Smile

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Must I REALLY explain this one? Actually, it seems so! It sounds like such a simple concept, but I have seen presenters walk to the stage completely stone-faced, and then try to warm up the audience with a joke.

Your presentation doesn’t begin when you open your mouth, it begins the second you become visible to your audience. Before you even make it all the way to the stage much of your audience has already taken a good look at your face. They have already passed an initial judgment on you.

If your objective is to win your audience over, a smile will help make that happen. Be warm with your audience; show them that you’re sincerely happy to be there with them.

Being Sensational

So, what’s the lesson? Smile!

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You Never Know Who’s In the Audience

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Always comport yourself as if the most important person in your life’s watching you, because they may just be doing so!

I’ve often been told that so and so had been in the audience, after I’ve delivered a talk or a presentation. I’ve learned to comport myself as if the most important person in the world’s watching From Stage Fright To Spotlight me at all times, and I learned this lesson in Thunder Bay, Ontario, back in the early 1980’s.

I was on the road with the band, and three of us headed to a Laundromat, to get our laundry done. We were always joking around, and making fun of ourselves, whether on the stage, or off the stage. The Laundromat was mostly empty, with the exception of the three of us, and one older man, who was sitting alone at the other end of the room, engrossed in his book.

We were all wearing our band jackets, with the name of the band, “Midnite Sun,” emblazoned on the back, and with our individual names on the shoulders. We were goofing around, and making fun of each other, as was usually the case. Then I decided to give our agent a call from the pay phone, because we’d had a cancellation for the following week, and he was working on finding a replacement gig.

I spoke with him on the phone for a few minutes, and then announced to my band mates that after we were done in Thunder Bay, we were off to a place called Assiniboia, in Saskatchewan.

Who’d ever heard of such a place? Certainly not us, and so we made jokes about the name, and how it must be a little hick town, along with all the other wisecracks that young men generate.

The next morning, the front page of the newspaper held a headline that read, “Midnite Sun En Route to Assiniboia.” The page was split in two columns. The first column talked about our silly antics in the Laundromat, and the second column gave a short history about the town of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan.

Being Sensational

The older gentleman in the Laundromat was a reporter, and he wasn’t reading his book, he was writing in it. He had quoted some of our silly wisecracks, and explained how he’d enjoyed watching us have our fun in the Laundromat.

That evening, we broke the all-time attendance record at the venue we were performing in. There was a lineup of patrons wanting to get in, and it stretched out the door and down the street.

Similar events have happened to me many times over the years, so I’ve learned that you never know who’s in the audience watching you, even when you’re not on a stage.

So, what’s the lesson? Always comport yourself as if the most important person in the world’s watching, because they just might be!

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Go Forth and Change the World!

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If you have something to say, say it! Don’t ever let someone else silence your voice. Tell your story, share your dreams and sing your song. The world needs what you carry inside you, and you have the opportunity to change lives with your words.

At every opportunity, take the stage, grab the Spotlight, and tell the world who you are, and what you believe in. Your wisdom could be the catalyst that ignites the fire within someone else, and this someone else could go on to change the world.

Remember, stories are meant to be told. The world is listening; all you have to do is speak!

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Stick Around. People Will Want to be Close

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To You Because of all the years I’ve spent speaking and performing, I’ve learned a lot of lessons about what to do to stand out from the crowd. One of those lessons is to stick around, after the show or presentation is over.

Being Sensational

When we were on the road with the band, I noticed that many other bands would completely leave the place right after they finished performing, or even step out when they were on their breaks. Our band never did that. We always made ourselves available to the crowd. We didn’t do this as some sort of strategy, we simply enjoyed the attention. People would flock around us!

Most people love to speak with the someone that was on the stage, and that applies to speakers, as well as performers. In the fall of 2010, I attended a conference, hosted by a large mortgage company. This event featured two excellent speakers.

One of them left immediately after his presentation, while the other stayed, and he mingled with the audience for quite some time afterward. Which one do you think people remember the most? Certainly, they remember the speaker who mingled, because people felt like they were able to get to know him a little.

Of course, it’s not always possible to stay, especially if your schedule has you catching a flight, or you’re scheduled to speak somewhere else. I mentioned that I try not to travel on the day that I speak. That applies to traveling to the gig, as well as from the gig. Wherever possible, if I’m speaking out of town, my intention is to schedule my time so that I have nowhere to go immediately after the gig, even if that means staying the night at a hotel. The connections that are often made after a speaking gig can be too valuable to pass up.

So, what’s the lesson? Whenever feasible, schedule your time so that you can remain available to mingle after your presentation.

From Stage Fright To Spotlight

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Lighten Up, Will Ya?

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Holly is an amazing lady I have the good fortune of knowing! She’s a former police officer, now turned entrepreneur, and she attended one of my public speaking classes the evening before I wrote this piece. Because of her training in interrogation techniques as a police officer, Holly tends to be a little rigid when she speaks. She has a fun and loveable personality, but when she stands before an audience, she turns into a bit of a drill sergeant.

Holly stood in front of the class, impeccably dressed with her suit jacket done up, just as it should be when she’s speaking to an audience. Then, Holly the drill sergeant began to speak.

From Stage Fright To Spotlight

I asked her to undo her jacket button, just so she could feel a little less formal. She protested slightly, but she finally complied, and began to loosen up a little. As she was speaking, I had to interrupt her a few times, and ask for Holly the lady to speak, instead of Holly the drill sergeant.

Finally, after several interruptions, Holly the lady broke free. All of the sudden, there she was, the woman we’d all been waiting for. Holly the lady began to speak. She told us about an accident that had befallen her, when she was trapped in an elevator as it fell six stories to the ground. She finally became animated and emotional, and it was so powerful that she had us all captivated.

She lightened up from her Holly the drill sergeant persona! Holly has a little more work to do, because she slipped back into drill sergeant mode after she finished the story, but that’s okay, because now she knows how to lighten up, and it’s going to profoundly improve her speaking skills.

So, what’s the lesson? Lighten up when you take the stage. Your audience will relate to you so much better if you’re just being you.

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Learn The Rules, Then Break Them. Carefully!

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Knowing all the “rules” that are laid out in this book, as well as in many other great books about public speaking, is critically important. It’s important to know these rules, in order for you to follow them, but also in order for you to break them!

Someone who has no training or knowledge about how to speak in public effectively will likely break every rule there is, and their presentation will be a mess. However, every now and then, we see amazing speakers who seem to break the rules so effectively that they make a huge impression.

At a conference in Atlanta, Georgia, I witnessed a speaker who looked so unpolished, and looked so rough around the edges, that my first impression was, “Who the heck is this character, and what’s he doing on the stage?” His mastery of the stage was quickly apparent when he began to speak, however. This guy was brilliant, but he broke the rules of stage etiquette regularly, and that’s what made him unique and memorable. He was foul-

Being Sensational mouthed, and he cracked offensive jokes, but he was able to do it in such a way the audience just loved him for it.

I don’t, for one second, recommend that you try to pull that off! This speaker was one of those rare individuals who could just do it. He had everyone in the place laughing hysterically, but when it came time to make his serious points, he was as professional and powerful as any speaker I’ve ever seen.

What worked for this speaker won’t likely work for you, but there may be other rules you can think of breaking. You must be selective, and you must use caution in doing so, but if you do so successfully, it will help make you a little different than other speakers. As you review this book, consider which of the principles don’t resonate well with your personality. Then go right ahead  and break those principles. Be brave, be creative, and be groundbreaking, but do so with the objective of being a better speaker, not a lazy speaker.

So, what’s the lesson? If you’re going to break the rules, do it selectively and with caution, as long as it improves your performance.

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Write Your Own Introduction

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How you’re introduced to an audience is the first step to being sensational on the stage. The introduction is a critical point in your presentation, because it’s your audience’s first exposure to you. You want it to be perfect! Don’t waste this precious opportunity, an opportunity that lets you paint a picture in your audience’s mind about who you are. Leaving your introduction to the discretion of the Master of Ceremonies isn’t going to give you the powerful opening you need. Unfortunately, many speakers omit this important step.

To write an effective introduction, spare the audience from having to endure a long and painful list of your accomplishments. They don’t really care about what you’ve done that much. It’s always best to keep your introduction short, sweet, and powerful. Include only the information that’s really From Stage Fright To Spotlight important to your audience, and use your introduction as a mood-setter.

At one of my recent events, I had the privilege of introducing Peggy McColl, a New York Times Best-Selling Author. You’ve already read about her in this book.

Peggy has a list of accomplishments that could go on forever, and I could probably spend an entire twenty-minute presentation just rattling off her past work. At our session, however, the topic she was to present her advice about was how to write a book in a single weekend. Peggy didn’t send me an introduction, so I formulated my own. (I bet she won’t do that again, after she reads this book!)

Even though I could have gone on and on about how amazing she is, I restricted her introduction to three relevant points:

1. She’s a ‘New York Times’ best-selling author, and this establishes respect for her work.

2. She’s written eight books, and this establishes her vast wisdom and experience.

3. Her most recent book was written in a single weekend, and this proves she’s just done what she’s going to teach us to do.

Her introduction went something like this, “Our next speaker is a New York Times Best Selling Author. She recently completed her eighth book, which she wrote in a single weekend, and she’s here today to show you how she did it, so you can do it too.

Please help me welcome Peggy McColl.” Being Sensational This is a simple, but effective introduction. When you prepare your introduction, include only the credentials that are relevant to the situation. Make it short, make it sweet, and set yourself up so that your audience awaits your first word with baited breath.

So, what’s the lesson? Take control of how you’re looked upon, as you step onto the stage. Write your own introduction.

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Humor? You Must Be Joking!

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About two weeks before writing this chapter, my step-son, Daniel, told me he was giving a presentation in one of his university courses. He told me he was planning on starting with a joke, because he was taught to begin presentations that way. Not by me, he wasn’t!

The joke he planned to open with was lame, not at all funny, and very old. Is there a worse way to begin a presentation? Probably, but I’ve never seen it.

Unless you’re a comedian, jokes have no place in presentations, or speaking gigs. Now, before you humorists get all up in arms, let me explain my reasoning. A joke and a humorous anecdote aren’t the same things.

If you can pull off humor in a presentation, you’re golden with your audience! But telling a canned joke is a very risky business. There are many reasons not to use canned jokes in your presentation, not the least of which is that your audience may have heard those jokes before. Your audience may not think your jokes are funny, or they may find your jokes offensive.

From Stage Fright To Spotlight

Humor, on the other hand, is a great way to keep your audience fully engaged. Humor should be spontaneous, or at least, appear to be so, and it should be directed at you. This is generally the safest way to interject humor, because you’re less likely to offend if you’re making fun of yourself.

Not everyone can effectively use humor in their speeches, and if you’re one of those people, don’t try to force it. Some people aren’t naturally funny, and trying to be something you’re not can kill your presentation.

So, what’s the lesson? If you can pull it off, use seemingly spontaneous, self-directed humor. If you’re not funny by nature, leave the humor to the humorists.

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Speak Slower Than You Think Is Natural

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I’m a very fast talker. The average English-speaking person speaks at about 120 words per minute. I suspect that I speak at about 150, with gusts up to about 225, when I get on a roll. It’s a natural tendency to speak faster when you’re nervous, or excited. And a faster pace signals excitement or urgency, so it can be a good thing in some cases. More often, however, our pace can increase dramatically, and we’re not aware of doing so.

To help you take control of your speaking pace, and to help you keep your verbal velocity more deliberate, record your talks and presentations. Listen to them carefully afterward, paying attention to your pacing. In addition, consider planting someone in the audience who can signal you when you’re raging out of control.

For speakers whose pattern is to speak at a higher rate of speed, slowing ourselves down can feel painful and unnatural. If you’re a fast talker, one way to flag yourself down is to embed a yield sign into your mental notes. As you may remember, keeping mental notes was the topic of Chapter Ten, Item #82. This gives you a mental reminder to be conscious of your speed, and to slow your pace down to a speed that may feel less than natural to you. If it feels uncomfortably slow to you, it’s likely about right for the audience.

To this day, I run into this problem all the time. When I provide a webinar, or do a recording session, I post a sign that says, From Stage Fright To Spotlight “SLOW DOWN,” in big block letters, and I keep this sign on my wall or desk. I also record almost every presentation I give, so I can review them and further improve my delivery. In almost every presentation or talk I give, I find at least one occasion where I go off the rails with my pacing.

So, what’s the lesson? If you’re a fast talker, build in some flags to slow you down to a pace that might feel a little uncomfortable for you. That’s probably the right pace for the audience.

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Asking Questions, What’s the Point?

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I was watching a motivational speaker do a session about finances. This speaker was a little too hyper for my taste, but he did do a good job of keeping my attention. He was loud, he was fast, and he was big on the stage. Every time he made a point, he’d hold his right hand straight up in the air, and he’d ask, “True, or true?” He’d then move over to his next point immediately.

In this particular case, he was clearly asking the question rhetorically, and his audience recognized that. It was a presentation tactic, because he really gave his audience no way to disagree, so this was just a little quirk that he included in his presentation, to make himself a little different from the rest of the speakers, and I must say it worked. I remembered him, and I’m writing about him right now.

However, I’ve seen too many speakers pose questions to their audience, and really give no chance for the audience to respond to the question, or, if the audience does get a chance to respond, there’s nothing done with that response information.

Let’s explore a few tips to help you be more effective at engaging your audience when asking questions. First, only ask a question if you know the answer, or if an unexpected answer won’t disrupt your presentation. The next item, point #90, provides a great explanation for this.

Second, make sure your audience knows how to give you the answer. Give clear instructions, in order to avoid confusion. For example, asking, “Have you ever had to stand on your head?” doesn’t provide clear instructions on giving a response. Instead, if you give the audience this task, “Put your hand up if you’ve ever had to stand on your head,” it provides clear instructions on what’s expected as a response. Hands will either go up, or they won’t, and either way, you’ve been provided with a response.

Third, have a reason for asking for a response, and do something with the response. You could say, “Put your hand up if you’ve ever had to stand on your head.” And then, you could follow that up with, “I see that less than half the room has ever had to stand on their head. This shows that…” In this way, you’ve asked the audience for information, and your audience now knows why you wanted that information. They know the reason they either raised their hands or not.

So, what’s the lesson? Ask questions of your audience only if you have good reason to, and explain what that reason is, but also give clear instructions on how they’re to respond.

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