Need Prozac after the criticism of your audience?

One of my daily affirmations is: “I remain established in self referral, not influenced by the criticism of the world.” The crucial question of this report is: ‘To what extent should we allow ourselves as speakers to be influenced by our audiences?’

Lemme tell you a short story. It was generously shared with me at the last NSA convention in Phoenix, Arizona. A fully equipped (CSP, CPAE) keynote speaker gave one of her best speeches ever and she arrived in stentor’s heaven. A fellow speaker from her MasterMind Group assisted her in picking up the many – extremely positive – evaluation forms. Sneaky bastard as he is, he filled out several forms himself with critical remarks about her performance and he put these on top of the whole stack. When everybody had left the auditorium he handed out to her the pile of responses with a big grin. She, fully convinced that the audience totally loved her that evening, told him: ‘Read a few, buddy!’

He started with the first critical remark, then he read the second, then the third. After the third bad comment, her high spirit left and she arrived in speakers hell. He told her about his prank, they laughed and she learned an important lesson that evening. In the future she gave more credit to her own feelings and intuition than to negative audience responses. Interesting isn’t it?

How do you deal with criticism, I wonder? How do you distinguish valuable and insightful nuggets from crappy bullshit? Please share some of your wisdom here.

Speak well,

Hans Ruinemans (:-)

Twitter @hansruinemans

Hans’ Speakers Report http://hansruinemans.wordpress.com

Speak well, heal hearts, serve mankind

As keynote speakers standing on the platform we carry a heavy load of responsibility. Audiences listen thoroughly to what we have to say, express and convey. Individual hearts can be touched by one of our personal stories, insights or metaphors. Lives can change forever by what we show and verbally express.

You have another area of expertise than I have. And so do many other speakers. In my opinion it doesn’t matter if you are a motivational speaker, a sales or negotiation expert, or a humorist. Here are five meta-questions all keynoters should reflect about:

- how can I implement loving kindness in my speech?

- how can I be congruent in all aspects of my life? On and off stage?

- how can I stay humble in spirit after an overkill of compliments?

- how can I be a living example of “How can I serve?”

- how can I touch people’s hearts to live their lives to the fullest?

Myanmar girl in Swedagon temple

I listened to a great story this morning from Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. 35 years ago he produced a cassette tape about self confidence. A crack hooker, a woman sunk into the lowest pitfalls of life, stole a copy of that tape from a drugstore. A few years ago. She managed to listen to the program in a shelter home. It turned her life upside down. She learned how to love herself. Now she’s clean of drugs, married and the happy mother of a baby girl.

The words you speak might resonate for decades. Whatever your subject is, choose your words carefully. Speak with audacity. Aren’t we in a perfect position to change lives into wonderful and blissful experiences? Isn’t one of our challenges to touch the people who listen to us in their souls and to heal their hearts?

Speak well,

Hans Ruinemans (:-)

Twitter @hansruinemans

Hans’ Speaker Report http://hansruinemans.wordpress.com

Speakers beware: New social media ask for new social behavior!

In the past surviving as a speaker/trainer/author with a big ego, a diva attitude or eccentric social behavior was not to difficult. Times have changed. New social media make audiences more powerful and influential. That’s what this report is about.

Speakers are social people. Standing on the platform requires a special skill set. A daring attitude. A clever mind. I love to be part of  the ‘family of international speakers’. This love is reestablished every time I visit a national speakers convention. The last year in five different countries.

The flip side is that too much applause and praise can sip into our minds like a virus. We all know examples of speakers with an ego the size of a football field. Sure, they can flourish and survive. Sometimes have a successful carrier and on top of that a seven figure income. Great for them. Unfortunately they often confuse the map with the land. I don’t envy them. In Holland with our frugal attitude we have an expression: “Het zijn sterke benen die de weelde kunnen dragen” or in English “You need strong legs to carry the wealth.”

Politeness in Japan.

An example of the dangers of old school thinking/acting versus new style media power  is perfectly illustrated on the blog post of author and speaker Alan Weiss called www.contrarianconsulting.com/we-want-it-but-we-have-no-budget. Many interesting comments were left on this blog. Alan, who thrived his business model on being a contrarian, replies to a speaker from Perth, Australia with the remark ‘What, on earth, is your point? You’ve lost me.’ As a true Dutchman I’m quite direct and outspoken myself, so I’m not easily offended by bluntness. I even like it. Still, in the intercultural arena of the web, with no referral to emotions or facial expressions, I’m more careful. I visited China several times the last two years and noticed for example that Chinese audiences can take offense very easily on stories that I consider quite normal. Being more attentive and careful with my international emails was a result.

I suggest to reconsider the way you behaved as a speaker in the past and make a transition jump into the virtual reality of social networks where consieglieres can easily form temporarily tribes and launch attacks on your carefully polished web brand.

Speak well,

Hans (:-)

Twitter @HansRuinemans

WordPress http://hansruinemans.wordpress.com

A big mistake most keynote speakers still make on the platform. And how to repair it.

Yes I agree, it was a great 2009 convention in Phoenix organised by the National Speakers Association of the USA. Top keynote speakers informed, moved, shook and inspired an (international) audience of 1,500 colleagues. There were lots of laughs, some tears and many standing ovations. I felt fortunate to be part of it.

I could not help noticing that all keynote speakers were making one big mistake. In this report I like to share my insight with you.

From the stage (I was there for five full minutes) an audience of 1,500 looks like a vast ocean of people. On the other hand from the audience viewpoint there seems to appear a ‘small puppet’ on a large stage quite far away. NSA is aware of this and used large video screens on the left and right side of the stage. Compared with a speaker of six foot (or 1.80 cm) the video screens were at least five times bigger. Most of the time a multi cam live registration of the keynote speaker was displayed on these screens. Sometimes spiced with PowerPoints or a videofilm. Most of the time, the audience looks at the screens, instead of looking at the speaker. Even the eyes of people on the first 10 rows meandered from screen to speaker, I observed during these three convention days.

Ok, let’s get to the point. The mistake that all of the speakers of the NSA Convention made, in spite of all their professional skills, is that not one of them looked into the main camera! They just did not adapt their presentation to the live screen presentation. They used their routine skills and looked into the audience. Beginners looked until row 25. More experienced speakers looked until row 40. All the people that were seated further away from the main stage were visually not reached at the optimum.

So what? The solution is very easy. If you stand as a keynote speaker on a platform in front of a large audience and there is video registration look regularly into the main camera in the back of the room. And smile into the lens. Even if -for your feeling- the camera is very far away. Your face will be magnified, especially with close-up shots on the huge screens left en right from you. You make your story more personal and strongly increase your impact. Good luck the next time!

Speak well,

Hans (:-)

About live streaming, virtual keynotes and hologram speakers

What about videostreaming your keynote? Already did it? I did. A strange experience to speak to two different audiences at the same time. One audience in front of you. The other at work or home watching you via the internet. Alan Stevens from the UK, incoming president of the Global Speakers Federation in 2010, told me about his experience in one of the Arabian countries where the room was divided in the middle by a concrete wall. On his right were the men, on his left the women. Sometimes only one side of the room laughed or responded. Sometimes the other side. The same happens with live streaming. The concentration of your virtual audience is limited. They can turn your ‘sound’ off with one button, or leave you with one click. They spread info (and gossip about you) in a lively chatroom at the same time. And what about a so called back channel? This is a screen next to your PowerPoints were your live audience can read twitter messages real time. Another kind of ambient intimacy. How do you respond to weird or provocative remarks? And are you able to handle this?

Our future on the stage will also be enriched by hologram technology. It is already possible that you appear live in 3D on the stage somewhere else in the world.. One Dutch speaker stepped on the stage and met with his own 3D person that looked exactly like him. No, the audiences don’t need to wear kinky spectacles. Although still a bit expensive, the technology is available and is getting less expensive every month.

So… how will you react to the innovative media challenges? Will you act like a coach potato? Or as a agile professional that stays ahead of his or her time?

Speak well,

Hans

5 Minutes after your keynote, it’s on the web! Accessible by anyone.

You already posess a LiveScribe? Well, Sam Silverstein the past president of the NSA USA does. I do. More important… we like it. It’s a pen (149 $) that remembers what you wrote or jotted down. Connect the pen to your PC or Mac, synch and you have pictures of every page you wrote. And that’s not all…

These pens also record good quality 3D audio and thus remember exactly what was said during the time a line was written. People in your audiences are already or soon will use those LiveScribe pens. An full audio recording, including the notes that the LiveScribe pen user made of your whole keynote or workshop or training can be uploaded to the internet five minutes after your last closing line and the ovation. Accessible for the whole world.

I call this a Pencast instead of a Podcast. Are you prepared to deal with this as a professional speaker?

Speak well,

Hans

Tell your audiences to turn their smart phones and laptops ON!

If you’re talking to younger audiences, people with open (mini-)laptops and cell phones with a fast internet connection are becoming rather common. You quote someone. They check it. Compare it. Judge it. Instantaneously. They find conflicts, better quotes, etc. Yes, these multitasking girls and boys, women and men do already exist. You forgot the name of a book or author? Within 10 seconds they found the answer via google or amazon and share the info with you and everyone else.

So, instead of asking your audience to turn their smart phones off and looking disturbed at an open laptop, embrace and encourage this new social media behaviour. Ask them to turn their cell phones en laptops ON! Involve and engage your audience in all kinds of new media experiences. For example by offering them a Twitter hashtag (#) with the name of your speech. Or use on stage a so called Twitter back channel where tweets are projected on a large screen. Challenge audiences to find extra info or answers. Guide them to interesting websites they can bookmark, give them online checklists. Use direct internet polls and show the results 10 minutes later. Set up a live videostream and let internet viewers participate in your keynote. Offer them some downloadable (younger audiences love to download) PDF files with white papers or articles you wrote.

Coach yourself to be flexible. Show audiences that you’re connected and into the social media ‘groove’. Gain respect and blaze new trails!

Speak well,

Hans Ruinemans

Your audiences will use ambient intimacy!

In these first reports I will address a few innovative media challenges that will have an impact on everyone who steps on the platform and speaks. Use the info as a help to create a personal platform to develop new skills and change the way you interact with your audiences.

We professional speakers have coached each other during peer-to-peer sessions, we have read books about platform mechanics, we have followed workshops, we established Master Mind Groups. Nothing new under the sun.

Nothing new? I don’t think so. New phenomena enter our profession. More often than not our audiences will be equipped with notebooks, laptops, mobile phones and smart audio- and video equipment. These tools didn’t have a great impact on us yet, but in the very near future new gadgets will change the dynamics of the speaking industry greatly.

Lemme me give an example. You’re in the middle of one of your great keynotes and totally unexpectedly in the middle of the audience a tall woman stands up, interrupts you and adds that you ‘overlooked the ideas of Professor Abraham’ and she – not you – receives a warm and standing ovation. Strange right? What happened behind the screens. Half of the audience was not only listening to your speech, but was also exchanging information via Twitter. One tweet (a twitter message) read: “He’s overlooking what Professor Abraham wrote, who has the guts to speak up?”. Half of the audience read that message and one brave girl responded. Call it some kind of silence analysing and gossiping. An ambient intimacy.

Future talk? Hell no, this already happened.

Be prepared, collegues

Speak well,

Hans Ruinemans