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Arriving at the Gig
:Find
Someone Friendly and Speak With Them
In early 2011, ‘New York Times’
best selling author, Peggy McColl, spoke at my business
education and networking group called “Your Stage.” The
first thing she did when she took the stage was to ask
everyone in the audience to smile. She said she doesn’t
really like speaking in public, and the smiling faces
help to calm her down. Of course, the entire audience
gave her a nice big smile. Our official photographer,
Ima Ortega, snapped some great pictures, and Peggy went
on with an amazing presentation.
Was it all just a nice act? Not
at all, there’s tremendous value in knowing that you
have allies in the audience, especially if you’re a
novice speaker. A good way to secure a few allies is to
make a few new friends before you go on the stage. I do
that by scoping out the room and hand-picking a few
people who seem friendly. I then approach them, and make
a friendly connection, have a little chat and get to
know a little about them. There are two benefits to
doing this.
The first benefit is that knowing
someone in the audience, even a new acquaintance, gives
you a feeling of comfort. It’s a psychological anchor
you can use to emotionally ground yourself if you’re
feeling anxious.
The other benefit is more
practical in nature. It gives you something familiar to
refer to when you’re speaking. I even like to mention my
new contact, especially if they’re someone prominent in
the group. Let me share an example.
I was speaking at a large
networking function in early 2010, and I didn’t know
anyone at this function. Not a soul. During the opening
segment of the meeting, there was an opportunity to
mingle, so I made a few connections. I conversed with a
few attendees for a while, and picked up some
information that was pertinent to my talk. When the time
came and I began my talk, I mentioned my new contacts by
name, and referenced some pertinent parts of my
conversation with them. “I was speaking with Bill Dobbs
before the session this morning, and we discussed the
fact that most people don’t have an agenda when they
attend a networking function.” All of a sudden, anyone
who knew Bill Dobbs felt a tiny bit of a connection with
me as well, because I mentioned someone familiar to them
in the conversation. Another benefit was the fact that
Bill felt like a hero, because he’d had a personal
impact on the presentation. It was a win-win situation
for everyone.
So, what’s the lesson? If you
don’t know anyone in the room, find a friendly face and
make a new connection. |