Archive for the ‘public speaking tips’ Category

Great Speakers are Great Persuaders.

February 3rd, 2008 |2 comments

If you have to persuade anyone, you will need this!

When a great speaker stand to speak, they have a whole arsenal of tools that they can use to persuade you to their message.  One that we can all use is the “Push and Pull” method.

Put simply, the “Push and Pull” refers to how you structure the features and benefits in your message.  (Understanding the difference between features and benefits is a basic sales technique.  For example, the feature of the car is that it has an air-conditioner; the benefit is that you can travel in cool comfort on hot days.  People will always buy the benefits over the features)

You can use the Push and Pull to deliver your benefits in different ways:

  • The Push – The air-conditioner is great because you can travel in comfort.
  • The Pull – The air-conditioner is great because you don’t want to be hot and sticky when you arrive at your destination.

Both the Push and Pull give the benefits of having an air-conditioner but they are worded differently.  The Push a positive approach while the Pull has a negative approach.

You can use these two techniques individually or together.  If you were to use them together you could say something like, “The air-conditioner is great because you can travel in comfort.  After all, who wants to arrive all hot and sticky?”

So how does this apply to today’s work place?  When structuring your message, look at how you can use the positive and negatively worded benefits in your message.  This can apply to anything from change management, the need to increase sales or even in training sessions.  Simply focus on your message and how it benefits your audience and use the “Push and Pull” to get your message across.

‘Til next time.

Cheers

Darren Fleming

Australian Toastmasters Champion


Marketing Your Speaking Skills

January 31st, 2008 |3 comments

I get a lot of enquiries through my website on how to market your speaking skills.  Below are some ideas that I have used recently.

The first thing you need to do is to get out and start speaking.  It does not matter if you are speaking at a Toastmasters Club, Rostrum Club or cards club, just get out and practice!  This will give you the experience that you need to market yourself.

Once you have from this circuit, you can hit the Rotary circut.  Rotary clubs are great to speak to for the following reason:

  1. They are great people – this means a welcoming audience!
  2. The members are generally ‘better connected’ than other members of society.  This means that you are speaking to people who can either look directly at your services and hire you, or will generally have some influence where they work and can recommend you.
  3. It’s a great way to refine your material. Recently I was scheduled to speak to two Rotary clubs on the 1 day.  My first presentation was at 7:30 am and the other 12 hours later.  I thought the speech that I prepared would work well for both clubs.  However, the morning presentation did not go as well as I wanted it too.  To improve my presentation for the evening, I re-wrote my 20 minute presentation during my lunch break that day and gave it again in the evening.  It was a much better effort.  If I had not been at the two meeting in the one day, it would have been much longer between the pain of the morning presentation and the success of the evening presentation.  The longer the time between the two, the less chance of refining!

So how do you go about approaching Rotary clubs?  It is simple.  Just follow the steps below and you will be fine.

  1. Google Rotary Clubs for your local area.  Search the website for individual club websites.
  2. Find the contact of the club.  It does not matter who it is, what position they hold, or what the site looks like.
  3. Send the contact the following e-mail

Hello,

My name is <insert name here>and I am a local speaker.

Could you please advise who I would need to speak to about being a guest speaker at one of your club meetings.

Cheers

<insert name>

That’s all you need to do.  Send this e-mail to every club within 90 minutes drive of your house.  (If you think that is too far, I suppose you don’t want to be a speaker!  If you think that having 2 kinds under 3, both you and your partner working full-time and having to get up at 5 to get there is a problem, deal with it!)

4.  Keep track of the contact names, e-mail addresses and club names.  Not everyone will get back to you straight away.  After a month, follow up those that have not got back to you.

5.  The final reason you would want to get out and do the Rotary circuit is that you get a free meal and a pen as well!

What do you say?  Check some of the other posts such as Understanding your Audience and marketing your speaking skills

But if you really want to a step-by-step guide, you need to get the MP3 How to Start Your Public Speaking Career Today. In this audio you will get everything you need to get started – including an example of a live Rotary Speech. I will literally be your coach on how to get your first gig. Get How to Start Your Public Speaking Career Today.

Getting out and marketing yourself as a speaker really is that easy.  The speaking circuit is full of people who do not have a message as good as yours, but are marketing themselves better than you are.  In 12 months time, do you want to be sitting down annoyed that you let another 12 months go by before you got out and did something?

‘Til next time.

Cheers

Darren Fleming


How (not) to give a PowerPoint Presentation

December 17th, 2007 |1 comment

If you are looking for information on how to put together a PowerPoint presentation, you should see this 7 minute video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLpjrHzgSRM
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As Homer Simpson said, “It’s funny ‘cos it’s true”Cheers

Darren Fleming

https://executivespeaking.com.au


Top Tips for Nailing that Speech

December 17th, 2007 |no comments

I came across this article on public speaking today.

It opens with a great point, if you want to make a speech, have something to say.  Too often people get up to speak because they feel they have too, or they simply want too.  This bores the audience!  (the classic example of this is the Boss that stands up at the Christmas party and goes on and on and on and on about nothing, all because he feels that he has to make a speech.  They’d be much better to say “Merry Christmas and have a good drink” and be out of there in 30 seconds than to crap on for half an hour!  Trust me, those at the party will appreciate it more.  After-all, what do you want to do at a Christmas party – listen to the boss go on, or have a drink and relax!

So here is the article.  It is well worth a read. http://www.forbes.com/home/entrepreneurs/2007/08/01/sun-microsystems-nokia-ent-sales-cx_ll_0801byb07_publicspeaking.html

Merry Christmas!

Cheers

Darren Fleming

https://executivespeaking.com.au


Marketing your Public Speaking skills

November 13th, 2007 |1 comment

This blog was not created to show people how to become wealthy public speakers. There are plenty of public speaking blogs out there that can do that.

However, I recently came across this piece of advice from Patricia Fripp, a San Francisco based public speaking coach. They points are great and should be spread. You can get more of Patricia Fripps insights here.

Everything in life is about marketing. Weather you are trying to sell an idea at work or your services as a speaker you need to understand what you have to offer others. Below are some points that will help.

Successful marketing means that you identify prospective clients and position yourself in the market so they choose you over your competition. When I sit down with clients who want to position their marketing, I seek the answers to four basic questions:

1. WHO IS YOUR POTENTIAL CLIENT?

Who wants to buy or could be stimulated to want to buy? Who is in a position to buy what you sell? What geographical and financial factors affect this ability? A good way to identify future clients is to listen
— really listen — to those you have now. Their comments, especially negative ones, will help you tailor both your product and your approach to other prospects.

2. WHY WILL THEY WANT TO BUY?

What emotional and physical factors will influence them? I just worked with an east coast psychiatrist who ran a practice with ten other psychiatrists and wanted to position herself. Our conversations quickly disclosed that her community was predominantly upwardly mobile professionals. Many of the women had delayed having children. Due to fertility drugs, a high percentage of families had twins, triplets, or more. We decided to focus her practice on these families, the first practice in the area to do that. How did we do this? First, we realized her potential audience was geographical, that is, in her community rather than regional, national or international. These prospects had distinctive demographics. By appealing to a unique aspect, we hit on her core group. She’s now hugely successful in her practice.

3. WHAT ANGLE SHOULD YOU TAKE? How is your product or service unique?

Why is it perfect for your target audience? How is it different from everyone else’s? How will it fulfill your core group’s needs in a way that no one else can? This is positioning yourself in the market.
(Remember how Avis advertised, “We try harder.”) As an example, when other advertising consultants do presentations, they talk about budgets, print versus TV, soft versus hard sell. I position myself by emphasizing that you start by targeting your audience, positioning your product, and creating distinctive selling propositions. Lots of mom-and-pop businesses, confronted by super stores, can’t compete or even survive unless they find a unique niche to fill.

4. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SELL IT?

We all know people with great ideas, products, and inventions. They spend a fortune developing this product, but it sits there because they have no idea what to do with it. Is there a system in place to put your product in the customers’ hands and return their money to you? Or do you need to create one?

Cheers

Darren Fleming
Australian Public Speaking courses


3 Myths of Public Speaking

November 13th, 2007 |no comments

This article appeared in the Charlotte Observer on Sunday July 22 2007. the original copy can be found here http://www.charlotte.com/business/story/206834.html

Keys to overcoming fear easier than you think
MARSHALL LOEB
MarketWatch
If you are one of the estimated 15 million Americans suffering from a phobia of public speaking, take heart. The trick to overcoming your fear may be as simple as re-examining your basic assumptions about public speaking, say Harrison Monarth and Larina Kase, communications coaches and authors of the new book “The Confident Speaker.”

Here are three public speaking myths:

• Myth No. 1: Everyone can tell I’m panicking!

Your feelings are harder to read than you think. No one but you knows your heart is racing, so take a breath and try to calm down.

The lesson: You’re probably doing much better than you think.

• Myth No. 2: People are judging me.

Many of us mistakenly believe that nervousness automatically counts against us. But most audiences respond better to speakers who exhibit discomfort. “Most people have some level of worry about speaking in public, so when they see your nervousness, they may empathize with what you’re going through,” Monarth and Kase write.

The lesson: The audience is probably on your side.

• Myth No. 3: Postmortems will help me improve.

Those of us who suffer from a fear of public speaking are our own worst critics, write Kase and Monarth, and we tend to use the postmortem as an opportunity to ruminate over our missteps, which only exacerbates the problem.

The lesson: Skip the post-game analysis.

While I generally agree with this article, I must take point with the Myth Number 3.

Even if you hate Public speaking, it is vital that you at least debrief with yourself about how you went. This will help you improve endlessly. Even if you have no intention of doing any more public speaking because you stuffed it up, it is better to work out why you stuffed it up so you can avoid the mistakes in future situations, or similar events.

Cheers

Darren Fleming
Australia’s Public Speaking Coach
Australian Public Speaking courses


Breaking the Rules of Public Speaking video

November 4th, 2007 |no comments

I recently wrote about breaking the rules of Public Speaking.

Here is the video of my Speech in Fremantle, Australia on the rules of public Speaking and how we can break them and get away with it.

Cheers

Darren Fleming

Australia Public Speaking Courses

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4ZOPZvzG6o&rel=1]


What’s in it for Me???

October 4th, 2007 |no comments

Have you ever stopped and wondered why people should listen to you when you speak?

Do people listen to you because they have too, because it is part of their job or because you will be able to sack them if they don’t.  Or do they listen to you because they want too?

You might ask, “What’s the difference if they listen?”  Well there is a big difference.  The difference relates to whether your audience will accept and internalise your message and adopt it as their own.  If they are listening because they want too, then there is a greater chance that they will adopt your message.

So how do you get them to want to listen to you? 

Well you need to find out what your WIIFM is.  Anyone who has ever been involved in selling will know that WIIFM stand for ‘What’s in it for me?’  It is the question a buyer will ask while they listen to the sales pitch.  If there is nothing in the sales pitch for them, they will not buy.  It is the same for any audience.  While they may not be able to physically move away from your presentation, mentally they will be elsewhere and your message will be lost.

Understanding this is important in so many situations.  It is not just public speaking.  Consider the e-mails that you send, the letters you write, and the ‘phone calls you make.  If the person at the other end of your message cannot see any value in your message, you may as well not send the message.

So remember, before starting to speak, write or present, ask yourself, “What is my WIIFM?”  Once you know that, your audience will start to want to listen to you!

 ‘Til next time,

Cheers

Darren Fleming


Breaking the Rules of Public speaking

September 25th, 2007 |no comments

Many people are of the opinion that there are a number of sacred rules in public speaking that should never be broken. You should never race through your speech, you should never hold the lectern and you should never turn your back on the audience.

I would like to challenge the validity of these rules.

I have been a Toastmaster for over 13 years, and have often pushed these rules on others. But I firmly believe that there comes a time when you must break the rules to reach the audience.

Case in point: The rule that you should never turn your back on the Audience while speaking.

At face value this seems like a good rule to follow as it helps you to engage the audience more.

However, it is possible to turn your back on the audience and engage them even more than when you are looking at them.

Recently I competed in the District 73 Toastmasters annual convention in Perth Australia. I was competing in the Table Topics competition final. About 2000 people from across Australia had competed in this impromptu speaking competition, and I was one of just 7 people left standing. In this competition, you are given the topic and expected to start speaking on it straight away. The only preparation time you have is while you are walking across the stage.

The topic we had was:

“If you obey all the rules, you miss out on half the fun.  Is this a good philosophy to live by?”

As I walked across the stage, I decided that I would break some rules myself. As I approached the centre of the stage, I turned and put my back to the audience and started speaking. I spoke about the rules that we should not break when speaking. The main rule was about keeping eye contact with your audience. I then proceeded to make fun of the rules about ensuring that you move across the stage so everyone sees you. Next was my favourite rule – the need to pause. I paused so long that even I forgot what I was going to say next. However, the audience laughed hearterly as I broke the rules that they all held so closely to themselves.

Whats more, when the judges returned their decision, I was the winner! From speaking to the others in the audience (and not just my friends!) I was a clear and unanimous winner.

So, it just goes to show, you don’t need to follow all the rules to achieve your objectives.

However, might I suggest that you have a good understanding of the rules of Public Speaking and know how they operate before you go out and break them. If you don’t understand the rule and how it operates, you may be doing your cause more harm than good it you decide to break the rules!

There is a copy of my presentation on YouTube.  It goes for 5 min and can be viewed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4ZOPZvzG6o

Cheers

Darren


PowerPoint

September 24th, 2007 |no comments

These days it seems that every business presentation you go to has to have a PowerPoint slide show.  While PowerPoint is a great presentation aid for delivering a message, if you’re not careful it will smother what you have to say.  PowerPoint should improve your message, and not become your message.  PowerPoint is about making it easier for your audience to understand and accept your message.  It’s  not about showing off how clever you can be.  Below are a few points to keep in mind when you next need to use PowerPoint.

  1. Should you use PowerPoint?  Not every message should be put into a PowerPoint presentation.  if you are considering using PowerPoint ask yourself if it will help your audience understand your message.  If it wont help, be different and don’t use it! 
  2. Don’t let the PowerPoint presentation be a substitute for knowing your message:  Don’t fall for the trick of reading the slides to deliver your message.  If you simply read your slides, your audience will read them too. They will read ahead of you and blank out what you are saying.
  3. Minimise visual distractions:  Everytime your audience sees movement on the screen they will look at it. If they are paying attention to the screen, they are not paying attention to you. 
  4. Just because PowerPoint can, does not mean that you should:  PowerPoint is fun to play with and can do some amazing things, but that does not mean that your audience wants to see it.  After they have seen the first slide fly in from the right, the heading type itself out and the bullet points twirl in from the distance they will become tried of it.  If your doing it to keep them entertained, can I suggest that you should look more closely at your content.
  5. Use contrasting backgrounds:  Make your background 1 solid colour and choose a font colour that can be easily seen against it.  If your audience has to struggle to see the text they will have trouble reading it.  If you make regular presentations to clients consider getting a professional template made.  Standard Microsoft templates stand out!
  6. Know and use the ‘B’ key:  When you no longer want the audience to see what is on the screen simply press the ‘B’ key and this will turn the screen black.  When there is nothing to look at, they audience will pay attention to you.  This is what you want. When you want to move to the next slide, simply press the space bar or click as you normally would.  The ‘W’ key has the same affect and turns the screen white.
  7. If you are going to use a laser pointer, have a reason to use it:  The reason you have a laser pointer is to point out specific things.  If you are using a pointer to simply point to the words that you are saying, what message are you giving about your audience?
  8. Moving from slide to slide is easier than it looks!  There are many ways to move forward with slides.  Pressing the left button on the mouse is the most obvious.  But did you know that the left and right arrows will move you around the slides too, as will the space bar.  If you want to go to a specific slide, simply type the number in and press the enter key and you will go there.  You can get a ton of other tips by pressing the ‘F1″ key!
  9. Never skip a slide!  If there are slides in your presentation that you don’t want to use, hide them from your presentation before you get up to speak.  If you are standing in front of the audience and you skip 2 slides, the audience will wonder what was on those slides and wont pay attention to what you are saying.  This will brake your connection with the audience and ruin your credibility.
  10. Limit the number of slides:  For those old enough to remember your aunties slide show of her trip to Europe you will know why you have to minimise the number of slides you use.  If you weren’t around in the 70’s and don’t know what a slide show is consider yourself lucky!
  11. Get to the point:  As with any type of presentation, you need to get to the point ASAP.  After all, time is in short supply these days.

PowerPoint is a great tool that can help you deliver your message.  Just don’t let it become your message.

‘Til next time.

Cheers

Darren


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