Do you give your own memorable messages, or do you sound just like everybody else? Here is an interesting lesson from Darren LaCroix, the 2001 world champ of speaking. He tells an interesting story:

Never use someone else’s story. This is a small industry… it won’t take long for the ‘owner’ to find out. After doing my “Ouch!” speech at NSA a few years ago, it was copied by somebody overseas just a couple of months later. One of my mentors happened to be in the audience, and called the speaker on it. At first, he denied it. But later, he admitted it. As speakers, we can be inspired by others — but it’s important that we be original in our own messages, techniques, and stories.

As Darren would say “Ouch!”

You can read the entire article on Darren’s website.

Whammey Bar Gig

Before I started getting stage time giving presentations, I spent many years on the stage as a musician. In fact, you will still see me occasionally playing a few tunes in a restaurant or pub. One of the things that I learnt from playing and from listening to live music is to leave them wanting more.

I have heard great bands that just don’t know when to stop planning, or that insists of playing every song they know. What happens? Everybody gets board, and leaves before the band has finished. So when they do finish, they end to a lukewarm applause from the few people still there.

I have also heard bands finish their set with the entire audience is on the dance floor, while everybody is having a party. They end the gig with a bang, to huge applause. When this happens, everybody remembers a great party, and is back next week.

Why does this happen? Simple – the last impression is what people remember. The same applies to speaking.

If you speak for too long, people will get board and loose interest. If you finish on time, and with a strong finish, they will remember how great you were, and will want more. Next time they hear you speak, they will wait with anticipation for your presentation, and not with dread as to how long you are going to speak for.

Leave them shouting “encore”, and not “thank goodness its over”.

By the way, if you want to listen to some of my music, go here.

Humour tips from Bo Benet of Talking Toastmasters – you can listen to the podcast here.

1. Never take credit for somebody else’s joke
2. Don’t tell the same joke over and over
3. Be appropriate to the audience
4. Keep it short – long jokes are confusing, and prone to mishaps
5. Be smooth – delivery is as important as the content (if not more so)
6. Timing is important in delivery of humour
7. Make sure the humour is relevant to the situation and occasion
8. Do not make jokes at other peoples expense
9. Don’t overdo it. Be fully, but you don’t need to be a stand-up comic
10. Don’t be corny

Talk about being economical with your words! Speakernet news have created a contest to find the best six word speech. Each speech is exactly six words, and is assigned to a particular category,  such as “Advice to speakers”, “About Life”, or  “Motivation”

You can vote in this fun contest here.

Craig Valentine has created a list of ten things that you can do to improve your next speech.

Here is a summary of just a few tips.

• Facial Expressions
• Gestures
• Emotions
• Movement with a purpose
• Smile

You can read the full list on Craig’s website.

One of the common comments that I receive from people who have attended presentation skills training, is that they are given a whole lot of rules that they should be following. In fact, it is very often a list of dos and don’ts.

For example:

Don’t

• • face away from the audience
• fill your slides with words
• hide behind the lectern
• talk to fast
• read the slides
• look at the screen
• use cliché’s
• pace across the stage

Do

• face the audience
• speak slowly and clearly
• ask you-focused questions
• use body language

But then as soon as they hear a good presentation, the speaker seems to breaks all of the rules.

I think that we are missing a couple point here. Firstly, the rules are not rules, they are guidelines. Now this is not a cheap excuse to discard everything because you don’t know any better. Ignorance of the law is no excuse! But, a guideline is there to guide you; rules are there to enforce your behaviour.

Secondly, rules are generally there for a reason. Simply put, they exist because they work! If you are an inexperienced speaker, and you are looking for some guidance, it is probably a good idea to follow the rules. They will make your presentation more effective!

However, experienced speakers constantly break the rules, but they do so with intent, and for specific effect. They do so knowingly!

Almost every time I have seen somebody break a rule without knowledge of the rule or without reason, it has backfired and resulted in a poorer presentation. However, when I have seen rules broken for specific reason, it has generally enhanced the presentation.

Go ahead and break the rules, but do so with intent!

Here is a secret for all speakers:

“You will never fit everything in”

I have seen many presentations where the speaker says “I have three points to share”, and then about five minutes before the end, he says, “Ok, and now my second point…”. This inevitably ends up in his presentation going overtime, or on him rushing through the last two points of his presentation.
This usually happen because the speaker is desperately trying to fit everything in!

The  trick is to realise that you will not fit everything into your speech. You are going to have to figure out what is most important in your time constraints to share with your audience. No matter how interesting your topic, or how much you have to say, you will need to prune your speech.

Here are a few hints:

• Decide which elements of your topic are most relevant to your audience, and which you are going to share.
  Know which parts of your presentation you can cut on the fly should you need to (either because your time got cut, or because you took longer than planned)
• If you have a fixed number of points to share (eg: the 4 P’s of Powerful Presentations), allocate enough time to each point, so that you don’t need to rush at the end
• The audience very seldom know exactly what you are going to share, so if you leave something out (unless it is really crucial to your message), nobody except yourself will know.
• Finally practise practise practise. The more prepared you are, the better your presentation will be!

In this interview with Cyndi Maxey, co-author of “Speak Up!  A woman’s guide to presenting like a pro”, she discusses the book, issues female presentors face and some  of the benefits that women have over men as speakers.

Download the podcast.

I recently wrote a review of the book, which you can read here.

I am in the process of assisting with the organisation of our Toastmasters Conference in Southern Africa. Now, because we are not for profit, we have very little money to pay our guest speakers.

However for many of the speakers, they are literally losing income by not accepting a paid gig when they are speaking to us for no cost. So for one of our speakers, we needed to figure out a way to make it work.

Then, I something that I learned in a CD course called “Get Paid to Speak by Next Week“, by Darren laCroix came to mind, and that is that there are ways to make money as a speaker without charging a platform fee.

One of the easiest of these is Back of Room Sales, or BORS. Very simply, in exchange for speaking for free, you  arrange with the conference team to provide you with facilities to sell your products after your presentation. In fact, very often you will do this regardless of your speaking fee.

So, our conference team approached the speaker with the following suggestions:

1. We provide a high-profile table with two volunteers to assist on the day of his speech
2. We sell his products in our “stock shop”, for the duration of the conference, and all proceeds go to him
3. He speaks directly before a tea break, so that he has an opportunity to work the room, sign books etc directly after his speech
4. If 20% of the delegates buy his book at R100, that is about R5000 he will be making, which is not bad, considering that he could have received nothing at all for the presentation

We took this offer to him, and he gladly accepted our proposal. This was truly a win-win situation.

So, as a speaker, are you going to do something similar? If you are approached to speak, and they cannot afford to pay you (or to pay you much), how about suggesting a similar arrangement.

Now, some of you are saying that you don’t have a product. Here is a secret from Darren. “That does not matter!” If you have a great speech, you will most likely have books and CD’s that have had an impact on you, books and CD’s that have helped determine your outlook, and influenced your message. Those are perfect places to look at useful products that you can sell at your presentations, get used to the idea of selling products, and make some extra cash. For example, I often speak on PowerPoint, and there are some great books that have helped my shape my views on PowerPoint. These are books that I believe will help anybody to give a great presentation. These are perfect starting points for products.

So, go out there, and sell products!

If you really want to learn about creating and selling products, you need to get the CD set “Get Paid to Speak by Next Week“. By the way, I paid for it in two speaking engagements!

Speak Up!  A woman’s guide to presenting like a pro. By Cyndi Maxey (CSP) and Kevin O’Connor (CSP).

The folks at St Martin’s Publishing kindly send me a review copy of the book. so here are my thoughts.

When I started reading it, I quickly realised that it is not just a book on presentation skills for women, but it is also on how to present yourself as a women. So, in addition to learning how to speak with credibility, be memorable, use PowerPoint, know your audience and speak with conviction, you will also learn how to make connections, network with colleagues, and communicate with executives.

Speak Up! address three areas, namely preparation, presentation and professionalism. It is made up of 40 short chapters, each of which ends with a brief summary of the key points in the chapter. This makes it easy to delve into a particular chapter, and in a few minutes find solutions to a particular problem. Alternatively, since it is an easy read, you can simply read it from beginning to end, and then keep it as a reference.

The authors,  Cyndi Maxey and Kevin O’Connor are both Certified Speaking Professionals, which means that they have plenty of experience on the platform. This comes through in the practical advise and tips in the book.

Speak Up! mentions some of the natural of advantages of being a women, and discusses how to take advantage of them. For example, women are (typically) more emphatic listeners than men, which can help you to have a deep understanding of the needs of your clients.

There are two underlying themes in the book. The first that a person that has strong presentation skills will stand hand and shoulders above the crowd. This rings true to me, since I believe that you cannot get ahead in life without effective communication skills. The second theme is that a woman can operate in a (still) largely male business world, and yet still be authentic to herself.

While the book focuses on the issues that a woman typically faces when giving presentations, most of the lessons are equally relevant to both women and men. So, for the guys reading this review, read the book. It will help you to become a better presenter, and it will help you to help women that you work with to become better presenters as well!

Do I recommend the book? Yes most definitely.

The book is available at most book retailers, including Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, or from Cyndi’s website. The cost is $14.95.

Finally, watch out for an interview with the author on my blog. It should be published in the next few days.