Craft

Learning and growth as a professional speaker

 

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• The privilege of speaking
• Inside track
• Multiple industries, multiple perspectives

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.

Hey there James Taylor here keynote speaker and founder of SpeakersU. Today I’m on my way to Singapore to Asia professional speakers convention. Before I go, I thought I would share with you something I’ve found really impactful for myself as a speaker, my learning and growth. And I think it’s, we don’t talk enough about this, this is as a privilege that we get to do as a speakers. And that’s the ability when we go and speak in organizations, we kind of get a bit of an inside track on how that organization works, we also get to learn a lot about an industry in a pretty short period of time. So for example, I do about 50 keynotes a year to all different types of conferences, all types of different organizations. And and so normally what happens is I arrive in the before. And I’ll be sitting in the room for a lot of internal meetings, that organizations having maps, listening to some of the other speakers or the guest speakers that they bring in talk about the specific topics of that conference, not always related to what I speak on innovation and creativity and AI, but they may be speaking about political changes are going on how that affects finance.

And we’ll be talking about technological things, big geopolitical, economic changes are going on. So imagine that every year, if you speak 50 times a year, you get to go in and, and learn from 50 completely different types of organizations and associations and conferences. So you know, this week alone, I’ve just been in Bogota, Colombia. And I had a fantastic time with the team there from invest in Bogota, learning all about BP, oh, outsourcing and Nia sourcing, and how that’s all developing in Latin America, just before that I was in Beirut, Lebanon, speaking there. After that I was learning all around the challenges that Chief Information Officers have talked about some of the political things that are going on in that part of the region as well. And then before that, I was in Istanbul, talking with HR professionals and sitting in sessions, learning from some of the best HR people in the world. And then before that I was in Dubai, with some incredible lawyers learning about some big economic changes are going and going on technological changes how that’s affecting the law. And then before I was in Brazil, and Ecuador, was because metrics companies and banks, I got a chance to sit down with the chairman of Qatar National Bank, finance bank in Istanbul. And we talk about 30 minutes. And we talk about some really big things I can have going on in the world of big trends.

So I think this is a hugely undervalued part of what we get to do as speakers and also the insights that we get to bring in to organizations because we’re having all these conversations all the time, we’re learning across multiple industries, usually from very senior people in those organizations. So we’re always at the front of what’s going on. So I think this is hugely valuable in terms of your own learning and personal development and growth, as a speaker, as a person as a human. But it also, it gives you this great thing to be able to go into when you work with organizers, you have this ability to see things from multiple perspectives to see how the work you do making speaking creativity, innovation, how it’s affecting multiple different industries. So you can speak to multiple industries about it. And you can also see what some of the connections are, and the patterns are. So I thought I’d just kind of film this little quick video today. Just to say, this is one of the benefits of speaking if you’re thinking about becoming a professional speaker, is one of the fantastic things you get to do as a speaker, you get to learn every single week from some of the best people in the businesses at events that you’re very privileged to be able to kind of sit in the room and hear some of these top experts. So from me James Taylor Have a wonderful week and all the best we’re speaking.

How would you like to get paid to travel the world to share your message and expertise? How did it feel to get paid 5000 10,000 $25,000 to travel first class and stay in five star hotels in exotic locations. What I’ve just described is the lifestyle of international keynote speakers. And you can join me and over 100 of the world’s best keynote speakers, and speaker trainers as they reveal their secrets to becoming a better speaker and getting booked to travel the world as a professional keynote speaker and Bestival. As it’s an online summit You don’t even have to leave home plus it’s not going to cost you a single dollar euro pound ruble peso or yen. If you sign up for the free pass at International Speakers Summit calm you’re going to receive access to never seen before video interviews over 40 of the world’s best keynote speakers. In addition to this, you’ll get access to archived interviews from some of last year’s summit guests. So in total, you’ll be able to watch in depth interviews with over 100 incredible speakers and speaker trainers. You’ll have to find a theme for your keynote presentation how to craft your

Talk how to get booked as a speaker, how much to charge and ways to get paid to speak on stages all over the world. So what are you waiting for? Head over to internationalspeakerssummit.com now

In today’s episode of The Speakers Life I’m in Quito, Ecuador and sharing ideas on how speakers can best work with language translators at events.

 

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• Briefing the translator
• Types of foreign language translation
• Live translation for speakers

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.

James Taylor, keynote speaker and founder of SpeakersU. Today I’m in Quito, Ecuador, where I’ve been doing a series of speaking engagements across the country. And one interesting thing that’s happened this week, always speaking engagements is the old have live translation. So I thought I’d just kind of give you some of my thoughts on when you’re speaking to an audience where they don’t speak your language and think some of the things you have to think about. The first the obvious one is you have to speak a little bit slower, because you’re going to have either a live someone doing live translation or then sequential translation to differences that in this case, all the events I was speaking at, they had two interpreters there, someone that was interpreting my English into Spanish, so the and everyone had to have the room would have headphones on and they could hear the interpreter speaking my words in Spanish and then the other way, when we do Q and A’s.

I had someone that was interpreting me from the Spanish into the English so I needed a pair of headphones on during the Q&A sessions as well, so that’s the ideal is that you have two interpreters, they’re wondering the that the language, one doing your language. And it just makes it really easy. And that way you don’t have to slow down terms you’re going through things, you have to speak a little bit slower. So to help interpreters, if you are doing it with with, you know, live translation, spend a bit of time just talking with the interpreters talking through what you’re going to be covering, ideally give them all your slides or your presentations, I have a lot of things written out. So I give them all of that. We talked about certain words that I have, which are very kind of maybe European words, that they might need to just think about how best to translate it, some things don’t translate as well. And that’s it really, and then just you get to know them, and they’re going to be in your ear for the course of your speech, if you’re doing that. And then the second way is when you have the consequential translation where you speak and then you pause and then you let someone do the translation. I’ve done this last different places and rush in he was in Russian and all different languages is not my preferred way of doing things because it slows things down a lot. So let’s say if you normally give a 30 minute keynote or 30 minute speech, it’s going to take an hour because you have to do that. And so it’s not the ideal if you can, if the client can afford it definitely get in. Live translation makes a huge difference. So you There you go. My little tips for working with translators as a keynote speaker, hope you find that useful. Thank you.

How would you like to get paid to travel the world to share your message and expertise? How did it feel to get paid 5000 10,000 $25,000 to travel first class and stay in five star hotels in exotic locations. What I’ve just described is the lifestyle of international keynote speakers. And you can join me and over 100 of the world’s best keynote speakers, and speaker trainers as they reveal their secrets to becoming a better speaker and getting booked to travel the world as a professional keynote speaker and Bestival. As it’s an online summit You don’t even have to leave home plus it’s not going to cost you a single dollar euro pound ruble peso or yen. If you sign up for the free pass at International Speakers Summit calm you’re going to receive access to never seen before video interviews over 40 of the world’s best keynote speakers. In addition to this, you’ll get access to archived interviews from some of last year’s summit guests. So in total, you’ll be able to watch in depth interviews with over 100 incredible speakers and speaker trainers. You’ll have to find a theme for your keynote presentation how to craft your

Talk how to get booked as a speaker, how much to charge and ways to get paid to speak on stages all over the world. So what are you waiting for? Head over to internationalspeakerssummit.com now

This month I had to memorise thirteen different speeches.
In today’s episode filmed in Toronto I cover how to memorise your speeches.

 

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• Working three speeches ahead
• Recording your rehearsals
• Visualisation techniques
• Building your speech like songs

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.

Hey, James here. So today I’m in Niagara on the lake, which is quite near Toronto, just almost for you over to the US border. And the reason I’m here is I’m giving a keynote, here for a conference for institutional investors all about super creativity, about creativity, artificial intelligence. And because over the course of the next two months, I’m speaking a lot, I’m basically speaking, can have nonstop for the next two months. So a question I’m sometimes on how do you remember all these different speeches that you have to give, because all obviously tailored for the different clients. So it’s a couple little tricks that I’ve learned so far. The first is every morning, and every evening, I will go through two or three speeches, the one I’m giving immediately next and and that one, I’m basically just getting it memorize right into the into my brain. So I can just go and deliver even if the slides if nothing else work, I know that I can get straight through that and give a good presentation.

The other one I’m usually rehearsing is the one I’m going to be giving straight after that. So then the next one after that, just so I’m feeling I’m kind of on top of it. And the third one I’m working on is the one that comes after that. And usually I’m in the process of writing it or making some final tweaks, or, you know, just going some some final detail, I’m not actually honestly speaking out rehearsing it, like I worked with the other two. So I always kind of working class three speeches ahead. Sometimes as well on the fourth one, if I’m working on what I’m working with just now, which is but two months time, right, the end of this tour, which is very different from all the other ones. So probably tomorrow, actually start just kind of sketching out a little bit more, kind of going through some of the big ideas I want to have on that speech. So that’s that’s kind of how I can do that there in terms of how you can get the things into your head, what I tend to do is I will record on my voice recording my phone, my speech, Lifeline word for word as I’m going through it. And then it means as I’m out walking, doing other things like in the car coming here today, I’m listening to the speech because I can remember the sounds of how speech goes and I get it, I bring better than if I read it. So the same for everyone. But that’s certainly what what works for me. So always going to be working a few speeches ahead. Another little trick, if you if you start to get a little bit confused, or worse, which speeches this and you know, it’s like the lines get blurred between one speech and the other. Another little trick I found is, if I’m giving a speech, if I hadn’t spoken an event venue before, I will go online, and I will look if it’s a hotel like this one, I will look at the room and the on the website and visually remember what the room looks like. As I’m kind of going through the speech in my head. I’m imagining myself giving that speech on that stage. And that means as I’m rehearsing in my head, I’m visually there, which is different from if I’m you know, the speech I give next I’m in a completely different by more can auditorium theatre.

So using that visual palette you have your brain is also a really good thing to do. So that’s some of the old tricks, little tricks I I certainly use about how to remember multiple speakers had been working at multiple speeches at the same time. And a final one I would say is, I mean, this happened only a few days ago when on this speech, I was going through some final things that I just thought I want a little bit more time the organizers and we’d love to have some time to do q amp a. And so what I decided to I said I need to drop out by three minutes in my speech, and I used the technique I use when I’m building my speeches like building them, like a set of music artists building a set of the live shows I’m building them in, in songs. So like every few minutes almost got another song and my set and sometimes I’ll pair two songs together up here to ideas in a speech together because he’s really worked very well closely together to do maybe over the tomorrow they have to explain exactly how I do that. But what it’s very useful for is if I want to suddenly switch something out, pull up some side I know Okay, those two songs there those two ideas that closely together those and get pulled out at the same time. Or if I pull that one out, it’s going to cause me problems with this other one. So building up your songs in modules or like building up your your speaking presentations like like modules or like songs in a set like a music artist is another way to get very dynamic with how you create a deliver your speeches. So, so from here in Niagara on the lake in near Toronto. What we found that useful My name is James Taylor Thanks for watching.

This episode of the Speakers Life is sponsored by Espeakers. The innovative platform that connects speakers will event organizers and associations. Espeakers provides cutting edge tools that will elevate your online presence. streamline your speaking business and maximize your exposure in the Speaking industry with over 15 years in the business 10,000 speakers in their community and over 20,000 events managed annually each Espeakers is the preferred choice for top speakers. You can create your own profile on a Espeakers today by going to speakersu.com/Espeakers.

 

One of the joys of being a global keynote speaker is getting to work alongside top corporate MC’s around the world. After giving the keynote speech at a senior leadership meeting in Singapore recently I sat down with professional MC Rob Salisbury CSP to learn how speakers and emcee’s can collaborate.

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• The role of the professional MC
• Introducing a speaker on stage
• Researching the speaker and client
• Keeping things on track
• Improvising

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.

Hey there is James Taylor and I’m here in Singapore in the suit Sentosa the W. Sentosa cool W Hotel. I’m here with my good friend, Rob. So, Rob is a professional MC, you know, for CSP, certified speaking professional. And Rob is been an amazing job a job at emceeing this event. I just did the opening keynote at it by one while I’ve got Rob, I wanted to ask you two questions. First of all, why shouldn’t even bring in a professional MC was the purpose of having a professional MC? Well, let’s get the first question on the way first of all, Jane is always a pleasure, great people to work with. And so today the keynote he cracked it wide open at 930 and killed it to the first break. And we had the chairman of the company and dignitaries with 13 countries and at business leaders, country managers for this particular conference at the mo the western or the W here. Sentosa been a lot of fun

I think first and foremost, it’s been insurance. When you ever were working with professional event planners or conference organizers like this particular event, it’s always a pleasure to get behind the scenes information to help them know how to do things in a great way. Last year, this event did not have a conference MC and a host. I was fortunate two months ago, one of the senior managers here saw me doing a two day program with hundred 30 Hr leaders in Singapore at one of the hotels and he was in that event and just saw how smooth it went. So it was an easy transition. As you and I know Frederick talks about if you want to get more bookings speak more often but as an MC host, a panel moderator facilitator, I’ve always found it to be a lot of fun to be able to work with the key people on the ground in advance their group, there’s more time up front, but on the day, you really do save time, and we’ve got 10s of millions of salaries and compensation a room like this today. You can’t afford to burn off time so work with a professional MC helps move things from

Quickly, make sure that brakes on time work behind the scene with the hotel, specifically on breaks when things may not go accordingly. But we’ve had an event situation earlier with a manager who couldn’t get through customs due to a technical issue on his visa. So we had to do some flipping around on the run sheet to get that done. These types of things that can happen on the day and you got to be really smart, sharp, and make sure that you’re really flexible. And you know how to keep your agenda off the agenda. It’s all about the client and their event. And it makes from the speakers perspective, it makes a huge difference having a professional MC. So question it’s useful to do when you’re doing your even pre event call with a client asked them Do you have a professional MC? Are you considering bringing in a professional MC and then if not, if you think about you could always recommend an MC because believe me, it will make your life better as a speaker but more important, emit the clients life better because it’s going to create a better event.

So my second question here as speakers Yes, what can we do to be working better. With MCs, what you need from us, how can we make your job easier and better? Well, you did a great job your prime example, before James got here I’ve done on his website and looked at information above and beyond what the event organizer had sent me. They sent me maybe a paragraph or two, that wasn’t enough to give James to lift he needed. I know we’d work together in the past here in Singapore at HR conference. So I already had some comfortability with him. I know he’s a precision speaker. He’s a full on information speaker. So we want to have a very airtight introduction that makes sense, but it’s also a customize, and tailor made presentation for today’s event, and it was so it was a very, very smart In addition, what speakers can do is they can have introductions that are ready to send to the MC ahead of time. You can bring a hard sheet that day if you want to. But it’s always important to have two or three versions of what you’re going to be presenting on maybe your keynote presentation, maybe a breakout session, introductions are going to make you sound not a professional but are also true.

No need to be able to put bombastic stuff in there and overstate the occasion. We’re going to cut it out for you trust me. We don’t have two minutes introduce you as much as you’d like us to. We only have 30, maybe 40 seconds do an airtight job. Now we can always do stuff during the break or afterwards to come back and give you a little complimentary buzzword or two, or maybe some three things. But I think also having stuff that can support your introduction like books, like you sent me great stuff. I had your online courses and information I actually got your MBA and stuff like that. So History Background, the audience wants to know a little bit more about the speaker terms of customization. So MCs hosts, panel moderators, your responsibility is to get to know your speaker better and make your audience feel not only that they’re getting a great speaker but also a speaker that has a heartbeat,right brain power, which this guy has, especially when they add a q amp a which you weren’t expecting at the average goes all the way along which I love.

I love doing Q and A’s personally speakers that freaks them out we got caught out Didn’t we did that was great. And we sure did they were really enjoying the session I was about ready to thank James with the most amazing gift from one of the country managers here and our his my thank you and his Thank you was hijacked by the vice chairman. And you’re not going to say Oh, excuse me just a minute stop. Yeah, but the Vice Chair out a few things that say the National Sales Manager, the country manager at a few things and that’s, that’s a testament to your presentation, which kind of went into q amp a which was unrehearsed Yeah. And you’ve got to be very good. Excellent. Anyway, it’s been a joy to talk to you brother. Awesome, great, fantastic and if you all looking for professional MC if you want to recommend a professional MC, Rob Salisbury CSP, certified speaking professional, check Rob’s work out fantastic working with you again.

This episode of the Speakers Life is sponsored by Espeakers. The innovative platform that connects speakers will event organizers and associations. Espeakers provides cutting edge tools that will elevate your online presence. streamline your speaking business and maximize your exposure in the Speaking industry with over 15 years in the business 10,000 speakers in their community and over 20,000 events managed annually each Espeakers is the preferred choice for top speakers. You can create your own profile on a Espeakers today by going to speakersu.com/Espeakers.

 

 

Building your professional speaking business today requires asking the kind of first principle questions that Elon Musk is known for. In today’s episode, filmed in Singapore, we look at how to ask better questions to grow your speaking career.

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• Asking Better Questions
• Voltaire
• High Q/A Ratio
• The Innovators DNA
• Hal Gregerson
• Elon Musk’s First Principles
• What Business Are You In?

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.

Hey, there is James Taylor here keynote speaker and the founder of SpeakersU. Today I’m in Singapore, one of my favorite places in the world in which to speak. I flew in last night and gave them the opening keynote at large conference this morning for senior executives from one of the world’s largest retail group across Asia. And I’m going to be flying out a few hours before I do, I thought I’d film this episode of the speakers life to talk about something I mentioned in the speech today. And that is about the importance of asking powerful questions. There was a book written a few years ago called the innovators DNA written by Clay Christensen, and could Hal Gregersen there’s a professor at MIT. And they found that amongst the some of the greatest mind, some of the most innovative people and organizations in the world, they have a high IQ a ratio, they ask more questions and giving giving answers. They’re always on a search there. They’re curious by the always asking questions, but they’re also asking a certain type of question.

And Elon Musk talks about going to first principles asking first principle questions. So our first principle question is something like this. Let’s imagine that the car business, if someone is a car manufacturer, sometimes they’re thinking, well, we’re in the car business. That’s that’s our industry in the car business, actually really there in the transportation business, what business you’re in is of a fundamental way powerful question to ask during the transformation business. And as speakers, we can often get locked into this idea of thinking we’re just in the speaking business. But that’s not necessarily true. If you really ask yourself the question, What business are you in as a speaker is actually we’re in the transformation business. You know, if someone goes and he as you speak on stage, when they leave that room, your job is to create some kind of transformation in that person, whether that’s to give them a new idea that they can implement in their life or their business.

Whether this to share with them some tactic or some daily ritual that they can implement in their lives we’re there to create transformation in people’s lives and in their business that’s really the business that we’re in so if you want to improve the quality of your life ask better questions asked more catalytic questions and see how things change my name is James Taylor thanks for watching.

How would you like to get paid to travel the world to share your message and expertise? How did it feel to get paid 5000 10,000 $25,000 to travel first class and stay in five star hotels in exotic locations. What I’ve just described is the lifestyle of international keynote speakers. And you can join me and over 100 of the world’s best keynote speakers, and speaker trainers as they reveal their secrets to becoming a better speaker and getting booked to travel the world as a professional keynote speaker and Bestival. As it’s an online summit You don’t even have to leave home plus it’s not going to cost you a single dollar euro pound ruble peso or yen. If you sign up for the free pass at International Speakers Summit calm you’re going to receive access to never seen before video interviews over 40 of the world’s best keynote speakers. In addition to this, you’ll get access to archived interviews from some of last year’s summit guests. So in total, you’ll be able to watch in depth interviews with over 100 incredible speakers and speaker trainers. You’ll have to find a theme for your keynote presentation how to craft your

Talk how to get booked as a speaker, how much to charge and ways to get paid to speak on stages all over the world. So what are you waiting for? Head over to internationalspeakerssummit.com now

 

I was asked the other day at a party what was the one qualification every professional speaker must have? Today I’m in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to keynote a conference and on the flight over I’ve been mulling this question. My answer may surprise you.

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• Qualifications for professional speakers
• CSP
• Why speaking is like learning guitar
• From the basics to mastery
• How can i improve my craft?
• How can i learn more about my topic?
• How can i add my unique take on it?
• Curiosity

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.

Hi, James Taylor he a keynote speaker on creativity, innovation and artificial intelligence. And the founder of SpeakersU. Today I’m in Riyadh and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And someone asked me a question, do they identify the asked me, James, what qualifications Do you need to be a professional speaker? And it kind of stumped me. I had to think about it for a little bit. You know, this person I was speaking to, he was a doctor, and he was a space specialist type of doctor. And obviously, he had to go for many, many years of qualifications and study in order to be able to practice medicine he practices and as a speaker, it’s slightly different. Now, there are definitely qualifications that you can have, I think there’s only really one that is the most important. You know, there are qualifications you can get like a CSP a certified speaking professional, and different speakers, associations around the world have different types of qualifications like that you can get to really show that you are an experienced speaker, professional speaking. These are great things to do.

Get. However, if you’re just starting out, I think actually the most important qualification is curiosity. The other day, they interviewed an HR professional who had previously worked at both Google and Facebook. And she asked what is the one thing that you’re looking for in people you take off take into these organizations? And she said the number one skill for her is curiosity. I think it’s really applies a speaker. You see the way I think about speaking, it’s a little bit like learning a musical instrument like learning guitar. It’s actually pretty simple to get some basic course and know learn three chords on the guitar, and to make a sand to play that first first June, however, it takes an entire lifetime to really master the guitar. So speaking is similar. It’s it’s actually we speak every day, you know, to go and give a speech even though you’re quite a, you know, a big thing. It’s your first speech, but to get up there to go and speak on stage.

It’s not the is not the q&a qualifications for that, apart from this ability to be curious about the world, and specifically curious about your topic, and your audience and what’s important to them. So I want to give you a couple of little pieces of advice just now. In terms of how to remain curious. The first thing is you need to have curiosity for your topic area, you don’t have to be the greatest expert in a particular topic area to go and speak on it. You just need to have a sense of curiosity and passion for learning about this topic. Ideally, you want to know more than your audience knows. But if you think about it, like yesterday, I spoke to an audience of about 1000 people were attending that event. And so there’s gonna be doing oldest know much more, but lots of different things than I do. So I have to focus on not just knowing my topic, but what is my approach was my unique take my unique message in relation to this particular particular topic, and it’s just takes time to reflect on whatever topic area you’re learning about. So be curious about learning about your topic.

Always be learning be reading, reading, like this research and whatever your topic areas. Secondly, be curious about your craft. Continue to be looking to develop your craft. If you’re a guitar player, you’d be practicing your skills every day. What are you doing as a speaker every single day to get better at your craft? So every time you go in speech, you can make that speech at just that little bit better than the speech you gave before. And finally, be curious about your audience. What is important to them, what drives them what their hot buttons what’s going to get them excited? What subjects you need to maybe steer away from the movie cover that a bit boring the other people have done that you can’t really provide a unique take on so curiosity that is the number one qualification I think that you need. As a speaker now I’m patch bias. I speak about creativity and curiosity as part of, of creativity by really think it applies. So the next time someone asked you, what qualification do you have for being a Speaker you can just say, I have my natural curiosity. My name is James Taylor. Thanks for watching.

This episode of the Speakers Life is sponsored by Espeakers. The innovative platform that connects speakers will event organizers and associations. Espeakers provides cutting edge tools that will elevate your online presence. streamline your speaking business and maximize your exposure in the Speaking industry with over 15 years in the business 10,000 speakers in their community and over 20,000 events managed annually each Espeakers is the preferred choice for top speakers. You can create your own profile on a Espeakers today by going to speakersu.com/Espeakers

now

 

In actor Michael Caine’s autobiography he shared a great piece of advice on overcoming a fear of public speaking that is encapsulated by the phrase “The Rehearsal Is The Work”. In today’s episode of The Speakers Life I’m in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and sharing ideas on how to be relaxed when speaking on stage.

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Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.

Hi, it’s James Taylor. He a keynote speaker on creativity, innovation and artificial intelligence and the founder of SpeakersU. Today I’m in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia I would just speaking and event here yesterday and a question I’m sometimes asked by people come up to me afterwards. And they said to me, James, you look so natural on stage, it looks like this The easiest thing in the world for you being up there speaking. So I want to talk to you about how to look relaxed, how to be relaxed on stage when you’re giving your presentation, so you can give you your best possible speech The other day I was reading a book is by Michael Caine. And it’s the book is called Blue, the bloody doors off, I just want to be famous phrases. And in that book, he said something really interesting that I think could be applied not just to actors, but also to professional speakers. And in that quote, that line he said, he said these words, he said, rehearsal is the work performance is the the relaxation. So repeat again. So he said, rehearsal is the work performance is the relaxation. And I when I read that, I totally understood what he meant. Because let’s take the event I just did. For example, the reason I was able to look very relaxed on stage is because I done so much preparation in advance in terms of different preparation I personally do I’ll have an event with the client was called a pre event co where we just can go through a checklist, I have to make sure that I really understand what the objectives are of the client and what the goals are, who the audience is going to be at that particular day.

Then while also do is I will research the client itself, I’ll do my own primary research, I’ll often run the the organization I’m speaking to, in their social media accounts through an artificial intelligence to give me a little bit more of a psychometrics of the audience at the same time, and then I actually go into writing and building the speeches self and I have to get to a point any speech doesn’t matter what the speech is that I can rehearse that I can give that speech in my sleep, it doesn’t matter whether I’m if I’m jet lag, I might have a cold and it may be really tied, it doesn’t matter when I hit the stage, it almost needs to just be it just needs to just come, I just know I don’t need to think about the words I need to know your lines as an actress. So I need to know it so well, I also need to know it to the point where if I’m using some type of visual presentation that that I don’t have to rely on the slides because the technology can sometimes fail sometimes things can go wrong. So I need to be able to know that the speech so well, it doesn’t require me looking any slides and quietly having any kind of visual prompts I could, I could give that speech in my sleep. That means that when I go up on stage, I could be completely relaxed because I can then react to what the audience is doing, I can feel the energy on the stage and just really be in the moment be present the idea presentation being present. Another couple of little tips for how to be more relaxed on stage is I highly recommend doing some type of physical work in the morning for me as yoga so I can just relax my body so my mind is already pretty relaxed because I know what I’m going to be saying I know my speech I know inside out by also need to work on my body. And that requires things that I do yoga, for example, somebody would like to go for a run in the morning or nice walk, just really just relax into your day if you can, ideally you want to get to the event the day before, if you’re if you’re speaking early in the morning, especially for international speech. Another thing you could do is look after your voice in the morning I’ll be doing my my warm up exercises vocal exercises in the shower. But you can already hear my voice is now I haven’t done any exercises this morning, unfortunately. So you can already hear a little bit deeper a little bit can grab their just now. So warm up your body warm up your voice if you especially if you’re going to speak first thing in the morning. So that’s that’s my advice for you. In order to be relaxed on stage, you have to prepare that the rehearsal is the work that’s the thing you really need to spend a huge amount of time working in developing. No one’s ever going to see any of that work that’s behind the scenes as backstage essentially. So when you get up on stage the performance is the relaxation you should enjoy it relax you should just be in the moment be present. So from here in Riyadh, the kind of gave me a beautiful award here last night as well. beautiful country. I’m looking forward to going slowly in the country. today. I wish you all the best with your your own speaking. My name is James Taylor. Thanks for watching.

How would you like to get paid to travel the world to share your message and expertise? How did it feel to get paid 5000 10,000 $25,000 to travel first class and stay in five star hotels in exotic locations. What I’ve just described is the lifestyle of international keynote speakers. And you can join me and over 100 of the world’s best keynote speakers, and speaker trainers as they reveal their secrets to becoming a better speaker and getting booked to travel the world as a professional keynote speaker and Bestival. As it’s an online summit You don’t even have to leave home plus it’s not going to cost you a single dollar euro pound ruble peso or yen. If you sign up for the free pass at International Speakers Summit calm you’re going to receive access to never seen before video interviews over 40 of the world’s best keynote speakers. In addition to this, you’ll get access to archived interviews from some of last year’s summit guests. So in total, you’ll be able to watch in depth interviews with over 100 incredible speakers and speaker trainers. You’ll have to find a theme for your keynote presentation how to craft your

Talk how to get booked as a speaker, how much to charge and ways to get paid to speak on stages all over the world. So what are you waiting for? Head over to internationalspeakerssummit.com now

 

What’s the difference between an opening keynote speaker versus a closing keynote speaker? In todays episode, filmed in Abu Dhabi, I talk about how giving an opening keynote speech is different from giving a closing keynote speech.

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Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.

Hi there it’s James Taylor he a keynote speaker on creativity, innovation and artificial intelligence and the founder of SpeakersU. Today I’m in Abu Dhabi in beautiful United Arab Emirates, and I met the Jumeirah. The mirror towers hotel yesterday I gave the opening keynote speech at a conference there and a question I’m often asked is what’s difference between being an opening keynote speaker and a closing keynote speaker really this slightly different roles you have to fulfill and I I’m always happy to do to do either of those roles. Often I’m brought in as an opening keynote speaker, but sometimes I’ll be I’ll be coming in as the closing keynote speaker that you have to do slightly different things as a speaker, depending on which which one you’ve been brought in to do as an opening keynote speaker. I see the role there really is to set the mood and so they help going to really set the overall theme for the event itself obviously I’m coming in I’m talking about creativity I’m talking about change feature work artificial intelligence those those technological disruption.

So often that will be the theme of the event anyway. And so you coming in as the opening keynote speaker obviously started off high energy you want to have that you want to be inspiring. You want everyone to be excited about what they’re what they’re going to be going through, because whatever you’re talking about is often the seniors coming through multiple events throughout the course of the next few days, or even if it’s just a one day event. So the opening keynote speaker, I would say needs to be maybe a little bit sometimes bit more intense, entertaining, thought provoking, inspiring of new CEO of thought leaders coming into the opening keynote speaker, the closing keynote speaker is a slightly different role and no less valid actually and it’s I think some of my favorite speakers are closing keynote speakers because the closing keynote speaking you have another challenge sometimes as a closing keynote speaker the audience is mentally starting to think about having to leave the event they’ve had a great few days they’re thinking about the flight that have to casual what need to do in the office when they get back into the office.

So it’s a little bit more challenging to bring people back into the room mentally, sometimes as a closing keynote speaker, what I love doing as a closing keynote speakers, I love being there for the few days before my speech is closing, because it helps me understand the audience. I go into all the other sessions I’m listening to all the other sessions so when I do a closing keynote, what I’m doing is I obviously come in and give my my keynote itself but I’m I’m there to help put all these strands together from all these other sessions and help help everyone really make sense of what they’ve learned over the past few days while the experience together and also I would say the closing keynote speaker the energies that might sometimes have dropped because it’s towards the end of event so part of your role is to get that energy back into the room and you want to have people leave without saying wow, that was a great event. I think we covered all these different things and I found really inspired and now I want to go and start putting this stuff into work so sometimes with closing keynote speaker.

I’ll add slightly more actionable is next steps. So I’ll say something like, okay, so tomorrow morning, when you get back into the office, here are the three things I want you to do. Or here’s the one thing that you want to do in order to take some of these things that you’ve been learning over the past few days and start implementing them in your business on your organization. So you’re a little bit more actionable. So opening keynote speaker closing keynote speaker, if you’re if you’re a great speaker, you should be doing both. I don’t think there’s there’s one is better than the other. I think they just slightly different. My name is James Taylor, and I wish you great success in your speaking.

This episode of the Speakers Life is sponsored by Espeakers. The innovative platform that connects speakers will event organizers and associations. Espeakers provides cutting edge tools that will elevate your online presence. streamline your speaking business and maximize your exposure in the Speaking industry with over 15 years in the business 10,000 speakers in their community and over 20,000 events managed annually each Espeakers is the preferred choice for top speakers. You can create your own profile on a Espeakers today by going to speakersu.com/Espeakers.

 

Who do you serve as a keynote speaker? Today I’m in Abu Dhabi in the UAE and in this episode of The Speakers Life I explore why it’s important to understand the different stakeholders in an event.

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• Know your client
• Serve the message
• Do you inhabit your speech?
• Understanding the audience
• The client for your speech
• Event organisers
• Speaker bureaus

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.

Hi, James Taylor, keynote speaker on creativity, innovation and artificial intelligence. And the founder of SpeakersU. Today, I’m in beautiful Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. I’ve just spoken an event here I was brought in to come and give the keynote at an event. And an interesting thing came up in the process of preparing for this speech and giving the speech yesterday, it was this idea that the lawyers often refer to, which is know your client. Sometimes when you’re brought into speaking event, there will be almost like multiple parties, multiple stakeholders in any particular event. And this event was no different. So for example, you might have the bureau that initially booked you to come into speaking event like this one, you will have maybe an events company whose job is to ensure that the event is successful, looks great, sounds great. You will have the client people that are actually paying the check or paying your fee as a speaker, you will have the audience and then there will be different parties in the audience as well. And obviously there’s yourself

Where do you use it as a speaker and all this? So this is kind of my order importance, I guess, on knowing your client who the WHO THE END client is, who you are you there to serve. And my answer might be slightly unusual. There’s an expression in music industry, which is the singer should serve the song,

which means that as a singer, as a performer, your ultimate responsibility, especially if you’re a jazz singer is to serve the song if someone wrote this song, your job is to really embody the message that’s in that song was trying to get the emotion that you’re trying to get across.

There was this great phrase where it says that people will forget what you say but they should never forget what what you how you make them feel. And when you go and give a give a speech I believe your first client almost is the message is the message that you’re trying to

communicate to convey to the audience that message could be encapsulated by a field. It can be encapsulated by a mental thing that you just want them to leave, just remembering it echoing the next days and weeks and years. So I, I’d say number one client for me is the message in my case is about creativity and what I call super creativity. So that’s, that’s for me as a number one client after that, for me, the next client is yourself as the speaker. If you if you work up a speech and you can’t even please yourself with a speech if you can’t feel Wow, that’s, that’s, that’s really good. That’s really strong, then you probably shouldn’t be up there on stage giving the speech you have to be able to be happy with the with what you’re saying and the speech you’re giving. And this can sound a little bit self confident or maybe arrogant or egotistical. And it’s not meant to be that at all and the

The idea is you, you have to really embody what you’re saying. And you’re there to have integrity to have truth in what you’re saying. So it’s very, very important that when you get there on stage, first of all is the message that’s number one thing you’re trying to serve that message then you’re trying to have integrity with what you’re saying. So you fully embody that message as the next most important thing and then we have the actual audience themselves and it’s an interesting thing the oldest is not always the same as the client so the audience of those people whose eyes are looking up at you whose ears a listening to you who are taking in this information that you’re you’re saying on stage. And so when whenever I’m doing my pre event calls and working at my speeches, after I knew I’ve got my core message there, and after I’ve kind of gone through it myself, but why I’m happy with this, then I have to do a check and feel well, based upon the conversations I’ve been having about what the client want and I also use things like artificial intelligence to look at this this set

The audience as well in advance, will the speech work for the audience will this audience enjoy it is enough interaction going on all the things that you should be learning as a good speaker. So you’re looking to serve them next the audience that, but they’re not that often the first. So you’re thinking message and you’re thinking yourself your own integrity, you serve as a speaker, then you’re thinking about the audience serving that audience. And then after that, then you’re thinking about the client themselves. Now, I put the audience about the client. And the reason I say that is because sometimes the client says, We want x y Zed, and they really feel that but as a speaker, if you’ve had enough experience speaking, you should be able to take the end triangulate it a little bit, I think what but what does the audience really want you have experienced on being on the stage of being there, you’re the person with the microphone with the light on them. You have that responsibility for that 30 minutes, 45 minutes, however long it is to serve that audience. So you have to have real focus on that and after you have the audience you

have obviously the client themselves and the clients will be giving you lots of information about what they want. When you do your pre event call you probably going through a checklist, making sure there’s key things they want you to say, maybe there’s things that you, they want you to kind of avoid saying in the Middle East, just as there’s certain things, you have to be quite careful about doing this cultural aspects as well. So after you’ve thought about the client, then it comes probably to the Bureau and the Bureau’s speak of yours might not be happy for me saying this. But in the overall list of things they are, they are further down because if the audience is happy, then the client is happy. And if the client is happy, then the bureau will be happy. So you have to cascade it down like that. So let me just give you a quick recap again, number one is the message that’s what you’re there to serve. Number two is you you’ve got to be happy with your speech if you don’t have that passion if you don’t embody what you’re saying.

Stage why you up there, then it’s got to be the audience. And then we have the client. And then we have the bureau bureau this, this, this brought you in as well. And there may be between the Bureau and the client, they may be an event company as well. So they sit, they sit kind of between the client and the bureau. So hopefully that’s been useful for you. knowing who your client is, as I say, it’s it’s complex, not complicated. So there’s multiple parties going on something it’s called stakeholder management and Matt in MBA type speak, but I hope this is served. You hope this is giving you some ideas for your next speech. When you sometimes you have those conversations and feel that the audience is wanting one thing and the clients wanting another and the beer is wanting another event companies wanting another thing. If you work your way through it in that order, then you’re going to give a great speech. My name is James Taylor. Thanks for watching. How would you like to get paid to travel the world to share your message and expertise? How did it feel to get paid 5000 10,000

$25,000 to travel first class and stay in five star hotels in exotic locations. What I’ve just described is the lifestyle of international keynote speakers. And you can join me and over 100 of the world’s best keynote speakers, and speaker trainers as they reveal their secrets to becoming a better speaker and getting booked to travel the world as a professional keynote speaker and Bestival. As it’s an online summit You don’t even have to leave home plus it’s not going to cost you a single dollar euro pound ruble peso or yen. If you sign up for the free pass at International Speakers Summit calm you’re going to receive access to never seen before video interviews over 40 of the world’s best keynote speakers. In addition to this, you’ll get access to archived interviews from some of last year’s summit guests. So in total, you’ll be able to watch in depth interviews with over 100 incredible speakers and speaker trainers. You’ll have to find a theme for your keynote presentation how to craft your

Talk how to get booked as a speaker, how much to charge and ways to get paid to speak on stages all over the world. So what are you waiting for? Head over to internationalspeakerssummit.com now