An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Craft messages like a marketer. Highly effective speakers craft speeches with one key takeaway, deliver it efficiently, engage their audience, and inspire them to take action.
At some point in our lives, many of us will have to give a talk to a large group of people. What does it take to be a highly effective public speaker? How can you improve your public speaking skills? How can you overcome a fear of speaking in public? What does it take to give a very interesting and engaging public talk? In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker” we are talking to successful and effective public speakers to share insights and stories from their experience. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Rob Lynch.
Rob Lynch is the founder of Electric Presence. He helps business professionals deliver engaging presentations with unshakeable confidence to communicate like CEOs. He does this by helping business professionals craft clear, concise, and compelling messages (what to say) using his 25 years of public relations experience pitching company stories to the media, developing company communication platforms, and preparing company spokespeople and CEOs for media interviews.
He helps business professionals deliver those messages in a calm, comfortable confident way (how to say it) by aligning their body language, voice, and gestures using acting and improv techniques from his 20 years performing on stage and screen.
He has delivered effective communication skills training across the United States and in India to new sales members, up and coming leaders, and senior executives for global and Fortune 500 companies like Walgreens, KPMG, Accenture, Infosys, and Volkswagen, among others.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I love stories.
My mother was a librarian for the Chicago Public School System and my father was in retail sales. Before that, he was an English teacher, so I read a ton of books as a kid. My parents had an incentive system. Finish a book and get a Star Wars toy or Transformer.
When my father came home from selling fine jewelry, and later mattresses, he would share the stories of his day. He would describe the characters and the situations he encountered in detail along with the steps he took to close the deal.
I was only child, too, so I was communicating with adults at an early age. I think that’s probably why I ended up in the communication industry. It also inspired my creativity.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
When I was in high school, I told my father I wanted to be an actor. He told me not to pursue it because I wouldn’t make any money. So, I went to college, got my degree in public relations, and started working at a small high tech public relations firm in a Chicago suburb after I graduated.
In 2001, I started working for a small creative public relations boutique. A coworker put up a one-off sketch show at The Second City, the mecca of improv and sketch comedy (graduates include John Belushi, Bill Murray, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert, among others). As I watched the show, everything around me seemed to go pitch black and I felt like a spotlight was over my head. After the show, a colleague said to me, “I can see you doing that.” I enrolled in improv classes shortly thereafter. Second City changed my life.
After Second City, I started taking acting classes and performing in plays and appearing in commercials and in web series. I was doing public relations during the day and acting at night.
I eventually combined my public relations and acting techniques to create Electric Presence.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
The more I acted and improvised, the shorter my public relations jobs got. At my last public relations agency job, I was given a Myers-Briggs test a month before I was let go. It suggested I was an ENFP.
ENFPs tend to work well in careers that balance creativity with human connection.
I think that’s why I gravitated toward communication coaching. I love hearing people’s stories and helping them increase their confidence in delivering them.
Also worth noting, sometimes you have to follow your gut. If you’re getting pulled to share your voice, listen to and follow that impulse.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I don’t know that it’s a funny mistake. It certainly wasn’t at the time. The day before I delivered a two-day communication skills training workshop in India, I ate at a buffet in the client’s corporate campus. I grew up in Chicago, so spicy food to me was anything with lemon, pepper, and salt. All of the food in this buffet was made with curry. Lots of curry. It was so spicy that I woke up at 5 AM with major digestive issues. I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say the first 90 minutes of the workshop was very shaky. The only thing I ate for the next two days was plain chicken on wheat with cheese from a popular food chain.
Today I make sure I eat simple, light food before any speaking session.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My mother is my greatest cheerleader. Without her support, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.
My high school cross country/track coach was very influential in my life. He taught me what leadership, coaching, and setting goals and working hard to achieve them looked like.
We weren’t prototypical runners. We were overachievers. We finished 8th in our division at the state cross country championships my sophomore year and 7th my senior year. We also competed in the state finals in the 3200m relay my senior year.
My coach wasn’t a big rah rah inspirational speech guy. He was very much a “process is product” and “work together to achieve more” guy. He cheered just as loud for the first runner as he did for the last.
He knew when to push you outside your comfort zone. For example, I ran a 4:47 mile at a track meet my senior year. It was the fastest mile I had run to date. And my legs were tired. Instead of letting me out of the 1600m relay though, he had me run it. I learned the mind wants to give up but the body is stronger.
He fostered a team atmosphere. He sent a recap after every cross country and track meet highlighting each person’s improvement or achievement, the focus for the following week, and how it lined up against the yearly goal.
I still approach all of my goals with his leadership in mind.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging and intimidating. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
We have to reframe failure. Failure is the only way to succeed. You don’t start riding a bike without training wheels, someone running behind you holding the seat, and falling down a lot. You have to fail.
Michael Jordan was cut from the varsity team as a sophomore and went on to become arguably the greatest basketball player of all time. He knew he couldn’t rely on flying to the rim and dunks, so he developed his mid-range jumper and patented fall away jump shot. He knew he couldn’t withstand the physical demands of playing against the Pistons and the Knicks in the playoffs without gaining more muscle, so he increased his strength and stamina.
The only way to get better at public speaking is to fail. You can’t think your way into being a better public speaker. You have to do it.
What drives you to get up everyday and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?
Each of us has the ability to communicate like a leader. The difference between an ineffective leader, a good leader, and a great leader is their ability to communicate a vision and inspire stakeholders to take action. The big misconception though is that we think we’re communicating because we’re talking. Talking and communicating are very different. Also, there are two conversations happening at once — what we’re saying and how we’re saying it. And if they don’t line up, people aren’t going to buy in to what we’re saying.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I’m currently focused on helping business professionals communicate like CEOs through my workshops and online courses. I’m toying with doing a TED Talk, but I have other priorities at the moment.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“The journey is long, but the goal is in each step.”
-Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, humanitarian and a spiritual leader
I start every coaching workshop with this quote because it speaks to what I mentioned earlier — process is product. If you focus on 1% improvement each day, all of those wins add up over time. Too often, we expect to go from couch to great public speaker. It doesn’t work that way. Like running, you have to start with five minutes a day and progressively add more time to run farther and faster.
Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.
The key word here is effective. I think there’s a preconceived notion that public speaking means great orator. Delivering a speech. Talking.
The be a highly effective public speaker, you need to craft messages like a marketer and deliver them with the passion of a performer.
To be a highly effective public speaker, you have to be a great connector. You need to connect with your audience on an emotional level so they feel inspired to do what you want them to do.
Here are my top 5 Things to be a highly effective public speaker:
- Start with the end
Highly effective speakers take the audience on a journey from where they are to where they could be.
To take the audience on a journey, the first thing you need to understand is who you’re talking with, what you want them to do, and what’s in it for them.
Understanding your audience, their knowledge level, and how they currently feel about you and your topic provides a starting point. Where you want them to go and want you want them to do gives you an end point. What’s in it for them helps you fill out the body of the speech. It also helps you focus your delivery on the audience.
Understanding your audience helps you create the introduction that will spark their interest. It helps you create the messages, stories, stats, and transitions in the body of the speech to keep the audience engaged. And helps develop the close that inspires your audience to take action.
A reminder. The audience doesn’t care about you. They want to know how you’re going to improve their lives — increase time or money, improve efficiency, quality of life, or relationships. They want to know how you’re going to take away their pain or increase their gain.
Perhaps the greatest example of this is Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. King was the last featured speaker during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The goal for the March was to draw attention to the inequalities still experienced by African Americans a century after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, including civil rights, segregation, job discrimination, and police brutality. He used relatable themes from the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, the U.S. Constitution, Shakespeare, and the Bible to encourage politicians to deliver on the promise the country was founded upon and inspire people to fight for freedom. And he delivered what this vision could look like with tremendous purpose and passion.
2. Craft messages like a marketer
Highly effective speakers craft speeches with one key takeaway, deliver it efficiently, engage their audience, and inspire them to take action.
The 3 C’s to craft effective speeches are: Clear, Concise, and Compelling.
Clear means one takeaway. Everything should support that takeaway. Language should be at the same level as the audience.
Concise means don’t use more words than you have to. If you ramble, you’re forcing your audience to guess what’s most important at best and encouraging them to check out at worst.
Compelling means using stories because they are more engaging that information or data. Surprise and change keep the audience wondering what’s next. A call to action at the end encourages the audience to do something as a result of your speech.
The most watched TED Talks are great examples of clear, concise, and compelling speeches. By design, TED Talks make sure each speech focuses on one key takeaway for clarity. The speeches are 18 minutes or less. That’s just enough time to engage the audience before they feel compelled to check out. They are compelling because most focus on a new insight or idea that’s “worth spreading.” And most of the speakers use stories to illustrate their key takeaway.
3. Deliver speeches like a performer
Highly effective speakers treat a speech like a performance.
The Three C’s to deliver effective speeches are: Calm, Comfortable, Confident
Calm: When the nerves kick in, there’s a tendency to ramble, go off on tangents, and/or speed up the pace. If you’re nervous, the audience is nervous for you.
Channel your nervous energy in a productive way and you will appear calm.
Comfortable: If you’re fidgeting with your hands, gripping the podium like a life preserver, or pacing the room like a caged animal, we sense that energy.
Like an athlete, prepare your presentation as if it were delivering the actual presentation so you appear more comfortable.
Confident: Hall of fame football coach Vince Lombardi once said confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence. If you’re confident, we’re confident. If you’re not confident, we’re not confident.
Steve Jobs 2007 iPhone launch presentation is considered by many to be the gold standard for business presentations. At the beginning, Jobs slowly walks out, plants his feet, and says, “This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two and a half years.” He lets that sentence land, and then starts walking to his next mark. He stops. And then launches into his next line, “Every once and a while, a revolutionary product….” He is in control of the presentation. He is deliberate when he moves and speaks. And his delivery supports his message. This is a very exciting launch. He is calm. There are thousands of journalists in the audience who are going to write the good, the bad, and the ugly about the iPhone. He’s comfortable. He talks about the three new products: a widescreen iPod, a mobile phone, an Internet communications device. Six months prior, there were prototypes of the iPhone that had hundreds of hardware and software problems to address. He’s confident.
4. Deliver with purpose
Highly effective speakers deliver their speech with a clear intent.
Effective speakers know what they want their audience to do at the end of their speech. That’s their objective. To achieve this objective, effective speakers deliver their speech with a strong intention.
Intention is a powerful one-word verb like persuade, excite, entertain, inspire, calm, reassure, engage, etc. that, when used properly, will guide how the speaker delivers their message. In other words, if a speaker wants to excite you, you should see excitement in their face, body language, and gestures and hear it in their voice.
Speeches without a strong intention usually inform. Boring. The speech delivers details in a linear fashion that doesn’t really inspire the audience to take action. Even weather people in Los Angeles will encourage you with their voice, body language, and gestures to put on sun screen because it’s going to be another hot sunny day.
When Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, addressed the United States Congress on March 16th, he tried to inspire, engage, rally, commend, encourage, and enlist (intentions) Congress to gain more American support (objective). We want freedom just like you (inspire). We want democracy just like you (engage). You can help us (rally). Thank you for what you’ve done so far (commend). Do more (encourage). Take the lead (enlist). Go through the speech and attach a one-word verb to each of the major sections and you’ll see how a strong intention can be used in pursuit of an objective.
5. Prepare, prepare, prepare
Highly effective speakers prepare.
Anthony Hopkins says he reads his script at least 100 times before showing up on set so he can focus on the performance. Steve Jobs started practicing how he was going to deliver his keynotes a month in advance. I once saw comedian and actor Bill Burr work new material at a comedy venue in Los Angeles. You have to practice delivering your speech over and over again to hone your material and get comfortable in front of an audience.
Most business professionals spend the majority of their time focusing on what to say, not how to say it. In other words, they don’t practice how they are going to deliver their speech. And then they end up reading their slides and the audience checks out.
Aside from practicing your speech, it’s helpful to record your practice presentations and watch them back like professional athletes watch game tape. Look at it objectively (what’s working and what isn’t) vs. subjectively (what is going on with my face?). Because the camera doesn’t lie. It sees what your audience sees.
Public speaking is like any other skill. You have to do it and focus on getting 1% better each day. Like a standup comedian, you need stage time. Practice at home, practice in front of your family, practice on zoom. Practice, practice, practice.
Samsung enlisted American action movie director Michael Bay to introduce its new curved TVs at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show. Bay strode to his mark on the stage, asked the audience how they were doing, and briefly talked about what he does as a director. Joe Stinziano, Samsung’s executive vice president, asked Bay a question. Bay started talking. And then froze. He lost his place reading the teleprompter. Desperately searching to catch his footing while the teleprompter operator tried to back up, he apologized and walked off stage. He was on stage for less than 45 seconds.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
My 7 favorite Nerves Swerves:
- Preparation
Public speaking is a performance.
You have to prepare accordingly.
Most people avoid preparing because “they don’t want to sound like a robot.”
The mistake here is how people prepare. People say the speech over and over again in a flat, monotone pitch. The brain records that so when they deliver it, it comes off the way they prepared it — flat.
The truth is the more you prepare, the easier it is to focus all of your energy on delivering it to the audience.
Steve Jobs spent a month working on his keynotes. He practiced delivering his keynote in his conference room as if he were on the stage, playing with pace and pitch. He spent the two days before the keynote on stage, getting comfortable with the transitions and lighting. There’s a reason he’s considered the gold standard for business presentations.
2. Reframe
Fear and excitement show up in the body the same way physiologically — increased heart rate, sweaty palms, faster breathing, etc.
Rather than try and calm yourself, which can be counterproductive, use your nervous energy as fuel.
The trick — reframe the nervousness as excitement.
Say out loud, “I am excited!”
By focusing on what you get to do (I cannot wait to share what I have learned with my audience!) vs. (I really hope this audience likes what I have to share), you can trick your brain to focus on the positive vs. the negative.
“I’m excited!”
or
“I’m anxious…”
Either will become self-fulfilling.
Also, the physiological difference between anxiousness and excitement is breathing. When you’re anxious, you hold your breath. When you’re excited, you breathe freely.
3. Act as if…
This tip is from Amy Morin, psychotherapist, internationally recognized expert on mental strength, and bestselling author of “13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do.” She suggests thinking of anxiety as something that bothers you vs. who you are. Saying “I am anxious” or “I’m nervous” or “I’m scared” attaches the narrative to who you are as a person and can undermine your performance.
Instead, she suggests speaking to it externally. Say something like, “Anxiety makes my heart beat fast and my palms sweat.” Speaking to it externally separates what it is vs. who you are. It transforms the story.
4. Amplify Affirmations
Nod your head as you say your affirmation out loud.
I am prepared to deliver this speech.
I am excited to deliver this speech.
I can inspire this audience to take action.
I am brave for delivering this speech.
I am confident in my public speaking skills.
Nodding your head while saying the affirmation puts the affirmation in your body. It’s not just in the head. And it’s more likely to stick.
5. Ritual
You ever notice now basketball players dribble the basketball the same number of times, spin it, and then take a deep exhale before shooting every free throw?
You ever notice how baseball players step into the batter’s box the same way, tap home plate, take one or two half swings, and then set before the pitcher pitches each time?
You ever notice how golfers stand behind the ball, then step up next to the ball to take their stance, wiggle the club once or twice, set, and then swing the club for every shot?
Athletes execute a pre-performance routine before every shot, every game, every performance to maintain stability and focus.
You can do the same to help soothe your nerves before presenting.
Wear the same clothes, eat the same meal, do the same warm up, deliver the same opening.
By eliminating potential distractions, you can maintain focus and reduce potential anxiety.
6. Channel Your Inner Sasha Fierce
Sasha Fierce is Beyonce’s alter ego. Her stage persona. Beyoncé said she created Sasha Fierce “…to help her overcome challenges and give the best performances she can.” Sasha Fierce kicks in when she puts on her costume, particularly her stilettos, and says her posture, the way she speaks, and everything is different.
Where clothes and shoes that make you feel calm, comfortable, and confident so you can deliver your best performance.
7. Intentionally make a “mistake”
During his eight years on Saturday Night Live, Bill Hader said he frequently had panic attacks and would hyperventilate backstage. To combat this, Hader would intentionally say something slightly different than what was on the cue card to start a sketch. Hader says intentionally messing up would trick his brain into thinking, ”OK, you messed up and now you’re fine. You’re still here. You’re still breathing. Nothing bad happened.” Tiny “mistakes” can settle our nerves so we relax.
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Inspiring men to go to therapy and process their childhood trauma. I spent a long portion of my adult life feeling “not good enough.” The byproduct of that was failed relationships, anxiousness, unhealthy coping mechanisms, etc. I’ve been working with a therapist and attended Al-Anon sessions and it really helped me change the story I’d been carrying around for decades and it changed the trajectory of my life.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
Bill Murray — He just seems like a really cool dude to be around. And since I graduated from Second City, I’ve love to chat comedy and acting with him. Maybe play a round of golf.
Michael Jordan — I grew up in Chicago during the Bulls 6 championship runs and I’ve watched “The Last Dance” documentary
Barack Obama — Even though he’s a Sox fan and I’m a Cubs fan, I’m sure we could find some common ground.
All three are from Chicago. Amazing.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertalynch323/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/electricpresence/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@electric.presence
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
Rob Lynch Of Electric Presence On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
