CHAPTER 10
STAGE WORK
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THE SPEECH WAS FIVE MINUTES . . . THERE WERE DULL STRETCHES
UNFORTUNATELY, THERE are as many myths surrounding speaking and success in this profession as there are around some strange air force hangar with dead aliens out in the western desert somewhere. Except that there is more likelihood of finding aliens there than there is of finding that we can move an audience mostly by our shrugs and gestures instead of our words!
THE MYTH OF BODY LANGUAGE, GESTURES, AND MOVEMENT
First, a definition: “platform skills” are those techniques that you employ as a speaker during your delivery to enhance the receptivity of your message. Most of the books on speaking and many of the “authorities” will attempt to convince you that these techniques are the most important part of the profession and that their mastery is essential to becoming a successful speaker.
They are wrong. It’s akin to saying that a dancer’s outfit is more important than the choreography, which happens to be true only if the choreography involves a solitary pole.
We’ve already discussed the errors in citing Mehrabian’s work in support of this view. The key to successful speaking is to be able to make a living at it, which means that marketing and content are the two most important aspects. You do not improve the client’s condition with delivery techniques; you mostly improve your own, and even then only temporarily.
Then why do so many people advocate and focus on the acquisition and development of platform skills as the key to success? The answer is simple: that’s the area where money is to be made as a coach. There aren’t many people who are adept at coaching in marketing (although there are some very good ones), and there are even fewer who are skilled in advising on content and developing presentations. Those are tough areas, but they are the critical ones, which is why the prior nine chapters of this book have focused on them. Platform skills, however, can be taught by anyone, partly because they’re relatively simple and partly because they’re highly subjective. A great many unsuccessful speakers, bureau principals, consultants, and sundry others have found that it can be lucrative to teach people speaking mechanics.
But the medium is not the message in this business, Marshall McLuhan notwithstanding. No one has ever walked away from a speech saying, “Get that speaker back next month. Did you see how well she used hand gestures?” or “That was the most important speech I’ve ever heard. Did you notice how often he asked us to raise our hands?” People remember a speech by commenting, “I’m still using that planning technique he showed us a year ago,” or “I refer to her notes on reducing stress at least once a month.”
Speaking Up: Content is audience-centered; platform skills are speaker-centered. The only function of the latter is to enhance the former.
The techniques used on the platform are important insofar as they augment the content of one’s presentation, thereby enhancing the client’s condition. This applies whether the presentation is an hour or a day, a keynote or a seminar, upbeat or serious. Even for humorists, the nature of the story is everything, although it can be augmented through physical techniques. Yet, I’ve seen humorists who had me rolling in the aisle while they never moved from a fixed microphone.
Having said all that, there is a place for the development of platform skills, but my belief is that it demands a chapter, not a book. I had to put it someplace, and it seemed most appropriate here, in the “sizzle” part of the book. Here, then, are a relatively few pages on those techniques that require attention in order to enhance the client’s receptivity to your message.
ALAN’S 10 INTERPERSONAL TECHNIQUES (AND EXPERT DEVICES) TO ENGAGE THE AUDIENCE
1. Eye Contact
Look audience members in the eye. Even in large halls and auditoriums, you’ll find that you can establish eye contact with people seated at quite a distance.1 The more intimate the group—for instance, 20 people seated around a U-shaped table—the more important it is to establish personal eye contact.
In general, hold eye contact for two to five seconds. Less than that creates distracting movement, and more than that can make people uncomfortable. If someone doesn’t return the contact, move on, but return to that person later. If someone continues to look away after two or three “invitations,” then respect that person’s discomfort and don’t look at him or her directly again.
Eye contact is not merely to create a more direct link with the listener. It is also a primary source of nonverbal feedback for the speaker. If people are eager to return your glance, including smiles, head nodding, and similar reinforcers, you know you’re striking a chord. But if people are reluctant to return your glance and are sitting dead still, then you are making them intensely uncomfortable.
Expert Device: If possible, chat informally with some participants prior to the speech, particularly with smaller groups. Use these people as your “friendlies” and first establish eye contact (and a smile) with them. Their nonverbal behavior (return smile, nod) will quickly increase your comfort level.
2. Gestures
I once watched a speaker deliver a 90-minute speech on the distinctions between men and women with the sole aid of moving her hands to illustrate the differences between how men and women viewed life. It was extraordinarily effective.
Avoid the overly dramatic (and banal). There’s seldom, if ever, a need to sink down to one knee or rend one’s garments. If you use a lavaliere or earpiece mike, you’ll have both hands free to use for illustration and support. With a hand mike, you usually can use just one. Specify which type you’d prefer, but be prepared for either. The larger the group, the more you can exaggerate your gestures, since they need to be seen in the back of the hall. The smaller the group, the more you can get away with nuance and subtlety. But avoid most drama coaches’ advice to make every gesture into a sweeping, panoramic ballet movement. It’s terribly artificial and detracts from the message.
A highly effective technique is to acknowledge the gesture itself. For example, when using your hands or arms to portray a grand event—an airplane’s takeoff, bridge building, or tidal waves—you can also state, “We spare no expense on visual aids for the Acme Company.”
Expert Device: always try to practice your speech, and the gestures and movements that you intend to use, dressed exactly as you’ll be during the speech, complete with anything that will be on stage with you. I’ve seen otherwise carefully prepared speakers get ties caught in mike cords and high heels caught on projector wires.
3. Inflection, Intonation, and . . . Pauses
There are actually approaches that stipulate that there are nine different types of pauses and indicate the conditions under which each should be used. Maybe that’s true for Al Pacino playing Hamlet, but for speakers, there’s simply one type of pause, and it occurs when they are not speaking. The only question is: how long should it be?
There are only three reasons I know of to pause, two of them deliberate and one accidental. In the case of the first two, you want to either dramatize a point or allow people some time to think. Pauses are wonderful for people who need some self-correction in their pacing because they tend to speak at full tilt. (One participant told me once that I was speaking faster than he could think, which is not exactly a condition that’s going to thrill my buyer.) The third reason is that you’ve forgotten where you are, and at that moment, you literally have nothing to say. That’s all right. Take a moment to think or return to your notes (or say to the audience, “Where was I?”). Don’t fill the silence with “ums,” “ahs,” and grunts. I know a fine speaker who includes a great deal of extemporaneous material in his presentation, but who fills every silence, while he thinks, with a loud “ummmm.” I think he loses 20 percent of his effectiveness when he does this. Pauses should be brief, in any case, unless you’re waiting for laughter to subside. For dramatic purposes, 3 to 10 seconds should do it.
Inflection and intonation concern emphasis and volume. Varying your pitch and speed are important techniques to keep the audience involved. Lowering your voice to a whisper or raising it to a shout can be very effective if you do so judiciously. Even high-volume, dynamic speakers need to learn this lesson. A colleague told me that a speaker he had invited was so fast, so dynamic, and so high-octane that no one really understood him or retained his message. “It was like a Midwesterner trying to understand someone speaking Cajun,” he explained. “It took so much energy just to try to listen and sort out the facts that we were too exhausted to learn anything.” The best practice is with a tape recorder. Listen to your speech devoid of any visual accompaniment. Are you interesting and easy to listen to orally, or are you monotone, too fast, too slow, and/or too consistent? The “tape test” is an excellent self-assessment.
Expert Device: When you are introduced to the audience, try beginning your talk with a pause. Simply establish eye contact and smile. The room will settle down, people will be interested in what you’re up to, and you’ll quickly establish a locus of attention. Hold the pause for about as long as one deep breath. You’ll find that it focuses both you and the audience.
4. Audience Participation
Participation (not “involvement,” since every audience had better be involved) has been transmogrified from a rarely used device in an era of “podium lectures” to a trite affectation in an era of “feel good” speeches. It makes sense to include the audience members only if it enhances their receptivity and acceptance of the message, and not as some ego device for the speaker.
The very worst technique I’ve seen over the past several years is that of repeatedly asking the audience members to raise their hands if they’ve shared a certain experience or if they agree with the speaker. It’s one thing to say, “How many of you work directly with the customer?” in order to get a sense of the audience’s disposition if you don’t already know it, but it’s another to say, “Raise your hands if you think I’m right,” and “Raise your hands if you’ve been to Texas, if you like fried chicken, or if you breathe oxygen.” After a second or third request, only about 10 percent of an audience will respond to this stuff, and small wonder. Unless you’re trying to get some legitimate feedback or information to help guide your comments, don’t do this—it’s the sign of an ego-centered speaker. (Right next to it in amateurville is the instruction to the audience, “Give yourselves a nice round of applause.”)
Occasionally, a presentation requires a volunteer or direct input from the audience. For example, in training sessions and workshops, it’s much more common for participants to present their work, raise interactive issues, and take a significant role in the proceedings. But it’s relatively rare in keynotes (and should probably be outlawed).
Depending on the nature of the presentation, the audience can be embraced through the use of handouts, brief exercises (either completed alone or, preferably, with a colleague or small group), question and answer periods, and similar exchanges. As a rule, the longer the presentation, the more critical the audience participation.
Expert Device: The rhetorical question is an ideal way to increase the psychological participation of an audience. Ask a general question such as, “Think about it—how many of you have actually wanted to tell a customer to take his business elsewhere?” Or you can present a model and ask, “Where would you place your department in this grid, and where do you think it should be?” These challenges create active, individual emotional participation and can be used repeatedly during even brief speeches. And what I call “rhetorical permissions” (“May I stop you here and ask that you consider this?”) are also extremely useful.
5. Visual Aids
Some speakers are superb with just a mike. Others are superb with a sound and light show rivaling Disney World. The criteria are twofold: (1) what will be most effective for the audience and the conditions, and (2) what is most effective for your personal style?
There’s a speaker who goes around claiming, “In 5 years you won’t be hired if you don’t have extensive, state-of-the-art visual aids.” He’s been saying that for 15 years, and I think most people may finally be wise to him. I’ve delivered the exact same speech with visual aids and without (because the conditions wouldn’t permit them), and the result was virtually identical. The 10 percent effectiveness that I lost without some of the visuals was regained as a result of the poor conditions in which they would have been shown (low ceiling and a virtual blackout to create visibility).
Everyone knows how impressive computer-generated graphics can be, but only if they make sense for the topic. (One client told me, “Don’t use them. They’re too distracting.”) I’ve seen videos that show a person using an easel and marker on the video! (Hardly a state-of-the-art usage.) I’ve seen slides that are simply copies of memos and reports that people already have in their materials. I’ve seen slides that don’t relate to the topic, but were obviously included and tap-danced into the presentation because the speaker had them in her “kit.” At one meeting, we had to pay to rent a projector so that the speaker could show three slides for a total of less than 2 minutes during a 90-minute presentation.
We are not facing nonvisual Armageddon, no matter who claims it. Use those visuals that help make your point, are friendly to the environment, and are comfortable for your style. They are not a prerequisite, particularly in shorter presentations. As a rule, try not to use visual aids in an after-dinner speech. The full meal (and sometimes alcohol), the end of the day, and the presentations and conversations that no doubt have preceded you will have created high fatigue levels. Focusing on visuals, especially if lights have to be dimmed, is the equivalent of taking sleeping pills.
Hear this: PowerPoint slides are WAY, WAY overdone, and generally constitute a crutch for poor speakers.
Expert Device: If you don’t like to memorize your speech (which is fine), don’t like to read from notes (which is fine), and are afraid of forgetting your material (which would not be fine), use a few visuals as your frame of reference and outline. In 90-minute presentations, I frequently use slides that serve as my total outline. I simply speak from each visual, incorporating the current group’s dynamic and relevant examples about that client.
Speaking Up: If you have to explain a visual aid, you’re working backward. A picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words, not generate another thousand words.
6. Handling Questions
There are three elements to effective question and answer sessions, whether they are formal (“I’ll now take questions”) or informal (“I see you have a question in the back”).
1. Repeat the question. This allows everyone to hear it, any taping to pick it up (since you have the mike), the audience to reflect upon it, validation that you heard it correctly, and time for you to think about a logical response.
2. Respond. Provide your answer. Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know” or “What do the rest of you think?” Never view a question as a sign of hostility. Even an objection, after all, is a sign of interest. Treat every question with respect. Don’t be afraid to disagree. Don’t begin with, “That’s a good question” every single time, because it gets hackneyed (although using that phrase occasionally, contrary to conventional wisdom, can be effective to highlight a crucial point raised by a participant). Don’t think you have to play baseball (hit a home run every time). Play volleyball and throw the question back (over the net) to the audience. “Would someone like to comment on that from a sales perspective?”
3. Review the response with the questioner. Ask, “Did I answer your question?” “Does that address your point?” or “Is that something that may be useful?” Don’t assume that you’ve answered satisfactorily. More times than I care to admit, a participant has said to me, “That was an interesting response, but it wasn’t what I was asking you.” Oh.
When you solicit questions, wait in silence for at least 20 or 30 seconds if none is immediately forthcoming. Don’t worry; people won’t get up and leave. Allow time for people to think and to gather their nerve. It’s better to wait in brief silence than to continually badger the audience with, “Come on, somebody has to have a question!”
Never end a presentation with a question and answer session. It’s not appropriate in terms of participants leaving with a call to action or an uplift. If you do take questions near the end, make it clear that you’ll then have a brief summary after the question period. This will keep people in their seats and create the right expectations. And don’t offer a question period until such time as you’ve given them enough to know what to ask!
Expert Device: If you get a clearly hostile question and you want to avoid confrontation and/or a prolonged debate with the questioner, use only elements 1 and 2 from the list. Repeat the question and respond to it, but then move your eye contact elsewhere in the room and ask, “What other questions do you have?” or state, “I saw someone’s hand up over here.” That will enable you to move away gracefully and also allow the group to help change the focus.
7. Errors
If you make an error, admit it and move on. Neither try to ignore it nor fall on your knees begging forgiveness for it. If it’s a modest error, humor often helps. I was once referring to the hostess of a party when I realized in mid-sentence during the story I was relating that the term “hostess” might not be au courant in terms of gender equality. So I wound up stammering, “The hostess, er, wife of the host, er, person who . . . well . . . the woman who owned the place . . .” The audience laughed, a woman said, “We get the point!” and I moved on. I’ve since included the “error” as a standard part of that particular story.
There are stock phrases that you can use to cover generic errors. If a slide is upside down, you can always say, “I’ve changed my view on this point.” If a bulb blows, you can comment, “Well, now you’re in the dark along with me.” However, if someone points out that you’ve confused return on investment with return on equity, you should immediately correct the point, apologize for the error, and ask if there are any further questions or comments.
I once spelled a client’s name wrong on handouts that had already been distributed prior to my speech. I apologized at the outset, told people that a corrected set would be sent to everyone, and said that I was waiving my expenses for the trip as a gesture of my regret over our own inattention to detail. The audience immediately forgave the error, and I went on with my normal presentation. As in the “hostess” dilemma, we can often turn an error into an opportunity.
Expert Device: If you’re comfortable, use the error to point out that we live in an imperfect world and that the point isn’t to be flawless but to be accountable. Tell the audience that, as in their professions and jobs, you’d rather be able to correct an error than be unaware of it, and anyone who points out an error is always exhibiting an interest in your work. Customers who complain should always receive a polite and careful hearing because not only might they be correct, but they are invariably potential long-term customers.
8. Disruptions
Let’s call a disruption an error that’s outside of your control. These range from a wait staff clearing dishes to participants talking to each other loudly enough to interfere with your communication. There are two kinds: major and minor.
Major disruptions are fire alarms, blizzards, loud noises, and so on. Every speaker eventually experiences the room next door with a sound system that overwhelms his or her own. Or the snowstorm that causes participants to begin worrying about getting home. I’ve been in two sessions, as an observer, in which medical emergencies occurred.
In the case of a major disruption, stop what you’re doing. Confer with the buyer or coordinator. Inform the audience about what’s going on. “I see the snow accumulating steadily outside, and I’m going to pause to allow Charley and Joan to decide what we should do. Let’s take a five-minute break.” “We’ve had a medical problem occur here in the first row, and if all of you would please keep your seats, we’ll be able to help the individual with a minimum of commotion. Could I ask that you chat with your colleagues for just a few minutes?”
Remember, you have the microphone and the attention. You cannot ignore your surroundings, and you should never assume that an alarm is anything less than it is. It’s better to evacuate for a false fire alarm and lose 20 minutes of your presentation than it is to suffer a single injury during a real fire.
Here is the ultimate approach to minor disruptions: never make them into major ones. Ignore the wait staff. If its members become overly noisy, don’t pick on them. Ask a coordinator or manager from the platform, “Could we ask whoever is responsible for the staff, who are only doing their jobs, if the rest of the work could wait until we’re through here?” Don’t blame anyone; simply try to enlist help in correcting the situation. If another meeting’s noise level is interfering, raise your own volume and ask someone if he or she can work out an accommodation. If it’s so loud that you can’t be heard easily, then take a short break while you work out the problem.
Never embarrass a participant. If two people are talking, try walking in their direction while talking to the group. That will often squelch it. If it’s chronic, ask them during a scheduled break if they would stop, since it’s tough for you to concentrate. You might ask them if there’s a question you can respond to in the room, but don’t use that technique more than once. The onus is on you to overcome disruptions. They are not a personal affront.
Never assume that someone leaving the room is making a statement about your presentation. This person may be visiting the restroom, making a critical call, or taking a breather, or maybe he or she really has no interest in what you’re saying. None of this matters. Your obligation is to those who are still sitting there. This is about them, not about you. If everyone gets up and leaves, you’re in the wrong business.
Expert Device: When you are speaking in conjunction with a meal, work either with your client or directly with the banquet manager to arrange for tables not to be cleared after the final course if you will already have been introduced. It’s the busing of tables that creates the worst noise and most movement. Have the dishes cleared either before you speak or after you speak, but not during your speech.
9. Use of Humor (Assuming You’re Not a Humorist)
There are two kinds of humor: planned and unplanned. In my opinion, everyone should build some planned humor into their talks. Unplanned humor—ad libbing—is much more problematic because it can backfire.
I’ve touched on this in an earlier chapter, so let’s simply cover the basic rationale for using humor:
• Make the audience comfortable.
• Create a congenial learning environment.
• Make a point.
• Take yourself off the “pedestal” (self-effacing humor).
• Break tension.
• Put an error or disruption into perspective.
• Begin or end on an upbeat note.
The safest humor involves personal stories, because they are guaranteed to be original and unheard, they can be practiced and perfected, and they are highly personalized to your style. Unplanned humor can be safe if it’s aimed at you—for example, when you can’t get the computer to work and comment, “I’m in the breakdown lane of the information super-highway.” If you’re quick and very good, unplanned humor can create bonding with the audience that is invaluable. A participant who was an avid fisherman once said to me that, when I was asked a question, my face seemed to go through all the expressions that a fish does when he pulls it toward the boat. “Yeah,” I replied, “but I always get off the hook.” I told a group of unhappy people baking in Phoenix in July that the only reason they were there was because the surface of the sun was already booked.
Expert Device: Talk to the client in advance and find out something that you can safely use that the group would find funny. For example, there’s usually a story about a golf outing, a trip, a sales meeting, a retirement, or some other company legend that can be incorporated. I found that one participant, in a prior session, had actually gone onto the stage to draw a picture of his point. I began my speech by introducing myself and then asking if I could just turn my segment over to Joe, as I pulled an easel forward.
Speaking Up: Don’t laugh at your own jokes. Everyone knows that you’ve told them and heard them 10,000 times. People will wonder if you think that little of their intelligence.
10. Theatrics, Music, and Effects
To each his or her own, I guess, but I’m underwhelmed by attempts to create a “mood” in the room. I know a speaker who specifies that certain music be played as people enter and depart. He is certain that it adds to their receptivity as they enter and their memory as they leave. In my observation, it just makes them speak a little louder as they converse on the way in and out.
Music can set moods and make dramatic points, as can various theatrical effects, such as lighting, sound, and multimedia. But the basic question remains: how are we improving the client’s condition? We are not in the entertainment business; we’re in the learning business. I’d never suggest to a singer that he or she refrain from using music, but I have suggested to several that they stop giving speeches. Their skills are in entertainment, not in learning.
If you do use existing music, you must have permission to do so, usually from ASCAP, the licensing body. All commercial music and lyrics belong to someone. You must pay a royalty to use them in public, no matter how briefly.2 You can purchase “generic” music, especially created to be sold or leased for these purposes. Or you can have your own original music created, which is then your property. The same rules pertain if you use tapes or slides that are proprietary, such as a segment of a television news broadcast or a clip from the Super Bowl.
Do not ask people to touch other people. Sound elemental? Well, this seems to be an increasing affectation among speakers, who must mistake themselves for therapists or masseuses. Many people do not like to touch or be touched, gender issues aside. Asking people to rub each other’s shoulders, hug, or even hold hands is a very basic infringement on their personal comfort and is totally inappropriate for any speaker to request.
I’ve seen speakers cry on stage, as if they’d never done it before. Yet everyone in the audience knows full well that the speaker cries at precisely that point in every speech on that topic. It’s phony and manipulative. (As one participant remarked during stirring music and the speaker’s tears, “Ah, it’s the obligatory, emotionally manipulative call to patriotism and false tears.”)
Finally, never, ever sing unless you’re a trained musician and it’s an integral part of your act. Singing is virtually never done to improve the client’s condition. It’s always done out of the speaker’s ego. No one pays to hear a speaker sing, just as no one pays to hear the Rolling Stones or Madonna give a speech. Sing in the shower if you must, but keep the door closed and the shades drawn.
Expert Device: The client will often have a theme for the conference, a logo, or even music that has been rented for the event. With moderate advance planning, you can place this logo on your materials and incorporate it into your slides, use the music in your opening, cite the theme in your points, and so on. This creates a highly customized approach that buyers truly appreciate.
Finally, if you’re speaking “remotely,” via Webinar, virtual offices, and similar technologies, you’ll have to make some adjustments. Look into the camera, unless you also have a live audience. Arrange to have visuals superimposed as you speak. Keep your gestures and movements within the range of the camera’s limits. Wear clothing that doesn’t distract (e.g., plaids and stripes are often exaggerated on video). Humor doesn’t usually work as well without a live audience.
You get the idea. Adjust to your actual environment. If it’s the first time, rehearse.
20 GREAT WAYS TO ENGAGE ALMOST ANY AUDIENCE
1. Handouts
There are three options to use in distributing handouts:
• Prior to the presentation. This enables participants to arrive at a common level of understanding about your topic and to prepare themselves to learn by determining what aspects appeal to them. Participants can use your handouts to track your presentation. Downside: People often lose them, they aren’t distributed correctly, or, if they’re not clear and concise, they can be a turn-off. If you change your sequencing, people can become confused and unfocused.
• During the presentation. This is a dynamic method to enable people to reinforce what they’ve just learned. People will use them to make additional notes in the margins. You can also use them as an interactive tool, asking people to complete certain portions. Downside: Passing things out is often time-consuming and disruptive, especially during briefer presentations. Not everyone likes to complete questions or write in personal responses.
• After the presentation. This can serve as a powerful reinforcer and provides a rationale to contact participants again. The materials in this case will reflect exactly what was discussed in the proper sequence, since alterations can be made. Downside: Many participants don’t like to take notes anymore and prefer to use handouts as a “crutch” during the presentation.
2. Room Setup
There are actually people who make their living trying to coach speakers on how to establish the room environment. But the fact is that poor speakers will die in Carnegie Hall and terrific speakers will knock the audience’s socks off in a dungeon. Having said that, here are some safety tips.
Try to arrange for a center aisle so that you can walk down it, if appropriate. Don’t shoot a projector down a center aisle, which will put you in the line of fire. Shoot it at an angle or use rear projection.
Visit the room far enough in advance (usually 45 minutes to an hour) to make changes, if necessary. If someone is using the room prior to you or if you’re following other speakers without a break, make sure that whatever you need has been provided prior to the program’s start (e.g., have yourself “wired” with a lavaliere mike well before you’re introduced). Test the mike for dead spots and feedback. There is sometimes unavoidable feedback below ceiling speakers. Practice your movements to avoid those spots in advance, not while you’re delivering your key learning points.
3. Pre-presentation Participation
While this is highly interpersonal, I’ve included it here, since it’s not something that occurs during your presentation.
Many clients will offer you the opportunity to participate in a dinner or social event the day or evening prior to your presentation. Unless your schedule prohibits it, such participation is always a good idea. You’ll be able to meet participants and become a known entity. You’ll be able to pick up recent developments about the client that you can include in your talk (“I understand that your field force has just expanded by 50 percent, which makes my talk today on retaining good people more important than ever!”). And you’ll be able to chat with company officers and prospective future buyers on a casual, unhurried basis.
4. Product Sales
There is not a thing wrong with selling products in conjunction with a speaking engagement. Here are some tips that I’ve found effective:
• Give one of your products away while you’re on the platform. I ask for a volunteer, reward him or her with “any book on my table over there,” and move on. You can also hold up the book or tape and present it at the moment.
• Have the introducer mention your products and how to acquire them while at the conference. It’s a good idea to include that “Ms. Jones has kindly provided a 15 percent discount to conference participants while she is here.”
• If there is a convention bookstore, arrange to have your products displayed with you advertised as a featured speaker.
• Have someone staff your table. Never do this yourself. I try never to exchange products for money personally. If you need someone from the association, facility, or client, make arrangements to provide that person with a commission or a flat fee.
• Accept all major credit cards. This can be arranged easily through your local bank or American Express.
• Create a “package” price, for which someone can purchase every product on the table at a discount. If it’s not there, no one can take advantage of it. If it is there, someone will almost always do so, and you’ll get a several-hundred-dollar sale from one person.
• Give every visitor to the table a catalog of your products, whether that visitor purchases or not. You may want to stamp the conference or client name on them and indicate that there is an XX percent discount in effect for 30 days.
• Present one set of your products as a gift to the trade association library, client library, or a charity supported by the client.
• Offer to stay and sign books.
5. Personal Preparation
You have to be in the “right place at the right time” if you’re to be effective for a client. An audience can sense uncertainty and/or distraction, and people get restless if a speaker is tentative or scared.
• Focus on the speech in front of you. Don’t worry about the one next week or next month (or even tomorrow morning).
• Practice not to be perfect, but to be comfortable. Audiences don’t care if you’re perfect, but they will be comfortable only if you are.
• Understand that this is not a turning point in Western civilization. The world will continue unimpeded tomorrow, no matter what happens today on the platform.
• View the audience members as mature, intelligent, constructive adults who want to see you succeed.
• Your job is to please the buyer and meet the buyer’s objectives, not to receive a standing ovation or perfect scores on rating sheets.
• Don’t try to outdo the prior speaker or to latch on to something that seems to be working for everyone else. You are unique. Use only your strengths.
• Be provocative. No one is roused to action by platitudes and repetition. Force your audience to think, and make it feel an urgency. Logic makes people think; emotion makes them act.
6. Do Not Accept the Myth of the Butterflies
Myth: You should always get nervous “butterflies” before you speak. I don’t know about you, but if you’re still nervous about speaking after scores, hundreds, or thousands of talks, you ought to get some Valium. I get an adrenaline rush, and I can’t wait to go on, but I don’t get nervous. Anxiety will kill your timing, deaden your reflexes, and paralyze your movements. Athletes who perform well under pressure don’t get nervous. They get good. Get some DDT for the insects.
7. Do Not Overprepare
Myth: You should always prepare for a talk for at least three times as long as the speech itself will take, no matter how many times you’ve given it. Well, perhaps you should do this if you’re a fish, since fish have a measured attention span of 4 seconds (which is why the same fish keeps getting hooked—it forgets everything it ever learned 15 times a minute). This is utter malarkey. Prepare, perhaps, for the nature of the new audience, a new environment, and some contemporary delivery, but if you still need to rehearse your signature speech for three hours every time, better check for gills around your throat.
8. Don’t Create a Speech with a Book in Mind
Myth: If you have a speech, you have a book. This should be restated as follows: if you have a speech, you have an excruciatingly tiny book. Speaking and writing are discrete skills, sometimes synergistic but not at all equal. Don’t give the published work short shrift: books require extensive research; tight, Jesuit-like logic; brilliant metaphors; and immaculate construction. If that sounds like it doesn’t resemble a lot of books out there, that’s because most books are not very good. (Maybe they ought to be speeches.) Focus on each audience and each buyer, not your literary future or T-shirt sales.
9. Don’t Trip over Your Mechanics or Your Underwear
Myth: Study your platform skills carefully and get coaching. A speaking colleague, Jeff Slutsky, has observed that nothing has ruined more good speakers than speech coaches. Content and knowledge are what carry the day, and if you have those, decent platform skills will get you through nicely. If you don’t have those, superb platform skills simply put the icing on a house of cards. I find that speakers spend inordinate amounts of time on delivery mechanics and not nearly enough time on research, new ideas, client familiarization, and spontaneity.
10. Never Worry about Your Ratings
Myth: Track your audience evaluations more carefully than you check your stock listings. Dr. Albert Bandura, whom I had the good fortune to meet and work with at one point in my career, is one of the preeminent psychologists of our time. His work on self-efficacy raises an interesting issue for speakers: people with low self-perceptions of their knowledge and abilities put a premium on external performance standards to reassure themselves of their accomplishment. People with high self-perceptions of their knowledge and abilities place the emphasis on personally established learning goals and—his words—self-mastery. Think about that.
11. Don’t Try to Validate Yourself on Stage
Myth: Our self-worth is based on our success and our accomplishments on the platform. I don’t think so. Our self-worth ought to be based on our contributions to the environment and society around us, to our families and friends, and to our own vision for our futures. Speaking is simply a means—one of a great many—toward that end. People who tell me that all of their friends are speakers frighten me. We need a broad perspective, big gulps out of life, and a diverse variety of experiences. Those are what make us vital people, and better speakers in the bargain.
12. Create Exercises That Involve the Audience in Its Own Diagnostics
People love to assess where they are against others, their own expectations, your suggested guidelines, and so forth. Whether you’re talking to senior groups (i.e., on strategy) or front-line groups (e.g., on customer service), try to create an environment in which people are learning about themselves and their colleagues thanks to your intellectual property.
13. Always Include Questions
Even in keynotes and in large groups, try to provide a question and answer session so that you can address specifics and enable people to feel that their personal issues are being addressed. You can arrange for people with handheld mikes to roam the audience, you can have standing mike stations, or you can take shouted questions and repeat them (which you should do anyway, of course). The longer your session, the more critical this is.
Speaking Up: The advice that you “dumb down” your speech, attire, and other aspects of your abilities for an audience is among the worst advice you can possibly receive. Ignore the dummy giving it to you.
14. Use Small Teams
Even if you ask a huge audience to turn to the people around them, or if you use separate breakout rooms for smaller groups, this kind of interaction produces excellent learning and attempts to actually apply the skills you’re providing. When you’re dealing with smaller groups, keep in mind that a group of 20, for example, will provide teams of 2, 4, or 5 (or even two teams of 10).
15. Arrive Early and Schmooze
I wander around or sit at a table and casually listen in and chat with participants before my speech without revealing who I am at first. (I always do so before we’re done.) I inevitably learn fresh and current issues that are going to help me in my examples and focus. If I want to use specifics, I ask the permission of the people who provided them.
16. Study the Client’s History
If you’re working in-house for a client, read its background on the Web or in its collateral material. You’ll surely find examples of things that the client has done that reinforce your points, and you can make your client organization a “hero” and demonstrate to the members of your audience that you’re simply reinforcing what they have already done well but may not always realize, being so close to the issues.3
17. Play Volleyball
Throw some questions back to the audience. Don’t try to be the fount of all knowledge. This will help if you really don’t know the answer (!), but it will also help to demonstrate that the intelligence and talent required for what you’re talking about are resident right in that room.
18. Adhere to Your Time Frames
No audience will ever become upset at a speaker’s ending ten minutes early (and if a meeting planner does, just ignore him or her), but it will immediately become restless if you’re two minutes late and you’re still droning on. People are thinking about phone calls, appointments, and a variety of other issues, while forgetting everything you’ve previously said. Hit your marks.
19. Use a Recurring Theme or Signature Reminder
I talk about Tools for Change: The 1% Solution, which means that if you improve by 1 percent a day, in 70 days you’ll be twice as good. (Do the math.) I periodically foreshadow a point by saying, “Perhaps this will be the 1 percent for some of you.” Not only do you rivet attention, but people start using your phrase (“I just received my 1 percent.”).
20. Never Assume that Your Audience Is Damaged
I’ve seen big-name speakers talk to the audience as if they were addressing a remedial reading class. One woman puts up huge, simplistic easel sheets with a single word on them. Assume that the members of your audience are intelligent and successful—that’s why they’re sitting in front of you. Your job is to help them become still better, given the buyer’s objectives. Never pander or “dumb down.” Speak and teach to the top third of the group. The rest will run along to catch up as needed.
BIDING YOUR TIME
Here is an amazing fact that you may scoff at, but only at your peril: your timing is as important as your content.
People expect you to start on time if you’re leading your own session. If you’re part of someone else’s session (a keynoter, concurrent presenter, and so forth), you’re somewhat at that person’s mercy with regard to your starting time. But that mercy ends there.
Hit your marks. Take breaks when you’ve promised AND end the breaks when you’ve promised. (You can often cue people back with music a minute or so before you’re about to begin. I’ve seen this done effectively with audiences of more than a thousand people.) Pace yourself. Don’t start cramming 40 minutes of content into your remaining 10 minutes (which is called a blivet by the cognoscenti), and never, never, never go over your allotted time.
No audience in the history of speaking, beginning with those listening to the grunts of the landlord giving housekeeping instructions to those renting the cave in prelapsarian times, ever objected to a speaker’s ending early. Oh, yes, there are those who wanted more than the time allowed (always leave them wanting more) and those who regretted that the speaker did not use the final five minutes for more questions (never end a session with a question and answer period), but they were nonetheless happy to leave as planned. The train was departing the station.
However, for every minute you go over your allotted time, the audience will forget the prior 10 minutes of your talk, so if you go about 10 minutes beyond your designated ending time, your audience will pretty much have discarded the entire preceding 90-minute keynote. (There are nonapocryphal stories of academics with their omnipresent computer slides who arrive at an hour’s presentation with 120 slides. Do the math. Every one is an ego-centered speaker, or, as we nonacademics say, “clueless.”)
About 30 seconds past your “stop” time, people will begin thinking of the following:
• How am I going to get to the next presentation?
• Will I have time to make those phone calls?
• I need to recharge my recorder.
• There are six e-mails I must send.
• I’m behind on my Twitter account.
• I’m supposed to be (making reservations, sending flowers, checking in with my parole officer).
• Will I make the restroom in time?
• I’ve got to do something with my hair.
• I desperately need a drink.
• I’m supposed to meet my friend.
• This will ruin my timing for “accidentally” running into Justin, Brittany, or whoever.
• Lord, I need a cigarette.
• I must change this seat; the person next to me has an unusual odor and a surfeit of body hair.
• I need to call my office and use what the speaker just recommended.
You get the idea. Move people out. Most of them have at least four of the above concerns simultaneously creating pressure just behind the right eye.
Speaking Up: Knowing when to stop speaking is as important as knowing how to speak.
Of course, the major point is that you cover the powerful points in your presentation proportionally and do not waste time on 40-minute icebreakers, 30-minute exercises, and useless visual aids.
Worst case example: as the closing general session speaker at a poorly run human resources conference (there’s a surprise), I waited in vain while the preceding speaker went 30 minutes over time proselytizing for his favorite charity. When I was introduced, I had about 20 minutes of conference time left, but, of course, 60 minutes of material.
I took one look at the worried faces in the audience and said, “I’m ending at 4 as advertised, and I’ll make up for our lateness by abbreviating my talk to the three most important points. All I ask is that you listen to them attentively!” The audience cheered. The coordinator frowned. (He wasn’t getting his full 60 minutes of blood, but that’s why you should always be paid in advance.)
Here’s how you carefully bide your time:
• Practice and rehearse with a recorder. Note that you’ll be at least 10 percent faster this way, and that you’re not compensating for laughter, applause, or questions. So this will probably represent about 75 percent of your actual length.
• In shorter speeches, limit questions to the period you designate, and adjust that time based on whether you are on time or not. You can shorten it, extend it, or eliminate it entirely (which is easy to do if you don’t announce earlier that you’re going to save time for it).
• Keep a clock or watch clearly in view on the podium, hidden from the audience. It’s not good form to keep looking at your watch. Some facilities actually have a computer or TelePrompTer with a clock in front of the stage.
• Minimize your ad libs. You may think of an interesting story or fascinating example as you’re talking, but if you go too far down those roads, you’ll get lost in the wilderness.
• Keep your answers to those questions that you do accept very brief. Don’t show off. Answer the question in a succinct matter, and refrain from proving how smart you are by reciting all of your undergraduate notes on the subject.
• Ask for a front-row timer who holds up a sign at designated times (e.g., ten minutes to go, five minutes to go, one minute to go). Always have a system whereby the timer holds up the card until you’ve clearly acknowledged it.
• Put “PACE” on the top of each page of your notes so that you see it whenever you glance down. (Most of you will go too fast, not too slowly, meaning that you may finish very early).
• If you are “short,” extend the question session and/or use reserve material that you’ve prepared for this purpose.
• Adjust your future timing and material based on your past experiences delivering the speech or workshop.
How many plays have you enjoyed until the end, when you said to your companion, “This would have been better if it had been 20 minutes shorter”? In that case, the psychological ending point had long passed. In your case, there is always an actual ending point that you dare not allow to pass.
ADJUSTING FOR TROUBLE
Occasionally you’ll hit some trouble. Here are the most common problems and their resolution.
• Improper equipment. You asked for a wireless lapel mike, but all they have is a handheld version. You asked for projection into a corner, but it’s up the center aisle.
Preventive: Send a checklist to your client and then call the day prior to ensure that all is as requested.
Adaptive: You can travel with your own lapel mike, or you can observe the setup the day before or early that morning and request the changes you need.
Worst case: Live with it.
• The prior speaker or the entire conference is running late.
Preventive: If you are intending to leave that same day, let your client know in advance of your mandatory departure time. Suggest that the client move you up in the agenda if things are late. End at your assigned time, even if you shorten your program. (Always get paid in advance, so that you have leverage. The client’s sloth is not your problem.)
Adaptive: Take a later flight or change your travel plans. Ask your client if he or she wants the original length or a shortened version. (Remember that your audience will tend to be fatigued and somewhat ornery in these circumstances.)
• Major interruption for a fire alarm, illness, or something similar.
Adaptive: Ask people to follow the appropriate instructions (leave the hall, allow EMT people to get down the aisle) and serve as an avatar. During the break, ask your client how best to continue, depending on the length of the disruption.
Preventive: Have a plan that allows you to remove up to a third of your material or add a third, just in case of emergencies.
• You can’t get there.
Adaptive: Always have colleagues who are willing to fill in, and have quite a few, because most of them will be busy. Always have your client’s home phone or cell number. Offer a substitute or a refund.
Preventive: Watch weather reports and be cognizant of conditions at your destination and en route. Never plan to arrive the morning of an event. Allow an extra day if you’re concerned, and always do so overseas. Never schedule activities immediately before an assignment.
• Ambient noise.
Adaptive: Take a short break and ask the client’s people to find a hotel or conference manager to take care of it. (It’s often a “bleed” from the sound system in the next room, although I once had a 40-person Baptist choir in the next room—they were quite good!)
• Preventive: Find out who or what will be in adjoining rooms. Always perform a sound check on the day of your presentation.
• Disruption by casual client actions.
Adaptive: Ask people to quiet down so that everyone can be heard. Ask people with private agendas and conversations to take them outside the room. Do not tolerate anyone openly chatting about other business.
Preventive: Stress your brief time together and ask for attention over that limited period. My favorite line: “You’ll have those PDAs and cell phones forever, but you have me for just the next 59 minutes. How about you take advantage of the more limited opportunity?!” Finally, be outstanding, especially in your opening two minutes, which determines the attention span for what follows.4
• You lose power or have a technical problem.
Adaptive: Use the handouts instead of the projected slides. Ask people to move closer and project your voice rather than rely on the mike. Take a quick break if you believe the problem can be fixed quickly.
Preventive: Test your equipment that same day. Always have hard copies of projected visuals. Use two mikes (you can use one to record your presentation, as well).
• You lose your place.
Adaptive: Ask, “Where was I?” (I’ve seen Broadway stars do this.) Go back to your notes and ask for a moment. Just resume with a logical next step.
Preventive: Never memorize your presentation. Have notes on a lectern or table. Use your visuals as an outline.
• Something unexpected and uproarious occurs.
Adaptive: Go with the flow. Get a good laugh and gradually segue back into your topic and point. Be a partner in the fun. But don’t join in embarrassing anyone else.
Preventive: See the next section!
TURNING ERRORS AND/OR TROUBLES INTO THE EXTRAORDINARY
I thought it would be fun to end this chapter with some of the best turnarounds, twists, recoveries, and “saves” I have seen, can remember, or perpetrated! You need to land on your feet and not take yourself too seriously.
• Someone says, “I don’t agree with your points; they conflict with everything I know that makes sense, and you’re just wrong about this!” You say, “Don’t repress, tell me how you really feel.”
• You trip when you’re walking onto the stage (I’ve done this a dozen times). You say, “We’ll start with my new book on coordination.”
• Someone’s cell phone goes off. You say, “I asked you to hold my calls.”
• You repeatedly stumble on a word or phrase. You say, “Easy for me to say.”
• You call someone by the wrong name, e.g., Sally instead of Jane. You say, “I bet you think I just called you Sally, right?”
• You can’t get people back from breaks or lunch on time. Assign a “room captain” every day and give him or her a whistle.
• You have a hard time getting volunteers. Give the first volunteer you get a prize (e.g., someone’s book) for no work other than volunteering.
• You can’t get rid of the interfering noise (remember that Baptist choir?). Sway with the rhythm and tell people they have to ask questions that rhyme.
• Your visuals are in the wrong order, or are marred, upside down, or something else. Ask everyone to look at them sideways or on their heads.
• Two people get into their own debate or simply don’t stop reinforcing each other vocally and frequently. You say: “Do you two need a few moments?”
• Lunch isn’t ready on time, and you’ve arrived at the assigned area. Don’t worry; find the right authorities and ask them to get you out in time for your regular starting time.
• Someone from the client organization tells you that he or she would like you to change something or add something, or that something isn’t working well. Go to your buyer. Ignore random feedback unless your buyer requests something. If the feedback IS abundant and consistent, then do something about it.
• People keep asking you to change the temperature. Refuse, unless it’s overwhelming or you can see people’s breath. One person’s request to change the temperature is simply self-absorption if no one else is requesting it.
• The client asks you to do something additional or as a substitution at the last minute, when you are there. If you don’t want to do it, say, “I’m sorry, I’m not prepared for that, and it will not be the quality that you deserve.” If you want to do it, say, “I’m happy to do so; it may be a tad rough, but we’ll make it work, and I hope you’ll accept this as my flexibility in wanting to work with you long term!”
SUMMARY
Words are the tools of our trade. Ignore those who tell you that nonverbal behavior is critical. People care about your words. You can’t dazzle them with footwork. (Or music or slide shows. My favorite audience reaction to a former beauty queen who had lighting effects, mood music, and Power-Point: “Well, still another emotionally manipulative presentation.”)
You can, however, engage an audience using a variety of techniques described in this chapter. Be patient. Build your presentation to gain interest, commitment, and fascination. Don’t be afraid to be provocative, challenging, or even contrarian. Some of us have been asked to be solely that by some of the best-paying clients around!
Trouble is like rain. No matter how long the drought, it eventually falls on our heads. Be prepared preventively to minimize the likelihood, but also contingently to minimize the effects. Whatever happens won’t be the first time and won’t be the last time.
In fact, you can turn errors and the unexpected into extraordinary opportunities to delight and educate. Remember that the audience is basically with you, strongly desiring a success, unless you lose that trust. Why not join them in having a good time and learning as much as possible?