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?

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.

After every training I give, a handful of students always come up to ask  a variety of questions around entrepreneurship, education, and technology. I genuinely get excited when students get excited about doing more than just their school work, so I give each person my contact info and tell them to keep me posted on their progress and email me if they have any more questions. Here’s the ugly truth though, 99.99% of the students I give my card to never follow up or ask me any more questions. I’m not complaining about this because honestly if everyone did follow up with me, I wouldn’t actually be able to respond. The 99.99% rule is kinda a natural self filtering system in which the .01% that actually do contact me with questions are the ones who are most likely to act on my response thus I’m not wasting their time and they aren’t wasting my time.

Meeting With Students After a Tech Talk at Mitchell College

After my last campus training for SDSM&T a student came up to me and asked a question about entrepreneurship. I’ve been asked the same question a hundred times, so my answer back to him was laser focused and powerful. The student paused, smiled and then said, “Whew, that just gave me chills!” I smiled because I knew exactly what he was thinking and feeling on the inside.

Ten years ago, a speaker named Patrick Combs came to my campus when I was a first year student. Afterwards I was on fire with energy and walked up to him and asked a similar question. He responded back a laser focused powerful answer. I got chills and he smiled because he probably knew exactly what I was thinking and feeling on the inside because ten years earlier he was a student….and so on.

Throughout my college journey, I interacted with people who were ten plus years older than me and I kept thinking about how amazing they were and how smart they were. On one hand, I’d get excited because I just learned something new. On the other hand, I’d get discouraged thinking about how smart they were compared to me.

Now ten years later, I get it. With time comes experiences and with experiences comes wisdom. Because I’ve had ten more years of experiences under my belt, I was able to answer the student’s question as if I was the smartest person in the world. But really, I’m just filled with ten more years of experience than he is. I bet in ten years, he’ll have a student come up to him and ask something and he’ll shoot back a laser focused powerful answer. We’re all teachers and students to someone.

The same is happening now, I’m surrounded by people who are ten years older than me and the answers they give blow my mind. The difference now is I don’t get discouraged because of my vision gap and that I couldn’t think of the same answer, I just remember they are further along on their journey than I am and soon enough, I’ll be there.

Today I worked with Howard Community College. It's our third year working with them. Every time I go back I remember the unique environment in which the training happens. It takes place in a large open area with people passing by on all sides. Kinda like a fishbowl without the walls (see image below).

My first year there I asked the advisor about the room and she said it is meant to build transparency into the programming so random people walking by can get interested and join in. Not the easiest place for a training, but makes sense to me. On my break this time out there, I dreamed up how it would be possible to build in some glass track walls that could move around and give the space some privacy while still allowing outsiders to walk by and get interested. Ya know, if the school happens to have an extra 50k sitting around .

Speakers have to deal with all kinds of setups. The worst set up I've ever had was in a cafeteria/game room with people eating and playing games and not specifically there for the training. It happened six years ago and I still remember it, that's how bad it was. On the other hand, I never remember the best ones because they become an incoscquestial variable and let me focus more on the training itself.

Today I was working with the student leaders at Alvernia University for their first ever leadership retreat. The setup for the training wasn't that great; low turnout, huge room, early morning, and on campus. 

As I said before, I've had good and not-so-good trainings and suspected this one was going to be a bit rough. But quickly I was proven wrong. For whatever reason, the training rocked. The small group was a blast to work with. I was on fire with connecting all the content together, and they were on fire with getting it.

In highschool, I used to run every night to keep in shape during soccer's offseason. Robin, my oldest brother, once told me that you know you've had a great run when you feel more energized afterwards. I can relate the same thing to doing a training. 

I know Alvernia was a great training because afterwards I felt more energized even though I was burning through crazy amounts of calories during the 4 hours. 

Doing a training in the morning is always tough, doing a training in the morning on a Saturday is even tougher.  That was my set up for 100 student leaders from UMSL this morning. 

Dance Floor Theory is a well tested kick ass program, so it has a base line level of success with just about any crowd, any day, any time. But some programs just kick more ass than others, and I've realized it has to do a lot with the attitude of the participants. 

Today while setting up, I over heard one of the student leaders, Aleshia Patterson, in the front row talking to her friend. Her friend was saying how tired he was and he didn't want to do a training at 8:30am. She then stopped him and said that was his choice. She said since she has to be here she's choosing to go in with a positive attitude and make the best of it because it will be way more fun that way. 

Whoa! It warmed my heart to hear a student talking like that at 8:30 in the morning. Sure enough the training ranked as one of the better ones and Aleshia was a rock star during it. She also helped get her friend to have a great time too. 

There's a saying in business, "hire for attitude, train for skill." Aleshia's attitude alone already sets her miles ahead of the rest of the applicant pool.

For four years in a row, Kevin and I have fought over who gets to do the training at U. of Akron because their Emerging Leaders program is one of the best we've ever seen. Whether it's the program or the students in the program, it's always a great time. Glad I got to do it this year. Does any one at UA know what time it is?

The UA hotel is an old Quaker Oats Factory. Though this is the first year they stopped giving away free cookies

Dance Floor Theory at UA comes with a dance floor and lights!

Having some pre-training fun with the outgoing leaders. Clicker Wars!

Teamwork FTW!

I still don't know what this means…

Every break turned into a dance party.

I found heaven somewhere on the way home back to NYC.

Last week I spent two days at New Mexico State University training their student leaders and staff on the launch of Red Rover as their new campus directory. Holly Rae Bemis-Schurtz (pictured below) from the Student Success office hosted me. Beyond making me feel extremely welcomed by suggesting the best guacamole and salsa in town (Andele), Holly's championing of Red Rover ahead of time has made for an already successful launch. Here's to a great year working together!

Hostess extraordinaire, Holly!

Airplane breakfast of champions

1st round of student leaders – left side of room.

1st round of student leaders – right side of room.

White Sands National Monument looms in the back ground and makes every photograph amazing.

Running Windows on a Mac? Oh the horror!

The staff training turned out to be a packed room.

Advertising NMSU on Twitter. Holly is ahead of the game.

2nd student leader training.

Me and the sorority gang.