Not Everyone is a Public Speaker

I am not a public speaker. I admire people who can get up in front of an audience and speak without all the issues I imagine I would have if it were me in their shoes. I can be a critic.  When I decide to spend my valuable time attending an event where a speaker is scheduled to appear, I have a somewhat high level of expectation that my time will not be wasted and the story or information being provided by the speaker will be of some use or value.

We all know people who are gifted with a natural ability to tell a story.  In speaking to an audience they have an increased sense of comfort, unlike the average person.  They do not shy away from eye contact or recoil when confronted about the topic presented.  They draw you in, lead you down a path convincing you to want to hear more. Their body language speaks volumes and beckons you to engage in dialog.  They have the "IT" factor.

Other successful speakers who do not come by their abilities as naturally, are fairly good in reaching, moving and engaging their audience because they have spent time researching the material, crafting the art of public speaking, and honing the skill of engaging an audience.  Whenever I am invited to hear someone speak, I hope the speaker is one of the two.

Entrepreneurial public speaking opportunities are springing up all over the place seeded by this recession/depression.  People are hanging out shingles for all types of employment counseling, career pathing, and networking.  If the angle has anything to do with getting a job or just being unemployed, someone has hung out a shingle.

STOP torturing us!!!!!  In these past months, I have been invited to and attended many job search, networking, career pathing, surviving unemployment types of seminars and workshops sponsored by various well meaning agencies, organizations and individuals.  I have some breaking news, NOT EVERYONE IS A PUBLIC SPEAKER!!!!!

Yes, many of us are out of work and we all have stories to tell about how horrible it has been, what it has meant to our families and the journey we have traveled looking for normalcy but here's the thing people; unless you have something to say that is fresh, new or different, we have heard it all. 

Here's an idea, speak about how you helped someone get a job now that you are back on your feet and employed again, give specifics on how you helped get this person re-employed, bring your business cards to the event, offer to be a resource, don't give statistics on how many people are out of work etc etc.  If you cannot speak to how you have directly helped someone, or provided resources, stay home, until you reach this leg of your journey.

Be prepared, if you are offering a service now that you have hung up a shingle, for example let's say you are providing consultant services as a resume expert, bring samples of effective and non effective resumes.  Know your topic.  Sure you can use note cards and other supportive materials but don't read to the audience.  We can read.

Plan an interactive activity with the audience.  Spice it up a bit, get people to network with each other in the seminar.
Many of these types of events are in the evening. Serve a light snack and a beverage.

Be sensitive, tailor your topic(s) to the audience and stay away from setting the tone to high or low.  The audience will be made up of people from all walks of life with various backgrounds and levels of expertise.  You need to be able to connect to them.  I attended one networking seminar where the speaker spent most of his 45 minutes talking about networking with a king in the Sudan, presidents of major oil companies, and boasted about having gone to school with the vice president (I thought it was interesting that he did not use Joe Biden's name, maybe he couldn't remember his name); a real snooze fest.  During the break, people talked about how disconnected and aloof this guy was and some left the event.

I look at what I deemed as failed speaking events as food for my blog, so in that vein I guess they did have some value after all.