You are right. This speaking thing is difficult.

Your stomach hurts. Your knees feel weak. You just know you are going to forget something. You are asking yourself “Why on earth would I put myself through this? Again?”

And yet you do. You are preparing to step in front of a group of your coworkers. People who know you. Who sometimes, let’s admit it, judge you. And whose opinions you respect.

Yikes. Why are you doing this?

Well, there are a bunch of reasons.

One might be that you want to connect, you want to communicate. You want to talk about your project.

Another reason might be that you want to be that person, even though you may be an introvert, who steps up and represents your team, your organization.

A real important reason might be that you saw that universal fear in you — that all too common fear of public speaking — and said, “Not me.”

“I am not going to let my fears, especially that fear, determine me.”

If it were easy everybody would do it.

The truth is everybody else is too lazy (it is hard work) or too chicken to do it. Too lazy or too wimpy to face the fear of speaking in public.

So, this speaking thing is the perfect opportunity for you.

Yipee. I’m with you. https://ready2speak.com

Well, maybe a philosopher would. That’s ok. Especially if you are speaking to philosophers. Go ahead and sell them all the philosophy you can manage.

But for regular people…

Sell them solutions. What problems of theirs can you solve.

I was just binge listening/reading Ben Settle, the marketing misanthrope. As I was starting to doze off, I caught him saying “People don’t buy philosophy, they buy solutions to their problems.” I had to replay that a few times.

Brilliant advice for marketers. And for speakers.

Everyone wants to be entertained. Everyone likes to explore the inner tick-tock of their brain. They love to watch TED talks and discuss how to look at a rainbow.

But what they really want is for some little nugget of truth that they can take home and solve whatever problem they might have.

So, by all means, tell them about the philosophy, the reason why you are who you are and why you are so passionate about your topic. This will validate that you are indeed the world’s greatest expert on whatever you speak about.

But if you don’t give them some real-world solutions for their problems you are missing the big deal here.

They are looking to you for solutions not philosophy.

Real-world solutions for real-world speakers here: https://ready2speak.com/course

This is sure to elicit an “OK Boomer” from some but I am going to say it anyway.

Don’t stand in front of the room as a presenter or emcee and read off your iPhone to your audience. Not for a quote, not for a special point, not for something you can’t remember and especially not for an introduction.

I think this is the equivalent of saying to them “I didn’t have time or the interest to either memorize this or print it off or, at the very least, put it on note cards. And I am not going to worry about eye-contact either.”

I have seen this a number of times recently as an emcee reads an introduction from their iPhone and it sucks. They are looking down, frantically scrolling thru their messages and very spottily (is that a word?) reading tiny type on their 4-inch screen. It does not come across well to the audience members who have put in the effort to be physically sitting in front of them. Is it disrespectful? Is it rude? Is it better on an iPad?

You decide. I am just putting it out there as one boomer ranting about something.

I patiently await your pushback…

I sat and watched as one-by-one, everyone of the presenters tried to figure out where the heck to stand to deliver their pitch.

It was a small conference room with about 20 seats arranged around a U-shaped table. At the head of the open end was the screen. The projector was overhead. I have seen this bad setup dozens of times and I think you may have also. It seems to be the standard for a room like this. Arrrgh.

The big problem is there is no good place for the speaker to stand.

The power position, the place where the audience is focused on you and your big message, is smack dab in the projector beam. Very distracting. Try standing to the side of the screen and you become second billing to your slides. It is a much weaker position and you are often in the shadows.

What to do?

Well first thing, get there early and check it out. (There are a dozen other reasons to get there early but this is a real good one.) Test out the positions you think would work well.

Consider building in blank or black slides in your presentation. These would be actual black slides where there would be nothing on the screen, except possibly your subtle branding. Then at the times these slides are on the screen you can step from the shadows to the center power position and deliver your critical information.

This works very well for your opening when you want to establish your authority to the group. It also works very well when you are telling a story. Turn off the slides. Get all the focus on you.

After all, you are the reason everyone is sitting there. They are waiting for your brilliance. Let ‘em have it!