Public Speaking Tips: 5 Tips to Make 'em LOVE Ya

• Be down to earth. Nobody likes the aloof talking head.
  
• Phone as many attendees as you can before the program and ask their opinions. Use the information to make them the stars.
  
• Mingle with attendees before the program and make small talk like telling them Tom is single. The personal connection goes a long way.
  
• Thoroughly research the problems of the group and bring immediately usable solutions. They can't help but like you when you help them out.
  
• Stay as long as you can after the program. If you can arrange it, don't run out the door and leave them cold. If you have to leave, offer email follow up for any unanswered questions.
  

Public Speaking Tip: More on CD Backups of Your Program

by David Frey

I got a note back after the last issue that talked about doublechecking your backups to make sure they work
[ http://www.antion.com/ezinebackissues2003.htm v5n1]

Here it is:

Hi Tom:

One last thought on backing up your presentation on to CDROM.I did a speaking gig this week in Vegas and had to use my backup presentation on CDROM. Low and behold, when I opened the presentation it was barely readable!

It turns out that I had used a non-standard font (balloon), which was not installed on the conference's emergency laptop. So... word to the wise, put any unique font files on your backup CD as well.

David Frey
http://www.MarketingBestPractices.com

Tom says you might also limit yourself to standard fonts.

Public Speaking Tip - Ladies on TV

by Great Speaking reader
Karen Puckett

Hi Tom: I enjoyed your recent newsletter, and had a comment about a man keeping his tie straight during a speaking engagement [http:www.antion.com/ezinebackissues.htm v2n8 ]. A similar topic applies to women.

At one of my former places of employment, part of the new employee orientation was sitting through several hours of a customer service presentation on video tape. In addition to being a painfully unanimated speaker, the presenter wore a suit with the biggest, loudest scarf around her neck and over her shoulder. All of us poor souls in the room watching were left with no recollection of the content of the presentation, but a indelible image of the infamous scarf! As you know, not only should the length of a speech be appropriate for the audience, but the speaker should make sure that their appearance is not distracting.

Thanks for all the great tips.
Karen Puckett

Tom's reply: Thanks Karen for your input. Also, keep in mind that the beautiful scarf you referred to might be perfect if you were on a big stage in front of a large audience. Always keep your delivery medium in mind.

Public Speaking Tip: Be There and Be Firm

Do not let people with other things on their mind mess up your presentation! If you are in your presentation room early and havereal reasons for doing what you are doing, you will have the bestluck at commanding your stage.

I was the opening speaker at an event recently and was in the room way early to set up and test everything. It was my job to kick off the event and WOW the crowd in my half day presentation.

Thirty minutes before start time one of the harried meeting organizers wanted to change my entire setup around to accommodate the introducer. I was gracious and polite, but I was not about to ruin my opening to accommodate the introducer. So here's what Idid:

• I politely explained my reasoning to the organizer. I told her that what she had in mind was going to totally blow the beginning of my talk and make us all look like fools as the introducer brought me on stage. . . .Why would we look like fools? Because at the peak of the intro, we would have had to move tables around, reboot a computer and switch clip on microphones. . . . This is no way for a professional to come on stage to WOW acrowd.
  
• I suggested alternative ways to accommodate the very brief needs of the introducer.
  
• I did all of the above in a firm, but polite fashion so I did not appear arrogant or unreasonable.

Public Speaking Tips: Use a Demostration

USE A DEMONSTRATION
by Anne Durrum Robinson

Tom, I have to pass this on. Some years ago I was teaching a large group in business and professional writing. I wanted them to realize the biggest error in most business and professional writing so I had each person blow up a balloon and then stick a pin in it. (Amusingly that was a very difficult task for balloon lovers.)

When all 65 folks stuck the pins in at more or less the same time the results were loud pops! The point to the exercise, of course,was to show how little one had left when one took all the hot air out of one's business writing. All seemed to get that point. What I personally didn't understand was why, after all that unusual noise, nobody came to see if we were okay.

NOTE FROM TOM: This same exercise can be used to simulate an indoor fireworks show. Of course, there is no fire and smoke but it sounds like it. Also, you can have the people stomp on the balloons which makes for a fun visual.

You can reach Anne at anniecreate@hotmail.com or http://www.io.com/~stellar/

Public Speaking Tip: Shock 'Em

When I was planning for my recent all day presentation I was considering the post lunch sleepiness that most audiences experience. I wanted to do something totally different that I knew would shock them out of their afternoon low. So I bought a muskrat trap.

I was talking about the "traps" AKA deep trouble you could get into by spam email marketing. I set the trap with great care. Then I put a pencil into the trap to set it off. The pencil snapped showing the trap to be real . . . This got their attention. I then reset the trap and talked about how learning what I was going to teach them in the next section would keep them from getting hurt in the email spam trap.

Then, with lots of suspense building as I approached the trap, I set it off with my bare hand, I let out a fake Karate-like scream, the trap slammed on my hand and I held it up hanging from my fingers. . . . Believe me this got their attention!

DO NOT TRY THIS! DO NOT TRY THIS! DO NOT TRY THIS!
I know how to do this without getting hurt. I am not responsible if you break your finger or get hurt in any way !!!

There are many other ways to shock people. You could put a needle through a balloon, you could stick a knife through one of their coats. Stop by any magic or gag shop for tons of ideas. Just don't get too outrageous and scare people unnecessarily.

Public Speaking Tip: Go Early

I recently spoke to about 450 people at Mark Joyner's Survival Tactics Marketing Seminar. I spoke on the last day after many fine speakers had gone before me.

My tip here is to listen to all the speakers before you whenever you can. That way you can either refer back to what they said or avoid duplicating things they said which would reflect poorly on you.

In this case I was also able to pick out things from the other speakers and play off them.

EXAMPLE: Superstar speaker Ted Nicholas said that advances in health care and longevity would soon allow people to live to be 120 years old. He said he was going to throw a $10,000.00 seminar on his 120th birthday.

I came on and said that not only was I going to throw a $10,000.00 seminar on my 120th birthday, but that I was going to give the audience members a big discount if they gave me a deposit today. -- Everyone cracked up.

So go early when you can and pay attention to the other speakers.

Public Speaking Tip: The Differences Between a Man and a Woman . . .

in the Audience that is . . .

There is nothing I like better than an all female audience. All female audiences tend to laugh more easily and louder than all male audiences. All-male audiences are the toughest because the male ego gets in the way of laughter. They look around to see if anyone else is laughing before they laugh, and they won't laugh as loud because they think they will look less powerful. If you present to an all-male audience it is more critical to bond and be "one of the guys" especially if you are a female presenter. I'm not being sexist here. I don't believe in sexist language. I'm just giving you the thoughts to keep in mind if you are a female presenter and you want to be successful in front of a general all-male audience. You must realize: not all males out there in the business world are as sensitive as me (send all big hugs to me in care of the publisher . . . which is me). If your all-male audience is a general audience not from the same company or field, stick to sports, business, and money to best connect with them. One of the hardest audiences to deal with consists of a group of executives from the same company when the CEO is present. If you say something funny, the executives will start to laugh, but they choke it off until they check to see if the CEO is laughing. If he or she is laughing, then they go ahead and laugh. This kind of audience will create timing nightmares for you. If you are the CEO and you are in the audience for a presentation, it is your obligation to laugh and at least act like you're having a good time to "give permission" to everyone else to laugh. As a Wake em Up presenter, you can sometimes take it upon yourself to gently explain to the CEO how everyone will look to him or her for approval. Audiences that consist of more than 50 percent women are good too because Tom is single. The presence of the females provides a good buffer and makes it OK for the men to laugh, since so many other people are laughing.

(Ref: Wake em Up Business Presentations Pages 15-16)
http://www.antion.com/wakebook.htm

Public Speaking Tip: Take a Peek

Take a Peek by Tom Antion

I usually have notes hidden around the stage, but the audience never knows that I'm looking at them.

I look at my notes that are lying flat on my table when
1. The audience is laughing
2. When I'm pushing buttons on my laptop
3. When I walk past the table looking down and holding my chin as if I'm thinking.
4. When I go to the table to pick up a prop or piece of paper.
5. When the audience is watching short videos on the screen.

Some people tape their notes to the floor when they are on a raised stage, but I don't like that because you have to look down too often for no apparent reason.

Another good trick is to lightly pencil in notes to yourself on the edge of flip chart pages. The audience can't see them, but you can when you are near the flipchart.

Public Speaking Tips: Say it With Flowers

A speaker friend of mine had a deal with a local flower shop. When he had a program the next day he would buy up all the fresh flowers that did not sell for a dirt cheap price. The flowers were destined for the dumpster anyway so the florist was thrilled to get anything for them. The speaker would arrive to big fanfare throwing flowers into the crowd. Everyone got a flower to take home and depending on the size of the crowd, some would get a whole bouquet. He also sent big bunches as his thank you gift to the meeting organizer. He purposely sent so many that the organizer could not possibly take them all home. His good will (and name) was spread all over the company he was speaking for and the people in the audience had a blast.

Public Speaking: Submitting Articles to Websites -- Software Review

Many of you have been asking me about the Article Announcement software that came out recently from Jason Potash so I got a copy and reviewed it this weekend. Here's what I found:

The first thing you should know is that after reviewing this software I'm immediately going to cancel my subscription to submityourarticle.com

Submit your article is limited in that they only allow you two articles per month and don't give you much control over anything.

I was not surprised at how good this new product is because even though I know Jason Potash is a pretty good marketer, when I found out John Reese had a hand in it I was certain it would be great. (John Reese is one of my teachers)

Here are the things I noted about the software that make it invaluable....much more so than the service I'm canceling. I plan to have my new article writer start using it immediately.

1. Unlimited submission -- but all the appropriate warnings are included so that you don't send articles on gardening to Internet marketing sites.

2. Extremely advanced feature that rotates three different anchor text links -- This is important so that search engines don't see the exact same links coming to your site.

3. Article Swipe file -- Gives you a comprehensive tutorial and examples of the kinds of articles publishers want along with lots of title suggestions that really get noticed.

4. Mail merge capabilities -- Ezine publishers will get your submission with their own name in it.-- this gets you a higher response.

5. Fully customizable -- You can delete directories and publishers that don't apply to your topic and you can add those that do.

6. Great training tutorials -- both written and via Camtasia video.

7. Site ratings that are customizable -- the author of this system took great pains to tell you which sites he thinks are the best to submit to and lets you customize the ratings based on your evaluations after reviewing the sites.

8. Toolbox that gives you seven different ways to mask affiliate links -- this is important so your articles don't look like they are blatantly pitching a product.

9. Google Page Rank Booster Tool -- This saves enormous amounts of time by making it easy to find the highest rated sites to submit to (I've got another sneaky way to use this tool).....OK I'll tell you about it... When you are looking for affiliates you don't want to waste time on those that have no traffic and no importance on the Internet. This tool will tell me how important Google thinks a site is before I waste my time trying to recruit the site as an affiliate.

All and all. I think this is an awesome software and training program. As I said above, I'm going to start using it immediately.

Tom

P. S. I am not taking an affiliate commission on sales coming from this message, but I am tracking how many of you go read about the software

Here's the link to check it out: http://wetrack.it/eza/af.cgi?aid=2792&ent=26

Public Speaking Tip: Extremely Small Customization

When speaking to a very small group of people you should be able to include an extremely large amount of customization. You should have researched the group and done your normal homework including phone interviews with the expected attendees (if it is a public event and you don't know who is coming, be set up way early so you can greet and interview people as they arrive.) Jot down a note of why each person attended. Then, when a section of your talk applies to them, point it out and name them by name.

Example: "John, you told me you wanted to learn how to sell more to the people that visit your website. This section specifically addresses that, especially the part about the psychology of the sale."

Don't assume that people will perk up when you come to the part that specifically applies to them. Make a big deal to point it out to them. You will be adding an extreme amount of value which makes them realize that it was a good thing they attended. Oh and don't forget they'll love you for it.