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Show Notes
Background
For 25 years, Andrew has helped professionals across industries take stage, inspire action and drive change. From reputation-defining keynotes and must-win meetings to building the brand across media, high stakes engagements require power, precision and personality; Andrew helps clients bring all three.
Make Your Audience the Priority
One of the biggest mistakes speakers make is treating their presentation like a product they need to unload on the audience. After spending hours preparing content, writing scripts and rehearsing, it is easy to become focused on delivering everything perfectly. But the purpose of all that preparation is to make the audience the most important people in the room.
The goal is not to get every word right. The goal is engagement and making sure your message actually lands with the people listening. Reading from notes or a script can create distance between you and your audience. People can tell when the speaker is more connected to the script than to them. This is also true online. When speaking on Zoom or through a camera, looking at notes instead of the camera can make the audience feel disconnected.
Build Confidence From the Beginning
The first three or four minutes of an engagement are crucial. As soon as a speaker begins, the audience is already deciding whether the speaker is going to be comfortable, confident and capable.
If the speaker appears uncomfortable, the audience can become uncomfortable too. One effective way to build confidence and engagement is through a hook, promise and roadmap.
Start with a compelling story or hook that creates relevance and urgency. Then make a promise about what the audience will learn or take away. Finally, provide a roadmap so people know what you will cover. This gives the audience a reason to settle in and listen instead of wondering whether you will address the things that matter to them.
Use Stories That You Have Processed
Stories can establish credibility, create emotional connection and make ideas easier to remember. The best stories are personal, relevant and stories that you have already processed emotionally.
A speaker should not use the stage as a therapy session. The purpose is not for the speaker to experience the emotion again. The purpose is to create an experience for the audience. The speaker’s job is to create the conditions for the audience to feel, understand and connect with the story.
Speak the Way You Talk
One of the biggest challenges for educated professionals is that they have spent years learning how to write, but speaking is different from writing.
Written sentences are often longer and more complicated than spoken sentences.
When speaking, use:
- Shorter sentences
- Clear language
- Natural phrasing
- Regular pauses
- One important idea at a time
Avoid complicated subordinate clauses and overly long sentences because they can make you sound scripted and make it harder for your audience to follow.
If an idea is important, give it its own sentence and allow the audience time to absorb it.
Repeat Your Key Messages
People do not always absorb everything the first time they hear it. For presentations and keynotes, use intentional redundancy.
Important points should be repeated throughout the presentation rather than mentioned only once. Stories can make those points even more memorable.
A useful structure is:
Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you told them.
This gives the audience clarity and reinforces the key messages you want them to remember.
Teleprompters Can Help
Teleprompters are not necessarily a problem. For some speakers, they provide the confidence and comfort needed to perform well, particularly when speaking to large audiences or in high-pressure situations. The key is how the teleprompter is written.
Use short sentences that sound like the way you naturally speak. Include pauses and cues so you remember to look up and engage with the audience. A teleprompter should support your connection with the audience, not replace it. Most importantly, rehearse.
Use PowerPoint to Support Your Message
PowerPoint can be useful because it gives the audience something visual to engage with. The problem occurs when slides contain too much information.
If the audience is reading text, studying graphics and listening to the speaker at the same time, they are unlikely to absorb everything. Use slides to illustrate your message rather than become the message. If a slide is complicated, guide the audience through it and explain what they should be looking at.
Do not use your PowerPoint as your personal cheat sheet. The audience should be listening to you, not trying to work out where you are getting the information from.
Make Your Audience Interested
A speaker may spend weeks carefully preparing a presentation, but the audience may have already attended several meetings, workshops or presentations that day. Andrew shared an experience where someone joined one of his workshops and told him that it was his eighth Zoom call that day.
That was a powerful reminder that the speaker’s experience is not the same as the audience’s experience. Your audience may be tired, distracted or thinking about everything else they need to do.
Your responsibility is to create an experience that earns their attention. Use storytelling, clarity, eye contact, vocal variety, pauses and engagement to make the experience meaningful.
Audiences are busy and often focused on their own problems and responsibilities. They are not usually thinking about whether your hair is perfect, whether your makeup is right or whether you made a small mistake.
They are thinking about one important question:
“What is in it for me?”
A strong speaker keeps that question in mind and makes the audience feel that the presentation is relevant to them.
Remember to Follow Up and Stay Visible
Building connections is not enough. People are busy and focused on their own lives and businesses. They may remember that they know someone who can help them but forget exactly who that person is.
That is why coaches need to follow up, maintain relationships and stay visible. If you want to be the person people think of when they need help, you need to remind them that you are there.
Links
Contacts
How to Learn to Speak as a Coach With Cathy Smith and Andrew Hurteau
Great speaking is not about delivering the perfect script. It is about creating a meaningful experience for your audience. Prepare thoroughly, but once you take the stage, shift your attention from yourself and your content to the people listening.
Tell stories that matter. Speak naturally. Use short sentences and pauses. Repeat important ideas. Use technology to support your message rather than replace you.
Most importantly, remember that the audience is the most important person in the room
Listen to the full episode of Small Business Talk episode 360.
You can also find the video versions of the Small Business Talk Episodes on YouTube.
