National Speakers Association Convention Day One: Simon T. Bailey and Brilliance

The 2007 National Speakers Association is taking place in San Diego this week. It's a weeklong festival of powerful platform presentations and big time business-building breakouts. Here are the highlights from Day One.

Simon T. Bailey kicked off the event with an amazing speech about recognizing and embracing your brilliance. He suggested that brilliance is the present embodiment of potential. Whereas potential is something that might be realized in the future, brilliance is something we have right now.

He had some great quotes, too:

• "You’re a vitamin, not an aspirin."



• "Be an original voice, not an annoying echo."



• "I want to be judged by actions taken, not evaluations given."



• "You can tell that I’m from Orlando by my Godiva tan." (He's African-American, in case you didn't know.)



• "I'll let that marinate for a while." He added this line after he said something very profound. The audience loved it.



• "Delete your ‘qoute file’." Which means, try to create your own quotes instead of resting on the laurels of others. Plus, if the quote is famous enough, there's a chance most of your audience has heard it before. Be an original voice.

He also through out some great statistics about the meetings and convention business. Every year $1.7 billion is spent on meetings and conferences, 1.2 million conferences are held every working day and there are approximately 3,500 members of NSA. His point? There's more than enough work to go around.

Lastly, he closed with a powerful analogy while seated in a chair on stage. When he said is final words he just sat in the chair and looked at the audience. You got the idea that he was finished, but you weren't exactly sure. Then he stood up and walked off the stage. He didn't get more than 3-4 steps away from the chair before the place erupted into a standing ovation.

Nicely done.

Now it's time to Hit Your Stride...

Your Turn #1: I think it's great to use quotes in presentations, but ask yourself if it's time to freshen up your pool of quotations. The author of the quote isn't as important as the quote itself.

Your Turn #2: How will you conclude your next speech? Consider a powerful, show-stopping statement followed by a three second pause. A strong impression is guaranteed.

Happy speaking,

Steve Hughes

Speaker - Trainer - Candlestick Maker

Never Never Never End A Speech With Q and A

Think back to the last presentation you gave or the last one you attended as an audience member. I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts (whatever that means) that the presentation ended with a Q&A session. Perhaps there was even a colorful PowerPoint slide with a giant question mark on it or it simply read “Questions?” Very creative.

It’s hard to pick the biggest mistake most presenters make, but ending on Q&A has to be up there in the top three.

So you might be asking, “What are we supposed to do? Every presentation should have questions at the end.”

To answer that question, let’s look at all the things that can go wrong during the question and answer portion of the program.

1. There are no questions. Yikes! Talk about an uncomfortable silence. (Check back in a few days for a post about out how to solve the “no questions” problem.)

2. Questions take you off topic. A waste of your time and everyone else’s.

3. The questions turn negative. Some colleague or customer wants to assert himself/herself by tearing you down. Not fun.

4. You get asked legitimate questions for which you have no answer. Ouch. Even if you say you’ll find the answer and get back to the questioner, your credibility takes a hit.

5. The Q&A session is flat. Nothing good or bad happens, but the energy and enthusiasm you worked so hard to generate during the presentation simply vanishes.

6. Finally, most of the time during Q&A people just want to get the heck out of Dodge. In many people’s minds the learning is over and they’re just sitting quietly waiting to leave (and secretly hoping that no one will ask another question).

So when do you let your audience ask questions? You have two options.

One, encourage them to ask questions throughout your presentation. This is the best way to handle questions because there isn’t a formal Q&A session that puts you on the spot. Plus people might forget a question they want to ask if they have to wait until the end. But be prepared, if the audience peppers you with throughout you speech, don’t let them throw off your rhythm.

The second option is to have your Q&A as the second to last thing you do. This way you signal to the audience that there’s more to come, that they should stay engaged and that the Q&A will not go on forever. I like to open Q&A by saying, “Before I make my final point, what questions do you have about my presentation?”

And just what is the “final point” you ask? Tune in tomorrow.

Time to Hit Your Stride…

Your Turn #1
Do a little experiment. Pay attention to the way the next three presentations come to a conclusion. Was it Q&A? What was the energy level in the room? What was the mood of the audience as everyone filed out?

Your Turn #2
Try the “questions throughout method” in your next presentation. You might be surprised to see the level of engagement go up. And your speech will feel more like a dialog than a monologue.

How to Make Your Next Presentation Funnier

One of the most frequent questions I get asked at my seminars (http://www.hityourstride.com/wst_page8.html) is "how can I add more humor to my presentations?" A natural follow up question is "can anyone learn to how make people laugh?" The answers to these questions are "very carefully" and "yes."

Many business people, trainers and educators recognize the need to keep their presentations interesting and engaging. Duh. They just don't know how to do it. Humor is hands down the quickest and most effective way to make even the driest presentation palatable. Just ask the flight attendants at Southwest Airlines. The best part is anyone can learn to generate more laughter at the podium.

That's right. Anyone can learn to generate more laughter when they speak.

Just follow this simple three-step process and you'll get more people to crack up.

1. Don't be a stand-up comedian. In other words, there is such a plethora of humorous material out there that has already been vetted, there's no need to create your own stuff. Just identify the quote, picture, comic strip or story that fits the occasion and watch the laughter materialize. Then be sure to cite the source. BUT, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TELL A JOKE. (That's a subject for a future post.)
2. Be relevant. Don't be funny for funny's sake. Try to graft in humorous material that reinforces the point(s) your trying to make. The humor needs to move the presentation forward. Then, even if you attempt at humor doesn't generate any laughter, at least your audience will understand and recognize that you were just trying to make a point.
3. Start slow. If you haven't ever used humor in a presentation, don't go from zero to sixty in one speech. Your audience will probably recommend some kind of therapy.

You're probably saying, "Steve, that's all well and good, but can you give me an example?" Glad you asked.

Let's say you're a financial planner and you want an engaging way to begin your public seminar on "planning for retirement." You could use the one-panel New Yorker cartoon (www.cartoonbank.com) that features a husband and wife pouring over their finances amid spreadsheets, stock reports and retirement literature. Eventually the husband looks up and says, "If we take a late retirement and an early death, we'll just squeak by." Wait for the laugh and then say, "Let's talk about how you can plan for an EARLY retirement and a LONG life with full health coverage. Sound good?" Then your audience is ready for the heavier information they came to hear.

Time to Hit Your Stride...

Your Turn #1 - In your next speech, what key point(s) could be reinforced and driven home by the addition of relevant humor?

Your Turn #2 - If you're hesitant to add a little humor (and that's okay), what's holding you back from mixing more mirth into your presentations?

Happy speaking,

Steve Hughes

Speaker - Trainer - Hair Loss Survivor

www.hityourstride.com