Feels like the First Time

Dear Speaker:

I think you’re great. You’ve made a choice to speak at a cool event, bring ideas and inspire people. Maybe you’ve done it before. And maybe it’s your first time. Congrats!

I have to tell you something. We need you to be present. We need to trust you. This is my first time hearing about what you are talking about.

It should always feel like the first real time for us.

We can tell if you’ve never rehearsed. We can tell if you’ve rehearsed too much. We can see if you’ve done this before. It might feel like going through the motions. You might even ask us to do stuff or say stuff, but it doesn’t feel genuine.

Four bits of speaking advice:

• Practice and also practice riffing
• If you’ve done it before, why is this time special? Why do you care about this one?
• Watch your cadence. Excitement is great. Calm is great. Change it up — anything for an extended period of time turns into white noise.
• Talk to US. We’re here. Pay attention to how we react, our faces, our looks. US. Not to the audience you had last week, last year, last month. US.

Bonus tip: Be real, present and happy to be there. How you walk in and the energy you project? We’ll pick it up, and be that too.

Love,

The Speaking Coach in the audience