Can We Please All People All the Time?

The greatest challenge for me when I speak to any group is that there are likely people in the room who may already know what I’m talking about. Or they’re hostile, passive-aggressive types who really don’t want to be there. Or they HAD to be there because their boss told them so.

Each of those is a topic unto itself, so let me start with the idea of speaking to people who may already know what I’m talking about and were expecting ‘more.’ Tomorrow I give a talk at PodCampToronto 2011, and there may likely be people in the room who have already been pro or semi-pro speakers. To be honest only a small percentage of what I have to say to them will be useful. But that small percentage could save them hours of research and even earn them thousands of dollars IF they have the patience to write down or follow-up on some of the resources I’ll be sharing.

For most of the people in the room, they may have wondered about what it takes to become a professional speaker, speech writer or visual content creator, and that’s the audience I hope will get the most from my talk.

And then there will be a few souls who were curious and realize that they may not be comfortable – at this time – speaking. But to them: never say never, and who knows what life will bring you in the way of opportunities. So be patient and see what you can learn.

What I hope is that everyone who comes into the room will get a chance to take something key away with them.

My greatest challenge as a speaker is to not give out so much information that I ‘lose’ the beginner speakers in the room. And to put in enough ‘gold’ so that the people who really want to add a new direction to their careers have enough info or a map they can follow to get to where they want to go.

It’s a fine balancing act. Last year at PodcampToronto 2010, most of the people told me they were happy with what I’d shared with them. But there were a few that thought my talk didn’t give them enough info. Actually it did, but those items were in my speaking notes. If they’d asked, they would have been given the info. C’est la vie!

I will usually err on the side of making sure the majority of the people in the room get the info that they came to get. And if the few hot shots in the room aren’t happy with that, then let them hire a professional speaking coach at a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per session.

If I didn’t address something that you’d hoped to learn, please ask me about it now.

You’re also welcome to give me comments and feedback so I can give you the right amount of info the next time.