I’ve been speaking at conferences and events for years. These days, up-and-coming lawyers who want to build their personal brands and establish themselves as thought leaders often ask me how I honed my public speaking and presentation skills.
While I certainly don’t believe I’m an expert, I have improved over the years, learning some valuable lessons along the way that I’m happy to share with these ambitious leaders.
For my take on how to land speaking engagements in the legal industry, check out this article on getting your foot in the door.
Embrace the Unexpected
Let me start by telling you that many of your early speaking opportunities will not go as planned.
When I was getting started, anything that could have gone wrong during a speaking engagement happened:
- Once, I stepped up on the stage and my pants split in half. (What a great way to make an entrance, right?)
- There have been times when my mic went out mid-presentation and no one could hear me.
- Other times, the slides I had carefully prepared to go with my presentation didn’t work.
- Sometimes the videos I selected as part of my presentation wouldn’t play.
- There was a time there was no screen to show the slides or videos I had spent hours on.
The positive about all these experiences (which felt negative at the time) is that now if anything goes wrong during a speaking engagement, I feel fine. I’ve come to expect anything and have become adaptable in the process.
That’s the first piece of advice I’ll give to leaders who want to get good at public speaking:
The more unexpected mishaps you experience, the more comfortable and confident you will become with whatever comes your way.
Put the Reps In
The very first Game Changers Summit in 2018 was my first time really carrying a two-day event as a speaker. Up until that point, I often spoke at other legal conferences for 10-20 in a side room or something like that — never headlining. But at the Crisp Summit, I had much longer spots, prepared multiple presentations, spoke multiple times, and took center stage in a whole new way.
I’ll never forget the feedback I received from attendees at the second Game Changers Summit the following year.
They said, “Man, you were so much better at this one.”
I admit I had to ask them what they meant: “Are you telling me that I sucked at the first one?”
I don’t think that’s what they intended — just that it was clear I had improved since the previous year.
That’s my next piece of advice for anyone wanting to improve their speaking:
The more reps you put in, the better you will get.
Of course you’ve got to rehearse enough to be comfortable with your material, but hopefully the topic you’re speaking about is something that you have a lot of knowledge on and that should be very natural to you. You shouldn’t be presenting and speaking on things that you’re not familiar with.
But so much of speaking goes beyond your level of subject matter expertise. It’s everything from how you articulate things, how you project your voice, and how you move your arms to your pacing, storytelling, and your presence in the room.
There are so many on-stage components in addition to the preparation you can do
Be Patient
My final recommendation is just to keep in mind that it will be a growth journey.
Your first dozen speaking engagements will probably not be very good. Now, I’m not saying it’s likely you’ll crash and burn and give horrible presentations. I just mean that compared to where you will go as you continue to get more reps, your first presentations will seem miles away.
That future version of yourself is going to be way better at speaking, but only if you get a ton of repetitions in. To get the practice necessary to become a great speaker, it’s going to require you to do a tremendous number of speaking engagements.
That’s how you become more comfortable and more confident. There’s no way to really shortcut that process.
Becoming a great speaker requires commitment and patience. But remember: those reps don’t just have to come from speaking on stage at a legal conference. It could be speaking in front of your team. It could be leading meetings. It can be conducting webinars. It can be hosting a podcast or being featured as a guest on other podcasts.
Anything that gives you an opportunity to speak and present helps you get more reps in and become better at it. The more you put yourself out there, the more likely you are to improve.
So keep at it.
