What do you do if you're an experienced motivational speaker facing last-minute requests and tight deadlines?

You never finish a speech with Q&A You maybe take some questions in the middle of your speech But you want to finish your speech with either your call to action or your best signature line You could always take some questions in the break near where you are selling your books

If you're an experienced motivational speaker facing last-minute requests and tight deadlines, the key is to stay calm and focused. Prioritize tasks by urgency and impact, streamline your preparation process, and leverage your expertise to deliver high-impact speeches efficiently. Embrace adaptability, draw on your wealth of experience, and trust in your ability to inspire and engage audiences even under pressure.

One thing that has helped me in my speaking career of 18 years is the habit of constantly developing newer content and modules and keeping them as backup. Many of these modules have no immediate demand. But I continue to build my 'content bank' nevertheless. So when sudden requests come up from clients (and if my date is available), I'm not short of 'the right content'.

This happens and you should be ready with a response that is based on your personal and professional goals and what you are willing to "give up" to answer the call. Just this week, I received a text from a client that said "short notice, but can you present next week"? I'm not free but the opportunity puts me in front of a desired audience. So, my creative solution is to say "yes" to new opportunity and reschedule the already set engagement. If that is possible, it is a win-win for all. If not, you'll have to make a choice.

Firstly it is important to seek and prioritize the content and your own flexibility. If your inner is ready to deliver then you can but if you think the topic and audience is not your interest you can simply deny it because time, content and the thoughts of your audience is most important and of your too and it also doesn't contradict your pre committed program

Keep it simple and short. Over my more than 10 years as a professional speaker, I have learned that less is SO much more. The other thing I learned is that content is important, but what the audience understands is more important. You can have the best content, but if it misses the audience's understanding of it, then you could just as well stand on stage and say "rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb" for 45 minutes. Where is your audience, and how does your content help them move forward? If it was just about content, then I could replace you with a robot driven by AI.

Jot down the main points you want to speak about. Run through those points a few times in your head. See if a personal story can be added to a main point to create a connection to the audience. Then smile, step out and deliver. Audiences want you to well - that's what they cam to see, you succeeding.

I suggest if the last-minute speaking opportunity requires you to address a topic you have previously worked on, then all the more better. All you need to do is up date the presentation - if you are using one, update the information, and add in current relevance. However, if you do not have anything ready, and it is a topic you love, but have not delved deep into it previously - say no. You always want to go out there, well informed, and not with half-baked cupcakes!

Create slides that are simple without too many words or complicated issues you'll need to explain. By having a deck with lots of photos and just a few key words, you will be able to improvise more and stress less.

Learnt to deliver some of your favourite presentations without slides and see how it is received and the shift in energy. I did that this last Tuesday with a 3-hour masterclass I do and the energy and audience connection was better than ever.

In dringenden Zeiten z?hlt Einfachheit. Verzichten Sie auf überladene Folien und komplizierte Ausdrücke. Stattdessen, nutzen Sie die Macht des Storytelling. Erz?hlen Sie Geschichten, die fesseln und emotional berühren. Verwenden Sie klare, pr?gnante Anekdoten und Metaphern, um abstrakte Ideen greifbar zu machen. Dieser direkte Ansatz erleichtert die Vorbereitung und verbessert die Verst?ndlichkeit Ihrer Botschaft. Lassen Sie Ihre Geschichten für sich sprechen und schaffen Sie eine bleibende Wirkung bei Ihrem Publikum.

Stress is good. It keeps you honest. If you do not stress, at least on some level, you will be cocky and possibly condescending and look down upon your audience. Stress helps you focus on helping the audience move forward in some area of their life. Oh, and if you bomb, that happens too. Bombing is probably one of the worst and best experiences you can have. Have it sooner than later.

Using cue cards to jot down the key points of your speech relieves the pressure of freezing or forgetting your next point. Speakers that rehearse using these cards reduce their stress and often don't need to refer to their cards during the actual speech. The security of knowing they're on hand if needed is a massive stress reliever. We need to understand that stress symptoms before a speech are a natural physical reaction. Keeping stress under control by breathing deeply in advance transfers some of that energy to the diaphragm where it's really needed. Putting a smile on your face as you alight the podium is the next logical stress relieving step.

I am not an experienced motivational speaker. However, I would assume you would tell your best story, sing your most popular songs, and sneak in a couple of your less popular nut personal favorites.

There is useful stress that gets you to perform better, and there is destructive stress that combines with anxiety and takes a toll on you. Iif this tight deadline is going to have you jet-setting to the anxiety zone, then kindly decline it. However, if it excites you and gets you on your toes to put on your thinking cap, then accept it. The worst you can offer your audience is your stress and anxiety, and trust me, no matter how hard you try to camouflage it, it shows up maybe as excessive stuttering, momentary mind-fogs, facial expressions that contradict the voice, a voice that quivers, eye-contact avoidance, and everyone can see a speaker waiting for the clock's hands to run very fast! Nothing is worth your emotional well-being.

I tend to be reluctant to repeat anything from presentations I've given in the past with concerns that there will be someone in the audience that has heard me say a particular story before. But don't let that hold you back from speaking about key points that support your brand. Some stories are worth repeating and besides...you don't have to repeat them exactly, as long as you speak the truth.

Some of your personal stories are inter-changeable between speeches. Even if the requested angle on your topic is fairly new, inserting a well rehearsed story can round off your speech nicely. A strong start with a well thought out conclusion, can be manufactured fairly quickly from your past experience of what worked. If you have a chance to run over both the start and finish a few times you have the comfort of knowing that you'll set it up well and end with a bang.

Start with this. Without this, you will have NO idea of where they are, what they know and what they are struggling with. Remember, you are not a content delivery machine, you are a human sherpa, guiding people to newer levels of awareness and success in their lives.

Engagement with the audience early on is vital. A good way of doing this is to combine engagement with light-hearted humour. Audiences are usually attracted firstly to the topic, then to the speaker. Once they are there, they'd like to have a great overall experience. That's why well directed engagement can be so effective.

This happens to me often and honestly there is no one way to handle it because it truly depends. I will say that I will only take a last minute request if it something I need very little prep work. Make sure it is a request in your zone of genius and requires little from you in terms of prep or you will be flustered. I draw from what the audience needs and go in my tool box of stories and frameworks to pull something together. I sometimes will write my order down just to get the order in my head a few times when it is last minute. At the end of the day, the audience doesn’t know. So just go for it like it was planned to happen that way!

Your gift will make room for you. If it's a last minute request, stay true to your gifts and topics that you talk about often and you will be fine. Sometimes presence is better than preparation.

The first thing you ask yourself is: am I qualified to speak with authority on this topic? If you don't feel confident you can do the topic justice, rather decline. If you know of a credible speaker whom you are confident will do the topic justice, recommend them.

Whenever I get a last minute request and I know I'm hard pressed for time, I just do the following: 1. Ask questions about what challenges the audience is facing and what problems they are seeking solutions for 2. What the sponsor intends to achieve from my motivational speech 3. Quickly tap into my mental library of personal and professional life experiences, observations, stories and lessons I learnt over the last 23 years of work life. 4. Create a quick outline by connecting the above resources with the expectations of both the audience and the sponsor 5. Deliver the speech with the highest intention to help the stakeholders. PS: I consistently keep learning new things and always take notes. That's how I never run out of ideas