One of my very first professional speaker/facilitation trainings was almost eight years ago and the only thing I remember was our trainer telling us to “look for the limo.” To you the phrase probably means nothing beyond the literal meaning. But to me, as soon as I say it, I flashback to his story and the point he was making. He took a phrase that seemingly had no value and attached a value to it. He also picked a phrase that was short, simple, and kinda fun to say. This is what is called a Phrase That Pays…which is itself a phrase that pays .

Had the trainer said “look for what’s sitting right in front of you,” it would have made the point, but no one would remember it the next day…or even the next hour. Here I am eight years later and I still remember.

Comb through your program and pull out your key learnings. Once done, convert each learning into a Phrase That Pays using these four key attributes…

• Short,
• Simple,
• Fun to Say, and
• No Prior Values Attached.

Eight years ago, back-channelling (quoting) a speaker’s content online didn’t exist. Now it’s hard to find a conference where the content isn’t shared with hundreds of other people online who couldn’t attend. So, in addition to the four attributes above, make sure your Phrases That Pay are Tweetable (under 140 characters).

Planting Phrases That Pay into your speech will not only extend your content to a larger audience, but also ensure that your content will be remembered longer.

Look for the limo.

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I’ve never thought about public speaking as a reflection of self, but Sam Harris really digs into what I think is the root of why so many people are scared of public speaking…

“Pathological self-consciousness in front of a crowd is more than ordinary anxiety: it lies closer to the core of the self. It seems, in fact, to be the self—the very feeling we call “I”—but magnified grotesquely. There are few instances in life when the sense of being someone becomes so onerous. The experience is analogous to having a pain in your gut that lingers on the margins of awareness but seems impossible to pinpoint or describe—until you are supine upon an examination table with a doctor probing your abdomen:

“Does that hurt?”
“No.”
“How about there?”
“Not really.”
“How about—”
“Ow!”

Yes, that’s where it hurts. For one who is terrified of public speaking, standing in front of a crowd exploits the cramp of self in a similar way. Yes, that is the problem with being me. Ow… The feeling that we call “I”—the ghost that wears your face like a mask at this moment—seems to suddenly gather mass and become the site of a psychological implosion.”

I’ve also seen the opposite of this in which speakers use the stage as a way to mask who they really are. On stage they are explosive with their set piece, but pull them off course or question their research and the glass house falls down. People will always give the person on stage a thousand times more credit then they deserve just because they are on stage.

I don’t know if it’s a trend isolated to just the tech geeks, but more and more I’m hearing the the words “right” and “so” being used as filler words like the word “like.”

I first noticed it during interviews with the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg.

Then, in a recent trip to Austin, my oldest brother, Robin, mentioned he started picking up the bad habit from his programmers.

Though I’ve mostly noticed it in conversations with tech people, I’m starting to see it spread more into the general population as well.

Language is constantly evolving and this must be another attempt at a new filler word.

Consider this your public service announcement. The more you know the more you grow .

It’s the end of August and most schools are gearing up for students coming back to campus. That means it’s also my busiest travel season. As an example, over the past three days I took three flights, stayed in three different locations, and rented three different cars. Fall travel craziness gets insane really fast.

But for me, it’s all worth it. The past three programs were almost euphorically amazing. Three standing ovations at three different schools. I crushed each program. I mean REALLY crushed them. I felt so amazing on stage and the students just got it. I mean they REALLY got it. I can’t tell you how awesome it feels to have people come up afterwards and tell me not just how excited they are, but also tell me how it’s going to change the way they think about their student leadership position…and life! I mean to be in a position where I get to do that to 1000s of students every month is freakin’ awesome.

Over the past seven years I’ve played many roles within both Swift Kick and Red Rover. Every position came with it’s own learning curve and challenges. But the excitement of trying to figure it out didn’t always sustain after I did figure it out. Doing trainings and keynotes is something that took me a long time to figure out, but now that I have, it is still just as exciting to me. I love building a speech from the ground up and then presenting it, and I love growing the Swift Kick community so we can impact even more lives with our work and message.

It took me seven years to figure out what within Swift Kick was most exciting to me, but now that I have, I don’t know why I’d want to do anything else.

They made these shirts specially for the training since they saw me do Dance Floor Theory a year ago at Alvernia.

If giving a training or keynote were just about you, it would actually be pretty easy, but in reality there are several variables, some out of your control, that go into the overall outcome of a program. Conveniently the five variables spell out CARTS (as pointed out by fellow speaker Jon Vroman).

CONTENT – What is the content you are presenting. Have you sufficiently researched and packaged it in a way that is interesting, relevant, and engaging?

AUDIENCE – Probably the least controllable is the audience. Who are they? How has their day been so far? What did they do right before your program? Did they just eat? Did their dog just die?

ROOM – The room you present in makes a big difference. My favorite choice is multi-purpose rooms with movable seats, no tables, and low ceilings. My least favorite are classrooms (because people already anchor negative feelings of passiveness and boring to them), gyms, and auditoriums (unless they are packed).

TECH – From your computer, to sound, to lighting, to your power point remote, every extra bit of tech is something that either goes right and is never noticed, or goes wrong and interrupts the flow so everyone notices.

SELF – Last, but not least, is how you are doing mentally, emotionally, and physically. Are you sick, tired, or full of energy? Are you prepared? Are you nervous, scared, or excited? Did you just bite your tongue?

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Looking for a speaking/presentation/keynote coach for your career, job, or upcoming presentation? Email me > tom [at] swiftkickonline [dot] com.

Every speaker’s experienced the awkward room silence after you ask a question like, “how does that make you feel?” The silence is natural and usually it’s good to let it sit there for a moment. If the silence continues on past a moment, then it’s time to change plans.

When you know the group has an answer to your question, but for whatever reason they just aren’t responding, ask the audience to… “turn to your neighbor and in two minutes brain dump your thoughts on what we just talked about. Ready, go.” After two minutes of neighbor sharing, open up the conversation to the whole group. This time when you ask your questions, your response rate will be much higher.

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Looking for a speaking/presentation/keynote coach for your career, job, or upcoming presentation? Email me > tom [at] swiftkickonline [dot] com.

Asking someone to list, on paper, what they think are their top three characteristics will leave you with a lot of blank papers in the room. Trying to create finality in self-reflection is difficult.

An alternative question is to deflect the question away from the individual by asking them to list what they think their closest friends would say their top three characteristics are. You’ll get a much higher response rate, and the answers will be pretty close to the correct answers.

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Looking for a speaking/presentation/keynote coach for your career, job, or upcoming presentation? Email me > tom [at] swiftkickonline [dot] com.

Getting 100% audience participation in even the simplest activities is tough. As the speaker up front, you could exert a lot of energy to make sure everyone is putting their hand over their heart like you asked them to for example. An alternative approach is to elicit a little peer-pressure and spying .

After you’ve asked the group to put their hand over their heart, instead of walking around looking at each person, call out the phrase “ok great, now check your neighbor and make sure they are doing it too.” This simple phrase will increase participation another 30% while reducing your energy output by 80%.

Like this one? Check out the rest of my speaking tips.

Looking for a speaking/presentation/keynote coach for your career, job, or upcoming presentation? Email me > tom [at] swiftkickonline [dot] com.