#3 - Better Public Speaking

🎃 First, there's 10 weeks left in 2024, which is just enough time to accomplish the stuff that gets you more opportunities (or that bonus).

Unfortunately for you, everyone else had the same realization. Now, they’re working overtime somewhere between I-can't-help-you and I’m-directly-competing-with-you. (Godspeed, and more on that in a few weeks) 

🎃 🎃 Second, Fall is also the second-busiest speaking season of the year. Perfect timing, right?! (see above) So what should you do about it?

Kind-of related: Fall is also when we do our annual family and friends pumpkin patch here on the farm. It's nothing fancy, but if you've ever thought that the ordeal of getting your kids dressed up for an itchy field full of gourds should require a lot more airfare and lodging expenses, then let me know if I can invite you next year.

In any case, over the last 18 years pumpkins and public speaking have become the perfect seasonal pair. Right now at Publera we are working on standard industry talks, internal road shows, 1-off keynotes, a few TED talks, and one pretty bangin’ wedding ceremony.

The funny thing about this kind of writing and coaching is they are not services we offer. 

Yet, it might be the most common outreach I get personally. It’s true I've helped a few engineers get famous and a couple of salespeople get rich, but nowhere near enough to explain why this takes up so much of our volume every fall.

I think there's two reasons I can't escape it.

1. Speaking and speechwriting are an industry that is just totally, utterly full of crap. 

For one, it has a lot of bullshitters. Bullshitters are people who tell you what they want to be true, instead of anything that actually is true. (a good book on this topic)

For another, presentations and speeches will always trigger what Mo Taylor taught me to call "fire hydrant syndrome”. You know that thing dogs automatically do when they see a fire hydrant? Well, 99% of your colleagues (and 100% of comms people) simply can't help but mark their own territory when they see your content. (and the inevitable result)

Meanwhile, I got my start working with the deeply technical and highly skeptical. E.g. they know about bullshit, and it doesn't work. 

So for almost 2 decades, I've had to be a student of what actually works.

No frameworks, no "storytelling workshops," and no fancy tricks to make you slicker than that otter swimming through an oil spill to sell you his used car. 

(Disclaimer: we are still talking about human persuasion, so you can never completely escape some subjective phooey).

2. There's no dopamine hit in the world quite like watching a thousand people simultaneously change their minds. My fingers tingle just typing it. I love writing a good talk.

But good writing is not great speaking. And if you actually believe the pen is mightier than the sword, then you haven’t read enough pirate lit.

So, matey, if you’ll follow me off the plank, here’s the single-best, no-bullshit skill for better public speaking that I think you should care about this fall. Yar! 🏴‍☠️

We can talk more about speaking in future issues, but for now, here is the hard truth. 

Just one skill, no matter how good you already are (or think you are), matters. The only speaking skill you should care about this fall, and the only one, is:

Get on stage. Take the every opportunity.

Just do it. As many as you can find. That’s the skill.

Founders: If your co-founder speaks internally or externally more than you, your days are numbered. (More on co-founder outties in another issue)

Managers: If your direct-report presents more often because you don't have the time, they’ll be your boss or investor before you know it. 

Everyone: If you feel like speaking at the Western Chapter Conference of the National Association of Franchisees isn't worth your time or the hassle of a Wednesday in Vegas—you're playing a game with bad odds.

The best public speakers I've ever worked with would all consider that gig. Especially in the Fall season. Fancy writers and corporate trainings are useful, but putting in reps is essential. 

Like a fresh MBA grad, the value of going to a hundred job interviews isn't to get a job. It's to get better at interviews. Some things we only learn by doing.

Here is one of my favorite lessons in public speaking. This video of Eric Schmidt is from 1988 or so, in a speaker-training that's painful to watch. The magic moment happens about 0:45 when he says:

The awkwardness on tape is almost endearing (more proof you don't need to be slick), but that mindset is just…wow.

That is a mindset made of diamonds and/or steel. Manager, founder, president, or programmer–it is the mindset of a leader. Channel it. Get up there and say anything.

The good news is it's not that hard. When you start to see "just getting up there" as the ONLY skill to practice right now, you can stop worrying so much about so much that matters less.

Your eye contact, verbal pauses, transitions, slides, all these things the bullshitters are squawking about–focus on those in the Spring season. 

For now, take the gig. Internal or external. 

Don't hand it off to your team. And do whatever you can to get more for yourself. It might help to tell your boss that some has-been with a newsletter said you should speak more!

And have a great time in Vegas for me. You can only win when you play.

-Jesse

PS- if you are interested in more issues about public speaking, I’d be curious to know if so, why, or what about it. As always, drop me a line any time. I read them all, and frieNDA applies.

PSS: Will you help me get some more subscribers??  Like a real-life newsletter-er, I made a referral code with rewards. I tried to make them valuable, because I think this newsletter is (will be?)

• Refer 25 people who find this useful, and every 25 after: I'll mail you 1 of the 5 books I think every leader should own and re-read every 5 years. 

• Refer 250 people who find this useful: I'll also send my favorite pen. It's the gold (I prefer the palladium) standard of hand-writing at your desk. 

As for who I think should be reading this: anyone who finds it useful. Leaders and/or the upwardly inclined. Anyone looking for usable advice that doesn't need a shiny book at the airport bookstore (we wrote a lot of those anyway). 

Finally, why a thousand? My plan has been to limit this newsletter to 1,000 people because one thing I’ve noticed from managing a few large-distro newsletters for our clients is a lot of them enjoyed it most in their first 3K subscribers. And under 1K, they had time to listen and connect 1:1.  

Therefore, the math says  <3000 = I’m happier, and  <1000 = I’m happier + I’m LEARNING. We’ll figure out the rest as we go. 

Thanks again for coming along,
Jesse