Perfect your presentation skills — practice with
live audiences
by Chris King
You feel you are ready as a speaker. To truly practice your skills, you still
need to find live audiences to present to. In this article I suggest some
alternatives.
Contact groups that have weekly and monthly meetings and are in need of
speakers. There are Kiwanis Clubs, Jaycees, Chambers of Commerce, and a plethora
of organizations and associations who are looking for good speakers who will
speak for free (or for dinner). Once you have picked an interesting topic and
presented it well at a meeting of one of these groups, you will start getting
calls from others who have heard about you. They are not expecting an incredible
speaker, so when you do an excellent job, they will be delighted.
Make sure you find out how much time will be allotted for your presentation
because most of these groups have a special timeline for their meetings.
Oftentimes, these engagements can lead to paid speaking in the future, but don’t
present for that reason. You are there to give them a powerful presentation that
serves them in some way.
Becoming a member of the local Chamber of Commerce’s Speakers’ Bureau, I was
given lots of chances to speak. When we asked Clevelanders to vote for a “sin
tax” to help finance our new baseball stadium I spoke on the benefits. After the
tax passed, I realized that a lot of groups would be interested in hearing more
details of what would be taking place in the future with the stadium, so created
my own presentation with blessings from the stadium group. I learned how to deal
with hostile audiences (there were those who had voted against the tax),
question and answer sessions, and how to create meaningful visual aids.
Look into Continuing Education opportunities. Many school systems, recreation
centers and community colleges offer Continuing Education classes. Most are
willing to try a new offering in their brochure. I have found this to be a
perfect way to test the popularity of a topic and to also put together a winning
workshop. One two-night workshop that I still give on a regular basis and one
that always fills up is called “Discover Your Core Passion.”
I feel that the way you write up the description can make or break the
signups. For example: “What is your Personal Mission? We are all familiar with
goal setting, but how do you set goals if you don’t know what it is you want? In
this class you will learn techniques, principles and exercises to uncover your
core passion, to define your personal mission and devise a workable plan for
accomplishing it.” I have met some of the most wonderful people in these
classes, been hired by many of them for presentations, and have discovered my
core passion!
There are more opportunities than you can imagine. And I am sure you can
think of many more than I have mentioned.
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