Public Speaking : They Don't Know Where You are Going

Past President of the National Speakers Association Mike McKinley always says, 'Do not worry about minor mistakes when you are public speaking. The audience does not know your script.'

If you have lots of good material, it will make very little difference in the big scheme of things if you forget to mention something you had planned to say during your public speaking engagement. It will however make a BIG difference if you get so rattled because you left something out that you start a domino effect of additional mistakes and omissions.

Public Speaking : Give 'em What They Want

I have been in public speaking situations where I meticulously planned for a big event and when I showed up there were only three people in the audience. You can't just quit and walk away, but you can't work a plan for 500 on only 3 either.

So what do you do? You turn it into a massive positive the for the three that attended. You immediately scrap your big speaking plans and tell the 3 people you will be their personal consultant for the next x hours. Then you answer their questions and make them feel like they are the only persons in the world for the entire time.

As a professional public speaker you don't mope around crying because your product sales would suffer or because your ego is suffering. You give it your all whether there are 3 or 3000 in the audience.

Public Speaking : Time of Day Matters

Public speaking has aspects related to time of day that you must know about. The first speaker of the day for an early morning (7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.) program should not expect hearty laughter. People are not conditioned to laugh a great deal in the early morning. Many won't even be awake yet. Use more information and less humor. I was asked by a sales speaker to open up an early morning public seminar. He said, 'I just want you to get them laughing before I start speaking.' I told him that it was not a good idea, but he insisted. I opened up the seminar with some sure-fire humor to test their responsiveness and got little response. I cut my material and brought the speaker on stage. He couldn't get them laughing either. I sat in the audience and watched. By 10:15 a.m. they were laughing at just about anything.

It's important for you to know when NOT to expect hearty laughter. It would be a waste of time to use your best speaking material at a time when laughter normally wouldn't be expected. If you didn't know that early morning programs aren't the best for laughter, you could have your confidence shaken so badly that the rest of your presentation might suffer. Also, keep in mind that I am giving you general principles. You might run into a lively group sometime. Just don't expect it.

Many consider brunch to be the best speaking time of day to expect a responsive audience. It is late enough that the folks who sleep late are now awake, but not so late in the day that early risers are starting to get tired. Lunch is generally a time for good response for the same reasons as brunch.

In the afternoon people are starting to get tired. Audience members will retain less because they are not listening as closely as they did in the morning. You can use more humorous speaking and less hard information, but don't expect laughter to be as intense.

The last speaker of a long afternoon or evening program should not expect a great response, again because folks are too worn out. Keep your presentation short and crisp and acknowledge the lateness so that the audience knows you care about them. One time I was the last speaker on a long program in Baltimore, Maryland, for a food service management company. I was being introduced at 8:35 p.m. on a Monday night in the fall. What do you think the mostly male audience was thinking at 8:35 p.m. on a Monday night in the Fall? Of course! MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL! I got up and said:

There are three things I would never want to be: 1. a javelin catcher; 2. the scoop man at a Donkey Basketball game; and 3. the last public speaker on a long program. (I looked at my watch.) It's now 8:40 p.m. I'm going to limit my remarks to 15 minutes. I guarantee you will be in the hospitality suite in time for the kickoff. I kept my promise.

Do you think I had more of their attention than if I had not made the comment? You bet I did! Even though it had been a long day, they all had a good laugh during my talk. A little care for your audience will go a long way.

Public Speaking : Give Me a Brake

... a mental brake that is. Here are some mind tricks when you speak too fast.

**Imagine that your audience is comprised of 5 year olds and you have to explain some difficult concept to them. You must obviously go slowly so they can understand you.
**Force yourself to use difficult word combinations which will force you to slow down so that you don*t stutter over them.
**Do specific practice sessions concentrating on varying the speed of your delivery so that you get a better control over this aspect of your talks. Also, varying the speed makes you more interesting automatically. You must do these practice sessions out loud. To save time, they can be done in the car, or while doing your hair or jogging, etc.
**Cut out some of your material so that you do not feel rushed to get it all in. Going faster is usually futile because the retention level drops so low that you may as well have omitted the material in the first place.

Public Speaking : The WOW! Factor

What do you do during your public speaking presentations that cause the audience to say WOW? Dewitt Jones, a former photographer for National Geographic uses slides that literally give you goose pimples. Tom Ogden, an award winning magician from the Magic Castle in Los Angeles uses, what else, magic. Dave Gorden tells a story about Walt Disney. I use a special freeze frame video segment and shoot fire in the air.

In fact, there are many things that you can use or do to make your audience say WOW! You may have great voice quality like my friend, author and former radio announcer, Rick Ott. You may use your appearance like professional speaker Larry Winget who wears funny glasses and ties. You might sing or play a musical instrument or juggle or use props. If you want to push your name up the memorability chart, put something unique in your speaking engagements that causes the audience members to go WOW!

Public Speaking : Dynamic Range

I invented the concept of 'Dynamic Range' in public speaking to help you improve your versatility as a business presenter, and to help you pick appropriate audiences for your skill and interest level (Did he say 'pick' my audiences?). Yes, I did say pick your audiences.

Some of you may not have this luxury because you must speak as part of your job, but those of you that do, will move up faster in the speaking world. When you are a beginning public speaker it is important for you to experience different types of audiences just FOR the experience. You will find that you enjoy certain types of audiences more than others, and certain types of audiences enjoy you more too. As you climb the public speaking ladder where the audiences are bigger, or more important to your career, and the stakes are higher, you must learn to just say no.

Most top public speakers don't accept every request to speak even if they are available, and the money is right. They pick their speaking engagements to put themselves in front of audiences whose profiles indicate the greatest chance of success. If you are a highly technical presenter, you would not want to be speaking to a widget sales group at their annual retreat. Conversely, as a really fun retreat facilitator, you would not want to be speaking to a group of radar technicians who are only interested in performance data of the latest missile protection system.

You knowledge of your own Dynamic Range when speaking in public will help you learn to pick your audiences and how to expand your abilities so you are capable of handling a wider range of audiences.

I based the concept of Dynamic Range in public speaking on the same concept that is used to rate stereo equipment. Dynamic range in the electronics world means the ability to reproduce soft sounds as well as loud ones. I have expanded on this to include several other parameters that are important to a speaker. These include:

**Serious/Outrageous Content,
**Slow/Fast Speed of Delivery,
**Slurred/Articulate Diction,
**Stationary/Animated Movement, and
**Audience Needs.

The first step to use this system is to evaluate yourself on each parameter. Many people have trouble with this, so it might be time to call in an objective third party like a coach or other accomplished presenter to watch you present or to review several of your tapes. Try to avoid using friends for this initial evaluation because they will be reluctant to tell you the truth.

Quick Fixes
Here are some ways you can increase your range in a hurry.

**If your material is all serious, add some that is lighthearted and vice versa.
**If you always speak softly, speak loudly sometimes and vice versa.
**Always work to improve your diction, but allow it to falter in front of less articulate audiences.
**If you always stand still, move sometimes and vice versa.

If you have the option, pick audiences that give you the greatest chance of success.

Public Speaking: Your links probably stink

I had a few idiots complaining about this statement so here's today's tip:

Tell it like it is and have strong opinions that you can support and it's just too bad if a few thin skinned crybabies don't like it. You and your speaking career will benefit much more than if you try to be a politician and please everyone.

The truth is that if you haven't been studying the Internet carefully and at a high level like I do, your links probably do stink. Some things you do could get you banned . . . especially if you let your website be controlled by pseudo experts using techniques that were good last year, but now are terrible.

Check out my new program that will tell you what to do to fix up the links on your website
http://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com/linking.htm

Public Speaking: Ten 'You's' for Every 'I'

by Rob Sherman

At a recent meeting of the National Speakers Association, platform personality Joel Weldon demonstrated what 'You Power' is all about. He actually gave the same speech twice. The first was peppered with 'I's' and it received polite applause. Then he repeated his address, changing the wording to include 'you' as many times as possible. What a dynamic turnaround! Weldon received a standing ovation.

Make a transcript of your most recent presentation. Now circle every 'I' and every 'you.' What is the ratio? If it's not ten toone in favor of 'you', rewrite your speech.(Excerpted from 'Sherman's 21 Laws of Speaking'; available at: http://www.shermanleadership.com)

Public Speaking : Add Magic to Your Presentations

There is just something about a magic trick during a public speaking engagement that grabs people. The nice thing about it is that as a public speaker who uses magic to make a point, you are not held to the high standards you would be held to if you were a professional magician.

I do some simple magic that would probably make a real magician throw up, yet I get comments from the audience that they loved my 'illusions.' Think about some of the points you make during your speech that might need a little extra pizazz to make them memorable.

Visit a magic shop and tell the proprietor what you want to accomplish and that your skill level is zero. Most good magic shops have literally thousands oftricks to pick from for all skill levels and all audience sizes.

Magic tricks are also a fun way to add some lightheartedness and WOW factor to your presentations. The points you make and the comedy aspect of the magic usually come from the 'patter' (what the magician says while doing the trick). You can even buy books of comic patter. Many magic tricks are now on video which makes them infinitely easier to learn than trying to read them from a book. An excellent tape for rope tricks is 'Daryl's Rope Tricks #7.' Your local magic shop probably has it and if they don't they can probably order it.

I really like to learn magic from videos because you can see the trick in action. Reading them from a book is OK, and very useful, but you just can't beat video training. Two good magic videos for speakers by master magician Tom Ogden are 'Teaching and Training with Magic' and 'The Magic of Creativity.' I got these two videos from Royal Publishing & Walters Speakers Services (626) 335-8069.

Public Speaking : Be Careful

I was doing an event for 3200 people in California and it was a really big deal. I had a two stage managers with headsets counting down 30 seconds till show time, a personal assistant and complete video crew for tape and image projection. Everything was hustle and bustle and rush, rush, rush.

I had another bunch of assistants who, on cue, were going to distribute plastic glow stars so the whole room would be lit with the stars for the grande finale where I had blacked out the room.

The entire production went off without a hitch. People had a great time. Afterwards I was busy shining my halo ... until the production company head came up to me and said, 'We have a problem.' ... I did not have a clue what he meant. He told me the assistants were throwing the stars into the crowd and one of them hit an attendee in the eye and scratched his cornea ...

Talk about your heart sinking. No one knew if he was going to be OK or not. He was on his way to the hospital. ... It was six week before he found out if the damage was permanent or not. Luckily he ended up with a badly scratched cornea and he is perfectly alright now. I had let all the hoopla get in the way of my normal briefing of my assistants and it almost cost someone their eyesight ... BE CAREFUL!

Public Speaking : Gimme Three Steps

Do you remember that song by Lynyrd Skynyrd? 'Gimme three steps, gimme three steps mister, gimme three steps towards the door.' I try to remember that song when I am moving on stage during a public speaking engagement.

When you are moving on the stage, make sure that your movement has a purpose. If you take a step, go at least three steps in that direction to cue the audience that you are moving for a reason. One of the biggest problems I see, even when coaching top speakers, is that many of them wander around or take a step here and a step there. This is extremely distracting to the audience.

When making an important point during a speaking engagement, move toward the audience. Three steps forward from center stage would be a very powerful position that would command attention (especially if you walked right off the stage and fell on your face -- hahaha).

Upstage (away from the audience) left and right are weak positions. They can be used when you feel you are overpowering the audience or when you want to remove attention from yourself. I use these speaking positions when I direct the audience to do some task, such as talk among themselves.

Upstage center is a strong position, but one that makes you appear disconnected from the audience. I usually avoid this position.

When I want to be playful and/or really get the audience involved, I'll go right into the crowd. I might have to come down off the stage, but to me it is worth it. Good public speakers get really connected and I feel like one of them when I am out there. I am also sending a message that I really know what I am doing. I don't need any notes. I don't need any visuals. I don't need anything but interaction with them. They love it!

The main thing you have to watch out for when you are out in the audience is that in large rooms with lots of attendees many people can't see you, so they start to lose interest if you stay out there too long. This is counteracted if you are being projected on a large screen and you have an on-the-ball and well-rehearsed video crew. (If you don't alert the video crew ahead of time of your intentions, they will be scrambling to follow you and it won't look good on the screen.) You will probably be lit poorly too. When you are being projected, think about toning down your overall movement because it's not easy to follow you wildly around the stage with a video camera.

Public Speaking : On Stage Tips

**The larger the crowd, the larger and slower the gestures.
**If you have a small crowd, or if you are videoconferencing, or on television, use smaller gestures.
**Work to eliminate distracting or nervous gestures, but do not kill yourself to add new ones. They will take care of themselves and most of the time they look affected.
**Let your words trigger your actions. If you are counting, hold out your fingers. If you say no, shake your head no.
**Hold your hands open and wide apart to show sincerity and honesty.
**Hold your hands behind your back during question-and-answer sessions (don't overdo it).
**Avoid excessive hands in pockets, clenched fists, pointing, hands on hips, and the infamous fig leaf position where your hands are crossed in front of your groin.

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