Have any of these happened to you?

1. Slow down your speaking. Have you ever been given this advice? You might think that the way to make this work is to add time to your presentation.

Better? Cut unnecessary content.

2. The speaker before you went over time. Should you just plow through your complete presentation? Even while the audience is checking in with their watches, and out on you?

Cut content.

3. We’re you asked to do your 40-minute keynote in 20 minutes? Should you plan to speed up your presentation?

You guessed it…cut content.

Is there a trick? No, just a process:

First, go back to the beginning. Ask yourself, “What is the point you expect your audience to walk away with?” Craig Valentine calls this your foundational phrase. If you can’t get it to 10 words or less, your audience won’t get it either.

Next, look at the content that doesn’t support this phrase. We all love anecdotes and quotes that sound good. Stephen Covey says, “Be Proactive”. If you only include them because they sound good without really supporting your point, you need to let them go. Cut them. Now.

Do you have any activities? Can you bring in something that takes less time? Maybe you can take that 5-minute group activity and replace it with a 2-minute one. I did that recently at a training…oh wait…you don’t need to hear that.

Take a close look at the stories you use. Do your stories have characters that aren’t important to the point? Are there any superfluous words or phrases? Let them go.

Are you adding commentary? Sometimes this may be valuable, but not always. Be sure adding your opinion supports the audiences needs. If you are doing it for yourself, cut it.

Having to figure out how to speak less can be annoying, but if you avoid cramming information in you can avoid cramming your audience out. It’s tough to do the first few (hundred) times, but once you master the skill of cutting out unnecessary content, you’ll be more effective when you do speak, and you’re audience will be more likely to want to hear you again.

1. Get feedback at every level. Ask someone, in advance, to give you an evaluation. Make it from a manual (CC projects # 2-6 always work, 9 and 10 may work as well) and ask them to keep the judging criteria in mind when they do. Use a different project each time you give the speech (both in practice at your club and at contests). This should be in addition to your coach (if you have one) so you get a fresh perspective.

Why? It blows me away to see someone not do well, then ask what they could have done differently. Some will even say, “I wish I could hear what the judges were looking for.” You don’t want to hear from them. They took just one minute to decide on your score. Then they concentrated on the next speaker. Get someone good to pay attention to you, and get some feedback you can use.

2. Don’t worry about the judges. Yeah, that’s easy to say, but there is more to winning a contest than being liked by the judges. Plus, they can tell when a speaker is talking just to them.

Why? They are looking for your skill as a speaker, and some things they take into account are how you reach your audience, and how the audience reacts to you. Make sure to remember your audience before you speak.

3. Watch your competition. See as much of them as you can stand. Visit other clubs (don’t judge – that’s a rules violation) and other Area and Division contests when you can. Carpool if you need to. Others are going.  

Why? There are some great techniques on display, and some colossal blunders you may want to avoid. Plus, seeing how different speakers use different room configurations and how audiences react can teach you volumes to improve your own speaking ability.

4. Get some help. I mentioned a coach in #1 above. There are professional options, but you don’t have to spend money to get help. You just have to decide how much time you have, and how much time/help you’ll need. Sometimes members of your club or a nearby club may be willing to help you. Just ask. Chances are you can find someone willing to help, even if it’s just a little.

Why? Practice helps you, but without feedback it has little value. It’s good to have someone to help you focus your practice and serve as a filter for all of the suggestions you’re going to hear.

5. Remember, it’s about being the best speaker, not just having the best speech. This one is a lot like #2 – easy to say, hard to prove. After all, the greatest speaker in the world won’t win with a dull, boring speech. But then, the greatest speaker in the world wouldn’t give a dull, boring speech either. The best would know their audience, know their message, and know themselves.

Why? That’s just how it is.

This advice may not be for you, but if you are in it to win it, you might want to consider doing more than you have before. Do your best…be your best…that’s what competing and winning is all about.

Editors note: If you are thinking about professional coaching, check out World Champions EDGE (Affiliate link). This is a great resource, and the first month is just $1.

It was a couple of days before I went back to do it, and I noticed something interesting. When I went to their profiles, I noticed that they had both written recommendations recently on mutual friends. As I looked at the timeline, it went something like this.

1. Ask for recommendation
2. Get recommendation
3. Write recommendation in return

If you’re struggling to get recommendations, why not write the “return” recommendation first? After all, if you feel that way about them it should be natural for you to simply write the recommendation. Then a bit later you can ask them to reciprocate.

Added bonus: writing recommendations can be difficult, and doing so well is a great skill to have. Write as many as you can, and you’ll keep getting better at it. Of course, only write what is true – and only accept recommendations that are true about you. The last thing you want in an interview is to have the employer say, “I saw on your LinkedIn profile where John Smith recommended you based on your recent internship at NASA.”

You’ll probably find that the recommendations you receive are written better, because you’ve done something nice for them first.

Now that I’ve given you some good advice, please like me…

1. I don’t believe in resolutions, I set goals.
2. I don’t believe in resolutions, no one keeps them.
3. I don’t believe in resolutions.

Why do you limit yourself?

Let me rephrase, why do so many people consider the word resolution so toxic? Is it really because you don’t want to change anything, improve, or get better at something? I can’t believe that.

Is it because so many resolutions seem to fail? What about goals? Promises? I wonder if there’s a stat to tell us what the best word is for resolution.

What’s the best word for you? That’s the real question. Don’t get stuck “being cool” by not having a resolution. Pick the goal, plan, outcome, resolution, or whatever your favorite word is and do it.

A lavaliere microphone
The audience needs to be able to hear the speaker on stage, and no matter how well I think I project, the fact is any room with more than 50 people in it should be served by some type of microphone/speakers.

A perpetually full glass of room-temperature water
It depends on how long I’ll be stranded on stage, but I know I can’t speak to a group for more than 20 minutes without needing at least a sip.

My notes
Of course I know my material, but I never know what kind of distraction might take me off course and require a quick glance to be sure I cover everything I intended.

My handouts
It’s nearly always a good idea to provide materials to the audience. Plus, I can include information on other services and I like to send out a sign-up list.

My Flip video camera (I still can’t believe they discontinued those)
I always want to record my presentations. As valuable as other evaluations are, nothing beats watching my own presentation to see what I really did.

Your list might be different, but these items serve to make a pretty sound presentation. What’s on your list?

How can that be? I was wondering that too, at first. It’s simple if you think about it. Lets say you have a group of tasks that you need help with. It doesn’t even matter what they are, or when you need them. Now, add in an e-mail from me that says, “How can I help?”

Do you send me the first task on the list? Do you send me something simple that I can’t screw up? How do you decide? How do you even start to figure it out?

This question comes up in my mind because of my work in Toastmasters. There is a lot of work to be done, and a lot of potential volunteers out there. The trick is trying to match the needs with the skillsets, which I’m sure is a common problem in any volunteer organization, and even in the corporate settings.

So what is the solution? I think that it comes in two parts. First, you have to be able to define your need. I say that, knowing that even well polished job descriptions coupled with accurate and truthful resumés don’t often lead to good matches in the corporate settings. However, you can’t let the difficulty of doing the job right paralyze you from doing the job, right?

Second, you want to get your volunteer pool to shift gears and start providing you with ideas on how they can help, not just offers of help. As an example, I recently had one volunteer step back due to some scheduling issues. Before I had a chance to look for a replacement, I received a request from another member to step in and help with an important task that was needed in the short term (next two weeks). That was far better that 6 “How can I help?” messages.

What’s my strategy? I’ve been working with our team to put together specific needs, much like job descriptions. This can work in your small business or Toastmasters club too. Define the job and see who fits the bill. If you can’t find anyone, change the description and see if you get the right experience to at least cover a portion of the job.

How do you get them used to volunteering for specific tasks? You have to be specific.

What is the job?
What is the importance? To whom?
What is time requirements?
What are the travel and communication requirements?
Who do they report to?
What defines success?

There are probably other questions, but answer those above and you’ll likely have a description someone can understand and decide on.

I recently tried this in our TM District, sending a brief description to 101 Club VPs of Membership. I receive about 7 positive responses, and ended up with 4 volunteers for jobs we had never filled before. So far so good – and more will be coming.

If you’re like me and you have tasks that need to be done, whether in a volunteer organization or a small business, take the time to outline your need first. Then you can answer the folks who ask the tough question, ”How can I help?”

More importantly (as we enter the contest season), how do you give a winning evaluation?

First – Open Strong. The first words out of your mouth should be something great about the presentation. i.e. “Mike, it’s clear that you did quite a bit of research to bring us this presentation, and it showed. Mister Contest Master, fellow toastmasters and guests, Mike’s speech really hit the mark today, wouldn’t you agree?” Find something that you saw the audience react to and use it to get them to agree with you early.

Avoid: “For the next 3 minutes and 30 seconds…” in your intro. It’s redundant, it wastes time, and worst of all is says your main concern is the clock, not the speaker.

Next - Be Specific. There’s nothing more useless than hearing “if you made your closing longer, it would have made the speech stronger.” Really? You don’t say? Your advice is “add more closing”?

Try this: “Teresa, your closing felt rushed to me. You want to accomplish a couple of things during that time. One, summerize your points, and two, leave us with your best takeaway. When you see the green light, that should be your cue to finish up your last main point. Be done by the yellow and you’ll have time for a complete closing…”

Always – Care. They can tell when you don’t. This starts before the speaker is introduced. You have to approach the evaluation as if the speaker came to you and said, “My job depends on getting this right. Can you help me?” If your goal isn’t to help the speaker, then the judges probably won’t help you.

Finally – Summarize and be positive. The most important feedback you can give is to tell them what they specifically did well, and how to repeat it.

Avoid: “I look forward to your next speech.” Not because it’s trite, but because it’s vague. Be specific. Give them a reason you’re looking forward to the next speech, “John, You really hit the nail on the head with your woodworking tips, and I look forward to seeing how you’re next speech will give us more cool ideas for home improvement.”

Other thoughts: I’ve seen quite a few techniques, like G.L.O.V.E.,  A.C.E. and others used in competition, and the results are mixed. When I watch these evaluations, I ask myself is what you’re doing for the speaker or for yourself? If you use one of those techniques, it’s for the speaker. If you spend time describing it first, then it’s for you. Make sense?

Will these tips gaurentee you a win? Of course not. But if you open strong, care, and be specific in your feedback you’ll be competitive and more importantly you’ll help your speaker keep getting better. Isnt’ that what it’s really about?

The important question is how does this advice affect you?  Is this where your next speech comes from, where your next project comes from, where your next success comes from?

The notes from the Edge Summit are presented in chronological order. If you have some thoughts I missed, feel free to e-mail me at contact@robchristeson.com and I’ll include them here with attribution and a link (if you want). Please note that links to the Edge site are affiliate links.

Also, I’ve done my best to properly attribute information as I typed it in the session. Most of what you read here comes from World Champions Darren LaCroix, Ed Tate, Craig Valentine or Lance Miller from the Edge event. Mark Brown also participated remotely, and some material comes from the awesome Alan Weiss and the amazing Patricia Fripp. If you do spot any errors or omissions, they are unintentional and I’ll correct them immediately.

Here we go…
“Ya ain’t gonna learn any younger” – Lance Miller quoting advice he received from a story about learning to back up a semi trailer truck.

lightbulb moment – think chandelier moment – Maureen Zapalla

Three questions you should ask about your business
why you?
who will pay?
how will I reach them?

Topics members wanted to discuss (questions in bold)
coaching – developing a multi-session plan (this one didn’t get touched on) 

marketing a seminar - 3 months out – marketing blasts – touch multiple times – research says you can reach out to customers 220 times per year without annoying them – multiple items (e-mail, Facebook, twitter, etc.)

what 3 tips for the 73 people who didn’t make the finals - there were some thoughts later on the finals, read my notes here: http://robchristeson.com/toastmasters-why-you-wont-win-your-contest

Selling from the back of the room - selling without annoying people (SWAP) – sell another’s program before selling your own – Seeding (plant seeds) – weaving () – you aren’t selling products,you’re selling results
Lance – going from zero to moving – change from manipulating your client to helping them – 1. believe in the product, 2. care about the customer, 3. 
Craig – everybody has a story to tell, but rarely do they get to tell it, because (wait for it) everybody has a story to tell. Be the one to listen to other peoples stories.
#1 reason they buy – confidence in you – confidence comes from familiarity – familiarity comes from repeated exposure – sell the results (Craig’s car story) – put the result before the resource – not just for products, but in your speech too
Lance- present and ask for feedback – take the materials that work and use them to make your product

Ed – retention after 48 hours – 10 percent; take notes – 50 percent; notes and discuss – 75 percent; notes, discuss, and teach – 82 percent after one year

Should you have a book first, DVD, or other product?
Craig – never create a product without teaching it several times first – your first product should be an audio CD

Details about being a small business
Ed – this is a business first, you speak second. If you don’t treat it as a business, you won’t get to do either. More will come in the 2-day Get Paid to Speak seminar.

Using YouTube, how much is too much - embrace the concept of abundance – answer the question – 2-3 minutes – give a next step (more below)

Craig – recommended a book – Launch by Michael Stelzner

Maleki (District 71) – Take the Talent to Training and the Treasure will come out – not about the price, it’s about the process

“Be careful not to keep your ego to close to your position, if you lose your position, your ego will go with it” – Colin Powell quoted by Ed

Ed – the word is receiving – 3rd place Scott Pritchard stayed on stage after speaking and saying “mister contest master” (at the finish) and smiled at the audience for about 10 seconds – what’s the word? receiving

Ed – number one job of a speaker is to make an impact – not to be liked

Ed – Talk in Tweets (talk in sound bytes) <–blog topic

Craig – speaking in sound bytes creates a memorable message – what is his focus? two words – touch lives – before you speak, say “please help me forget myself, remember my speech and touch my audience”

Lance – conviction – convict – what happened to become a convict – trial with evidence beyond a reasonable doubt – conviction is having a position you believe beyond a reasonable doubt 
- passion – in dictionary, passion came from ancient word for suffer. 
Practice to execution ratio (pro football)
Passion are those things that we do that we would suffer through without feeling like we are suffering
Sincere – means we have a clean, clear message
Do a raffle for your product- collect business cards and draw one to get a free copy of your product. Be clear “I’m going to email you with an option to opt in” so they know why you’re collecting the cards

Ed – Presentation variety- in order to maintain peoples attention, change your delivery method every 5- 10 minutes (I.e. You talking, asking questions, audience interactions, etc.)

Ed asked a few of us to run the 10 minute review after lunch
Take one minute and review your notes and write down your three favorite tweets or sound bytes of the morning. – you will learn…
Instruct online folks to tweet to hashtag Championsedge 
Take two minutes to turn to your neighbor and choose your best tweet
Next we go one group per row to give their top tweet
Maureen will write them down

general or specialist? – start with what you know – package/title it in what they want Book “how to earn more than a million dollars …”  

“the Psychology of Money” – became  ”the millionaire mindset”
“anatomy of an audience” – “connect with any audience”

Esteem
Do
Gain
Enjoy

Craig – touch all 4 categories to reach your audience
Darren – start with 3 topics, 2 specific and 1 general (or 1 and 2)
Craig – your audience is going to come up and tell you what you are speaking about – “never strike oil by digging an inch deep”
Ed – you can also specialize by delivery methods – be known as “the person who is known as…”

Make three colums – Experience     Delivery     Results

Experience
Specifics about your experience

Delivery
Speech          
Seminar
Book
Process CD

Results
increase profits
decrease costs
decrease turnover

Homework – flesh this list out for yourself

Mine – Experience
Teaching
PM Increase knowledge (anecdotal)
Military
Logistics
Supervision
Evaluations
Speaking
Blogging
Writing

My Delivery
Blog
Speaking
Seminars
Lunch ‘n learn

My Results
Increase productivity
Decrease turnover
hmmmmm….(homework)

 
Focus on results, not experience and delivery – discuss results, leave out experience and delivery – Craig, focus on the pain – ask questions and turn their pain into your promise

Social Media is a hot topic right now – Be careful about speaking about making money with social media when your aren’t making money yourself (credibility)

Marketing a seminar - sign up on edtate.com - special report 
Ed – make sure that you have enough time i.e. three months to market it
Delivery mechanism – e-mail, linkedin, postcards, newspaper, business journal,
Darren – web page – convert them – title – split test to find best conversion method
Shopping cart – all three of them use the same one speaker resources.com

6- minutes to a keynote
Craig – structure – you have 7 seconds before they decide if they like you, 30 seconds before they decide to check out. Open with a question or a story – then make a big promise. i.e “By the time you leave here today, you will have the tools… you will have ideas…etc.” Then the roadmap. “…and these come to you in the form of 4 R’s to remarkable results”
10-1 rule of thumb, 1 story/point to every 10 minutes
Phrase
Anchor – what’s loose is lost – Acronym, anecdote, analogy, activity
Reflection – Take your story and have them reflect on how it affects them
Technique – how do they practice it i.e. “write down your perfect day”
Sale – Push them into the Pull – Push away from what they want to avoid and pull them toward what they want
Use the PAR for newer speakers

Demo video - less than 10 minutes on site (have report, need to have a point, need solid audio) – less than 10 seconds on who you are
YouTube 2-3 minutes (1 minute if you can) – 1 video, 1 purpose, 1 next step. no more than 3 scenes (locations)

you must package your process in order to profit

Ed- what do you want people to Know Feel or Do

Darren – watch the first 5 minutes of a movie – notice how they are introducing characters through dialog
Time management from NSA
Focus day – product, speaking
Administrative day – mundane activities
Free day  - free of everything – phone, e-mail, etc. 
Same model for athletes and entertainers

Darren -every time you speak, build your list – then, touch your list – at least once a month
Do interviews
an a-ha moment is a letting-go of a previous belief 

Charles speech (coached on-site)

longer pause after first “so was I”
pauses

“do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Concluded twice 

too many I’s, My’s and Me’s

My homework:

Work on 52bloggingtips.com – finish creating the tips and start filming videos

Talk to the Human
New tagline – an IT guys perspective on communicating with real people

Affiliate link alert: World Champions EDGE. This link will take you to the Edge website, where you can see some free materials or sign up for just $1 for the first month.

If I asked you wether you not you had already read the information on TI’s website about the rebranding, including how the tagline, Where Leaders Are Made, comes from I imagine I would see very few hands come up.

I’ve heard and read comments just this  week about how TI “messed up” by removing communication from the tagline. 

Oops. Maybe you aren’t reading it right. Why do I say that? Because communication IS in our tagline, Where Leaders Are Made. 

Don’t see it? Read it again – Where Leaders Are Made. Now let’s try an exercise. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Now open your eyes. Picture a leader you respect, admire, or simply choose to follow. Are you thinking of one now? Did that leader struggle to make their point? Did they fail to inspire with their words regularly? Did they usually seem scattered and disoriented when dealing with others? 

Probably not.

In being great leaders they were, by definition, great communicators. 

Prove me wrong. Pick someone you respect as a leader, someone you follow willingly, someone you emulate, and if they can’t communicate, comment with their name, and why it is that you do follow them. 

Remember some leaders use a different formula than 5-7 minutes. Some don’t even blog. If your favorite leader is a man of few words, like your Grandfather, and you followed him because he communicated with his actions, well…leading by example is communication.

Take a few minutes, and check www.toastmasters.org/vbp for more information, including a downloadable Brand Manual with more specifics. Look at slides 11-17 for details. 

By better understanding the connection you can answer those questions that may come when you say, “I’m a Toastmaster, Where Leaders Are Made.”   

I’ve never had a boss respond positively to that kind of statement. Do you know why?

1. Waiting implies inaction. No…actually waiting says “I’m not taking any action at this time.”
2. When your next action is to wait on someone else, it sounds like you’re passing the buck. Oops…you are passing the buck.
3. Waiting means you have no plan for your own next action, until you get the thing from what’s-his-name.

Once, a long time ago, when I used the “I’m waiting” answer on my boss, I learned fast and quick what a mistake that was. My boss told me, “Rob, when you say ‘waiting‘, I hear ‘failing‘.”

“But, I am waiting!!!”

“Not anymore, Rob. Go do something.”

What do you do?

#1 – Don’t wait, follow up. – “Hey boss, I followed up with Mike this morning and…”

#2 – Don’t assign work without a due date, or expected response time. – “…he said he would have the documents to us by 0800 tomorrow…”

#3 – Have a next step for yourself. – “…once I have them, I’ll have the summary to you by noon.”

#4 – Be ready for “what if…?” – “If I don’t have them by 0800, I’ll be parked at his desk until he’s done!”

Lots of people fall into the “I’m waiting” trap everyday. If you adjust how you handle the wait and how you communicate it, you’ll receive fewer stern looks from the boss, and you’ll avoid that perception…you know, the one where the boss wonders are you waiting, or are you failing?