What the heck is an IgniteDC event? And why is it so snazzy?
a 15 second story: Live Your Talk is a grateful sponsor of this fun night and here’s a 15 second audio story below about Ignite’s energy and great mission – warning: there’s some vocal playfulness involved…
It was the first time the #wgBiz hashtag trended in the DC region!
“It” is last week’s #wgBiz twitter chat where for one hour many from the Women Grow Business community talked shop on public speaking tips — all at warp twitter chat speed (full transcript here). Thanks to #wgBiz editor Shonali Burke for the fantastic chance to be a guest and guide the chat.
Energy from all the chatters could fuel Chicago for a week!
And below is a handful of questions and ideas that helped drive the discussion (with the full transcript per above link providing a strong road map to the entire conversation too).
Question 1:
What are the top 3 challenges presenters face when preparing for presentations/speaking engagements?
Answer 1: A few things come to mind — misunderstanding the audience; avoiding that nervous speech energy; pursuing perfectionism; and over emphasizing slides (vs really crafting a story for the speech narrative).
Question 2:
What are some favorite ways to help prepare for presentations?
Answer 2: Really hone in on knowing your audience and then construct a clear, brief, purposeful key message that addresses the audience’s need. There’s a favorite way that mobilizes this process: imagine you had just 60 seconds to impart value to an audience. What would that 60 seconds look like? Would you relate immediately with energized, precise content — or spend 45 seconds thanking the audience and expressing how glad you were to be there? Hint: Convey gratitude through valuable content and authentic, natural delivery. A list of thank yous inspires an audience’s brain to disengage.
Quick footnote:
Storyboard on a whiteboard answers to this question: what’s one story that exemplfies your key message and leads into key points?
Question 3:
What really influences a persuasive delivery, especially for women?
Answer 3: Speaking with vocal strength/versatility and good posture increases persuasiveness a lot, especially for female speakers.
Question 4 – from a chat participant: Where do I put my hands while speaking? What are ways to control gestures overall while on stage?
Answer 4: The most authentic suggestion to this I find is to step back briefly and consider your one-on-one conversation style. As example: when explaining a point of emphasis when the audience is just one or a few, how would you naturally underscore the point? Would you naturally clasp hands together? or would you actually use silent pauses to frame the specific point and draw more attention to the statement? Or would your voice slow and deepen, excluding hand gestures completely?
Footnote:
Even though the energy exchange is much more aggressive and accelerated when speaking to a group, re-connecting with natural conversational gestures can be more natural than ‘forcing’ a particular gesture or approach to emphasize key points. Let gesturing unfold along with the story’s build in the speech.
One huge factor brought up in the chat was relating to audiences authentically and with sincerity. Many folks shared great wisdom about audiences and how they can quickly detect an insincere speaker.
Bottom line: If presenters don’t convey authenticity or sense of care, then why should an audience care or be convinced?
Question for you:
What experiences or favorite tips do you have that have shaped your public speaking strength?
Thanks for a fantastic time and brainstorm at last week’s!
And reminder to save the date:
The next @wgbiz chat: Dec. 13, 12-1 pm ET with featured guest and Chief Troublemaker Joanna Pineda with Matrix Group International.
I’m blogging now from a women’s ladies luncheon at Zola’s Wine and Kitchen. It’s an eye opening discussion about sustainable food and cooking – and embracing a farmer’s market, fresh food mentality. Welcoming remarks were made by award winning chef Barton Seaver (side note: I’m learning a heck of a lot!).
What stands out about the talk’s style is how Amy Senger, founder of 1×57 and leader of our discussion, just admitted she completely changed her presentation 30 minutes ago before this event started.
A behind-the-scenes decision: Amy said she had a highly structured slide deck ready to present yet re-considered that approach after conferring with a friend. Since the luncheon and audience are based in a more intimate setting, she decided to ditch the slide deck and engage in an interview dynamic and Q&A. The event’s host and A Clean Life founder Steven Mandzik facilitated the casual interview, creating an impromptu yet natural presence.
Amy has a personal, compelling story to relay so I’m grateful she chose to conversationally relate in this type of event vs direct attention to visuals.
Even though the audience could have engaged for a longer time with their questions, the audience is certainly included in this conversation and Amy’s experience.
I admire her for looking clearly at the audience-speaker dynamic and making adjustments to cultivate a more interactive exchange.
After hours of strong, resourceful, on-fire conversations – by the end of the day not even the sky could stop the momentum of ideas at this year’s WomenWhoTech Telesummit.
Image Orange Sky by Nick Humphries, Creative Commons.
Tips: taking on perfectionism, public speaking, and the pitch
Lightening talks launched #WWT this time i.e. four, 10 to 20 minute consecutive conversations. I was ecstatic to co-present the day’s opening discussion with Allyson: tools for public speaking in our Web 2.0 environment.
…with a debrief:
2 tips to transcend that public speech perfectionism
Does waiting for the perfect fund of knowledge derail your assertion to speak in public? Some ideas to assert this:
1. Engage your own stage 15 minutes weekly with social media tools. Start free-form talking to yourself into a smart phone’s audio device or casually interviewing peers via mobile audio platforms like Utterli or with accessible video cameras like the Flip. Podcast steadily. Keep this practice content published or unpublished, whichever.
The goal: Gain confidence in and awareness for your public conversation ability.
2. Commit to regular, impromptu Q&A with a trusted peer(s) regarding topics that compel you. Confront that feeling of “deer-headlights-don’t-know-answer.”
The goal: Strengthen flexibility in your impromptu engagement style. Develop the ability to own it publicly when an answer is unknown and continue to lead the audience dynamic despite this.
5 tips for pitching to speaker selection committees
1. Commit to submitting steadily to panel and conference speaker selection committees — even if they thank you with rejection emails. It’s the Olympic numbers game here…pitch, pitch, submit, submit.
2. Invite known industry leaders to join your panelist slates.
3. Know at the beginning of the year (well before conference season) the industry conferences / events at which you want to be a featured speaker. Then document submission due dates for speaker selection committees (engage and learn from past speakers at said events and past selection committees if possible).
4. Create and publish shareable clips of your public conversations. Whether presenting in live audiences or conversation in podcasting talks, capture that content – even if it’s casual/social – and submit to selection committees.
5. Request endorsements for your public speaking ability and publish on LinkedIn and main online hub. Former audience members – even mentors or colleagues – are open game to solicit and publish great reviews.
The goal: Execute a strategic approach to public speaking. Make your skill and champion topics visibly accessible for pitch decision makers.
2 tips on mental fortitude and public speech
Perfectionism isn’t the end game, but participation is.
At the heart of public speaking (and thus conversational leadership) is a willingness to give and receive attention – through content you give a distinct damn about.
There were added suggestions and recaps in the above cited event posts too.
Welcome! Quick fyi: below was submitted as a guest post to Women Grow Business to publish week of 9/13/10.
A colleague and I recently discussed women’s self-promotion styles compared to men. Then Clay Shirky’s blog post “A Rant About Women” came up and his thought provoking remarks on the subject. His comments also sharpened my own reflections that I had resisted admitting (image Golden Reflection, Creative Commons, by Chad Galloway).
I wish Clay Shirky’s rant from earlier this year contradicted my own observations i.e. that women often threaten their own success by failing to promote themselves effectively or by avoiding that axiom “fake it till you make it.” Clay’s post said this ‘fake it till you make it’ trait is one men seem to exercise with ease and that women would do well to exercise more.
I look forward to when he’ll discuss his rant (and the consequences from it) this week at the WomenWhoTech Telesummit.
Owning up to ‘authenticity 2.0′
Even though my observations of women in many cases, especially those here at Women Grow Business, differ from Shirky’s premise – some of them also resonate. I know for sure I could be more diligent at promoting great women (and men too!), at promoting myself, at going after certain speaker submission goals (quick aside – Susan Mernit shared a great, inclusive speaking calendar that’s tech and business centric).
How are your promotion skills (for self, others)? Honestly I’d like to think my strengths are solid yet I can name plenty of instances when I suppressed self-advocacy to avoid criticism or vulnerability – recently.
A woman thing?
It can be said that avoiding vulnerability is ok and human vs just ‘a woman thing’. But could someone (or their magic wand) just share their magical always-a-confident-elegant-self-promoting-dynamo potion? I’m ready to consume…
This isn’t something that’s savory to admit out loud. But if my self-leadership is to further benefit the life it leads and those impacted by it, then I better own up to this ‘authenticity 2.0′ age we live in and admit Clay Shirky’s rant still hits home.
Be more like men?
As he also admitted toward the end of his rant, he doesn’t know the solution. That makes two of us. Should we women assert self-promotion more like men? Should we teach young women those ‘fake it till you make it’ self-promotion mentalities to better land competitive jobs? Clay Shirky thinks so and as of this writing, I give it a strong maybe.
From the vantage point of preserving authenticity, one part of me resists telling us women to model men’s behavior (image Winds of Change by Kharied, Creative Commons):
“Let our true selves ring free! Self-promote as you will (or not).” …says that inner Joan of Arc. Yet it is matched by an inner devil’s advocate that says: “Girl, you’re kiddin’ yourself. You gotta up your game and promote more like a bandit.”
Do your inner Joans of Arc and devilish advocates wrestle with eachother too? It’s unclear what teachable and generational solutions are to what is a very sensitive appraisal of our gender. There are many nuances, variables, and layers to this topic (in and beyond sexism) that Clay and many others have addressed.
How often does this topic come up in your communities?
What’s your perspective? Do you believe it is an over addressed subject or one that could be discussed more openly?
A summarized approach that’s renewing my commitment to diligently self-promote (with ideally some grace too!):
commit to being one’s best advocate;
assert a ‘public speech 2.0′ mentality in business and personal development. Are the great stories and strengths of your business and your expertise ready for engagement i.e. for stage delivery (a speech), a persuasive conversation (a sales dynamic or job interview), and social networks (your online community)?
seek out strong and compelling forums (that can also be promotional environments) which engage women, like for starters, Women Grow Biz(!) and WomenWhoTech Telesummit. As mentioned Clay takes the rant to the summit on 9/15th. Full disclosure – I’m on WomenWhoTech’s advisory committee but have much respect for the incredible line-up that includes TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde and 30+ other fabulous women in tech and social media.
What’s your approach to consistent habits of promotion (for self and others)?
