I was driving along today and for some reason a past experience popped into my head that I thought I would share. As a public speaker, I attend a lot of other speaker’s events. I am basically just there to steal any good ideas they may have so I can later present them as my own. I also study their techniques and styles and know well that the most important quality a speaker can have is confidence. We all know about the fear of public speaking, and even those that do it for a living have varying degrees of confidence. We also have our quirks; I for example am the epitome of confidence, unless I have an equipment malfunction, at which point I will get all flapped up and run around in circles like a boob.

There is a fine line between confidence and hubris. Actually, that line may not be that fine. Confidence inspires everyone; hubris, on the other hand annoys most people. The past experience that I remembered was long before I ever got involved in Public Speaking. I was involved in commercial shopping center development for many years. While I never got huge, I was involved with over 70 regional shopping centers and malls across the U.S. over about a ten year period. The trade group for that industry is the International Council of Shopping Centers, which was a big group at the time, I assume much smaller now. ICSC had their annual convention in Las Vegas every year and usually about 35,000 people would attend, so it was a pretty big group. The attendees included a who’s who of the industry and of course the many vendors who support the industry. One year, when things were going good, the keynote address at the main luncheon was given by a pioneer in the field and CEO of the largest mall owner at the time. He gets up to the podium, scans the full house crowd and says “I could shoot off a shotgun from here and not hit anybody important“. I am sure he intended it to be funny; I looked around a saw a few people awkwardly chuckling. I looked at this man who I had envied, respected and was looking forward to hearing and thought “What an A-hole”. Thirteen words out of his mouth, changed my opinion of him forever.

At another annual event for the Society for Environmental Graphic Design held every year at the time at Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, I witnessed a similar situation. SEGD is a trade group for graphic designers, which were integral in making shopping centers visually exciting. They had asked the Co-Founder of one of the most respected firms in the field to speak for their keynote luncheon address. Many of the younger attendees were eagerly awaiting what wisdom he might impart. After making everyone wait for too long, he comes sauntering in from stage left eating a piece of fried chicken. He continued eating while everybody was starting to look at each other confused. When he finally finished he tossed the chicken bone over his shoulder on the floor and proceeded to tell everyone that they could never be as good as he was and that they might as well just leave the business. Well, I always knew this dude was a vain S.O.B. so my opinions were simply confirmed, but I could almost hear the rest of the crowd murmur under their breath “What an A-Hole”.

On another occasion I was attending a local Real Estate Investors Meet-up group for the first time just to check it out. This particular meetup was held at a Village Inn so I was already doubting the potential value and like a lot of meetups, they were going to have a speaker. I am sitting in the back room with a bunch of other people, mostly slum lord wannabees, and I’m looking around to figure out if the speaker had arrived. The host suddenly introduced the speaker who stood up from the middle of the crowd of SLWs. Here’s this old disheveled guy, looking like he just stepped out of the half-off sale at the Salvation Army. He’s gonna talk to us about “paper”, as in property notes. He waddles up the the head of the table and says “You’re All Stupid”, a classic attention getter. He then proceeds to tell us how he makes “millions” owning paper.

Common Millionaire's Car

Now at least the other two examples were people who were actually successful; not that that gives anyone the “right” to be a jerk. Of course this guy was selling his “Getting Rich Owning Paper” program (normally $999, but just for us… $99 if we sign-up tonight). I was stuck for the whole windbag pitch as I was trapped between to large people and did not get to finally leave until about the same time he did. At least he waved goodbye to me as he drove off in his 1976 Ford Granada. A-Hole.

So my point, if I have one, is: Confidence=Good, Hubris=Bad. Once someone determines that you are an A-Hole, you seldom get a chance to change their opinion… even if you could.

BTW, I wrote this entire post on my Blackberry and it took a very long time, I don’t recommend it.

I would really appreciate your comments below, don’t be shy.

Steve

Plan Describe your audience and define the purpose of your talk.

Prepare Establish a positive mindset and prepare the structure and timing of your presentation.

Practice Review your content, rehearse and get feedback on your presentation, and build enthusiasm and confidence to present.

Present Own your subject and build rapport with the audience to hold their attention and project the value of your message.

Plan

• Describe your audience as it relates to the topic—their knowledge and experience, their needs, wants, and goals. Ask yourself, “What does my audience know about this topic?”
• Define the purpose of your presentation as it relates to the outcome you seek. Is your intention to inform? Persuade? Motivate? Teach? When you clarify your purpose, you will more easily hit your target.
• Plan the content of your presentation around your purpose and your audience’s interest and level of understanding. Use words and phrases common to your audience, and focus on your purpose.

Prepare

• Establish a positive mindset by valuing your message. Ask yourself, “Why is this message important to me?”
• Structure your presentation by centering it on a message with key points that you can back up with evidence.
• Prepare an attention-getting opening. Use a question, make a startling statement, or relate a relevant incident to elicit the audience’s interest. The opening makes up 5 to 10 percent of your presentation.
• Determine the key ideas of your message and back them up with evidence such as statistics, testimonials, demonstrations, and analogies. Make sure that the key ideas all support a coherent message. Remember that an audience can only remember 4 to 6 different points, so choose your key ideas carefully. This should make up 80 to 85 percent of your presentation.
• Prepare a memorable close that supports your purpose and creates a lasting impression. You can close by summarizing or restating the message or by throwing down a challenge to your audience. A close that relates back to your opening can also be effective. Whatever you choose for your close, be sure you tell your audience what action you want them to perform. The close should make up 5 to10 percent of your presentation.

Practice

Practice your presentation in front of a small audience or a colleague, and ask for feedback on the content and style of your presentation. Things to consider:

• Is your message clear?
• Does your evidence support your key points?
• Are your graphics and illustrations clear, appealing, and relevant to the topic?
• Are you talking in terms of your audience’s interest?
• Is your close memorable?
• Did you achieve your intended results?
• Consider videotaping yourself rehearsing, and then review the videotape for distracting mannerisms and other signs of nervousness. Remember that the best cure for nervousness is confidence, and that confidence comes with practice.
• If possible, rehearse multiple times, trying out new ideas and new techniques for delivering the material. Choose the techniques that you are most comfortable with.
• Rehearse the timing of your presentation to be sure that it falls within your time limits. Be sure to allow time for questions, if it’s appropriate.

Present

• Assume the attitude of a professional in delivering presentations. A PRO views presenting as a Privilege, a Responsibility, and an Opportunity.
• Make a positive first impression. If possible, establish eye contact with your audience. Be yourself and relax.
• When speaking, be natural. Speak in a heightened conversational tone. Slow down and emphasize important points, and pause before and after key points to set them apart.
• Be sincere and build rapport with your audience. Involve them in the presentation. Ask your audience questions to be sure that they’re following you. If appropriate, get feedback from them after the presentation, and use this feedback to make your next presentation even better.

Question-and-answer sessions Question-and-answer sessions present a unique set of challenges, but they also offer the opportunity for you to clarify your message and reinforce your key points. Questions also get resistance out in the open and allow you to deal with it. Here are some tips for handling questions during a presentation:

• Plan for questions and answers by writing down questions you expect from the audience.
• State in advance whether you will take questions during the presentation or at the end. If you are taking questions during the presentation, be sure not to get sidetracked. If a question takes you off track or is of interest to only a few members of your audience, deal with it at the end instead.
• At the beginning of your question period, state how much time you have for questions, and then ask for the first question. If no one has any questions, suggest one yourself. You could also consider planting someone in the audience to ask the first question.
• Repeat questions so that everyone can hear them. Rephrase the question if necessary. If you don’t know the answer to a question, it’s best to be honest. Try to find some way to follow up with the person asking the question to get an answer to them.
• End the question period by restating your summary, close, or the action you want your audience to take.

Q. What is the first step I should take to become an expert?

A. Proclaim it! If you want people to believe you are an expert, you better tell them you are first. If you present yourself as an expert, most people will assume that you are, unless or until you prove otherwise. Of course if you don’t really know much about what you are claiming to be an expert in, it probably won’t take much or long to prove you are not, and you can quickly go from expert to boob. A firm grasp of your industry’s buzzwords and name dropping will get you started and, for many experts I know, that can actually take you a fairly long way. However, I would spend some time back-filling your expert claim with real knowledge.

Q. How do I know if I am really an expert?

A. A lot of people consider an expert as someone who knows everything there is to know about a topic. While that would certainly qualify someone, few people actually know everything, and experts seem to pop up daily regardless. Most experts simply  know more about something than who they are speaking to. How much more? That will vary depending on who you are talking to and your ability to speak to their problem. For example, if my car won’t start and my roadside assistance service sends out a guy who tells me he is an expert, I will assume he is. If he is able to get my car started, it will confirm my assumption that he is the expert he claimed to be. The fact that anybody who knows anything about cars may have been able to easily fix my problem, is neither known to me, nor relevant as he is the one who did. On the other hand, if he was unable to fix my car, I would determine that he is clearly  a boob, even if it ultimately took 15 technicians and 2 months to diagnose the problem and fix my car. So my point is, that expertise, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Q. How do I establish myself as an expert to others?

A. First… Scrub your face. Not your actual face, but your public face. Your website, your profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Wherever you can be found online. What are you scrubbing? Anything that does not support your proposition that you are an expert. For example eliminate any recent past jobs that do not relate to your expertise from your resume. Eliminate, or minimize any services you may offer that do not relate to or support you as an expert. Delete any recent testimonials or recommendations that paint you as something other than the expert you want to be. You may notice that I said “recent”. The fact that you may have been a waiter twenty years ago, does not lessen the odds that you are an expert in your chosen field today. But, if you were a waiter last year, well you probably don’t want to mention that. But Steve, you say, what about gaps in my time line? Who cares? Unless you are applying for a position somewhere that has a bored HR department, I doubt anyone will notice.

Q. Okay, I am proclaiming my expertise and feel that I am enough of an expert to my target audience and I scrubbed my face, now what?

A. Get out there and start expertin’. Write an expert blog, start an expert podcast, answer LinkedIn questions like an expert and look for opportunities to speak to groups. Start small, like asking to speak at some Meetup groups first, they always need speakers. This way you can get used to not only speaking, which is the easy part, but also responding to questions which can be the hard part. Many a so-called-expert has been exposed by the Q & A. I wrote about this in a prior post.  Nobody will let you speak? Speak for yourself. Start your own darn Meetup group. Create your own webinar, or go all out and create your own workshop. (My next post will be “10 Secrets of Workshop Marketing”…maybe 9 secrets, I haven’t decided yet).

Q. How do I protect my expert status?

A. Never answer any questions.. just kidding…sorta. The dome of expertise is under constant assault. It’s not that most people want to bust your bubble, but if you are successful in establishing yourself as an expert, people are going to start asking you questions. These questions are not put forth to challenge you, but rather to pick your brain matter for expertise that the questioner can use. Fair enough, you asked for it when you put yourself out there. So here are some rules for answering questions. First, don’t try to fake it. Many times experts who don’t know an answer, assume the questioner doesn’t either and will try and blow some B.S. by them. But the questioner may know something about the topic and is just looking for your expert take. Use a phrase or term that the questioner knows is not applicable and you will see his face change as his brain moves you over to boob land. Better to say something like “You know, I haven’t thought much about that aspect, let me chew on it and get back to you”. I prefer this approach to the “I don’t Know” suggestion that so many people these days say is perfectly okay.  While not knowing may be a honest assessment, it does not promote expert status and my suggestion will prompt you to come up with an answer after you have done a little more homework. Look at that, you’re becoming more of an expert already.

That’s all for now, please comment!

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