Speech Advice - Be Heard

Last week I had the misfortune of attending a "lecture" on the Eichmann Trial, in Palm Desert.  

I don't remember who put it on and I'm not going to mention the speakers by name because I don't want to embarrass them.  At least two were sweet older gentlemen and a third was an academic from Loyola Marymount (who seriously needs speaker training).

I will say, however, that I walked out of the lecture mid-way, after the third speaker.  Can't remember ever doing that.

Now why would I do that?  Because the speakers weren't speaking, they were ranting.  And even worse, they were ranting to the wrong audience.  The audience of probably 100+ attendees was made up of 50 - 80 year old Jews.  This is an audience who already knows the damage of the holocaust and the evilness of those who perpetrated it.  Some of them were probably survivors and lots of them have family who didn't survive.

This was supposed to be a lecture and discussion about the Eichmann Trial itself. 

Instead what we got was as follows (at least until I walked out):

They started the program without telling us what was going to occur and instead just played video clips from you tube. OK, I'll play along for a minute or two, but unfortunately they didn't bother to download any videos to their computer, nor did they bother to download the links directly to their desktop.

So we got to watch them go into their email for video clip link after video clip link.  Yep, we got to see their email list, and each email that they went into to get the clip. Oh, and there was the nifty "so and so is now online" Skype pop up that entertained us every few minutes as well.

Unfortunately they tortured us with this silliness for about 15 minutes, the last 8 - 10 of which was just streaming download pauses and 10 seconds of video then another streaming download pause.  

The only thing more irritating than sitting at a speech/lecture and watching a video try to download is watching Oscar speeches.

Bad enough.... but then...

Speaker #1/MC: basically just told a story of his father's escape from Germany.  I'm guessing more than half the audience had heard similar stories from their own parents while growing up.  What was the point? 

Speaker #2: basically paced back and forth telling us how evil Eichmann was and how Hannah Arendt's "the Banality of Evil" was completely baseless.  OK... tell this audience something they don't know already.  And stop pacing, it's distracting.

Speaker #3: this lovely older gentleman was the worst, simply because all he did was rant about what a horrible person FDR was and how he was totally complicit in the Holocaust.  Still not sure what he was trying to do either. 

I walked out after Speaker #3.

What are the lessons?

• Organize your conferences even if you are an all-volunteer force. Your audience should be treated with respect and that means respecting our time. Even retired people get annoyed when their time is wasted.
• Prepare your audio and video in advance.  Either:
  • download the video onto your hard drive (preferable), or
  • put the direct link to the video on your desktop so we don't have to see all of your emails and wait for you to find the right link
• When preparing your audio and video clips in advance, you also need to
  • Make sure the facility has adequate streaming capability, or go wired, and still make sure there is adequate streaming capability.  
  • If there isn't, you have to download to your hard drive or find another source.  
  • Make sure you remember to kill all programs on your computer and turn off all alerts, so we don't sit there watching your email, Skype and IM alerts.
• Meet your audience's needs - not your own.  I've said this a million times before. If you make this mistake, you can't recover.  
• Prepare an actual presentation, with an outline and all, or at least a few talking points.'
  • Don't rant. We don't care about your rants.  Rants turn an audience off and make them uncomfortable.
  • Don't rant. Speak to us, be thoughtful, organized, easy to follow.  Have a point.  Have three main points if you want people to follow you.
  • Don't rant. What is the point of your presentation? Decide in advance and create one - don't wing it or you may end up ranting.

Moral of the Story:  Passion is good.  Ranting is bad.  

Yesterday I presented a webinar called "Power Point is Evil: but if you're going to use it, use it well" for LexBlog's clients as part of their free resource Webinars provided to their clients.

The recorded version of this Webinar, and resource handouts, are now available free on LexBlog's You Tube Channel.

Today when I was reading Entrepreneur Magazine, I came across this word listed under their Jargon column:

Meanderthal: a person who has great difficulty expressing themselves succinctly, often giving long, unfocused presentations.

It got a great laugh out of me! I LOVE it!  And like all good magazines that provide examples of their newly defined words, Entrepreneur provides this one:

I want to gouge my eyes out every time the office meanderthal pulls up a Power Point.

Too funny! 

Not sure I have to comment much on this, other than to use it as an illustration of the fact that people:

1. don't like it when others take forever to get to the point, especially in a business setting, i.e. meander all over the place
2. don't like it when others use Power Point to take forever to get to the point

If this sounds familiar to you, as in you might be guilty of communicating in this fashion, it is time to learn how to be organized and succinct. It is also probably time to give up the Power Point addiction, even if everyone else uses it.  Trust me, your colleagues and audiences will thank you and will like your presentations a lot more.

It's funny; for years requests for my public speaking presentations focused on skills - organization and delivery primarily.  Yet since the beginning of this year I have been asked multiple times to give presentations focused on Public Speaking for Business Development (for professionals).

I have to chalk that up to one of the only positive outcomes of the recession!

Of course, I am interpreting this new demand to mean that more professionals are realizing the value of using public speaking as a business development tool.  Let me know if you think I'm mis-interpreting.

Tomorrow, May 19th, at the ungodly hour of 7:30 in the morning, I am giving a presentation on this same topic to a Century City ProVisors group.  ProVisors is a popular professional networking group. 

While I have not joined Pro-Visors (no time!), I have several friends who belong to various groups in the Los Angeles area who are big fans.  In fact, talk about ESP (or something).... as I was sitting here composing this blog post, I got a call from an attorney who just happens to be a member of ProVisors and who heard me speak about this topic two months ago for LexBlog. 

This attorney called to discuss whether or not I would be willing to put on a Non-Profit related CLE course for attorneys early next year.  He also emailed me, just prior to calling, with details of the program (he had emailed previously, me right after the LexBlog webinar, with his credentials).

Now this is someone who is taking my advice from that presentation to heart! I love it! 

And guess what, based on his credentials, topic proposals and outlines, and my conversations with him, we will probably book at least one of the four proposed programs in the spring of 2012 in Los Angeles.

Now, I don't do this particular speech as a way to get CLE speakers - we have a pretty full stable of speakers and generally speaking I only take CLE speakers by referral.  But it has been an interesting side-effect of doing the presentations.

Why do I do this particular presentation? For business development of course!  Somewhere down the road, a firm or agency will book me to teach public speaking (or this program) after hearing about me from someone who attended. 

So I practice what I preach and I believe in in wholeheartedly.

Can I point to business I have gotten from my various presentations (free and paid)? Yes, absolutely! I have been booked several times in-house at large law firms/agencies based soley on someone either attending one of my free speeches or someone attending one of our paid public speaking CLE seminars (open to the public) or watching my DVD.

Not only that, but the ABA has contracted with me to write a book (yes I need to finish it) on Public Spoeaking for Attorneys.  That came directly from my contacts at the ABA, where I established my expertise in the area by speaking annually, for free, at their National Convention. 

We'll be posting the webinar on this topic in about two weeks - on You Tube.  I'll also get a few blog posts going about it in June.

In the meantime, happy speaking! 

Update: Here is the link for the recorded webinar.

In just a little bit I'll be doing a free webinar, Public Speaking for Business Development, designed for attorneys and legal marketing professionals. It is currently "sold out" at 100 seats.

We will be recording this program and will post a link on this blog as well as our CLE website, Pincus Professional Education.  Update: here is the recording.

As I prepare for the webinar, a few quick reminders came to mind that I can pass on.

First - when you're doing a webinar, you should really test things out the day before and then again about one to two hours before the program, to give you lots of time to fix things.

Second,  check your speaking notes and your slides.  I just noticed a few minutes ago that my notes had not been put back in the right order!  OK, that would just be a bummer to discover 10 minutes into my presentation.

Third, always have a back up. Currently I have to staff members with my presentation and slides at different locations. One has "host" capability and one has "presenter" capability, so that if my system crashes, we can keep on going regardless.  They can move the slides, which I really don't need to see, and I can keep talking.

Fourth, and this may seem pretty obvious, but people get nervous before speaking, so the reminder is needed: turn off all phones - cell, office, anyone else's phone if they are sitting in your office when you are speaking, etc.  For example, my bookkeeper is here today and I just reminded her to turn her cell on quiet.

I recommend creating a little check-list that you keep with you various presentations, related to the type of presentation, stuck right in there with the speaking notes:

• one check list for your webinars
• one check list for your local in-person speeches
• one check list for your speeches that require travel

If you're on today's call, don't hesitate to post a comment here or on our facebook page.

Cheers!

Tomorrow we are holding our Free "Public Speaking for Business Development" Webinar.  Update: Here is the link for the audio recording with slides. 

This webinar "sold out" at more than 120 attendees late last week.  If you are interested in this program, you should still sign up so you are put on the waiting list. We will email you when we hold it again, which will be in the next month or two.  Additionally, we are recording the program and will make it available on our website and on this blog.

What You Will Learn if You Attend This Seminar

Getting speaking engagements:

• How to use your blog to land public speaking engagements
• Selecting your audience
• Who to approach
• How to ask – what matters to the folks booking speakers

Making speaking engagements worthwhile:

• Making speaking engagements worthwhile
• Knowing your audience
• Preparing properly
• Marketing before and after to maximize the value of the event

I did a survey of our attendees before hand, and based on the results of that survey (about at 30% response rate), I realize that there are a few misconceptions regarding how one uses public speaking for business development. I'll start covering that topic more over the next few months on this blog.  

There are a few things I will say now, however, about tomorrow's webinar:

• Public Speaking for Business Development will cover the toipcs listed above; I will not be teaching many public speaking/presentation skills in this program, as that is not the focus of this program. 

If you are interested in learning how to be a better public speaker, please attend one of my public speaking programs, or purchase our Public Speaking for Attorneys DVD.  We will offer a 10% off discount coupon for our DVD for anyone that is interested (just email us or include a comment here).

• I will not be teaching sales techniques. Public speaking for business development is not about making a sale or closing a deal, especially not on or from the platform.  

Using public speaking for business development is a long term investment in your reputation and your relationships, which translate to clients and referrals. Sometimes it translates immediately, sometimes it takes months, and like a lot of business development, sometimes it takes years.  Unfortunately, there is no "easy" button.

• Paid Public Speaking is a different animal altogether. If you are interested in learning more about the paid public speaking profession, I recommend you check out the National Speakers Association (NSA).  Most cities have a local chapter that you can join as an associate.

Because it merits its own few hours or days, and is of little interest to the majority of attorneys who attend our programs, I will not cover paid professional speaking in the webinar listed above.  

I am happy to answer any questions related to paid professional speaking; just shoot me an email or post a comment.