BlogHer Live Blog: Speaker Training

Please note... these are the live blog raw notes. Notes will be reviewed and re-posted early next week!

Speaker Training
Lots of BlogHers point out the lack of women on conference speaking rosters. We not only have to address the demand side, but we can each create the supply. Speaking publicly is an excellent way to make connections, enhance your personal brand and drive business. This session will be a crash course for all BlogHers on how to find gigs, how to submit for gigs, and how to do a good job once you get there. The session will be appropriate for people looking to break into speaking, and those looking to improve the quality of their speaking engagements and their speaking skills. Featuring frequent speakers and speaker trainers Susan Mernit and Mary Jo Manzanares.

Susan (S) Mary Jo (MJ) Audience (A)

(S): What are people looking to get out of the session?

(A) Tips on how to be a more effective speaker in a professional setting?
Understanding how they can use their blog and use speaking to build a stepping stone or path from smaller to larger, more authoritative venues?

Will look at both topics. Look at being a good speaker as well as how do you build a path for yourself to doing speaking.

(S) This is Susan's third blogher - she is an advisor, writes her own blog. Works at Yahoo now, but was a consultant and blogs and speaking are very good for getting her brand out. One of the people who gets asked to speak a lot at tech conferences. Wants to share tps and stories.

(MJ) - authority in areas she blogs in as well as training people in speaking. She has been professional speaking for over 20 years. Professional = getting paid for it, doesn’t mean you’re competent :)

How many have actually done public speaking for fee or free? (several raised hands). Great way to build business, build credibility and establish self as expert in field.

First thing when looking at speaking - creating a niche. What are your strengths in speaking? Voice, depth of topic knowledge? unique background or experience or unique focus? Equally important to look at what skills you do not have. To be able to speak in public at places you want - there may be a skill gap, so what do you have to “get”?

Back of handout - worksheet. What are your strengths as a speaker? Voice, organization, topic knowledge?

(A) Nancy Hill - blog at buildpeace.blogspot.com. Have energy and knowledge and some skill and needs to know how not to get off track. Great question - how to deliver session on time, and how to roll with a session that's running late and make it work.

(A) Glennis Thompson - problem is focusing knowledge on topic to give to group. How do you take knowledge and background and craft it as a message to give to your audience.

(A) Wants to learn skills - do well when things are going well, but needs grace under pressure if a tough question is asked - how to cope when things aren't going how you planned.

(A) writes Helenjane.com - can get people enthused - but then hears own voice and throws self off. How do you cope with this?

(MJ) Lots of places to get skills - some are easier to obtain than others. List of books - various skills can be learned (books can be old, ignore technology chapter). If truly want to do good speaking and obtain skills you need - recommends Toastmasters (toastmasters.org). Will help you with all four problem areas and skills gaps. Will learn to deliver on time (eg. will learn how to adapt material to time).

(S) If you think Toastmaster is an old course with old skills - The key is that it's simply practice, like anything else. Practice on any topic is useful.

(MJ) Encourage everyone to find a mentor or someone who give you critical feedback - the information you need to take your skills to the next level - listen and tells you what they're hearing, or gives you feedback on your non-verbal skills.

(S) Can also perhaps - find other people who want to practice speaking skills together and videotape each other. Do a dry run as you discuss various topics. It will help you pick up on various habits you need to kill (eg. fillers such as "um" that can dilute the message) or other verbal/nonverbal ticks such as hand gestures that can be distracting.

(MJ) an audio coach can also be helpful, as it's difficult to identify your own ticks.

(S) A great tool is to give yourself a schedule on how long you will spend on each portion of the presentation!

(S) How do you give yourself a niche topic? Left job at AOL in 2003, a bit lost. Decided she wanted to use her blog to talk about issues such as digital media, online news and feminism. Trying to distinguish her voice from a lot of people (mostly male). Much more of the "multiple blog" personality - part of the niche is to pick a category and find a place where you focus on it. If you're trying to be an expert in a category, does your brand reflect that? If you are a humour columnist, are you funny? Look at whether you need to focus a specific area - first question to ask in creating a niche.

Also look not only at what are you good at, but where is the hole? Personal blog is very much digital media; BlogHer is about sexuality. EG. Not many women reviewing sex toys - apparently that niche is open! So ask - what can you write about, but where can a woman's voice be heard, where might a unique market be? If you are in a very common area, how will you distinguish yourself from the 700 other bloggers on a topic?

(MJ) When asked - what do you speak about? Have a very simple answer, short, concise. Don't say "anything". Really be able to say what your niche is.

(S) Confadb.com (URL invalid - can anyone clarify this address?) - conferences listed here. Look for conferences in a category, find out who's talking and what they're talking about - could be a niche.

Question: Are there guides on where to speak? A: there are speakers bureaus you could go through.

(A) Shesource.org - is it a recommended site? Susan is not familiar. A: Trying to get more female voies on the air, so media sources go to them to find recommended speakers.

Also within your community resources - generally your local chamber has a speakers bureau - connect with them.

(S) Part of what you have to do is put it out there. Women tend to be somewhat passive, listing themselves and waiting for someone to find and contact them, rather than to go out and sell themselves. So think about how you'll go after what you want. EG. go to meetup.com and find local meetups, large or small. These groups are always hungry to find people to talk for free. Also - must be worth it to you, as when you're starting out you probably won't get a fee. You may not even cover expenses. But you will get exposure, and as you get better known you will build your reputation and have more saleability. So, building a history of speaking - starting with local events is a great way to start.

(MJ) - don't overlook your local community. The people in your own local community belong to organiations at state and local level.

(S) A few secrets on speaking.

1. Over prepare. Know your material inside and out before you stand up, and try to look really relaxed when you speak. Looking terrified as you speak and relying on powerpoint to give you your material is not enjoyable for the audience. Think it through, write a script, make slides if you want, figure out what you're going to say, focus on the message, think of the timing (test it with a friend if you want to try the transitions). Get up there and look like you're having FUN! Making jokes is a big help to relax you and the crowd.

(A) She is asked to speak a lot, but tends to be a firehose (here's the short answer, AND here's the long long answer!) How do you not answer too fully?

(S) Give the short answer, and say "if you'd like to know more come see me after the session" or "I love this topic, I will write about it on my blog". Overinformation is not fun for the recipient. It's not about what the speaker says, it's more about what the asker wants to hear. Overinformation will swamp them.

(A): Often for work, she has to explain the digital aspect of the job she does. When she's explaining things, she's not sure how deep she can go in the technical stuff without totally losing someone?

(MJ): Use humour a lot, try to interact and engage, ask questions, make sure they understood what she just said, and find out if they want to go further.

(A) Leah Jones - blogs Accidentally Jewish. Heath's "Make it stick" book has a great chapter on analogies and metaphors.

(A) Gwen Bell - Using visuals also really helps - pen and paper (post it makes this awesomely cute post it note holder) .

(A) Jan Kabili - teaches photoshop. The topic matter can be very difficult for people, and she doesn't control the skill level of the people who attend the class. She poses many questions to the class when she starts to find out where the skill levels are. She also gets permission and informs the audience that she will "speak down" to people - I will start at the bottom and give you all the detail because I think this will help everyone.

(MJ) This is a good implementation of a basic speaker tool - telling you what we're going to tell you, then we'll tell you the tale. This is where we're going, we take you on the journey then tell you where we've been.

(A) Lisa Williams - Panel sessions question. She is invited to speak on a lot of panel sessions and she thinks they are no fun, people are bored by them in her view. How as a panelist can you make a panel session better?

(S) Try to agitate it: form a position to make sessions more interactive. Use the principles of the unconference - recognise that people in the audience not only have questions but expertise. If you have any power - try to make a session where all the panelists agree to make it more interactive. move away from the old, tired talking heads thing, and doesn't honor the knowledge of the audience.

(A) Denise - successinthesuburb.com. Have a group of women that meet together and act as a panel, and about to do the first forums. How do you manage MCing these forums in a way that doesnt' harm anyone (embarrasing someone, putting them on the spot), but still keeps it interesting.

(MJ) - MC skills can control this, set the ground rules between panel and MC up front and ask them to enforce them.

(S) if you are moderating an event, sometimes the right thing to do is be merciless. Understand the ground rules on both sides.. then cut off the people who need to be cut off.

Comment - wiredprworks.com - National Speakers Association (NSA.org) in area - they run VG candidate programs. Panels - brand each speaker in one area so that you don't have a lot of overlap.

CorporateMommy - used to give seminars, stopped when promoted. :) When they scheudled a seminar, would tell her what she had to talk about. Now, she works for "her" - how does she come up with what she's going to speak on? Where do you crack that door open?

Teri ANderson - teacher and comedian - one tip is 'walking around the room'. Can engage audience that way as they are constantly looking for you, keeps the focus on you.

Move in to - invitations to conferences and working the circuit.

How do you market yourself and your topic?

BlogHer starts.... crank session about where are the women bloggers? Idea - let's ahve a session that men and women can come to but all speakers are women. You can think about organizing yourself - think about whether you want to get people together to talk about it. There are many models - barcamp, unconference model - think about ways to get people together if you have a topic you want to discuss.

Comment - Paula from Goldenseeds - find women entreprenurs. They have woman salons - women speakers, writers, etc. find a topic they really like and have a gathering.

SHeila - family travel and motorsport blog. Belongs to assn for women in communications - pr, etc. Went to one meeting and the subject of blogging came up and everyone started asking her questions - savvy, experienced communicators who have been around a long time - but she was the only one in that circle who knew it - she was stunned she became the expert in the room.

(S) great point - another way to get involved is to become a volunteer - find out who is running a conference in that category and get involved - organizing and planning etc. as the conference proceeds your name is in the circle and they will come to you to say, how would you like to participate now - you can respond that you would like to speak.

(MJ) Network, network network... look to who you can refer to as opposed to simply just "you".

Jen Hunter - perhaps obivous and basic - trust your intuition - know that you have a voice and something to contribute - sometimes second guess self in terms of what needs to be said - holding back can be costly - women's perspective and voices are part of the mix - trust self and speak loudly and boldly.

David - it's not a lecture - blog about blogging. Question - everyone has interests - can you talk to an organization you like and say, wanna talk about blogging?

(S) Response - downsides - people may not want to go for free, or spend the time. But it could be very cost effective to go out and put it together - could pay off.


Question - you have a topic and a venue - how do you get people to come? Eg sponsoring your own seminar - will hold off on answering.

(S) What we haven't talked about yet - how do we get in to bigger conferences, eg. national exposure? Real trick: Be agressive! ask for what you want. Rejection doesn't mean you or your idea isn't good, but it justmay be something that the speakers don't support or it doesn't mesh. Find out when conferences are coming and submit ideas. great idea - suggest a panel iwth someone who has spoken before. Great bridge to breaking in to a conference where they may not know you, but you are associated with proven success. Or, get to know the conference organizers - have a conversation about something you have in common in terms of areas of interest and suggest a joint sesssion. If processes don't exits, don't be shy about contacting the organizing committed and telling them what you want. (I think you should have a panel or speaker on X, and I would like to be on the panel or speak, here's why). Tell your professional community that you are interested in speaking, and can they help you?

Try a lot of different angles in a polite, respectful, appropriate way.

Parentopia.com - when you come on the path of least resistance and people want you to speak - they lowball you on pricing. "We only have $2 to pay you!" How do you talk about what your fees will be without conflict and to achieve fairness?

(MJ) At first was so afraid to tell people she wanted to be paid for speaking. But wait a minute - will make choices about when and where she will speak for free. But in other cases, she expects to be paid. IT's what she does. If you can find out what the other speakers are gettng paid it's helpful. And if they won't pay enough.. don't worry about saying "no".

(S) Understand why you want to speak. Are you just talking for money, or are you building your business? Understand "why" you want to speak and what your currency or payback is for each gig. If it's all free, but all business development, then it may pay off. Can put a sidebar on your blog - I speak on these topics. I will do these circumstances for free and expect pay for these circumstances.

Girlwithpen.blogspot.com - touring panel for women's history month. Got message, content, context all set - how do you manage process and followup? How can you tell what's a hot lead?

(S) let's talk about tools for managing this. USed to be a huge fan of basecamp products

(Audience comment) Jeff Barr - devleoper relationship guy at Amazon - says "I'm going to london, book my day" and the community who wants him will self book him.

(Audience Comment) Personal grown with Karine Edwards - one thign neglected by a lot of people - in town there is probably public access TV station - very easy way to get known. IF you have time to be a producer yourself - or if you can find a producer - say this is my niche, let's create something. In Chicago that's 6M people - huge audience. Then when you go to an organization you can present tape - instant credibility.

(AC) Cynthiadevor.com - speakernetnews.com - once a week email that comes out, speakers/trainers/consultants/coaches.

(AC) - From Japan, audio and video podcaster - looking at expanding BlogHer into Japan - is going to take these tips back to Japan to get the word out, in expanding BlogHer and blogging for women internationally, she is doing work for charity as well. She kept speaking about her passion and others kept listening, search Tajee - song is Clover - you will see her song!

(AC) Silicon valley moms blog - when do you choose to use powerpoint vs. just chat?

(MJ) never uses powerpoint unless someone makes her! :) Finds ppt becomes a crutch.

(S) uses ppt when content is very image driven or very data driven. Doesn't read the ppt.. think of it as speech support, visuals on what you're going to say. Prefers to dial down PPT unless it is a real required visual backup.

(AC) Tufti has a daylong seminar - get all his books - his downloads and information on presenting. Seth Cohen (purplecow) has a 7 page pamphlet that says the same.

(AC) BecauseIsaidso - suggestion - success by writing oped piece submitting and getting gigs that way. Approach websites - often looking for guest columnists - would love to get pitched with a unique idea!

(S) In many areas, having a good linkedin profile is indispensible, especially in technology/buisiness/social sciences/services professional, put in speaking experience in profile. LinkedIn is often drug of choice when people are looking for speakers.

It doesn't take a lot of work or a lot of thought to be a "good" speaker, but it can take a lot of both to be a "successful" speaker. Starting to speak, and starting to build a community of people who know you speak makes a huge differnece. Susan is here because she knows Jory, Lisa and Elisa. Do the job that you need to do, and make connections with people who can help you reach your goal.

(AC) Conference in May in chicago - two months before, got phone calls asking to speak. All men. If you're looking for opportunities - look at conferences and find the holes - as far in advance as possible.

(MJ) fear of rejection was big at first - if you ask, they will say no. Put sticker on - they can't say yes unless you ask them!

(AC) elizabethperry.com - is there a blogher group or tag on linkedin? Most successful year she and her husband had as speakers - was the year they had the competition on who could get the most rejections. Start high - if you get rejected by the new yorker first, nowhere to go but up!

Wrap up... thanks to all speakers, audience members and bloggers!