Speakers can learn a lot from comedians — and not about how to open with a joke. Comedy requires a detailed understanding of language and storytelling, plus the flexibility to work with an unpredictable and sometimes intoxicated audience. It can take years to craft an hour of material.
This week I talk with comedian and musician Phil Johnson about his journey, working with an audience, storytelling, and piracy.
2-Minute Tip: Challenge the Audience to Discover Truth Immediately challenge the audience to discover a truth about themselves that proves the premise of your talk. If the group knows that you have an appreciation or understanding of their personal (or business) situation, they will engage. As a bonus, make them laugh within the first 30 seconds. Post Tip Discussion: Meet Amy Lyle I always enjoy to talking…
2-Minute Tip: Use Click Bait-ey Titles When you need a title for your talk, take a lesson from all those click-bait titles you see on Facebook and other social platforms. Make it short, compelling, and maybe a little edgy. When you promise a talk with the “5 Secrets to Successful Penguin Petting,” you also have a built-in structure for your talk that will keep you…
2-Minute Tip: Scientist-Philosopher-Author To grow as a speaker, develop your path along 3 aspects. This is a framework you can use immediately to become more effective quickly. You have to be a scientist, a philosopher, and an author. Be a scientist and conduct experiments in your preparation and on stage. Figure out what works for you. What is the right level of energy? What gestures feel most…
hjklb 2-Minute Tip: Seek out Vulnerability Vulnerability can be a powerful element in your speaking. Being vulnerable doesn’t mean your weak. It’s about having the confidence to acknowledge how you can grow today and how you have grown in the past. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable helps the audience connect with the most human aspects of your nature. Post Tip Discussion A lot of us got…
hk 2-Minute Tip: Evaluate and Connect Create a scoring sheet for your audience members, and ask them to complete in at the end of the talk. In the Learning and Development field, we call these smile sheets, and they are the first step in figuring out if training is effective. In a speaking context, they can be a little different. One approach is to build…
2-Minute Tip: Be Authentic Present in a way that is true to yourself. Your content needs to resonate with you first, or it won’t resonate with your audience. When you can share a message that you are on board with, you can convincingly tell your story and you have the best opportunity to move your audience to take the action you want them to take. And isn’t that…
2-Minute Tip — Tell a story to Open The beginning of a talk is when you have the maximum audience attention. Don’t squander it welcomes, thank yous, and introductions. Instead, tell a story to engage your audience at the very start. Think about a band coming out on stage. They don’t start with banter. They go right into a big opening number to get everyone excited for…
2-Minute Tip: Increase Attendance Retention with a Take Away One challenge with webinars and live sessions is keeping folks around until the end, especially if the material is on the dry side. To help folks stick around, let them know that at the end you’ll have a give-away for them. It could be something as simple as a collection of other resources or websites. Maybe it’s a…
2-Minute Tip: Watch Yourself on Fast Forward I met speaking coach and entrepreneur Emily Messner (AKA Sleevs) on the JoCo Cruise earlier this year and she told me about this tip. Gestures are a complicated thing for many folks. Your gestures may or may not feel natural, but it’s hard to tell how they look. We’re not watching ourselves while we speak; we have higher priorities. So if…