Episode 50 Speaking From The Stage

Episode 50 Speaking From the Stage

summary

In this episode of Integrated Entrepreneur, Keith Gause and Jonathan Fodera delve into the nuances of speaking engagements, sharing personal experiences and insights on how to effectively connect with an audience. They discuss the importance of preparation, understanding audience dynamics, and the art of engaging with listeners. The conversation emphasizes the need for speakers to focus on delivering value rather than self-promotion, and offers practical tips for improving presentation skills. The hosts also reflect on their own speaking experiences, highlighting lessons learned and the significance of audience feedback.

takeaways

• Speaking engagements are about delivering value to the audience.
• Preparation is key; rehearse multiple times before the event.
• Connecting with the audience can significantly enhance engagement.
• Using tools like QR codes can facilitate audience interaction.
• Understanding audience dynamics is crucial for effective speaking.
• It's important to gauge audience reactions during the presentation.
• Don't be afraid to adjust your speech based on audience feedback.
• Toastmasters can be a valuable resource for improving public speaking skills.
• Always be prepared for unexpected questions during Q&A sessions.
• The energy of the room can shift; be aware and adapt accordingly.

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Transcript

0:09

What's going on fam? We are back with another episode of Integrated Entrepreneur. My name is Keith. You guys know Jonathan. Today we are going to discuss a few things, but before we do that, pay your dues. I need you to share. Share, share, share the show. We're getting really good feedback. We're getting really good comments. So if you find anything valuable of this show ever, do me a favor and share this thing. It means the world to Jonathan and myself. John, Recently, you got to go speak at the Elite Wealth Club. The days conversation, was like speaking events, the do's and the don'ts, right? everyone wants to get on stage. If you're a micro influencer or someone who has anything to teach, stage presentations have become a very popular thing in the past couple of years and I've got to partake in a lot. And I've royally screwed some up and I've done really well in others. you recently got to speak last week. so let's talk about it, What went well, what didn't go well. And what can we do better? Public speaking is a skill, it's a skill you have to practice. even if you've done it a few times, there's always things you can learn. it takes a lot of time to get comfortable. it's one of those things that I'm actually looking to do a lot more into 25. So if you guys are out there listening, just reach out. As long as you share the show, you follow the show. I might come by and speak for you. But a couple of things that I've learned the first thing I look for is, I going to connect? Am I going to be able to add value to the audience? Because if I went to, let's say, construction mastermind, and it had nothing to do with finance, nothing to do with sales, there's not a lot of value I can add. So I wouldn't want to be there. This was about SBA loans. It was about buying and selling businesses, So I called up and when they asked me to speak, I'm like, hey, what is going to deliver the most amount of value? They said, For the most part, these guys are all experienced operators, but Where they're stuck is after the acquisition. So I made a PowerPoint for them called after the acquisition. What financing works, what doesn't work, and how to get it. I don't feel like I'm a great speaker. It's something I'm constantly working on and getting better at. the more reps you have, the better you do. it's your intent. The first few times I went out there to speak, I went out there on stage for me, not for the audience. That's the truth. So let's talk about that for a second. will. what it meant the first three, four times I wanted to speak to a room and sell them on working with me. And you know what? Every single person in that room knew exactly what I was doing. And while the talk was decent, and yes, I did get some business out of it, I wouldn't say I was proud of that. I wouldn't say that I would want me to be back there. if I'm being... honest and objective about it. it's the commission mouth, when you start flowing out of that mouth, when you got rent due or mortgage due, it's all about me, me, me. How can I position this for you goofballs to buy it? That's what we're thinking about on stage. I think we all have been there. let's be real. So I made it about them and I asked what they need I might have messed up a couple of lines, a little bit of the delivery. I didn't triple check my PowerPoints. so when I ran through them, I didn't like some of the formatting and I looked at that presentation three, four, five times. You know, when you realize it, the fuck? stage, you know, looking, you're like, that doesn't look right. What you see on the computer screen is not necessarily what you're going to see when it's projected behind you or what's in front of you. you need to be ready for that. I'll tell you guys how I prepared for this. And then I will tell you a couple of things I learned So. I called up, I said, what's gonna be the most valuable thing that I can provide for your group? I built my talk around that. I triple checked and obviously I didn't check enough because when I got up there, it still was a little off. It happens. you wanna rehearse this, If you do not rehearse it a couple of times, you're gonna have no idea the amount of time it takes. Pacing and how you pace through the presentation matters you also want to leave a little time for some Q &A this way you get some feedback when you get there you want to have a way for these guys to contact you and to know all about you so I did a QR code on the last page. I wish that was up a little bit longer because I know I did go a little bit over on time. That was not up there as long as I wanted so what I'm seeing now is everyone that was at that event I know they're searching for me and not using that link because they didn't really get a chance to get it A lot of them are hitting my website. A lot of them are just remembering whatever they could about it So once they actually email the speaker list to everybody, I think we'll be just fine. yeah. I've experimented with that to it's always the same thing. I either run over on time, so they leave the last slide up for about 11.0 seconds, Or I get caught up in the Q &A session and the same thing happens. Have you ever experimented with giving away the offer first? I haven't. I've done this twice and A, it's improved the connectivity of me and the audience and B, I think it dialed them in sooner to listen to what I had to say. So instead of waiting till the very end to say, I'm gonna give you a free 30 minute consultation here's the QR code. Hey guys, my name's Keith. Everyone got a cell phone? Break that joker out real quick. Let me give you something for free already. The first thing I want to do is provide value. whether it's a landing page or download this or get on my calendar, that. But you give everyone time to get on the phone and do that. And then they can blank or whatever they're going to do. I think we went from getting 30 % of the room to do it to 60 to 70 % of the room to do it, which is amazing. if you're out there and you haven't tried that. Throw that in the mix and see how it works. use that because you're already leading off on a high note and you've already delivered on what you're doing and gave value right away. about. almost fumble the bag after that. for the most part, you're not going to have you spoken before and spoken enough. You won't. I will say this. I was this close to launching something that I shouldn't have on stage and only the people in the front row heard it and I caught it. it was about the election and the election results. And while that would have been a perfect room to let that go, I did not know that while I was up there. And if you don't know if something's going to land or not, and it could be divisive, absolutely do not say it. Hold it, because you want to help people. And if you lose half the room, you're not helping anybody. only launch that when you are 100 % sure it's your last speaking engagement. I will say this, the people that did know and then the people I sat with at lunch said, 100%, I messed up. You should have launched that. Everyone will be cool You can always launch it later to that group and know you can get away with it, but you can't undo the mess up the first time. Correct. so the other thing I would say is what not to do, make sure you're presentable. if you're going on stage, dress, suit and tie, I'll usually do sport coat, nice black shirt under, nice jeans, shoes. Why? Because I'm comfortable. I don't want to be hot up there. I would not advise doing that again, because if you don't know how the mic's going to go, having that collar on your shirt would be very, useful. So instead of the black tee, go to a, normal dress shirt under the sport coat. And I think that would have changed the game because I did have a couple, audio issues you should never have to worry about that when you're on stage, ever. So, normal shirt, So you bring out some good things, everyone jumps into speaking engagements because they think that's an easy way to grab the audience. But I think they all, entered into the game the wrong way. we did it about us or me or what can I get out of this when the reality is the moment you make that paradigm shift how can I deliver the most impactful education? to the group what's even more important, it's your connection. You've got to connect with people. There's NLP, neuro-linguistic programming, there's all these psychology hacks. You got to study it because you could have all of the top flight information of the world, but if you look like a doofus and sound like a doofus and don't connect, You're out so, setting the stage for success, giving the giveaway upfront and then connecting will lead to mega success on follow-up conversations. And that is where I feel like I do really well leaving enough questions out there that people want to hunt you down afterwards and have the one-offs. where you exchange the contact info and, let me help you more. So let me ask you this When you're up on stage for the first few minutes, when we all go through that awkward get it out of your system moment, what are you doing to check internally that you're hitting cues and you're connecting with people? first you want to know the setup before you get there. I was keen on finding that out, but I wasn't getting great feedback anytime that you're speaking, you could be on the soap box the little folding table of a stand or they can have a professional stage with a teleprompter setup that's going to show you your slides in front of you with professional audio, professional lights. the sooner you gauge where you are between soapbox and actual stage, the easier it's going to be for you to deliver value to that room and do it effectively. This was a very professional setup. it was probably one of the best I have seen in terms of how smooth they were. typically most lighting is fucking blinding to speakers. You cannot see. So if you are not used to that, it's very hard for you to gauge the reaction and people's faces around the room. you want to view that to see what the energy is, to see how receptive people are being. without that, it can be a little hard, but If you can't gauge them, forget about it just worry about how much value you are delivering to the room because if you get any doubt they will hear it in your voice. as you're gauging internally, the reality is when you have 30 to 45 minutes on stage, it fucking goes by like that. It's not 45 minutes, You never finish what you want to say. I don't care how you can have a 15 minute speech and speak for an hour and a half. What are you doing as a check and balance to make sure I'm connecting with this person. Are you asking open-ended questions? Are you launching raise of hand type questions to keep people engaged to listen? What's been your go-to strategy? I usually do a raise of hands. but some people don't like raising their hands, If you have crowds that wanna be quiet it can actually suck the energy out of the room I was able to watch the three or four people before me. I would always tell you to do that so you can see how the room's reacting to them and seeing how everything is set up. And that's what I did. So a lot of times people weren't raising their hand or weren't being as interactive as you would have liked. so I tried to avoid that because I saw the room was not very interactive. The other thing I would say figure out who you're speaking with before and after you. Not that it should change or dictate anything that you're doing, but... If you're at an event and it's all tactics, And the tactics are. payment processing. Yes. EOS If financing it's like watching paint dry so I was sandwiched in the middle of that. So payment processing, me, EOS. That is typically not good for a responsive room. Because while the information is great and those people are probably interested they're probably gonna get zoned out because it is very dry. Is it important? Yes, but there's no rah-rah. So you'd probably want to break up those three topics. with somebody that's a little bit more motivational, telling the right story and getting everybody fired up. just cause you are a tactical speaker, doesn't mean you can't motivate and go on the other side of things, but you have to know that's what your role is going into it. that's something that would get ironed out if I'm there next year. obviously this isn't for first time speakers, but where you and I are at now, I go into it having both of those as arsenals. Because sometimes you don't know, we always have this conversation around speaking the most important batter is called the cleanup batter. And he's the fourth one up, So let's talk about that I just spoke at RoofCon a couple weeks ago. Two plus thousand people in attendance. We had the first speaking spot on the first day at 9 a.m. it's either feast or famine. I've had that spot and the room was packed because people are eager to get there and they're ready. I've had ones like this where We've had hurricanes and a bunch of shit and people just kind of rolled in as they wanted to But we were prepared for both we could connect to whether it was two people that showed up or three thousand people whatever it is We wanted to be ready in this instance. We had like 50 we were expecting a couple hundred but we had 50 and we were prepared for it. So If you are watching and you get the opportunity to watch a few people before you, the audience will tell you how to come to stage to get their attention and to hold their attention. You just have to be prepared to know how to read it So that's a good point on being able to watch and understand the stage itself. Finish that thought. one thing I would tell you guys is if it's something that you want to do practicing it and getting live reps Go to toastmasters most towns have them and it's just gonna help you speak publicly better It's actually something I would still do to this day. I would take my team here and go to toast masters with them because it's such a valuable skill to be able to persuade the masses from speaking. You could do a video a video has a different strategy behind it. I understand that most people won't get that, but you have to speak way more aggressively through there. You have to have everything done right. And then you have to have it edited. You don't get to edit anything when you're up on stage. that room is feeding off of your energy. So how you present yourself and how you do everything really does matter. so if you haven't spoken yet, go to Toastmasters and then work on doing it in your local Chamber of Commerce before you go speak at an event. the first time I went and spoke was at an event. I could have done so much better. And realistically, I kind of got my head blown off. But why I got my head blown off was not truly my fault. I'll give you a quick story, because it's funny. I spoke at Marshall Silver's event way back when. At the time, I still owned Sprout Lending. And I had not... rebranded it into integrated business financing. And this is actually part of why I rebranded it. I thought I was delivering really good value, getting up there, but the whole time I'm looking out and everyone is looking back at me like they hate me. not a word I'm saying is landing I'm giving the worst speech. But typically if I was giving a shitty speech, you would see people, leave. People will leave the room. These people are standing there gazing at me and like some of them wanted to kill me. I have no idea why. We get to Q &A and somebody eagerly raises his hand. all right, cool. Let's figure out what's going on now. So he goes, why are you still debiting my wife's account every month? I'm like, what the fuck do you mean? He goes, you're Sprout, right? I go, yes, but I'm Sprout Lending He goes, you heard a collective sigh from the room, let out. And all the pissy faces were now smiles and they were all happy. I'm trying to figure out what happened. like, sir, I can assure you I've never taken money out of your wife's account. In fact, we don't even offer that. So after he asked that question, I knew what it was. There was a Sprout financing who did this credit card scam I didn't realize it, but two years prior, Marshall had them speaking at the event and doing all the financing for the event. So when I showed up, they just thought I was the same people. That was awful. Okay. But afterwards, everyone was cool that was just a funny, funny experience that The chances are so remote that that happens. crazy. So you bring up a good thing. Guys, if you're on stage and you feel the energy go negative, Q &As can start at any moment for you to get an understanding of what's going on. there's been two separate times where when you're on stage, you can feel the energy shift. It's like the heat was on and now it's a cold plunge, right? You can stop and just be like, what did I miss? And I literally, that is my break-in session, what did I miss to the Q &A session? And when people look at me dumbfounded, well, I feel a huge shift in the energy, I missed something. Where did things fall off the track for you guys? Because it's either someone said something in the audience, your ass became really fucking boring, or you've lost someone and they don't understand what you're talking about. don't fucking finish 35 more minutes of that. Stop it. There's nothing wrong with going rogue in a speech or just open communication at that point. Guys, I feel like maybe I've lost you. Where did I fall off track? I want to make sure this is super valuable So help me help you. And that's okay. Realize it, own it, and people will tell you. It's one of those myths. You don't have to start the speech and end the speech in 45 minutes. It's yours. So own it and make it relevant and drive education and value. I love it. All right, guys, do us a favor. We delivered on this. We gave you a lot of practical, actionable steps for speaking live. Please share this with two people. That's what we ask every time you listen, and we appreciate you listening. Share with two people. And if there's things that you want us to cover, questions you have about something we covered, please, we have the integrated email. Send it in, and we'll be happy to help you.