3 Secrets To Be A Fearless Persuasive Public Speaker with Patricia Fripp
Does the mere thought of presenting in front of your colleagues make your stomach quiver and your knees buckle? If so, you're alone. What if you could sound more confident, influential, and credible? Putting "wow" into your communication and presentation might be what you need to stand out in your career. Imagine if your message could inspire and motivate others to achieve their goals, convince and persuade teams toward a common goal, and drive more sales. In this episode, we're discussing how to deliver memorable and persuasive presentations.
In This Episode, You Will Learn About:
Be confident, influential, and credible
The edge you need to stand out
Increase your sales results
FREE Career Accelerator Workbook: https://bit.ly/3xXy8U
FREE Business Building Workbook: https://bit.ly/3xXy8U
Schedule your Career Discovery Call Today: https://bit.ly/3OnuLLO
Let's Connect!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedaniellecobo/
DREAM JOB FB Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2826110370979215/
FrippVT: https://www.frippvt.com/
About Our Guest:
Patricia Fripp is a Certified Speaking Professional, Hall of Fame keynote speaker, executive speech coach, and sales presentation and online learning expert. She was elected the first woman President of the National Speakers Association.
In Patricia’s career, she has delivered over 3,500 presentations. Companies hire Patricia to help them drive more business by polishing their sales conversations and presentations and to help leaders inspire action and build commitment through their words.
Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
"Danielle is so Uplifting." <-- If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more women -- just like you -- accelerate their career. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dream-job-with-danielle-cobo/id1571797640
Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. I’m adding a bunch of special release episodes and, if you’re not following, there’s a chance you may miss out. Follow now!
Memorable and Persuasive Presentations
Does the mere thought of presenting in front of your colleagues make your stomach quiver and your buckle at the knees? Do you wanna sound more confident, influential, incredible, putting “wow” into your communication and presentation might be what you need to stand out in your career. Imagine if you had a message to inspire and motivate others to achieve their goals. Convince and persuade teams towards a common goal and drive more sales.
A snapshot: born in England, became a hair styling apprentice at 15, came to America at 20 with no job, nowhere to live, didn't know anyone, $500, worked in the Mark Hopkins hotel beauty salon, where I met people from all over the country and all over the world. Then I worked in one of the first men's hair styling salons—very posh in the financial district of San Francisco—when men's hair styling was a new industry. And then I opened my own salon. And started traveling nationwide for a hair product company, delivering seminars for hair stylists. And my clients, who were executives and movers and shakers in the financial district said, Patricia, “Oh, you are speaking. Come talk to my rotary club, Wan's club, breakfast club, and being the star of my Dale Carnegie class and going to Toastmasters.”
I knew how to frame my presentation. So I had notes, but they were in my head. So I never used notes. Use my personality. But anyway, cut long story short, after two free talks to service clubs, I realized not only is this fun, this is the least expensive way I can promote my business because people who heard me speak came to my salon. What I would do is I would have a drawing, which meant I had everyone's business cards long. This was long before the internet and contact management systems but I had their cards. And I would have a drawing for a free haircut. And next week, the week after they had their free haircut in my salon, I knew they would go back there, say, “Oh, you won the haircut. Let's see how you look. What was it like?”
So that was a great way to promote my business. Now with my pals in the Dale Carnegie class, my good friends, they were six of us. We called ourselves the future millionaire breakfast. And we went to every seminar and every rally we heard about, and I heard about the national speakers association and a professional speaker who I'd heard was kind enough to meet with me and talk to me. And he said, “Patricia, you must go to the National Speakers Association convention.” And I'm a great believer. If someone you admire and wish to emulate gives you advice, you don't say, “Well, how much does it cost you to go?” When I arrived, I was 32 years old, two years into a 10-year lease on my salon. I thought no one would want to talk to me. I only talked to rotary gloves and hairdressers. And two situations appeared: one, because I started at 15 as an apprentice. When my lease was up, I'd be 40. And I realized I would, certainly, I could keep renewing my lease. I could do something else in the hair styling industry. However, after 25 years, I knew there would be other options.
And I thought, “Well, I don't know, but maybe speaking would be an option.” And then to cut long story short, I got discovered by a big-time promoter who booked me to speak to 2000 people on the same program with some of the most famous speakers at that time. Seven years later, I became the first woman president of NSA.
So that is a snapshot. Now, if you have some goals like, “Oh, I love speaking. I wanna be a professional speaker”, I was smart enough to know this is a long-term goal. A lot of people go to NSA. “Oh, I'm gonna quit my job.” No, no, no. Start strategizing in a way that you could replace through speaking when you replace the income you have that feeds your family and pays your mortgage. That's when you might wanna quit the day job, and maybe you don't ever quit your day job. I mean, there are lots of ways to be in the speaking industry. So that was it. And what I liked about hair styling, that I love about speaking and now coaching executives and working with SAS teams, it's an education. You work for a company. You get to know about that industry. It is just such a great education. There are a lot of benefits. However, if you have a job or you are in a position to get smarter because of the people you interact with, that's a good place to.
I have found the National Speaker Associations to be an incredible group of people who want to support, mentor, and influence each other to a greater purpose and impact. They say this stage is a very precious place. Because you have the opportunity to influence, inspire, and transform the lives of a lot of people at once. And I've thoroughly enjoyed my time as an NSA member. And for those of you that are listening, if you are considering being a speaker, if that's maybe one of your goals, that deep desire or passion that you have, whether you still wanna keep your corporate job or do this on the side, or you wanna do speaking full time, join the NSA.
I can't say that enough. And if possibly becoming a speaker is not maybe one of your goals, then I'm gonna ask Patricia to share her three secrets to breaking down that fear that most of us have when it comes to speaking. I'll share with you a little bit about my journey to becoming a speaker.
Three Secrets to Breaking Your Public Speaking Anxiety
When I first had to present my sales presentation. That dreaded role-playing that most of us hate—I try not to use that word—or despised, resist to, I was 23 years old and I cried. I was terrified. And yet fast forward to where I'm at now in being a speaker, it really comes to leaning in. And as you said, learning the skills and being active at learning the skills to refine your message to become a great speaker. Now, what are three secrets that you have to break through that fear?
I wouldn't say they're secrets cuz I tell anyone who asks. Secrets are good. Yes. Well, I would say it doesn't matter if you are giving speeches early in your career, if you are reporting to your senior management, or if you are running team meetings for the first time, you have to engage with prospects of customers.
One, nobody knows how you think. They only know how you project. They don't know if you're terrified. So what you would have to do if you are nervous, then think about who looks very confident. You don't know how they feel either, but they appear confident. You'll feel they're confident. So if you are standing or sitting in Zoom, sit up or stand—equal distance with your feet and hips, stand firmly, and you smile and you pause, and you know exactly what you are going to do. Say when you open your mouth, speak in shorter sentences, then you can breathe to keep the energy, and it's easier for the listeners to understand what you're saying. So that's one: project confidence.
Secondly, if you want to build your credibility, use specific language. For example, the most frequently asked question I have of all my clients is if it weren't a thing, what would it be? And one of my favorite examples is a brilliant engineer. I work a lot with engineers getting ready for their user conferences and this brilliant man said there are two things people love. You know, he's talking about their products and their offerings. And I said, “If they weren't things, what would they be? Innovative upgrades? There are billions of people in the world. What kind of people love your innovative upgrades?” He said, “Systems administrators.” Can you see the difference in the quality?
I was brought in for a long-time client that brought me back again because they had a new corporate message. I was part of delivering sales training for new hires on how to tell our company story. Well, they got a new story. They brought me back and one of the senior, senior, senior executives zoomed into the conference and he said 10 things that we're focusing on. He kept saying those 10 things. Now, here I am telling them to be more specific. And one of the big marketing bosses had just presented a few hours before. And I said, with all respect to everyone who's presented before me, what such and such a person talked about was 10. They were 10 priorities. He was not giving us 10 suggestions. They were priorities. The quality of the words. Because it would be very easy to think, “Well, I guess they're suggestions or, oh, I should try and incorporate them.” No, they are 10 priorities. Your actions should be built around our 10 priorities, and as they are such priorities, I think your first priority is your second priority. So one be clear. Be specific. When in a networking event you met a bunch of fun people, no, perhaps you met a bunch of bananas, but you probably met two dozen interesting people with which you had six really stimulating conversations. So be specific about the quality of your words.
Three, if there were one real secret of being a powerful, persuasive presenter, it would be that your subject is of interest to your audience. Now we both know as professional speakers, sometimes you get brought into companies and some managers said, Hey, this speaker's gonna come fix you when they're sitting there with their arms folded.
If you want to make your audience—whether at 1,500 50, or 500—become interested in your subject, we as presenters, managers, leaders, or sales professionals, have to look at our message from the point of view of the audience. And one way you can do this is to watch the ‘I vs you’ balance or ratio. So looking at it, one way is to use you-focused language. So you could say, “Welcome to the Monday morning sales meeting and you are in for a treat. What you will be hearing this morning is the three updates from our manager. Hear about two of our internal superheroes, and three, how you can win a hundred dollars Starbucks gift card by becoming part of such and such.” And I recommend that all my clients and listeners come up with a list of ‘you-focused’ phrases that work within your communication.
In your opinion, in your experience, how often have you… And every time the audience hears you, they reconnect. Because I work on one principle and if we work on this principle, we will never go wrong. Everyone is more interested in themselves than in us. So look at your message.
Probably the most blatant—I do believe leaders are a little more sophisticated now—but for years I've been at company meetings. And I've heard the President or CEO say, “Our strategy is... Our business is growing and we will be increasing the shareholder value.” Well, that's fine if you're talking to the board of directors or shareholders, but if you are talking to employees, that's the wrong message. So you take the same message and adapt it for a different audience. “Our strategy is signed. We will increase business, which means there's more opportunity for promotion. You have more job security. We look forward to increasing the benefits. So keep up the good work.”
That ‘You vs I’ language can also be applied in writing emails as well. I work with a lot of my clients when we're doing sales training, and we're talking about every time that you write “I” in an email, what would it look like if you switched it to “you” and how would it provide more value to the person reading? It's about them.
‘I vs You’ Language in Sales
Can we discuss the ‘You’ language from a sales perspective when meeting with a customer or a client, whether you're working in corporate or whether you own your own business?
If you are first talking to someone you're gonna ask questions for, the key to connection is conversation. The secret of conversation is to ask questions and the quality of the information you receive depends on the quality of your questions.
So I work with a lot of people. They've gone through the different levels, and now this is a formal presentation. And what we have to remember is buyers today are a lot more sophisticated. And the statistics in sales are that corporate sales buyers are 70% through the process before we have a formal presentation. All our information and all our happy clients are all on our websites. So you have to assume if you are lucky enough to have an opportunity to talk, to say three or five or a group of decision-makers, you are probably one of three people to be considerate. They've already got rid of everyone else. So I recommend my clients begin with: “Congratulations.” Then talk about what they have a right to be proud of. It could be: “Congratulations. Your latest advertising campaign is incredible.” Or, “Congratulations. I noticed your stock price, just one up two points. And your major competitor went down. You are making superb decisions or your strategy is obviously sound.” It could be as simple as congratulations.
Walking along the hall to find my way to our meeting room, every single person smiled had a pleasantry and asked if I needed help or directions. Obviously, your core values are alive. Then never thank them for their time. Everybody does that. And the flip formula is if you sound exactly the same as everybody else, you have no advantage. And the only thing I ever wanted in business was an unfair advantage. And that's not lying, cheating, or stealing. It's just looking at how could I do what I am doing. How can I listen to my competitors and find a new way, a more outstanding way anyway? So congratulations. And then you don't thank them for your time. You say, “Thank you for the opportunity to discuss how the presentation skills training could be the training you're looking for.”
Now very often, if this is a formal presentation, you have had individuals lower down in the organization give you all the information you need to prepare. If that is true, make them heroes. Whatever the words are—opportunities, challenges, interest—now that becomes the structure of your presentation. The old days of, “Hi, I'm Patricia. You know, this is who I work with. This is how long we've been in business. This is our unique methodology. This is who we do business with. And we'd love to add you to our list of satisfied clients.” Nobody cares because everyone's more interested in themselves than you. And if you frame every comment you have that you would normally put in your presentation, you put it into the format of what they want to hear. When you've gone through and you've done your review, you've answered any questions that they have just as you are saying goodbye, “Thank you, certainly on behalf of my leadership team. Thank you for the opportunity to be considered for your upcoming presentations.” Then it's almost as if you swivel to leave to turn off or to walk out the door. And then your last words linger.
So when times are tough, you want someone who's gonna be here forever. And then, this is a line that works very well for consultants like us or smaller businesses. And then it's remembered. “We are large enough to satisfy all your needs. We are small enough that you will always be a VIP client and have the cell phone of the president of the company.”
I don't think there's anything to say beyond. You've provided so much of that value. That is a lingering message that doesn't even need a follow-up to that because you shared valuable wisdom on how we can have our confidence:
the way we stand
the way we present ourselves
the way that our posture is
knowing that most people don't know what's going on
the word choices that we use
eliminating those nonsense words.
I hear it in the back of my head when I'm writing speeches. Now they're not things, they're priorities or strategies. And then the structure that you talk about: that ‘You vs I’ language, making it about the customer, making it about the audience, having that formula of structure.
When it comes to a presentation, you're doing a conversation that you're having, and that lingering message right at that end, that gives it that hook. That feeling I also want to add from observation is you have pauses. Those pauses want me just coming in for more like, “What's she gonna say next?” And I believe that that is very powerful as well as intent. And it's about being intentional when you are speaking well.
