Top ten tips for incredibly successful public speaking

I've been to something like one hundred conferences and corporate events in the past several years as I travel the world delivering keynotes and running seminars. I've seen a few great speeches. Sadly, most speeches I see are not very good. Some are downright terrible.

I've been collecting some observations on what makes a good presentation and also drawing from my own experience.

Most of us have an opportunity to speak, perhaps at your industry event, or your company's sales conference, or to a local club.

Make the most of your opportunity.

1. Take it seriously. If 200 people are in a room and you speak for a half hour, you are taking up 100 hours of people’s time. I see many speakers "wing it" and it makes me feel sorry for the audience. Don't look bad.

2. Know the conference organizer's goals. When I speak, I work with organizers to deliver three goals in equal proportion: Education, entertainment, and motivation. Since I am a paid speaker, I must deliver on all three so the conference organizer is happy they invited me. You need to know the goals for being on the podium too. Why were you invited? How would the organizer define success?

3. Tell stories. When someone says: "Let me tell you a story...," you're interested, right? When someone says: "Let me tell you about my company...," is your reaction the same? It doesn't sound like a way you want to spend your valuable time, does it? Stories are exciting. Most presentations are dry. Open with a story. Tell stories to illustrate your point. It's fascinating to see an audience sit up and pay attention when you start to tell a story on the stage.

4. Nobody cares about your products (except you). Yes, it's just like what I say about Web marketing. What people do care about are themselves and ways to solve their problems. A speech is not about you; it is about your audience. You must resist the urge to hype your products and services. Even if you’re asked to speak about your company or your products, make it about your customers or the problem you solve instead.

5. Prepare and practice. Run through your presentation as many times as required so that you are completely comfortable with the material. You should know the presentation so well that you could do it without PowerPoint and without notes.

6. Don't use PowerPoint as a TelePrompTer. Slides are great for showing images, charts, and the like. Consider showing a short video. But definitely don't use slides to show bulleted lists of text. Yawn! Way too many people just read off their slides. Don't! PowerPoint is not a speaker's crutch; it is a way to illustrate your spoken point. By the way, some of the best speakers don't use slides at all.

7. Arrive early. There is nothing worse than a presenter fumbling with technology on a stage. Everyone becomes uncomfortable and it is nearly impossible to make up that bad first impression. You should plan to arrive at the venue with plenty of time to spare and go to the room at least one hour prior to when you go on. You may need to arrive much earlier if there are sessions before yours because you will want to set up and test your equipment and stand on the stage to get a feel of the room. Use the microphone to hear your voice. Get as comfortable as possible with the venue before people arrive (or when they are on a break). The conference organizer and the A/V people will love you for arriving early! And when you are comfortable with logistics, you will deliver a better speech.

8. Bring an electronic copy of your presentation. I always carry my presentation on a memory stick and wear it around my neck from the moment I step out of my house until after I have presented. I wear it on the plane and in the hotel. I wear it out to dinner. You never know what may happen to your computer (I spilled water on my computer in Brussels once and fried it), so having that backup is comforting.

9. Don't go long. When you build a speech and deliver it for the first time, it almost always runs long. Don't go over time! It's okay to end short because you can take a few questions, but running long makes the entire event schedule get out of whack. Worse, they may pull you off the stage, which looks awful.

10. Be aware of body language. My friend Nick Morgan, author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma says: "When words and body language are in conflict, body language wins every time." If you are nervous, it shows. If you don't believe what you're saying, it shows. If you aren't having fun, it shows. And your audience will always react to your body language instead of your words.

Photo of me presenting in Istanbul, Turkey on February 25, 2009 courtesy MediaCat.

Comments

[L. Howell]

The good news for you is people pay attention in Turkey, nobody as far as i could tell was banging on laptop or mobile device. A lot of times here in the US, you tend to get an audience who feels that the conference is a venue for them to "work". Great stuff David.

[Matt Nelson]

David, Great article, personally very timely and helpful for me. I am going to be making my first official jump into presenting in three weeks when I talk about Database Integration and Relationship Marketing at the upcoming April 2nd VT/NH Direct Marketing Association meeting.

All of your points are great, especially the ones about not using powerpoint as a crutch and body language. I was curious though, as an experienced speaker, when you were first starting out how many times would you practice your presentation before your speaking engagement?

[Geno Prussakov]

Excellent advice, David. The point about PowerPoint :) is interesting. I guess, you're talking more inspirational, keynote-type speeches. Sometimes a bulleted list in a PPT presentation can help people enormously (like the very 10-point list you have above), but again: it depends on the kind/type of speech/presentation.

Also, after one of my last presentations, people expressed that they wished they had some kind of handouts (to follow the topic easier). The crowd wasn't large (some 50 people). I did contemplate having handouts, but wasn't sure if they are really appropriate in non-classroom contexts. Have you used handouts at conference presentations much?

[Russ Boles]

I'd change #6) Don't use Powerpoint at all. Nothing tells me quicker that a speaker is unprepared or worse, boring, than when they bust out the Powerpoint. The speaker first assumes that I can actually see the screen, which I usually can't. Second, they assume that their cute graphic translates well from their monitor to the screen. Third, often the info in the Powerpoint presentation is "ligh wieght" and just disctracting to what they are saying. If it's that important, have it has a handout at the end of the speech.

I like speakers that speak without notes and draw on whiteboards. Look me in the eyes, not at your computer. They always are winners.

[Geno Prussakov]

Having read L. Howell's comment, another thought came to mind. The following point is worth emphasizing too: 11) When speaking in foreign countries, be sensitive to the culture. Take your time to study the basic gestures, make sure your stories communicate well cross-culturally (run them by a couple of people from the culture you'll be speaking in *prior* to make them on stage), etc.

Also, a point about cursing on stage should be made. Yes, sometimes it may seem appropriate, but it is never recommended. Someone said that cursing stunts the speaker’s mental growth. I couldn't agree more.

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks for the comments!

L. Howell - It is not about location, it is about content. If you deliver a powerful presentation, people ALWAYS pay attention.

Matt - At least ten times if not twenty.

Geno - I prefer not to have handouts unless the organizer insists. But my image slides are meaningless out of context, so the best handout is one of my ebooks or hard cover books.

[Kate Nasser]

Excellent article David. Clear, concise, and on target. Read my article outlining 7 questions to select the right speaker for your conference. It helps meeting planners and speakers.
http://katenasser.com/7-questions-to-find-right-speaker/

Kate Nasser
The People-Skills Coach

[Emily Sheetz]

11. Be funny. I love to laugh and would be wowed if a speaker got me to laugh during a presentation on writing SEO web copy. Laughing also loosens a person up, making them more receptive to you and the points you have to make. Also, a boring speech is not listened to. The body is in the metal folding chair, but the mind is thinking about how my butt hurts in these chairs and that I have to do laundry later.

[AP]

I'm following you on twitter and this topic just popped up in the nick of time. I want to do more public speaking, by more I mean that I want to try it for the first time by organizing a referral club. Doyou have any tips for noob that pertain to how to generate content? DO you write it out? Save a spoken version of it on an audio recorder? Practice in front of a webcam? Mirror?

[Denis]

I guess if someone really want to use PowerPoint they should at least follow Kawasaki's "The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint" if possible.

[Tosk59]

Re the "don't use Powerpoint at all", whiterboard guy, the conference folks usually want a presentation that they can give away on a CD to recap the convention (or perhaps to sell to help underwrite costs). This is why they usually provide the PPT template to use. So #2 (Know the conference organizer's goals) usually forces the issue!

[David Bressler]

David,

Awesome post. To summarize all ten points, basically, it's not about the speaker, it's about the audience. Be respectful, be professional, and add value through sharing stories/experience.

To Emily - about being funny... I started using humor when speaking internationally, because I found that if people smiled, they were following, if they didn't, they might not be able to keep up with my pace, or my language, and I should, probably make sure they understood what I was saying before moving on. Of course, if I weren't funny, that could be a problem, but it's not like I'm up there doing stand-up!

Foreign speaking can be tricky, because you need to make sure you don't use colloquialisms...

David Bressler

[Anna]

#3 is so true. Story-telling engages your audience, and teaches a lesson without being preachy. Done the right way, it'll also make you (and your point) incredibly memorable.

[Jennifer Louden]

Also get your people to move - I try to use movement in small ways (because body stuff totally freaks most people out) because it keeps people awake, engaged, and they might actually remember what I spoke about. The best time: 3000 people dancing!

[SpiritintheVillage]

Thanks David for the Insights here. I used to do a lot of public speaking years ago and went to Toastmasters during some of that period.

They used to do a practice called table topics where you would learn to speak on the fly about any object, subject or situation that was presented to you. This was great for learning to ad-lib when you need it but I also agree with your statements of be organized, focused, back up files and don't use PowerPoint as a crutch.

I'm looking forward to the opportunity to getting into public speaking again because it was something I enjoyed.

[TinkerToyTech]

YEs!, Someone beat me to it but I was going to recommend toastmansters and the USB key is right on. Well done.

[justin locke]

well if i may, coming at this as a past musical performer, this is of course all fabulous, but i would paraphrase it this way: performing, including speaking, is not a product, it's a service. it's easy to get focused on the content/product and think that's all you need, but the --experience of the user-- is dominant. all the info you read on this blog about user personas applies to audiences as well. so to paraphrase, what does your user want? for starters, not to be bored or inconvenienced. it's amazing how many musical performers think of their job as providing a precise error-free product rather than the providing service of interacting with their customers . . . this is why many orchestras struggle while andre rieu can't schedule enough shows to meet demand.

[David Esrati]

Unfortunately- the "Deck" has taken over speaking. I remember watching Tom Peters work a crowd 20 years ago- no slides- just him, a mike and a lot of room for him to pace, jump-up and down and keep his audience engaged.
Now, so many conferences require a deck.
I never give handouts until AFTER the show- why pay attention, when you can be reading... right?
I think I read this just in time- I'm about to do my first keynote- http://www.doctrain.com/west/2009/program_detail/the_content_providers_crystal_ball/ and I'm going to put it on the thumbdrive NOW.
Thanks! Great following you on Twitter

[David Meerman Scott]

Great comments. Thanks.

Wanted to just summarize some thoughts as I was reading through these.

Yes, speaking is absolutely a performance. It is much more than just the content.

Never forget that your "buyer" is the conference organizer who invited you, not the audience. However the way to be a success in the eyes of an organizer is to do a great speech (and wow the audience), but that's not all. If you are late to the event and demanding about requirements and don;t answer email prior to the gig, no matter how great the speech, you will not be seen as professional in the eyes of the organizer.

David

[Jerry Smith]

Hallelujah. Great advice as always, particularly regarding Powerpoint. Apart from all the other great points about using it inappropriately I have seen countless presentations ruined by technology failure. Few things kill credibility more than a flustered presenter with no fall back plan, desperately fiddling with wires while the audience gets restless. I have seen it time and again.
As a presenter you have great stuff to say and you don't need whizzy graphics to do so.

[Steve Beerman Kayser]

“The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public” --- sums it up. Least for me.

But you're good at public speaking - I've attended your presentations before. Thanks for the tips.

Me -- being a prolific non-public speaker, yet subject to many tortuous public speaking business presentations, suggest in the best interests of humanity, that PPT presentations should adhere to the Kayserized version of the Kawasaki PPT 10-20-30 rule. " 10 ideas-20 slides - no smaller than 30 font." I SUGGEST NO SMALLER THAN 60 FONT - limits you to 3-6 words.

Brief. Briefer. Briefest. Is bestest.

Best David!

[Pawel Brodzinski]

I can add several more things you should avoid during prestentation. Several are the same as yours. Screwing a presentation is even worse than not showing at all.

[Tony Darrick Baker]

Great Article David.

Everything you said was spot on. You're quite the inspiration.

I came up with a few of my own.

http://tonydbaker.com/tony-darrick-baker/5-more-tips-to-incredibly-successful-public-speaking/

[Michael Benidt]

Astonishing that so many comments and yet not one refers to Seth Godin's (also known as God) take on PowerPoint - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html

Here's the 10 page PDF - he said if he'd had more time, he would have made it shorter - http://www.sethgodin.com/freeprize/reallybad-1.pdf

Sorry, but it's the first and last word on PowerPoint - albeit much ignored throughout the kingdom. Ignore it yourself to you sorrow.

[Chris Ryan]

Two quick points to add to this fascinating discussion. David's first tip, to take it seriously, is perhaps the most important. I'll never forget the keynote speaker at a large technology conference who confessed that he had no time to prepare and hoped the audience didn't hold it against him (we did). And the best and most consistent speaker on technology that I have heard is Larry DeBoever. Back in the dinosaur days (1990's), when everyone else was using slides, Larry actually used transparencies, which he marked-up with a highlighter. Each presentation was slightly different but each looked like it had been totally customized for the audience.