The 5 Laws of Public Speaking (PEACE)

Public speaking will allow you to attract more clients, generate unlimited leads, grow your business effortlessly, and change the world with your words. You have to be visible to sell, and the best way is to start speaking in public is by using the 5 Laws of Public Speaking or the acronym P-E-A-C-E.

P is for Prepare.

Prepare before you speak! This one idea will set you above the rest. Most business presenters bore us all to tears and wonder why they don’t get any business. It’s because they didn’t prepare enough! If you haven’t been speaking your signature talk a lot, then you’ll need to spend more time preparing in the beginning. Once you’ve got your talk down, you’ll still want to review it.

Before every single talk, I prepare. I prepare my notes, handouts, and PowerPoint; and I write down exactly what my intentions are and what I want from my audience. This is your purpose statement. Write it before you even write down your first word. In a business talk it should be to persuade, not to inform or entertain or inspire, although those can be a secondary purpose. Your primary purpose is to persuade.

I was talking to a woman who does charity speaking to women’s shelters and she said she doesn’t persuade; she just informs and leaves it up to her audience to take action. I beg to differ. She is persuading! If you’re going to save somebody’s life, you’ve got to do more than just inform them. You have to encourage them that there is a better way; that there is a way out; that life on the other side can be better than this. You persuade your kids to go to school, your husband or wife to do something. We’re always persuading people in some way.

Know your audience. Talk to the people who invite you. Ask for demographics. What are their ages? Are they business people? Recently, I was asked to speak to a group of contractors in San Diego. I asked a lot of questions and discovered that my signature talk, “How to Use Speaking to Get Business,” wouldn’t fit them. So, instead I talked about how to network to get leads and referrals. You can tweak your standard signature talk and customize it without compromising the message. That’s why you have to know your audience—so you can give them what they want and not what you want.

Think about the value of what you’re going to give your audience. In other words, what are you going to share in the “meat” of your talk? What is the gift you’re giving them?

And what do you want them to do with those gifts? In other words, reverse engineer your talk. Find out ahead of time what you want them to do. Do you want them to give you a business card? Buy your products and services? Sign up for something? Think about that before you even start with the attention grabber. This is all part of being prepared.

Find out where the group is meeting and drive past it ahead of time. If it’s a group of 80 or more, visit the group beforehand if that’s possible. I invested about 4 hours by going to a group’s meeting ahead of time, but it was worth it because I was able to deliver a talk that was geared more toward them. When you do that, you’re going to get more sales.

On the day of the talk, prepare yourself. Make sure that your suit is dry-cleaned and your shoes are shined. Be set for success before the day comes, otherwise it’s going to create stress. You can have peace—peace of mind—by being prepared.

E is for Enthusiasm.

This is a key element to speaking. You MUST be enthusiastic. Enthusiasm is contagious—people feel it, sense it, love it! Call it passion. You have to have it! I’ve seen speakers with really beautiful, wonderful content and yet their delivery lacked enthusiasm. I heard a speaker talk on health. I really liked this guy, but I felt like saying, “Man, you need to take some of your own advice! You need more energy!” You could forget what you’re going to say, or trip on stage, and still be forgiven as long as you have enthusiasm. If you’re enthusiastic, the audience will be enthusiastic!

A is for Authenticity.

No matter what, be authentic. That is what sells today. Yes, it’s a bit of performance, but it’s your performance. The woman who said she doesn’t persuade is authentic by saying whatever she feels like saying. That might work for her since she’s not trying to get business, but that is the “meat” of her speech. She still needs the whole sandwich. Authenticity needs to go between the two slices of bread—building rapport and the close.

A lot of the system that I teach—the speech sandwich—is a really important concept. The sandwich will help you craft a perfect signature talk because it includes building rapport and the close. But here’s the real thing. That sandwich is also for your audience so they can eat, digest and embrace your talk.

This young speaker who thinks she doesn’t need the sandwich system is real and authentic and blah, blah, blah, but I told her, “The sandwich is not just for you. It’s for your audience so they can buy into what you’re saying, digest it, and hold onto it.” Otherwise, how can they grasp it? So just keep that in mind. It’s not just for you, it’s for your audience. And you both need it.

C is for Connect or Connection.

Connect to your audience. Really connect with them. This is one of the hardest things to learn. You might think you connect, but do you know when one of them flinches, is bored or has the deer-in-headlights look? Are you paying attention? Usually from the stage, I can see a perplexed look on someone’s face and I’m right there asking, “What can I help you with?” I am paying attention. I see the people in the front rows more than the people in the back, but the people in the front are there for a reason. They’re usually the avid learners, the ones who are the most committed, the ones who are most excited. So they’re the ones you can pay attention to the most.

How do you connect? Make eye contact—real true eye contact with as many people as you can. Even with larger audiences, if you look in a certain area there are 3 or 4 people who will think you’re looking right at them. You can look in quadrants and still connect to your audience.

Connect the material to the audience. There are a couple types of people out there. There are people who are very business-like, who know how to make a ton of money, and only think about making money. They need to hear right away that you’ve got something solid for them, or you could lose them. Then there are people who are the heart/soul types or who are spirit-based who want to “get your message out to the world” and “kumbayah,” etc. And there are those in between.

When I get on stage, if I go too quickly for the kumbayah crowd – and that’s really my message at the end—and the people are there to really get business and cash in, then they don’t want to hear that, at least, NOT YET! This is something I learned from my mentors.

Tony Robbins would start out very “Rah-rah, let’s do this and make money,” but by the end of day 3 or 4, he was giving hugs and talking about God. But not in the beginning. If your crowd is mixed—which is the crowd I tend to attract—then you have to have a message that both types (and those in the middle) can connect to.

E is End with a Bang!

End your presentation as powerfully as you began it! In the beginning you have an attention grabbing statement or a declaration of some sort. The same goes with the end. You have to end with power. Tell your audience what you want them to do and what kind of action you want them to take. This is where you have to feel certain. In order to have that kind of certainty, you need to prepare and memorize your close. Know exactly what you’re going to do and when, know exactly what you’re going to say, and rehearse it so much that it becomes natural.

Unfortunately, a lot of speakers close with “uhh, now, uhh, I want to offer you this, uhh….” They never said “uhh” during their speech, but now they are. It shows fear, uncertainty and a lack of confidence. Do you think anyone wants to buy with those attributes? No! Or speakers may start speeding up their close. Again, they have changed their pattern. You need to be certain about what you’re going to say and when you’re going to say it—that’s powerful!

And whatever you’re going to invite them to do, do it! Don’t worry about wanting to sell them something. Just say what it is, speak from the heart - that it’s an honest product that you believe in, it costs this much, who it’s for and how you get it. Boom.

And don’t be attached to the outcome. Be attached to the audience. Your product is the best thing for them, but it’s only the first step—not the end-all, not the last step. In order for you to create breakthroughs with your clients—whether it’s financial, business, or personal—they have to spend some time and money with you. They need to invest in themselves and join a program for a certain amount of time—maybe it’s immersion for a weekend, or maybe it’s life-long.

Whatever your program, you cannot change anyone’s life in a 30-minute talk. It’s impossible. They have to work with you so if you don’t sell something or give them a way to work with you, you’re doing them an injustice. You’ve opened them up and they realize, “Yeah, this is a problem, but how do I fix it?” You have to give them a way to fix it. Give them peace of mind.

Now you have the 5 Laws of Public Speaking and a way to create P-E-A-C-E for yourself and your audience.