On parachute speakers, channeling Oprah Winfrey, and a lesson from the Gettysburg Address.


How to start, how to finish
Welcome them warmly, thank them sincerely. The beginning and the end are the frames of a presentation.


Arrive early, stay late
Arrive the night before your presentation, and ask to schedule a dinner with the client.  

Book your departing flight at least four hours after the conclusion of your speech.  

Clients have an expression for speakers who arrive late and leave quickly: “parachute speakers.”  TBAAAC (To be avoided at all costs.)


Don’t sell; speak
Your audience came for a presentation, not a sales pitch for your services.


Don’t speak; talk
The best speakers don't speak; they converse--with their audiences. 

For good models, study Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Matt Lauer, Keven Spacey, and Craig Ferguson (CBS's The Late Late Show).
Don’t click
Lincoln didn’t use slides at Gettysburg, nor did John Kennedy ("Ich bin ein Berliner") or Ronald Reagan ("Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!") use them at the Berlin Wall.  

No famous speech used any visual aid--except the speaker.

Great visuals sometimes work.  But how can you be sure your visual is great?  

And is it worth distracting your audience from you?


Create scenes
It’s impossible to watch a play that never changes scenes. (Most stagings of The Iceman Cometh prove this. Stuck there in the middle of row 9, you feel you must goeth.)   

Change your scenes by moving to different spots when you change stories, and set a stage for each story: your office at home, a store, or a plane ride, for examples.

Refreshing your settings refreshes your audience.


Speak with your eyes
An audience feels about a presentation the way they feel about the presenter.  The more you address each person with your eyes, the more comfortable each person will feel.  

Look them in the eyes. Constantly.


Aim high
Commit yourself to a truly extraordinary experience.  Picture what that experience would look and feels like. Keep that image and take it with you.  

Then live it.


Modesty in all things
A watch and a wedding ring and nothing more.  If cuff links, any gold should be subtle.  

Audience members don't want to be impressed.  They want to be helped.


Humor, not jokes
An audience buys you and your heart.  They know any speaker can recite a joke.  They don't want jokes; they want to hear from you, and not from some joke book you read.

Play it straight
Don’t try for laughs, by exaggerating, for example. If your story makes people smile, that's good. If it makes them laugh, even better.  But let them find the humor where you find it, too: in everyday life.


The best humor:
Is a joke you poke at yourself.  It brings you off the stage and into your listener's hearts.


Their names
Learn and memorize people's names.  Write them down on cards, review the cards, and develop mnemonic devices for remembering each name.  

Article source: http://www.beckwithpartners.com/brand_identity_marketing_promotion_strategies/How_to_Speak_Like_a_Pro_10_24_2006.aspx