Jonathan Morse's Key Ideas from Confessions of a Public Speaker
by Scott Berkun

It’s often the case that the things speakers obsess about are the opposite of what the audience cares about. They want to be entertained. They want to learn. And most of all, they want you to do well.

Many mistakes you can make while performing do not prevent those things from happening. It’s the mistakes you make before you even say a word that matter more. These include the mistakes of not having an interesting opinion, of not thinking clearly about your points, and of not planning ways to make those points relevant to your audience.

If you pretend to have no fear of public speaking, you deny yourself the natural energy your body is giving you. Anxiety creates a kind of energy you can use, just as excitement does.

Ian Tyson, a stand-up comedian and motivational speaker, offered this gem of advice: “The body’s reaction to fear and excitement is the same… so it becomes a mental decision: am I afraid or am I excited?

• Getting to the venue early so you don’t have to rush
• Doing tech and sound rehearsal well before your start time
• Walking around the stage so your body feels safe in the room
• Sitting in the audience so you have a physical sense of what they will see
• Eating early enough so you won’t be hungry, but not right before your talk
• Talking to some people in the audience before you start (if it suits you), so it’s no longer made up of strangers (friends are less likely to try to eat you).

We can minimize most of these fears by realizing that we speak in public all the time.

You’re already good at public speaking — the average person says 15,000 words a day.

People come because they:

• Want to learn something
• Wish to be inspired
• Hope to be entertained
• Have a need they hope you will satisfy
• Desire to meet other people interested in the subject
• Seek a positive experience they can share with others
• Are forced to be there by their bosses, parents, professors, or spouses.

You can say, “I have 30 minutes to talk to you, and five points to make. I will spend five minutes on each point and save the remaining time for any questions.”

That takes about ten seconds to say, but for that small price, you continue to own the attention of the room because they know the plan.

Get the audience involved:

• Ask for a show of hands.
• Quiz them with trivia.
• Give them a problem to solve.

When you enforce a popular rule, you re-engage everyone who supports that rule. You restore your power and earn the audience’s respect. So, don’t hesitate to cut off a blowhard, silence the guy on his cell phone, and interrupt the table having a private but distracting conversation. As long as you are polite and direct, you’ll be a hero.