In November 2013, I had the honor and privilege to meet Doug Lipp at Disney University event in Bahrain. Being the Master of Ceremonies, I interacted a lot with Doug Lipp to make sure the event becomes a grand success for the delegates, the organizers and ,of course, to the speaker! Today, as I reflect back, I am so pleased that I met “Diligent Doug” who proved beyond doubt that “Diligence leads to Excellence!” Diligent Doug is a great role model to emulate when it comes to speech preparation.
Doug Lipp
Who is the audience?
The moment I met Diligent Doug, he asked me an important question that I recommend you consider before speaking to any audience: Who is the audience? Doug asked me several questions about the audience: Tell me more about them, what do they like and dislike about speakers, what was the experience of other international speakers with them. As I addressed his questions, Doug took detailed notes on the audience to make sure he builds a strong connection with them to convey his key ideas and messages. Our discussion on audience took place before dinner, during it and after it!
I was particularly amazed when Doug asked me to teach him basic Arabic greetings like Salam Alikum (Peace Be Upon You), Sabah Al-Khair (Good morning) and Shukran (Thank You). He practiced saying them again and again. Before moving on to another discussion, Doug asked me to repeat the greetings while he recorded them in his iPhone so that he practice them again before sleeping to make sure that he implant them in his memory. Effective speakers always know saying few words in the local language delights the audience and takes the speaker-audience connection to a higher level; consider the Assassinated President of USA John F. Kennedy when he spoke German and President Barrack Obama when he spoke Persian.
On connecting with the audience, Diligent Doug wanted to get the maximum possible connection. That is why he interacted a lot with the audience during coffee and book signing breaks. Because of this, the majority of the delegates commented positively about his likeability factor and approachability compared to other international speakers who spoke in live events in Bahrain during the past few years. Do you talk to your audience members? If not, you are missing out! Through such little talks you get more insights on who the audience members are, get more stories for your speech and perhaps, more business opportunities!
Dynamic Speech Contents
Moving on to Doug’s speech contents. He never left any speech segment or activity to chance. He shared with me what he was planning to say and do with the audience; in essence, I became his sounding board to see how best to approach his materials. This included his fake bad speech opening to illustrate a significant point early on in the event. As a Master of Ceremonies, this helped me a lot in inserting relevant remarks between the sessions of the event. I challenge to ask any delegate on whether they liked it when Doug imitated the sound of the cartoon character Donald Duck and you are surely going to hear a resounding “Yes.”
[youtube]http://youtu.be/Z7D9Y9koJ9A[/youtube]
To become an effective speaker, you must become a great listener first. Diligent Doug was a great listener. When we were having dinner with the organizers’ team members, I asked Doug: “Do you know what’s the purpose of this dinner?” He answered: “No, tell me about it, I’m all ears.” And he was truly: All ears! I told him Ghalib Al-Oraibi, Founder and Managing Director of Leaders Events, always tries to engage and motivate his employees to enhance their job performance. Since you are speaking about good customer service and employee engagement, perhaps, you could use this in your speech. To my absolute delight, Doug used the dinner example to support and illustrate one of his points during his talk.
Astonishing Attention to Details
I could go on and on speaking on the diligence of Doug Lipp. However, I do not wish to make this post a scholarly article! Accordingly, I will highlight three more things that Doug did as part of his speech preparation. First, he asked whether he should speak at his normal speech rate or to slow down a bit for the benefit of the audience and the live translators. Secondly, he asked for back up lapel microphone just in case we face a technical failure and he tested the microphones all over the event’s hall and luckily we found a no-go zone where the microphone would not work properly. Last but not least, and this is something that amused me a lot. Doug had two versions of his slides; each one with a different contrast ratio to be ready for any type of data projection equipments.
To make a lasting positive impression on audience, please keep in your mind this:
Diligence leads to Excellence!