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Passion: The Most Important Advice On Public Speaking I Ever Got

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“Be passionate about your topic.”

Those were the words of wisdom I got from Jim Sterne, the author of a dozen books on digital marketing and analytics.

It was 2005 and I had finished speaking at a conference in Madison, WI. I did a decent job and felt like I delivered a pretty solid presentation. In retrospect, it was probably about a 6 on a 10 scale – not bad, but also not great.

Following me was Sterne, who had excellent slides, told great stories and kept the audience highly engaged in his topic. He was simply impressive as a speaker.

His performance made me realize how far I had to travel to become a really good or great speaker. I had started to average about a dozen presentations per year, but was still trying to find my speaker mojo and hone my style and approach.

When Jim came off stage I asked him what his secret was. “You just have to be passionate about your topic.” His advice was simple and brilliant.

His point was that passion: a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something Source: Merriam Websterif you are passionate about the subject you are speaking on, the audience can see it and feel it. You ooze enthusiasm for your subject, bringing your slides to life with your voice, body language and the stories you tell.

So how do you convey a high level of passion to your audience? Following are my suggestions to maximum confidence and ooze with passion:

Preparation: Minimize any last minute issues, such as struggling to find the room you are speaking in, realizing there is no presentation remote or lavalier microphone or finding out there is no room to move around on the stage. To ooze passion on stage, you need to be relaxed, confident and focused. If your thinking about the fact that your slides look faded on the screen or there is a delay with your presentation remote, those and other “surprises” will detract from ability to command the stage and audience.

Topic: It all starts with your topic. Never submit a proposal or agree to speak on a topic that you don’t have expertise about and stories to share. If you are an expert on the topic, even if your slides are not great you can ad lib, tell stories and wow the audience. If, however, you are relying on someone else’s slides, or the topic is either uninteresting or you lack deep knowledge – then you will not be able to deliver that deep passion required to inform and entertain the audience. They too will see it in your eyes and body language, as well as your pacing and the tone of your voice.

If, as happens on occasion, you inherit a presentation or have to substitute for a co-worker, then you must find a way either revise the presentation or use one of your own. (See post on inheriting someone else’s presentation)

Practice/Rehearsal: Build your confidence by practicing your presentation multiple times – whether in your head on the plane to the event, in your hotel room in front of a mirror or by actually presenting on stage. That additional confidence then enables you to be more relaxed, increase your comfort with your slides and enables you to ad lib more or just put additional energy into your delivery.

Rehearsing or multiple times delivering a presentation uncovers weak points in your slides that you can then remove, revise or learn to improvise around.

Have great openings: If you can grab the audience from the moment you walk on stage, you get them on your side and listening to every word you utter. Use whatever tricks you are comfortable with that gives you confidence from the start and makes audience members put down their smartphones. You want them to know from the start that you are a speaker they need to pay attention to.

Have a few “go to” stories: If possible, every presentation you deliver should have a couple of “go to” stories that you can rely on. These are your versions of the Rolling Stones performing “Satisfaction” or Bruce Springsteen delivering “Born to Run.” They are your tried and true stories that are both crowd pleasers, but you are able to strut your stuff with great energy, confidence, “color” and passion.

Slides that don’t suck: Your slides are probably the least important element of conveying passion, but crappy slides, such as those with lots of or unreadable text, poor quality images or poor layout can detract. If the audience is mumbling to themselves about the poor quality of your slides, you will struggle to get their full attention. Make sure your slides are simple and image-focused so that the audience is focused on you and your words and insight, rather than struggling to read the content on your slides.

Body language: Don’t stand behind the podium. Ever.* Don’t stand behind a podium, instead roam around the stage and use physical movement and body language to convey your passion about the topic or put an explanation point on specific aspects of your presentation. (*The only exception is when the only microphone available is one affixed to the podium.)

Bring the energy: Even if you are shy, find your inner rock star and yell, laugh, sing, vary your cadence and volume, run around the stage or into the audience or do whatever you can to get the audience’s attention. Bring energy to the stage and the audience will reciprocate by ignoring their smartphones and give you their full attention.

Engage the audience: Show your passion for a topic by getting the audience involved so that you are in essence transferring your passion to them. Ask the audience questions, go into the crowd or just show your empathy for the audience though your slides and stories. When the audience feels that you understand their pains and challenges they will more likely to jump on board the train and adventure you are taking them on.

Use whatever techniques work for you to build your confidence and convey passion when you speak. If you don’t bring the passion to the stage, don’t expect your audience to go “wow.”

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Beyond the Online Form: How To Secure That Desired Conference Speaking Session

Ask for the speaking session
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If you are a professional speaker with a book or two under your belt, a brand reputation and an agent – most of your speaking opportunities will come to you.

But if speaking is something you do as part of your job, how do you get that 45-minute slot at the Future of Human Resources Conference in Orlando?

There are typically four paths to getting an opportunity to climb on stage at a large conference and share your vast knowledge with hundreds of attendees. These are:

  • You are Asked: Someone recommends you or saw you speak at another event. This is your dream scenario as a non-professional speaker.
  • Company Sponsorship: This is the easiest and most sure-fire approach. Your employer pays for exhibit space and/or a sponsorship that includes a speaker session.
  • Submitting a Proposal: The most common, but also most competitive approach is by submitting a proposal through the event’s normal speaking submission process. This usually requires completion of an online form and with submission deadlines typically ranging from 3-12 months prior to the conference.
  • You Ask/Use Your Connections: This is where you use your relationships and connections to get the inside track on a session.

Most often, however, your primary route to securing a speaking slot at a major conference is through #3 above, using the event organization’s online submission form. This necessary process can make your odds at success a crapshoot. So how can you increase your chances of success?

9 Tips to Increase Your Chance of Success

1. Plan for Next Year: If you are speaking at an event you like and want to speak again next year, talk yourself up. If your session went well, make sure you engage with the influencers at that organization and mention how engaged the audience was, the number of questions people asked, that people were standing in the aisles your session was so packed. Obviously don’t go overboard and sound like you are bragging, just be factual and matter of fact.

The better approach, however, is to ask event organizers for feedback right after your session as this has them singing your praises instead of you sounding self serving. Regardless, plant seeds for the next year. Make sure the right people know that your session went well so they’ll remember when you come calling the following year.

2. Ask Directly: Like many things in life, a lot of success actually begins behind the scenes and via relationships. If you are an expert in your field, you should have connections – use them. If you know anyone at the event organization, reach out to them via email, social media or phone and telAsk for the speaking sessionl them the topic you are thinking of. Get a few minutes of their time to run an idea by them. If they help you co-create the topic, ultimately it will be difficult for them to say no to the idea.

3. Chat with Influencers at Other Events: One of the smartest things I ever did was chat with the head of a conference organization at one of their regional events. I had just gotten off stage after doing a short sponsored talk and mentioned to the organizer that I had never attended or spoken at their annual conference – and that I really wanted to speak at the next year’s conference. I shared an idea with him and we batted it around for a few minutes and he gave me some good suggestions.

Armed with this insight, I submitted my proposal through the public process (also mentioning the conversation in the comments field of the online form) and did secure a speaking session. My session was well attended and received a speaker rating of 4.76 versus the conference average of 4.4.

4. Capitalize on Previous Sessions at the Same Conference: If you’ve spoken at the same event before, you have a proven (and hopefully good) track record. You might even have a video from your session, some positive Tweets and a rating and comments from the post-session surveys.

Leverage the objective feedback not only in your proposal submission, but also in dialog and conversation with contacts at the event organization. Reach out to decision-makers and contacts and remind them how well received your session topic was at the previous event and that you were thinking of then proposing a follow-up to build on the previous content and audience enthusiasm.

5. Leverage Exclusive Content/Client Co-Presenters: Organizers are looking for great content and great speakers, but they also want their event to create buzz, to be talked about. Does your company have a major new research study or a Fortune 500 client of yours is willing to share a case study with data? Before submitting the proposal, reach out to your contacts and run the idea past them.

6. Get An Introduction: The above all sounds fine if you are at least somewhat known with the event organization, but what if you’ve never spoken at their events? Leverage friends, contacts and peers who do have a track record with the organization/conference. Have a peer make an introduction: “Mary, I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Bob Smith, who is probably the smartest person I know on X, Y, Z topic. I know you have a formal speaker submission process, but I thought I’d make an introduction as I think he would make a really great speaker for next year’s summit.”

You might get a standard reply to submit your proposal through the online form, or it might open a dialog as your area of expertise fits perfectly in a new track the organizers are considering adding to the upcoming conference.

7. Leverage Content/Business Relationships: Do you write a regular column for a media company that also runs conferences? Is your company doing a joint study or similar project with the conference organization? Use these relationships and content to start a conversation about securing speaking slot at one of the organization’s conferences. It is in a media organization’s best interest to promote its columnists and content, so this should be one of your first and best avenues to pursue.

8. Get on the Program Committee or Advisory Board: Many conference organizations establish formal or informal programming committees and/or advisory boards. See if you can get on one of these. While they require a bit of extra work, the experience pays dividends in that you both learn about and can influence which topics and speakers are considered. And usually, as a participant in this process a quid-pro-quo benefit is that you get a first shot at one of the sessions.

9. Get Involved With Key Associations: Beyond the above suggestion, make sure you are generally involved as a board member or in some capacity with one or more associations in your industry. Your involvement may have nothing to do with the association’s conferences, but you increase your visibility and awareness of your commitment within the organization. You will interact with board members and staff who are driving the conference and who then may reach out to you to speak or give your proposal more weight because of your involvement and relationship with the organization. 

What Not to Do

One thing you should avoid if at all possible is applying pressure based on event sponsorships. Some conferences keep a strict separation between church and state, meaning you can’t or won’t get a speaking slot because of sponsorships or the amount of your employer’s trade booth spend.

Whereas others will give you everything from a keynote to a breakout slot as part of your sponsorship contract or simply just for the asking. Know the situation and work within the system and process of each organization.

Don’t, however, imply that an organization owes you a speaker session as a result of the current/past sponsorships. While your employer may have spent $250,000 as an exhibitor over the last 5 years, aggressively pushing that on the content side of the organization could hurt your personal brand and future chances of getting a slot on your own.

If you truly believe you are being slighted and competitors are getting speaking slots and you are left in the cold, let your events marketing person take the lead and see if they can negotiate on your behalf. Let them play bad cop and use their relationships with the sponsorship sales people to work their magic.

But in the end, the best thing on your side is to be a compelling speaker and have at least some track record in your industry. And if you can work your relationships on top of that to give you an edge over the other hundreds of session proposals – make sure you use them.

Good luck!

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Don’t Make These 10 Rookie Speaker Mistakes

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After being introduced at a recent conference, a speaker opened her talk with my top two pet peeves for inexperienced speakers: she told us it was her first-time speaking and that she was nervous. She then went on to make about 5 more mistakes from my list of “10 Rookie Speaker Mistakes.”

So whether you are a first-time speaker or veteran, try to avoid these common mistakes:

1. Announce to the audience that it is your first time speaking and/or that you are nervous. Getting off to a great start is perhaps the most important part of presenting on stage – especially for an inexperienced speaker. Telling the audience that: “This is my first time speaking” may make you feel better and get some claps or audible encouragement – but it likely won’t improve the success of your presentation or increase your confidence.

Talking about your inexperience distracts you from nailing your opening and setting of the rest of the content of your presentation. Instead of coming clean that you are an inexperienced speaker, open with a story or something fun or humorous that quickly gets the audience behind you and builds your confidence. This will help you relax and get you into a rhythm that will soon have you forgetting where you are and that it is your first time in front of an audience.

The audience assumes that most speakers are at least a little nervous. Almost everyone, even professional speakers, have a bit of nervousness when they walk on stage. Their nervousness may be from the desire to make it one of their best presentations ever, or that they are using brand new slides – whereas your anxiety is from simple inexperience and fear.

Instead of teSTOP in streetlling the audience you are nervous, focus on techniques that actually help calm down your nerves. You may be close to hyper-ventilating when you first start speaking, so be aware of your pace and start taking extra breaths and try to slow down. Find a friendly face in the audience – even if it is a co-worker, friend or client – and speak to them and use your familiarity with them and their approving glances to minimize your nervousness.

2. Forget to bring water on stage. All speakers need water to keep hydrated and their throats lubricated. But inexperienced speakers in particular are unaware that being nervous dries out your throat, increasing the need for water. Grab a bottle or glass of water and put it somewhere on stage where you can easily access it multiple times throughout your presentation. Then take a sip every 5-10 minutes, or whenever needed, when you pause for emphasis, field a question or are changing slides.

3. Wear you conference name badge on stage. Nothing conveys a newbie more than wearing your name badge on stage when you speak. We know who you are – your name is in the conference guide, on your title slide and the person who introduced you told us. You look unprofessional with that lanyard and name badge dangling around your neck and messing with the look of your attire. When the A/V person is getting you set up with your lavalier mic, take off the lanyard name badge and put it somewhere. You can put it back on when you are done, but never wear it on stage.

4. Not running through your slides on the big screen ahead of time. You are humming along with your presentation, starting to get in a groove and then you click to a slide and the chart or image doesn’t show; the white text blends into the background color making it nearly unreadable; or you discover you forgot to make that last change or delete a slide.

ALWAYS do a run through of your slides on the computer you will be using and with your slides projected on the screen in the room you will be speaking. If the event organizer hasn’t scheduled a run-through time, make sure you plan to meet with the A/V person before the event starts, during lunch or a break or at the end of the day. Things to check for include:

  • Do all images and charts show?
  • Do the animations work the way they are supposed to?
  • Is the text readable on the background (background colors often become lighter or faded on projectors or screens under bright lights).
  • Are the slides, section headers, closing slides, etc. all in the right order?
  • Are there any typos you may have missed, but you now see on the big screen?
  • If you have audio or video does it play properly?

5. Bring notes, cards, your laptop, etc. on stage. You’ve got this thing. If you’ve constructed your presentation properly, then your slides function simply as backdrops to your story telling. You know your story. If you’ve rehearsed properly, you’ll realize that each slide triggers a story that you know – because you’ve either lived it or created it.

Until you’ve spoken in front of an audience a few times, this can be the hardest concept to grab. Inexperienced speakers often think they have to script every slide out in detail – whether with text on the slides or as notes. But trust your knowledge of the topic and be confident that you can just talk to each slide, without having to reference notes on cards, a tablet or laptop.

6. Read from your slides. Try to avoid reading bullets or sentences word for word from your slides. Hopefully you made your presentation very visual and didn’t create a bunch of text-based slides. That would be sure pain, worse than fingernails on a chalkboard, for the audience.

If you do have a fair amount of text on your slides, use the text just as a reminder and bring the point(s) to life using your own words. Elaborate. Ad lib. The audience came to hear you talk – not watch you read your slides.

7. Apologize about your slides. “Sorry you can’t read this.” So, you know before you go on stage that the audience can’t read that chart you’ve included? Don’t apologize. Instead, fix it before you go on stage. Show the chart if you want, but then enlargen and highlight the key information you want to convey.

8. Hide behind the podium. Standing behind a podium is a frequent crutch for new speakers. Podiums are for press conferences and police chiefs, not public speakers. You can hold on to a podium. Hide most of your body behind it. But guess, what. People want to see who you are. If they are on the opposite side of the stage from the podium they want you to share some of your face time with them.

Get out from behind the podium and move around the stage. The walking around on stage should also help you relax more than standing like a robot behind a wooden (or plastic) box.

9. Lose track of time. “How much time do I have?” This is a common mistake that even many experienced speakers make. First, estimate accurately how much time you will actually have for your session. Is the session likely to start on time? Is there a chance the person introducing you will also make administrative announcements or get long winded talking about when they first met you? How much time will you allot for Q&A? Will you take Q&A during your session?

Secondly, have a watch, smartphone or tablet somewhere on stage with a timer or clock that you can easily spot and use to keep track of how much time you have left. Of have someone in the audience hold up a sign with 10 minutes, 5 minutes, etc. Many event organizers will do this or provide a countdown timer (with colored green, orange and red lights) on the podium or floor monitor. But I recommend having your own way of keeping track of time as well. Ultimately, it is your responsibility, and no one else’s to be aware of how much time you have left in your session.

10. Not have a closing or transition to the Q&A period. How many times have you heard a speaker move along through their presentation and then suddenly say: “And that’s all I’ve got.” Really? There are two problems with this:

  • 1) This probably means you didn’t have a clear and good ending to your presentation. You simply ended with your last point. After your last key slides, have at least one (and possibly more) transition or wrap-up slides. They can be a summary of what you talked about. Or they might be “3 Lessons I Learned,” or “5 Things to Do Next”, or “How to Get Started” or “5 Mistakes to Avoid.”
  • 2) You haven’t warned the audience that your presentation is coming to an end. Without a warning, they have no time to process your content and start thinking about questions. When you end suddenly without any notice and then open it up for Q&A, you increase the likelihood that few if any audience members will ask you a question.

Did I leave anything out? What are the top mistakes either you’ve made or seen inexperienced speakers make? Please share in the comments.

 

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Your “Game Day” Speaker Checklist

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It’s game day. You will go on stage and wow the audience in a few, or perhaps several, hours if you session is late in the day.

Speaker checklist - game day

All the hours you’ve put into crafting your story, building the slides and rehearsing will soon come to life on stage. The next few hours, however, are critical to success and can make the difference between wowing the audience and disappointing them.

Here is a checklist of things to go through the day of (or even earlier if possible) your presentation:

Check out the room. Go to the room you will speak in as early as possible when you arrive at the venue. Check out the layout and acoustics. Is there a stage or riser? Or will you be speaking from the same floor level as the audience? Is it a small room or the main stage?

Where is the projector? Is it mounted on the ceiling giving you freedom to walk in front of the screen? Or is it on a table in front of the screen, which limits where you can stand and move as you will block the projection from reaching the screen if you walk in front of it.

Meet the A/V people. Your stage life is in the hands of the A/V folks, make sure they like you. Make small talk, chat about the music they will be playing, the weather, sports, whatever. Ask their name and shake their hand. Build a relationship with them. You want them to care about you and take care of you before and during your talk.

Tell them when you are going on stage, the name of your presentation and if you have any audio or video in your presentation. Tell them if you plan to jump off the stage or walk around the room.

Confirm which laptop will be used to run your presentation. Will you be running your presentation off an event supplied laptop or your own?  If your own and you use an Apple Mac laptop did you bring your own VGA adapter? Have you tested the clicker to make sure it works with your Mac?

Presentation. Does the event organizer have your final presentation? Make sure you have them open it and project it onto the screen. Grab the clicker and run through your slides checking screen alignment, colors and that builds all work correctly. You don’t want to find out in the middle of your session that the yellow color you use as a background in graphics, charts and callout bubbles looks washed out on the screen and is difficult to read.

Slide Presentation Clicker. Make sure the A/V folks have a clicker and you test it out and are comfortable with it. If you have your own clicker see if the A/V people will let you use your own. Regardless of which one you use, make sure the clicker has plenty of range, works smoothly and has enough battery life.

Microphone. Confirm with the event coordinator AND A/V that you will have a lavalier microphone if you asked for one or expect there to be one provided. If it was written into the speaker agreement, make sure you have a copy if it isn’t provided. If the organizer will not provide a lavalier mic, demand a hand held. You do not want to be stuck behind a podium where you can’t move around and may have to lean forward toward the microphone continuously to be heard. If using a handheld microphone, plan out in advance in which hand you wiIl hold the microphone and which you’ll will use for clicker.

Are you being recorded on audio video or is it being live streamed? Knowing this in advance, you can factor into whether you should reconsider using an expletive or taking a humorous dig at a competitor.

Audio or video. If you have audio or video in your presentation make sure you test it with the A/V person.

Lighting. Get on stage with the lights on. Are they in your eyes, blinding you and making it hard to see the audience? See if the lighting team will adjust them a bit so they are not aimed directly into your eyes.

Water. Make sure you have some. Where will you keep it on stage? Often the only place on stage to place your water bottle or glass is an angled podium. Check it out in advance. Will your bottle slide off in the middle of your presentation? So you may have to put your water on the stage floor or a chair.

Path to the stage. Figure out in advance where you’re going to sit or stand before walking on stage. Are you making a grand entrance from the back of the room, standing near the stairs to the stage or sitting at a speakers’ table? Or if it’s a breakout session after a break are you going to stand on the center stage with no entrance at all?

Introduction. Are you being introduced by someone such as a moderator, event or room coordinator, a sponsor, yourself or co-presenter? If a sponsor or event coordinator find out not just how they are going to introduce you, but what other announcements they are going to make. You don’t want to be blindsided by the moderator talking for 5 minutes about event announcements, stealing your thunder with a tease from your presentation or opening joke, or getting your background or title wrong.

Bio. If you are going to be introduced and your bio read or referred to, ask to see it. It is not uncommon for event organizers to grab your bio from a few years ago or someone from your marketing team sends the wrong version. Make sure you have the correct one on your laptop as a back up.

Session Duration. Confirm your session start and end times. If the event is running behind schedule, find out how or if that will affect your time slot.

Set up/Transition period. Most conferences will have at least 5-10 minutes between  sessions, or schedule longer breaks. Know how much time you will have to get your microphone on, get your water and everything ready to go. If there are zero to 5 minutes between sessions then make sure you are ready to get started the second the previous speaker finishes.

Previous/Post sessions. What comes before your session? Do you follow or precede the keynote speaker or a unique personality? Are you the last session of the day or before or after lunch or a break? Hope might these different scenarios affect your approach?

What’s your opening? Do you know what you are going to say when you walk on stage? Do you have a story based on something that happened on the way to the event, something another speaker said or a current event?

Will there be translators? If you are speaking in a foreign country, there might be translators in the back of the room. Meet them in advance and walk them through your presentation explaining any key points or concepts that might be difficult to translate.

What is the audience like? If you are speaking on day 2 or 3 or in the afternoon of day 1, note how the audience responds to and engages with the other speakers. Are they lively and engaged, or are you going to have to work extra hard to get them to listen intently to your session?

Will you take questions? Have you built time into your presentation for question at the end or even during your talk?

Contact information and Twitter handle on your slides? Do you have your Twitter handle on your title, closing and several slides throughout. Did you include your email address?

How are you making the slides available? Does the event organizer post them to a special website or email links to attendees? Will you post it to your own site or SlideShare?

Business cards? Did you bring a stack of cards to give attendees who come up to speak with you after your session?

Handouts or call to action? Does your employer have a trade booth or stand at the event you can direct attendees to? What are you giving them, a white paper, research report or branded USB phone charger? Does it relate to your presentation? Are you offering a free audit?

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