On Wednesday, I attended featured speaker Arvee Robinson‘s Persuasive Speaking Mastery event in Newport Beach. It was great to see her in action … she truly is a master speaker.
The day was filled with gems from both her and her guest speaker, Jill Lublin. I’ve seen both speak before, but I still enjoy every moment of their presentations.
One of the many pieces of gold Arvee shared with us was the three biggest mistakes entrepreneurs and small business owners make when using public speaking to promote their business. They were:
- No opening
- No stories
- No call to action
Let me go into each a bit further:
No opening
Many beginning speakers just launch right into their speech without building any sort of rapport with their audience. This is a sure-fire way to turn them off … and get them not to listen to a word you say.
No stories
People are hard-wired to respond to stories. If your speech is pure content … an information dump, so to speak … without couching that information in stories, you’ll lose your audience. Your stories can be from personal experience, or something you’ve read, or even a case study. As long as it has the structure of a story, your audience will be more likely to respond.
No call to action
Many speakers just present their information and step down. But what do you want your audience to do with that information? You’re not up there just to share … you’re up there to inspire some sort of action. Spell it out. Be specific. Call your audience to action.
Arvee’s event was so good, I’m going to it again next month, when she’ll be holding it in Ontario, Calif. There’s still time to register and it’s free! Just go to www.persuasivespeakingmastery.com to sign up and be sure to find me and say, “Hi!”
