A little over a year ago, I decided I wanted to do some public speaking. I had just done my first big appearance on a panel at SHRM National. I had built up a strong presence online, I had a good network of people and I had a message I wanted to share with people.
I set a goal: I’m going to speak at twelve events this year. My first event was a small one in October of 2009. 12 months, 12 events.
Today is number 14 and my last for the year.
It wasn’t easy. I had some insignificant experience in public speaking, mainly to groups of a dozen or less. I didn’t know what my style was so I tried different things. I forced confidence, smiles and eye contact. I cut down slides (or expanded slides). I eliminated them completely for four of my presentations. I got really bad feedback on one presentation. I got screwed by a conference organizer. But I’m glad I did it because I learned some great lessons along the way.
Throwing yourself into it
I threw myself into speaking because I knew it was the only way I was going to book 12 speaking engagements. I also had an aversion to speaking and I wanted to see if it was just a confidence/skill thing or if it was just something I didn’t enjoy. I thought that was the only fair way to look at it.
So I dived in. The first ones were fine because I over-prepared. No such thing you may say? I could have been mistaken for a robot. A fast talking robot.
One of the middle ones was a complete bomb. I’m fortunate that it was for a smaller organization, a non-local organization and that it only happened once. Do you think you’ve lost the audience when a person in the front row says something like, “This guy doesn’t know what he’s doing up there” so you can hear it?
After that, I started to get slowly better. Rehashing a video of my presentation or listening to the audio of a presentation I gave helped a bunch after I got over how stupid I looked and sounded. I started figuring out how much it made a difference when I was comfortable and enjoyed the subject matter.
Crowds matter
I’m sure there are some studies out there that say something but the crowd matters. Sure, the size matters (I talked to groups from 30 to 300 during the last year) but the biggest difference maker was having 8-12 really engaged people in your audience. People who had interesting questions or stories of their own or people that simply gave you the attentiveness you crave as a speaker.
I had a group of almost 100 people that didn’t have that many people in the audience and I had my smallest group have almost everybody in that group. Which one would I have rather spoke at?
The impact of stories
What I found out was how much better my presentations were when I went off script and told stories. Stories about failed business ventures or successful ones. Funny stories or sad stories. It didn’t matter. When I had a story I could tell authentically, it worked. People listened. And I used those to interconnect with my overall story.
It made a huge difference. I used a quarter of the slides I usually did. People weren’t falling asleep. People would ask me questions.
And what I realized is that’s what I’ve been doing on this blog. Telling my story or telling other people’s stories is what makes this blog accessible. It’s what I was already good at.
Translating the message going forward
Going from a text based conversation to an engaging and interactive speaking gig is a major challenge and I found that most of the time, my message was lost because I was focused on hitting my goal rather than figuring out what speaking venues and styles made the most sense for me. While I don’t imagine I’m going to stop speaking, I’m going to be selective about the venues, styles and content I choose going forward.
I know this is old news to some speaking veterans out there but for those pros who are looking to get into it, I hope this helps when you’re considering speaking. I wouldn’t change the way I did it at all because even though I knew most of this coming into it, I didn’t realize how big of deal some of these “little things” could be.
October 20, 2010 at 4:34 am
Glad I was there to hear a couple of the times. I definitely preferred the session where you were much more casual and relaxed and told stories (w/ Laurie). I like speakers who talk to me from the heart, and you do that. I expect that they must know their stuff because some conference organizer has tapped them, the rest definitely needs to flow and not be robotic. The worst speakers IMHO are those who use PowerPoint slides as a crutch and they read to me.
I recently spoke at HRSW with Jason Seiden and at the last minute, we ditched our slides and spoke from the heart. We connected with our audience. It was the best move we could have made. Still covered the same material, but in a more effective way.
October 20, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Thanks and yes, I’ve started using Powerpoint more strategically (or not at all). One of the things I want to do is start putting together resources that I gather during my research phase on this website (specifically at http://rehaul.com/resources). It’s incomplete at this point but that would be my personal alternative to providing slides.
October 20, 2010 at 5:32 am
Love the hands on advice Lance !! The times I’ve been successful in speaking is with stories. Slides are just place holders to get people to know material, but stories resonate with the heart and honestly is what is remembered more often. Thanks for the post !!
October 20, 2010 at 8:05 pm
That’s been my feeling too. When I feel connected to a speaker, its when they’ve told a story so well and connected it to their point. It is very powerful and I hope I can include a couple moments like that each time I present.
October 20, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Lance – - – echoing the prior comments, I would say “Nice going.” Well beyond the bounds of “HR,” your story resonates on a number of levels re: perseverance, learning curves, adding new skills, stretching oneself, not giving up when meeting adversity, self-awareness, motivation, etc…. It’s a terrific story. Thanks so much for sharing.
October 20, 2010 at 8:07 pm
It is one of the lessons I’ve learned too as we’ve pushed practitioners to speak at our events. Most aren’t professional speakers and I think I initially under-estimated how much it takes to get up there when you don’t speak all of the time.
October 27, 2010 at 11:40 am
The first key component of successful public speaking is to get your audience to connect with you. This is a little different than you connecting with your audience, because its supposed to be about them, and not you. Using PowerPoint usually inhibits this connection because the audience members focus on your PowerPoint slide instead of on you. I use PowerPoint at times, but sparingly, and I almost never have words on my slides. Why? The PowerPoint slide should augment the message, not be the message. Use appropriately, PowerPoint can make a great speech better. However, PowerPoint will never poor speech good. It it did, we wouldn’t need speakers, would we?
October 27, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Thanks, Lance. While I am neither a professional HR person or regular public speaker, I can feel that your comments about speaking are on the mark. It’s important that we “fess up” about trials and difficulties encountered on the path to self-improvement because such disclosure is what connects us to the majority of those who invest the time to hear what we say. Ever since humans first sat around a warming fire and shared experiences and even fabricated stories for entertainment, we know we enjoy the sense of being there, going along on a shared journey with the story teller. And how much better can it get than when we also learn something about ourselves and our work which helps us improve our lives and the lives of others?
October 27, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Lance: Great suggestions all and congratulations on setting a goal and blowing right past it. Here’s my question…. How did you get the speaking gigs in the first place? I have been a reporter for years and now I am a blogger. I recently spoke at Blogworld in Vegas about ‘How to Get Media Coverage for Your Business’. The feedback was tremendous and I’d like to do more — but I’m not really sure where to find or how to create a list of target opportunities. I feel like the answer is really simple and obvious…but I’m just not seeing it. Thx in advance for your help.
Amy Parmenter
The ParmFarm.com
October 27, 2010 at 12:39 pm
I find story telling to be a strong foundation for successful outcomes in training and speaking. I often begin a “gig” using a prepared slide or flip chart page with 10-12 “call outs”, colorful, statements. I warm up the room with self introductions; starting with me. But, instead of telling participants about myself; I ask them to look at the call out statements on the slide and to shout out which statement about me, they think, is true or false. It’s a fun ice-breaker. The “call out” statements on the slide/chart run from “logical or obviously true”, to “might be true”, to the “sounds crazy” (could be), to “no way” (not possible). By example, on one occasion training a group of AmeriCorp volunteers, one call out said, “served 10,000 kids”. Participants universally agreed that was false. But it was true! During 8 years with Boys & Girls Clubs, I directly or indirectly served at least that many children. I take 5 minutes for this activity, and by the time we finish it, the participants are comfortable to introduce themselves as well. I believe we must create a feeling and a connection from the start, or loose the audience. This activity is a good ice-breaker for smaller groups.
October 27, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Great article Lance. You captured the experience brilliantly. I too have experimented with using slides vs no slides. I sometimes think that not having any slides shows a level of unpreparedness or lack of public speaking sophistication – the reason is that the organizer seems to require or expect slides. When I don’t use slides I actually connect better with my audience. I would also love to learn how you were able to line up so many speaking engagements. If you could share that info I would be most appreciative. Thanks.
October 27, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Love the story part because people listen to stories and you can get passionate about it. The engaged part makes sense. Is this something you pre-plan or just hope to have?
October 27, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Lance,
Great article. For those of us who work in advocacy and engaging the public, a good story is crucial.
You might also want to look at the Web site for Michael Margolis, and his book “Believe Me”. I chose it as ‘required reading’ for my Executive Board. He would be in emphatic agreement that ‘the story’ is the connective tissue of human endeavor. http://www.believemethebook.com/
October 28, 2010 at 8:35 am
Lance, thank you for sharing the fact that you actually had a bad “performance.” That was very generous of you. Most of us are inclined to tell our success stories, but avoid talking about the times that didn’t go well. People need to hear that even successful people like you don’t always hit the mark as they are growing and learning. You advice was so solid.
Thank you!
Kathleen A. Paris, Ph.D.
Author, Speaker, Consultant
October 29, 2010 at 7:19 am
Lance,
These are great tips for anyone that has spoken to a group as well as those people that are even considering the opportunity! It’s all about story-telling. No matter what the topic of the presentation, if you don’t have a good story to tell, no one is going to listen. Believe me. I’ve been there too. Some presentations have been good, others simply horrible. But, I’ve learned from both types and continue to develop my personal style. I appreciate all the tips and transparency that you share here on your blog. Keep up the great work!
Kirk Baumann
Campus to Career
http://www.campus-to-career.com
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