As you go ahead and build a thought leadership position for your business or your products, deliver speaking engagements in public forums is one thing that you will come across often. Whether it is speaking at events, speaking to media, investors, clients or prospects, you will need to do a lot of talking. The audience may be in small groups like in personal meetings (group of 6-8 people) or could be in large forums like events, where you might need to deliver speaking engagements and interact with 100s of people, maybe even thousands.
Speaking gives you tremendous branding opportunity
Without doubt, speaking gives you tremendous branding opportunities. If you can get your point across well, inspire people, you can very easily start creating a following. The people that you interact with, as you deliver speaking engagements may not immediately become your customers, but will certainly become your fans and help significantly in.
Here are some Golden rules to follow, as you deliver speaking engagements. Use as you feel appropriate.
GOLDEN RULE 1 – IMAGINE YOUR SPEECH
A night before the day of session, IMAGINE YOUR SPEECH, go through the content and think of reactions. I also assume what would be my reaction if someone would deliver the same and I was in the audience. This helps me in making necessary changes or brainstorming on examples which can be incorporated in the session next day. Also, do not try to mug the entire speech. Break it down into small pieces, remember the points, carry a small notepad with you with the relevant points on them, so that you may use them, if you need help.
GOLDEN RULE 2 – BEGINNING and ENDING are important
BEGINNING AND ENDING ARE IMPORTANT. Thus I make sure I have an ending which will stay with the audience even when I am off stage. For Example:- End with a quote with your conclusion. As you start your session, do talk about what you will be covering as a part of your session, so that you create curiosity about what is coming and keep the audience engaged.
GOLDEN RULE 3 – CONNECTING Ending with the Beginning
CONNECTING ENDING WITH THE BEGINNING. No matter how much time period you are on stage 10 mins or 40 mins, you must try connecting your beginning and ending. This will help the audience remember your speech and will act as a summary for them. If you are not able to make this connection, then you will often find the audience lost half way through your session.
GOLDEN RULE 4 – MAKE YOUR Audience LAUGH
This always works and will surely give an applause to you. Be it a joke, something amusing or a one liner. It will also lighten up the mood and help you get attention of the audience. No matter how serious the topic, a good speaker will always find something that will help liven the audience. Long after you have left the stage, the audience will remember you for what made them laugh and enjoy your session.
Try incorporating these suggestions, whenever you are delivering something in front of 4 people or 4,000 people and you will see the difference. Thank you for reading.Make Lead Generation work – Check your reach
Atul is Founder & CEO at Xenia Consulting. He has over 22 years of experience in marketing, across corporates as well as SME,start-ups. Over the last 5 years, he has gained significant expertise and has helped several companies drive growth leveraging digital marketing
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