Speaker 1: Congratulations to you. You've been asked to speak at the big conference. It's a couple months down the road, but they needed a keynote speaker and they've asked you. How do you prepare for it? You're excited, this is a big opportunity and you've got most of your content together, but now you want to know some tips on how to prepare and how to deliver this presentation. Here's a few tips for you. Tip number one, your introduction. Most likely the host of the meeting is going to introduce you and this is a good opportunity. And it's actually an opportunity where that person is going to be bragging about you and building up your credibility. If you do it right, that's fantastic. You walk on stage and people are already impressed with your background and you can hit the ground running. Now in a lot of sales presentations, I tell people that you got to spend some time building up that credibility. In this case, the host is doing it for you. That gives you the opportunity to jump right into a story or jump right into a quote or a statistic that's going to have some impact, some punch. So don't lose the opportunity. Make sure your introduction is written and delivered to the host of the meeting. You can jump on stage and go right at something impactful out of the gate. Next tip, too loud is better than too soft. Do not worry about speaking too loud. And it's a temptation. You get on stage and you start speaking. You hear your own voice as it echoes through the microphone and across the auditorium and you're tempted to think, oh wow that's too loud. I gotta start speaking quieter. And I urge you not to do that. If you're really too loud, the audio-visual guy will turn down your microphone. It's far better to be a little bit too loud than it is too quiet and having people asking why they can't hear you. Having them miss your message is far bigger concern than having it be, wow that guy's too loud. When does that happen? So speak up. Now this is very important if you're speaking in a group that's kind of a mid-sized group. A lot of times there's this venue where you might be in a classroom type of venue or you might be in a in a certain session hall where there's 40 or 50 people. And most of the time you're mic'd up but there are instances I've seen where it's just small enough where you're not mic'd up and you're still speaking to 30 or 40 people. You really need to speak up louder than you think. Speak up. Get your voice out there. Too loud always better than not loud enough. Next tip, don't touch the podium. Literally resist the temptation to touch the podium. I've seen too many people that put their hands up there or kind of lean on the podium a little bit. Back away from the podium and speak up. The podium is a kind of a death trap and it'll screw up your body language. It looks awkward. Ideally you're mic'd up and so you can walk away from the podium and you can walk around the stage. And if that's the case just be careful that you don't bump your mic and you don't trip over the cord. But hopefully you're mic'd up and it's a wireless mic and that gives you some freedom to walk across the stage. If you have that freedom, use it. Now don't spend the entire presentation marching along the stage. You can walk along the stage too much. Take two or three steps and then stop. Tell a story. Make a point. And then ask a question. And then take two or three steps back or go to another place on the stage. Walk accordingly. Stop. Make a point. Walk back. And do this a few times over the course of your 20, 30, 40 minute presentation and it'll look great. You're far better off getting away from that podium. And especially be aware in a classroom setting sometimes that podium is in a corner and it's a dark corner. If you can get away from that podium don't touch it at all. Resist the temptation to be too salesy in your speech. If you're speaking to a large audience it's because somebody thought you were important. That you had something important to say in front of the group. Don't blow the opportunity by going right into your sales pitch and talking about all your great features and mix it up a little bit. You want to come across as the thought leader, as the expert. And you don't do that by being salesy. How you do that is by bringing some information to share that is unique and informative. You also come across really well by replacing that sales-ish content with more of a story or an example. Now it's not to say that you can't mention your company. You obviously can. Just don't come across as too salesy. You will lose credibility with your audience. I've said it once and I'll say it again. You've got to watch the clock when you're speaking in front of a large audience. Make sure that you don't go over on time. Practice your speech and so you end a little bit early. If you're given a 30-minute window, end with 27 minutes. Don't go over. If you're given an hour to an hour and a half, end it closer to an hour. I'm serious. It's better to leave a big space at the end for some questions and answers and some networking than it is to go all the way to your allotted time. You do not want people getting up and leaving early. And a lot of times there's a session right behind you. Or even worse, it's lunch hour and people are getting up early from your presentation to go out just as you're closing. Don't let that happen to you. End a little bit early when you're presenting to a large audience. You need to watch your energy level. Be prepared for this speech. Understand that if you're speaking for a half hour or more, that's very different and requires a good amount of energy. Even if you presented a lot in front of small groups or done presentations before, there's a huge difference between a 10-minute speech and a 30-minute speech. Especially if you're going on even as long as an hour or more, you need to be prepared. You need to eat right. You need to have some water ready. That energy level is a huge thing and you do not want to lose that energy towards the end of your speech. And so be prepared for that. Have that energy going in. One tip is to always face the audience. Now you probably planned on this presentation and you've prepared your material and you probably have it mostly memorized, which is good. Now the obvious tip is to not look back at the screen. And you probably know that. Try to practice your material so you're not looking back. But here's one you may not be aware of. I see speakers oftentimes falling into the trap where they are looking down. Oftentimes the podium itself will have a display where it is showing your slide. And even on the floor below you on the stage, there will be displays that show your information and your slide deck. It's not visible to the audience. And so if you've never spoken in front of an audience, you might not even realize that it's there. But it is. It's really convenient to have. You can glance down and see what slide you're on. But be careful not to glance down too much and be looking too down. You want to be facing the audience. You want to be engaging with them. Making eye contact with them. An occasional glance down is alright. But just remember, face your audience and don't focus too much on that display on the floor in front of you. So the last tip is have your marketing material ready. And by marketing material, I don't just mean your slide deck or your brochures. I'm talking about your online social media presence. Both for your company and for yourself. If you're presenting in front of a large group or you're doing a webinar, you'll be surprised. People will hit your Facebook page. They'll hit your LinkedIn profile. They'll visit your website page. You want them to do that. That's a good thing. Just make sure that it's ready for it. Make sure that that embarrassing post is down or gone. And make sure that your contact information is up and available. And also, as always, you want to end on a good slide that has your contact information. So people can reach out to you. And I recommend inviting the audience members to reach out to you. Presenting in front of a large group is an exciting thing. And it has a lot of benefits. And if you do it right, if you come across well, and if you're not too salesy, you'll absolutely get more exposure. And it'll lead to more business and maybe more speaking engagements. Thank you for watching. And I want to invite you to visit my website BlazerSales.com where you'll find more content. If you learned something new today, please hit the like button and subscribe to the channel.