Hard-Won Wisdom: What Two Speakers Learned from Triumphs and Trip-Ups

Your speaking business will have ups and downs… just like a yo-yo… 

But, that’s okay as long as you are making steady progress walking up the mountain.

It’s a simple little metaphor, but I love how well it describes the regular struggles you likely face in your speaking business.

Today, I’m going to share more of the ‘wins’ and ‘losses’ of our two Transformation speakers – along with four very important lessons they discovered along the way.

Let’s start with our developing speaker, Michelle. 

Michelle’s Big Win:
She Made Them Feel Something

This month was huge for Michelle Hutchings-Medina…

Not only did she continue working on her new speech, but she also competed in The Last Story Standing competition at the NSA Influence conference… and won!

Michelle shared this about the experience:

“That was a big deal for me.  Other speakers, like people who I admire, people who I've seen on the stage said to me afterwards, ‘I voted for you.  You did a great job! The other stories were strong, but you made me feel something.’

And that was the ultimate. I didn't even care about the trophy and all this other stuff. For another speaker to say, ‘You made me feel something’ was important.”

I couldn’t be more proud of Michelle.  It’s clear she has the chops to be an amazingly successful speaker.  Now, she just needs to work past a few hurdles that many newer speakers encounter.

The first and biggest is probably confidence.

The Notecards Held Her Back — Here’s What She Learned

As you may recall, Michelle developed a brand new speech last month, which she gave to her first audience.  The speech still needs a lot of work, but she has something of real substance to share. 

Right before the gig, I gave Michelle two pieces of advice to help her give a great performance.  Unfortunately, it was advice that Michelle wasn’t able to follow.  She had this to say:

“I took the notecards on stage.  I was just worried that I would not be able to remember everything as I wrote it.  He also told me to just put the things I needed to be reminded about in the slides.  

But because I had paid someone to do the slide deck, I didn't have the background that that person had. So when I tried to add 'em in, it looked bad. It didn't look right. So I just said, forget it. I'm going to take the note cards on.”

I’m sure you can imagine the results of this…

Michelle spent much of her time on stage behind the podium and looked down at her notecards often to refer to her next bit of content.  Yes, she was likely able to keep closer to her original script, but the connection with her audience and the power of her message was diluted.

Was it terrible? No, of course not.  But it could have been better – like pizza that arrives lukewarm. Still edible. Not ideal.

These are mistakes any new speaker could fall victim to.  Here is some of the feedback I shared with Michelle after viewing her speech recording.

“The truth is, you know all this stuff. You even have the right words. A lot of the great improvements are gonna come out of letting yourself know that you know what you're trying to say, even if you don't know the exact words you're going to try to say.

And you can refine the speech based on the way you actually speak, not the way you wrote the speech. And there's a very important distinction there. So use the slides as just a way to help you spark that next memory to know what's next.”

Here are two lessons Michelle learned the hard way.

Don’t worry if they are ugly.  It’s more important for you to feel confident in your speech without getting lost.  The audience can ignore a few poorly designed slides.

Despite this hiccup, I’m really pleased with Michelle’s overall progress.  She has embraced the idea of climbing the mountain with steady and consistent progress.

She regularly sends me two, five, or even eight versions of a rehearsal back-to-back on the same day.  

Best of all, Michelle has pledged never to use her notecards again!

She shared:

“I know it's going to be better. It's going to get better. I just got to do the work and keep doing it. And I know that now I'm beginning to feel like when people talk about the discipline of this craft, it's not just that easy. This is really, this is the work, this is it.”

We’re working towards her next two big milestones, a virtual speech on September 15th and an in-person event in San Francisco on September 28th. 

Onward and upward, Michelle!

Dan’s “Complexity Tax” Could Be His Next Big Speech

Dan Gingiss’s progress this last month has been a little bit more ‘stop and start.’  As you will recall, Dan is dealing with many distractions in his business that often pull his focus away from working on his speech.

Bigger business = more distractions.  It’s not unusual for speakers at his level.

Still, if we are going to reach his revenue and referral goals, it’s important for Dan to also make consistent and regular progress on his current speech and his new speech.

One of Dan’s biggest wins from the past few weeks is the development of a concept that he is using to describe the problem with modern customer experience.  He shared: 

“This concept that we've developed called the Complexity Tax, I think is really cool and I think is going to end up a whole different speech.”

Dan is hopeful that another strong speech on his roster will allow him to approach past clients who will invite him back to their events.  It would be an absolute game-changer for his business.

Many veteran speakers have more than one speech listed on their websites, but if you’re not regularly getting booked for those other speeches, it’s a sign they aren’t connecting with your audience. 

A Missed Opportunity — and a Crucial Reminder for Veteran Speakers

I had a pathway in mind for Dan that could help him reach his revenue and referral goals.  The most important parts of this pathway included two main tasks: