WAKE 'EM UP!
Business Presentations

A book on public speaking by Tom Antion

Learn how to use humor and other professional techniques to create alarmingly good Business Presentations.

Learn how to make $5000 as a public speaker.

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Performance Techniques

Add Magic to Your Presentations
Dynamic Range
The WOW! Factor
Put On the Brakes and Slow Down
Time of Day Matters
Give 'em What They Want
They Don't Know Where You're Going
Q & A Sessions - Serious 
Pauses
Start Low
Stand Still
Timing
On Stage Tips
Stage Movement: Gimme Three Steps
Be Careful

Add Magic to Your Presentations
With my book on public speaking you can learn a variety of fun skills and techniques to incorporate into your presentation. One of those skills is including magic tricks. If you perform a magic trick during your presentation, it always seems to impress the audience and keep their attention on what you are saying.

Don't worry about trying to be like a professional magician when you perform your magic tricks. You do not need that level of expertise to still come across professional and make your point. You are simply adding magic as an extra dimension to key points your making to the audience, while the professional magician's presentation is primarily just involving illusion. This is a fun aspect you can learn in your book on public speaking.

I do some simple magic tricks that a real magician would probably never do they are so easy, yet I get comments from the audience all the time that they loved my 'illusions.' Think about some areas of your program that could use a little extra something to make them more memorable.

Your local magic shop will be able to help you find what you are looking for. Just tell them that you have no experience and what kind of point you are going to be making and they can help you pick something suitable. Most good magic shops have literally thousands of tricks to pick from and at all skill levels for any type of audience.

The points you make and the comedy aspect of the magic usually come from the 'patter' (what the magician says while doing the trick). You can even buy books that help you with comic patter. Magic tricks are also a fun way to add some lightheartedness and WOW factor to my public speaking book.
Many magic tricks are now on video which makes it a whole lot easier to learn than trying to read them from a book.  An excellent video tape for rope tricks is 'Daryl's Rope Tricks #7.' Your local magic shop probably has it and if they don't they can probably order it. 

I really like to learn magic from videos because you can see the trick in action. Reading them from a book is OK, and very useful, but you can learn a lot quicker with video training. Two good magic videos for speakers are by master magician Tom Ogden 'Teaching and Training with Magic' and 'The Magic of Creativity.' I got these two videos from Royal Publishing & Walters Speakers Services (626) 335-8069. 

And of course, in 2004 with the magician Steve Hart, I created a three DVD set of magic tricks, with a bonus DVD of me doing some magic.
Call me at (757) 431-1366, to order, or order online at antion.com.

My book on public speaking shows you that magic is but one of many resources and tools you can use to cleverly communicate your message to your audience.

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Dynamic Range
I invented the concept of "Dynamic range" and teach it in my book on public speaking. Dynamic range is used to help you improve your versatility as a professional speaker. I based the term Dynamic Range on the same concept used to rate stereo equipment. In the electronics world dynamic range means the ability to reproduce soft sounds as well as loud ones. It can also help you pick the best audience for your interest and skill level.

Some presenters don't have the luxury of picking their own audiences, because they have a boss who tells them who to speak too. But for those of you that can pick your audiences, you will be able to move up faster after reading my book on public speaking.

When your beginning your public speaking career it is important for you to experience different kinds of audiences just FOR the experience. You will find that presenting to some audiences is more fun than others, and certain types of audiences enjoy your style more too. At this early stage of defining your skills it is important to take many different audiences to broaden your skill level.

As you move up the professional public speaking  ladder where the audiences are bigger, or more important to your career; the stakes are far higher, so you must learn to just say no.

Most big named public speakers don't accept every offer to speak, even if they are available, and the money is right.

Why? Because they want to put themselves in front of audiences that indicate the greatest chance of success. They are building their reputation, and a good reputation is worth more money in the long run. If you are specialized in one area of expertise concentrate on that area.

The knowledge of Dynamic Range from my public speaking book will help you to pick better audiences. Also in your ongoing effort to improve it will expand your abilities so you are capable of handling a wider range of audiences.

I have expanded on this topic to include several other parameters that are important to a professional speaker. These include:
-- Serious/Outrageous Content,
-- Slow/Fast Speed of Delivery,
-- Slurred/Articulate Diction,
-- Stationary/Animated Movement, and
-- Audience Needs.

The first step is to evaluate yourself honestly on each parameter.

Many people have trouble with this, so after you finish reading my book on public speaking it might be time to call in an objective third party like a speaking coach or other professional presenter to watch you present or to review several of your tapes.

What professional athlete do you know who excels without a coach? What professional in any field excels without a coach? If your going to have good speaking skills, you too need a coach. Find one, use one (or more), learn from one, profit from one.

A piece of advice, it is not always wise to use friends for your initial evaluation because they will be reluctant to tell you the truth. And ask yourself honestly, is your friend a professional coach in the area you seek training and advice in?

Quick Fixes -- Here are some ways you can increase your range in a hurry.
-- If your material is all serious, add some that is lighthearted and vice versa.
-- If you always speak softly, speak loudly sometimes and vice versa.
-- Always work to improve your diction, but allow it to falter in front of less articulate audiences.
-- If you always stand still, move sometimes and vice versa, if you are a jitterbug, stand still.

When you have the option, pick audiences that give you the greatest chance of success.

Does an olympic runner enter every race? Or do they practice and prepare for the big races?

Thinking like a professional is part of mastering the skills from my book on public speaking.

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The WOW! Factor
You will learn in my book on public speaking, that you must incorporate some WOW techniques in your presentation to keep your audience interested. Do you do or say anything unique during your presentations that cause the audience to stop and say WOW? You must come up with something that will be memorable.

Here are some ways that other public speakers make their speeches unforgettable and WOW the crowd.

Dave Gorden shows a motion picture of a moving story about Walt Disney.

You may have great voice quality like my friend, author and former radio announcer, Rick Ott.

Dewitt Jones, a former photographer for National Geographic does a slide presentation that literally give you chills.

Tom Ogden, an award winning magician from the Magic Castle in Los Angeles uses incredible magic tricks and illusions.

I use a special freeze frame video segment and shoot fire in the air, so my audience says "WOW!".

You could change your appearance, like professional speaker Larry Winget, who wears funny glasses and ties while presenting.

You might juggle, or use props, play a musical instrument, or sing a solo that impresses the audience.

If you want to push your name up to be unforgettable, put something unique in your presentation that causes the audience members to go WOW!

"WOW! That's a speaker I want to hear again!" is what you want said

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Put on the brakes and slow down.
Sometimes you need to give the audience a mental break during your presentation.

Simon and Garfunkel sung a song that said, "Slow down you move too fast..."?

In my book on public speaking I teach that same message and show you how to apply it your presentations. Most people tend to talk too fast (unless y'all be from Aaalllaaaabbbaaammmaaa) and it is hard for the audience to understand you.

Here are some tips to help you slow down if your a fast talker.

• Imagine that your audience is filled with kindergarteners and you need to explain some difficult problem to them. You must speak slower than normal so they can understand what you are trying to say. Don't talk down to your audience, but slowly and carefully talk with them. Slowly lift and enlighten their minds with the important message you have for them.

• Try using difficult, but memorable, word combinations which will make you slow down so you don't mess them up.

• When practicing the lessons in my book on public speaking, do specific exercises that concentrate on changing the speed of your delivery so you have better control over your talks. 

• When you vary the speed of your presentation you make it more interesting automatically.

• You should always practice your sessions out loud. I repeat, you must practice voice pacing and inflection out loud. You can even use a digital recorder to play back and be your own "worst critic" or your first level professional speaking coach.

• To save time, the voice pacing exercises can be done in the car, or while doing your hair or jogging, etc. Sure, people will see you at times and wonder who your talking to, but when your audience hears what you sound like after readin my book on public speaking, they will likely remember "WOW"!

• Often "less is more", so cut out some of your material so that you do not feel rushed to get it all in one speech.

• Going faster is usually useless because the retention level drops so low that you may as well have not even said the material in the first place.

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Time of Day Matters
As you will learn in my book on public speaking, the time of day when you present can have a big effect on how the audience will react to you.

If you are the first speaker of the day around 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in the morning,  don't expect a whole lot of  laughter. Most people are not even fully wake and are probably not going to laugh at much in the early morning.  Use more information and less humor.

I was once asked to open up an early morning public seminar. The sales speaker told me that he just wanted me to get the audience laughing before he went on. I told him that it was not a good idea and probably wasn't going to get the results he wanted, but he insisted. I opened up the seminar with some sure-fire tested humor to gauge their responsiveness and pretty much bombed. I cut my material and just brought the speaker on stage. He couldn't get them laughing either. Curious, I sat in the audience and watched what would happen throughout the rest of the presentations. By 10:15 a.m. they were laughing at pretty much everything.

In my book on public speaking you will find it's important for you to know when NOT to expect a lot of laughter. It would be a waste of time to use your best speaking material at a time when you wouldn't expect a lot of laughter. If you didn't know that early morning programs aren't the best time for laughter, your confidence could be shaken so badly that the rest of your speech could suffer. Also, keep in mind that I am giving you general guidelines. You might have a lively group some morning, just don't expect it all the time.

Most professional speakers consider brunch and lunch time to be the best time of day to expect an awake and responsive audience. It is late enough that the folks who sleep late are now awake, but not so late in the day that early risers are starting to get tired.

In the afternoon people are already starting to get tired from the long day of listening to different presentations. Because of this they will retain less because they are not listening as closely as they did in the morning. You can use more funny material and less hard information, but don't expect laughter to be as intense. Knowing your audience and how best to connect with them is part of what you will learn in my book on public speaking.

The last speaker of the day should not expect a great response either, because the audience is worn out from a long day of speeches. Keep your presentation short and crisp and acknowledge the lateness so that the audience knows you care about their needs. 

One time I was the last speaker on a long program in Baltimore, Maryland, for a food service management company. I was being introduced at 8:35 p.m. on a Monday night in the fall. What do you think the mostly male audience was thinking at 8:35 p.m. on a Monday night in the Fall? Of course! MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL!

So instead of going on with my intended program I said to the audience;

"There are three things I would never want to be:
1. a javelin catcher;
2. the scoop man at a Donkey Basketball game; and
3. the last public speaker on a long program. (I looked at my watch.)
It's now 8:40 p.m. I'm going to limit my remarks to 15 minutes.
I guarantee you will be in the hospitality suite in time for the kickoff."

I kept my promise to them.

Do you think I had more of their attention than if I had not made the comment? You bet I did!

Even though it had been a long day, they all had a good laugh during my talk. A little care for your audience will go a long way. They liked that I cared and so showed care by listening. We connected, and that is the key to all you will learn in my book on public speaking.

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Give 'em What They Want
I have been in situations before where I was to speak at a big event and showed up to only three people in the audience. In my book on public speaking you will see how to handle this type of situation gracefully and dignified. I admit that it hurts the ego a little, but you can't just quit and walk away from the few who did come. Though you obviously can't do a presentation made for 500 audience members, you can still help the three people who did show up.

So what do you do? You immediately scrap your big speaking plans and tell the three people who did show up that you will be their personal consultant for entire time of your presentation.

You answer their questions and make them feel like they are important enough to demand your complete attention. As a professional you don't break down and cry because your  book and tape sales will suffer or because your ego is suffering. You give it your all whether there are three people in the audience or three thousand.

Once in Washington, North Carolina on a rainy noon day church service during Holy Week, only one person showed up for the preacher to give his sermon to, a young boy. Years later, that boy had grown up to be movie maker Cecil B. DeMille who produced the movie "The Ten Commandments". He said that church service and the preacher's sermon was the most memorable speech in his life.

When you practice the skills from my book on public speaking, you should try to make a difference in the life of every one in your audience, even if there is only one.

Always "give it everything you've got"! For the whole wide world may be changed!

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They Don't Know Where You're Going
Mike McKinley who was once president of the National Speakers Association, used to say, 'Don't worry about minor mistakes you might make when giving your speech. The audience does not know what you are supposed to be saying.' This is an important lesson to learn from my book on public speaking.

It will make little difference if you forget to mention something as long as you have planned with good information throughout your entire presentation.

It will however make a BIG difference if you get so upset because you left something out that you start a domino effect of additional mistakes and blunders.

Using the skills from my book on public speaking teaches you how to roll with the punches, adapting and adjusting, always attentive to your audience needs.

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Q & A Sessions - Serious
Picture this scenario, the speaker has a great program, does a powerful close, opens the floor up to questions, answers them well, and then ---- fades off the stage into oblivion, never to be seen again. (okay maybe not that dramatic, but still a big mistake) Many public speakers make their biggest mistakes during their question and answer sessions.

This problem is addressed in my book on public speaking. If you don't have a second powerful close after the Q&A period, it could have a negative impact on your whole presentation. Think about it, you took the time to create a powerful program and presented it well with what you learned in your public speaking training, why waste all of that effort by not doing a second closing?

Make sure you have two good closes whenever there is a possibility of a Q & A session. Make the session end on a good note so you will be memorable.

A "trick" from my book on public speaking:

Leave out material on purpose that you know will evoke certain questions. When the questions come, give a pre-planned answer that appears spontaneous.

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Pauses
My book on public speaking shows you that a speaker does not need to talk constantly to keep the audience awake and interested. Skilled speakers know how to use the technique of silence to make the presentation more effective.

Actors in the theater have identified many different pauses they use while performing. In my book on public speaking you will learn the best way to utilize these pauses. 

Short

• The shortest pauses, which last anywhere from one-half to two seconds, are for the simple purpose of gathering your thoughts.

• All you have to remember is to slow down. Give the audience a chance to understand what you are saying.

• Change your voice inflection slightly at the end of each thought to cue the audience the next thought is coming.

• Use a short pause both before -- and after -- any phrase or word you want to emphasize.

Spontaneous

• A spontaneous pause is a planned 'unplanned' pause used so that you don't look too rehearsed, which requires a lot of practice to pull off well.

• You might apply this pause when you want to pretend to search for a word or phrase that you already know.

Long

• Long or "pregnant" pauses of more than three seconds are very powerful to use!

• They command the audience to ponder, to linger long, on what you just said, that is if what you just said was worth thinking about.

• Please - [pause] - [pause] - [pause] - don't be afraid to be quiet once in a while. The silence can call the audience to attention.

As you will learn from my book on public speaking, a pause can dramatically increase the impact of what your saying, as well as add an element of passion and power to your presentation.

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Start Low
In my book on public speaking I talk about the importance of beginning your presentation with a lower than normal tone inflection. The reason for this is because with all the excitement and nervousness that many of us feel at the beginning of our presentations, it is easy to go the other way and start out with a voice inflection that is really high.

If you are already at a high range of  volume when you start you have nowhere to go as you attempt to crescendo the audience to a big peak of excitement.  You must plan ahead for this always, it really can make a big difference in how your audience perceives you.

When you speak in public remember. . . start low.

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Stand Still
I see professional public speakers make this mistake all the time. They don't stand still when they are presenting. It is very distracting for the audience to try to listen and comprehend what someone is saying when they are constantly wandering all over the stage. You can practice being still by practicing what I teach in my public speaking book.

I have stated previously in articles from my book on public speaking that you should move at least three steps, in a particular direction -- and for a purpose -- whenever you move on stage. That type of movement is completely different than what I am talking about here. Small to and fro movements during your presentation is very distracting to your audience and takes away from your message.

As we move into a century that will start to include more distance learning and TV training, keeping still is even more important than ever before. When you are presenting to an audience and cameras are sending your message across the country or around the world make sure your not constantly moving around and keep your gestures smaller.

When you are on TV or video your movements are magnified. I got a good reminder of this lesson while doing the weather and traffic report for a news station in Orlando, Florida. They put me at an anchor desk and turned me loose with a set script on the teleprompter. I was all set to be my highly animated self. 

Well, needless to say my normal performance looked absolutely ridiculous on camera.

In fact, it wasn't even close to being acceptable for the tight shot they used. I had to stay perfectly still with the exception of my head and eye movement and facial expressions.

You can practice this at home with a simple video camera zoomed in to a tight close up shot. Either stand or sit and don't move your shoulders and arms at all. Talk to the camera and only allow movement from the neck up. To do an el cheapo simulation of a teleprompter, cellophane tape a script on to the bottom of the lens of the camcorder.

In my book on public speaking you will learn to adapt to the stage you are on, live on stage or live on camera. Once you master this technique and can convey all your non-verbal information with only head movement and facial expression, and remember folks communicate with their eyes, and in a close up, so should you. You can add small amounts of body, arm and shoulder movement as the video shot gets wider.

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Timing
The art of timing is a very important lesson from my book on public speaking.  It is one of the most important aspects of humor and NO ZZZZZs, public speaking.  Timing is not only involved in an individual piece of humor, but it is also involved in where you place that humor in your presentation. Timing is also important when when you react to 'expected' unexpected developments during your presentation.

Jack Benny said this about timing, 'When you are speaking, timing is not so much knowing when to speak, but knowing when to be quiet.'

He should know, because he delivered a very famous and funny line after a very long pause. He was being held up by a robber at gunpoint. The robber said, 'Your money or your life!' Jack didn't speak a word for a long period of time. The robber became impatient and yelled, 'YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!!' Jack finally replied, 'I'm thinking.' His image as a cheapskate, coupled with a long pause indicating he was having trouble deciding whether to give up his money, or die was really hysterical.

A pause lets the audience catch up and draw pictures in their mind to relate to what you are saying. It is the audience's signal to imagine - using the word pictures you learn from my book on public speaking.

In telling a joke in public, pause just before and just after your punch line to give the audience a chance to laugh. Do not continue speaking when laughter is expected no matter how hard it is to keep quiet. Laughter is hard to get and easy to discourage.

Make sure you hold eye contact a little bit longer than you think you should when delivering punch lines because time is hard to judge when you are pumped-up for a presentation, yet "pregnant pauses" are another lesson you will learn from my book on public speaking.

The size of your audience will also affect your timing. Your presentation will take less time to deliver to smaller audiences. Smaller audiences hopefully will mean quicker laughter.

Conversely, presentations will take longer for big crowds in large public arenas. Your pauses will be longer to compensate for the wave effect created because of the physical distance between you and the back row of the audience.

Go with the flow, but you set the flow in motion, and await a flood of fun and laughter.

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On Stage Tips
When you are presenting on stage you are saying one thing while your mind is handling numerous other things. My book on public speaking shows you how to connect with your audience, convey your message and be aware of how you are delivering your material. 

On Stage Tips from my book on public speaking.

• Hold your hands behind your back during question-and-answer sessions (don't overdo it).

• Avoid the infamous fig leaf position where your hands are crossed in front of your groin.

• Hold your hands open and wide apart to show sincerity and honesty.

• If you say no, side to side shake your head no. Say yes and nod your head up and down.

• The larger the audience, the larger and slower the gestures should be.

• If you have a smaller crowd, or are videoconferencing, or on television, use smaller gestures.

•  Practice eliminating distracting or nervous gestures.

•  Let your words trigger your actions. If you are counting, hold out your fingers.

•  Avoid clenching your fists excessively, pointing, hands in pockets, or hands on hips.

I know of a man who once sat behind a presidential nominee for the cabinet during a Senate confirmation hearing.  He dressed himself as a Founding Father with a tri-corn hat and everything. He smiled and shook his head "Yes" when a good question was asked by a Senator, but frowned and shook his head "No" when a Senator asked a bad question.

He sat intentionally in view of all the Senators as well as the TV news cameras where hundreds of thousands, or even millions were in the audience. The "Founding Father" never spoke a word, but he "spoke" volumes. Head movements can communicate volumes. The Senators approved the nominee.

While awaiting ratification of the Constitution for the United States of America, George Washington said:
"A greater drama is being acted on the American Stage than heretofore has ever been acted in the world."

So when you are "on stage", remember everything you learn from my book on public speaking.

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Stage Movement: Gimme Three Steps
Lynyrd Skynyrd sang a song that said, 'Gimme three steps, gimme three steps mister, gimme three steps towards the door.' I have incorporated this song message into these tips from my book on public speaking, on how to move around the right way on stage.

• Make sure that you have a purpose in your movement.  If you take a step, go at least three steps in that direction to tell the audience you are moving for a reason. One of the biggest mistakes I see is when presenters wander all over the stage or take a step here and a step there. This is extremely distracting and annoying to the audience.

• When making an important point during your presentation, move toward the audience. Three steps forward from center stage is a very powerful position that will command attention (especially if you walked right off the stage and fell on your face -- hahaha).

• Upstage (away from the audience) left and right are usually weak positions. They can be used when you feel you are overpowering the audience or when you want to take attention away from yourself and direct the audience to do some task, such as talk among themselves.

• Upstage center is also a strong position, but one that makes you appear disconnected from the audience. I usually avoid this position.

• Try walking right into the crowd. I do this when I want to be playful or really get the audience involved. I might have to come down off the stage, but it's worth it. Good public speakers will get really connected with the audience. I am also sending a message that I really know what I am doing. I don't need any notes. I don't need any visuals. I don't need anything but interaction with them. They love it!

When you are out in the audience in a large room with lots of attendees be aware that many people can't see you, so they will start to lose interest if you stay out there too long. Don't worry as much if you are being projected on a large screen and you have an on-the-ball and well-rehearsed video crew. (If you don't alert the video crew ahead of time of your intentions, they will be scrambling to follow you and it won't look good on the screen.) You will probably be lit poorly too. When you are being projected, think about toning down your overall movement because it's not easy to follow you wildly around the stage with a video camera.

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Be Careful
In my book on public speaking, you will learn about how important it is to be careful of every aspect of your presentation.

I once did a presentation for 3200 people in California that was a really big production. I definitely had to make sure I used the skills from my book on public speaking. I had two stage managers with headsets counting down till show time, a personal assistant and complete video crew for tape and image projection. Everyone was rushing around trying to get everything done in a hurry.

I had more assistants who, on my cue, were going to distribute plastic glow stars to attendees so the whole room would be lit with the stars for the grand finale where I had blacked out the room. 

The entire production went off without a hitch. The audience had a great time. 

Afterwards I was busy shining my halo ... until the production company head came up to me and said to me, 'We have a problem.' ... 

I had no clue what he was referring to. He told me the assistants were throwing the stars into the crowd and one of them hit an attendee in the eye and scratched his cornea ... 
Talk about your heart sinking. No one knew if he was going to be OK or not. He was on his way to the hospital. ... It was six weeks before he found out if the damage was permanent or not. Luckily he had just scratched his cornea and is perfectly fine now. 

Like the song, "I can see clearly now", I had let all the excitement get in the way of my normal briefing of my assistants and it almost cost someone their eyesight.

Make sure you do your normal briefings, and proper preparations for every presentation. I never considered the possibility of someone being injured for that stunt so I encourage you when using your skills from my book on public speaking that being careful must be a priority. You must think ahead of possible adverse consequences of unusual interactions with the audience so to prepare the event for everything to go smoothly.

Remember.. BE CAREFUL!

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