APA’s Executive Director/CEO, Dan Maddux had a week of speaking and seminar slots to fill. Instead of assigning each slot to a different speaker, Dan chose to maximize the contribution of a few top people, using three of them in three different ways. That’s how Dan made 1 + 1 + 1 = 9. Three speakers used three ways equals nine slots filled. Here’s how such a move can save your organization and money and let you “trade up” to speakers you otherwise couldn’t afford.

Save on Hotels and Airfare
Cutting the number of speakers might or might not reduce the total nights lodging needed, depending on your schedule. However, you’ll definitely save on transportation — for instance, three round-trips versus nine.

Speakers May Reduce Fee
I can’t promise you that all speakers will do extra presentations for the same rates — they won’t. But the speaker you hired last year might have been more flexible if you had only thought to ask, “After your keynote, could you do a breakout session?” Or,” Could you emcee?” “Could you moderate a panel?” Even, “Our chairman is a bit nervous. Could you coach him on speaking?”

Speakers may give you a better price for three consecutive days at one hotel, rather than three separate dates months apart.

For example, for the Florida Realtors Association, I asked, “After my luncheon speech, would you like me to do a seminar on speaking skills?” They said, “Well, the agenda is already slotted in, but we’d love it if you would emcee our Top Producers’ panel, the first breakout session after lunch.”

For the California Interment Association, I was scheduled to present a two-hour seminar after lunch. I said, “What else is going on? Would you like to me to do a spouse program?” They said, “We’ve never had one, but we’ve invited spouses for a breakfast get-together.” I added a 45-minute program that same morning. The only difference to me was that I had to go to the hotel a few hours earlier. Like most speakers, I want my clients to know I am there to serve them, not to pick up my speaking fee and run.

It’s Easier to Get Sponsors
Trading up to big-name (or bigger-name) speakers makes it easier for you to get sponsors. Whenever people say, “We can’t afford you,” I always ask, “Do you have sponsors to help pay for your event?”

Who would sponsor your event? Consider approaching the exhibitors at your conventions, or whoever sells to your members or who wants good PR with the people in the audience. List these “angels” prominently in the program. I always make a point of giving sponsors a good plug in my presentations. For example, after my opening story for the American Cemetery Association, I quoted the founder of my corporate sponsor, Service Corporation International. Then I gave examples to reinforce my points by reading from their newsletters, and my walk away line incorporated their name. I always let sponsor know, “Don’t worry, they won’t have any doubt who paid for me,” and make a joke about it in my speech.

Three Invaluable Bonuses
Having speakers on hand throughout your event gives you far greater flexibility in scheduling. Continuity can establish a powerful connection between audience and speaker, getting your message across in a way that a wide variety of speakers couldn’t. Dan Maddux says, “We found that when we triple-booked those speakers, they become even more popular, really getting to know our people who always want them to stay around longer.” Continuity, during an event or from year to year, means your speakers are able to notice and volunteer to help your organization in special ways you may not have thought of.

How It Works
Recently, 1,674 members of the American Payroll Association attended its Sixteenth Annual Congress in Nashville. Dan chose as keynote speakers Art Linkletter, Susan RoAne, Willy Jolley, Al Walker, and me, Patricia Fripp. He had little trouble getting sponsorship to help pay for these keynoters because of the success of his past conferences.

The Congress was scheduled to start on a Monday. Dan came up with the idea of offering an extra pre-Congress program on Sunday, “For Women Only.” This isn’t as sexist as it may sound because seventy-five percent of APA’s membership is women. Dan figured that many could take advantage of cheaper Saturday night airline tickets, saving their company’s money, so they might be open to an extra day of education and fun.

He called this extra program “Women on the Ladder to Success: Career Strategies for the Millennium,” and used six presenters. Three were from within the Association and industry, including the current president. Three were professional speakers who were also scheduled to speak during the main Congress. Each of the professionals gave two talks at this separate Sunday session. I did “Women in the Workplace, the Evolution of Career women” and “Are You a Wonder Woman or Superman in Payroll?” (In a custom-made Wonder Woman costume I had made 20 years ago. The fact I can still wear it deserves applause!) Susan RoAne spoke on “Taking Charge of Your Accomplishments” and “Women Who Make Things Happen: Traits of the Savvy and Successful.” Diane Parente’s programs were “Your Passport to Image Credibility” and “Looking Your Professional Best Without Spending a Fortune.”

Then, at the kick-off Monday session for the full membership, Susan was the keynote speaker with “Schmooze or Loose: How to Gain the Verbal Edge.” She also presented a program for the vendors, “How to Make the Most of the Trade Show.” Diane Parente delivered a breakout session on “Image, a Powerful Tool,” and gave Dan’s Board of Directors one-on-one consultation as a bonus. (17 in all.) I delivered the Congress’s keynote speech, “Insights into Excellence,” presented a marketing seminar for the vendors, “How to Nurture Relationships Once You Leave the Trade Show,” and, as a break-out, conducted a workshop on “How to Sell Yourself and Your Ideas.”

Having booked the Sunday before the conference, Maddux thought of a way to use his talent pool for a Speakers’ School on Saturday. Last year this program had been a success, but with a smaller audience of their speakers who talk on tax law changes, it had not justified a hiring a keynote caliber presenter to teach it.

As I was already going to be there for several days I was excited at the prospect. I suggested we invite his association members scheduled to give programs during the congress. He also invite the APA leadership from the State chapters who have to speak at their meetings and get no formal public speaking training. As far as I am concerned the more the merrier. I charge the same whether my audience is five or 5,000. After the session I helped the President and Woman of the Year totally rewrite their talks. They have now requested I train them at least 3 months before next yearís convention.

Synergy Makes Good Sense
Dan says “Using proven professionals in several slots so they develop a rapport with the audience is a better investment than bringing in a different speaker for each slot. In our case, two of the speakers, Diane and Patricia, had been so successful as keynoters the previous year that the audience was looking forward to seeing them again. This gave us the advantage of repeat role models, because our presidents turn over every year. The added fact that Patricia, Diane, and Susan had worked together before, and are best friends, gave us even more bang for our buck. We could never have put a dollar value on that kind of synergy.

“I need my speakers to deliver a message and be powerful role models. Patricia, Diane, and Susan are all self-made women over fifty, looking good, feeling good, and they’ve built their careers themselves. This is an important message for our Association audience.”

More Bang for Your Buck
Dan Maddux was able to negotiate with his speakers for a lot of extras. Many professionals figure that, as long as they are there anyway and being well paid, their time belongs to the client. Therefore, they are happy to take on extra tasks.

The next time you are planning to hire a speaker, consider using him or her in multiple ways. It doesn’t hurt to ask if the speaker would be willing to:

• Deliver one or two “breakout sessions” or a spouse program along with the keynote at the same half-day fee.
• Introduce other speakers.
• Emcee the event that they are part of.
• Help association Presidents of Board of Directors with their own presentations, either in advance or while the speaker is there.
• Say a prayer at a meal.
• Moderate a panel.
• Sign autographs.
• Appear in the sponsor’s booth to make their sponsorship more of an investment.

Like most of my comrades in The National Speakers Association, I want to be memorable and to give full value for your meeting dollars. For the Hamilton Bank in Philadelphia, I even leaped out of a spaceship, wearing a Wonder Woman costume. (Getting into the spaceship was a little more complicated, but that’s another story.)

1. Identify

Pick someone who totally embodies what you want to become – in terms of beating your fear. If you lack confidence then you may want to pick someone who oozes it and has no problems with public speaking. This can be someone you know, or someone you have watched speak before, even an actor. If you have trouble with the tone or quality of your voice you may want to pick one of the public speaking greats, or even a President. Each person is individual, but the more you respect your role model the more successful you will be in this exercise.

2. Study
Now you have chosen your role-model it’s time to put a bit of effort in and spend time studying him or her. Try and watch videos of them in action (try YouTube or perhaps rent something they appear in). Notice their mannerisms, how do they talk? What is their body language like? Try to notice all the tiny details and remember them, write them down if you have difficulty in doing theirs.

3. Become One
This is the hardest part, but once you master it you will find it easy to emulate almost anyone. Some people find it easier to do this exercise with their eyes closed. See your role model in front of you, add small details to make them more 3 dimensional and life like. Then imagine yourself stepping into their body and take on all of their positive characteristics. Feel your body language mimicking theirs. Adjust your quality of voice and feel your confidence shoot up. Try and feel exactly how your role model would.

4. Keep Practicing

Keep visualizing yourself as the role model until you really believe you are them. It is important not just to ‘copy’ them but to actually be them to take on their attributes that you want to have. This might take a while but once you feel this way you will be able to overcome your fear of public speaking.

If you don’t feel it working for you perhaps change who your role model is. It’s okay to think outside of the box, your role model can be an athlete, or musician – even your grandma, as long as they totally embody thing you want to have. Good luck!

We have all heard of the statement “don’t beat around the bush” this applies when giving effective speeches. The first thing you can do is review your own speech. Go over what you have written and underline anything which may detract from the main topic or point your are trying to make. Many people with an obvious fear of public speaking do this, often driveling on, or going off topic – don’t make that mistake! Also be weary of repeating yourself, sometimes it is okay to repeat a specific phrase or word – if you are doing it to emphasise a point. But in most occasions repetition should be avoided as it will dilute your speeches importance and make the audience lose interest.

Another way you can better your speech is to insure you use evidence to back up your points. It’s often good to make a short, concise statement, then follow it up with relevant evidence to support it. By doing this you will keep the audience engaged in the topics and re-enforce the point you are trying to make.

It is okay to tell the audience exactly what you want them to get out of the speech. By being direct and taking the initiative, you are planting a seed in their mind as what you want them to come out with after the talk.

Eye contact plays a major part in the effectiveness of your speech. Those with a fear of public speaking will often give away tell-tale signs by either looking at the ground, or letting their eyes dart around the room. Eye contact should remain steady, always look up, never down. Try and keep focused and don’t let your eyes wander around the room aimlessly. If you feel uncomfortable looking at people in the eyes then pick a spot in the centre at the back of the room and pretend you are talking to someone there.

Another effective public speaking tip is to insure your speech has a beginning, middle and end and flows together properly. This will allow you to get your information across to your audience.

If you combine the various principles explained in this article then you will be well on your way to producing a great speech and should have the tools you need to speak with ease and confidence, no matter how big the audience.

The trick here is to be Yourself, if you haven’t got the skill to project a warm friendly personality at the functions where ice breaking is required then being an entertainer isn’t for you. The trick is to find a balance, most people would simply hire the gear – saving around 50% of a D.J’s booking fee and throw a NOW Cd on – if human input and personality wasn’t important to them. At some functions, if they pay for an entertainer and get a human jukebox who doesn’t own a mic and just sits there playing music then they occasionally feel cheated!.

I can’t stress the “BE YOURSELF”, advice enough, don’t put on a radio style zany DJ voice – that will sound false and doesn’t fool anybody. If you are lucky enough to have a D.J training you, or are a young person helping an older mentor D.J then DON’T be tempted to become a clone of him or her. Adopt your own mic style (not a false voice), use your own tag lines but don’t rely on the same cliche’s 20 or 30 times a night – this becomes boring and predictable.

Don’t rely on “that was”, “This is” introductions all night. At some functions going out with a Radio Mic and creating banter with your audience is a great way to break the ice at the beginning of difficult, non formal functions – and a good way of enouraging them onto the dancefloor early on. You can relax the mic work and the frquency of them – once the dancefloor is filling.

Of course there are always going to be functions where you need more mic work than the last, and other functions where it is going to be little mic use, but the key is to develop a style and strength and confidence in your mic working ability and not to rely on non stop music alone to do the work for you.

Just be yourself, and talk normally into the microphone. The thing to work on is to speak confidentally and clearly and try to pace yourself. Speaking too fast will make what you are saying sound garbled, speaking too slow will make you sound like you are addressing a bunch of village idiots . Pretty soon, with a little time and practice you’ll develop your own individual skill and style and that is the most important aspect, don’t try to copy anybody else or put on a different voice, it will sound false and make learning and maintaining the technique a lot more difficult.

If being a comedian is not you, then avoid the jokes unless you are good at this sort of thing , forced comedy can sound false and you may find yourself laughing alone, after all the Client has booked a Mobile Disco and not a stand up comedian!. One of the best pieces of advice I was given my the D.J who trained me, was to “Stick at doing what you are good at and have been booked for, and if in any doubt then leave it out”.

Spontaneous one liners are another matter, if something amusing happens, then share it – use the mic to get requests, make a fuss over other people celebrating birthdays / anniversaries – people like to have their 30 seconds of glory and hearing their name mentioned, over the mic

My advice to those nervous about public speaking for the first time, is not to be frightened of the mic or avoid using one – its your closest and most useful ally, at all functions. Don’t talk all over the track, learn to pace yourself over the outro of the previous track and any intro of the next track – don’t gabble – talk clearly into the microphone as if you were talking to a friend. With time you should be able to familiarise yourself with how themore popular tracks end and finish, this way you can talk upto the vocal, similar to how they do on the radio – stopping your banter at the moment the vocal on the next track starts. Don’t rush to perfect this or gabble to do so, it all comes with time and practice. Keep it simple to start off with.

Start with the easy stuff first, just introducing tracks, and buffet announcements. Once you’ve built up a bit of confidence, you’ll move on from the ‘That was….. this is….’ routine. Try and include your audience, invite requests, make them feel welcome. Even if you are having a difficult gig don’t take it out on the audience and try and look like you are enjoying yourself, even if it’s not going to plan. Don’t worry about making mistakes on the Mic, we all do from time to time, but don’t draw attention to it, or dwell on it it’ll just make it worse – besides making mistakes shows that you are human and not a pre-programmed jukebox

Keep key information on the gig, such as the Bride & Grooms’ names, Best Man Name etc on a piece of paper on the mixer, so that you can casually glance down if you have a sudden memory blank, but don’t write your links down as a speech, otherwise it will sound like you are reading from a script and less natural.

Remember that once the dancefloor is full, you can ease off the mic a little, but keep doing the requests and don’t forget that it exists. Learn to find the balance, too much talking can bore the pants of your audience, too little mic work can make people think that you aren’t earning your keep!. There are functions where you have a full Dancefloor and it would be obtrusive to chat all over the music when people want to dance, equally there are more formal functions where there isn’t the room or inclination to dance, and so a bit of light hearted banter to break the ice and the empathsis on the entertainment side of being a DJ is required rather than just continuous music

All of this will take some time, don’t expect to develop a mic technique overnight just take it one gig at a time.