Public Speaking is something I’ve been working on for a couple months now.  I have a DJ Background, so speaking in front of a crowd wasn’t a problem - as long as it was my crowd.  I was finding I would get nervous around certain people and let those spooky chemicals overtake my ability, causing me to ramble, and generally suck.

Amongst the advice I’ve received, and the experience I’ve gained, one of my favorite tips is to not speak, not present, but ‘Work the Room.‘  Let me explain.

Suck Value Speaking

Speeches / Presentations can be boring.  Canned material, canned gestures, scripts, practiced routines are awful.  Routines suck value from your audience expecting them to react to certain moments in your dialogue.  Meh!  You’re a robot!  You’re Teddy Ruxpin!  A crudely designed, damned speaking robot and the audience is your input data process.  You expect them to feed you processes and functions and arrays etc.  I bet you’re getting uncomfortable and bored just reading those last lines!  Ahhh!

Don’t misunderstand me - know your friggin’ material, but Internalize it.  I’ll go on…

We The Audience are Humans - Join Us!
What will get you ahead in most of your interactions will be off-the-cuff, impromptu and quick response / discussions with relaxed, human gestures.  People generally like interesting people.  Be interesting, not robotic!  Speak to the audience at hand, not army of stuffed animals you practiced in front of 100 times.

Picture the Rat Pack, Frank Sinatra, Dean, Sammy etc.  Those guys didn’t present, they worked the room.  They had canned material, songs, jokes, but every time they were on stage it was something different.  People ‘kinda’ knew what to expect, but could never be sure.  They had fun, were interesting, never robotic, and people were captivated!

Be like Frank!

What You Need to Know
Again, first and foremost try to know ’something’ about your material, or at least sound like you do - but for Frank’s sake personalize it.  Let the moment/audience into your world and bring them along with what you’re trying to communicate.  Every audience is different, every audience member will experience your topics in a different way.  What works for one will likely never work for another.

Flip off your Teddy Ruxpin robot switch, be interesting, have fun and work that room Sinatra style!

Random Fortune Cookie Tips

• Say Hi To Everyone You Can, or at least ’shotgun mock’ people in the audience.  (Look in someone’s direction and point / wave like you know them.   You’ll hit someone within that audience section.)
• Act like everyone in the room is your best friend.  You don’t know otherwise.
• Engage people with eye contact.  When stating a point, look directly at someone and walk towards them.
• Pause.  Allow the audience to visualize and experience your topics in their own way.
• Smile.  Loosen up, smile when you’re talking and the room will light up.

INPUT DATA PROCESSING,
–D