Now you’re smiling out the window
Of that crummy hotel
Over Washington Square
.
.
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and there

Joan Baez Diamonds and Rust

Wednesday morning I really did smile out the window of a building over Washington Square. But it wasn’t a hotel, and Joan Baez wasn’t gazing at me from the bed (in my dreams). No. I was on the 10th floor of the NYU Student Center in a mirrored room with 250 of Manhattan’s movers and shakers. Gotham sparkled under clear Autumnal skies.

I was attending the Liminal Group’s half-day Articulate Executive seminar. Coming hard on the heels of Saturday’s NSA Northern California meeting, this was a study in contrasts for me, illustrating cultural differences between the West and East Coasts:

The crowd – was different in very predictable ways. I saw more neckties on power-suited men (both bsd’s and bsd-wanna-be’s) than I’ve seen in a year in Silicon Valley and more attitude on power-suited women than I’ve heard since Carly left HP.

The event – Big Apple prices ($482 for a half-day) contrasted with sub-$100 cost for a full-day at the NSA. For the money we got a catered breakfast and lunch and complimentary copies of the FT, Business Week and a free book. On the other hand, Fripp gave us two free CD’s and discount on her DVD. There was more structure to the program in NY. Toogood & Rose — the names alone sound like a Wall St investment firm — complimented each other. An outline of general rules was followed by the specifics of pitching VC’s. NSA’s coaching session was all Fripp all the time. Not a problem if you like one-woman riffs.

That said, the event organizers in NY were bedeviled by a/v gremlins. They spent big bucks on an a/v crew in vain. Dual pro-video cameras at the back of the room, a roaming steady-cam, a hyperactive still photographer, and still the sound guys could not get a working lav on Granville no matter how they tried (at one point he had triple redundant systems strapped to his belt and the sound was still a problem!).

These contrasts aside, there were more similarities than differences. Both events drove home the point that it’s counterproductive for senior executives to hide behind their PowerPoint slides and effective communications relies more on how you emotionally connect with an audience than just speaking quickly and delivering a boatload of facts.

So it was six of one, half a dozen of the other. Both events showcased professionals at the top of their game. Both audiences came away delighted with unique insights into the mystique of Executive Speech Coaching.

Speech coaches make better lovers

Staff in Corporate Communications departments in the Fortune 500 are like faithful spouses. We’re kept on hand to service the needs of one executive in one company, monogamously supporting a single C-level exec quarter-in, quarter-out, in, ‘till death (or the next re-org) do us part. Meanwhile, we do the housework: clean up your PowerPoint; take out the garbage from the business groups; put daily fare on the table; fact check and nit-pick. We enjoy close access to those in power (the corporate breadwinners) and that’s got its own rewards. But frankly, my dears, things sometimes get a tad….stale. It’s hard to keep the spark alive when you see so darn much of each other.

Gentlemen, he said,
I don’t need your organization, I’ve shined your shoes,
I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards.

Dylan, Changing of the Guards

Then there’s the professional speech coach. Skilled in the arts of the podium, sharing special talents you can’t get at home. Charging more by the hour than we make in a week. A four-hour session makes you feel like a new man. Not afraid to spank you if you need it (oh, how you’ll need it); transforming your weaknesses to strengths; putting lead in your pencil; some zing in your thing. Here today, gone tomorrow. Don’t ask where. You are lucky to see them once a quarter. Whatever the coach does behind closed doors, stays there. Utmost discretion assured (not like those gossiping fishwives in the cubicles). There’s no question. Speech coaches make better lovers.

Granville Toogood Creating the Blockbuster Presentation

He’s not Italian-American but he’d like to be. He trades Greek quips so I’m guessing there’s more Onassis than Vito Corleone in his family tree. Silver hair swept back, worn long on the collar. A consigliere to the CEO, able to go mano-a-mano with Jack Welch (“It took me five years to change his mind…�). Granville is a piece of work. His advice comes straight from the trenches. Hard won and hard bitten:

His wisdom on what executives need to do to make an impression on stage is priceless. Buy his book The Articulate Executive in Action: How the best leaders get things done and read it, twice.

The principles of what he terms Communications Value Add (CVA) are a series of systematic changes that executives can implement to become instantly more effective in front of an audience. There are five keys in his POWER formula:

P – Punch up your opening with one of eight options:

1. An anecdote or illustration
2. A personal story
3. Begin with the ending, make a strong statement. Tell them the bottom line or sum total of your talk up front.
4. Ask a rhetorical question “What’s the worst that can happen to your business?�
5. A quotation “As it said in today’s FT…�
6. A future projection “My hope is that the new system will reduce costs�
7. A look into the past “Five years back it took 6 hours to provision…â€?
8. Humor – used carefully, best based on a true story.

Fripp added a 9th – an interesting statistic to captivate the audience.

O – Make sure you have One clear theme which you can discuss in many different ways.

W– Windows, or examples, anecdote that provides proof.

E – speaking for the Ear – conversationally, don’t ‘speechify’.

R – aid Retention in any of the following six ways:

1. Summarize key point or points
2. Loop back to the beginning
3. Ask the audience to do something specific
4. Project into the future
5. Deliver good news/bad news
6. Tell a symbolic story that embraces your message

Granville claims that learning and using the POWER formula “could be the single most important decision you will ever make in your working life.� (I wonder if Jack Welch agrees?).

Other tips:

Using PowerPoint (Assuming it’s a necessary evil that your corporate culture forces on you):

Be aware of the 18 minute wall. Adults turn off after listening to one speaker for more than 18 minutes. To counter this, either deliver your message in fifteen or intersperse videos, cameos from other people onstage, panel discussions, audience interaction or just tell ‘em a story.

As valuable as these tips are, frankly, anyone can read them in his books. What made the event worthwhile for me was seeing him in action — coaching volunteers from the audience. He showed how difficult it is for any speaker to actually implement systematic change, to step out of their comfort zone. This, assuming the strong cultural barriers in your organization to considering radical change in presentation style have been breached to the extent that a coach is permitted to work with executives.

There was an absolutely astounding session with a lady in the Investment Banking business (who dripped New York attitude) where he first observed her current pitch to investors. And then, “like squeezing toothpaste from a tube until you see what comes out of the nozzle at the end� he ran her through his drill. He asked first for a 3 minute version, then a 2 minutes version, then a 1 minute version, then a 30 second and finally an 8 second version of the same speech. This is his ‘8 second drill’. He rarely put words in her mouth, apart from occasional reminder to keep a strong opening and a single theme. We saw how utterly effective this discipline is in distilling the essence of a speech. The beauty is, anyone can run this exercise with a buddy at work. How many will? In under an hour the results will surpass countless meetings to outline the essence of a speech.

I did disagree with one recommendation. Granville stated that he does not spend much time coaching executives on body language or drilling them in gestures or stage mannerisms:

“I’m not into charm school, how you walk on stage. That’s cosmetics.�

This ignores the distraction of a speaker who paces (as Mr. Toogood himself does from time to time) and the way mannerisms, mirrored gestures, fidgets and other outlets for nervous energy dull the power and impact of a speaker. Knowing acting techniques and being aware of the effect of body language is a must.

One nit — his book on page 5 attributes to a quote to my ex-boss, Sun CEO Scott McNeely (sic). I doubt his ex-boss Jack, umm, Welsh appreciates his golfing partners’ name being mangled.

At the end of the day, Granville is too good to ignore. Forgive me. I resisted using that obvious pun for 1,500 words.

David S. Rose, Successful Business Fundraising

Successful entrepreneur, angel investor, David Rose puts his money where his mouth is. He specializes in taking the dozens of start-ups who pitch his New York Angels group each month through a presentation boot camp. He makes this a requirement. They all suck at presenting. If this isn’t a niche for presentation coaching I don’t know what is – the future of a start-up rides on a 15 minute pitch. They might not be able to afford high-fee coaches, but can they not afford to invest in communicating a clear message before they ask others to invest?

David addressed the familiar problem of Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) using too many jargon-laden slides that give too much information and fail to communication the basic message a VC needs to hear. A good VC pitch has 10 requirements:

1. Integrity – show us we can trust you.
2. Passion – show us you care about your company.
3. Experience – Experience is a hard school and some will learn through no other (Ben Franklin)
4. Knowledge – show us you know your onions.
5. Skill – show what skills you already have and where you’ll recruit those you lack.
6. Leadership – exude it or fail.
7. Commitment – will you follow through?
8. Vision – show what your aims are.
9. Realism – show you know what is realistic.
10. Coachability – will you listen, especially to a presentation coach!

It’s interesting to compare this with the famous 10/20/30 Rule for pitching VC’s proposed by Guy Kawasaki – 10 slides in 20 minutes in no less than 30 point font that cover:

1. Problem
2. Your solution
3. Business model
4. Underlying magic/technology
5. Marketing and sales
6. Competition
7. Team
8. Projections and milestones
9. Status and timeline
10. Summary and call to action

His coaching of Oren Michels, ex-Feedster VP, now CEO of start-up Web 2.0 Mashery, was awesome. He took him apart piece by piece and put him back together again. Wordy slides (Michaels: “You probably can’t read this�) were transformed into bold, simple text that conveyed the essence of the company. Less is more.

Here is your throat back, thanks for the loan.

Dylan, Ballad of a Thin Man

I was blown away by Mashery’s business plan. But that’s a topic for another blog.

Our September Pro-Track class linked up with the Northern California Chapter in a banger of a meeting with over 100 attendees. As Chapter President Scott Q. Marcus noted, “Organizing one of these events is a little like making sausages, enjoyable to experience, but you really don’t want to know what went into putting it together”. As for the meeting, so for a speech.

Indeed. Now I’m a Board Member, I was privy to some of the logostics involved in bringing together the outsized ego’s who presented today. But, unlike other Boards in Northern California, the NSA Board is 100% leak-proof, so any discussion remains firmly off the record.

The day began with ten concurrent ‘Meet the Pros’ sessions, where experts in the field of public speaking shared words of wisdom for 20 minutes. We could attend any two of the sessions.

Victoria Squier Professional Speaker Coaching

Victoria is on the staff of Speakeasy Inc. I’ve taken their outstanding delivery classes from Throckmorton Theatre owner Danny Slomoff. Speakeasy Inc are in my mind the best of the companies serving corporate executives in need of developing a more powerful presence on the platform or in one-on-one communications. Speaking with authority is achieved with small changes to posture and by practicing the simple technique of pausing. Connecting with the audience increases the impact of your communication.

Ed Brodow Acting Techniques for Speakers

Ed’s public speaking skills spring from his creative side — as a professional actor. A veteran member of Screen Actors Guild, he is often recognized from his many starring roles in feature films, made-for-TV movies, a soap opera, and commercials. He won the lead in the European film Jackpot, and appeared opposite Jessica Lange (Frances), Ron Howard (Fire on the Mountain), Christopher Reeve (Love of Life), and other Hollywood luminaries.

His niche as a professional speaker is training audiences on negotiation skills.

His books include Negotiation Boot Camp and Beating the Success Trap: Negotiating for the Life You Really Want and the Rewards You Deserve .

The secret of great speakers is their ability to connect with the audience by telling great stories. The acting techniques which speakers can use include:

Personalization – bringing aspects of yourself into a speech. Instead of memorizing a script or relying on PowerPoint bullet points as prompts, simply share experiences with the audience. As you re-live experiences you’ll easily be able to visualize them in your head. Personalization is the actor’s secret for being real. You’ll have no lines to forget. You’ll get the audience involved. And people remember stories.

Improvisation – allows you to relate great stories to your speech points. Improvise to develop aspects of your story for a specific audience and play with the content. Practicing a scripted speech with improvisation words allows a speaker to discover the language and mode of delivery that feels most comfortable.

Drive – is the objective and point of view of your speech. It’s the call to action or belief you’ll want to share with the audience.

If you are nervous and uptight before speaking then channel this energy by concentrating on the details which will make the speech work. Remember, you can punch-up the opening of a speech by starting your story in the middle “I was stuck in the elevator with the bellman and the guy in the chimpanzee suit when I suddenly remembered the reason I don’t like visiting Cleveland in December…”. However, before ending the speech the stories you tell must have been brought to closure and the reason you told them made clear to the audience.

Ric Giardina Polishing Your Performance

Ric had tutored Pro-Trackers back in March when he spoke on how to sell yourself to the Corporate market. This afternoon he spoke on “performance” – meaning the sytems that professional speakers need to have in place to support their business.

He strongly recommends watching the DVD of the movie The Secret to understand the Law of Attraction: whatever you are thinking about you’ll get more of. So focus on what you do well, not what is dysfunctional. In being aware of your thoughts you can create a new reality for youself and transmit this to others. Avatar Adi Da Samraj has clearly stated that you become what you meditate on:

Everyone transmits. All of you are transmitters. You reinforce these limitations in one another and you transmit them to one another. Each one of you emits invisible forces that are locked up in limited messages that reinforce the same limitations in others.

Professional speakers with a modicium of realization about their topic can transmit new information to an audience to break down their limitations. To do this effectively requires you start doing something differently:

If we don’t change direction soon, we’ll end up where we’re going.

Ric’s Top 10 things to do as you take your speaking career to the next level are:

1. Be Yourself – be consistent on and off the platform.

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is You’re than You.

2. Be Flexible – Don’t just imitate other speakers.

3. Keep Your Agreements – remember the Golden Rule.

4. Under-promise and Over-deliver – surprise conference organizers.

5. Customize, Customize, and then Customize some more – use just-in-time techniques to deliver customized communications every step of the way. Arrive early before a speech, mingle with audience, find what’s on their minds and work their issues into your speech via improvisation.

6. Keep track of everything – notes in Outlook and your other online systems help you to keep these logistical agreements.

7. Manage you client – people have a lot on their plate. Double-check so there will be no misunderstandings.

8. Don’t be a Prima Donna – you role is to make the client look good.

9. Send thank you cards, notes, letters, email and gifts – Ric has a small folder of note cards for penning thank you’s on his flight home. Source interesting and unique gifts that fit with your brand. Ric’s a rock-solid guy who has this Sonoma County outfit carve custom messages.

10. Make ‘Long Term Relationships’ your mantra – Use electronic newsletters, blogs and other techniques to keep your name fresh with booking agents and clients.

Patricia Fripp Good to Great Performance Techniques

Sister of King Crimson founding guitarist Robert Fripp, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is one of the NSA’s most successful speakers. She spent three hours sharing the secrets of her success. Many more of her suggestions are online here. I highly recommend reading her many articles and checking out her DVD’s and CD’s for professional speakers.

Fripp used a one-page speech planning template to walk us though the steps of effective speech writing and content creation. It was wonderful, appropriate, unforgettable, sanguine.

Start with a strong opening: a story, quote or interesting statistic captivates, mystifies, and create an emotional bond that keeps an audience in the palm of the speaker’s hand. Script, rehearse, transcribe and edit the opening so that each and every word adds impact. Use picture words that the audience can “see”. Make sure your opening answers unspoken questions about the “How” and the “Why” of your topic. Then answer these questions with your main points of wisdom in the body of your speech with examples and stories.

In planning a speech be absolutely sure you can state the premise in one sentence. A strong premise leads to clear thinking and a strong outline.

Make sure the “I-You” ratio of words is heavily weighted to “You” – to the audience, to what’s in it for them? Focus on the receiver of the message, on the audience needs (that you would’ve found out if, as Ric and Fripp both suggest, you arrive early, schmooze often).

Hollywood screenwriter Robert McKee says Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.
Stories are key to emotionally connecting with an audience. Fripp has taken screenwriting classes to learn Hollywood’s secrets to writing compelling story scripts. A speech relies far more on the screenplay (written for the ear) than the novel (written for the eye). Speechwriters: always read your words aloud before sending to your client! The more specific the story details the clearer the audience will grasp the situation, solution to the dilemma and successful outcome. And the more they will remember.

The secret of an effective close? First, summarize the key elements of the speech. If you’re planning to take questions from the audience, say, “Before my closing remarks, are there any questions.” Answer them then.

The last thirty seconds of your speech must send people out energized and fulfilled. Finish your talk with something inspirational that supports your theme.

Fripp closed the afternoon with some revealing one-on-one speech coaching where her expertise was apparent in the way she took presenters apart and put them back together again. Her executive coaching skills are second to none.

At the end of the day I felt like I knew more about the sausage, from the inside out.

Hal raises questions about speechwriter ethics. Do we care who we write speeches for? Would economic necessity force a speechwriter to write content that goes against our own beliefs? These are interesting issues to consider.

I’d argue that weight of evidence points to the speechwriter as hired gun, a mercenary wordsmith creating bullet points for The Man. The best lack all conviction, the worst are full of passionate intensity. After all, the mark of a good speechwriter is to be able to write in the clients voice. That’s open season on ethical integrity right there. Each a Mighty Voice is an archive of great speeches. Speechwriters are the anonymous, unsung wordsmiths who speak softly and carry a big pen. The power of the speechwriting craft is to persuade. That presents an ethical dilemma if the client demands persuasive arguments you find objectionable.

I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a value-free speech. Each speech has an implicit or explicit call to action, a strategic storyline that aims to persuade the audience (the techniques of which are explained in Mark Walton’s excellent book Generating Buy-In). Ethical concerns are just as real when creating content for a company’s new product announcement as they are for impassioned politicians debating life and death issues.

Many powerful speeches are delivered from a position of iron-clad belief. Churchill and Lincoln both delivered memorable, heartfelt speeches. There was no ethical dilemma for these speakers, neither did they rely on speechwriters to craft their content.

In my own case, I choose the sandbox I wish to play in. I’ve turned down interviews at oil companies and auto manufacturers, while aware that products of the companies I do write speeches for are used in the these industries. They’re also used by those researching Global Warming and alternative forms of energy. I’ve chosen not to be in a position of having to write a speech in support of developing the Artic National Wildlife Refuge or listing the top ten reasons why SUV’s are good for the environment. I’m also aware that I’m not being paid to include my personal beliefs in speeches I write. I write what the executive needs to say for each audience. In my own time I speak (and blog) persuasively about issues I believe in. I’m fortunate that my day job has never required I go against these beliefs.

In summary: The craft of speechwriting has unique ethical dilemmas. All the more need for those who practice it to be well grounded and remember Polonius’s advice:

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
.
.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Shakespeare, Hamlet, I iii

If you have never seen this parody of the speechwriting genius behind President Bush you are in for a treat.

There’s a secret to the speaking business. It’s not just speaking fees that count. It’s how you create multiple streams of income that allow you to earn while you’re “off the airplaneâ€?. These nice little earners come from selling product from the back of the room after your speech or, better yet, from your website which will top up your bank account 7×24 – making money while you sleep! Guess what? You’ll also inoculate your business against the coming Avian Flu pandemic.

Pro-Track members heard from two very successful speakers who have supplemented their speaking fees with substantial earnings from product sales over the years.

Rebecca Morgan: Product Development for Speakers Part I

Rebecca, a member of the NSA National Board of Directors, took the whole morning to cover all the aspects of developing products. We’re all information peddlers. The same information that is spoken into the podium microphone can be repackaged into audio and printed product.

What products, and how to develop them, you ask?

First consider:

Next consider which of these vast array of product types works for your market:

A great example is classic Eight Ball Larry Winget who sells everything from books to bobble head dolls.

Another is Dr. Tony Allessandra who lists books, audio downloads and more. Check out the 4-page Platinum Self-Assessment product he sells for $8. This will give you a flavor of the type of product beginning speakers can easily create and charge for.

But wait, there’s more. Say you don’t have content of your own yet. What to do? Consider:

Some other tricks of the trade:

Consider that most people at your event have a $20 bill or three in their back pocket. Bundle 3 reports or whatever and sell them in $20 increments.

Take payments from customers using Paypal Mobile.

Bundle air with your products: Shrink wrap tapes and books at Kinko’s and include a certificate in the Cadillac version of your products. This is good for an hour of your consulting time (Value $200?) if people call before the expiry date. Experienced speakers know less than 5% will call, yet people flock to the deal.

Consider for each product you sell, what is the next product your customer will be led to when they purchase this one? Always include product lists at the back of each document.

Look for continuity programs. How can you get clients to subscribe to a series on a monthly basis?

When quoting a speech fee include 100 books in your price and offer the conference organizer a discount on buying enough for the rest of the audience. Often this will generate sales of hundreds before you even arrive at the event

Great example of best practices:

Check out the offerings of top speaker Robert Middleton. His Action Plan Marketing website has a teleclass, partner product sales, audio CDs with transcripts, books and manuals and more. It’s great stuff that’s designed to help the self-employed and independent owners small firms become better at marketing their services – something we all need!

Enough theory! How to put this into practice?

Rebecca had us start with a list of three things we know in our subject area that people would pay good money to learn. We later expanded this to a list of 10. Since blogging is an area that I’m investing an increasing amount of time into I thought the following list might form the basis of a laminate quick-start guide. What do you think? Would you pay $5.95 for a copy of this to have at hand by your computer? Let me know in the Comments section below.

Ian’s Handy-Dandy Ten Rules for Successful Blogging:

1. Write your blog regularly – at least once a week.
2. Find a sincere voice to write in.
3. Exercise your grammar and diction and spell check and proofread before publishing each post.
4. Welcome comments in your blog – open the conversation.
5. Be sure to include a photograph and your name in the blog – people like to know who is talking to them.
6. Include an ‘About Me’ link.
7. Use Google News ‘bots’ to capture topic ideas.
8. Link often to other blogs, websites and trackbacks to boost your “Google Juice�
9. Use iStockphoto for beautiful graphic images.
10. Remember to get a life and unhook yourself from the keyboard to experience life!
11. Bonus: Get started!

If you need more help

Consider working with one of the experts in the field. Paulette Ensign is The Booklet Queen and her services range from consulting to help you create a Tips Booklet to promoting your finished product on her popular web site. She’s written booklets that have sold over a million copies.

Michael Lee: Product Development for Speakers Part II

If you thought my “top 10� list above is too trivial, consider. Michael is one of the few professional speakers in the nation who makes more than $100,000 a year from product sales. And he started with a top 10 list for Realtors detailing ways they can justify their commission.

He’s expanded this list over the years to 122 tips that took him six months to collate, with variations for justifying commission to home sellers, home buyers, FISBOs and others. These sold for $9.95 each. He added real estate forms and upped the price to $19.95. A bundle of four sold at a discount $70. When he added a CD and workbook he had a manual for $99.95.

I won’t cover the details he shared on his costs to produce this material, but it’s pennies on the dollar.

It all started with a simple list.

And of course, clients are not gladly shelling out their money for the paper, but the countless hours of expertise Michael has invested to produce the material. Indeed, he offers an unconditional guarantee with all products and rarely has to offer a refund.

Michael delivered an expanded version of the NSA/NC presentation I attended back in May at his Danville home.

He stressed the need to raise the perceived value of the products you sell.

Some tips:

In conclusion: Don’ think of all the reasons you CAN NOT create products you can sell, think of all the reasons you CAN and JUST DO IT!

Resources:

General Session

Lola Gillebaard

Proving that there’s no upper age limit to a successful career in professional speaking, Lola spoke on Surviving the Coming of Age: Discovering the Magic and Fun of Growing Older. This 76-year-old beauty skated close to the edge of good taste in the ways that only Americans with Southern accents (and us Brits) can get away with. Her jokes contained innuendoes about teenage masturbation, incest (sleeping with relatives) and more. We loved both her spunk and her style.

She’s the sage of age. Spicy feisty Lola accentuates bold over old. She explodes the fun of activist aging.

Phillip Van Hooser

The author of the must-read You’re Joe’s Boy, Ain’t Ya? and Willie’s Way spoke on ABRACADABRA or SYLACAUGA: Magnifying the Magic of Our Mission.

He commented on the spooky fact about the conference that had struck me – the audiences watches people doing what we do. And they try and become better at what they do as a result.

He discussed his own early love of public speaking, instilled in him by his snuff-totin’ Grandmother in them there Kentucky Hills.

He observed that the almost instantaneous standing ovations each speaker was gifted is not reality. Most audiences sit on their butts and applaud. However, he strove to become so good that even staid business audiences would give him a standing ovation. In fact, he got to the point as a presenter that they would often come to the front of the room after the meeting and hug him. Men and women. This meant his wife came to accept that when Phil returned from business trips he’d often have mascara on his suit lapels. As Dale Irvin later commented, not many men are smooth enough to establish that level of trust with their spouse!

Phil showed us that real magic in the speaking profession often occurs in those unplanned, unscripted moments that offer the speaker and the audience member an opportunity to pause and connect.

Doug Stevenson

This accomplished actor spoke on Defining and Developing Your Signature Story. Doug is the creator of the Story Theater Method and author of Never Be Boring Again – Make Your Business Presentations Capture Attention, Inspire Action and Produce Results, the how-to book that teaches the Story Theater Method for strategic storytelling in business.

A signature story is a highly developed, brilliantly performed story that brands you. It contains emotional triggers of comedy and/or drama, as well as a solid point. Doug explained in compelling detail how to tell stories in present-time. He explained how a story is the emotional fast lane to the brain allowing the audience to feel genuine emotion. Deep learning takes place when the audience experiences the lesson and stories create emotional triggers so the listener feels emotion.

Doug’s nine steps to create a story structure are:

1. Set the scene
2. Introduce the characters
3. Begin the journey (from the known to the unknown)
4. Encounter the obstacle (the block that creates dramatic tension)
5. Overcome the obstacle (this is the “How To” part of the story
6. Resolve the story (Tie up loose ends)
7. Main the point (One story, one clear and simple point)
8. Ask the question (“So, how about you? Anything like this ever happen in your world?”)
9. Repeat the point

He covered the technique of stepping IN and OUT of your persona when on stage telling a story where actions, reactions and interactions convey emotion.

This was, without doubt, the single most valuable hour I spent in Orlando. Thank you Doug.

Kim Snider

This accomplished businesswoman wakes up each weekday and walks her dog to keep herself gorgeous and slender. Her next task is to sit at the computer for an hour-and-a-half and walk her fingers on the keyboard to keep her three blogs in shape. She does this each and every morning. The written results are equally appealing.

Her presentation to an audience of around 100 people was titled Blogging for Speakers: What, Why, When, Where, How?.

She covered both the nuts and bolts of setting up a blog (she uses Typepad) as well as making a clear case for the importance of most speakers taking the time and effort to blog.

The audience was covered the spectrum. Some had never read a blog, ever. Others like Bert Decker introduced themselves as active bloggers. Still others wondered if this was a fad like CB Radio in the 1970’s and would blogs last? I was frankly amazed at this lack of awareness. Perhaps it was a self-selecting factor where Convention attendees who knew nothing whatsoever about a topic decided to attend (gosh, perhaps there are 1,685 who really are prepared for a flu pandemic!). But I doubt it. I think this crowd was the best the NSA currently has to offer.

Kim dealt with the Luddites and Neanderthals with kindness and understanding. She pointed out that CEO’s blog. That her blog is read is read by Nobel Prize winners in Economics and so, no, Virginia, blogs were probably not a flash in the pan. It reminded me of a 3rd Grade teacher patiently explaining gravity or magnetism to her class.

Her compelling vision is of a critical mass of NSA members posting regular blogs.

This is a brilliant idea.

It would take the energy of Orlando and transform it into a vast network of links creating real Magic among the Community of Speakers, year-round. These interlinked blogs would open a window that allowed light to shine on the currently isolate and separate worlds of those on the pro-speaker circuit. Allowing us to post insights and share thoughts from the airline clubs and hotel rooms where many idle hours are spent. Topics that would make compelling reading include anything that other speakers, and the audience, would like to hear. Such as:

These blogs could capture the real spirit of life on the road. Of the joys and sorrows of the speakers world. NSA members who wrote and tracked-back to other blogs would offer a real sense of year-round dialog. Heck, all that would be missing would be a new Blogging Professional Expert Group (PEG) to support people getting into the program and share best practices as we grow together. And how difficult would it be to start that?

If you are an NSA Member and would like to support the formation of a Blogging PEG either send me an email or, better, leave a comment below.

In Conclusion

It’s taken me a whole day to write up what happened on Day 3 and Day 4 in Orlando. I did not cover everything. There was a black tie dinner on the last evening and a whole bunch of people were recognized for their contribution to NSA and the profession. Then the people drifted off to the bar or to dance. Then the hotel staff and the roadies came and started stacking the tables and chairs.

Now the seats are all empty
Let the roadies take the stage
Pack it up and tear it down
They’re the first to come and last to leave
Working for that minimum wage
.
.
But the bands on the bus
And they’re waiting to go
We’ve got to drive all night and do a show in Chicago
Or Detroit, I don’t know
We do so many shows in a row
And these towns all look the same
We just pass the time in our hotel rooms
And wander round backstage
Till those lights come up and we hear that crowd
And we remember why we came
.
.
People stay just a little bit longer
We want to play — just a little bit longer

Jackson Browne

Next year the NSA Convention is in San Diego. The Cigar PEG folks are already scouting down by the docks where the sailors all come in for the right kind of raunchy dive. More respectable members are planning the Agenda and other good stuff.

Thanks to everyone who put on this years conference and made it one of the most rewarding five days of the year for me.

I deeply appreciate it.

This is the third in a series of chronological reports on the NSA 2006 Conference in Orlando, Florida, July 22-25. Previous chronological posts are here and here.

I intend that these posts will give you an accurate a picture of an NSA Convention as possible. But there’s simply no way one single person can cover a convention the size of NSA’s. Check out postings from other attendees who blogged — Bert Decker and Michael Benidt and Sheryl Kay.

Anyone (NSA member or not) can review the whole of the Conference Agenda where handout materials will soon be available for download. In addition, anyone (NSA member or not) can purchase audio or video of every single presentation. These are high quality recordings and well worth investing in if there’s a topic that interests you. It’s also a pretty good guarantee that my blog is an honest summary of the event – I can’t very well fictionalize content that’s available for public review, can I?

Monday General Session

Shep Hyken

Shep kicked off the morning General Session with his speech Moments of Magicâ„¢: Strategies to Get and Keep Clients.

What’s with it with guys who shave their heads? They seem to fall into two groups. On the on hand there’s the Bulldogs who work construction jobs, drive pick-up trucks, and whose drug of choice is probably nicotine or meth. On the other hand there’s these scary-smart professional speakers with charisma to burn. People like Shep, Randy Gage, Willie Jolley and Lewis Harrison. They are either aggressively drug free or have a fondness for iced Stoli. They’re intelligent, but you can’t call them Eggheads, they’ve more chutzpa than that. I see them in pool-halls hustling up a million or two with a soft smile for the unsuspecting marks. So let’s call them Eight Balls: testosterone-filled, smooth as silk and hard as nails.

Shep reminded us that a hustler’s job is not just giving the speech, it’s getting the speech. We have to spend all day every day marketing. We have to multiply the bottom-line – think of ways to increase your income not by a factor of one or two but 10-fold. Leverage what you do best and outsource the best: hire an administrator if you need one, hire sales assistants if that’s your weak spot. Join NSA, attend workshops, look to organizations like The Young Entrepreneurs for great ideas. Take speech content such as your Signature Story and turn it into articles and a book. If you have a website or blog, repurpose the content into a subscription newsletter.

Don’t be ordinary, be extraordinary. What differentiates you? Amp this up. Be so customer-centric that the persons relatives don’t treat them as well. Shep told of an unforgettable taxi-driver who supplied everything this side of intimate massages to his passengers, followed-up with a Holiday card every year, and showed how to turn a commodity product (be it a cab ride or a 45-minutes motivational keynote) into something special.

Ask clients this important question to juxtapose your current program with perceived future benefits and position yourself for repeat bookings :

If we got together one year after the program, what would have to happen for this to be the best speaker engagement you’ve ever had?

Analyze your important clients and try and duplicate what you do with them across more people. Strive to make each speech so great that you cheat the audience you spoke to the day before.

PS. There’s much more to Shep. Shep is a blogger so you can deepen your understanding of his message anytime, anywhere.

Jeff Tobe

Jeff is the antithesis of the man-in-the-grey-flannel-suit-corporate-presenter. He relishes the rebel in us all. His talk, Coloring Outside the Lines—How to Look at You from Their Perspective, exploded the stereotype of the speaker as the reinforcer of an audience’s prejudices (Baptists only preaching in Christian Churches; Sun Microsystems executives only speaking to Java Programmers and Unix administers; the late George Wallace only speaking to residents of Southern trailer parks).

Jeff encouraged us to see the world with fresh eyes, to look at things differently. Get the messages by renting Harvey on Netflix where Jimmy Stewart sees the invisible as an opportunity, not a limitation. Read Blue Ocean Strategy and break out of the red ocean of bloody competition by creating uncontested market space that makes the competition irrelevant.

At 9:30am we filed out of the General Session to the first of a dozen different concurrent Break-Out sessions. My blog will only report on the Break-outs I attended. Other blogs might cover the rest. Again, you can review the Agenda online to see what I missed and order the tapes of any that interest you.

Warren Evans

There was an unexpected bonus to the first break-out I attended. Warren had assembled a Panel to discuss
Building a Genuine International Speaking Business. Panelists were:

David Price from Australia
Paul Bridle from the UK
W. Mitchell from the USA
Paul Du Toit from South Africa
Randy Gage from the USA

Recommendations from these trans-national express road warriors were:

The panel was divided on the all-important question of cultural sensitivity. American’s should certainly avoid introducing themselves to attractive ladies in London pubs with the phrase “Hi, I’m Randy” or suggesting people look for their “roots” in Australia. However, when people hire an American speaker they want someone with clearly identifiable characteristics. Don’t try for uchi (insider) status in Japan when your soto (outsider) status will get you much further (i.e. people usually think foreigners are cute and should be honored).

It’s been my experience that many American’s love to listen to a person with a pronounced British accent – and find even their use of expletives quite charming.

Lunch-time General Session

Back in the main ballroom, 1,700 hungry delegates gave the traditional twirling napkin welcome to the events professional summarizer:

Dale Irvin

Dale is one of the funniest guys in NSA. He makes his living summarizing meetings. Really. His ad-hoc comedy is wicked-funny. Many of his jokes have that “but you had to be there” quality and so I won’t try and list them. However, if you want someone to use humor to drive home the message at a business convention, Dale is your man.

I skipped the awards ceremony hosted by Al Walker.

Robert L. Cox, MD

Kicking off the afternoon was a sobering reality check from this expert in infectious diseases who gave a talk titled Don’t be an Ostrich: Vaccinate your business against Avian Flu. This was one of nine concurrent sessions on offer to 1,700 delegates and 15 people deemed it important enough to attend. The others had their heads firmly planted in the sand. Maybe it was the filet of chicken served at lunch that made people avoid the topic.

As with seismic threats on the West Coast or the planetary-wide denial of the inevitability of Climate Change, Avian Flu in one topic that sends many people on a mental trip up that Egyptian river. They are in denial and prefer not to think about the consequences. So stop a minute. Think. What’s the chance that a professional speaker will have the income potential they have today when (not if) a pandemic hits. Instead of this:

This:

Instead of the departure lounges you experience today, this:

An avian flu pandemic will positively, absolutely shut down any gathering of people in crowds. The audiences will stay home. Period.

So, 15 people out of 1,700 thought this worth finding out about. Bob Cox patiently explained the relentless spread of the disease in birds worldwide (migrating flocks will arrive in North America soon). The 231 human cases reported to date resulted from the transfer of the disease to domestic fowl and pets. When (remember, not if) the virus is “blended” with seasonal flu then the resulting virus will have the characteristics of both “parent” virus: the easy transmissibility via coughs and sneezes from Seasonal flu and the mortality rate of Avian Flu. Quite what the potency of each aspect of these will be in TBD. Meanwhile, we have a window of opportunity to prepare families and businesses for impact.

It’s worth downloading Bob’s handout and presentation and buying the audio of his talk. Read about the 1918 pandemic as reported by survivors here and here.

Investigate ways to safeguard your income from sources that don’t require an audience:

Think about opportunities outside the speaking industry:

Think about financial opportunities and challenges:

On the audio listen out for the comments from audience member Maurice Ramirez, MD. His realm of specialization includes knowledge of classified CDC documents on the contingency plans to deal with the disposal of the millions of dead. If your family members are among them, don’t expect Forest Lawn style services and a dignified end.

Expect this:

Other resources:

Checklists at www.pandemicflu.gov and Emergency Supplies.

Of course, I realize not everyone shares the opinion that Avian Flu is a threat. Heck, there are even those who doubt Global Warming is a threat either (although the entire population of Northern California was getting an object lesson in climate change while we sported in Orlando). So, the next break out session I attended was tailor made for communicating to Doubting Thomas’s.

Shelle Rose Charvet

The author of the excellent Words that Change Minds shared her insights on Presenting Ideas to Skeptical People.

She impressed on us the ways to present ideas to audiences who don’t share the same priorities. The golden rule is to start by meeting them at the place they are and take them on a journey to where you want them to be. Identify and honor their objections. Identify common experiences. Do NOT answer their objections or attempt to argue them out of their point of view. Make a credible case and use the language of suggestion.

And so, despite the best of intentions, I ended my day at the Cigar PEG where the party animals listened to the uncensored Dale Irvin and mixed it up on the dance floor until the small hours. I won’t blog on that. As the man says: What happens in Orlando, stays in Orlando.

Ooops, no sooner had I published my last post claiming Bert Decker and I were the only two of the 1,700 attendees at the NSA Convention writing a blog on the event than a quick Google search on NSA Orlando Convention revealed a third blog.

Michael Benidt and Sheryl Kay from Colorado were first time attendees who do an admirable job of reporting on their experiences. More amazingly, these two internet professionals created a blog specifically to report on their experiences in Orlando:

Sheryl and I have created this blog specifically for the National Speakers Association 2006 Convention in Orlando, Florida.

The blog has two purposes. The first is to report back about the convention to our fellow Fast Track speakers (and other CSA members) who could not attend the convention.

We won’t be “reportingâ€? on the convention in the sense of trying to cover it all, but we’ll try to give you the look and feel of the convention (and leave out the heat and humidity). You’ll find a couple of links to this part of the blog on the upper right portion of the blog site – look for “Pagesâ€? or “Featuresâ€? (we didn’t want you to miss it!). It’s called “Day-by-Day Convention Blog.â€? (One blog-type note – you won’t be able to write comments on the Day-by-Day blog, but you can opine away about any of the articles on the main page of the blog).

How cool is that!

I wish I had found this out yesterday and had chance to introduce myself to them. Oh well, here’s a big virtual Hi to the two of you!

Memo to self: do research BEFORE hitting the publish button next time.

I’m home from Orlando trying to catch up with both my sleep and blog reports. I had the best of intentions to “live blog” from the Convention floor — writing reports during sessions and posting a chronological summary of the event daily. It proved to be an impossible goal.

There’s as much to gained from the hallway conversations and spending time with people over dinner and drinks as there is from the scheduled presentations. I would have been foolish to sequester myself in my hotel room keeping my blog updated instead of taking the opportunity to mix and mingle.

I promise to post all the Convention details before this weekend. My feet are being held to the fire over this by none other than Bert Decker.

We met in a break-out session on Blogging for Speakers being given by Kim Snider. It seems that we’re the only two of the 1,700 attendees writing a blog about the event. That’ll change, especially since Kim made it clear to the 100 folks who attended her session how invaluable a blog can be to someone in the speaking business. I predict that before next years Convention in San Diego there will a Blogging PEG (Professional Experts Group) in NSA and Bert and I won’t be the only source of information, opinion and session summaries.

Blog on!

A hall of mirrors concept kept me awake last night. I’m attending a Convention where Professional Speakers are speaking about speaking – they give presentations on ways to present.

This reminded me of my days as a rebellious sociology student in the early 1970’s when, with a sense of wicked delight, I discovered there was a branch of sociology (the scientific study of human societies) that studied other sociologists – it was, naturally, called the sociology of sociology, or reflexive sociology. Amazing! I could torment my professors by analyzing them with the same tools they were teaching me. The bible of this movement in 1972 was Sociology as a Skin Trade which I bought on the strength of the title alone and read with delight. Reflexive sociologists claimed that

sociologists are like goldfish swimming in a bowl, confidently analyzing other goldfish, without having ever stopped to recognize the bowl and the water they have in common with the fish they study

I never attended a convention of reflexive sociologists, but the meeting rooms at the NSA Orlando Convention are filled with many fish who swim in the same waters as the presenters on stage before them.

Perhaps there are other meetings where I could experience this sense of infinite reflection? Where there are moments of expertise in a profession being used to assist the development of members of that profession:

• When the call goes out for a doctor in the house to administer to the presenter who just suffered a heart attack during his talk on myocardial infarctions at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology
• When Hotel Maintenance closes the mens room to unblock the drains at the American Society of Plumbing Engineers Convention.
• When the towtruck arrives to jumpstart the car of the guy who accidentally left his lights on all night in the parking lot of the Society of Automotive Engineers Meeting.
• And what sort of pressure does the hotel kitchen staff feel when they prepare conference lunches at the National Association for Catering and Events?

Who polices the policemen and spies on the spies? Who stares at the ceiling at 3am considering these questions but a speechwriter at the NSA Orlando Convention?