What You Need To Do To Standout From The Crowd In some cultures, individualism is frowned upon. Being different from everyone else gives the impression that you are not a team player and that you are in some respect seeking attention and showboating. Everyone wants to be accepted on some level. Whether it’s with family, friends or colleagues, but when it comes to your speaking career if you don’t stand out you may find yourself drowning in a sea of clones. So how do you stand out from the crowd when it comes to speaking? 1.You have to define your why. The reason that you do what you do. You have to clearly define your purpose, first to yourself and then to your clients. It needs to be so clear that when someone mentions anything related to your purpose that you immediately come top of mind. 2. You have to work on mastering your delivery style. People will begin to know you know only for your purpose but also for your ability to deliver. Make sure that you are not trying to imitate anyone else. Just be yourself. 3. Don’t spend time talking about other speakers other than quoting them. This way you are not drawing comparisons between yourself and them. I would limit the number of time that you quote them because you want to keep your audience focused on who they are listening to now. 4. Share something personal. I know that this may be one of those areas that have its own challenges but doing so help to show how different you are from other speakers (not by mentioning them but telling your story). You background went into making you who you are, own it. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Share as much as you would be comfortable with having a place in a magazine. 5. Connect with your audience off stage. Meet the people in the audience either before (I recommend that because it helps ease the tension of speaking to strangers) or after your presentation. Some speakers miss this opportunity of connecting and networking on a personal level and they get tossed into the basket of “Standoff-ish” speakers. So if you want to not make an impression but an impact, you need to make sure that you meet people where they are and then take them to higher levels of confidence, education and hope by connecting with them, by communicating with them and by creating a sense of oneness that your story is their story. 19
~ Cicone Prince
