Public Speaking: Enthusiasm

I was doing some work for a government agency where I was hired to critique
and improve the sales presentations of the program staff. It was an early
morning program full of typical mistakes by typical untrained presenters. The
audience was nearly asleep from the boring presentations and sugar crash they
were suffering after eating pastries when they got there.

I had been watching one particular presenter prior to his segment and I was
thinking to myself, "I'm going to have to really tear this guy up on his
evaluations." He was poorly groomed, including big dandruff flakes on his
poorly fitting sports jacket. His tie was hanging out over the top of his jacket
button. His pants were way too short I mean WAY too short. He appeared to
be just a goober of a guy.

When it was his turn to present his boring legislative issues topic, I got the
shock of my life. He virtually flew up on the stage. He was running around like
Groucho Marx. He was spouting off facts and figures. He made a perfect ad-lib
when the electrically operated overhead screen started to go up by itself. The
audience woke up and they were laughing and learning from this man. He
actually got applause in a meeting that wasn't even a setting where applause
would be appropriate.

From that experience I learned the value of enthusiasm. This man made
almost every technical error a presenter could make, but I gave him the highest
evaluation of all the other presenters. If you are ultimately enthusiastic about
your topic and let it show, many of your errors will go unnoticed. It's the same
way with storytelling and presenting in general. Your enthusiasm can make or
break your overall performance.

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Banquet/Luncheon Tips

I have done many public speaking engagements in settings where meals were part of the program. You may want to politely remind the program coordinator to consider some of the following points:

ROOM SET-UP

(Many of these tips work whether food is being served or not)

Avoid spacing round tables widely apart in an attempt to fill the available space. Distance makes audience involvement and participation much more difficult. A better idea would be to space the tables as close together as practicable (allowing enough room for comfortable waiter and waitress movement). Empty room space could be filled with a decorative divider of some sort.

Avoid a great distance between the head table /dais / speaker area and the first row of tables. Again, distance is a great barrier to speaking and interaction.

Try to set the head table / speaker area on the long side of the room. This means that the back row participants will be closer to the speaker than if you set the head table / speaker area on the short side of the room (participants will feel they are really far from the action).

Consider allowing the speaker an option of speaking areas. Many top speakers can do a better job if they are not confined behind a head table and/or lectern. Most public audiences like being closer to the speaker too. To accomplish this, place extra chairs near the front of the room to be used by the head table participants after dinner (of course, this would depend on your overall program). You would not want them seated behind the speaker during the program. Set head table back from the front of the podium. Speaker can perform in front of the head table.

Set buffet tables far to the side or on the opposite end from the speaker area. If someone goes back for late seconds or arrives late, he or she will not be disruptive.

Discourage use of doors anywhere near the head table/speaker area.

Click here if you want tips on timing while speaking and a banquet.

Public Speaking: False Guest Speaker Gag

One of my favorite gags is the false guest speaker. The length of the bogus
speech is easy to vary to suit your program. Some speakers have a canned act
and speak on a generic topic like stress reduction. They then go off on bizarre
tangents to the point of lunacy until the joke is revealed.

A better version includes a presentation that is customized for the group. An
insider or accomplice provides industry buzzwords and authentic issues so the
speech starts off in a believable and relevant fashion. The speaker then rambles
off on unrelated topics that are weaved into the real information to lead the
audience down the path to bewilderment.

Really good speakers open up the microphone for a question and answer
session in which they ad-lib or give pre-written comical answers to expected or
planted questions.

The speaker doing an impostor routine has to be ready for anything. One
thing to avoid, unless you are really good at ad-libbing, is being pinned down
before the program on questions you couldn't possibly answer. To avoid this
situation, I usually rush into the in-progress meeting carrying my luggage as if
my plane was late. Then I let them have it. The downside to this type of entrance
is that you do not have a chance to check the room setup and microphone before
you go on. Make it clear to the meeting planner how important these items are
if you decide to try this gag.

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Tom Antion: Humor In Sales Presentations

If anytime is critical to create excitement in a presentation, this is it. If you can't
get someone excited about your idea, product, or service, it is unlikely you will
ever be great in sales. I'm not necessarily talking about the wild excitement you
see at some multilevel sales rallies. That kind of excitement might get you
kicked out of a conservative organization. I'm talking about your ability to
create the appropriate level of excitement to cause your client to want to sign on
the dotted line.

One of the best sales tools I know of to create excitement is humor. Let me
again qualify that. I mean appropriate humor. I say this because I also believe
that if you won't take the time to gain the skills needed to determine appropriate
levels and types of humor, you will do yourself more harm than good. It's just
like we determined when we talked about touchy subjects. The rule is, "If in
doubt, leave it out." According to Ed McMahon in his book Superselling, there
are three facts when it comes to sales:

Fact 1: We tend to buy from someone we trust.
Fact 2: We tend to trust someone we like.
Fact 3: We tend to like someone who makes us laugh.

His conclusion: You can become a more effective and successful salesperson
by using humor in your sales presentation.

Public Speaking: Why Humor

Joan Eisenstodt, from Eisenstodt Associates, and former MPI Meeting
Planner of the Year says, "High content, informational speakers almost always
fall flat if they don't use some humor. I equate appropriate humor with warmth
and audiences respond to warmth." She also notes, "After twenty-five years
watching audiences and presenters, I know that even subtle humor can help the
audience respond positively to information that could be considered boring."

MAKES A POSITIVE IMPRESSION. Laughter and good humor create
bonds. Even if the audience members don't like you, they will like you better
if you can make them laugh or smile and they will leave with better thoughts
of you.

SHOWS THAT YOU DON'T TAKE YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY.
The old saying goes, "If you take yourself too seriously, no one else will." You
don't want to be known as a stuffed shirt. If you can laugh a little bit at
yourself at the right times, your audience can laugh with you and not at you.

HELPS PAINT PICTURES IN THE AUDIENCE'S MIND. The pictures
humorous storytellers can paint are what people remember, not the words.

MAKES INFORMATION MORE MEMORABLE. Joyce Saltman, a
college professor and well-known speaker in the health care field, did
exhaustive research for her 1995 doctoral dissertation Humor in Adult
Learning. She concluded that "Most researchers agreed that humor generally
aided in the retention of materials as well as to the enjoyment of the
presentation of the information."

LIGHTENS UP HEAVY MATERIAL. Appropriate humor added to heavy,
serious material gives the audience a few seconds to relax. Even Shakespeare
employed this device, called "comic relief," extensively to provide distraction
or offer respite from the serious events of a tragedy.

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Public Speaking: Getting The Sale

Humor can help you get the sales presentation in the first place. It will also help
you stay upbeat in the face of rejection, overcome inevitable problems that arise
during a presentation, break down sales resistance, and create loyal customers
who will buy again. Let me tell you how humor has greatly helped me.

One of the ways professional speakers gain business is to do no fee demo
talks in front of potential buyers. I was doing one of these talks for an
advertising association in Washington, D.C. After the presentation, a lady came
up to me and invited me to call her. She said my information would be perfect
for the employees at her government agency. I called three times that week and
did not get a return call. I called three times the next week and did not get a
return call. I called three times the next week and the week after that. Finally, I
got sick of calling so I sent her a funny fax.

She called back within the hour. I went down and got a $3000 contract and
another one the following month for $2000. She said my fax really made her
laugh in the midst of the constant pressure she was under and that's why she
called.

Was my success in this case only because of the humor? No. It was a
combination of humor and persistence.

You might be wondering how I could call someone 12 times in a month and
not be considered a pest. In the first place, she specifically invited me to call. To
me that means I'm going to call her the rest of her life until she tells me to quit.
In the second place, I knew she was a fun person because I saw her really
enjoying the program where she met me. In the third place, I was lighthearted
and fun on each phone call. I used mild exaggeration humor by saying things
like, I know you've got a six-foot stack of paperwork on your desk or I'll bet
people are pitching tents in the line outside your office door.

I do all sorts of things to help land the sales call. I sing on a prospect's voicemail, I send funny post cards, E-mail, gag gifts, and foods like candy, popcorn, doughnuts, and bagels. I always send humorous notes. I want my name to pop up when they need a speaker, seminar leader, or consultant. Constant, interesting, and fun reminders will help you get the call when they have a need.

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Public Speaking: Driving Traffic to Your Website With Videos

Just watch a bunch of my short videos on http://www.YouTube.com/antion You don't need to watch my long ones. Just the short ones. It will give you ideas.

Here's a simple formula for YouTube videos designed to drive people to your site (as opposed to videos where people are already on your site)

=> Hi I'm [insert name]

=> I know you're here looking for information on [insert keyword]

=> Well you've come to the right place.

=> Add some of your credibility. Example: I've been working in the field of feng shui for 22 years...

=> Give them a tip.

=> For more great tips like this visit [insert your website and spell it out if necessary] where you can download [insert your freebie here]

=> I hope to see you at my site

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Public Speaking: Audience Gags

Audience Gags

Audience gags are offbeat jokes that occur unexpectedly during a presentation.
Dr. Joel Goodman, from the Humor Project, does one where a telephone rings
during his presentation. He answers the phone that was hidden in the lectern and
pretends to talk to his mother. The same joke would be called a running gag if
the phone rang at several other times during the program.

Ten Wanted Men

I staged a gag at a seminar one time that was loads of fun and took less than one
minute to complete. Before the program, I picked out about 10 fun-loving
audience members to help me. I gave them secret instructions that were to be
carried out on a certain cue during the program. To start the gag, I had my
assistant interrupt the seminar to give me an important note. The note read (I
used a serious expression):

"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 out, there is a backstage door you can use to escape
quickly."

At this point, 10 men jumped up out of their seats and ran keystone cop style out
the door. Once they realized what was happening, several women jumped up and
ran out too. It was great fun and the gag sure woke up everyone who had a heavy
lunch.

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Public Speaking: Is This A Good Audience For Me?

I always ask the following questions of the meeting planner because I know what audience
profile I'm looking for. You will have to pick the questions for the parameters that are most important for you.

What topic do you want?
How many people do you expect?
What are their responsibilities?
Are their spouses invited?
What is the average age? What is the range of ages?
What percentage is non-U.S.?
Why are they there? Mandatory ____ Voluntary _____
What is the male/female ratio?
What is happening before I speak and after I speak? (You might get a great
audience profile, but be doomed to failure because of the program schedule)

If I decide to accept the engagement, these questions are repeated on the pre-program
questionnaire. I want as many levels of verification as I can get, so that
I know what I am getting into. Chart the answers along a continuum to see if the
engagement appears to be a good one for you. If all the answers fall to the right
of zero, it's a no-brainer. Go ahead and accept the engagement.

If some land to the left you have to seriously evaluate their weight compared to the weight you
have attributed to the factors that would make you accept. This is obviously not an exact science. When you get to the event some audiences will end up being better than you expected and some worse. At least you now have a way of eliminating the audiences that are clearly wrong for you.


Bad for me Good for me
4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4

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Public Speaking: Know Your Audience

You can't catch many fish by using food you like for the bait. You must give
them what they like. You must absolutely, positively know your audience.
You should know what the members of the audience have in common
(interests, enemies, competitors, etc.). You should know what the hot topic of
conversation is, but be sure they are joking about it themselves. It may be too
hot. You should know the restaurants where they eat, the name of their
newsletter, how much money they make, the name and record of the local
sports teams, etc., etc., etc.

The more you know about the audience, the better job you will do. Your goal should be to make that audience know that the presentation they are witnessing was created specifically for them.

If you don't present to the same audience all the time, you must have a
method for getting this information. Most NO ZZZZZs presenters use some
form of pre-program questionnaire which is sent out well in advance of their
program. I got the basis for mine from Dottie Walters at Walters International
Speakers Bureau. I made some slight changes to suit my presentation style and
I keep adding and deleting questions to tweak it to perfection.

Your conversations with the program coordinator will give you some of the
information you need. You should fill in as many of the blanks as you can
before you send out the questionnaire to save the program coordinator some
work. This also proves you were paying attention to what he or she said.

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Public Speaking: Deck the Halls with Story Ideas at Christmas

The weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's can be painfully slow at newspapers, magazines, and TV and radio stations because newsmakers are doing things other than making news.

Talk show guests are in short supply. Reporters often find it difficult to track down the people they need to comment on a particular story. And because newspapers sell more ads in December, that means more news pages to fill.

Here are ways your publicity effort can capitalize on the holidays:

· Tie your story idea to Thanksgiving, Christmas, Yom Kippur or New Year's. See Special Report #14: How to Piggyback Your Story Ideas onto Holidays and Anniversaries. (To access any special reports mentioned in this article Visit PublicityHound.com and click on "special reports".)

· Write letters to the editor and opinion columns for publication during the weeks immediately before and after Christmas, when submissions usually drop off.

· Call your local newspapers now to see what special sections they have planned during December. Your story idea might be a perfect fit. Pitch your idea immediately because these sections are sometimes done weeks in advance.

· Stay alert for breaking news stories on which you can provide expert opinion, even if the topic doesn't have anything to do with the holidays. If a story breaks, call newspapers and TV stations and offer to comment.

· Write or call magazine editors, who usually work six months ahead, with story ideas for late spring and early summer. Mark your calendar now to set aside some time before and after Christmas to pitch.


Publicity expert Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound, publishes "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," a free ezine that shows you how to generate thousands of dollars in free online and offline publicity. Subscribe at PublicityHound.com and receive free the handy checklist "89 Reasons to Send a Press Release." Contact her at 262-284-7451 or at JStewart@PublicityHound.com

Great Public Speaking: Great Closing Lines

P.T. Barnum would have trouble getting people to leave his museum so he
put up a sign that said, "This way to the Egress." When people went
through the door, they found themselves on the street. I don't want to find
myself there, so I'll finish up now . . .

You've heard that "All's well that ends well." Well in my case it's All's
well that ends. Goodnight.

When all is said and done, there is usually more said than done. I think
I've said enough. Good Luck.

When a speaker says, "Well, to make a long story short," it's usually too
late. I don't want you to feel that way about me. Thanks for having me.

If you have a Question and Answer period:
Now let's open it up for questions. Ask me anything. If I know the answer,
I'll give it to you. If I don't, I'll make something up.

Complimentary and funny:
Secretaries are the backbone of an organization. They are the structure
that holds everything together [start to get emotional and cry. Take out a
handkerchief and hidden noisemaker. Blow your nose really loudly]. I'm
sorry. I get so emotional. You're the greatest. Good bye.

Paraphrase a quotation:
The next time you're feeling down, and you look in the mirror and see a
few extra wrinkles, just remember what my old buddy Mark Twain used to
say. "Those wrinkles are where smiles have been all these years." I'm Tom
Antion. I love you.

Now I'm going to say something in the public interest.
Goodnight.

George Eliot said, "Blessed is the man [I would substitute the word person
for the word man to avoid sexist language], who having nothing to say
refrains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact."

An old-timer is one who can remember when time was marching on instead
of running out. My time is running out, so in conclusion . . .

My great, great granddaddy always told me, "When you're holding a
conversation, be sure to let go of it once in awhile." I'm letting go of ours
right now. Are there any questions?

My talks usually have a happy ending. That's because everyone is glad
they are over.


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Public Speaking: Talk About Your Family

When you are doing a public speaking engagement, one way to build rapport with an audience is to include information about your family. Most people in the audience get the warm fuzzies when you mention your spouse or kids in a positive light.

Of course, you do run the risk that a few people in the audience may not like their spouse or kids. Generally the benefits of this technique far outweigh the risks.

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Public Speaking: Bilingual Help

When going over room setup and audio / visual requirements with a foreign logistics person, make sure you do it in advance of the presentation (hopefully several times), and have a bilingual person there to ensure that both you and the logistics person are on the same wavelength.

Be in the room very early on the day of the speaking engagement (at least two hours before the public enters the room) and, if possible, have your bilingual helper there too. Terms that are familiar to most English speaking speakers are difficult to translate into a foreign language. One good idea is to take pictures of the various items you may need (overhead projector, white board, etc.) and carry them with you to the event. When you want something, all you have to do is show the picture which, when you are desperate in a foreign country, is worth a million words.

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Public Speaking: Creating Memorable Moments

When staging a practical joke you must plan the many details carefully. You certainly don't want something that is supposed to be fun to turn sour. If you plan the joke as carefully as you plan all other details of the event you will find that the benefits far outweigh the risks. I use the following criteria when planning an event:

1. The joke should not be physically dangerous in any way.
2. It should not be humiliating.
3. It should have good intent, i.e., you should be able to laugh with the group that was fooled and not at them. Most of the time key insiders are involved in the idea anyway.
4. It should be creative. If you faithfully stick to the first three criteria you can be assured that your jokes will be well received. Item number four can be fudged with little or no problem.

For instance, the idea of a clumsy waiter is not particularly creative, but when you have a talented actor playing the part, your biggest complaint will be that someone's side hurts from laughing too hard. Make sure you only deal with professional and experienced characters. Even if you plan the joke carefully, once the person or group is "on stage" they must be able to ad lib and adjust to whatever situation arises. On large productions you will need an on-site person to coordinate the action. The characters presented here are only three of the most popular gags you can pull at a meeting. You are limited only by your imagination and budget.

If you truly want your participants to have a memorable experience, then give them something special to remember.

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Great Public Speaking: The Last Speaker

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 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.

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Great Public Speaking: No Fee Talks

Many professionals speak or give free public seminars to help get clients. Attorneys, doctors, dentists, accountants, real estate agents, lawyers, home builders and many other people from a wide variety of professions give seminars to promote their business and to gain clients directly from the seminars.

To do this effectively you must not spend the entire seminar promoting yourself. You must give the participants good information with the idea of establishing yourself or your company as the expert. There is certainly nothing wrong with showing people how complicated things are and even though they can do it themselves, it might not be a wise thing to do.

For instance, you could be a plumber giving a seminar on how to remodel your bathroom. You tell the participants every little detail of how to do it and also tell them the perils if they do it wrong. No one will complain that you were just giving a sales pitch, but many will think to themselves, "Maybe this is too much to tackle by myself. Maybe I should hire this person to either help me or do it for me."

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