Laptop Dies, But Speaker Doesn’t

Imagine it’s three minutes until you go on stage
and your brand new laptop dies and takes your
slide show and presentation with it.

Then, you are introduced.

You walk onto the stage, close the laptop lid, and
say ‘apparently, we’ll be doing something
different today’.

That’s exactly what my client June Cline did last
week when her technology failed.

And you know what else happened? She changed up
her program on the fly and delivered an
awesome keynote.

What would you have done?

How much are you relying on technology or props in
your presentations?

This past weekend in Vancouver, the caliber of
keynote talent at the Canadian Speakers convention
was really high. But several speakers shone through
for me and for the most part they used two tools -
their voice and their bodies.

Now I’m not saying that anyone using technology
should stop. But I would ask ‘if the electricity
went off would you still be an effective speaker’?

How much of your presentation stays inside a
comfort zone?

And really the bottom line question is, ‘are you
getting all the work that you desire’? If so,
these questions may not be necessary.

If you aren’t 100% happy with your bookings, then
this exercise is for you:

1. List 3 things that you will do in 2007 to help
move your presentation to new heights.

2. Define 2 risks that you could take to move out
of your comfort zone.

3. Send 1 e-mail to a colleague or friend and ask
them to support you in your goals.

And if you’d like to work on your business over
the holidays, I’ve got a special holiday reading
offer just for you. Check it out.
http://www.thewealthyspeaker.com/system2.html

What do cows have to do with risks in speaking?

A few weeks ago one of my clients, a technology
futurist named Scott Klososky took a risk during
his presentation.

While speaking to a group of CEO’s, he was making
the point that we all need to do more to give back
to the world and that technology makes it easier
than ever.

He then went on to purchase a cow live during his
presentation from a charity called
http://www.heifer.org. Heiffer provides a
pregnant cow to a family in an impoverished
country and the family that receives the cow (for
daily milk, etc.) gives the calf to another
family. The lives of 2 families were changed with
one click of his mouse.

The risk for Scott wasn’t buying the cow for $500
in front of the group, it was challenging his
audience to do more.

This holiday, I would like to take a risk.

Normally, I would purchase a gift of some sort for
my coaching clients. Sometimes a Starbuck’s gift
card, or personalized stationery. But this year,
I’d like to buy my clients a cow to say the
following….

Thank you for your business this year. I
appreciate you and want to demonstrate this
by paying it forward to a family who needs us
both.

I think my clients will appreciate the intention.

So how can you take a risk this holiday season?

What could you give your clients that would have
meaning?

How can you think outside of your usual routine to
do something different?

What’s your cow?

Perhaps you’ll give an entrepreneur some seed
money through http://www.kiva.org

Maybe there is something closer to home, like the
NSA Foundation’s Katrina Fund? Or a fellow
speaker who could use a helping hand?

If we all took just one risk, something that we
wouldn’t normally do, what would the results be?

Incidentally, Scott’s presentation resulted in
donations pouring in to http://www.heifer.org and
started a wave of something positive. Families
received cows, chickens and a host of animals that
would change their lives, possibly forever.

His risk paid off.

I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season.