By Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE

For this article, I’m departing from my normal NSA topics of sales and marketing, which have been the topics of every presentation I’ve ever given at a convention (now known as Influence), a winter meeting (now known as Thrive), or an NSA chapter meeting. Today, I’m writing about something that has made me a better speaker on stage.

As professional speakers, we all understand the fundamentals of commanding the stage. We’ve mastered the timing of a well-placed pause, perfected our vocal modulation, learned how to read the room, and how to work the audience. Yet even after thousands of presentations, I find myself returning to three ideas that have nothing to do with technique but are crucial for delivering a successful presentation.

First, here’s some background on how I came to process these ideas.

Almost all my speeches focus on customer service and customer experience. Several years ago, I was invited to speak to a number of businesses in Lagos, Nigeria. I conducted a public seminar and three private sessions for the event sponsors. In addition, I did a presentation for the Workplace Youth Initiative program, where the audience was about 2,000 young people aged 18-30.

I knew that my typical customer experience content was not what they needed (or wanted) to hear. Instead, my message was about how to be amazing, at work and in life. They wanted ideas on how to break away from poverty and start a business. The speech was successful, and afterward, there was plenty of time for “questions and answers.” The first few questions were about starting a business, and I quickly realized that many of them wanted to start a speaking business.

Answering questions about how to get into the business, book a speech, and everything we all know and take for granted as the foundational principles of our business, could take hours or days to answer. There are week-long workshops on how to deliver a successful presentation. However, I thought about an answer I could give them that, while short, would impart important knowledge about being a better speaker. My final answer was not about how to get a speaking engagement—not even about presentation skills or showmanship. All that is extremely important, but without the following three must-knows that I’ve practiced for years, the success of the speech is at risk.

Spoiler Alert:

You probably already know the following information. Some may call this common sense. Unfortunately, it’s not always so common. I’ve seen speakers fail because they didn’t pay attention to one (or all three) of these ideas. With that in mind, here are the three must-knows that have helped me since early in my career—and I hope will help you—deliver an amazing and successful speech:

1. Know Your Audience:

   During my week in Nigeria, I presented to several different audiences. The Workplace Youth Initiative audience was different from the others. The others were corporate groups: executives, leaders, and customer service managers from different businesses. In my preparation leading up to the speech, I learned that almost everyone in this audience had not yet made it into the workforce. Had I delivered a typical customer service or CX presentation, I would have failed. The preparation was key. I asked the client to describe the audience in detail. In addition, I spent time talking to members of the audience as they were waiting for the program to begin. Some of what I learned made it into the speech. All of what I learned helped me understand the audience if even just a little bit more and gave me insight that made for a better presentation. It’s simple. The best speech in the world means nothing if it doesn’t relate to your audience.

2. Know Your Content:

   Be prepared. Study and know the information you are sharing in your speech. Rehearsal is nice. It helps you plan what you’re going to talk about. It helps you create a flow and gives you comfort and confidence. If you don’t know your content, you will always feel like something is missing. That “emptiness,” for lack of a better term, will block you from delivering the speech you’re capable of. It might cause you to have stage fright, not because you are afraid of the audience, but because you weren’t prepared when you put yourself in front of them. The nervousness of being in front of an audience will pale in comparison to the fear you’ll have if you don’t know what to say next – because you weren’t prepared.

3. Know Yourself:

   This is an interesting concept that probably doesn’t mean what you think it does. In short, take care of yourself. Knowing yourself, in this case, is about knowing your health and capabilities. I cannot go to sleep at 2 a.m. and get up four hours later at 6 a.m. to deliver a speech at 8. I’ll be exhausted, and even if my audience doesn’t notice, I will. I’ll be tired. It will be harder to concentrate. I’ll know I didn’t treat myself the way I needed to in preparation for a successful speech. I have a goal when I have a speaking engagement the next morning: In bed by 10. It doesn’t matter how much fun I have the night before the speech. It doesn’t matter if the client is taking me out for a fancy dinner. The goal is “In bed by 10.” Another example is that I try not to go to bed immediately after dinner. Otherwise, I don’t sleep well. There are other “rituals” I practice prior to the speech. In short, knowing yourself means knowing your limits. You’ll never be at your best if you don’t do what you know is best for yourself.

As mentioned, this isn’t about speaking skills and techniques. There are plenty of speech coaches you can learn from and courses you can take. Even after doing this for 40+ years, I have a speech coach, NSA’s own Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE, Cavett Award Recipient, from whom I continue to learn. She’s attended my speeches in person and watched my videos. And after all this time, she continues to offer ideas, tips, and techniques to make me a better speaker. But, anything she teaches me will be lost if I don’t know my audience, know my content, and know (and take care of) my physical self.

Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE, is a customer service/CX expert, researcher, keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. He started his business in 1983 and, in 1988, made the best business decision he ever made; He joined NSA.