Mark Twain said “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.”
One of the most important foundations to a good speech, pitch or presentation is giving a damn about what you are saying and the impact of what you say and, absolutely key, whether you believe in what you say.
Case Study.
I was hired by a client who thought employee X needed presentation training. And employee X was, I must confess, dire when presenting about the company, their portfolio and their services. But when I shifted the conversation to employee X’s hobbies, she became animated and excited, her eyes flashed, her voice changed, and she spoke and presented like a professional.
The problem with employee X was, coming from one of the major consultancies, she simply didn’t believe in the claims this small, boutique consultancy was making. She needed convincing of what value the consultancy added – not presentation training. Once she understood and saw evidence of what the consultancy had done before, she started believing and became a key member of the consultancy’s pitch team.
She became a believer.
I am a professional speech writer and storyteller. Even if I write the best speech or presentation in the world, that is not enough. The people telling the story or giving the speech or the presentation have to believe it and be passionate about what they are saying.
So are you a believer? Forget saying you are passionate about something – that is a commentator’s word. Never say it unless you are talking about someone else – never about you!!! People should KNOW that you are passionate by the way that you speak.
If you need to claim possession of passion – you probably don’t have it. In fact, every time I hear someone say “I am passionate about X,Y,Z” I think they are lying.