I was pleasantly surprised by how much Amarillo, Texas had to offer. Granted, you could get from downtown to the suburbs in 7 minutes (with traffic), but I was a great place. Just 20 minutes outside of the city was the Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in America after…of course..The Grand Canyon. While I never saw throngs of people from across the world to come take pictures of this thing of beauty (okay, I didn’t even see 7 people), it was still great to have a place like this in my state. It provided a needed reprieve for what happened earlier in the day.
Wanna know what happened?
Middle school, that’s what happened. I spoke at two of the city’s middle schools, and they gave it to me. I walked into their relatively small auditoriums and thought, “Oh I’ve got this.” They’re gonna love me! They sure did love the experience…because they got to skip class for an hour. That’s it.
The first school had a corded mic, which is death for me. I move around so much, I’m likely to wrap myself up until I look like a black mummy. So I chose to go back to my roots, eight years ago when I spoke at middle schools to keep the lights on. I spoke at the top of my voice. Why did I do that? I forgot that I had another school to speak at a couple hours later. Half way into the talk, I realized I was probably one of the first speakers they had ever seen and my “standard” flow wasn’t going to work. I switched it up on the fly and slid in a few jokes. That didn’t work either. I tried to get “deep” on them about belief systems. Dude…they’re 11, they don’t have any belief systems! Finally, I made fun of myself and talked about how goofy I was. Finally, we had something we agreed on. I pulled it out, but clearly learned that I needed to speak on their level even if it meant stepping out of my comfort zone. For a lot of these kids, they simply didn’t know that it was okay to laugh and interact with a speaker so they sat there politely and quietly. I felt like a Catholic priest. Wait…bad analogy!
The second school went much better. The auditorium doubled as a classroom, but was extremely dark. When will people learn not to put a black man in a black room and expect people to follow me! They had a wireless mic this time, so I moved throughout the audience, staring closely into their eyes. I did this partially for impact and partially so they wouldn’t think I was a ghost with only teeth and eyes.
A kid tried to heckle me. Why did he do that? I told the story about my mom failing her certification test and he said, “She was stupid!” I paused, walked over there and instantly made him famous. I used the phrase “you’re stupid” as an example of what small-minded haters will say about you as you climb the ladder of success. Some people want to come up by bringing you down. The kids responded well. My heckler shrunk in his seat. I connected. I concluded. I was ready to pass out.
TEACHING POINT
If you’ve read several of my posts, you know I always make fun something adverse about the environment or the crowd. As a professional, all that doesn’t matter. You’ve got to rise above your circumstances and still deliver as close to an A+ performance. Mics go out, people go to sleep, cell phones ring, etc. So what. You’ve got to stay focused and give them FIRE for 45-60 minutes. I make jokes about myself, but that’s because I love to be funny. The real truth is, every time I have spoken for quite some time, the person who invited me has been floored and has asked me to return. I grade myself far more harshly than anyone else. I’m nit-picking to find the bad parts so I can use them as lessons to share with you.
The reason why people call in a pro is because we are expected to be able to handle whatever comes our way. Sometimes you’re set up to win, sometimes you aren’t. Sometimes you get a great crowd, sometimes you don’t. Every audience is different. You have to be good enough to be able to find each audience’s “hot spots” and stay there in order to keep their interest. It’s not easy, but that’s why most can’t do what we do. It’s called earning your paycheck.
Suck it up, know your audience and be excellent. Period.
Filed under: public speaking tips | Tagged: amarillo texas, connecting with audiences, connection coach, grand canyon, humor in speeches, jonathan sprinkles, palo duro canyon, professional speaking, public speaking
Loved the last story! That middle-school kid who said your mom was stupid sent you an important message:
“be careful about expressing humor at someone else’s expense.” Did you get it? It’s a funny story, but if you can’t take the heat in reverse, don’t use it.