Public Speaking: Send Your Client a Customized Flyer

The phone call comes in, you listen intently to the person on the other end of the line and you know you can deliver what the company needs. Within a few minutes after completing the call, you fax your customized public speaking marketing flyer to the client. The individual receives the flyer and is amazed that your public speaking program is exactly what the organization needs. You’re hired!

What went right in this scenario?
* You had a pre-printed shell ready to customize a public speaking flyer for the client.
* You listened closely for key words as the client talked about the current climate at the company and what needs to change. For example, if the meeting planner said morale was low and they needed to motivate employees and create enthusiasm, you would use the words “morale,” “motivate” and “enthusiasm” in your bullet points on the flyer.
* You sent the information to the potential client immediately after the phone conversation.
* She was impressed with your ability to fulfill the company’s needs, as well as your timeliness in providing additional information.

How to develop your shell.
A shell is simply a professionally pre-printed flyer with blank space for you to add specific bullet points. With pre-printed shells, you can quickly customize your public speaking marketing materials to target a qualified prospect. Here’s what to include on your shell:

* Printed on the shell:
o A very brief bio.
o Your photo.
o Your contact information at the bottom.
o Testimonials.
* A blank space for:
o A large topic at the top of the page. Remember, they are buying your topic. They don’t know your name unless you are a celebrity so make your topic big.
o Bullet points in the center of the page to tell what the members of the audience will learn.
o A paragraph describing the program.

Why have your photo on the flyer?
People like to deal with a real person and want to see what you look like, especially if you are a keynote speaker or selling training services. Your photo gives meeting planners a better feel that you actually exist and that you have a pleasant appearance. I think that’s important for a speaker.

How to use the shell.
While on the phone with your potential client, I listen carefully for key words and then customize the bullet points to what the company needs. Then I fax or mail the flyer to the customer. When they see that I offer exactly what they need, they often hire me.

Make $5500 or more every time you speak!

Public Speaking: Malaprops, Parody and Funny Words

Public speakers say many words over their careers. As you know, choosing just the right words for your presentation takes a lot of thought and often much research. Knowing a few unique ways to use words may ignite your creativity. You may even come up with your own distinctive words. One of my friend's child was almost grown when I heard her call a caterpillar a “caterpitter.” Her special word clearly brings to mind a vision of a fuzzy worm pitter-pattering about on tiny feet, which is exactly what caterpillars do.

Malaprops
Casey Stengel did it best when he said, “It’s déjà all over again.” Casey was a natural at using a malaprop, which is an absurd misuse of words. People who use malaprops often don’t realize they are accidentally misusing words. In the caterpillar story above, my friend's daughter had unknowingly used a malaprop.

In public speaking, adding malaprops to your presentation can make the members of your audience stop and question what they think you said and what you actually said. Plan to intentionally make a funny error in your presentation while making it appear to be an accident.

If you deliberately use malapropism, be sure you indicate to your audience that it was intentional. Other wise, they may doubt your level of intelligence. If you find that you have accidentally misused a phrase, you must admit that you made an error so you can retain your credibility and keep the lines of communication open. The way to acknowledge your mistake is to use an ad-lib or quotation to make fun of yourself.

Parody
Parody is a humorous imitation of a person, event, song or serious piece of writing. You can involve your public speaking audience in your presentation by using a parody in the form of a song. Select a well-known song and change the words to customize it to the audience. Invite the audience to sing along with you. They will enjoy your light-heartedness and laugh with you.

Funny words
Professional comedy writers agree that funny words can almost guarantee that the audience members will laugh. When you need a funny-sounding word, it may help to know that they also agree that the “k” sound is a funny sound. Try using words with the “k” sound such as cookie, cucumber, chicken, cluck or kiwi to your speech.

Take a risk and try some of these techniques in your presentations. You may even start a trend with your original phrase or humorous word.

Make $5500 or more every time you speak!

Public Speaking: Streamline Your Business with Database Marketing

Every public speaker is virtually a salesperson and all successful salespeople need a good tracking system. A paper index filing system is no longer the most efficient way of tracking your business contacts. A great tool for this is a computer database program. You can design a very simple system to tract basic information about your clients or a complex one that will perform many functions. The more you use your database, the more functions you will want to add to suit your needs.

Here’s how a computer database tracking system can help you manage your public speaking activities.
* You can record the contact’s name, address, phone number, e-mail, fax, type of business and any other pertinent data that will help you remember the person and provide the products and services needed.
* When I know I’m going to be giving a public speaking presentation in specific area, I will run a query and find all my clients from that area. Then, I’ll check the information I recorded about the individuals to see what I need to do for them and if it makes sense to schedule a consultation while I am in their part of the country.
* You can enter memos to yourself in the database to alert you to follow up with a client or to remind you of their next event so you can approach them about speaking well in advance.
* You can make a note of when you talked with a contact and record the topic you discussed, what you said and any future actions to take.

There are database software programs that will allow you to create a spreadsheet, and then there are database software programs that will do much more. My favorite is a relational database management system.

A relational database management system allows you create forms where you can easily enter information about clients, search and sort records according to specific categories and create reports. It even has the capability of inserting photos of your contacts, as well as emailing them directly from the database application. In addition, you can use the relational database program to create forms for your website to collect information and to accept requests from your site visitors.

Whether you stick with the basics or develop an extensive tracking system, a database marketing system will help you maintain contact with your clients and remember facts to keep you in touch.

Learn to promote your business anywhere!

Public Speaking: Juxtaposition, Oxymorons and Pleonasms

Where can you find public speaking humor for your next event? With some advanced planning, you can set up some humorous scenes to enliven your public speaking presentation and add some fun for your audience.

A public speaking technique I have used in the past is juxtaposition, which is placing two ideas or items side by side, usually to compare or contrast the ideas. Think of extremely small or outrageously large items place side by side.

Here is how I once used juxtaposition. I staged an event at a large international airport to welcome a man arriving from another country for his first visit to the United States. I had two men dressed as chauffeurs waiting for him. One man weighed about 450 pounds and the other man was less than four feet tall. I gave the huge man a sign about the size of a business card with the visitor’s name on it and had the tiny man hold a massive sign similar to the small sign. This set the stage for a very comical greeting for the visitor.

Two specialized types of juxtaposition are oxymorons and pleonasms. An oxymoron brings together two contradictory words or concepts that do not go together but are used together. Examples are old news, bad luck, dressy casual and dry lake.

A pleonasm is bring together two words or concepts that are redundant. Some examples are frozen ice, young child, advance warning, brief moment and final outcome.

Here are some suggestions for using juxtapositions in your presentations.
* Create a welcome or greeting slide.
Place a large copy of your company name or logo on a slide or flip chart page. Next to it, insert an extremely small copy of your competitor’s company name or logo.
* Ask a person much shorter or taller than you to join you on stage. If the person is taller than you, say, “I don’t want you to talk down to me.” If the person is shorter, say, “I don’t want to feel as if I’m talking down to you.”
* In conjunction with a simile, use an oxymoron to illustrate that something isn’t quite right. For example, you could point out, “That company claims that its market share is increasing; however, their sales are down while everyone else’s are rising. It’s like agreeing to disagree. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Make $5500 or more every time you speak!

Public Speaking: Using Audience Gags for Fun

There are many ways a public speaker can have fun with an audience. Don’t be afraid to incorporate some audience gags to help get your points across during your public speaking presentation. Here are some of my favorites.

The False Guest Speaker
Use this gag to reduce pressure in the public speaking audience or to just have some fun. Customize this stunt for the group and ask an insider to give you some buzzwords and current issues. The false speaker uses the buzzwords at the beginning of the fake speech to appear to be legitimate and believable. The imposter then rambles off on unrelated subjects woven through the real information so the audience becomes puzzled. The speaker has to be ready for the unexpected, including any questions that may arise.

Dr. Heckle and Mr. Sly
Use this stunt if you enjoy watching your audiences squirm. Place your own heckler in the audience. Get an overbearing actor or friend to pose as the heckler and give the person outrageous but believable things to say. Make sure you let the meeting planner and security know what you have planned. Don’t laugh or you will give it away.

Mother Calls
Hide a telephone under the lectern and have the sound of a loud telephone ringing interrupt you as you are delivering your presentation. Answer the phone and pretend your are talking to your mother.

Stone the Speaker
Recruit audience members either before your program or during a break. Give each one a crumpled piece of paper and tell them to throw the paper at you when they hear a certain word. The individuals are immersed in what you say as they wait to hear the trigger word. After they throw the paper, make a big deal of it. Now that you have everyone’s attention, discuss one of your key points.

Ten Wanted Men
Select ten fun-loving members of the audience before your presentation to help you pull this gag. Give them secret instructions to follow during the program, along with a certain cue. The gag begins when my assistant interrupts the seminar to give me an important note. I read the note in a very serious tone: “It appears that someone is in attendance today with another man’s wife. There is a large and irate man on his way here right now. If you want to escape, there is a backstage door you can use to leave quickly.” After I read the note, ten men jump out of their seats and run keystone cop style to the door.

Make $5500 or more every time you speak!

Public Speaking: Getting Your Public Speaking Business Started

Breaking into any new field can be difficult. You want to do a lot of public speaking because you want to get some hands-on experience and improve. How can you find opportunities to speak, attract clients and make money when you first launch your public speaking career?

Cold calling
Some people resort to cold calling early in their search for clients. You can do this by actually walking into a business to learn what they do and then asking for a contact name. You would then call the person and ask for an appointment to discuss your public speaking programs. Another method of cold calling involves going through a list of potential clients, picking up the phone and asking questions about their requirements to see if your topic can fill a need for them. I no longer make cold calls because I hate them, though some people seem to have success with them.

Contracting
Sometimes you can quit your job and contract your public speaking services back to the employer. Be sure to sign the contract before you quit the job, though.

Tell your friends
Tell everyone you know that you give public speaking programs so they can refer you to others. Offer a 10% commission to anyone who gives you leads.

Give no-fee talks
Don’t do speeches unless you get something back. Barter to get something in exchange for your presentation. They might give you a free cruise, free tickets to an event or concert tickets. It could be anything depending on the products and services they offer. You can also ask for a testimonial in exchange for a speech. Get something from them. If you do it for free, they’ll treat you shoddy.
The more they pay, the better they treat you.

Develop a 20-minute program
If you are a beginner, develop a 20-minute program you can deliver to groups like the Rotary. Give it to anyone who will listen. Give it over and over and polish it. Keep giving it and get better.

Join NSA
If you want to be a pro, you have to hang around pros. Join the National Speakers Association.

Learn to promote your business anywhere!

Public Speaking: Make It Easy for the Learning to Continue

Public Speaking: Make It Easy for the Learning to Continue

When companies look for ways to cut expenses, training departments are often the first to go. This can open up opportunities for public speakers who have expertise in an area where employees need training.

When you decide to pursue a public speaking career in the continuing education and training field, there are several approaches you can take.

* You can promote yourself as a trainer and conduct your own training sessions.
* You can become a trainer for established training companies.
* You can approach large companies that don’t have an in-house training department and do the training for them.

Become an expert.
Even if you currently lack the skills you need to position yourself as a public speaking training expert, you can take steps to acquire the knowledge you need. Read every book and article you can find about your chosen subject and watch every video. In addition, take classes and study diligently to increase your skills and your level of expertise.

Develop educational materials to accompany your training presentations.
An important component of training is providing materials that allow your trainees to continue learning. Naturally, they will need workbooks, which you can develop and sell to the client as part of your package. Think in terms of you’re selling information. You are doing members of the organization a favor when you provide educational materials because you make it easy for the learning to continue after you leave.

In addition to workbooks, you can produce other educational products. Some public speakers even create tip sheets and laminate them. Additional products you can develop to support the training are books, CDs, DVDs, workbooks, video and audio tapes. Be aware that people may be more likely to listen to an audio tape than watch a video because they have to stop what they’re doing to watch a video. They can listen to an audio while they do other things.

Training products also help establish you as an expert and promote your marketing efforts. Your educational products can help you to make speaking deals you couldn’t have make without them. Continuing education products and programs that people must have can be very profitable.

Get 30 days of public speaking training for only $5.00!

Public Speaking: Teaming Up with Another Presenter

Technical training presentations demand that the audience learns hard skills. One approach to public speaking in a learning environment is team teaching. Splitting the public speaking presentation between two speakers will ease the strain on each of you while allowing you to maintain the quantity and quality of the information presented to your audience.

Here’s a checklist to follow when team teaching.
* When you decide to team teach, select only partners you trust not to upstage you. Each presenter should strive to make the other speaker the hero.

* At the beginning of your public speaking program, let your audience know that two presenters will be speaking throughout the event. This will prevent their perception that the off-stage team member is interrupting the on-stage member.

* Each team member’s first segment should be long enough to build rapport with members of the audience.

* To keep the interest of the audience, position one presenter on the left side of the stage and one on the right side of the stage. This will force individuals to physically move their eyes when listening.

* Use a variety of team teaching techniques to add interest to the presentation. For example:
o Give each presenter one morning segment and one afternoon segment.
o Try changing speakers every six minutes.
o When both presenters are experts on the topic, use a spontaneous delivery, not scripted.

* Cautiously use point/counterpoint action, taking care not to create a perception that a presenter is either too conservative or too liberal.

* Have one team member ask a question already in the mind of the audience and the other speaker answer the question.

* When using an interruption action, decide who is in charge of each topic and plan to the minute when transitions and interruptions will occur.

* While one team member is presenting a long segment, the other speaker may leave the room.

* Have a place for the off-stage presenter to sit when the other presenter is speaking. This may be in front of the room or to the side nearest the exit.

Team teaching will work in many settings and make it easier for you to present a long program.

Make $5500 or more every time you speak!

Public Speaking: Taking Your Presentation International

Presenting to international audiences is much different than public speaking in the United States. The customs are unique, and the preferences regarding humor in a public speaking presentation are also distinctive. A public speaker who takes the time to learn about the people and their culture will more easily form a connection with an international audience.

Familiarity with style of humor.
* Ask about the age of your audience when researching for your public speaking event in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Many students from those areas have been educated in the United States and are comfortable with our humor and communication styles.

* If the audience is of mixed ages, use well-researched humor, avoid political statements and in some cases such as Japan, avoid humor entirely.

Eye contact and facial expression.
* Asians do not like to make eye contact with the speaker as a matter of respect.

* Latin Americans and Middle Easterners, on the other hand, may look toward male speakers with a penetrating stare. However, they may not make eye contact with women speakers as a matter of respect.

* Northern Europeans do not show emotion.

* Koreans maintain a deadpan expression.

Greeting rituals
* Before beginning to speak to a Japanese audience, always bow in front of the lectern.

* Try to learn some phrases in the language of your audience. Even if you make mistakes, they will appreciate your effort. Always apologize for your lack of ability in using their native language.

Dining rituals
* If you are invited to dine with your host, be prepared to give an eloquent toast in their language.

* Be aware of various eating styles such as chopsticks, using both the knife and fork and eating only with the right hand.

* Ask lots of questions about the culture and history of the host’s country to show respect.

Take gifts
* Learn the gift giving rituals for the countries you visit. Research the gifts, the appropriate wrapping, the timing of the presentation, the value of the gift, presentation etiquette and potential taboos.

* Take many small gifts. Before you wrap them, keep in mind that your gifts may have to clear customs.

* In Asia, expect to receive and give lots of small gifts.

* Dress conservatively.

* Women, be very cautious about your attire in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East to preserve your credibility.

Before heading oversees to speak, conduct through research of the people and their culture, decide whether the audience will accept humor and learn a few phrases in their language.

Make $5500 or more every time you speak!

Public Speaking: Deliver Your Punch Line to Someone Who Appreciates You

As a professional public speaker, you naturally want to entertain your audience, as well as inform them. Using humor as a tool to convey your message, and not strictly to elicit laughter, can take a lot of stress off a public speaker. Once you realize, it doesn’t matter if the audience laughs or not as long as they understand your point, joke telling becomes much easier. Your goal is to simply enhance your public speaking presentations.

Find a person who will laugh.
Most jokes have a few set up lines and then end with a funny word or phrase, known as the punch line.
Deliver your punch line to only one person in the audience. That person is one you scope out specifically to receive the punch line. It’s someone you know will laugh. How do you find the individual? Begin with the pre-program research. If a member of the audience laughs with you on the phone, find out where that person is sitting in the audience on the day of the event. You can also find your punch line receiver by watching when the emcee or program coordinator talks to see who is paying attention and having fun. Another way to identify the person is by watching to see who is nodding their heads in approval as you speak.

The reason you select the punch line receiver so carefully is because you want that person to set an example for the audience. When the audience sees the individual laughing at your joke, they will also laugh. Another reason for choosing just the right person is boost your own confidence and maintain the positive flow during the rest of your program.

Pause before you deliver the punch line.
Just before you say the punch line, pause briefly to draw attention to it. When delivering the punch line, you must punch out the line, that is, say it a little stronger than the rest of the joke and with a slight variation in your voice. To place even more emphasis on the punch line, lean into the microphone and pronounce it more clearly and louder than you said the set up lines. After you deliver the punch line, don’t say another word. Give the audience a minute to get the joke and laugh. If you speak prematurely, you’ll squelch their laughter.

What will make you better at telling jokes?
Using the right delivery techniques, selecting appropriate and relevant jokes and practicing diligently. Then, search out the audience member you know will laugh. Look the person directly in the eye and deliver the joke to the one you know will appreciate you.

Make $5500 or more every time you speak!

Public Speaking: Getting Your Public Speaking Business Started

Breaking into any new field can be difficult. You want to do a lot of public speaking because you want to get some hands-on experience and improve. How can you find opportunities to speak, attract clients and make money when you first launch your public speaking career?

Cold calling
Some people resort to cold calling early in their search for clients. You can do this by actually walking into a business to learn what they do and then asking for a contact name. You would then call the person and ask for an appointment to discuss your public speaking programs. Another method of cold calling involves going through a list of potential clients, picking up the phone and asking questions about their requirements to see if your topic can fill a need for them. I no longer make cold calls because I hate them, though some people seem to have success with them.

Contracting
Sometimes you can quit your job and contract your public speaking services back to the employer. Be sure to sign the contract before you quit the job, though.

Tell your friends
Tell everyone you know that you give public speaking programs so they can refer you to others. Offer a 10% commission to anyone who gives you leads.

Give no-fee talks
Don’t do speeches unless you get something back. Barter to get something in exchange for your presentation. They might give you a free cruise, free tickets to an event or concert tickets. It could be anything depending on the products and services they offer. You can also ask for a testimonial in exchange for a speech. Get something from them. If you do it for free, they’ll treat you shoddy.
The more they pay, the better they treat you.

Develop a 20-minute program
If you are a beginner, develop a 20-minute program you can deliver to groups like the Rotary. Give it to anyone who will listen. Give it over and over and polish it. Keep giving it and get better.

Join NSA
If you want to be a pro, you have to hang around pros. Join the National Speakers Association.


Make $5500 or more every time you speak!

Public Speaking: Take Action to Expand Your Use of Humor

With so much to learn and remember about using humor in your presentations and public speaking programs, you can benefit by devising an action plan to help yourself continuously improve. As with your presentation materials, customize your action plan to give you the most benefit. If you come across useful tips as you study public speaking and other presenters, add them to the suggestions listed below.

Prepare
* Develop a pre-program questionnaire to gather information about the group to which you will be presenting.
* Write several new introductions for yourself.
* Write a suggestion letter and give it to the person who will be introducing you at the public speaking event.
* Pre-plan adlibs for problems that may happen during your program.
* Arrive at the location of the event one half-hour before your program starts to control as many of the room setup variables as possible.
* Prior to your presentation, visit with as many members of your audience as you can.

Find humor
* Read humorous books or magazines, listen funny audio tapes or watch humorous videos every day.
* Immediately write down anything you find funny, whether you hear it, read it or see it. Adapt the humor to use in your programs.
* Gradually add humor to your presentations. Soon you will be confident that you can make your audience laugh.

Organize your materials

* Start a library of humorous stories, cartoons, one-liners and jokes.
* Create a humor file and cross-reference system.

Practice
* Practice using bits, chunks and series.
* Practice stories, jokes and one-liners between 30 and 50 times prior to using them in a presentation.
* Select a joke or funny story and practice it 10 times each day for a week. Create a tool for measuring how much you improve by tape recording the first and the last practice session.

Evaluate your presentations
* Audio or video tape all your presentations so you identify segments that worked, as well as areas where you need to improve.
* Solicit feedback from professional presenters or hire a public speaking coach.

Keep learning, keep smiling and keep your audience laughing.

Make $5500 or more every time you speak!

Public Speaking: Attract New Clients with a Blog

Is your public speaking blog working for your business? If not, maybe it’s time to conduct an evaluation to determine why it is not attracting new clients. You may want to revamp your blog by developing a new title or a unique tag line defining your public speaking focus. Below are some tips that can help you improve your public speaking blog.

Does your public speaking blog have a great blog name?
* Create a name that will tell the reader who the blog is for and its focus. Since search engines look for keywords to find your blog, use the keywords readers use when searching for products and services similar to yours.

* Connect the name of your blog with your company name. Quite often, you can name your blog the same as your website and add "blog" or "online" to the end of it. If your blog resides on your website, your blog will automatically have the same name as your website.

* Using your preferred domain registrar, confirm that the blog name is available as a domain URL.

* Map your registered blog name URL over the URL your blog provider created when you set up your blog. You don't want "typepad" or "blogspot" in your domain URL. You can find a free tutorial on how to map your domain online.

Does your blog have a tag line or blog purpose statement?
The tag line states the benefits for your targeted readers and your name. Address these three points in your blog tag line:
* Who are the blog readers?
Tell who you are targeting so readers will know if they share a common interest with other readers.

* What is the blog about?
Tell the readers what the blog is about and give them a glimpse of what’s in it for them.

* Who is the writer of blog?
Even if your photo is on your blog, include your name in the tag line underneath the title so readers know who is talking.

Create a marketing message.
Create a brief marketing message telling how people how they can hire you and why they would want to. Place it in a prominent place on your page and link to your About Us page.

Get 30 days of public speaking training for only $5.00!