When I was in college, I attended a leadership conference in Memphis that was coordinated by the international office of my fraternity. One of the keynote speakers was awesome… and I mean awesome (I remember his name, but don’t want to reveal it for reasons you’ll understand after reading further). He spoke right to us, the undergraduate male leaders of the early 1990s. He attracted us with his stories and when he had us in the palm of his hands, he challenged us. We all had been impacted in a positive way. Whatever they paid that guy, they underpaid.
Later that afternoon, I ended up in an elevator with him – just the two of us. With perfect awareness of my discomfort and excitement, I confidently struck up a conversation with him and started asking questions. He was engaging and far from dismissive. However, his answers were duplicate statements from his keynote… almost verbatim. I kept asking specific questions about my scenario, and his answers were general and not helpful at all. On stage, he was a genius. One-on-one, his knowledge seemed to have no depth or flexibility. It was disappointing. At 10:00 that morning, I thought I found my hero whose books and articles could guide me through my early adult years. By 3:30 that afternoon, my faith in his knowledge was fractured. Was he really as smart as he appeared? Did he just seem brilliant because he was on stage?
This experience leads me to our idea for this Tuesday.
Idea for this Tuesday: If you want to be perceived as an expert in your market, speak at every event possible.
Using the example above (and probably 20 others I could use since then), the math is simple: when someone stands in front of an audience in an official capacity and speaks on a subject, they become an expert. Sometimes, they become the expert. I’ve told many people that my IQ increased by 10 points once I started speaking at security events around North America about sales strategies. Once I started charging for my speaking sessions, it grew by another 20!
Get out there and speak. If you’re not confident about your speaking skills, then join a local Toastmasters club and work through the first manual. This should take you six months or so, and will prepare you with the skills and confidence necessary to entertain and educate an audience. Then… get out there and speak. Identify the audiences that need to learn about the technology and services that you provide. Join those groups, and get on the speaking agenda. By the way, this is easy – they’re always looking for speakers.
What do you think? Have any of you spoken in front of a group? Have you done it multiple times? How did it help you?
