Bad news – “Before I begin…” was, well, before…you…began…

That’s right, once your introduction is complete, everything you say is counted against your time. If your boss asked you to provide 1-2 minutes on a project, if you start with, “Before I begin, I just want to thank my team and…” you have used time in the 1-2 minutes she gave you.

That is, if you spend one minute with “before I begin” and two minutes about the topic, you’ve used 3 minutes of your boss’s time.

The same is true for stage speaking, and Toastmasters. Note: in Toastmasters some timers will erroneously allow “before I begin” to delay starting your clock. If you notice, the clock on the wall is still running…

So what’s the point?

1. Respect your audience. Everything you say is part of everything you say. Don’t pretend you get “bonus time” just by uttering a few magic words. You’re still using their time.

2. Be prepared. If you have “before I begin” remarks, then you’ll need to shorten your other content to stay on time. In some cases, you may be able to ask the introducer to include some informations in the introduction for you.

3. Get help. If you need to have handouts or special instructions, talk to someone in advance about getting the materials out or the instructions to the introducer.

Once you’ve taken the stage, you’re on the clock. Ask for help when you need it, be prepared and show that you respect your audience’s time. There is no phantom time, so before I conclude I just want to say, “Use the real time you have wisely.”

1. Don’t add words. Rich descriptions can make a story more real to the audience, but not every scene needs to be literature.

Better – mix the rich descriptive scenes with short descriptions for extras. For instance, if you have a short dialog with a coworker, tell us their height, type of clothing and maybe one other thing. Don’t give us their college background, family stats and more just for them to deliver one line. Save the (slightly) longer descriptions for main characters and scenes.

Example: “Martin was a typical well-dressed IT guy, about my height. He said, ‘Rob, I have no idea.’”

2. Don’t add body language. Just like above, creating additional opportunities for (or adding) gestures and movement can come off as fake.

Better – be natural. I saw one speaker describe his dream as occurring between the time the sun sets in the west and rises in the east [paraphrased - his version was longer]. As he did this, he brought one hand high to represent the sun and lowered it dramatically, then raised the other hand high to represent the rising sun. Since that isn’t how many people describe sleeping/dreaming, it came off as fake, and so the gestures looked added as well.

Example: “I awoke to realize this had just been a dream” – add a surprised or anxious look as you say “awoke”.  Maybe even have a slight shudder or other action to convey the shock or other feelings.

3. Don’t tell the audience you’re encouraging, inspiring, or challenging us, just do it. I’ve heard a number of great stories, followed by one or two points I should feel challenged to take. Adding your points on at the end seems, well…added.

Better – add the interaction into the story. Don’t wait until you’ve finished the story to ask, “has that ever happened to you?” or tell me “don’t wait until it’s too late…”.

Example: When you’re with your dying Grandmother, step out of the story to ask the audience, “have you ever waited to tell someone what they mean to you?” Then, using it in the conclusion is a callback to the story, not an add-on.

Avoid adding things to your delivery that don’t add to your speech. Simply uncover what’s already there. Include appropriate descriptions, movement and interaction and you’ll connect with your audience. That’s what makes a great speech, and during the contest that’s what the judges are looking for.

If you answered “no”to these questions, you’re probably normal in that regard. But, would the answer be the same if your audience of one was an audience of 10, 100 or more? Why not?

Involving the audience seems to be a difficult skill for many speakers to learn. That’s probably why it is so refreshing when we see it. Why is it so tough for speakers?

1. It’s how we’re trained. Think about it – almost every form of training for speakers teaches us to present to the audience. Only after the fear is reduced and the skills emerge do we start to train to engage the audience.

2. It’s hard. It does sound easy though, doesn’t it? “Ask questions.” But giving control to an audience member can be scary, and not knowing how to maintain control of the overall session can lead to problems and maybe worse.

How do we overcome those two problems?

Let’s look at how by addressing one of the ways speaking can be broken down, to give us a plan of attack. We’ll start with these three key components:

Know your self
Know your message
Know your audience

In the training environments I discussed, we mostly focus on the “know yourself” aspect of speaking. Understanding basic skills like organization, vocabulary, body language, vocal variety and other basic components allow you to improve your comfort and confidence to stand in front of a group and speak.

You’re never finished with this aspect of learning, but once you understand the basics you can work on more advanced skills while improving these concurrently.

Knowing you message is the next step, and is where many speakers get stuck. After all, it’s important to have accurate data and useful information for your audience, right? Many speakers feel that if they have the right information, the right slides, and the right technique then they’ll be successful. Sometimes they’re right, even if they aren’t as successful as they could be.

The reason you’re never finished here is different than the basic skills. Here, your repertoire will keep expanding as you continue to speak and gain experience. Also, some experiences (and stories) will become outdated and need to be retired from your catalog.

Knowing your audience is the critical key to success as a speaker, and it’s also the key to comfort in interacting with them and creating the best connection. That is, this is how you uncover the best results. It’s about more than demographics, although those can be important too. It’s about experience and expectations. What experience does your audience already have, and what do they reasonably expect to get from attending your session?

You may wonder, “how do I do that?” After all, this may be an audience you’ve never seen before.

First – ask. Start with the meeting organizer to get a baseline expectation and understanding of the size and composition of your audience. Don’t stop there. At the event, but prior to your presentation, talk to attendees and see where they are coming from, and what they expect. Learn a few names and stories so you can connect better with them.

Next – ask from the stage. To get the best connection and interaction, lead the audience with questions. Some rhetorical and some that require some sort of response. If your speech is the Toastmasters 5-7 minute variety, you may not need much interaction. But, if you’re doing a 20 minute session, or a 40-60 minute breakout, you’ll need to interact with the audience in a few times, at least.

Then – callback. As you learn from your audience, you need to callback to those responses later in your presentation. In this way, you strengthen your connection by showing that you heard and understood their response and that their opinion/story/etc. fit right in with what they’re learning from you. (Here’s a previous post on callbacks)

Finally – follow up. Is your job done when the speech is over? Probably not. Be available for follow-ups after the event, and make yourself available via e-mail or through your web page. This not only shows you care about more than the paycheck (or free publicity), but will help you make adjustments for future presentations.

Just like speaking to a friend or your boss, don’t monopolize the conversation in front of any audience. Get them involved early and often. You’ll connect, be memorable, and get called back. They may even clap when you’re done…

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.

He likened this to how being a speaker is like having a store, with a storefront, shelves and a check out counter while having no product on the shelves. If you were going to start a business, you would start with a product and then open the store.

Imagine if you instead opened a store and then when people stopped by to shop, saw the empty store and asked what your product was. Your reply – “what do you need?”

The real question to ask yourself isn’t “can I be a professional speaker?” It’s “What do I have to offer my audience?” If you can answer that, then you have something to put on the shelves.

I watch a lot of people working on improving their speaking ability, and they tend to fall into two camps: those who seek help to become better and those that don’t.

Those that look for help and listen to the advice they’re given progress at a better rate than they would without the help. This is probably, in part, because seeking help also means doing more work. After all, if you don’t ask for help, you don’t have work to do to implement any improvements, since none are being offered.

If you are one struggling to ask for help, you could start by asking yourself “why?”

- Do you think you don’t need it? Try asking and find out if you see improvement

- Do you think you don’t know anyone who could help? Start by asking for a recommendation – someone to help you find help

- Do you think no one is good enough to help? Narrow your focus – instead of looking for someone to help you be a better speaker, try finding someone who can help with storytelling, or using visual aides or maybe just someone to help manage Q&A sessions better

There is always room for improvement, but it can be difficult to do in a vacuum. Try getting a coach to help you with some aspect of your speaking and see the dramatic difference a little help can make.

You may have heard the old reference that 80% of all statistics are made-up. Well, it seems like 95% of the time I hear about “everybody”, it doesn’t apply to me.

The corollary to this overused word? “Nobody”. As in “nobody does that anymore”, or “nobody likes congress.” It may even feel true sometimes, but the next time you use the word everybody or nobody, remember that you may alienate part of your audience. The part that isn’t nobody…

Simple vs. Easy

These words are not only used interchangeably, but also as a redundant pair on a regular basis. If fact, it is simple and easy to use these words incorrectly.

If you find the difference confusing, think of them like this: It’s simple to get more aerobic activity in your life, just walk for an hour each day. However, that may not be easy for everyone.

Necessary vs. Sufficient

These don’t get mixed up by the author or speaker so much, but sometimes by the listener. For example, it’s considered necessary to have valuable content in your blog for it to be a success. But all the great content in the world won’t insure success. It is necessary to have that content, but not sufficient. When you’re giving advice about things that have to happen, it may be important to mention that more may be needed.

Think about weight-loss ads that say “success is not typical.” That’s because their products were just one of the necessary steps in the overall program that made the photos you see happen.

What kind of word misuse do you encounter? Better, which ones have you misused yourself?

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?

1. Toastmasters has the flexibility to let you choose your path to success.

Many Toastmasters fall into one of three groups: getting over your fear of speaking, trying to become a better speaker, and enjoying the experience with friends. Note: you may be in one, two, or all three categories at different times or all at once.

If you’re working to get over your fear, there is some value in mixing up your topic selection more often than not. You need to focus on being comfortable, and finding your voice (and topic) is important there. Using a variety of topics can help you find your strengths and improve where you may not have known you needed to.

When you’re working to improve your skills, now may be the time to revisit some recent topics. Take what you’ve done before, work in some of your recent improvements (i.e. different opening, more audience interaction, etc.) and get more (fresh) feedback. This is especially helpful if you have something you need to do well at work, or even when you are competing in a Toastmaster contest.

Do you just like enjoying the experience with friends? It can be good to revisit some topics here too. I recently gave a speech on Fantasy Football to one club. It was fun for me, but the audience had very few football fans. I knew another club had some sports fans, so I modified the speech a bit and gave it again. I added five jerseys to my wardrobe, and pulled one off per main point. It added some humor and made it fun for me and the audience too.

2. Great speakers and leaders aren’t born, they’re made.

Two things amaze me. One is the person who make a dramatic improvement by working on their skills, integrating feedback, and continuing to want to improve. Second is the person who hides behind the “great leaders (or speakers) are born” myth.

3. Someone is glad you are (were) a member.

If you are a member, chances are really good that at least one person is glad you are. In fact, there are probably three, four or maybe dozens who are glad you’re taking the time to come out to meetings, speak, evaluate, and be involved.

If you stopped going to Toastmasters, I’d make some good money betting that at least one member misses you. Maybe it was your unique take on the Wicked Witch of the West (probably copyrighted), your great tips for their speeches (or blog), or perhaps just your smile. Don’t hold it against them if they were to shy to say “thank you” or just mention that you are great. After all, they’re there to get over their fear too.

Think about this: what brought you here? Specifically, what were you looking for when you first visited a Toastmasters club? What were you looking for when you joined? Are you still looking?

Another safe bet? You can find it. That confidence, that skill, that greatness you’re looking for. Next time you go to a club meeting, ask for it by name. You’ll find people there that are ready in willing to help you reach your goals.

What are your three lessons?