Lets face it, most public speakers are boring. They create presentations with slides that have so much text that you wonder if they were writing a book.
But then there are those other speakers…the speakers that can just walk out on stage and give a presentation that blows people away. I’m not talking about a good presentation, I mean a presentation that’s so good that audiences go away talking about this one speaker and wanting to grow up to be just like them.
So how can you create a presentation that just blows people away? How can you be so good that your audience gets an emotional-high by watching you speak?
Don’t just present, become a good speaker
First, you have focus on becoming a great speaker, not just presenting a speech.
How many speakers have you seen who get on stage to talk and it looks like they just memorized a speech? They don’t really have that “it factor” and you can’t really pinpoint it because they’re not horrible, but they’re not all that great. These speakers don’t mess up, they just aren’t great.
I remember talking to a guy used to have the job of going out to search for talent. He was the guy who “discovered” celebrities (singers). I asked him how does he know which ones to pick because their are so many great singers…how do you choose just one?
Basically, what makes the difference between a good speaker and a star?
He said that the stars are so great that you can’t not notice them. They sing and you instantly say, “WOW.”
But the response with the really good singers is just…”Yeah, they’re pretty good.”
The same goes for speakers. There are certain speakers who are good, but not great. Speakers who do a presentation and you’re not bored but at the end, you just forget about it and go on with your life.
So the first step to being a speaker that just ‘wows’ a crowd is to focus on yourself, not just the presentation.
You should be able to take anyone’s speech and instantly make it come alive through your presence. It’s not the words that make it great, it’s you who’s great.
Hit the emotions…hard
Insanely great speakers go after the emotions. They hit the emotions so hard that the emotion has whiplash.
Good stories hit the emotions hard because they bypass the conscious mind…they go around the logical mind…and directly into the emotional mind. Think about it…
When you hear a story, you’re not saying to yourself, “Is this story true? Why is his name John and not James? Can someone really do that?” Instead, your mind is more focused on following along with the story so you get the point. And on top of that, the ‘point’ isn’t spelled out for you so you have to come to your own conclusion…there’s a ton of psychology in stories but lets just say that stories hit the emotions.
Why do you want to hit the emotions hard?
Because in the end, people will forget what you say but they will remember how you made them feel.
Who’s your favorite speaker? Think about that speaker for a second. Who have you seen that you think gave a great presentation?
Now what did they say? Can you give a word-for-word account of just 5 things they said? Probably not. So why did you like their presentation?
Maybe the speaker was funny. Maybe they did something cool. Or maybe you’re a smarty pants and they gave you something to think about since their presentation very intellectually demanding.
You don’t remember what the speaker said, you just know they’re you’re favorite speaker because of how they make you feel.
If you want to get better at public speaking and blow your audience away then you have to do things that grab to emotions by the balls.
It’s all about the energy
Now comes a little trick you can use in your presentations that are guaranteed to make people think you’re a Speaker-God…it’s all about your energy.
I’m not talking about the spiritual woo-woo energy. I’m talking about the feeling you project onto your audience.
In the movie, The Great Dictator…with Charlie Chaplin, he gives a speech that a lot of people consider to be one of the greatest speeches ever. If you watch the video of his speech, you’ll notice something…his energy.
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When you speak with passion, you have this energy about you that radiates into the audience. They can just feel it and it naturally captures their attention.
So when you’re speaking, is there a moment where you can deliver a lot of energy? Maybe you’re tone is really low and you start talking about something by speeding up your pace, increasing your voice, and moving more. You’re creating more energy and your audience will notice so they will have to pay attention….it’s just so…so…different…they can’t help but…be…drawn in.
What’s your energy like when you speak? Are you too laid-back? Do you have the showmanship skills?
To become a great public speaker that walks out on stage and blows people away, you have to do more than just tell the audience something, you have to make them feel something. You have to be so great at public speaking that you can take a boring speech and make it great. That’s how you blow your audience away.
