← The Schramko Playbooks

Speaking From Stage

How to prepare and deliver a talk that converts the room.

By James Schramko

Things to do / research before the event

1. Who is in the room?
2. What are the pains of the audience?
3. What would make this successful for the promoter?
4. How long have you got (plan to the time)?
5. Check that everything in the slides supports the sale you want to make
6. Identify the ONE big idea you want to transform them with
7. If selling, make sure you brief the closers
8. Be polite to promoter
9. Choose an INTRO soundtrack
10. Study the room with prior presentations

Onstage flow

1. MC Intro

• BIO must be read by MC
• If video, it must be tested with AV prior to stage time

2. YOUR Intro

• Walk briskly on stage (or run carefully)
• INTRO STORY must be engaging and emotional. Build rapport. Ask them something like: "I wonder if you are the next multi-million dollar online business?"

3. Open a curiosity LOOP about obstacles, e.g. "In half an hour from now you will be able to"

• Put a big HOOK to build curiosity
• Reinforce hook With PROOF SLIDE showing client result or citation relevant to audience.
• Share your background honestly. Briefly cover how you came to develop your method and the work behind it. A small personal touch, like a family photo, is fine. Do not overdo it.

4. Open a loop for teaching Point 2

But first:

Start with delivering point 1.

Teach with a story with emotion:

• Obstacles
• Solution
• Lesson

5. PROOF SLIDES showing client result relevant to audience
6. Audience INTERACTION

• Tell your neighbor what you learned

7. Close the loop by teaching Point 2

• Make the path clear and achievable, without overpromising
• Show proof case study
• Confirm the point
• Check with the audience if they understand. Use phrases like:
• you agree
• yes?
• Good?
• Are you excited?
• Are you with me?
• Is that ok?
• Good tip
• Enjoying this

8. CTA

• Give them an action step (ideally come and see you to get help with this)

9. Energy activity

• Mention ROI

10. Close out by thanking the promoter

Speaking craft

1. Visualize the presentation in advance
2. Lighthouse stance - stay relatively still and sweep the room: left middle right middle left middle right, etc. Connect with every section of the room
3. Manage the crowd questions
4. Vary your tone and volume to shift gears
5. Anchor the stage for good and bad if you feel comfortable
6. Talk, then reveal slide
7. Test any video media beforehand
8. Talk to YOU not WHO
9. Refer to things other speakers said if it's relevant

Things to avoid

1. 'By a show of hands' group talk
2. Boring with overly technical details
3. Overloading with information; too dense slides
4. Rushing the presentation (just skip slides if you need to)
5. Running around the stage
6. Asking questions they don't know the answer to
7. Looking at the big screens to read the slides all the time (use a floor mount monitor)