Mistakes speakers make and some really quick fixes!

I have been a paid, professional, public speaker now for several years. I’ve always had great reviews and feedback. My agent has often relayed to me the client said I was a “phenomenal performer and storyteller”. It always makes me laugh actually because maybe 5 or 6 years ago I was the shyest person you would have ever met. The sort of person that would be hiding at the back of the room just so nobody would speak to me! That was me. Now I speak around the globe to huge audiences and keynote some truly phenomenal conferences and I get paid to do it!

In this article I am going to share some of the lessons I have had to learn about being a great speaker. In my spare time I coach executives and aspiring speakers to be awesome on stage. There are some common mistakes that I see and to be fair I made the exact same mistakes when I was starting out. If you want some free help at perfecting your speaking performances please get in touch. If I can help I will!

So here goes…

1)    Performance quality is key

Even before I took to public speaking I had done a bit of performance. I used to do a lot of aerial circus (Trapeze, Silks, Corde Lisse). To be honest this pretty much involved my coach yelling at me to point my toes and pause more between tricks. As odd as it sounds this did help set me up for public speaking.

Performances are all the same when stripped back. You have the scene setting, you build pace, you incorporate suspenseful pauses and eventually reach a climatic conclusion. The same goes for public speaking.

Print off your typed up talk. Make the font HUGE. Then go through it and colour code the points where you need to pause, the movements that you need to make and the tone and pitch of your vocal changes. This may seen like a lot of work but trust me even if you just nail this one point you will be set apart from the vast majority of conference speakers!

2)    Great content needs great delivery

Ever been to a conference and seen a talk description that got all you all excited? “This is right up my street”. Then you arrive, take your seat and find that the speaker stands paralysed at the podium and with a monotone voice just talks through slide after side of stats. Disappointment sets in and then you look around to see how noticeable it would be if you walked out. Too noticeable. That’s okay I will just jump on Twitter and scroll aimlessly instead. We have all been there I’m sure.

So that person may well have had some phenomenal content but without great delivery he or she may just as well have just stood there and said “blah blah blah” for 20 mins. Delivery is just as important as the content. Don’t make the rookie mistake of relying on heavy slides that are flooded with stats. Stats are very challenging to communicate in an engaging way and most people fail to achieve this. I will talk more about how to do this in my next piece but just know for now that everything you add to your talk (every slide, picture, bullet point) needs to really ADD something to the talk. If it doesn’t then delete it!

3)    Rehearsed spontaneity

One of the gentlemen I coach for public speaking said to me “you must be a natural on stage because you just know where and how to move”. No, I don’t. Firstly nobody is “a natural”. What you are seeing is hours of practice and rehearsing. I make sure I know every cue to switch slides, move across the stage or gesture. As you get more comfortable doing this it becomes much faster and soon it will only take you a few hours to nail a talk. It looks natural and spontaneous but really it is a polished performance.

4)    Use your body, eyes and voice equally

Standing behind a podium has it’s place. Some people prefer that but if you do opt to do that your voice has to work so much harder. Your pauses, tone, pitch and pace have to vary and be spot on every time otherwise it will get very boring fast. If you are open to moving around the stage you don’t have to worry as much about this because you have your body to communicate with too.

Next time you are talking to your friend or partner think about what your body is doing. I very much doubt you are standing like a rigid pencil speaking in a fast monotone voice. You are relaxed, your arms move with your words, your eyebrows go up or down, your stance changes and your voice is more melodic. This is what you need to try and replicate on stage. It takes a lot of time, training and practice but it is possible and you will master it.

5)    Camera’s don’t lie

This is the one thing that every single one of the people I mentor hate. They hate it so much many of them (you know who you are) try and pretend they have done the exercises when I know they haven’t!! Film yourself. Yes I said it. We all hate it, even after all these years I hate it but it really does make a huge difference. I record at least the audio of every performance and then I critique it so I spot flaw, ticks, or errors to fix.

For example, one thing I notice a lot in panel discussions is that many people start every single answer with “I think…” They don’t realise they do it until they hear it back and suddenly they hear how bad it it sounds.

So at the very least record the audio of your talk whilst you rehearse. Even if you spot one error or repetitive word that you can fix you will have improved your talk exponentially.

If you want free help with becoming an awesome public speaker please get in touch. I spent a lot of money on expert voice coaches etc and If I can pass some of that on to help you I will!