Why I Speak to Smaller Organisations
Regular readers of this blog will notice that many of my speaking engagements are for smaller clubs and societies (although I'm not sure that the audience of 200 at Romsey U3A last month falls into that category!) but, over the years, I have certainly had a decent number of corporate bookings, whether from speaker bureaus and entertainment agencies or booked directly by the organisations themselves. Some have involved provided training for others, such as the Home Office, ICL Fujitsu, Christchurch Borough Council and many more, while others have been purely for entertainment, for example, at the Glass NTO, the Marsh Business Breakfast Club and various others.
Some people think that public speaking is only about big-money motivational workshops or after dinner speaking but these are just one, highly competitive element of the business of giving presentations. The huge fees generally only go to celebrities - and the number of them competing for the limited available bookings seems to increase every year. A while ago, I was talking to a very respected speaker I know who has a high profile thanks to regular broadcasting and being a prolific author. They told me that despite this, bookings were down from twelve the previous year to just four!
I love public speaking and would not want to be limited to just a handful of corporate bookings per year.
Public Speaking Tip #58: Be realistic about markets and fees if you are not a celebrity (or at least very well known within the corporate circuit).
But to stand a chance of getting any of this work, and making a reasonable success of it, you have to gain experience and stay in practice. There is a man I know who decided to become an after dinner speaker in the early 90s. He persuaded a number of agencies to take him on and book him into functions at very respectable fees. Unfortunately, he had little in the way of speaking experience or original material and immediately came unstuck, especially as many of these bookings were for 'lively' audiences that even seasoned comedians might think twice about, such as armed forces and police annual dinners.
So he started giving talks for Women's Institutes and retirement clubs, stuck with it and gained valuable experience. He now combines corporate and smaller bookings with great success.
Public Speaking Tip #59: Don't try to run before you can walk! You need to gain experience as a speaker before you can aim for the bigger bookings.
When I started as a speaker, I took every booking I could get, whether paid or not. I gave live local radio interviews and also spent a year doing stand up comedy (which included national radio and on cable TV). Some of this work was paid well, some modestly, some not at all, but the result was that in my first couple of years, I got up in front of audiences around 100 times (not including my LAMDA exams or the adult education classes I was starting to teach) and gained a great deal of invaluable experience very quickly.
And it's a habit I've never got out of. Ok, so I'm not so likely to travel 100 miles for little or nothing any more, but I would still rather be speaking somewhere for a reasonable fee than not at all. Someone suggested to me recently that I should sharply increase the amounts I charge for talks, the idea being that some people would still book me and I would earn the same for less speaking.
He missed the point completely: I love public speaking and I would rather have a booking to go to than be sitting at home. It's a break from the solitude of writing - plus I never stop learning.
And when the slightly better-paying arts and literary festivals or the much more lucrative corporate engagements come in, as they do from time to time, well, they are a very pleasant bonus!
Public Speaking Tip #60: When you are a beginner, you need to gain as much speaking experience as you can - whatever the fee; it's never a waste of time. You cannot help but learn from speaking to a wide variety of audiences (in terms of size, age group, background, etc) in a variety of styles for varying lengths of time. The times of day, venues and areas in which you speak will also vary considerably.
Even when you have had years of speaking experience, you will need to stay in practice.
Remember: you never stop learning as a public speaker.
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Saturday, October 27
And now the small talk
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Sat 27 Oct 2007 05:20 PM BST
Tuesday, October 23
If you would now like to look at your papers
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Tue 23 Oct 2007 11:14 PM BST
There have been a couple of interesting news stories relating to public speaking in the past couple of days.
He got laughs and a standing ovation but the longer term outcome of his speech was a billion-pound turnover slashed overnight, £500 million knocked off the valuation of his company and, ultimately, the loss of his £650,000 salary and position running the family firm he had been involved in for 30 years. He has since rebuilt his career (hence the book's title) but his name will always be associated with that speech. As a speaker, I am a great advocate of self-effacing humour, after all, making yourself the butt of a joke means you are unlikely to offend anyone else but the problem in this case was that the jokes weren't self-deprecating - they made fun of an entire business empire and its customers which affected its shareholders and staff, not to mention Mr Ratner's own family. Public Speaking Tip #52: All jokes have a victim so self-effacing humour can be the safest variety - just make sure that no-one else can get caught up in any fallout! A Nasal Spray to Fight Public Speaking Fears? Monday's Daily Telegraph carried a story about researchers at the University of New South Wales who have developed a nasal spray which may help people with social phobias overcome their fears of attending work parties, performing karaoke - or public speaking! As part of the study, 23 shy people (who had also had exposure therapy) were asked to make a speech and the results, when compared with those who had received no help, were described as 'astonishing'. Of course, there are, as yet, no nasal sprays to help with selecting and structuring content, stance, voice projection, etc. Medicines can take years to come onto the market and when they do, may prove to be costly or have side-effects. If you visit the website of the Stage newspaper, in their Advice section, the showbusiness life coach John Byrne has written an excellent advice guide on How to Cope with Nerves: Public Speaking Tip #53: The world of showbusiness may seem far removed from the formality of public speaking but tips for entertainers of all kinds can still apply to us. He writes that medication tends to suppress symptoms of nervousness rather than deal with their root cause. The university researchers stress that their spray does not work on its own but has to be combined with therapy. I have more reason than most to believe that exposure therapy beats medication hands-down. Public Speaking Tip #54: As far as public speaking is concerned, regular practice is exposure therapy for those who are nervous about it - and far more effective in the long term than medication. And as for partygoers and singers, well, there are far too many of them putting substances up their noses already! Write-up in the New Milton Advertiser/Lymington Times Somewhat lower down in the circulation figures is a wonderful weekly newspaper sold in different parts of the New Forest as the New Milton Advertiser or the Lymington Times. It comes out every Friday (price 30p!) and is a good old-fashioned, local broadsheet. It gives details of many of the talks that have taken place in the area it covers and I have had a couple of further positive mentions recently to add to the many that they have published about me over the years. I wrote in my posting of 10 October about making use of testimonial letters. Positive write-ups from local newspapers, church magazines, company newsletters and websites can also help publicise your speaking, enhance your CV, etc. Their content is often brief (press officers sometimes send in hundreds of words about a speaker only to see just a couple of sentences actually published!) but they reach a wide audience and, in the case of online testimonials, can be viewed for a long time afterwards - sometimes even years. Public Speaking Tip #55: Positive reviews of your speaking performances from publications and websites can be used in your promotional materials and can sometimes even lead directly to further bookings. Public Speaking Tip #56: Local newspaper write-ups about other speakers can also be a useful guide to available markets for you. There is a temptation when quoting from these references to put the date they appeared so people will see how recently the speaking engagement and praise occurred but this can also have the unfortunate effect of making your publicity look out-of-date if you are not revising it regularly. It may also give the impression that you are not very often booked to speak if the last testimonial is dated six months ago. It shouldn't matter to anyone interested in hiring you whether somebody wrote in complimentary terms about your presentation two days or two years ago - only that they meant it! Public Speaking Tip #57: There is no need to date your testimonials - the important thing is that you have received this unsolicited praise. Tuesday, October 16
Next, we come to the category for Best Small Audience of 2007
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Tue 16 Oct 2007 10:42 AM BST
Kington Magna WI
After updating this blog last Thursday, I set off for a talk in North Dorset. The Wilts and Dorset X3 service was being driven so slowly up the Spur Road from Bournemouth that I began to wonder whether I'd reach my destination by the following day, let alone that one, but at Ringwood our driver seemed to transmogrify into a Lewis Hamilton wannabe who took sharp bends on country lanes at what felt like quite alarming speeds for a double decker. Nothing seemed to be happening quickly in Salisbury, where I walked out of the bank without transacting any business after wasting several minutes in a seemingly stationary queue and then had to wait ages to buy a ticket at the station where only one of the three ticket windows was open and that was busy with a passenger's long and complicated enquiry. But none of these factors were allowed to affect my forthcoming talk. Public Speaking Tip #49: A professional should not let personal frustrations or difficulties affect the quality of their speaking performance. Believe it or not, public speaking can actually offer an escape from the stresses of everyday life! It was also fortunate that I knew I had caught the correct train because the guard kept dropping his voice on 'Gillingham' as he announced our list of stops; he could benefit from some lessons in voice projection! Public Speaking Tip #50: Experience in public speaking means that you soon become aware of the shortcomings of other speakers of all kinds and can resolve to avoid these pitfalls! I was met at Gillingham by the husband of the Treasurer of the WI at Kington Magna, a delightfully unspoilt village which I would probably never have visited if I wasn't a public speaker. Its church, which is part-Norman, has a medieval fishpond, while the houses date back as far as the 1600s. Kington Magna has no school, pub or shop but it does have a village hall and a Women's Institute, despite having a population of less than 400 (I have known of WIs in much more densely-populated areas which drew smaller numbers and were eventually forced to merge or close down). There were 15 members in attendance but, as I told them at the end of my talk, their laughter sounded like a much bigger crowd - they gave me a great response! Public Speaking Tip #51: Audiences deserve the same quality of presentation, whatever their size. You may be accustomed to addressing large numbers but small groups can be surprisingly rewarding to speak to. Thursday, October 11
Now, I'm all in favour of free speech (advice)
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Thu 11 Oct 2007 09:30 AM BST
Free booklet 'How to Make Effective Presentations' with today's Independent
This year has seen some excellent newspaper give-aways which have been very useful for anyone interested in public speaking. In April/May, the Guardian gave away 14 booklets and a CD of Great Speeches of the Twentieth Century. These were very nicely produced and contained overviews from historians as well as the content of speeches from JFK, Churchill, Mandela, MacMillan, FDR, Khrushchev, Emmeline Pankhurst, Martin Luther King, de Gaulle, Thatcher, Nehru, Aneurin Bevan, Virginia Woolf and Earl Spencer. With a line-up like that, I can even forgive them for never sending the free storage box that I saved up all those tokens for! Throughout July, the Daily Mail gave away DVDs of the superb documentary series The World at War. Not only did this give me the opportunity to see a brilliant work that I never appreciated as a child in the 1970s but it also contains footage of historic speeches and relaxed, fluent interview clips from 30 years later. The Independent is currently giving away free pamphlets each day containing extracts from business titles (the same sort of idea as the condensed books that come with the Anthony Robbins Power Talk recordings).They're part of a series called Success at Work and today's is How to Make Effective Presentations. Discounting adverts and title pages, this comprises 15 pages of extracts from Brilliant Presentations by Richard Hall and Effective Presentation by Ros and Antony ('Yes Minister') Jay. Hall fills most of his 6 pages with tips about conquering nerves, backed up with some fascinating facts about panic attacks.The Jays give a highly detailed analysis of the structure of a sales presentation. These extracts make both books look very appealing but this pamphlet alone contains a remarkable amount of concise, indispensable information and all it will cost is 80p for today's Independent! Now what could be better value than that (well, apart from a blog which gives ongoing presentations tips for free?) Public Speaking Tip #48: Watch out for newspaper give-aways, such as booklets, DVDs or CDs, which may be of use for your presentations.
So let's come right up to date...
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Thu 11 Oct 2007 08:06 AM BST
A Speechwriting Challenge Helped by Mind Maps
October may look as if it's going to be a bit quieter as far as speaking engagements are concerned but on the very first day I found myself busy with other work. I got a call from a client who was having a party thrown for him and he wanted a speech written in case he was asked to say a few words. There were just a few problems: 1. This was a 'surprise' party which he was not supposed to know about so he could hardly produce a script! He would therefore have to learn the speech by heart. 2. Because he was meant to appear 'surprised', the speech could not sound too structured/scripted but had to be in conversational language, as if it was something he had been thinking up in the past few minutes! 3. The party was the following evening so I would have to get started straight away with little chance to collect personal information to ponder and write around - just a few biographical facts. We agreed a price and a deadline. Then he phoned back wanting it a couple of hours earlier than that so he would have more time to learn it! He rang dead on time the following afternnon and I emailed the 450-odd words I had written. We discussed how he was going to memorise this 4 minutes in such a short space of time and I was relieved that he knew what a Mind Map is... A Mind Map, an idea most associated with the psychology author Tony Buzan, is a diagram representing ideas around a central concept. Simple Mind Maps are great for speeches because they enable you to arrange brief notes in a logical sequence, working your way clockwise around the page - thus making it very difficult to lose your place. Impromptu speeches can be constructed very effectively using Mind Maps (this certainly helped me when I took my LAMDA Public Speaking exams and, in later years, students of mine who did the same). I use them when I write a speech for a client, putting down all the information they have supplied and then adding in ideas for jokes, quotations, etc, until I am ready to piece together the finished version. Over the years, I have also found them to be invaluable for exam revision, and planning magazine articles and letters. The great thing about using them for setting out speech content is that because they are a 'picture', you soon become familiar with where everything is on the page. After a while, you can remember what is in the top left hand corner or the bottom right even without having the diagram in front of you, in fact, if you were to turn up at a speaking engagement and discover to your horror that you had forgotten your Mind Map notes, you could quite possibly rewrite them from memory. !n 2005, I delivered my presentation 'Public Speaking = the Triumph of Technique Over Terror!' as part of an Awayday for the Central Management Unit of the Home Office and my suggestions regarding using Mind Maps made a big impact. But back to 2007: I suggested that my client familiarise himself with the script then set it out in brief notes in a Mind Map and memorise that. Public Speaking Tip #44 (one of the most important I will ever include in this whole blog): Simple Mind Maps are invaluable as aids to devising, laying out and learning speech content - especially at very short notice! There are many inexpensive books available by Tony Buzan about Mind Maps and their uses. Inner Wheel Club of Hythe and District That evening, I spoke on 'My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer' to the Inner wheel Club of Hythe and District. There were no more than 20 there but I got a very good response from this friendly club. Sometimes it can be difficult to get much of a reaction to humour from small audiences but it is so much easier when they are on home ground and in familiar company. Public Speaking Tip #45: A big factor in audience response is whether or not they know each other. A Booking Every 11.33 Minutes! This must be something of a record: on Monday, between 17.01 and 17.35, I took three bookings: one for next March for a club just a mile away which, nevertheless, I'd not heard of before, one for next September for a retirement club who are booking me for the fourth time to in seven years (so I guess they must like me!) and one at two days' notice to cover a cancellation for Bournemouth North Probus, a club I last spoke to in 2001. Public Speaking Tip #46: A combination of widely-circulated details, a list of several appealing topics and availability at short notice should keep the requests to speak rolling in! Bournemouth North Probus Yesterday morning I delivered my talk about 'The One, the Only...Groucho!' to 30 members of Bournemouth North Probus as a short-notice replacement for a coastguard speaker who had to cancel due to work commitments. The last time I spoke to this club was in July 2001 when they met at a different hotel and listened to their speaker after lunch. On that occasion, I spoke on 'My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer' and although it didn't go badly, I felt that the response was a little muted by my standards (so often the case when speaking after a big meal to a retired audience!) But this talk showed what a difference it can make when you speak before a lunch (as I have mentioned before, mid-morning is usually the best time for speakers). The response was very good and I was also pleased to observe how I am becoming familiar with the content of this particular talk and relying a lot less on my notes. Public Speaking Tip #47: Even if your presentation contains a huge amount of information, it is possible to learn it with repeated delivery so that your notes will eventually only be required as a 'safety net'. Afterwards, I enjoyed a very nice lunch with the gentlemen at the Mayfair Hotel. This very friendly Probus club still needs more members so they are having a recruitment drive. I hope it works for them. Wednesday, October 10
To paraphrase the proverb: you can't please everyone - just the vast majority!
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Wed 10 Oct 2007 09:24 AM BST
Barton on Sea Probus
My last speaking engagement of September was for Barton on Sea Probus on the 26th. This was my third visit to this club and, as on previous occasions, it was a mixed meeting with members' partners present: 67 people in all. The room at Shorefield is a bit of a barn and I was asked to use a microphone. Neither of the club's own mics (a wireless hand-held and a clip-on) were suitable - both were tinny and there were also feedback problems. The venue then offered two of their own: one that clips on the ear so the speaker looks like Michael Jackson or Madonna, and another hand-held. I felt self-conscious with the clip-on so I opted for the latter! The Patrick Campbell talk seemed to go pretty well and I also added a new 'prop'; Val had bought me some copies of Lilliput magazine from the 40s and 50s, a publication Campbell wrote for, and knowing that they were of age to remember this, I invited audience members up afterwards to look at one. This was a great hit! Public Speaking Tip #39: Even if you are not using slides, a few thoughtfully selected props will add a visual dimension to any presentation. Public Speaking Tip #40: Take something that the audience can look at after you've finished - it makes you even more memorable. Unfortunately, two of the guests who came up complained, first to the Chairman, and then to me personally, that I had not held up a picture of Patrick Campbell during my talk to remind them who he was. This is not a talk with slides; in smaller venues I hold up a picture but, as I have mentioned, this was a huge room and they would not have seen it at the back where they were sitting anyway! There were certainly ample pictures for them to look at afterwards but some people just love to moan - even when they are guests! (Another alternative is to pass a picture around as I speak but this can be distracting - for everybody!) I have delivered this talk nearly ninety times (which represents a total of around 4,500 people) and this has not been a problem. Nevertheless, I may consider getting a larger picture. Then a gentleman told me that he is hearing impaired and I had been speaking too fast for him to lip-read. This contrasted sharply with an audience member at another booking who congratulated me on the fact that he had been able to lip-read every word! I also couldn't help wondering why he chose to sit off to the side and not in front of me if this was the case! Although I didn't get to speak until slightly later than intended due to the start of the meeting being delayed, I didn't feel I was speaking any faster than usual. I try to include the whole audience but obviously I can't slow right down for one person's benefit. I don't think I have ever had two different criticisms at one speaking engagement before! I will bear them in mind. Public Speaking Tip #41: Take note of constructive audience feedback and, where practical, act on it to make your presentations even better. I was very pleased to see club member Don Chipchase. Don enrolled in a public speaking evening class I taught for Bournemouth and Poole College in early 1999 because he wanted to give a talk to Barton on Sea Probus. A few weeks later, I spoke at their annual dinner and it was Don who gave me a lovely vote of thanks. Since then, he has delivered his presentation about General Robert E. Lee to some 50 clubs and societies. He goes to a great deal of trouble with his visual aids and I even read a report of a standing ovation at one booking. He is now working on a new talk about the American West and he also told me that he once stood in at very short notice and put together a presentation called 'Oh, To Be A Salesman!' after a speaker booked at Barton dropped out. I'm glad all those impromptu speech exercises I set that class came in handy! Public Speaking Tip #42: Practise putting material together at very short notice - you never know when this habit may come in useful! If you are based within 30 miles of the New Forest and would like to book one of Don's talks, please email me. After a very pleasant lunch, the Chairman Rod Keene and his wife Merry ran me back to New Milton. A Beautifully Written Testimonial An envelope arrived at the end of September and I could tell immediately from the calligraphy who it was from: Mr Don Grimshaw from Romsey U3A, where I'd spoken the previous week. Inside was the most beautiful demonstration of his craft. The letter itself stated that my talk had been very well received, that it was quite certain that I would be invited again and that he had advised other groups of my qualities as a speaker. When you start out as a speaker, the first follow-up letters you receive will probably consist of a few lines thanking you for giving up your time (even if you were actually paid for to do so!) and mentioning that your presentation was very interesting/informative, etc. As you improve, these get longer and the praise becomes more effusive and detailed. These glowing references are extremely valuable to you, not least of all, because they are unsolicited and heartfelt (I have heard of speakers asking for written references but where's the value in those?). Of course, there will be times when you deliver a hugely successful speech but no letter arrives. This is because some organisations regard the vote of thanks on the day as your official 'thank you'. I have noticed that Rotary clubs seem to send out fewer testimonials than other organisations but then their members are very busy (they are always involved in fund-raising projects and are also expected to attend a minimum of 30 meetings a year). The point is, if you do enough speaking, you will build up quite a collection of these testimonials. Keep them, treasure them, draw encouragement from them and, of course, quote from them to get more work! Public Speaking Tip #43: Keep your unsolicited testimonials. If you give presentations as an employee, quotes from these can go into your CV/portfolio. If you are a self-employed speaker, use extracts from them in your pitch to get bookings. After a while, you may have enough to group some together, for example, I send out one particular leaflet which is tailored to get me work speaking to literary festivals and writers' workshops and on the back are a large number of testimonials which all come from those types of engagements. If you have a speaking engagement that doesn't go as well as you had hoped (and we all do!), you can look back over the praise you have received elsewhere to remind you of your abilities. So that was September: 8 talks on 5 subjects in 3 counties to 600+ people who bought 80+ books. Not my busiest month - but not bad either! Sunday, October 7
A Motioning Table
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Sun 07 Oct 2007 11:58 PM BST
Brain Men
After my talk in Romsey, I caught the train for Southampton. I don't think I ever go there without visiting both branches of the remaindered bookshop chain The Works which are situated within a few hundred yards of each other in the city centre. I have often picked up books and recordings which are of use for my public speaking research and on this occasion I bought a copy of Marcus Berkmann's Brain Men for just £1.99. This is a humorous look at quizzes, from the pub variety to big-money TV game shows. As a speaker, I have hosted three quizzes for Blah di Blah, Dorset's Festival of Words and Literature (these were linked to the BBC's RaW project) and co-hosted two others for the Bournemouth Literary Festival. I am currently putting together a new quiz where I will be the one devising the questions so I hope to pick up a few tips from this book as well as being entertained by Berkmann's writing (and not for the first time; in the late 80s he co-wrote Lenin of the Rovers, one of my favourite Radio 4 sitcoms). Public Speaking Tip #37: Mastering public speaking can lead to numerous other activities besides delivering presentations, talks and speeches. Becoming a quizmaster is just one example. You could also take people on guided tours, earn money from giving in-store demonstrations, make the announcements at an event...it opens up a whole range of possibilities! CAMEO in Basingstoke My talk in Basingstoke that evening was for the local CAMEO group (it stands for Come And Meet Each Other, in case you were wondering!) and there were more than 40 ladies at the Richard Aldworth Science College where I spoke about 'The Power of Humour in Everyday Life'. The talk was very well received but there was one thing I would like to mention. The group were meeting in a different room from usual and one of the metal legs of the table I had requested for my props, leaflets, booklets, etc., was bent at an angle of about 45 degrees! This led to a slight wobbling whenever I picked anything up or put it down but as this wasn't too distracting for myself or the audience I didn't ask for a replacement (in fact, if anything, it was a good example of unexpected humour in everyday life, the theme for my talk!) but I thought about the teachers or pupils who would also have to use it; wouldn't you think a school which, according to its Mission Statement, aims to 'promote a scientific, technological and vocational learning culture' would have found someone who could fix a wonky table leg? Public Speaking Tip #38: There are often minor distractions which can be tolerated during your presentation but try to anticipate any major problems before you begin speaking and, where possible, take appropriate measures to alleviate them. It was a long day and I was rather relieved that I hadn't slotted in that extra booking in Southampton for the afternoon as I had originally considered doing! Saturday, October 6
Moving swiftly on...
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Sat 06 Oct 2007 04:49 PM BST
Romsey U3A
I was up early the next morning as I needed to be in Romsey for a 10am talk about 'The Wits of the Algonquin Round Table' for the town's U3A, a group I had last spoke to nearly five years earlier. It has grown considerably since then, in fact this was the largest audience I'd had for a while: 200! Public Speaking Tip #32: To a beginner, even an audience of 20 can seem daunting but once you get in the habit of regular public speaking, you will find that numbers don't seem to make a lot of difference to you, in fact, if you are anything like me, you will soon come to regard audiences of less than 60 as small! This even carries over to speaking on radio where there may be tens (or even hundreds) of thousands of listeners - it can feel no different to speaking to a group of 40 in a hall. This is what regular practice can do for you. I handed the Speaker Secretary who would be introducing me a card with a few brief details. Public Speaking Tip #33: If you are asked to provide information for an introduction, I would suggest a piece of card with just a few clear, large lines explaining: - a little about yourself - where you have travelled from - when you last spoke to them and what the subject was (if applicable) - a very brief description of today's topic. I had been asked to use a microphone. Normally I try to avoid these if at all possible as I believe more public speaking is ruined by sound equipment than anything else but the Crosfield Hall is a big room and there were a number of people in this large audience who had hearing problems so it was necessary. The mic on this occasion was a good one and there appeared to be no problems for myself or the audience. Public Speaking Tip #34: After a while, you should be able to project your voice adequately for even very large audiences to hear you perfectly well but there will be occasions when even a tiny group will insist on your using a microphone, probably because some members have hearing aids connected to a Loop system and you should co-operate with this. Public Speaking Tip #35: Problems you may encounter with microphones include: - low batteries leading to cordless mics cutting out - feedback unless you stay rooted to one spot without moving! - the sound being just too 'tinny' - echo caused by low ceilings So there will also be times when, out of equal consideration for your audience, you should just dispense with the damn thing altogether and simply speak LOUDLY! If you test the microphone before you are introduced, this should give you an idea of any potential problems. This talk is one that I have not delivered very often so I still rely on bullet-point notes. The classic lines of great wits like Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, George S Kaufman and many others got big laughs from the crowd but it still felt a little less fluent than other presentations which I have delivered hundreds of times. But there were a gratifying number of questions and I received many compliments afterwards. Public Speaking Tip #36: I have found that there is no correlation between the number of questions for a speaker and the actual success of their talk (I often have absolute barnstormers followed by no questions whatsoever!) but a good question and answer session can 'rescue' a presentation which you may not feel was your best; this is, after all, the last element that the audience hears and they also have the opportunity to participate. I was very flattered that a lady came up afterwards and bought a copy of my anecdotes booklet to send to her niece who is about to start studying as an actor at New York's famous Lee Strasbourg Theatre Institute. One of the 'windfall gains' of travelling around giving all these talks is that I get to meet so many interesting and talented people - and hear what they have to say. Don Grimshaw, the Speaker Secretary of Romsey U3A, does the most stunning calligraphy, in fact his letter confirming the booking was the most ornate I have ever received! It was fascinating to hear him talk about his art and his interest in the Book of Kells. Tuesday, October 2
It's the way I sell 'em!
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Tue 02 Oct 2007 04:41 AM BST
Milford-on-Sea WI
On the evening of the 18th I spoke about 'My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer' to Milford-on-Sea WI. This is one of the biggest Women's Institutes in the New Forest and there were about 65 at the meeting. It's funny how often before a talk like this I will get someone asking if I find it daunting to speak to a large group of ladies. Not at all, in fact I once spoke to 500 at the Spring Council Meeting of the Avon Federation of Women's Institutes and really enjoyed the experience. In future posts, I might mention some of the audiences who were daunting...! The Milford ladies were a great crowd and afterwards a number of them took the updated free 'Twelve Tips for Terrified Speakers!' leaflet. Sales of my booklet 'Nick R's in a Twist!' were excellent - 22 copies! Which brings me on to merchandising. The first item I offered widely at talks was the BBC double cassette 'Roy Hudd's Pick of the Huddlines'. I eventually sold all the copies I had ordered from BBC Worldwide but at £9.99, sales were low and slow (many of the groups I speak to live on pensions) The minimum order was quite an investment and the profit margin fairly small. Also, cassette players were starting to go out of fashion and it wasn't released on CD. I then added a 24-page A5 photocopied booklet, 'The (Fairly) Little Book for Comedy Writers', comprised of handouts from my comedy writing evening classes and one-day workshops. These go well at Writers' Circles, U3As with Creative Writing groups and Literary Festivals where there are aspiring writers in the audience but their sales are obviously limited elsewhere. Nevertheless, I have sold a few hundred. From very early in my speaking career I had people asking whether I sold a book of my anecdotes. For years, the intention was to market a live tape (I record virtually all of my speaking engagements - more about this in future posts) but there was the problem of finding someone to edit a compilation, the fact that the material was always being honed/added to and, as I have mentioned, the business of cassettes being replaced by CDs - should I offer both formats or just one, and if so, which? Two years ago, I finally decided that it was best to offer my anecdotes in a booklet which would be easier to dip in and out of than a live recording, cheaper to produce and easier for me to carry around in large quantities! One difficult part was deciding what style to write it in: did I reproduce these items word-for-word in a conversational manner as they have been delivered at my speaking engagements for years or put them down them in the more formal written style? In the end, I think I reached a happy compromise. I am very proud of this collection; these true stories have been extremely good to me and I was particularly pleased with how the structure just seemed to fall into place. 'Nick R's in a Twist!' is a 10,000-word collection of humorous anecdotes which are all connected in some way with my speaking engagements, TV appearances or, to a lesser extent, my writing career. It also contains much of the unintentional 'found humour' that I have stumbled across over the years. Once again, it's a photocopied A5 booklet and it has a cover illustration by my late mother Jenny Walker who was a talented artist, writer and speaker. Sales are now pushing towards 1,000 copies, virtually all of them sold at my talks (never mind about the Harry Potters and Da Vinci Codes, I read recently that the average sale of a published book in the UK is around 250 copies a year!) Not only does it give me extra income (there are some engagements where merchandising doubles my fee, thus making some of the lower-paying bookings more viable for me) but it gives the audience a souvenir (many people also seem to send them on to friends and relatives as well) and they get additional stories that I didn't have time for. The merchandising can also be useful for the organisation that booked me, for example, those WIs who allow selling (not all do) take a very reasonable 10% commission. In the case of this talk, their percentage recouped the travel expenses they paid me plus a small portion of my fee so it really was a 'win-win' situation. The point about merchandising is that it's an extra - you cannot make your talk a sales pitch. When I am delivering 'My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer' or 'The Power of Humour in Everyday Life', I mention the booklet and its title as part of a section about the humour of names. Then, just before the end of the talk, I briefly mention it again, along with the free leaflet ( I even have a humorous anecdote to introduce that with!). It also helps if I read the odd story from the book as part of the talk - a short reading varies the style of delivery, as I have mentioned before. There is no way to predict the number of sales (I have spoken to 31 people and sold 18 booklets, I have delivered the same talk to 66 and sold 1! ) but overall it makes quite a difference and it's very satisfying to know that are all these pockets of the country where x number of people own something that I've written - even a smallish book is less ephemeral and more substantial than a quick sketch on a BBC show or a ghost-written joke for a DJ or speech for a businessman! Just one other thing: even when selling a booklet at a very low price, I have had the first customer hand me a £20 note so I always take a float with me. Public Speaking Tip #31: As well as providing additional income, selling an inexpensive item such as a booklet at your speaking engagements reinforces your message, gives an opportunity to include additional material and can be a great souvenir. It may also make lower-paying engagements more viable and a commission on sales can be most useful to the organisation booking you. Do not make your presentation a sales pitch for whatever you are selling but naturally introduce it into your content a couple of times - including once towards the end of your speech. Take a float with you - not everyone will have the right change! Very important: when someone books you, always mention that you would like to offer a popular, inexpensive item for sale afterwards and ask if this is acceptable (the vast majority will say yes but it's just common courtesy to check). All in all, I had a great evening at Milford. I must also thank the very charming Mrs Clarke who gave me a lift from New Milton station - and back to it! Monday, October 1
The Eyes have it
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Mon 01 Oct 2007 03:37 PM BST
Speechwriting ad in Private Eye
On 18 September I also decided to run another classified ad for my speechwriting in Private Eye. The Eye is the place to advertise such services nowadays but I also wanted somewhere with a very large readership to mention this new public speaking tips blog. While Private Eye pretty much has the monopoly as far as print advertising for us speechwriters is concerned, there are other national publications which can be extremely useful to speakers in other ways. Obviously the big major political speeches are reproduced in the papers (sometimes in their entirety in the broadsheets) but all national newspapers print stories with snippets from other high-profile speakers. Sometimes a broadsheet Diary column will reproduce a good one-liner from a successful topical after dinner speech by someone like Rory Bremner and you can use this to see what type of material works with certain audiences. You will also get the occasional tabloid story about some celebrity who has supposedly shocked a group with inappropriately risqué material (although the level of outrage is probably highly exaggerated!) and this can be helpful in determining what to avoid (although after a while this becomes a matter of simple common sense). Public Speaking Tip #30: Keep cuttings of newspaper stories containing extracts from speeches and use these as a guide to what sort of material works - and what definitely doesn't!
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Mon 01 Oct 2007 12:18 AM BST
Something to take away from these talks
Tuesday 18 September was pretty busy. In the morning I made some changes to the 'Twelve Tips for Terrified Speakers!' leaflet that I give out free at all my speaking engagements by adding that additional tips can now be found at this website/blog and also updating the details of my speechwriting and presentation skills training services and the ever-growing list of my talks. This leaflet started out as 'Ten Tips...!' in 2002 but I expanded it when I was booked to give a presentation for the Central Management Unit of the Home Office three years later. I have given out thousands of copies, not just at talks which are specifically about public speaking skills but everywhere I am booked, whatever my subject. Of course, it does contain the aforementioned advertising and contact details as well but the important thing is that it gives people useful free advice - any resulting bookings to write speeches, coach speakers or give further talks are a bonus. It's like distributing a really handy business card, in fact, one unsolicited testimonial from that Home Office training day even stated: 'I also have the feeling that some of your 12 Tips will be useful in scenarios other than public speaking'. This is not the only leaflet I give away, for example, when I deliver my talk about the late Irish humorous writer Patrick Campbell, I also offer a free list of his many books. It also helps where merchandising is concerned in that a giveaway item brings people along to the table who may then decide to buy a booklet from me as well. Public Speaking Tip #29: It is a good idea to have something to give away to audience members after you have spoken, for example, a leaflet which is full of useful information but inexpensive for you to produce. This can also contain contact details and advertising for you, such as a list of your talks for anyone who wants to recommend you. Another advantage is that if you are selling anything, such as a booklet, it brings people up who may look at that as well and possibly buy - just be sure to make it clear which items are freebies and which have to be paid for! The new copy was then emailed to the ever-helpful Helen at Copy King in Bournemouth and shortly afterwards, I collected the leaflets, along with yet another run of my booklet 'Nick R's in a Twist!' ready to sell at my next engagements. If you live in the Bournemouth area (or further afield as they take long-distance orders) and you are looking for a copy shop which gives excellent service at a competitive price then I really cannot recommend Copy King in Winton highly enough. Their website can be found in the Favourites list on this site. |
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