He wins! The most versatile Public Speaker of the Modern Era

Barack Obama has proven time and again that he is capable of changing footing in a public speech, even when it is in front of a tough, professional audience. In this Public Speech in front of the White House's Washington Correspondents dinner, he moves from host, to self-deprecating humor, to jabs at his upcoming presidential contenders, to being humble by thanking troops, by having compassion for the Southern devasted areas, and by recognizing the value of the press in advancing democracy's freedom.

 

This is what I call having an inate skill to public speaking. But is it? In fact, Barack Obama does have a certain ease in publicly speaking, but more importantly he's made thousands of speeches, and that is what gave him this easy flow between a jovial pace and a serious mood.

Hats off, Mr. President! You are the ultimate example for all of us, public speakers.

Tech founders, Overcome your fear of public speaking (ask Mark Zuckerberg at President Obama's live townhall at Facebook HQs)

A great American comedian said that, during a funeral, most people prefer to be in the casket than reading the eulogy before the audience. Statistics show that up to 75% of people suffer from social phobia such as fear of public speaking.

The majority of tech founders with whom I work confirm this fear. It was confirmed by Mark Zuckerberg's stage fright at yesterday's townhall meeting with President Obama at the Facebook Headquarters.

Whether a presentation to an audience of ten or a hundred, public speaking can be scary to founders, who are otherwise extremely competent. However, there are certain steps that the founders can take to feel at ease during a presentation.

Stage fright is a natural reaction that can be tamed before and during your presentation. Convinced that what you say is interesting and relevant, it must tell you that the public needs you to get an understanding of the subject matter.

The use of notes may also help calm your nerves. They give you confidence and the feeling of having a safety net because you can always take a glance to keep you on track, especially if you pause for questions or give examples. However, they must be short and focused - to remind you to address key points.

The biggest traitor to nerves is to talk too fast. The solution is to take breaks. The best oratorical style, from the public's perspective, is to speak at a normal speed, but with lots of breaks. If you do so effectively, the breaks seem unbearably long for you, but the public does not even notice them.

Once you've practiced and mastered the breaks you need to work on eye contact. You can greatly reduce the effect of a large audience on edge if you look at people in the audience one person at a time while talking.

Finally, and most importantly, do not be afraid to be yourself. Smile, keep eye contact and give yourself the feeling of being in a conversation and you will feel more relaxed.

Many founders are perhaps not born orators, but that does not mean they cannot become good presenters. Remember, the audience is on your side, and controlling your nerves in the short term will help you make presentations that are natural and professional.

Stop Breaking The Basic Rules of Presenting

I loved this presentation as it summarizes the exact type of remarks that I want to scream when a presenter is committing these presentation gaffes.

Speaking in front of an audience is about a connection with people, an emotional transfert, and an easy flow of energy through a smoothly delivered message. When a presenter starts making these presentation mistakes, he clearly looses his audience, the message and his energy.

It is of the utmost importance that basic training be taken before making presentations in front of an audience.

Being a kick-ass public speaker

It is erroneously thought that if you can stand up in front of a crowd and speak, then you can do public speeches. Worse, if you can go through a powerpoint presentation, you can speak. Nothing is further from the truth.

It takes personal commitment,  deep emotional strength, and most importantly the ability to connect with people. These 3 characteristics get developed after countless public speeches. It is as much experience as skill.

Rachid Sefrioui invited to speak about Fundraising to Entrepreneurs

Rachid Sefrioui was invited to speak about fundraising to a group of entrepreneurs in Paris. Most of them ranged in age from 25 to 50; some are recent university graduates, while others where senior executives who recently left senior jobs to launch their own company.

The dilemma was the same for all. "Though we are passionate about the company we launched, we feel that investors are completely indifferent to our passion. We feel they don't relate to what we do or what we are going to achieve. Why is that?"

First of all, most entrepreneurs don't realize that a VC or investor sees about 5 to 15 pitches per week, and that after a while, he or she just focuses on a mental checklist of about 10 key items. Aside from that, they are indeed indifferent to the intricacies of your business. At least in the first meeting with the entrepreneur.

The goal of the first meeting is to get a call back for a second meeting. And the entrepreneur gets that by leaving a good impression, and to have subliminally checked off the 10 key items on the investors mind.

When the entrepreneur gets a callback for a second meeting, then his goal becomes to subliminally confirm to the investor the 10 key items on his checklist, and to describe a "little" bit more of how the technology works, how the company is going to succeed, and how the investor is going to exit. YES. Investors want to know about the exit BEFORE they enter!

It is probably not until the third meeting when a little bit more due diligence is done by the investor that the entrepreneur can really get into the intricacies of his business.

For details of terms on a termsheet, read this post.

My buddy organized TEDxAlsace in October

My buddy organized TEDxAlsace in October. It was very successful, and he is planning another one at the end of the year. I couldn't make the one last year, but I will certainly attempt the next one.

The TEDx events are truly great because they help build entrepreneurial communities around the world, so that entrepreneurs don't feel alone, facing society's tsunamy of ney-sayers.

Bravo to Salah & Martine!

The most frequent question when speaking at an Entrepreneurs Event

One of the most frequent questions I get when speaking in front of a crowd of entrepreneurs, founders and "would-be startup explorers" is: How do we structure the terms of the funding round when we get in front of a venture capital firm?


Frequently, the seminar or roundtable is not a good forum for doing a "terms math" class, but I found this presentation from Founders Fund to be pretty self-explanatory.


Enjoy it!
and if you still have questions, go the Finaventures.com contact page, and drop me an email with more questions. I'll do my best to answer them in the next edition of my streaming Show for Entrepreneurs on Ustream.