176 | Performing to Steal the Show with Michael Port

When you “steal the show,” you are performing at your highest levels. Do you want to be a better performer in all of life’s important moments? Do you want to influence your audience when it counts – during sales conversations, business presentations, keynote speeches, and more – and succeed in high-stakes situations? We have 5-time NY best selling author, Michael Port, on the
show today and he shares his wisdom on performing at your highest level. This is for speakers, coaches, consultants and just about anybody ready to raise their game.

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Target Audience: Speakers, coaches, consultants and those wanting to be better performers both on the stage and off.

Public speaking and performing considers the following to be a “Performance” (it’s not just speeches!)

• job interview
• negotiation
• sales meeting
• skype call

The Fear & the Worry of Speaking…

Your Mindset= you must see yourself as a performer. Michael Port says, “You have a desire to make an impact and on the other hand, you have the desire not to be ridiculed, made fun of or rejected. But those 2 desires cancel each other out/get in the way. So if you want to go out there and do big things, people may laugh at you from time to time (I get negative reviews on my books). Fortunately, there are more people who say they like what I do. But there’s no way i can reach those people unless i was willing to be fully self expressed. If you’re willing to be fully self expressed, you begin to silence the critics and crush your fears…”

There are 2 types of critics:

Those in their seats &….
YOURSELF.

The way we see ourselves influences the choices we make! if we have the courage to be ourselves we can truly shine. being liked vs. creating real impact. we must decide whether we want results or approval.

Elements to Speaking (avoid just highlighting rewards because it seems out of reach)

• BIG IDEA
• Promise (big idea supports the promise)
• You understand the way the world looks to them
• Provide Steps & Systems

In this episode we’ll cover:

• Why you’ve got to find the courage within to be fully expressed
• How you perceive yourself is EVERYTHING
• How to be a better performer on stage and off stage
• The 9 quick fire tips to use when working on your speech.
• The MAIN Elements you need for Speaking (forget the fluff)

Practical and Actionable:

Here are the 9 Quick Fire Tips from Michael Port you can start implementing now…

1. The Opening – cut the filler words and phrases, “Hey I just flew in from…”; get right to it instead of putting in unnecessary words to get the audience engaged

2. The Closing – make it powerful, yet it doesn’t have to be filled with fireworks; ensure the audience has taken the big idea of the speech and never do anything after the applause

3. Emotional Connection – really the most important thing is connecting at an emotional level with the audience; you might think your “how to” speech doesn’t need emotional elements, yet if you want your audience to connect to you after the speech, you want to connection with their emotions.

4. Emotional Contrast – any speech that is just one note is boring; great speeches have contrast in content, structure and emotions; move from sad to funny to engage the audience; this keeps them on the edge of their seats in a good way

5. Eye Contact – don’t stare too long to make someone uncomfortable; scan the room and look at people to draw them into the moment (Remember: Don’t picture the audience naked either.)

6. Movement – use the whole stage to connect with the audience using your movements; don’t wander or look down as these cause the audience to disengage and question your influence

7. Slides – it is never a question of using slides or NOT using slides; the issue is how you use them to support your message; Seth Godin is a master at using slides and can use 150 slides in a single presentation; use slides to write your speech first and create slides to support your message (most people want to write slides then write the speech; this places the slides in the performer’s seat instead of you).

8. Audience Interaction – must be in proportion to the amount of trust you have developed with the audience; opening with a question that is too invasive will cause you to lose the audience; by the end of the presentation, you have built more trust and you can ask more of the audience

9. Practice – Michael believes that you must practice your speech. OK, this is not news to you. However, are you practicing with the awareness of the above tips? In Steal the Show, Michael gives insights to better practice techniques that will make you more prepared for your performance on stage.

Resources and Links

• The Steal the Show Website
• By the Book Steal the Show – email the receipt and get a FREE gift from Gene!
• Do you want more SPEAKING Gigs – USE the stage to get clients
• Get your complimentary Roadmap Session
• Free tools on being a Market Leader
• Leave a review in iTunes!

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