Tips to Make You Look Professional and Win With Your Audience

Recently I had a conversation with author, speaker and consultant Jeff Davidson. Here are a few tips and guidelines we offer to help your next speech be an even greater success.

Fripp’s Top Tips to Win with an Audience Every Time!

  1. Have a personal relationship with the company whenever possible.
    I have been introduced by my bank account number and insurance policy number, or started with a story about doing business with the company.
  2. Spend as much time before and after the talk with the audience. There is more business to be had from the connection with the audience members and contacts from the client organization than the greatest speech.
  3. Tell a story in your talk that was obviously created for this audience. This is easily done if you ask you contact for a person who well illustrates one of your major points. Many of the stories I created for specific groups have become some of my classic ‘signature’ stories.
  4. Make mention of something you read in the client’s annual report and press release.

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Work in the Humor Place

Some Hot Get-Ahead Tips for Speakers, Comedians, Humorists and anyone interested in Comedy History from John Cantu

John Cantu is a comedy legend and was producer at the famous Holy City Zoo in San Francisco from 1975 to 1981 and co-owner from 1979-1981. He told me how the comedy club got its name and how the philosophy of a young comic can help any of us achieve maximum success. Although these events happened many years ago they are part of the comedy history of the super stars of today. There are lessons for life and all performing. Hope you enjoy reading of my conversations with Cantu.

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White Paper on Technology in Speaking Skills A/V Technology: Necessity…or Nightmare?

(The Pentagon Declares War!)

What do the Pentagon, corporate CEOs, and Patricia Fripp have in common? We all deplore the current trend toward replacing solid presentation content with flashy audio/video effects. A Wall Street Journal headline (4/26/00) announced: “The Pentagon Declares War on Electronic Slide Shows That Make Briefings a Pain.”

We sit in the audience and watch spectacular presentations using PowerPoint, Director, and banks of coordinated slide carousels, and we think, “Wow, if only I could do that!” Now, most of us can. The explosion of exciting new A/V technology has made a wide range of special effects generally available to presenters.

However, just because something is available, doesn’t mean we have to use it! Here is another point of view.

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Put Your Audience in Your Opening

Emily Kimbell is an older adventurer who bicycled across America and hiked the Appalachian Trail. She asked me how to make her presentations more exciting.

“How do you open now?” I asked.

“‘As I rode my bike slowly into the campground…'” she replied. She continued giving me her typical presentation until she got to a crucial spot in her physical and emotional journey.

“Aha!,” I said. I suggested putting her audience right in the middle of her adventure, starting like this: “Imagine you are with me on that September morning in 1999 as the gigantic boulder loomed ahead, blocking the road…”

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Find An Immediate Connection With Your Audience

You have thirty seconds to command the attention of your audience. Don’t waste it!

Jim Rohn, the incredible motivational speaker, and I were on a program in Australia together. He said, “An impressive introduction may leave your audience thinking, ‘So what?’ You want them to think ‘Me too!'” You’re helping them to tie into your ideas or beliefs–to relate quickly to a shared point of view.

Lou Dobbs, from Money Line on CNN, and I were speaking for the Young Presidents Organization in Atlanta. These YPO members are all very successful and some rather cocky. In conversation with me, a couple admitted to us in advance: “We’re very obnoxious. You’re lucky our families are here for Family University because we have to be more humble when our kids are around.”

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Want to Captivate an Audience – Expert Advice

Every speaker wants to captivate their various audiences. If that is your goal, find and perfect your own stories.

Stories create an emotional bond with your audience.

Everything You Need to Know About Preparing a Speech special report on our FREE Resources page

We all know stories make a speech, sales presentation, or staff training more interesting.  Some of the best stories for your presentations are those you select from your personal history that taught you a life lesson.

Imagine how I felt, sitting in an audience of 18,000 people…

…listening to our past First Lady Barbara Bush describe a great story she had read in Chicken Soup for the Soul… my own story which made the point,

“What you do speaks louder than what you say.”

Did Barbara Bush mention it was my story? No.

But even if she had mentioned my name, I think she missed a huge opportunity with her speech. Back then, I imagined her sitting in bed in Houston, going through stacks of books with a highlighter pen for ideas to include in her presentation.

Now that I am an executive speech coach and member of the Professional Speechwriters Association, I realize a speechwriter did the research and wrote her words. My point? I’m not upset she didn’t credit me. Just disappointed that someone with Barbara Bush’s incredible life experiences did not share her own personal stories during her talk.

Shame on the speechwriter who did not interview her in a way to pull her personal stories from her.

I am confident Barbara Busy had more interesting experiences and perceptions than reporting on what my friend Bobby Lewis said to me when we were jogging in Oklahoma City many years ago!

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Open Your Speech by Relating to The Immediate Situation

Show you are “one of the group” by referring to something that is happening right now. One opening to help you immediately connect is to walk out and start with, “I love your theme!” Then tell them why. Or, “This is the perfect time of the year for this meeting.” Naturally, this must segway into your message.

When I speak at a very large hotel like the enormous Opryland Hotel in Nashville, or any of the convention hotels in Vegas, I often use the line, “When I checked in I asked the desk clerk, ‘Do you have a gym!’ She replied, ‘Yes madam, but you don’t need it. You are going to have to walk 6 miles to your room.'”

Your surroundings are often a good starting point. Once I spoke on a set designed to replicate the bar in Cheers. My opening, “As an unashamed, relentless self-promoter, it is great to be in a place where everyone knows my name.”

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What Hollywood Taught Me: 7 Ways To Become A Star

The sultry blonde looked deep into the executive’s eyes, her voice throbbing with emotion. “I know you don’t know me,” she said, “but you must trust me. We don’t have much time. You need to do everything that I tell you. You’re not very experienced, but I’ve been doing this a long time. I am your new best friend.”

The couple spent the next four hours in a locked room. Their activities included role-playing and changing positions. “That was so good!” she’d cry. “Do it again! Even better. Try it standing up.”

Finally the door opened, and the executive emerged exhausted, but smiling. “I’ve been Fripped,” he told his friends, “and I can’t wait to do it again!”

This is how I open my speech called “How to Add Hollywood to Your Presentation.” The premise is: if you want to be a better speaker, go to the movies!

Why? Imagine that you have unlimited resources to design a keynote that will make you the hottest commodity on the market. Where would you go to get the best, highest-priced writers and directors in the world?

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5 Tips for Exciting Speeches

1. Open Hot, Close Hotter.
To grab audience attention and be remembered, start your presentation with a bang, not a limp, “Thanks, it’s nice to be here.” The first (and last) 30 seconds have the most impact on the audience. Save any greetings and gratitude until they’ve already grabbed the audience with a powerful opening. And don’t end with a whimper. Remember that last words linger. Unfortunately, many speakers close with, “Are there any questions?” Wrong! Instead, say, “Before I close, are there any questions?” Answer them. Then close on a high note.

2. Get the Inside Scoop.
Attendees at one of my seminars, “How to Be a Coach to Your Client,” want to know how they can personalize and add excitement and color to the speeches they craft for others. How, they ask, can they get those invaluable inside stories? I suggested they do what I do–interview the speaker’s client’s colleagues and family members. These people are familiar with the “stories” the speaker often tells, stories that have already been honed to what I call the “Hollywood model” (characters, dialogue, dramatic lesson learned). What insights and amusing stories can they share? Advise your members to ask others for input that can provide color and energy to a presentation.

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Getting Over the Jitters Before You Speak

You’re waiting your turn to make a speech, when suddenly you realize that your stomach is doing strange things and your mind is rapidly going blank. How do you handle this critical time period?

People ask me this question in all my speaking classes, but there is no single answer. You need to anticipate your speech mentally, physically, and logistically.

MENTALLY:

Start by understanding that you’ll spend a lot more time preparing than you will speaking. As a general rule, invest three hours of preparation for a half hour speech, a six to one ratio. When you’ve become a highly experienced speaker, you may be able to cut preparation time considerably in some cases, but until then, don’t skimp. Part of your preparation will be to memorize your opening and closing — three or four sentences each. Even if you cover your key points from notes, knowing your opening and closing by heart lets you start and end fluently, connecting with your audience when you are most nervous.

LOGISTICALLY:

Go to the room where you’ll be speaking as early as possible so you can get comfortable in the environment. If you will be speaking from a stage, go early in the morning when no one is there and make friends with the stage. Walk around on the area where you will be speaking, so the first time there is not when you deliver your talk.Then, during your presentation, you can concentrate on your audience, not your environment.

PHYSICALLY:

A wonderful preparation technique for small meetings is to go around shaking hands and making eye contact with everybody beforehand. For larger meetings, meet and shake hands with people in the front row at least, and some of the people as they are coming in the door. Connect with them personally, so they’ll be rooting for your success. We as speakers are rarely nervous about individuals, only when faced with the thought of an audience. Once you’ve met the audience or at least some of them, they become less scary.

It’s totally natural to be nervous. Try this acting technique. Find a private spot, and wave your hands in the air. Relax your jaw, and shake your head from side to side. Then shake your legs one at a time. Physically shake the tension out of your body.

Try not to sit down too much while you’re waiting to speak. If you’re scheduled to go on an hour into the program, try to sit in the back of the room so that you can stand up occasionally. It is hard to jump up and be dynamic when you’ve been relaxed in a chair for an hour. (Comedian Robin Williams is well known for doing “jumping jacks” to raise his energy level before going on stage.) Sitting in the back also gives you easy access to the bathroom and drinking fountain. There’s nothing worse than being stuck down front and being distracted by urgent bodily sensations.

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