For the last 15 years I’ve worked on my public speaking skills to the point of obsession.

I’ve worked with coaches, participated in courses, modeled incredible speakers, read several books and probably practice more than the average speaker does.

Through it all, there’s one simple piece of advice I was given by my coach that has served me well for the better part of a decade now.

I can also tell you that this advice transcends beyond presentations and can be applied to client/prospect meetings, team meetings, cold calling, warm calling, and just about every area of life.

Before I tell you what it is, we have have a pinkie swear (or at least a high level promise) that you won’t dismiss this idea as basic or simple or simply not sexy or sophisticated enough.

Here it is . . .

Have fun!

Whenever I’d speak with my coach about an upcoming event or meeting, the last piece of advice she’d always give me “Paulie, don’t forget to have fun with it”.

Whenever we’d do a run through of a keynote I was working on, she’d often stop me and ask “Paulie are you having fun?” I’d get pissed at her at say “Of course I’m having fun. What’s more fun than having your coach interrupt you to ask you a bullsh*t question?” Then she’d set me straight  by saying “Well you know you’re having fun but how about letting us know by smiling. You look like you lost your best friend up there today!”

Other times she would be at the back of the room and take her fingers and stretch a smile on her face to remind me to have fun and smile. No doubt a result of this women dropping way too much acid in the 60’s.

I fought her on this advice because I felt I was too good for simple advice that was the equivalent of paying an expert top dollar to have them tell you “Don’t forget to tie your shoes”.

It wasn’t until she showed me several video tapes of my sessions and turned the sound off that I realized how crappy my non verbal presentation was.

Reluctantly, I took her advice and smiled more and injected more fun into my presentations. I found myself sharing laughs with my audience and was about a 1000 times more relaxed . . .

Which in turn made my audience more relaxed and in a better state to receive my message.

I began to notice that meetings with potential clients became less formal and more like a visit. I wasn’t closing more as a result but people sure were buying more.

This Part Is For The Skeptics

I’ve had a few people criticize this advice by telling me that it’s easy for me to be happy about what I do because I own the company.

My response . . .

“If you don’t like what you’re doing, you have no business doing it!”

Your audience whether it be a small committee, a large group or even 1 person can always spot someone who’d rather be someplace else.

And they have this crazy way of responding in kind!

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