Control.. what person doesn’t want control? Think if you could control how your audience reacts to the stories you tell. They would eat them up and give you their undivided attention. Think about if you could have control of your audience’s feelings. You would probably make it to where they would constantly want to see you and pay you big bucks to hear you speak. Think about the times you’ve lost control of a situation. It could be any situation. It didn’t feel good. Maybe you were embarrassed. Maybe you were disappointed. Maybe even very scared. I’m throwing all of these thoughts at you because as Public Speaker, you will experience it all. From the highest of the high’s that make you feel like you are on top of the world and can’t be touched, to the lowest of the lows where you may feel like you totally bombed and you should hang it up. Although you’ll go through so many emotions, as a speaker you must make the distinctions between what you can and can’t control, because if you don’t, you’ll stress yourself out. You’ll make yourself think that if any little thing goes wrong, then it’s all your fault. But that’s not always the case.

Focus on what you can control. For example, you can keep your word. You can remain accountable. This can mean numerous things, like being responsive when communicating through email. This is key when you starting out, because when you trying to get your first shot, you can’t afford to reply back to potential opportunities whenever you want to. On the other hand, the event organizer has all of the leverage and can reply back whenever they want to. It shouldn’t take you longer than 24 hours to reply (max). Being on time is another thing and that really means being early and prepared. That means if you have to travel to another state, you don’t wait until the day of your presentation to travel. Anything can happen. Surprise traffic or a delayed flight can cause you to miss your gig. This one is very important: Do what you said you were going to do. In other words, keep your word. That’s how you make a name for yourself and earn respect. The worst thing you can do is lose the trust of the people who are putting their reputation on the line to hire and bring you in.

Speakers should never relinquish control of their presentation slides to another party. Meaning.. as they are presenting, someone else is controlling their visual aid for them.  Since you’ve designed and practiced with them, only you know exactly when you need to change them. Putting that responsibility into another parties hands is dangerous, because they always have to be in sync with you. They would be in control of a major part of the experience for your audience. The two of you need to have some type of signal in order to know when to advance the slides. If there is any lag in the response, it could mess up the flow of the entire presentation. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve seen experienced speakers do this successfully, but it’s not a walk in the park to get to that point. It could have taken to years for that speaker and their team to be in sync with one another. Plus, once you go through putting all of that hard work into crafting your slides, it will take a lot for you to give that responsibility to someone else (no matter how qualified they may be).

If you waste time worrying about things that you can’t control, you may possibly bite off more than you can chew. Don’t get me wrong, it’s going to be tough. You will feel pressure. And you’ll want to live up to that pressure. But don’t let pressure cloud your judgement in a way that makes you feel like you can control everything. You can’t. You may be use to controlling aspects in your personal life, but Public Speaking is more than just you and it’s never really about you. It’s about the message you give and the impact you make. Focus on the simple things like keeping a smile on your face. That smile will rub off on others. Be a speaker that’s easy to work with. Word will spread and others we find it relieving that you’ve been proven not to be a headache because event organizers deal with headaches on a regular basis. It’s really the little things that work together to make a memorable experience. The more you can master those little things, the bigger your impact will be.

Make your next presentation, your best presentation!

Sincerely,

Julian A. Leonard
(Founder of The JLeonard Group LLC)

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