The Book on Public Speaking

By Topher Morrison and Joel Comm

“One of the most powerful professional speakers in America . . . reveals how he’s earned millions onstage, on camera and in business” (Steve Siebold, CSP, past chairman of The National Speakers Association’s Million Dollar Speakers Group).
 
If you look at the trends of over thirty years ago in fashion, technology, architecture, and any other industry, what was cutting edge back then has become cliché and grossly out of date now. But in the speaking industry, most people get up and still walk, talk, and sound like the 1980s motivational speakers of yesteryear.
 
The Book on Public Speaking takes a head-on approach and challenges the status quo for business leaders that speak in front of their staff, board of directors, and the public. After reading this book you will be privy to the most current methods for speaking to an audience for maximum impact in today’s more sophisticated and skeptical culture. If you are the type of business leader who has achieved a level of success in life and feel compelled to share your story with the world, don’t lessen that impact by imitating outdated speaking techniques. Instead, break the mold of the speaker cliché and tap into a speaking style that is authentic, packs a punch, and leaves the audience wanting more.
 
“I learned some amazing presentation techniques from Topher. I’m using them right now. They’re awesome. You can’t tell because you’re reading this.” —John Heffron, winner of The Last Comic Standing
 
“Morrison is crazy good at training you how to communicate on-camera so that your business gets more attention.” —James Lavers, professional speaker, founder, “Selling from the Screen”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781683503514

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

I love watching light bulbs turn on. Not the ones over our heads, but the proverbial light bulbs inside. When I see someone in the audience ‘light up’ because of a connection they made with something important in their life to something I shared, it reaffirms I’m living my life’s purpose—to contribute to the betterment of humankind.

My hope for this book is that it will not just make you a better speaker, but will give you the ability to construct your presentations in a way that people actually want to hear what you say. When that happens, you, too, will know the addictive bliss that comes when you witness someone in the audience ‘light up.’

Since 1988 I’ve had the pleasure, honor, and responsibility of being a professional speaker. I’ve racked up nearly 2 million miles traveling the globe and I’m confident that there’s not a situation that might happen on stage I haven’t had to deal with.

This book can become your inoculation to some of the biggest speaker blunders I’ve seen, AND been guilty of committing. That’s not to say you won’t muck it up; you will—it’s a part of being a speaker. All too often, I see people delivering a presentation they so desperately want to share with the world, but the world isn’t listening. And it’s not because the message isn’t worth listening to—it is. But it’s because the delivery of the message isn’t presented in a way that works. This book will expose you to what works.

CHAPTER 1

ARE YOU THE NEXT GREAT SPEAKER?

Embarrassingly, I have already accomplished every single thing in this book that I will advise you to avoid. And everything in this book I’m going to encourage you to do, I’ve stubbornly avoided at some point in my career. My writings in this book are from nearly 30 years’ experience in the business as a professional speaker. Learn from my mistakes and my wins. If I had someone share with me what I’m about to share with you, it would have saved me ten times the frustration, and made me one thousand times the money one hundred times faster than I did over the span of my career.

I can’t tell you how many business owners each month contact me asking for advice on public speaking. Some even wanting to get into the speaking business full time. While the names are different, the scenario is almost always the same.

I want to inspire people to take their lives to the next level!

I want to help people live their life with passion.

I want to help people tap into their full potential and start living the life of their dreams.

I want to show people how to turn their dreams into reality

I feel my experiences could help out a lot of people.

The list goes on, and I can predict within remarkable accuracy who they are emulating. By the words they use, I can tell if they want to be like Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Oprah Winfrey, or any of the other life-changing celebrated speakers in the market.

Here’s the shocking truth. If you want to be the next Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Gandhi, or Nelson Mandela, you will never become the next great one if all you do is reiterate the same lines from the people who inspire you.

If you want to be the next great speaker, (and I mean this with absolute respect and admiration for the people I’ve mentioned above, and even those who I’ve left out) then stop setting your sights so low. Think bigger. Think better. Be willing to say something people haven’t heard before. Stop trying to be the NEXT anyone and instead, focus on being the FIRST of your own. That’s how those people I’ve mentioned above claimed their legacy. They delivered their knowledge in a fresh new way that nobody had ever heard before.

What Does It Take to be Great?

Being a great speaker in today’s market goes beyond just getting on stage and making people laugh, or smile, or tear up from inspiration. There have never been more people vying for stage time—or trying to create the next viral video. If you really want to make an impact, you will want to focus on 3 main areas. And this book is broken down into 3 sections, each one reflecting one of these areas:

#1 On Stage—Developing the best stage persona you can. Trust me, just because you’ve been speaking your whole life, it doesn’t qualify you to get on stage and speak. Make no mistake, that ease of dialogue and fluid conversation you see from the greats is all well-timed, rehearsed, and well-thought out. This book will show you the method to their madness.

#2 On Camera—Some of the world’s best speakers on stage choke when they get in front of a camera. Or even worse, they try to use the same stage skills with a camera only to have mediocre results. This book will reveal specific techniques that work only for on-camera presentations so you’ll be able to switch between your on-stage persona and on-camera persona for maximum effect to the viewer.

#3 Behind the Desk—This is actually the biggest part of being a great speaker. The amount of time you spend writing a speech, practicing a speech, and arranging the details of the negotiation for your appearance are all so critical, yet mostly overlooked with many of the speaker training programs you find in the market today. This section, in the end, will be your favorite part, because it will save you tens of thousands of dollars in mistakes, and will give you much more on the plus side when booking your appearances.

How Great Do You Really Need to Be?

There is a strange phenomenon in the speaking world. The overwhelming majority of speakers usually tell their audience the importance of always striving to improve in one form or another. The messages vary, but the underlying tone is all the same. And indeed, most speakers follow their own advice—in all areas except one: public speaking. They will become a student in every area of their life, but the one area that seems to get neglected is improving the way they communicate their messages. I’ll assume you are one of the exceptions to this rule since you are reading a book right now on public speaking.

So why don’t most speakers try to get better at their presentations? I believe there are two key reasons: #1. They’ve been speaking their whole life so how hard could it be? They think that it’s just like speaking normally so it’s no big deal. This makes about as much sense as thinking you can compete in the Olympics just because you’ve been running since you were a little child. #2. They’ve already received so much praise from people, they think they’ve already ‘made it.’ After all, why rock the boat? They have so many references for how great of a speaker they already are, why mess with such a proven track record of success?

This is why I’m sharing this insight with you, the exception to this way of thinking. I want to make sure you don’t become one of the many who believe their praise. If you do, then you will plateau very early in your ability to move through the ranks of professional speaking. Yes, I realize I’m switching between the term public speaking and professional speaking. Keep reading; this will be covered in this chapter and it’s a very important distinction.

Here’s why being satisfied with your presentation skills creates a stagnant career. Audiences have varying degrees of approval, and even the worst speakers can find audiences that will approve. I feel it should be the goal of a professional speaker to hone their skills to the toughest of audiences—the ones that are the most difficult to impress. Once you can please them, you can wow any crowd.

What I’m about to tell you is going to ruffle some feathers. It’s going to downright piss some readers off. If it angers you, then so be it. But if it does, I hope you will put the book down, vent, and then return to read this information as objectively as I’m writing it. I have no hidden agenda; I have no issue nor malice toward any of the groups I’m about to identify. If you have spoken to any of these audiences and received praise from the group, I’m not taking anything away from your accomplishment. Rather, I’m trying to prevent you from falling flat on your face if/when you decide to progress to the next degree of audience approval.

There are certain people in the world who are natural skeptics. You might be one of them. Likewise, there are others who are, by default, more open-minded. You can satisfy an open-minded person far more easily than a skeptic. To impress a skeptic, you have to work much harder. You have to be more convincing, have evidence to back up your claims, and articulate your message far more powerfully with a skeptic than with someone who willingly accepts what you are saying because they are pre-disposed to possibilities.

Audiences are made up of people. Some audiences attract more open-minded people, others attract more skeptical people. It’s important to realize something very important: whether an individual or a group is open-minded or skeptical, it doesn’t determine how good they are as a person. This isn’t a conversation about character, it’s a conversation about how easily someone accepts what you tell them.

As a speaker, if you are sharing your thoughts with a group of open-minded people, they will be more likely to compliment you on your performance. It will feel great! They will line up just to have their picture taken with you to post on their Facebook wall. Speak to a group of skeptics and the room will clear out faster than a room full of kids who hear the ice cream truck driving by. And that’s even if you deliver a technically flawless presentation!

So which type of audience do you want to speak to? My advice is to be that speaker who can get the biggest skeptics to sing your praise. Be the speaker who can get a room full of skeptical people to want to know more, want to get to know you more, and want to share with others how great your ideas are. And I recommend this not for ego, but for impact. If you want to make the biggest impact possible, strive to be the best communicator you can.

The following is a list of audiences, as I see it, from the most open-minded, to the most skeptical.

•Faith-based Groups

•Multi-Level/Network Marketing Audiences

•Public, Self-Help Audiences

•Public, Business Development Audiences

•In-House, Company Training for Employees

•Leadership Training for C-Suite Executives

•Angel Investors

•Venture Capitalists

Again, this IS NOT a reflection of the quality of the audience. It’s simply a matter of how easily impressed they are by a presentation. I’ve seen some amazing network marketing speakers who can bring the house down at a national direct marketing convention, and when they try to speak to a corporate leadership team, they are met with folded arms and a room full of suits checking their emails on their smartphones.

And I want to be clear: I’m not even remotely implying that spiritual leaders are bad speakers and couldn’t impress a panel of investors. The fact is, there are many who can. They are amazing at what they do, and that’s also why they are at the top of their game in their field. When you look at some of the greatest faith-based speakers like a Martin Luther King Jr., Billy Graham, or more recently, TD Jakes, Rick Warren, and the Dalai Lama, these speakers are clearly amazing, and could most likely win over the most skeptical people to their cause, and in some cases, have done so. Anthony Robbins, who has generated billions speaking to the public on self-help technologies, is so good at what he does that he can speak to any group of venture capitalists and most likely convince them to invest.

I also want to clarify that open-minded DOES NOT mean stupid—not by a long shot, so don’t treat someone who is open-minded like they are stupid. If you do, they will not respond favorably. And I’m not for a moment saying that all churchgoers, network marketers, and lovers of self-help are open-minded either. I am saying that, by and large, when they gather into a large group, they are easier to persuade than a room full of skeptics. If you don’t believe me, look at how many times the word faith and believe show up in a spiritually inspired message. Then count how many times faith and believe come up in a venture capital pitch for a multi-million dollar investment. Venture capitalists care less about what you believe or how much faith you have in your product, and are more focused on what you know for a fact and what the market has already proven.

So how great do you need to be as a speaker? It depends on how far up the scale you want to go from open-minded to skeptical. This book is written for the individual who wants to make an impact at any of those levels. I want you to be prepared for any audience you might face.

All Public Speakers are Broke

That’s a pretty bold claim, and completely unsubstantiated. In fact, it’s downright incorrect, because many public speakers have a day job that they rely on to make their money. But if a public speaker wants to earn a living being paid to speak, then they will need to transition from a public speaker to a professional speaker. What’s the difference? Quite simply, a public speaker pays for the privilege to speak; a professional speaker gets the privilege of being paid for speaking.

At last count, the most popular public speaking organization is Toastmasters International, and in my opinion, it’s the absolute best place to go to overcome your fear as a speaker and learn how to feel comfortable giving presentations. At my last check, they had nearly 250,000 members in more than 12,500 clubs in 106 countries, offering a proven and enjoyable way to practice public speaking.

The one thing missing, however, is a proven and enjoyable way to get paid for it. In fact, it’s the opposite—you pay them to get up and practice speaking. Toastmasters is a great organization; they have helped hundreds of thousands of people correct bad habits like excessive umms’ and uhhs" as well as fidgeting, and nervousness. They help you to work on your comedic timing, write speeches, and articulate your message more clearly. They aren’t designed to teach you the business side of professional speaking.

This book is not only intended to share with you the most up-to-date skills for public speaking, it’s also intended to help you become a professional speaker. Remember:

Public speakers pay for the privilege to speak.

Professional speakers get paid for the honor of speaking.

As a business owner, with the exception of philanthropy, it does you no good to be a public speaker. You’re a professional, so I’m going to ask you to respect your value. This book is designed to set the record straight, and share with you some simple steps you can take, as well as alert you to some key errors you want to avoid when transitioning from public speaker to professional speaker.

Many entrepreneurs think they aren’t a professional speaker because they first think of themselves as the person who runs their own non-speaking-related company. Make no mistake: if your ability to speak to the masses will end up in you garnering additional business for that company, regardless of what you think, you are a professional speaker. Embrace this, and present yourself as one.

For public speakers, those who are not paid to speak, the importance of speaking skill or business strategy leans in the direction of skill—about 85% to 15%. Focus your efforts on your ability to speak clearly, articulate your thoughts, and captivate your audience. This will make those times when you are on stage more enjoyable to you and your audience. It will be more emotionally rewarding and there’s a good chance you will be asked to come back, or referred to other organizations to speak. This is also where most professional speakers start. It’s where they ‘cut their teeth’ and learn the ins and outs of the art of mass-persuasion.

For professional speakers, those who are sought out and paid to speak, the importance of speaking skill or business strategy should lean in the direction of strategy—about 60% to 40%. Specifically in two main areas: sales and marketing. #1. Marketing your message to your target audience such that they feel compelled to call you over all the other speakers saying roughly the exact same thing that you are. #2. Selling your products/services. This includes selling your speech to potential promoters/audience members and then selling your products/services in the moment on stage.

Far too often, professional speakers spend 95% of their energy on strategy and 5% on their speaking skill. The result is a lot of speakers who are technically pretty poor speakers, but exceptional sales people and great manipulators. In my opinion, these are modern day snake-oil salesmen who ultimately only care about how much money they make on stage, and pay little attention to what happens to the audience member after they leave.

If you really want to become a professional speaker who is respected among your peers and promoters, has opportunities coming your way, and can sleep well at night knowing you have your audiences’ best interest in mind as much as your own personal interests, then make sure you give as much attention to your speaking skills as well as your business strategies. Don’t get lazy when learning how to communicate with power to the masses. The people who are taking time out of their busy lives, and in some cases, those who have parted with their hard-earned money deserve the best of you. You cannot give them your best if you do not demand the best from yourself.

If you want to be paid the kind of crazy speaking fees that professional speakers make, there is one thing that must happen for certain. You must gain credibility in the speaking profession. There are two ways to accelerate your credibility in this