Jon Acuff's Blog, page 45

How to connect with top mentors without inviting them to coffee.

(I don’t do many guest posts these days, but for years, I’ve loved getting to know the author of this one. I shared the stage with Lewis Howes at World Domination Summit and asked him to write about this topic because I’ve watched him do an amazing job of connecting with mentors. He’s also built a massive podcast with 9 million downloads in part because he’s so great at connecting with people. For more great stuff from Lewis, check out his book “The School of Greatness.”)

How to connect with top mentors without inviting them to coffee. By Lewis Howes

My most valuable business asset, aside from my ability to hustle, is my network. I can pick up the phone and call any number of friends and powerful experts in a wide range of topics asking for advice and I know it will be exactly what I need to get results.

This is priceless.

But about 8 years ago I couldn’t pick up the phone and call one person who I trusted for business advice. I knew football coaches, previous teammates and ex-girlfriends and that was about it. So, if you don’t feel like you have much of a network currently, don’t worry. There’s hope.

Coincidentally, it was my girlfriend at the time who introduced me to one of my first business mentors, when I was a washed up football player recovering from surgery, and clueless about what to do with my career. She knew an inventor who had just moved back to Columbus, Ohio, where I was living at the time, and she arranged a meeting between us.

I showed up in jeans and a ripped off tee shirt with an attitude like I had it all figured out. Thankfully, I was able to tell pretty quickly that this inventor, Chris Hawker, was really smart and a good guy. I could see I might have a chance to learn something from him if I played my cards right. So I started asking him a lot of questions, really listened to the answers, and at the end of our conversation, I asked him if I could work for him.

He said no. But I said I’d follow up anyway.

I followed up with him every week for months until he finally said I could come work for free around his office (and my desk was a closet in his kitchen). I worked for him for a number of months, eventually making $500 a month, sitting in that closet making phone calls and going to trade shows with him. But in exchange, I got to go on a walk with him once a day where I could ask him any question I wanted.

This experience was priceless.

Chris is still my good friend, mentor, and business partner to this day. He taught me so much more than how to run a business or come up with a good product idea. He taught me that to develop a powerful, mutually supportive relationship with a mentor, you have to be willing to give way more than you ask.

In fact, don’t ask for anything.

Just offer to be of meaningful service, in any capacity that will help the mentor in achieving what is important to them. (This could be as simple as showing them how to set up a Twitter cover image that doesn’t look terrible.)

Offer to work for free.

Say yes to anything.

Hustle hard.

Show them you are grateful and willing to learn.

Keep your word.

Skip coffee meetings and go straight to offering a potential mentor whatever you can that will aid them in their own business. Be patient and before you know it, you’ll have a much bigger network. It’s worth the work, I promise.

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2 questions I need your help with!

On Friday I announced the upcoming 30 Days of Hustle Challenge (if you missed it, details are here).

I’m opening up early bird registration in a couple of weeks. Before I do, I have two quick questions I would love your help with today. In my book Do Over, I write about the power of empathy, which I define as “Understanding what someone needs and then acting on it.” One of the best ways to have empathy is to “Read less minds, ask more questions.” (Apologies to grammar fans who know that it should be “fewer” not “less.” I like the rhythm of less better and rhythm is a dancer, so …)

Want to serve people better? Read less minds, ask more questions.
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I don’t want to create a challenge that I think is helpful, I want to create a challenge that I KNOW is helpful because it meets the real needs you’ve got.

You can answer the questions here: Two Questions I Need Your Help With

I’m really excited about this January’s 30 Days of Hustle Challenge! There’s one particular surprise with this challenge that I can’t wait to share with you.

Thanks for your help!

Jon

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3 ways to figure out which online course is best for you.

Last year, people started to bring me queso at book signing events. I actually found a job where people give me melted cheese. Take that, guidance counselor who told me my dreams couldn’t come true!

If 2014 was the year of queso, then 2015 seems to be the year of the online course.

It seems everyone and their grandmother has an online course.

It’s easy to be wowed by what some of these courses offer. Their sales pages are shiny, their testimonials are compelling, and the promises they make all but assure you a better life is just a few clicks away. The offer of magical “passive income” is a particularly bright carrot that is waved as an enticement. The Internet is littered with get rich quick schemes. There are no shortcuts. Anyone who tells you differently is usually trying to sell you a shortcut.

There are no shortcuts. Anyone who tells you differently is usually trying to sell you a shortcut.
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But the 1.7 billion course options you get when you search Google can’t all be that great, right? So how do you figure out which one is worth your time, energy, and money? Here’s how I do it.

I ask these three questions whenever I’m considering an online course.

Question #1 – Who’s teaching it?

Has the founder of the course done something more than be successful at selling online classes?

More to the point, have they done something that you want to do to? Michael Hyatt should teach a course on building a platform, because he’s built a huge platform and led companies for 30 years. Jeremy Cowart should teach you about photography because according to the Huffington Post, he’s the “most influential photographer on the Internet” and has been on the leading edge of the photography world for 10 years.

If you took a class at a college, you could trust that the school vetted the professor. In the Internet age though, anyone can say they’re an expert. Do your homework before taking a course and make sure the person teaching it is a real expert.

Question #2 – Is it worth the price?

Here’s the truth about pricing an online product in 2015: it’s the wild wild west.

If someone decides their class is $200, you have no idea where that came from. Maybe they’ve done studies to find the best price point for the value they’re delivering? Or maybe they’re having a bad fantasy football season and they’re charging more to support their DraftKings habit. How can you know? When someone says, “You can get this $2,000 class for only $200 today,” you should at least ask yourself, “Why is this worth $2,000?” Where did that value come from? Is it based in reality? Or was it just made up out of thin air and no one has ever actually paid that price?

Ultimately, it’s on you to figure out if the price is worth it. I’ve always believed that price isn’t just about what you’re paying, it’s about what you’re doing with what you’ve paid for. If a class is going to teach you how to book paid speaking gigs and you’ll actually put the lessons into practice, it might be worth $2,000. If you’re going to ignore the lessons in the class, then it’s probably not even worth $50.

Will your actions match the amount of money you’re paying? That’s my favorite way to determine if it’s worth the investment.

Question #3 – Is there a community aspect?

Study upon study shows that it’s a lot harder to get anything done without a community.

If you purchase this course, will you be on your own to learn the material and do the work, or will there be others doing it with you and helping you along?

The truth is, creating and sustaining a community isn’t easy. It’s a lot easier for a course creator to email you a PDF and send you on your way, in hopes that you can figure it out on your own.

Providing you with the help of others takes more work on a number of levels, but it always means more value. That’s why I ask if there will be a community that comes with the material to help me get the most out of it. For me, it’s not a “nice to have,” it’s a “must have.”

—

I’m skeptical of about 90% of online classes, but the 10% that are good tend to be really good. I hope those three questions will help you sort through all the ones that are offered. I’m sharing them now because I’ve been thinking a lot about courses lately.

For years people have asked me when I would offer something along the lines of an online course, and I think its finally time to do one.

I’ve got a 30-day challenge I’m working on. I want it to provide wicked high value at wicked low cost.

My new challenge won’t make your teeth brighter. It won’t turn you into Scrooge McDuck overnight with passive income.

It’s going to help you do one thing, but that one thing is awesome.

If you want to be the first to know about the challenge, sign up here.

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Writers are crazy. Here’s proof I am.

(This is the type of conversation I have with Jenny when I start writing a new book. Her words are in italics.)

“I’m writing a new book.” I tell this to my wife in our kitchen.

“What’s it going to be about?” She asks.

“I’m not exactly sure yet, I need to identify some problem in my life that writing the perfect book will solve.”

“Oh good, so we’re looking at what, 6 months to a year of slow, agonizing soul searching torture expressed in the form of creating a self help book?”

“Is there a different process for writing a book?”

“God, I hope so.”

“Well I don’t know one, but that’s only a third of the process.”

“What are the other two thirds?”

“I’m glad you asked that. One third is the aforementioned painful self examination. The other third is trying to guess what will change everyone else’s life and the other third is crafting something no one can criticize.”

“So the second third is that amazing black hole of a question, ‘Who is this book for?’ which will lead you into a narcissistic exploration allowing you to believe that this book will have earth shaking, life changing consequences for all humans.”

“Yes. The fun part is that Do Over got picked up by audiences I didn’t really even know I could serve with my unbelievable ideas. Parents Magazine named it the “Mom Must Read of the Month.” And the guy who bought the most copies, was a military lawyer. He said it was perfect for people who were transitioning out of the armed forces. So now, with this new book, in addition to all the other audiences I’ve always written for, I’m going to try to anticipate the needs of moms and Green Berets.”

“You feel like there’s a lot of overlap between those two audiences?”

“There better be.”

“And the third goal of the book is to make sure that no one criticizes it?”

“No one, but also specific clumps of people.”

“Like who?”

“I call them my Jury of Fears. Get it?”

“Yes.”

“It’s like a jury of peers, like in a courtroom. But I say Jury of Fears. I try to pronounce it in a way that let’s you know it’s capitalized.”

“Yes, I understand it.”

“I think it’s going to make a killer slide or tweet someday. I’ll probably even drop that into one of those ‘Click to Tweet’ things.”

Beware performing for your Jury of Fears, that silent group of fears that get loud when you create.
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“Anyway, there are some people who over the years who have criticized me and though they’ve long forgotten I exist, I like to base my life around trying to win their approval or at the minimum prevent further disappointment.”

“Like who?”

“I think somewhere along the way somebody told me that humor isn’t enough. Somebody told me that jokes are dumb and that unless you have some sort of life changing message you’re just like Gallagher. You might as well be smashing metaphorical watermelons and jumping on a gigantic couch. I don’t know who said it but they must have been important to me because it’s next to impossible for me to write something funny without trying to shoehorn a moral or lesson in it.”

“Yeah, but then you end up ruining really funny humor with an after school message that blindsides the readers. And people love to laugh. You love to laugh. When you’re honest about who you really are, when you’ve got your guard down at dinner parties you’re not giving people life changing advice, you’re trying to make them laugh. The only people you study are comedians. That’s who you are. And it’s the most popular thing you share on the Internet. When you tweet funny things or post funny things on Facebook, those get shared 100 times more than you’re serious stuff.”

“I know, but again, humor doesn’t count. Even though one of my favorite comedians of all time, Jim Gaffigan, said that Do Over was funny, I still have a hard time seeing the value of laughter. More than just not being funny though I think I need to have an epic life to write a book.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s what sells these days. You have to have like hiked the Appalachian Trail in an hour or built an orphanage out of reclaimed shoes or visited every state in the US with a parrot. You need a hook. I need to find a hook to satisfy people that are in love with hooks.”

“So you can’t write a book just because you’re an author and that’s what authors do, they write books? You can’t write a book because you just enjoy writing?”

“Joy? Oh to have such wide-eyed innocence. I love that about you.”

“Is that it? Is that the complete list, of your jury of fears, and I hate myself for using this cheesy description, of your jury of fears?”

“No, there are definitely a lot more and I’m always interviewing new ones, but I think the last one is the guy who tells me I’m too self promotional, that my books are too much about me and that he’s heard my ideas before. I think his name is Josh.”

“That’s not too long of a list, I guess.”

“Actually I forgot two more.”

“Oh, good.”

“I also need this book to satisfy the fear that I’m not a ‘real author.’”

“What does it mean to be a real author?”

“I don’t know, but I know I’m not one.”

“You’ve written 5 books.”

“Those were flukes.”

“You’ve sold hundreds of thousands of books. You’ve hit the New York Times Bestseller’s list, twice.”

“George Foreman sold a million of those grills but that doesn’t mean he’s a good chef.”

“One of the most respected business minds of our generation said your last book was the ‘Best career book ever written.’”

“That was kind of him, but regardless, I won’t be a real author until my books have more research in them. I need more sources. I want my ideas to be based in science and statistics and fact.”

“So basically, being a real author means the bibliography of your book is thicker.”

“Yes.”

“But you’re terrible at research, terrible at data and terrible at science.”

“I know, but that’s all about to change with this book. I’m going to write this book like Jim Collins.”

“Jim Collins, the mid 50s professor from Stanford who has spent twenty years building a research team who works on his books?”

“Yes. I feel like I can close a lot of the gap between us if I go to the library a few times. Probably four times.”

“OK.”

“And last, but not least, is the fear of ‘who cares?’ As in ‘who cares’ what I think or what I know. Who am I to write a book about life? I’m only 40 and what do I really know about life. I’m really unqualified. Everything I’ve written has already been said by someone smarter. I need to address that issue with the content inside the book. I also don’t want to write a book that I look back on 10 years from now and disagree with.”

“But there’s a chance that who you are at 50 will be different from who you are at 40. In the next 10 years you’re going to learn things you don’t know right now and some of those things might contradict what you thought you knew at 40.”

“Exactly, that’s why what I write has to be eternally true forever. This is part of my legacy. This is me leaving my mark on this world. I’m not just writing a book, I’m building a legacy. People like that word. It’s what you start obsessing about when you’re done obsessing about your purpose.”

“What is your great grandfather’s first name?”

“I don’t know.”

“What did he do for a job?”

“Not sure.”

“What state did he live in?”

“No idea. Why?”

“No reason. So how are you going to overcome the fear that as a 40 year old you’re wholly unqualified to write a book giving anyone advice?”

“Well, fortunately for me, the Internet has a very loose definition of the word ‘expert.’ I saw someone the other day say that they’re an expert at live streaming video. Periscope came out in May. You can be a 22-year old life coach as long as you’re successful at taking people to the next level. That’s always the level people want to go to. You can write a book about parenting when you’ve got a 1 year old. So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.”

“That is good. So in summary, your book only needs to accomplish three things:

1. Fix some significant problem in your own life and be your identity.

2. Fix everyone else’s problems, including stay at home moms and Green Berets.

3. Be universally liked by all people, researched as well as Jim Collins and ensure future generations know your work.

“Yes. That’s a pretty good elevator speech. As a bonus, I’m going to pretend that the entire financial future of our family is riding on the success of this book.”

“But it’s not. We’re not destitute right now though. We’re not about to lose the farm or the ski slope to a rich developer who’s son has really amazing hair but is a jerk who you have to beat in a ski race to ensure we’re OK.”

“I know that, but I don’t feel like I’m very creative unless I’m also very terrified. So in my head, I’m going to act like my future, your future and our kids futures hangs in the balance of every page of this new book.”

“And I get to live with you during this process?”

“Yes. Pretty exciting right? Plus, you’ll get to read each draft of the book! I’ll ask you to give me honest feedback and then when you do I’ll be really mad. I’ll grumpily tell you that you’re wrong, that you don’t understand literature and that I am out of words. That I literally have no more words. I’ll only do this for three hours or so every time you give me feedback and then I’ll admit you’re right and make the change you suggested. It will be fun.”

“I can’t wait.”

Writers are crazy. Here’s proof.
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It took me 13 years to learn this lesson about blogging.

You’ve got a lot of things to do today so let’s get right to the point.

Your platform isn’t for you.

It’s not yours.

Your name might be on it. It might be your smiling headshot that folks see each day on your blog or your twitter profile, but the platform is not for you.

It’s for other people.

Readers, friends, family members, this is why we blog.

Not to get, but to give.

If you don’t share your platform, it will suffocate you.

If you don’t share your platform, it will suffocate you.
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I speak not from theory but from experience. I used to think my platform was mine. I got lost in things like New York Times bestseller lists and affirmation and attention.

I only got a tiny scrap of fame but it was enough to teach me that it hollows you out, it doesn’t fill you up. And it’s incredibly addictive.

But then I learned that my platform is not for me.

It’s for others.

Like Terry.

She’s a survivor of addiction and trafficking. She’s also the barista at Thistle Farms in Nashville, an amazing non-profit in Nashville. They offer a two year residential program to help woman like Terry have a second chance.

There are over 100 women on the waiting list to get into Thistle Farms. That’s not OK with me. Although I might not have a ton of money or a solution to all of the world’s problems, I do have a platform. That’s why I made this video:

 

I hope you’ll buy a candle and help me light the way home for women still on the street. I hope you’ll buy 10 candles and give them out as Christmas gifts because they smell like Christmas trees and who doesn’t love that?

I hope you’ll retweet this post like crazy, put it on Facebook and use your platform for someone who doesn’t have one.

It’s time to light the way home.
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It’s going to be pretty amazing when we sell 5,000 candles and help Thistle Farms change the world.

Don’t miss the chance to be part of this experience!

Jon

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The problem with Halloween

13 years ago, I learned the best idea about parenting before I even had kids.

Before I was writing books about enjoying your career like Do Over, I used to work for Bose. They are a company in Massachusetts that makes amazing stereos and headphones.

One of the markets we would try to sell to is college graduates. We wanted  the 23-year old who got their first real check to buy one of our stereos but we had a problem.

Sony started talking to that 23-year old when they were 6.

Sony sold them a pink stereo in the first grade.

Sony sold them a Playstation 3 at age 13.

Sony sold them headphones at age 15.

So by the time we showed up at 23 to sell them a stereo there was a sense of “Who are you? I’ve never met you before.”

Sony essentially had a 17-year head start on us. If someone took karate for 17 years before you did, they are going to crush you.

The problem with this principle is that a lot of times we parents give pop culture a huge head start with our kids.

We let the world start the conversation, let celebrities drive their dreams, and let society define their values.

Then at age 15 we show up in their life and wonder why they’re lost.

As a dad of two daughters, this cartoon about Halloween by @AndyMarlette bums me out because most of us are too busy to respond with the truth. We miss the “store aisle” conversation with our kids because we think if we don’t have the conversation it won’t happen.

Here’s the truth though:

It’s not whether your kids will have a conversation about the world they live in, it’s whether you’ll have a voice in it.

It’s time to start talking with our kids.

Earlier than we want.

More often than we like.

Don’t give the world a head start with your kids.

Don’t give the world a head start with your kids.
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The candle, the drug dealer & the last video I’ll ask you to watch in 2015.

Want to go on an adventure? Want to change the world with me in a surprisingly simple way? Want to discover the most amazing group of people you’ll ever meet?

Watch this video.

Starting today, I’m asking you to help me sell 5,000 candles for Thistle Farms.

Why?

1. They do amazing work in Nashville to help women trapped in addiction, trafficking and prostitution get off the streets.

2. They work with 23 sister organizations in 17 states because the need is national.

3. The candles they make are high quality and all natural. (Thistle Farms products are so great they’re actually sold at Whole Foods!)

4. Becca Stevens, the founder, is a rock star and Thistle Farms has been around for 18 years. (That’s the equivalent of 400 non-profit years, because running a successful organization is Herculean work.)

5. It will be fun to light a candle this fall knowing your small act created a huge light for a woman who needed help finding the way home.

The candles, which are balsam fir scented, are only $22.

Buy one for yourself. Buy one for a friend. Buy one for 10 friends. They’re perfect holiday gifts!

I’ll update you on the totals sold as we go along.

I know that 5,000 candles, representing $120,000 raised, is no joke, but this community doesn’t mess around.

You built two kindergartens in Vietnam.

You donated thousands of mosquito nets for Uganda.

It’s time for a new adventure.

It’s time to light the way home.

Click here to buy a candle.

Click here to read a little more about Thistle Farms.

It’s time to light the way home.
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3 things to do if you have a bad boss.

According to a variety of studies, 70-90% of Americans are disengaged at work.

Why? There are a number of reasons but one of the most common is a bad relationship with a boss or manager.

Bad bosses exist. I’ve had one or two horrible bosses in my day. If you’re in that situation right now, here are three things you need to do:

1. Improve your work performance to see if it improves your relationship.

You can’t change someone, but you can impact a work relationship sometimes if you improve your work performance. Making a horrible boss’ life easier by doing better work can often turn a horrible boss into a less horrible boss. Choose your attitude, adjust your expectations and hustle to see if you can level things out.

2. Admit you’re an employee.

Sometimes when people tell me they have a horrible boss, what they’re really saying is, “Who do they think they are to tell me to do that project?” At which point I say, “They are your boss, they are 100% of the people paying you money to tell you to do things. That’s kind of how jobs work.” I have a lot of short, awkward conversations that don’t end in hugs or handshakes. If you have a horrible boss that changes the time you get to go to lunch, guess what? She gets to do that. Is it fair? Is it fun? Is it right? Maybe not, but it’s definitely a consequence of being an employee. Do your job. Maybe you don’t have a bad boss, maybe you’re a bad employee. That’s not fun to hear but there’s definitely been times when the problem at work wasn’t my manager, it was me. If that’s frustrating to you, move on to number 3.

3. Turn the frustration into fuel.

Do you know what every bad boss is really saying? “I dare you to get a better job!” Take them up on the dare. Forget gossip and complaining, those don’t get you anywhere. If your boss moves your lunch break to a time different than all your coworkers as some sort of passive aggressive punishment, rewrite what she’s really saying. She said, “Ha! You don’t get to go to lunch with your friends for three weeks,” but I swear you heard, “I dare you to use those quiet lunch breaks without your friends to apply to jobs!” Answer that dare.

Every bad boss is saying the same thing, “I dare you to get a better job.”
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I shared these same tips in my New York Times Bestseller Do Over . This post has about 600 words in it. The book has 70,000. If you want to win at work, it’s time to read the other 99%.

If you want to enjoy your current job more, read it.

If you want to become the type of employee who gets paid more, read it.

If you want to improve your relationship with your boss, read it.

If you want to find a new job, read it.

You’re going to work with some difficult humans during your 40-year career. That’s inevitable. Make the most of every working relationship you have by investing in your career the right way. It’s not complicated. There are only four things you need.

Find out what they are in Do Over.

In the meantime, if you’ve got a bad boss, make sure you improve your performance, admit you’re an employee or turn that frustration into fuel.

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An exclusive interview just for my email subscribers!

From time to time I like to offer special bonuses to those of you subscribed to my email newsletter, and I’m excited to say that one of those bonuses is coming soon!

Next week I’ll be recording an interview with Michael Hyatt as a part of a new feature I’m starting called “Conversations.” (He’s the former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing, a New York Times Bestselling author and an absolute genius at growing an audience in the digital age.) This video interview will only be available to my subscribers, as I won’t be posting it here on Acuff.me. (If you received this post via email, you’ll automatically get this special video in a few weeks.)

As a part of the Do Over Conversations series I’ll be asking Michael a few reader-submitted questions, so if you have anything you’d like to ask him, click here to ask away in the comments!

Giving you this exclusive content is just a small way for me to say ‘thank you’ for staying connected to what I’m doing. Email subscribers get all my new ideas from Acuff.me delivered right to their inbox, including occasional bonuses like this video conversation. Sign up here to make sure you don’t miss it.

If you could ask @MichaelHyatt anything, what would you ask?
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5 tips for speaking to 10,000 people or 10.

Recently I was in Dallas, TX speaking to 10,000 people at a Young Living Convention. That’s an intimidating amount of people, but five lessons I’ve learned over the years helped me deliver the speech. Here they are:

1. Speak to a person, not a crowd.

No one wants to feel like they’re a part of a big glob of an audience. One person speaking to ten thousand people is hard, but one person speaking to one person is a lot easier.

I always try to find one person in the crowd who is happy and engaged. It’s so easy to find (and focus on) the one person who hates every word you’re saying. Public speakers tend to have laser vision for the guy in the room with his arms crossed and a scowl. Instead, find the one person who’s locked in on the conversation and speak to them. When you do that, your talk feels less like a lecture and more like a conversation, and everyone wins.

The best speeches feel like conversations not lectures.
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2. Be careful to not be subtle.

As the size of your audience grows, so too should the way you express yourself on stage. This is a tip I learned from my friends Tripp & Tyler, who have spent a lot of time on big stages making people laugh. They warned me that subtle jokes and subtle movements don’t always play to a larger crowd because you’re communicating with the first row AND the last row, no matter how far from the stage it is.

The dynamics shift with big crowds, so be careful to avoid subtleties as your audience grows. If you’re speaking to 10 people, make sure you don’t act like you’re speaking to 10,000. It’s always awkward when a speaker yells like he or she is in a stadium if there’s only a few people in the room. In those situations I’ll often circle a few chairs and sit down for the talk instead. If the event is intimate, acknowledge that.

3. Allow time for the crowd to laugh and think.

If you prepare 45 minutes of material for a 45-minute talk for a larger crowd, you might run out of time with ten minutes of material left. The problem is, you didn’t account for the crowd.

The crowd will laugh, and they need time to laugh. The crowd will think, and they need time to think. If you ask the crowd a question, give them a moment to actually answer it.

Planning an event is hard. Honor the event planner’s schedule by preparing a talk that’s slightly shorter than your window to account for the crowd.

4. Laugh or move on if you make a mistake.

There are two types of mistakes you make when you speak. There’s the mistake that’s big enough that it’s funny, and you should sit on it for a minute and enjoy it with the crowd. That happened to me at the Orange Conference. I said something that was accidentally inappropriate in front of 6,000 people. I heard a few start laughing so I decided to ride the wave of the mistake and laugh along. It ended up being the biggest laugh I got during my speech.

The more common mistake is the small one you just move on from because it’s so inconsequential. If it’s a minor mistake don’t call attention to it. Just move on, more than likely the crowd didn’t even notice.

5. Have fun.

I know, I know, this is so cliche, but that doesn’t mean it’s false.

If you’re not up there on stage having fun, the crowd’s not gonna have fun either. If you’re wound up, the crowd won’t be relaxed. If you’re racing through your notes, the crowd will feel that too.

I get nervous when talking to big crowds like everyone else, but the times when I have the most fun on stage are the times where the audience does as well.

5 tips for speaking to 10,000 people or 10.
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You might never become a public speaker, but you’ll speak in front of a crowd at some point. You’ll present a college paper, deliver a project at work or make a speech at a wedding. Remember these tips for when do and you’ll have a great time, whether it’s 10,000 people or 10.

P.S. If you want to become better at public speaking or anything else, do the note card exercise on page 93 of my book Do Over.

 

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