 Tips For Giving A Professional Speech

  1. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare: I’m going to bet that I’ve fooled you on this one: I’m not talking about practicing saying your speech. Instead, I’m talking about taking the time to know your audience: how old are they, what do they do for a living, what are they expecting from you.
  2. Become A Space-Man: The effectiveness of your speech will be heavily influenced by where you end up giving it. The room, the lighting, the sound system, etc. will all play a role in determining if you are able to connect with your audience. You need to arrive early and check out the room where you’ll be speaking. It will be too late to make any changes if you show up just before you go on.
  3. It’s All In The Opening: Welcome to the age of instant-everything. We can download movies, cook a complete dinner in a microwave in minutes, and purchase almost anything over the Internet. If the opening for your speech is long, slow, and boring then you’ll lose your audience right off the bat. You need to grab them at the start and never let go.
  4. Talk With Your Hands: When you are giving a speech, your hands are an incredibly powerful communication tool that you can use to boost the impact of your speech. If you are holding on to something (a pen, a piece of paper) while you talk, then your ability to use this tool is greatly diminished. Keep ‘em free!
  5. Stop Hiding Behind PowerPoint: Ouch! This one probably hits all of us hard. We’ve worked hard to make a great set of slides and we love to use them. Stop! You are the presentation, not your slides. Don’t use PowerPoint if you can get away with it or use it sparingly if you have to. Don’t hide behind your slides.
  6. Go For A Walk: All too often speakers will plant themselves behind a lectern and stay there during your entire speech. If you do this, then you will have missed an opportunity to engage your audience by moving around. Use your entire body and where you are standing to emphasize the point that you are currently making.
  7. Use Your Own Stories: Forget those “Chicken Soup For The …” books, when you use someone else’s story it comes out much weaker than when you tell your own story. Doyle suggests that you use the following formula for creating and telling a story: story + moral + how it relates to the topic = great story.
  8. Never, Ever, Apologize: Too often speakers spend much of their speech apologizing for a wide variety of things: the room being too cold, their slides not being in the right order, etc. Stop it! When you apologize, your audience starts to see you in a different light — a negative light. Just skip the apology and move on.
  9. You Must Believe To Achieve: In order for your speech to have an impact on your audience, they are going to have to believe that you believe what you are saying. If you are just mouthing words that you don’t fully buy into, then you will come across as insincere and your message will have no lasting impact.
  10. Think About Your Audience: All too often we write the speeches that we’d like to hear. The problem with this is that we are not necessarily the same as our audience. Your speech must be about your audience and what they want, not about you and what you want.

What All This Means For You

As long as you are going to go to the effort of creating and delivering a speech, you may as well do a good job of it. The challenge that we all face is finding ways to become better at giving our speeches so that we can have a greater impact on our audience.

There are a lot of different ways to go about improving our skills; however, one of the simplest and best ways is to get guidance from professionals who have already gone out there and learned the lessons that you want to know.

I’ve listed 10 suggestions from a pro that should go a long way in helping you to avoid making some of the more common mistakes that speakers make. Read, learn, and get out there and speak like a pro!

Do you think that you could feel comfortable giving a speech without using any PowerPoint slides?

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Just how does one become a better public speaker? I mean let’s be serious here, you do want to get better, don’t you? Good news — I’m going to tell you how (and it’s free!) …

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Do You Look Presentable During Your Presentation?

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
How You Dress Can Have A Big Impact On How Effective Your Presentation Is

How You Dress Can Have A Big Impact On How Effective Your Presentation Is

Remember when your Mom said that looks don’t matter? She may have been right then; however, now is now and the better you look, the more impact your presentation will have.

Whether you realize it or not, you are always being judged by your audience. What you need is some advice to make sure that you come out on top when they judge you. If you take a moment and think about, you are representing a brand in how you act, walk, and talk. Your wardrobe plays a big part in the impression that you make.

Carmine Gallo is a communications coach who has spent a lot of time thinking about this topic. Here are some of his suggestions that will help you do this correctly:

  1. You MUST Look Better Than Everyone Else In The Room: If you remember nothing else from this post, then remember this – great presenters should always dress just a little bit nicer than everyone else who is attending the event. The classic example of this was Ronald Reagan (“the great communicator”) who always stood out because he was always the best dressed person in the room.
  2. Make Sure That Your Clothes Fit Correctly: How many of us wear clothes that are too short, too long, too tight, or even too loose? If you’ll take just a moment and list to what George Zimmerman, the founder of Men’s Wearhouse, says you’ll understand that you are making a mistake. Zimmerman says that the #1 most important decision that you need to make when buying clothes is that they give you a proper fit.
  3. Make Sure Your Clothes Say Nice Things About You: Make sure that you choose clothes that complement you – your skin tone, hair, and your eye color. The key here is to make sure that your clothes complement you, not fight you. Feel free to mix and match – just make sure that they look good together.
  4. Are You Well Heeled?: Assuming that you are not a puppy, it is still important that you pay attention to your shoes. It turns out that people really do notice the shoes that you are wearing. Make sure that you spend as much time on picking out your shoes as you do the rest of your outfit.
  5. Quality Is Worth It – Spend More: It turns out that you are not just paying for a fancy designer label. High quality fabrics and shoes not only look better, but they also last longer. Go ahead – spend more for better quality clothes and you’ll not only look nicer, but you will save money in the end because your clothes will last longer.

There you go – it’s not that hard to look great. Take the time to look good and your presentation will have that much more impact.

Do you take the time to look your best before every presentation that you give? Have you ever been giving a presentation when you realized that there was something wrong with your outfit? What did you do about it? Leave me a comment and let me know what’s on your mind.

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10 Tips For Little Presentations (Or Presentations To Little People)

Monday, November 3rd, 2008
When Presenting To Kids, You Need To Do Things Differently

When Presenting To Kids, You Need To Do Things Differently

So I’m not so sure that that title is clear, but basically what I’m talking about is delivering presentations to young people. I’m talking about elementary school age folks. Like 5-11 years old. Maybe the toughest crowd that you’ll ever have to face! I come up against this tough customer at least once a year when the schools in my area have a “career day” where parents are invited to come and talk to the kids about their careers. The goal is to provide the kids with motivation to study hard and stay in school. I love the IT field; however, it’s a hard sell to kids who have just been dazzled by the policeman / fireman / soldier who all have cool uniforms and neat utility belts. On top of this career appeal challenge, there’s that issue with trying to find the right way to talk to these kids – you know, they really are not young adults just yet…

When I need help in trying to figure out how best to deal with a tough crowd like this, I know that it’s best to go talk with an expert. In this case the expert is Caren Neile who is the director of Florida Atlantic University’s Storytelling Project. Here are 10 tips for how you can not only survive a presentation to the very young, but also do a good job of it:

  1. Watch Your Height: Kids are very sensitive to having to look up at a speaker. You need to do everything that you can to “be on their level”. One way to do this is to sit on the floor. Another is to sit on a chair – pretty much the opposite of what we tell you to do when speaking to adults!
  2. Don’t Start Your Presentation Cold: One of the key things that you want to happen when you talk with kids is to have them behave and pay attention. This can be hard to do if they don’t know you. By spending some time with them before you start your presentation you can knock down some of the walls that exit between you and them. By doing this, you can come across as a person that they know and they’ll do a better job of paying attention to what you have to say.
  3. Be Real Man: Kids hate vague “management speak”. Remember that their world is pretty much what they see on a daily basis and only the things that they can touch are real. If you speak in big broad terms (“the whole world”, “boosting productivity”, “over $1B dollars”, etc.) they simply won’t be able to grasp what you are talking about. Instead, use concrete expressions that they can easily understand (“lots of people”, “able to make even more widgets”, “enough money to fill this room from floor to ceiling”, etc.)
  4. See What I’m Saying: Props are your friend when you are talking to a young audience. We’ve raised them to be multi-tasking demons and they’ll show you just how good they are at this by tuning you out and working on other tasks while you are talking unless you find a way to keep grabbing their attention. Props are one of the best ways to do this.
  5. Take A Time Out: How long can you sit and effectively listen to someone? Kids can’t pay attention for even that long! Given ‘em a break before, during, and after your presentation. They will be forever grateful.
  6. Have Everyone Play A Role: Much more than adults, kids love to participate in a presentation. They will be itching to do this even if you don’t want them to do so. Caren suggests that you work specific places in your presentation for them to help you out. This will help to keep their interest and will make your presentation even more memorable.
  7. Get Up And Move!: Once again, we generally like it when adults sit through our presentations. With kids, things are different. If you can find a way to get them to get up and move around as part of your presentation, then they will connect with you and your message better.
  8. Chill Out Man: With adults, we would often like it if they stood up and started shouting during our presentation – it would show that they were really engaged. With kids, they might just stand up and start shouting because they like to shout. Make sure that you don’t get them too riled up during your presentation or things could get out of hand.
  9. Allow Learning To Happen: We all learn in our own way and kids are no exception to this rule. Some kids will appear to tune you out, may be drawing while you speak, may even get up and walk around. Don’t be offended and don’t worry about it. This may be how they learn best and you should just let it happen.

What happened last time you had a chance to speak to young kids? Did you treat them like kids or like little adults? Do you think that they understood and remembered your message? What would you do differently if you had it to do all over again? Leave a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Presentation From A Book: How To Do Dramatic Readings

Monday, October 27th, 2008
Speakers Can Use Dramatic Reading To Make Their Presentations Memorable

Speakers Can Use Dramatic Reading To Make Their Presentations Memorable

In the bag of skills that a public speaker needs to have, there is one that is not used very often: dramatic readings. Now just because we don’t use it very often, does not mean that we shouldn’t be using it more. Remember that anything that we can do to make our presentations stand out from everything else that our audience gets assaulted with each and every day will help to make it more memorable (in a good way) and improves the chances of our message “sticking” with our audience. The big questions are when should I use a dramatic reading as a part of my presentation and just how do I go about doing it?

The first question is actually the easiest to answer. A dramatic reading from a book is a great way to do two things: add color to  a presentation and add credibility to WHAT you are talking about. Published authors often have taken a great deal of time to get their words just right. Opening a book during your presentation and reading their words to your audience allows you to capture the time and effort that they put into creating their ideas and enrich your speech by doing so. Additionally, in order to motivate your audience to make a change or to take some action (the purpose of any presentation), you need to convince them that you know what you are talking about. By reading a passage from a published book perhaps written by a well known figure in the field that you are talking about, you can reinforce your words by having them appear to support your position.

Now the big question is how best to do a dramatic reading. The problem here is that most of us have very little experience with either listening to or actually doing dramatic readings from a book. That’s why we can turn to Mark McLaughlin who is an author of horror books. Mark is often called on to give speeches that contain, what else?, dramatic readings. He probably does this much more than the rest of us ever will; however, this also means that he can teach us a lot about how to do them correctly.

Here are Mark’s top 10 tips for how we can all do dramatic readings as a part of our presentations correctly:

  1. Don’t Read From The Book: Books are great for sitting by a fire and reading. They are quite poor to read from during a presentation: their print is too small, it can be hard to find your place, and turning the page is awkward at best. Instead, copy the pages and blow them up.
  2. Use Voices: Something that you may not realize is that we all make different characters sound different in our head when we read a book. When you are reading from a book, you need to use a different voice for each character so that your audience doesn’t get confused about who is talking or thinking.
  3. Prepare Using A Rainbow: Mark up what you are going to be reading using many different colored highlighters. This way you will automatically remember to switch voices when you are reading.
  4. Characters Are More Than Just Voices: Different characters can have different mannerisms and these can be useful when you are reading their lines. Smokers should have a raspy voice, nervous characters should speak quickly, etc.
  5. Try Out Different Voices: You won’t get it right the first time so be sure to experiment with different voices in order to find the one that will capture the character the best for your audience.
  6. Practice, Practice, Practice: This is always a good idea and it’s even more critical when doing a dramatic reading. McLaughlin recommends that you practice at least a dozen times and even more if you feel that you need it.
  7. The Power Of A Friendship: Nothing beats live feedback. Try your presentation out on friends and see what kind of feedback they give you. This can be worth its weight in gold.
  8. Look At Your Audience While Reading To Them: You can’t do this all the time of course; however, eye contact is always a good idea.
  9. Have A Panic Button Ready: Look, anyone can lose their place while doing a reading – it happens to all of us. If this happens to you, have a question about the reading ready to ask an audience member. Use the time that they are speaking to find your spot again, mark it with a finger, thank the audience member for their answer and then continue on.
  10. Enjoy Yourself!: Dramatic readings are done all to rarely in presentations today. The fact that you have been willing to step up, practice, and then deliver a dramatic reading shows that you are better than the average speaker. When your audience sees that you are enjoying yourself, then they will get into it also and your presentation will be your best ever!

Have you ever been to a presentation where the speaker used a dramatic reading? How did it turn out – was it well done or half-baked? Have you ever had a chance to use a dramatic reading as a part of one of your speeches? Did you practice enough? How did it turn out for you? Leave a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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5 Ways To Deliver A Disastrous Presentation

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

The Hindenburg explosion was a disaster just like your presentation might be

So you can find self-help info on how to deliver better presentations just about anywhere on the web (including this blog!); however, where can you find guidance on how to really deliver a disastrous presentation? Well fear not, that’s what we’ll cover today…

Monica is one of my friends who is a professional speaker by trade. She is very good at what she does which is to teach retail sales folks in the wireless industry how to sell more. She appears to be about nine feet tall when you meet her for the first time, has an enormous amount of blond hair, and speaks with a Texas drawl that makes it almost impossible to try to not picture her wearing a cowboy hat. Naturally I went to her to get answers to my questions about how to give a bad presentation.

As you can well imagine, Monica was quite surprised when I asked her what I needed to know in order to give a bad presentation – “… but why would you EVER want to give a bad presentation. Who do you hate that much that you’d force them to sit through that?…” Once I explained that I was trying a bit of reverse psychology here and that if I understood what made up a bad presentation, then I’d know what to avoid she calmed down just a bit. She is from Texas you know so calm is always a relative thing with her.

If you really want to do a poor job of presenting, please consider this to be a checklist provided by Monica. If you’d like to do a good job of presenting, then don’t do any of these things!

  1. Don’t Rehearse. What me worry? Why bother to practice – you know this stuff inside and out, you’ll just go up there and wing it and the crowd will love you because it will seem more natural and less rehearsed than all the other presenters. Yeah right. Look: actors and musicians practice, practice, practice in order to get good enough to perform. What makes you think that you can get away without rehearsing? No matter how silly you look while practicing, you’ll look much better when you go to do the real thing!

  2. Don’t Tell The Audience Why They Are Sitting In Uncomfortable Chairs. When you take the stage, you have everyone’s attention. When you open your mouth to speak, you will start to lose them. Since you’d really like to keep as much attention as possible, you really should explain why you’re there. Don’t launch into your detailed presentation on how to optimize an Oracle 11g database using only a ball-point pen and a roll of aluminum foil until you connect with the audience by explaining why you’ve come to tell them this information.
  3. Tell Them What You’re Going To Tell Them, Tell Them, And Then Tell Them What You Told Them. I’m not sure if this was ever a good idea; however, it has become a cornerstone of public speaking courses and books. Too bad it’s really bad advise. We live in an age of text messages, Blackberrys, and TIVO time shifters. Nobody has the time or the energy to sit through a presentation where the content is just being summarized and represented three times over. You always want to lead up to your closing – end with a bang not a whimper. If you are summarizing for your audience, then you’ll lose them. Instead tell them that the murder was done by Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick.
  4. Use As Many Slides As Possible. No matter how you feel about PowerPoint you have to admit one thing: it’s made creating slides very easy to do. As with most things about PowerPoint, this can be a bad thing. Look, your presentation is all about you and what you have to say, it’s not about the slides. Every new slide that you show to your audience will cause them to take their attention away from you to look at the slide. You will then have to fight them to get their attention back. Slides should complement and enhance what you are saying. Try this: use one slide for every 5 minutes of your presentation.
  5. Use Your Slide Deck As A Speech Outline. We’ve all seen this done: the presenter turns either 90 or 180 degrees from the audience and stares at the slides on the wall during the entire presentation. The audience spends it’s time thinking that they could just read the slides and not have to sit through this entire presentation since the presenter is just reading them to the audience. In a nutshell, this just shows that you didn’t take any time to prepare.

Monica told me that she could go on and on (and I believed her), but that these were the top 5 tips that she would provide to anyone who really wanted to do a bad job delivering a presentation. I’m not sure if she’s ever going to talk to me again, but at least I got the info that I had asked for.

So how many of these little gems have you seen in action? Anyone care to confess to actually doing any of them (I’ve done them all, just not all at the same time). If you did any of them, what made you stop doing it or why haven’t you stopped?

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