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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Go Hollywood – Collaborate!

In Hollywood, it takes hundreds of talented people in front of and behind the camera, all working together to create a great movie. What works in Tinsel Town can also bring big benefits for speakers.

I often brainstorm with David Garfinkel, copy-writing genius and budding screenwriter, and John Cantu, the San Francisco comedy legend. John can find something funny in anything. Garfinkel has a great mind for inserting a sales message or a dramatic Hollywood scene. My talent is creating a talk out of conversation, adding a great opening line, highlighting the key points, and adding structure to it.

The three of us got together one Boxing Day (that’s December 26th, for you non-British.) John was just out of the hospital after serious cancer surgery. We asked him to describe his experiences. He told us about his first symptoms and being sent for a blood test. John, who is over 6ft, said, “The first thing I noticed was that I was the shortest man in line. I was also the only one not wearing high heels and lipstick.” “That’s because Tuesday is transgender night,” the doctor said.

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So You’re Going to Make a Speech

Congratulations! You’ve been chosen (or drafted) to deliver a speech. Don’t panic — Fripp is here!

What Do I Talk About?

Start by asking yourself three questions:

  1. Who is my audience? (What do I know about the corporate culture or collective personality of the group?)
  2. What do they want or need to know from me?
  3. How long can or should I talk?
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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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