Meet the MasterMinds: Dive Into Speaking With Vickie Sullivan
 Since
1987, Vickie Sullivan has been helping consultants, experts
and industry leaders use public speaking as a marketing
tool. She is a professional speaker, speaker-marketing specialist
and the author of Springboard Marketing™,
Speak to Sell, Speaking in the Strike
Zone and Get Those Bookings.
Sullivan's articles have appeared in national
publications, such as Professional Speaker
magazine and Lawyers Weekly. She also publishes
a newsletter, Splash, and is active in the
National Speakers Association and the Institute of Management
Consultants.
In this wide-ranging interview, MCNews picks
Sullivan's brain on everything from speaking skills and
topic selection to the use of speakers' bureaus.
* * * * *
MCNews: For most of us, the fear of public
speaking ranks right up there with IRS audits and death.
Any tips on how a speaker can conquer that fear?
Sullivan: The number one fear about
speaking in front of others is that of rejection. We are
afraid of being wrong, that the audience will not like or
understand what we are saying, or that listeners will not
get what they want from the presentation. But, in reality,
the audience wants to accept us.
So, reframe the situation, and see it from
the point of view of your audience. People in the audience
want to get useful information, and they want you
to succeed in giving it to them. To de-escalate
the fear, the first thing is to know that the audience is
pulling for you and wants you to do well.
To improve speaking skills, I also advise
the use of outside help. Groups like Toastmasters
offer opportunities for practice, and will help you with
nervousness and get the ums and ahs out of your speaking.
Also, go to any chapter meeting of the National Speakers
Association and look for the humorists. They usually have
ancillary services to help punch up a story, and they charge
very reasonable fees. Thinking with humor relaxes the mind,
which helps alleviate fear.
A lot of actors use breathing exercises to
relax, and athletes use visualization. You can't really
be present if you are scared, so it's all about getting
rid of the fear.
MCNews: Would you agree that some amount of anxiety,
or butterflies, is normal?
Sullivan: Butterflies show that you
care about doing a good job, and you won't ever get rid
of them completely. We have an old saying in speaking:
you will always have butterflies in your stomach; just make
sure they're flying in formation. It's a question
of degree. Does the caring debilitate you? If so, it's no
longer caring, it's fear. Good speakers will use that energy
for an adrenaline rush, to be fully present, alive and out
there, connecting with people.
A lot of people get scared because they don't
feel confident in the spotlight. Speakers raise their confidence
level by being sure of their content, practicing and getting
outside help. It's magic when a speaker is fully present.
The audience will forgive a multitude of sins when that
happens.
MCNews: What advice would you give consultants
about selecting speech topics?
Sullivan: To get results from speaking,
consultants have to do something that isn't natural
for them: they have to take a stand.
They have to put a flag in the ground and stand for something.
Generalists are reluctant to do that because they don't
want to drive away business. However, in the world according
to Vickie, taking a stand is a great way to avoid business
you don't want.
The flag in the ground is the speaker's topic
"hub," because that stance can be applied to a
variety of topics. For example, a speaker whose message
is that success is about results, not process, would weave
that message into every speaking topic.
Another key to topic selection is to
have a unique twist. Too many consultants who speak
do not differentiate themselves. And because they don't
differentiate themselves, the audience does not accept them
as a resource. It's fine to speak about change, for example,
but you must have something to say about change that is
new and different. In Fast Company magazine,
you can see this in action. Their "gurus" do one
of three things with conventional wisdom: they disagree
with it, twist it, or go beyond it.
MCNews: Can you give us an example of a
speaker who has a unique twist?
Sullivan: Sure. Cheryl Stearns, who
holds thirty world records in skydiving, speaks on the subject
of fear. Now, a lot of people talk about fear but, as you
can imagine, she has a unique twist on how it applies to
her own identity and background.
She also underlines another key element for
consultants to keep in mind: speakers have to prove
they are worthy of the audience's time; they have
to earn the right to speak. With her experience in skydiving,
she has proven that audiences should listen because they
can learn from her.
You have to make clear what gives you the
right to speak, and apply your experience in a way that
will help people see how unique you are. Then, you focus
on critical beliefs, those little nuggets of wisdom that
make the audience say, whoa, that's right, or I have never
thought about that, or I need to keep in touch with this
person and read her newsletter.
Consultants often make their identity
too general. A consultant might say, "I've
done X for the past twenty-five years." Well, news
flash: if you've been working for the past twenty-five years,
you've done something, and that statement doesn't cut it.
What results did you produce in those years? What cool clients
worked with you? Have you had any great media coverage?
MCNews: Based on your experience with speakers,
what is the most common area for improvement you usually
identify?
Sullivan: Consultants mess up in three
areas. The first, failing to differentiate their message,
we have already covered. Second, their content is terrible.
Their stories ramble on with too many details, and often
the stories are self-aggrandizing rather than making a point
about their topic. Also, too many consultants do data
dumps, just giving fact after fact with no context and no
breather for the audience to digest the information.
The third area for improvement is that consultants don't
leverage the opportunity. They put out all this effort and
they get nothing back.
MCNews: What can consultants do to make
better use of the opportunity?
Sullivan: They can change their mindset
about the speech, and realize that a speech is not the end
point, but a focal point for other marketing activity. Consultants
often do not do anything before a speech, for example, to
pack the house. Whenever you are speaking, especially if
it's a local thing, find out how many guests passes you
can get. Approach clients or potential clients, and tell
them you want to highlight them in your speech as a great
example of how to do X. This is an excellent opportunity
to cement a current relationship or to get attention from
a prospective client.
If you know the speech is going to be
taped, make sure you get copies to distribute. If
the sponsoring group doesn't tape the speech, you can tape
it yourself for about $250. You can buy a gismo to put in
your suit pocket that will digitally record your speech.
Later, you can upload the speech to your computer and edit
it yourself. This takes extra effort, but it's worth it
as a marketing tool, because you will have an audiotape
or a CD that you can provide to clients. You want as many
people as possible to hear about your uniqueness from you.
Otherwise, you have wasted your time to get applause and
nothing else. Too many consultants view speaking as sweat
equity, something they have to do to be visible, so it's
okay that they don't get any real business out of it. That's
not true.
Given the time and effort involved in
travel, giving the speech and the preparation, the return
on investment should be high. People settle for
less because they don't leverage the potential by using
a speech as a focal point, instead of an end in itself.
MCNews: What speaking topics are hot these
days?
Sullivan: It's not hot topics, but
hot people. The demand is for people with a perspective,
for people who have done something cool and are living to
tell the tale. I think what we need from consultants
is riveting information about the marketplace issues
their clients face and how to deal with those challenges.
Business leaders look to consultants to find out what they
don't know about their industry, or how they can improve
their processes and results.
But, information is not enough to draw business
to a consultant. Consultants should include diagnostics
in their presentations. Let the audience experience the
magic of that consultant applying knowledge and experience
to a specific audience member's problem. You want the others
in the audience to feel that if you did it for that person,
you can do it for them. So, deliver information, but
also give the audience an experience that provides something
tangible. Generally, this works best in the concurrent
session format.
MCNews: Do you think consultants would have to significantly
improve their speaking skills to compete in the keynote
market?
Sullivan: Yes, because it's a performance.
And, the less cool you are, the more it is about performance.
If you are rich and famous, you can read from the telephone
book and it doesn't matter. People will work harder to hear
what you have to say.
Keynote speakers need to be a draw for a large
audience and, unfortunately, most consultants don't have
that kind of visibility. So, they are not in the cool people
category, but in the cool data category. Until they understand
that, consultants will never crack into the keynote market
in a big way.
So, unless you are famous or humorous, which
most consultants are not, you have to work on performance.
That means you must have a stellar opening, which is not
a stale joke but a real story. And, the punch line of that
opening has to set the overall tone of the speech.
Consultants who are serious about getting into the keynote
market should consider improvisational acting classes, or
story telling classes, and definitely get outside help.
Do not try this at home alone.
Good keynote speakers make it look effortless,
but it's not. They didn't come out of a box that way; they
worked really hard at it. Consultants are educators, and
they don't get the performance part of speaking.
MCNews: You created a concept called Springboard
Marketing™. What is it, and how can consultants use
it?
Sullivan: Generally, consultants do
not approach speaking in a systemized way; they are haphazard
about it. Springboard Marketing builds a platform
for public speaking that consultants can use as an entry
point to get more benefits for their business. Public
speaking is a diving board, hence the name, for you to penetrate
new markets, re-brand yourself in existing markets and generate
leads.
Consultants have to keep in mind that the
pool of speakers is huge. National associations are reporting
three to five proposals for every speaking slot. They get
hundreds of proposals from people who want to speak to their
groups, including their own members who want to use speaking
as a career builder. In some cases, industry vendors are
sponsoring conferences and filling the speaking slots with
their own people; they are paying to appear.
Then you have the professional speakers and
other experts, not only consultants, but also coaches, as
well as authors who want to promote their books. The big
New York publishers are now saying they won't publish your
book unless you have a speaking schedule. It's the 21st
century version of book signing.
Consultants should approach speaking as they
would approach a consulting project, because that's what
it is, a marketing project. The Springboard program provides
the tools to turbo-charge speaking to get benefits beyond
applause.
MCNews: How can speakers avoid the trap
of what you call "abundance" in the market?
Sullivan: My abundance theory is that
whatever is overstated in the marketplace, and I don't care
how true it is or how much of an achievement it is, has
become a commodity. In the speaking market, the price for
a commodity is zero, which means no payback for your efforts.
99% of my clients have material that
is overstated, or abundant, in the marketplace.
The key question you need to ask is whether or not the points
you want to make, however riveting they seem to you, have
already been made. And, the answer "I don't know"
is not good enough. If you are expert enough to speak, you
are expert enough to know what is being said in your industry
about a certain topic. If you don't know, then how can you
say you are an expert?
It's not effective for me to tell speakers
their material is obsolete, because they aren't going to
hear that. So instead, when I speak to groups about abundance,
I have a speaker express one of her nuggets of wisdom to
the group. Then, I ask the listeners to raise their hands
if they have heard this nugget before. If every hand in
the room goes up, the speaker gets the message.
Then, I point out to the speaker that her
experience tells me there is more than this nugget in there,
and we dig deeper. We go through the process again, and
the speaker comes up with a completely different nugget,
one the group has not heard before, and this gets applause.
It's hard work, but it pays off.
MCNews: How can consultants make their
speeches memorable?
Sullivan: Let's talk about audience
attitudes that you must address to differentiate your material.
First, recognize that audience members don't come to your
presentation shopping for a consultant, or even thinking
they need one. They paid to attend the conference, and are
looking for take-home value now. You have to make sure folks
not only receive great information, but recognize that you
actually do this for a living and can apply your expertise
to their specific issues. Interestingly, unless you are
explicit about this, they won't get it. Of course, you can't
pitch your services from the podium.
The way to be explicit is through your introduction
and through stories that show how you have helped a client
solve a specific problem. Make the client the star in the
story. That gives the audience members a clue that you can
work with them and gets them to see themselves in the role
of the client in your story.
The second attitude audience members have
is that your information or viewpoint does not fit their
environment. No matter how competent you sound, they think
their business needs are unique and you don't fit them.
You can't change their minds about that with information;
you have to do it with the experiential approach we talked
about earlier. You show people with a live exercise what
you cannot tell them with words. That way, they see for
themselves that you can be a fit for their situations.
MCNews: Is a speaker's bureau a good resource
for a consultant to use for speaking engagements?
Sullivan: Traditional speakers' bureaus
don't represent speakers; they represent clients, for example,
program directors, who are looking for speakers. A bureau
might have a database with thousands of speakers. They will
pitch speakers to clients and try to provide a good fit
with what the client wants.
Bureaus deal most often with the market for
keynote speakers. So, the first issue for consultants is
whether they want to speak for free at concurrent, or breakout
sessions, or they want to be paid keynote speakers. If
you want to speak for free at concurrent sessions, speakers'
bureaus will not help you. If you want to look for
keynote opportunities, it's worth finding out more about
speakers' bureaus and what they do.
Consultants would do better with a corporate
speakers' bureau if their firm has one. In fact, more consulting
firms should consider in-house, corporate speakers' bureaus
as a systematic approach of outreach to get speaking engagements
that function strategically. With a corporate speakers'
bureau, the firm controls who the pitch is to, and can make
sure that the opportunity is worth the time, preparation
and travel it will require. Too often, consultants do not
have a systematic approach for deciding which opportunities
are good for them and which ones would be a waste of their
time. A corporate speakers' bureau can help with that.
MCNews: Great advice, Vickie. Thanks for
joining us.
* * * *
Visit Vickie Sullivan at www.SullivanSpeaker.com
to find out about her newsletter, Splash, and her other
products and services.
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