The Ideal Communicator

A few weeks ago, I attended a full-day marketing and branding conference to listen to six individuals, all professional speakers, authors, and experts in their field. They were scheduled to take the stage for 45-60 minutes at a time, to an audience of approximately 1,000 people. Some of these speakers were more well-known than others, but all had a specific expertise, and I was eager to listen to them all and hear what they had to share.

What did I come out with?

1. The speakers who can make the audience laugh the most will be rated the highest
2. You don’t always need slides to get your point across concisely and powerfully
3. Even the best professional speakers can miss the mark and completely alienate the audience

Let’s focus on point #3.

All the speakers had their fan base. There were two speakers who were big draws – one of them was an author of several books, very active on social media, and a true expert in his field. I know many people who RT him on Twitter regularly, who read his books, and follow his advice. The other had fewer books, a little newer to the speaking field, but is a well known local personality.  And while I can accept that even the best speakers can have an “off” day (as I was told by someone who had seen these people speak before, who assured me that they are generally much better than their performance on that day), here’s what these speakers did that really annoyed the audience: Read the rest of this entry »

I went to a wedding over the weekend, and had the opportunity to listen to at least 7 different speeches given by the family and friends of the happy couple. The content of all the speeches was great – all were very heartfelt and warm, and written from a place of deep caring for the couple. However, in terms of how the speeches were delivered…well, that’s where there may have been some ‘cracks in the pavement’ for a few of them.

That’s not to say that they were bad – not in the least! Each speech was straight from the heart, and it was obvious that each speaker truly cared for the couple. Hey, it’s not easy to get up in front of a room of 300 people – many of them strangers – and deliver a speech. So I applaud each and every speaker for making the decision to put themselves in this situation and having the courage to give a speech.

Some speeches had an ‘edge’ to them – they were delivered loudly, clearly, and humorously. The others had some ‘issues’ – that could have been easily resolved – which would have made them even more well-received. Read the rest of this entry »

A lot has been said about the presentation style of Steve Jobs. Numerous books have written about it, blogs, articles and other media are continually discussing and deconstructing his finesse, his charisma, his ‘get-to-the-point’ delivery. And with good reason. This man knows how to launch a product. 

Most of us are used to this more ‘typical’ product launch presentations given by a ‘business speaker’: “Here’s our new product. These are the new features… These are the improvements on the old features… Here are the benefits… Here’s the price. Please buy it.” But Jobs does what many business speakers have a hard time doing. He intrigues his audience. He has them in the palm of his hand. He turns them into passionate Apple brand advocates.

Steve Jobs is much more than a talented, above-average business speaker. He’s a product evangelist. Not content to just launch a product or persuade us of its value, he makes us salivate for it. Beg for it. He makes us HAVE to have it – NOW. 

I looked at two of Jobs’ presentations – the introduction of the iPad in January 2010, and the introduction of the iPhone 3G in 2008. Both are very similar in style, so we can see that Jobs knows what type of presentation style works for him and sticks with it. So let’s look at four techniques that the Great and Powerful Jobs uses to bring his audience to their knees, begging for his product: Read the rest of this entry »

Ellen DeGeneres’ speech to the Class of 2009 at Tulane University is an excellent example of how to deliver a serious message with humour.  This 9-minute speech has humour, it has relevant stories, it has an inspirational message, and it has a call-to-action to set her listeners on the right foot as they leave university for the real world. 

Several months ago, I watched a speaker at a conference deliver a riveting talk on marketing, branding and social media. He was polished, interesting, and the slides and videos that he used brought the perfect mix of humour, fun, and insight. All around, a great presentation.

And yet, his audience was cheated.

What happened? At the end of this well-structured, well-delivered and value-driven speech, he immediately left the stage. The audience had barely started their applause in appreciation of his talk, but he didn’t see it. And what was worse, the audience gave him a standing ovation. Of the approximately 300 people in attendance, almost everyone was on their feet, trying to show their appreciation for sharing his views through their applause.

But he was gone. Out the door. Without a clue that 300 people were trying to show their appreciation. We thought he’d come back, but he never did.

So I, as the rest of the audience, applauded an empty stage. Awkward.

Did he not care? Did he have somewhere more important to be? Did he not have 10 extra seconds to hang around and accept his applause? Read the rest of this entry »