I had the opportunity to speak about link bait at this year's SES San Jose. It was my fourth speaking engagement, and I potentially have at least two more speaking gigs lined up before the end of the year (the Shop.org Summit in Las Vegas September 17-19 and hopefully SMX Social Media in mid-October). After having experienced a small handful of giving presentations, I thought I'd share the things I love and not-so-much love about public speaking.
Pros:
- I love the challenge of putting together a presentation that is engaging, informative, and amusing (it can be hard to make your audience laugh, but I've successfully managed to elicit a few chuckles from the crowd). I know what it's like to sit in the audience and stare at slides that are either:
- contain too much text that isn't broken up by bullet points or images
- contain too much white space
- use weird colors that don't look right when projected on a huge screen
Conversely, I know what it's like to sit in the audience and be totally sucked in by a speaker who has a valuable and useful presentation. It's fun and rewarding to try and find a balance of the right amount of images and text that will look clean and hold your audience's attention.
- It's an honor to be looked upon and thought of as an expert in your field. I've only been in the SEO industry for about twenty months, but apparently the folks organizing these conferences have enough faith in my knowledge base and SEO abilities to award me with speaking spots. The audience thinks of you as someone who knows what you're talking about, and for me knowing that means an awful lot.
- I feel a sense of pride knowing that I helped people improve their SEO tactics, enlightened them with a tip or idea they haven't thought of, or gave them advice on what to do about a certain situation. It's really cool (and a bit scary) to hear the words “This question is for Rebecca” during the Q&A, and I feel really flattered when people come up to me after the session and pick my brain some more or want to exchange business cards.
- Speaking in front of a large group of people can be pretty nerve-wracking. I sucked the first time I spoke in front of an audience, and it was only about 50 people (I've since steadily expanded to around 100 and then a few hundred at SES San Jose). I think I'm a more confident speaker now, but I still get pretty nervous. When I'm nervous I tend to ramble, and I'm conscious of my brain telling my mouth "You're rambling! Shut up! Move on to the next slide! Stop it!!!" It's something I would definitely like to improve.
- Sometimes, no matter how great your presentation is, you'll have an off day. I call those days "First session on the last day." It sucks to give a presentation to a crowd that just sleepily stares at you and jots down the occasional note. The worst of these sessions is the Q&A, which is like pulling teeth. "Questions...anyone? Anyone?" The moderator sounds like Ben Stein from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
- It's challenging to come up with a new presentation for the same topic. I'm of the mindset that you should try and change things up a bit from presentation to presentation. It can be a struggle to think of different things to talk about for 15 minutes vs recycling your old presentation, but I think your audience will appreciate diversity.
Rebecca, you were a great 'Moz representative in San Jose -- humorous and insightful.
It does seem to me to be an advantage to present first at these sessions. Your content appears 'fresher', even though it was created independently of the other presenters, and attendees' attention span seems to wane at about the 30 or 40 minute mark...
Rebecca, I have yet to see ya, but hopefully will soon.
I think that your point #3 (under cons) is the hardest, and for many reasons.
I find it hard to balance newbie stuff vs. advanced stuff, newbies are easiest to get ripped off, so educating them on basics is key, yet the advanced guys who ask the most challenging questions will often be bored with that entry level stuff.
Hope to see you in Vegas.
I have to agree, public speaking isnt something I really love to do, but I have been told that I'm not too bad at it (someone must have been paying them!)
I have to agree with Jane tho, I'd rather talk to a room full of people than do it in front of the camera...
At least with a room you can gauge reactions, interact with people easier than you can interact with a camera which doesnt really give you any feedback.
Some of the people I work with went on a course a while back which practised public speaking (Sadly I wasnt there!)... After talk about counting their 'erms' and slowing things down etc taking pauses instead they had to present to the group and people within the group had little cards which had a length of time on them... As the speaker looked at them (if they did) they would wait that amount of time before putting their card down...
I guess it helped them all to take in everyone in the room rather than concentrating on a spot on the wall or just one person... Ive found that quite interesting and find myself mentally pretending they have cards saying 'look at me for X seconds' :P
One day I'd love to pop across the pond and see you guys presenting for myself ;)
I've consistently said I'd never speak at conferences and have begged off any invites to do so. There's a chance Pubcon will change that...but anyway, it was a real surprise to me when, at SES SJ, I happened to be talking with two popular speakers (won't say who they were).
Both of them admitted they feel like they want to "throw up" before they go up there.
Everyone always looks so confident. It helps to know that inside, they're freaking out.
I used to be terrified of public speaking. I still tend to put my foot in my mouth or totally fumble my thoughts. One thing that has really helped is doing stand-up comedy. It's terrifying and totally exhilarating. It's amazing when you manage to get people to laugh and what's strange is that it can still be fun to totally bomb. I performed once at the Ramada in Victorville, CA in front of a relatively sober group of bible enthusiasts. Talk about a disaster.
Rebecca, I thought your presentation was excellent. I went through the whole social media track and learned a great deal. Good luck in future presentations and I'll try to think up some SEO jokes for you.
Ooh, SEO jokes. I can't wait!
that's so old it's like body copy the same color as your background....
ok, bad SEO joke..
What on earth were sober bible enthusiasts doing hiring a stand-up comedian?! There's 90% of your jokes rendered useless right away!
Good observation. Brian Clark of Copyblogger has a few posts, I think, on how blogging and stand up comedy have a lot in common. It's all about fine-tuning the material, tone and voice to each audience and learning to get a feel for what's going to work and what won't.
The one big difference is that with stand-up, people don't get to ask you questions at the end. If someone in the audience says something during a stand-up routine, you're supposed to make fun of them. That wouldn't go over very well at SES :-)
It probably didn't help that me and Matt were throwing Milk Duds at you during your last presentation.
I love how you left too much white space above the "too much white space" comment.
If it was intentional, it's funny. If it was by accident, then Murphy was here and it's still funny.
Thanks for the tips. I've got a presentation on URL structure and duplicate content coming up that I've been dreading a bit...
I actually came across this post today and it's also been quite helpful in crafting my slide deck.
Yeah, I started this post on the plane back to Seattle and pasted it into our blog editor, so there are some wonky formatting issues I'm too fever-induced to bother fixing.
I fixed it just for you, Kwyjibo. ;)
Kwyjibo, where is your presentation going to be?
Presentation is here at work. CEO, CFO, CTO, VPs, etc.... I don't generally like the limelight, so I've been procrastinating this like crazy!
Not to mention the fact that changing almost the entire site architecture could just bite me in the a$$.
Hope all you sick folk get better soon!
Well good luck with it, I hope it goes smoothly. When are we going to see you out on the conference speaking scene? :)
Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I don't think you'd ever catch me as a conference speaker. I'll leave the spotlight for those who enjoy basking in it.
I'd rather sit in the back of the room and consume as much free booze as possible when at a conference - ohh, meeting new people is always fun too :)
Nice wrap up Rebecca. Public speaking is tough, but if you know your stuff (like you do) it is much, much easier after a few times.
Its comforting to know that even those at the top-of-the-game get the jitters before speaking to a large audience.
I have never experienced anything like that but just the thought sends shivers down my spine.
Rebecca, if they do not like you, you can always Troll them like me..
Just joking. :)
You will get the hang of it and you have a great teacher Rand and the rest of the Seomoz to give you support when you screw up.
And how bad can it be, most of these people attending the shows do not know one thenth of what you do, so they come to here what the gurus have to say..
You can talk about sushi and caviar and tell them its SEO and they will take your words as prophecy...
So any speaking engagement to a group of people no mater how small or big is a plus and a learning experience...just do your best and learn from it as well as help others.
As long as you didn't pull a Miss South Carolina, I'm sure you did great!
And I'm so happy that you and many other talented SEOs are honest and open about how recently you actually entered the field. It makes me feel like maybe I can work my way through graduate school doing it, even with a degree in English and just a little over a year and a half's worth of experience by then. There's no reason that you can't have a wealth of information within 20 months, and your speaking gigs are really inspiration. I only wish I could have been there.
I believe most of us tend to ramble when we are nervous. Being our own worst critics, we are often harsher on ourselves, then we are on others.
There are many times I've been "sucked in" by a speaker, and consequently didn't notice (or didn't care) they were rambling.
Thank your brain for the tip and keep moving on.
As far as this talk about foggy brains and cold medicines, I'm in a unique space, being a healthcare provider first, and someone interested in SEO second.
You said it yourself Rebecca, public speaking can be "pretty nerve-wracking." That equates to stress, which has a direct effect on your immune system. Add to that traveling to SES, late-night partying, lots of sugary carbohydrates, excessive caffeine, heavy laptop shoulder bags, and a ton of new work to dive into when you get home. You're not alone, many are likely suffering the effects of SES overload.
Looks like you've given me an idea for a blog post, thanks.
I haven't seen you speak Rebecca, but I'd guess that you don't need to worry too much.
Speaking at events is one of my favourite parts of this job - I attended a public speaking course which helped a great deal (it also helped me with my wedding speech).. main pints - plan your presentation very carefully (sounds obvioous, but we've all seen presentations which have obviously been thrown together), avoid the ums & ahs, and (what I find most helpful) pick out people in the audience who look bored or interested, and talk to them - helps you gauge reactions...
Rebecca, you were great @ SES. Having been there (and booking you) for your first speaking gig - I was all the more impressed. Everyone I was sitting with laughed at least once AFTER your title slide... and that's saying something considering that it's tough to one-up "master bait-er" as a lead-in. Good job!
Rebecca - I agree with Ben, you were a great presenter. You were knowledgeable, funny, and kept the audiences attention, all the important factors when giving a presentation. Your presentation skills seem to be right up there with your journalism skills.
"Stay up all night, pass out in the hospitality suite...Ben, if I remember correctly from your 'Content is King' presentation...this comment may have been somewhat appropriate, from what you had mentioned to the audience. ;)
I try - but the girls in the hot tub never materialized and i woke up at 6 am and couldn't go to sleep - as I tend to do on days that I'm speaking... so - I'm not put to paiselyseo's standards... but if you're saying i had the best presentation of my life, then i'll take it as a compliment. ;)
My thoughts exactly!!
I am just getting started with public speaking, though on a much smaller scale than SES (20-40 people). I have found that when you enter the room one or two people will smile at you. Any time I get nervous I turn back to them for another smile. Works for me.
It can pay off to do some presentations in front of smaller audiences first before hitting the big shows. But with everything in life - training and practice will make it easier. The 'fear' will never go away, but you can actually use that in your own advantage.
Christoph
I enjoyed your SES presentation, Rebecca. And yes, I was a 'chuckler'. I'm truely terrified of public speaking. I freeze up just speaking in front of a group of my friends (at a wedding reception, for instance). I think it has something to do with the microphone. Those who can speak in front of an audience have my respect. Anyway, great presentation and blog post!
The idea of public speaking scares me a lot less than getting in front of the camera for Whiteboard Friday. Yes, that's weird. No, I don't know why the camera is scarier than 300 pairs of eyes in a live audience. Years of athletics, maybe?
Wait, does Scott make you get everything right on the first take?! Lazy ba$tard...he should be editing out anything that you screw up! :)
I'm not sure why the camera would be scarier, either...then again a good crowd at our D III college golf tournaments was about 20 people...
The idea of being that close to the camera and having it posted for all to see scares me more than being passively filmed from across the room, giving a conference presentation that will blend into all the other presentations by the end of the day :)
We actually only did one take of my Whiteboard Friday video, but we had to stop and start another video I was on earlier this year because I inadvertently promoted someone... ah, something I shouldn't have!
I believe the same thing that wrecks your nerves is what makes you a good presenter. You just need to tame the beast a little... and experience will handle that. Great speakers or performers are still nervous after many years.
My biggest problem is usually the start... the tension is at it's peak and I kind of hear my mouth speak 3 seconds in advance of my thoughts. ;-)Knowing that I spend a lot of time working on the start... the lead in... to get really comfortable and feel safe with it.
"If you have stage fright, it never goes away. But then I wonder: is the key to that magical performance because of the fear?" Stevie Nicks
Becks - you killed it, i always knew you had a knack for it because you're already such a people person as it is.
my biggest problem is when i'm nervous i forget half the cool stuff i want to say.
Yeah, that's always a downside. I try to jot things down and bring them up on the podium with me, but then by jotting it down beforehand I usually commit it to memory, anyway. The notes are just a security blanket. :)
I hate public speaking. I haven't even attempted it since grad school some twenty years ago, and that was in front of groups of no more than thirty.
I used to leave a puddle of sweat behind me when I left the podium.
I feel the same way mate. I am a little anti-social to tell you the trtuh when in public, but I don't mind speaking over phone or in any situation where I am not face to face.
Not planning on speaking at the SEOMoz conference? That would be disappointing, I was hoping everyone would be chiming in.
Thanks for sharing this honestly Rebecca. Few people are courageous enough to share their true feelings about how they feel in front of a crowd. :)
Hehe, Rebecca, though I wasn't there, I'm sure you were great. I can't wait till my first public speaking gig. I know it will suck but never-the-less I am looking forward to it with enthusiasm.
I am still trying to brush up on SEO wiseness from you SEOmozzers so I can school the less knowledgeable ones here in Spokane/Coeur d'Alene. Just hope I don't get stoned, tomatoed, off the stage. hehe.
I started speaking about the internet in like 1995.. to chambers of commerce, etc.. then came the weekly radio gig on 4 clear channel stations for about 3 years, the weekly segment on the nbc morning show and the weekly segment on the 6o'clock news for the abc affiliate.. then more speaking, more Amercian advertising federation conventions, local, regional, national, the CPA organization, the state bar tour, etc... it seemed all i was doing was showing what SEO actually was to the world, not how u did it.. but how it was a good way to spend your advertising dollar, that people didn't understand... but could be shown to imporve your ROI from your website. blah blah blah blah.... lol..
9 years later... i get to sit in my office from 8-5 avoid clients (we have AE's for that), answer emails, do site analysis for sales prospects and watch stats for a little over 50 SEO clients, take 2 hour lunches with my girl, 30 days PTO, 30 days paid vacation, dj in dance clubs every other weekend, lay out at the pool saturday and sunday... vs. speaking and having people ask the same questions...
"how do you actually get the client's website to to the top of the first page?"
the answer i used to give which is "modify the website as according to the guidelines of the 3 major search engines, combined with customer keyword input and client research"
just doesn't cut it anymore..
question: have you done the "imagine your audience naked thing" or the "have 4 friends sit in different sections of the audience so you can look at them to move your eyes around and smile when you see them?" or the "do 4 or 5 shots at the hotel bar before you go and speak and end up sweating bullets and accidentally burping in the microphone?" I'm sure there are others ohh.. one more..
you know it's time to stop when... you do this one..
"stay up all night, pass out in the hospitality suite with those girls you met in the hot tub, wake up 15 minutes before you are going to speak and totally wing it with no powerpoint and have the best session of your life?"
enjoy the speaking, it can be a fun ride..
Wow, I think I just saw my future flash before my eyes. Hehe. Ye, good job! You've reached the good life. Now I know it's not just a pipe dream. :D