The Art of Keynoting
Guy Kawasaki pens the second half of a two-part series on executive speaking for AO. I posted an initial piece last month on Kawasaki’s thoughts on panel speaking, this time it’s on keynoting. Again, most of the information being shared here is pulled directly from his new book “The Art of the Start” which is currently on my reading list. Kawasaki’s recommendations include:
1. Say something interesting. This is an obvious but widely abused point. If you don’t have something interesting to say, don’t speak. If you don’t speak, people won’t know you’re clueless. If you do speak, you’ll leave no doubt. Better the former than the latter.
2. Overdress. It is better to be overdressed than underdressed. An audience interprets casual dress as you saying, “You’re not important enough for me to dress up.” If you overdress, the worst case is that look too professional.
3. Cut the sales propaganda. People attend a speech because they want information, not to get a blatant sales pitch. Logical or not, people think that good speakers have good products and services. If you inform them with a high-content and relevant speech, they might buy. If you sales-pitch them, they won’t.
4. Tell stories. For some people, making an interesting speech is harder than upgrading Microsoft Windows. Great speakers don’t simply make assertions, they tell stories. Make a point, tell a story to illustrate it, make another point, and tell a story to illustrate it.
5. Circulate with the crowd before you speak. I give fifty keynotes a year, and I find it tremendously encouraging to see people in the audience that I’ve already met. A few friendly faces give me the self-confidence to make a bolder speech. The goal is to recruit some friends who will be the first to laugh at your jokes, nod in agreement with your insights, and applaud your performance.
6. Talk about kids. If there’s a sure-fire way to endear yourself to an audience, it’s to talk about your kids. If you don’t have kids, talk about your relative’s kids, your friend’s kids, or when you were a kid. I’ve never seen an audience that doesn’t appreciate a good kid story.
7. Self deprecate. Another good way to enamor yourself to an audience is to make fun of yourself. If you’re nervous, mention that you’re nervous. It’s okay. Most people in the crowd will empathize with you. If you can’t find one thing to make fun of yourself, you’re either a total bore or a total orifice.
8. Speak at the start of an event. If you’re given a choice, speak on the first day of the conference. That’s when attendance and energy is highest, and therefore it’s the easiest to give a good speech. By the last day, many people will have departed and those that remain are out of gas. Then you have to lift them out of their lethargy. Giving a good speech is hard enough without this added pressure.
9. Ask for a small room. If you can, speak in a small, crowded room. Audience energy is a function of how full the room is, not the absolute number of people in the audience. For example, 250 people in a 250 person room is much better than 500 people in a 1,000 person room. If you can’t get a small room, then try asking for a classroom style layout (tables and chairs) rather than theatre style layout (chairs only).
10. Find out what happened earlier at the event. This is another reason why it’s good to go on first: You don’t have to find out what happened before you. In fact, you can be the “event” that other speakers have to cope with
However, if you’re not the first speaker, try to attend the sessions that precede you or at least ask your hosts if anything dramatically good, bad, or funny has already happened. Then weave this incident into your speech. This accomplishes two things: first, it increases the perception that you customized your speech; second, it shows that you care enough about the event that you’ve been there for a while.
11. Don’t denigrate the competition. It is a privilege and honor to give a speech. Your duty is to inform and entertain the audience. This is not an opportunity to slash and burn your competition. Doing so will reflect poorly on you, not your competition and will create the opposite effect of what you intended.
12. Practice. As a rule of thumb, the twenty-fifth time you give a speech is when it gets good. Few people will practice or give the same speech twenty five times. That’s why there are so few good speakers. Ironically, the more you practice, the more you’ll sound spontaneous.
13. Use a top-ten format. I use a top-ten format so that an audience can track progress through my speeches. Few experts agree with this suggestion, but I urge you to try it. If you can’t come up with ten interesting things to say about a subject, then don’t speak.
