Raise your hand if you want to be a good speaker. Raise your hand if you want to be a better speaker. Raise your hand if you want to be an even better speaker. – Everyone’s hand is up.-

This is a excerpt from a conversation I had with “The Language Guy” – Co-Founder of Procabulary and Enlifted, general badass and dear friend of mine, Mark England. Mark was a recent guest on my Podcast “The Dose” and we got to talking about the power of language. That excerpt up above was Mark’s intro to a recent workshop he did for a corporate client. He calls that “opening hot”. Captivating, right? Ahh… the power of language. If you’ve ever delivered a presentation (or had to sit through one!) that didn’t open hot, you know exactly what it feels like to want to crawl into a hole and stay there forever. Bumbling, nervous, talking way too fast… Not very Rock Star-y, right? Not only do the words matter, but how you deliver them conveys a whole different message to your audience.

This language stuff has been a very interesting topic for me, both from the coaching perspective and also as a student of the game. I’m continually fascinated with how much our mind can control, deregulate, set us up for success and also set us on a path of disaster if we let it. Fact is, some of us sleepwalk through our day to day activities, grind out the routine and are clueless as to how much more we are capable of. The way we choose words and the way we choose to deliver them is critical.
So where does it come from? How can we shift away from poor language? How do we start to communicate our ideas better? Good questions. Let’s take a peek! Here’s what I took away from the conversation regarding how to communicate a message. Whether you’re a performer on stage, a keynote speaker or up in front of class delivering a budget proposal for your marketing project – the following will help you elevate your word game. Like scrabble. Do the kids even play scrabble? I digress…

The Professional Goes In Prepared

I hear this a lot. “I’ll know what to say when I get there.”
Well, let me tell you, even before I met Mark I understood the power of going in to a meeting, a presentation or a performance well rehearsed and ready for the spotlight. I also know how it feels to go in and “wing it”. When I was first learning the fitness industry I would watch other trainers take most of their clients to the same machines, run them through the same exercises and teach the same six drills in their group fitness classes. They also seemed super bored and just waiting to punch out. The whole session was lacking inspiration and individualism and if I were a paying customer I’d certainly feel robbed.
In my first year as a Fitness Professional I caught myself unprepared for a few particular sessions. Whether it was my lack of time to prepare a quality class and I just threw something together last minute or if I was at the end of my shift and was feeling the long day and just wanted to check out early, whatever the case, it came off very unprofessional. When you’re on stage I have a word I like to throw around “ Disney”. One of the greatest companies ever. Why? Their staff were always on stage and always looking the part.
So, no matter what – if you want to be considered pro, get your ducks in a row! Here’s three pro tips from Mark England on how to level up your presentation from amateur to pro, stat.

Rehearse

Mark practiced his Ted X presentation (you can watch it here) 75-80 times before hitting the stage. As you’ll hear in the full conversation, he wanted to be able to recite the whole presentation in his sleep. Get to that point and you’ll be good.

Slow Down and Record Yourself

He also recommends slowing down your presentation to 80% or less so you can bring in different tones and pitches to your voice to convey a different message at different times to spice things up and keep your audience engaged. When you record yourself, expect to hate watching it back. It’s super helpful in picking apart subconscious things you do when you’re nervous. Note what your hands are doing, what body language you’re giving off and what your go to nervous words are (“uh”, “um” and “like” are popular) and eliminate them. You’ll immediate score a higher curb appeal on whatever stage you’re hitting.

Open Hot

That’s right. Mark suggests delivering a story right from the get go. Questions are also popular and can go off really well. Point is, you’ve got to earn the audience’s attention right off the bat. It’s way easier to keep them engaged when you pop it up hot and get them leaning in than it is if you bumble around ‘cause you’re unprepared off the hop. You’ve lost them and at that point it’s tough to get them back. Open hot. Watch Mark for a great example of what that looks like.

Alright. That’s it, that’s all, folks. I hope you got something good out of this read. Please share it out with someone you care about. Maybe a colleague, friend or someone you know could use a little support in their presentation game. Be a catalyst of awesome and check out the full podcast episode of my conversation with Mark England here

‘til next time, stay sweet.

PEACE.

x
M