Two Important Speaking Tips
Here are two really fast and important speaking tips for you to learn and understand. Start with answering your audience’s most pressing question: “what’s in this for me?” And then finish by giving your audience actionable takeaways. Making these two speaking tips top of mind becomes vital in delivering a presentation that matters. Too often, we have a tendency to clear our autobiographical throats before we dig into educating an audience. Then, we end with no real sense of what comes next. This means we leave people excited, but with nothing to do.
What’s In It For Me? (WIIFM?)
Here’s one way to help your audience understand what’s in it for them: start by asking them a question that sounds like it came from right out of their head. If you’re giving a session on how the communications industry will be changed by audio podcasting, ask something like, “Do you think people REALLY believe that podcasting will change the world?”
This is actually two tips in one. It relates to the “what’s in it for me” (WIIFM) issue, but it also does something I love to do in presenting: take away their sword. This means, start by making sure your audience (especially if they’re skeptics) knows that you’re on their side.
So, ask a question that might come from your audience’s head, such that it sets them in the right frame of mind to absorb the brilliance you’re about to bestow upon them.
Takeaways
This is something I learned to do better after working with Stephen Saber at CrossTech Media. He stresses that every presentation I do for the company have five takeaway points: things people can do with the information I’ve given them during the presentation. That’s the whole “next steps” stuff that people seem to crave at events.
Since I started adding “takeaways” to my presentations, in one form or another, I’ve found that people have started to rate my speeches much more useful. I score high on entertainment, but now, with making sure people know what comes next, they also get scored pretty high on usefulness.
Takeaways should be very actionable. If you’ve finished up your speech on how podcasting changes communication, give people an assignment to find five podcasts on iTunes and subscribe for a month. Take notes on the ways each show introduces information, etc. Review your current corporate communications documents. Do any lend themselves to a potential audio format as well?
Things like that.
How These Help
People love structure. In my recent post on Cirque Du Soleil, I failed to note just how structured the experience was from start to finish. From buying tickets to being seated, from the opening curtain to the final bow, everything in the experience was crafted such that we, the audience, didn’t have to think much about the mechanics of the experience. We could just watch the event and absorb the experience.
By starting with WIIFM and ending with 5 takeaways - even if you do it in a creative way that breaks the mold a bit, people will feel like they better understand and appreciate your efforts to educate and entertain them.
Does that make sense? Have you done something like this? How do you improve what I have here?
Photo credit, Brian Solis
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Comments
Chris- Great insight. I work in the hospitality industry and I know I could use these 2 bits of advice while doing staff training. It is so crucial to keep my servers and barstaff interested, not only during the training but for the days to follow as well.
Thanks for sharing.
Chris, this post could not have been more timely for me. With three presentations to prepare in the next month, adding the WIIFM and takeaways has me thinking of how to increase the thought and wow factor. Thanks much!
I wish every presenter followed these tips, Chris!
I’m realizing I should practice this not only with speaking gigs but also my writing.
Thanks for a powerful reminder.
Jeannette
I find it brilliant that you do basically the same thing in your blog posts: those last three questions jolt the casual reader and encourage them to reflect and take action.
So what would be the best way for someone to start getting speaking gigs? THinking Podcamps/Barcamps here… any others?
Your last point about Cirque du Soleil, Chris, reminded me of a concept that Zach Braiker mentioned (albeit not as his own): Return on Experience.
It seems a bit of a fluffy concept at first, but in the digital context alone we emphasize user experience. So in the real world, the WIIFM and Takeaways might just be part and parcel of the “audience’s experience.”
Love the ideas, Chris. Would you consider starting the presentation with the takeaways, so that the audience can think of them in context as the presentation goes on?
These are very interesting. Now, seeing the format, i’m looking forward to seeing them in action in one of your presentations.
Not only is this bang-on for speaking, but for just about any kind of communications, such as blogging. Every blog post can address the want and provide actionable take-aways.
You could even apply this to Twitter… it just might take a few tweets to really do it. ;-)
I always learn so much from your site, thanks for sharing your ideas. I am already looking forward to your next post!
Chris- It’s great to read this after watching you speak (on the panel pictured) this weekend. It’s interesting to see how you come to your conclusions. And, best of all, you come off as laid back, which I think is a great way to get people to realize this doesn’t have to be so stressful.
Great topic and great suggestions Chris.
I just blogged about how speakers at conferences need to remember to speak to their audience and stop reading their speeches. Maybe then we’ll tune in, enjoy it and learn something.
I’m the bad ole’ weirdo, I guess. I think most presentations are already overly structure-bound, most leaving little room for spontaneous anything. I like digression, interaction, repartees, tangents, questions, irreverence, asides. That’s got way more drama, especially with a good speaker, good on his/her feet. I figure this is how Shakespeare would’ve done it.
And I don’t crave action items. It’s just a little too patent. Anything worth doing, I figure is worth THINKING about before I act. I’m wacko, but I think we, most of us, are action-obsessed, at great expense. I’d be refreshed by a speaker who left me with “points to ponder”, leaving actions to my own wherewithalls. And the lecture/seminar/essay are still not dead, all of these posing more questions for thought than they answer in action items.
Sooooo….you can please all of the people some of the time and you can please….well, you know the rest.
For all that, though, striking an ironic pose, I’ll heed your advice, knowing I’m a black sheep minority.
bob
Great advice!
In our presentations about the communications breakdown between suits and geeks our take-aways are small exercises(such as learning one new geek or suit word each week) that are easy to do but keep the audience thinking about our larger points.
As to the take-away-their-sword tactic, I’ll add that it really helps to get some info beforehand about your audience and their beliefs. At least, it seems to be vital for us because some of our audiences need to be convinced that the communications breakdown between business and technology is real and really is harmful–others are already struggling with it and don’t want us wasting their time convincing them that it’s a problem.
Great advice!
Best,
Minda Zetlin
Chris, I see your post is structured in such a way that it cleverly articulates the very two things you’re trying to put across - WIIFM? and Takeaways.
Thanks for the very, very useful tips. Most importantly, they’re easy for folks to understand and put into practice.
Chris,
I have seven tips that I give execs looking to improve their presentation performance.
1. Focus on one idea
2. Give it some structure
3. Be flexible about time
4. Say something interesting (to me) [that’s your WIIFM]
5. Stop repeating yourself
6. Ditch PowerPoint [People HATE this one]
7. Practice, really practice [People REALLY hate this one]
I may have to add one for Takeaways!
You can read the whole (brief) article here on ManageSmarter (http://www.managesmarter.com/msg/content_display/presentations/e3i322308809550e01b88d57f65752adf18)
@ahg3
Arthur Germain
Chris,
Awesome stuff. I spoke at GodblogCon last year at the New Media Expo on using Facebook and MySpace effectively in Youth Ministry…and I wish I had had this post back then. I wonder what takeaways I gave the audience if any.
I was bummed I didn’t meet you this weekend, but my really good friend Matt Singley got to hang with you a bit it seems. As an observer i was super impressed with how accessible you were to everyone at the conf. That speaks volumes….appreciate it and your posts.
rhett smith
Hey Chris,
It was totally fabulous meeting you at BWE!
In addition to takeaways, I suggest that the speaker motivate the audience & challenge them to implement them. Then encourage the audience to provide follow up later in regard to how it went & their suggestions.
A good community bldg tip, eh? It extends the conversation beyond the presentation.
Good food for thought, Chris. I am speaking at a family history conference in November, and I will be seriously reviewing my presentations with your suggestions in mind. Thanks.
Kathryn
1st point is great to hear … i’ve not heard it like that before.
Chris, one question … how do you generally get into the heads of folks to know what question to ask?
@frank - great question. The answer often lies in knowing who’s attending the speech. If you’re speaking at the Blog World and New Media Expo, you can expect that the crowd is half experienced bloggers, 1/4 newbie bloggers, and 1/4 business types trying to figure out the space. How do I know? Ask around. Do a “show of hands” thing with the audience. Find out what people say.
@bad old weirdo Bob- naw, you’ve got your style, and it works for you. When I say do something, I don’t mean run out and immediately start. Instead, I want there to be things to think about so when you go home, you think about those things in a way that might be actionable later. Not immediate.
@Arthur Germain - interesting that you have “stop repeating yourself.” It turns out that, done tastefully and well, repeating one’s self is a really great way to build a theme into someone’s head, and thus make your speech more memorable. You might mean the nervous version of repeating. Non?
@Sean - I’ll blog one up for you, sir.
Chris-
Awesome takeaways post-BWE08. First off, it was finally nice to meet you F2F, and second, where were you in my Public Speaking courses?
The Blogging & PR session still stands out for me, and I shared many of my notes from it with the rest of my PR team today. I love the fact that you hash tagged the session, so we could see what was on others minds.
I agree 100% with you on the actionable takeaway philosophy. There will always be two groups, the “What Am I Going to do Now?” group and the “What I am Going to do Now is…” group. How do we ensure we send out the latter? See above. Thanks for the pointers Chris.
In the Army briefing courses they always said: “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them”. Supposedly there is something powerful about hearing something 3X.
Do you think that technique is too repetitive and formal for general public speaking, or would it fall under the useful repetition that you mentioned to @Arthur Germain?
Great stuff. I have never been a fan of public speaking an am trying to improve on my confidence and technique as I present myself and company to others. These are insightful and are good lessons to know.
Awesome! These are simple, easy and great. Now that I think about it, you did these at blogworld. Brillant
Right On! If a speaker knows nothing else besides, WIIFM and providing Take Aways, s/he serves the audience well. A quicker question to ask, rather than divining one yourself, is, “Why are you here?” It let’s them set the agenda. Once their wants are logged in, the speech can flow better. If I were to add one additional tip, it would be, as presenters we increasingly compete with both content and entertainment. The show’s (stories, info offered, style, involvement) the thing. Good going.
Celebrating 10 years as a member of the NSA (National Speakers Association), and 30 years as a speaker/business consultant, it all comes down to the basics and you’ve said it better than some of my fellow speakers might have.
John Reddish
http://www.getresults.com
blog http://www.TheSuccessionPlanner.com
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Found this post a very helpful reminder. I did an engagement this morning and it would have been so much stronger with the WIIFM and the takeaways.
Ah well…next time.