Thank You For Speaking At Our Keynote

Let’s talk

I hope you're good at this stuff. Elite. Better than you think you are even if you think you’re great. And hopefully you will be and maybe it’s true. I’m looking forward to it.

Before you take the stage, here’s some unsolicited, last-minute advice. I try to avoid trading in advice because it seldom works out. But based on the keynotes I've attended, chances are very high the following will prove applicable - at least in part. I’ll be quick.

1. I want you to deliver the most stellar work of public speaking genius I've ever experienced. I want you to leave me and the rest of your audience floored and begging for more. I want you to share a big idea that can only be truly absorbed while in the presence of awesomeness. I'm cheering for you and anticipate you'll be among the 0.1% of the world's population who can stand and deliver. And if for whatever reason you don't consider yourself in such company, if you don't think you're a great presenter and would rather share your big idea from behind a desk, this won't be your day. It will be forgettable. Aim high.
2. The people and ideas I find interesting are genuine, authentic, comprehensible. They help me think differently about the world and how I can make it better. Whether or not you're splicing DNA, manufacturing jetpacks, or reimagining socks, no doubt it's amazing. Just be sure to communicate your thoughts in terms I can understand. I wasn't born yesterday, but I also don't know your material as well as you. Sell me on your concept, give me a little background, reference reliable data, and I'll connect the dots. I want to relate. If you're dropping knowledge, my hands and complimentary notebook will be open.
3. Know us, your audience. Don't regurgitate slideware from that strategy session two years ago in Dallas and think we won't notice. We will. This includes the all-star in the back row who will be gnawing on a bagel with cream cheese while checking his email and using his shirt to wipe latte foam from his upper lip. He'll know if you're serious, if you’ve done your diligence, if you're in touch and really mean what you're saying. He'll detect it in under ten seconds. (That won't be me. I've never liked cream cheese.)
4. Go the extra mile. Make time to refine your content, be precise. Minimize animation: it’s for amateurs. While you’re at it, minimize words (on slides). Eliminate every line of filler, every unnecessary adverb and adjective and article and preposition and superfluous graphic until you arrive at the kernel of your idea. Then ask yourself if you’re capable of using what’s left to arrest and maintain the attention of your audience. Tough question. Be honest, get feedback, and amend as necessary. Attendees will be in varying states of fatigue and distraction. They will be skeptical. They will be evaluating you, researching you online, taking photos of you and your material. Get over it. And know that as thoroughly as they dig into you, the overwhelming majority will want you to succeed. Because if you don’t succeed it’ll be a waste of everyone's hour. Do it right. Invest the effort.
5. Tell me something about yourself. You're human, just like me. Your ideas are a reflection of you. Who are you? What's your story? I'm interested. Don't be like everyone else. Don't be goofy, don't live in the past, don’t claim too strong an acquaintance with the future, don't try to be crazy for the sake of trying to be crazy. My world is nuts enough and if I want crazy I know where to find it. Be like you - that's sufficiently crazy. Tell me a personal anecdote, create context. Represent. Show me what you — and your company — stand for. I didn't buckle into an aluminum can and fly across the country to listen to a recording. Move me to the edge of my seat.
6. Have a theme and make it clear. One theme. Less is more. But you must have one. I don't need to agree with it, you just need to have one and place it in context. Quest for discovery. Beauty of simplicity. Good vs. bad. Convention and rebellion. Your theme should reflect your perspective. Subject matter content, while still important, is easier than ever to find. Your opinion, however, is unique. This is what I'm overcaffienating to hear, see, feel. When I return to HQ I want your theme emblazoned in my mind. I want something to carry home other than another corny t-shirt, canvas bag, pen, and/or luggage tag. I want to be so completely stoked - yes, stoked - that I make a poster of quotes from your keynote and share them with everyone who visits my grand, eclectic office. I want your keynote, in its originality and truth, to be the standard by which all other keynotes will be measured. Optimism.
7. Ask one question. Just one. Preferably not a rhetorical question. And please, please don’t ask attendees to either stand or raise their hand if they’ve ever [fill in the blank]. That's lame. Map your question to the theme. Insert it anywhere you like. Many speakers pose a question in their opening remarks. It's a popular approach but that doesn't mean you have to follow it. You're better than that. You know the rules and may break them any time. Either way, when you ask your question, look at the people in the front row, the back row, the middle rows, the sections to the right and left, and if you're speaking anywhere there's a balcony, look in that direction, too. Bring us into the conversation. Know what I mean?
8. Rehearse. Even if you've presented your material 147 times and in three languages. Jot your storyline on a piece of paper, a napkin, your airline boarding pass...whatever. Do it two days in advance. The more you prepare, the greater your chances of keeping your sincerity center stage. This is what people will remember. And the more ready you are, the more you can go off-script and stitch together your narrative in unique ways, the more you can feed off the audience - especially if there's Q&A. In addition, if you can rehearse in the room where you’re going to present, all the better. My hands-down worst performance was this one time I passed on visiting a venue far different from what I was expecting. That hasn’t happened since and won’t happen again. At least arrive early. You know the gist: nobody said it would be quick and easy. Everyone will know whether or not you’re prepared and if what you say means something to you. The best way to prove it means something is to treat it like it means something.
9. You may have heard this before. You may be a longtime master of stage and deck, a seasoned pro who's always bringing his 'A' game, always closing. Show it. I'd say be 'in the moment' but that would be canned and you know what I mean. Breathe. You probably also know that someone, somewhere, at 9am next Tuesday will be enduring a dryasdust keynote. Make them wish they were attending yours.

+Bonus+

Thank you. Please start with thank you. Sometimes I need to remember my own advice.

Good luck. Go get ‘em.