We’ve all experienced it. You’re attending a monthly meeting in your professional trade organization, at a conference or bringing in a speaker for a company event and up walks the “Dreaded Speaker.”
You know the type....monotone voice, spends the first 20 minutes telling you about their credentials, reads straight from power point slides with 40 words on each slide and ultimately fails to engage the audience from the first word until the very last.
The amount of sharp, savvy business folks in this country is impressive. Their vast knowledge allows them to be experts in the field, they have proven success and can bring a lot to the table. Unfortunately this doesn’t equate to a memorable experience when speaking in front of a group—especially if their daily routines do not put them in the scenario of speaking in front of others.
If you have the opportunity to share your expertise with a group, keep a few things in mind:
- The more you interrupt people’s patterns the less likely you’re going to be treated like everyone else. What is your opener? Do you have a relevant way to quickly grab attention? How are you going to help people quickly discover “I need to listen to this person!”
- You want them thinking “this person understands what I experience.” How will you paint the picture that allows the group to discover you understand them?
- The group must be able to walk away with 2-3 real life nuggets they can immediately apply. How will you bring clarity to your topic without just talking about theory or dazzling them with statistics? How can you provide relevant real world content people can utilize the next day?
- You should NEVER have to “sell” your product or service from the stage. Your content should be powerful enough to quickly engage people—a good talk ends with the group wanting more!
The next time you have an opportunity to speak in front of a group, keep these 4 critical points in mind. When you outshine everyone else the group has experienced you have an opportunity to make an impact. Even if you never see them again.
