SPECIAL EPISODE!! 🎤 Public Speaking Advice That's All Backwards | Ep. 533

0:01Welcome to Do This, Not That, the podcast for marketers. We share quick tips, things you can do right now, and then we add a little bit of chaos at the end of every episode. We also keep it short, like this intro. Let's check it out. We are back for Do This, Not That, and this is a special bonus episode. Trying this format out, I released this video on YouTube, and it's all about my secret tips to the best way to do public speaking. When I say public speaking, I'm not just talking about on a big stage or whatever. I'm talking about on a Zoom with five people, in a conference room with six people, when you're talking to your boss, the person that you're working with, whatever.

0:40These are my secret tips to presenting, period. I hope they're useful. Hope you like this format. And here's a special bonus episode. Check it out. Speaking in front of groups of people can be hard. It doesn't matter if you're speaking to five people on a Zoom, seven people in a conference room, hundreds of people if maybe you're on stage at a conference. It's hard. It's hard to grab their attention. It's hard to not be boring, and it's hard to not be nervous. And the majority of information that's out there about public speaking are from people that are just epically boring, and they're just wrong.

1:11I've given over 300 major speeches and keynotes. I've spoken in front of tens of thousands of people, and I know the stuff that you should never do and the stuff that you must do. And again, this applies to if you're speaking to five people on a Zoom, 10 people in a conference room, in a classroom. It doesn't matter. You have to grab their attention. So the first never do is to never start out your speech with a slide or something that says, these are the five things that we're going to go over now, or these are the seven things I'm going to cover in this talk. That is so boring. Why? Because the person that's sitting there, that's listening to you, all that they're thinking about is, oh my God, there's going to be seven more of these things and they can't take it.

1:53Never show that list of all the things that you're going to go over. That crushes, that destroys engagement. Now, the other thing you never want to say when you are starting at your speech or any point in your speech or when you're presenting is the words later on. If you say later on, we're going to be discussing whatever. All that you are saying is there's going to be more epically boring stuff that you're going to be sharing. Later on equals boring. ring. Now, the other thing you want to never, ever do is memorize your speech. This is the opposite of what you're going to hear from all sorts of other people talking about speaking to groups.

2:30They say, oh, when you're presenting that important thing, you want to make sure you memorize your speech. It could be that 10-person presentation you're doing over Zoom to really important people in your company. It could be in front of your classroom. It could be that big speech. Memorize your speech. That's the way to go. Garbage. There is nothing more boring than listening to somebody that has memorized their speech. They're not in it. They have no emotion. They're not invested in what they're saying. They're just trying to get through it. Now, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't practice.

3:02You got to practice what you're going to be speaking about or else you're going to have no clue, but you don't want to memorize every single word. Now, the secret to practicing is you always want to practice with the TV on. What? Why would you want to do that? Because most people practice in these isolated rooms. They're very quiet. There's no noise. There's nobody moving around. But guess what? When you actually go to give that presentation, okay, there are going to be people on Zoom turning their camera on and off. There are going to be people in that conference room that are standing up, checking their phone, their ringer is going to go off.

3:33And if you happen to be on stage somewhere, forget it. There's going to be all sorts of noise. When you practice with your TV on, you're creating an environment that is more similar, more similar to what you're actually going to be doing. Now, the thing that you always want to be thinking about when you're starting out your presentation, that speech, speaking to that small group, that big group, doesn't matter. In the first 90 seconds, you want to hook them in. A lot of people make the mistake of they save their best stuff for last. Whatever is the most exciting thing that you got, that really cool stat, that new trend that nobody knows about, that trick that nobody's heard about, whatever it is, you share that in the first 90 seconds.

4:12Why? You get them hooked in. If you save it for the end, guess what? Nobody cares at the end. They're barely paying attention. That doesn't work. Share the most important thing you got first. The other key thing is to be relatable. You want to connect with whoever it is you're speaking to. They want to connect with you. When you start out with something like this, isn't it the worst when blah, blah, blah happens? And that happens to me too. And this is how you can solve for that. Instantly, the person's like, oh, they get it. They have the same issues that I do and they know how to get past it.

4:48When you say, hey, you had this pain point, I had the same pain point, and this is how you get past it. It is relatable. You connect with whoever it is that you are speaking to. Now, the other thing you want to think about is filling the space. And this is something people don't do enough of. If you're on Zoom, you can't just sit there like this and be boring. If you're on a stage, you can't be behind a podium and be like this and just be like boring. You need to move your arms. You need to move your body. You need to stand up and walk around. You need to use your hands. You need to have the energy for everybody that's watching.

5:22If you are monotone, if you don't move around, it's not going to work. Fill up whatever space, fill up the screen, fill up anything, your environment with you. That gets people engaged all the time. Now, the other thing you always want to be thinking about is catering to everyone. You never want to make anybody feel stupid. If there are acronyms in your speech, the ABM, the CTA, the whatever, you need to say what those words are. You cannot say anything that's super high up there that no one's going to understand or a few people won't understand because it turns them off. They're like, oh, I don't know what that means.

5:59You make them feel stupid. You make sure that you are catering to everybody when you speak, that there's nothing that you're saying that everybody can't understand And you define the things that there's even a slight chance, a slight chance that somebody doesn't know about. Now, some of you out there might be nervous. Maybe you're nervous to speak publicly. And I get that. That makes a lot of sense. Everybody has nerves, no matter what they say. Here's a trick that I do whenever I speak that always calms me down. If I'm going on a Zoom, if I'm in a conference room, if I'm going on a big stage, before I speak, like I'll be there a few minutes early, I try to talk to one to two people, either on that zoom in that conference room in the audience, I'll go up and I'll say, Hey, you know, where are you from?

6:45Oh, what do you got going on? Say, what are you doing this weekend? You know, what other sessions have you been at that you found interesting? What are you hoping to get out of this? So you connect with one to two people and you talk to them like a human being. And all of a sudden it calms you down because you realize, hey, these are people and they're listening to you. They're hoping that you do well. You're hoping you do well. And then all of a sudden, just by connecting to one to two people in that room, it changes everything. When you are speaking, you want to just think about the experience for everybody.

7:17Again, it could be on a Zoom. It could be in a conference room. It could be on a big stage. But ignore the nonsense that's out there and following all the other rules. Think about what you like, what you enjoy, what you like to consume. And that's what other people do also. So public speaking, speaking to a groups is something that everybody needs to do in any capacity in their lives. And learning these little things can make a huge, huge difference. Wait, don't go anywhere. There's two really important things I want to tell you. First off, my book is out. Stupider people have done it. And I don't know how, but this book has made it to the USA Today bestseller list, one of the top books in the entire country.

7:58Now, all net author proceeds are going to the V Foundation for Cancer Research. And between this book and things that we're doing, we've now donated$130 ,000 in the fight against cancer. If you buy this book, if you buy the Kindle, the audio on Amazon, on Barnes & Noble, anywhere, money is going to fight cancer. We need your help. Please grab a copy of Stupider People Have Done It. The second thing is I wanna work with you. I wanna amplify your brand. I want my agency to help you get more customers, more subscribers, more whatever. I want to partner with you in so many different ways. All you got to do is go to jschwedelson.com, jschwedelson.com.

8:37And then there's a button in the upper right-hand corner that says partner. Fill out that form. Let's work together. Let's do stuff. And if this wasn't the worst podcast you've ever heard, it would be amazing if you follow the show, if you leave a comment, if you tell your friends about it, I appreciate you and go out there and crush it.