What can someone who has never competed in a speech contest teach you, the competitor, about winning? I think that the answer to that question is, “A LOT!”

I have a couple of friends that have entered contests and I helped coach them. As part of this “coaching” I attended every contest I could easily drive to. Here are the lessons that I learned.

Do your homework

You should know how you will be judged. Read the judging sheet (you can find them here). Read the words of those who have gone far (Rich Hopkins). Read  Internet groups.

Your speech has to have a point

This is very important. During the humorous speech season I saw at least 10 presentations. I don’t remember any of them having a point. When a speech has a point you know it. There simply must be a reason that you are telling the story. At the end of your speech I should remember the story and the specific reason that you shared it with me. If your audience doesn’t know why you told it chances are you will lose.

Don’t bury the headline

Your point must be obvious. Many folks in your audience, including some of the judges, won’t “get” that subtle, clever, introduction where you let us in on why you are sharing your speech. You need to have the subtlety of breaking glass. If you don’t tell them EXACTLY why you are sharing your presentation, chances are they won’t get it. Face it, most of us are barely paying attention under the best of circumstances. Make it easy for us.

Have a compelling opening

All of the contest speeches that I saw had very weak openings. I don’t remember one that really reached-out and grabbed me. You need an introduction that says, “what I am about to share with you is going to make your life better — listen to me!”

I think that the compelling opening is the most important part of the speech. If you don’t have them at the start, you won’t have them at the end. I noticed this when teaching. People need a reason to listen. Give them one — be exciting.

Have a gripping end and ask them to do something

If you have them with you at the end congratulations. If you don’t a compelling end isn’t likely to help much.

The end of your speech should include two things:

• an OBVIOUS restatement of the point you are trying to make
• a call to action (something for them to do).

You need to make sure they remember the reason that you shared your speech with them. Restate it in a new, different, way.

You need to have a call to action. It can be something as simple as ask them to consider what you have said (pause for them to do it). It can be as specific as calling a charity and donating money (take their money). It could be that you want them to try a new computer programming technique (not likely to win a contest with that one). Ask them to do something; your speech will stick in their mind.

Here is the quickest way to lose a contest

Don’t practice and don’t rehearse. For heaven’s sake, if you are going to do something gimmicky like use a cute video, or fall down, rehearse it. Hopefully one of you friends will tell you “it sucks, don’t do it?”

Fans welcome tired swimmers to the beach

When a guest shows up at your club meeting, how do you treat them? If your organization is like most, one or two of your members will make the cursory introduction while the majority doesn’t make an effort. In fact, most people will not acknowledge that there is a guest even there.

What kind of message does that send to your visitor? The answer to that question is obvious. It sends the wrong message. You are telling the guest that they don’t really matter.

The message that you want to send is, “Hey, we want you to be one of us!”

Here are 5 ways you can make a visitor feel like they belong:

1) Everyone, and I mean everyone, acts excited when a guest takes the risk of attending your meeting. You goal here is to make them feel the love. Done properly there should be no way for the visitor to remember the names of all the people they met. There should be, literally, a line of people waiting to meet the guest.

2) Announce their presence during the meeting. “Let’s welcome Bob to our meeting. Bob is a computer programmer on finance team. Bob, we thank you for taking time to attend our meeting.”

3) After the meeting ask the guest if they have any questions. If they do, answer them. If they don’t, make sure they know what the club is all about. Ask them why they attended and then describe how the club can help them.

Tell them about Web site or give them a flyer. At this point someone in the club should make sure they have the guest’s contact information. Make certain you include the mailing address.

4) Tell the guest how the club can benefit from having them as a member. This is perhaps the most important thing that you can do. People need to feel valued and this is a great way to do it. Do not skip this. Do not be vague about this. “Our club would really benefit from having you join. We currently have no members with your background and we could learn a lot from you.”

5) Follow up with a hand written thank you note. There is nothing, NOTHING, like receiving a hand written note. It just makes you feel great to get one. Here’s a huge secret: as good as it is to get one, it feels even better to write one. Make it a part of your organization’s processes.

If you don’t make an effort to let your guests know that you value them they will leave thinking that you don’t want them in your club. Don’t let that happen. You want them to feel like “one of us.”

Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun

Confessions of a Public Speaker is the 2nd of 52 books I will read this year.

How did I find Scott Berkun’s new book, Confessions of a Public Speaker? Oddly enough, it started on Twitter. I believe it was Kathy Sierra (@KathySierra) that tweeted about Scott’s promo video and the weighty cognitive load it placed on the viewer. The comment stream is pure gold and well worth reading.

Why did I read the book? I didn’t like the promo video, but Kathy seemed positive about the book. So I decided that I should read it. Besides, I do a lot of presentations and writing at work and figured that I would learn something.

“… the “Confessions…” book is amazing (I was one of the lucky ones that got an advance look and it “grabbed me by the throat, pinned me to the wall, and did not let up ’till I’d finished.” — Kathy Sierra

Lessons learned. Great presentations don’t just happen, they must be pondered. When it comes to presentation design, thinking is one of the most important ways you can spend your time. Scott’s book is the only book I have read on presentations what talks about it. I am obsessive about this portion of design and now I find that I am not alone.

Plus, Scott preaches … practice … practice … practice. This is a hard sell for most, but it is THE most important that you can do to ensure that your presentation is successful. Sure, you can immediately fire-up PowerPoint if you want to, but know this: The most beautiful set of slides in the world is useless if you suck. And if you don’t practice there is a good chance that your presentation will do just that, suck!

The book does not follow the usual recipe for a presentation book. There are no recipes for content development, no talk of gestures, etc. In short, this book is like sitting at a bar with your friends discussing presentations. It is highly engaging and dare I say, hard to put down. It’s a great book.

I really enjoyed the chapter, “You can’t do worse than this.” It contains presentation horror stories and shines a light on the fact that even expert presenters have things that go worse than expected. It’s hard not to like “train wreck stories.”

If you are new to presentations this should be the first book that you read on the topic. It gives a lot of great advice that many people take for granted. Plus, Scott points out that no one is perfect and no presentation is perfect. Although we strive for perfection, it is unobtainable. In short, do your best and give your presentation — it will be OK.

The final verdict: Presenters of all skill levels should read this book! I highly recommend it.

While you wait for your book to arrive be sure to check-out Scott’s blog. It’s full of very good stuff.

A lot of people will pay lip-service to the development of employees, but when push comes to shove it often goes by the wayside. There are many reasons for this — strangled budgets or perceived lack of time. There are lots more, I am sure.

Just between you and me I don’t rely on my manager, and I have an outstanding manager, to plan my training or personal development. Heck, I have even taken a job just to learn a specific skill (i.e. course development and training). As Alan and I discussed this further I asked this question.

Why don’t we individual contributors have group meetings and don’t invite the managers?

Think about it. You can learn from and teach others in your group all sorts of things. When management is present at a meeting most of us peons are rather reserved. We tend not to be forthright and open. This is bad. Openness between the members of a group leads to trust and reliance. You know that others will help you when you need it. Keith Ferrazzi‘s book, “Who’s Got Your Back” doesn’t specifically address this concept but it is close enough. With a little work it can be applied to the Managerless Group Meeting.

I discussed this idea with one of my younger coworkers this morning. She liked it. She even mentioned that this would be a great environment for learning presentation skills. Hummmmmm… I think that I like where this is going.

We met for lunch at our usual place today and discussed what it means to learn. Today was about how to learn presentation skills. But it really applies to lots of areas.

As I walked back to my office, it hit me. Never in human history has it been so easy to learn. You can literally get on the Internet and find an expert in practically any field who will help you. Photography? Yep, I got help one time from a photographer at National Geographic. Have a question about a presentation? Speech coaches all over the world will help you. In general, people love to help others. You just have to ask.

I taught SAS courses over the web and it always amazed me that we could effectively teach people who are half a world a way. I was able to find hundreds of hours of videos to analyze. In short, I found the resources necessary to teach myself. Teaching yourself is not a bad thing. Learning how to learn is a great skill to have.

Back to presentations… To learn to deliver effective presentations you need an audience. Ideally this audience will be sophisticated, and honest, enough to provide you with feedback. Make that “GREAT FEEDBACK.” You don’t want the feedback to be superficial. “You said ‘um’ and ‘ah’ is not what I would call deeply profound.” You want the feedback to be meaningful. Although you can go improve by presenting to a video camera, adding an audience into the mix helps a lot.

A knowledgeable audience who won’t tell you the truth isn’t much use, either. You need honest feedback.

I am reasonably certain that this audience (group) I am describing does not exist as an organized club. It must be created. Fortunately, Keith Ferrazzi has provided a general blueprint for us. His most recent book, “Who’s Got Your Back,” describes accountability groups. He doesn’t talk about presentations, per se, but his concept applies.

If you are interested in something like I am describing. Let me know. If you live in the Triangle area of North Carolina that’s great. If you don’t, still contact me. With so much great technology at our disposal we can probably make the distance irrelevant.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and we can discuss this.

I was a member of Toastmasters for over 4 years. I was the president of our club (10/10 on the DCP scale – not that that matters) and filled-in as an area governor for a few months. Toastmasters was a big part of my life. I was into it.

During that time I became a technical trainer. I was speaking to in-person audiences or remote audiences on a weekly basis. Practicing, and honing, my presentation skills became my life at work. I no longer needed Toastmasters so we slowly parted ways.

I still speak a great deal but it isn’t a weekly event for me. I could use the practice. But I have friends that I can practice with so I don’t believe that is the compelling reason to rejoin. Although, perhaps you can make the argument better than I can.

That’s where you come in: Convince me to attend a meeting and write a check! Use the comments to post your reasons. Don’t worry if someone else has given the same one. This is a quantity game and I want to hear from you.

Help me out! Convince me!

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