5 Tips to Show Up Like A Rock Star at Your Next Speaking Engagement

Brian J. Olds - Black Speakers Network (BSN)

Most speakers spend a lot of time focusing on the thing they do best – speaking. Without a doubt, the key to staying booked in the speaking industry, is to have a killer presentation. Your speech should blow your audience away and make the person who hired you look like a genius for booking you!

If you are new to the speaking business, you may think that the magic that happens on stage happens automatically. However, veteran professional speakers know that the REAL magic is what happens on the stage long before your presentation begins.

Your preparation and interactions with the meeting planner leading up to your speaking engagement can make or break your ability to truly deliver a remarkable experience. Here are 5 Tips to Show Up Like A Rock Star at Your Next Speaking Engagement:

1.      Host a Pre-engagement Qualification Call

2.      Offer Recommendations

3.      Research Your Audience

4.      Arrive Early

5.      Bring Your Own Tools

1.      Host a Pre-engagement Qualification Call – Although much can be communicated by email, I recommend still setting up at least a 15-minute call with the event organizers in preparation for your speaking engagement. This person will have critical information about the event that you need to know. How many attendees will be there, what are attendees expecting to learn from the experience, what is happening before and after your presentation? These and many more questions will shape how well you can prepare and adjust your message to meet the learning objectives of the day. Pro Tip: For a comprehensive list of questions to ask your meeting planner on this call, be sure to grab our new digital guide: 35 Questions You Need to Ask Before AND After Your Next Speaking Engagement

2.      Offer Recommendations – Meeting planning is stressful and often the people running an event are always running short on three things: time, money and energy. As a professional speaker, your value will automatically increase if you do a great job at listening to the challenges that your event planner is facing and suggest a few recommendations that could make his or her life a bit easier. As a speaker, even if I am being hired to speak, I always see myself as a strategic partner to the event, not just talent. If I can help by recommending a great photographer, increasing ticket sales for public events or even recommend potential sponsors, that is a huge win-win for both myself and the event. Always be on the lookout for ways to elevate your event beyond just speaking.

3.      Research Your Audience – Audiences like to feel like you are delivering a presentation that is unique to them. Even if you have a signature keynote that you have delivered literally hundreds of times, its still a great idea to spend a little time customizing your message with some element that will make it feel more unique to your audience. You can do this by researching and incorporating very recent news related to their industry. If possible, I like to try to talk to one or two potential attendees ahead of time, just to get a sense of what they know about the topic. You could ask your meeting planner if there are a few people you could briefly speak with prior to the presentation and have a few quick questions to ask them. Another strategy could be simply to create a survey that everyone fills out prior to your session in order to gather this intel. However you decide to do it, taking the time to research your audience will pay off big when you hit the stage.

4.      Arrive Early – If you are thinking to yourself that this sounds like a basic tip, that’s because it is. Believe it or not, so many speakers create unnecessary stress for themselves simply by arriving too late for their speaking engagements. A live event is like live television, anything can happen and at some point, it probably will. Agendas get off track, meeting rooms change, other speakers cancel, etc. On the other hand, lots of positive things can happen before your speaking engagement as well, opportunities to build relationships with key stakeholders, gather last-minute intel about the event, or you may even hear a great soundbite to tie into your presentation. As a general rule, here is my rubric for when I strive to arrive for all speaking engagements:

·      Local Engagements (i.e. driving distance) – Arrive the same day but at least 2 to 3 hours before my speaking engagement.

·      National Engagements (long-distance drive or plane) – Arrive afternoon or evening prior to my speaking engagement.

·   International Engagements – Arrive 1 to 2 days prior to my speaking engagement.

5.      Bring Your Own Tools – One of the critical questions in the 35 Questions You Need To Ask Before AND After Your Next Speaking Engagement that we covered is finding out what the AV setup will be in the room. Most of us have had the unfortunate experience of speaking at an event where the technology just refused to cooperate. While this is not completely unavoidable, what you can do is ensure that you give yourself the best possible chance to win. If you have visual elements to your presentation including slides, photos, video or other multimedia, you want to ensure that you bring your own equipment as a back up even if provided by the meeting planner. This includes things like your laptop (don’t forget your charger), slide advancer, extra batteries, mobile hotspot, connection adapters for your laptop and back up copies of your presentation.

As you can see, securing a speaking engagement is only the first step in the process of turning the experience into a success. The work, preparation, and conversations behind the scenes is what will really position you to show up like a rock star at your next speaking engagement. If you found this article helpful and would like an additional resource to ensure that you are asking the right questions before your next speaking engagement, I invite you to download a copy of our newly released guide 35 Questions You Need To Ask Before AND After Your Next Speaking Engagement

I look forward to hearing stories of your success on stages around the world!

For more tools and resources to start or grow as a professional speaker visit www.BlackSpeakersNetwork.com Speak Up! Your Audience Awaits…