4 Lessons From Judging the Largest Inspirational Speaking Competition in North America

Public speaking has never been more aspirational.

Sure, most people are still terrified of actually doing it. But almost everyone dreams of being able to conquer the stage and inspire millions, thanks to platforms like TED, Google Talks, Goalcast, and Mindvalley.

One platform you may not have discovered is Speaker Slam.

Speaker Slam is the largest inspirational speaking competition in North America. Every two months, dozens of speakers compete by delivering speeches on that competition’s theme in under 5 minutes.

I’m a full-time professional speaker and a speaking coach for aspiring TEDx speakers and leaders who want to be more influential.

So when Speaker Slam asked me to judge their June 2021 competition, I was honored. It was a wonderful evening with so much raw talent, vulnerability, and bravery.

But it was also eye-opening.

Competition vs Professionals

It occurred to me:

The same techniques that help you win a speaking competition often hurt you in the world of professional speaking, and vice versa.

I saw it all the time in the magic community. Award-winning magicians who couldn’t get booked for paid gigs, and full-time pros who couldn’t win a competition.

The night I judged Speaker Slam, the same mistakes showed up repeatedly. They were the kind of mistakes that at best break an audience’s engagement, and at worst prevent speakers from getting booked on real stages by paying clients.

So, in this article I’m going to outline 4 quirks of competing that you should avoid in your professional speaking journey.

To do that, we need to understand the context in which these “sins” were committed.

Speaker Slam Rules

There are four judges and 10 competitors. We are given just 60 seconds after each speaker to evaluate them on 6 weighted categories, which I’ll list here in order of most weight to least:

• Storytelling (30 pts)
• Universal Message (25 pts)
• Emotional Connection (15 pts)
• Presentation (10 pts)
• Uniqueness (10 pts)
• Authenticity (10 pts)

How a competition weighs each category tells you a lot about what to expect from their participants.

As a professional speaker and speaking coach, I was judging from the perspective of event planners and conference attendees. The questions I kept asking myself were,

“Would this speech get someone booked on a real stage for a paying client?”

“How would a real live conference audience respond to this speaker?”

The Goal of this Article

While I’m using the word “sin” to describe these mistakes, let’s be clear:

I’m not suggesting any of these “sins” work against speakers who compete in Speaker Slam. Quite the opposite. They (mostly) work well for this particular competition.

The problem is when folks try to launch into the world of professional speaking using the tools of competing.

In fact, that’s what Dan and Rina, the founders of Speaker Slam, help speakers learn in their program Emerging Speakers.

What helps you win a speaking competition is not necessarily what event planners are looking for when they spend $5,000+ hiring a keynoter.

Each venue, each medium, requires something different of its speakers.

Most of the 6 and 7 figure professional speakers I know would lose to amateurs in a speaking competition, just like professional entertainers lose to amateurs on America’s Got Talent.

A handful of former Speaker Slam winners have built massively successful careers as professional speakers, and they did so by avoiding some of the very techniques that helped them win.

Here they are.

Sin #1: Too Much Detail

‘Storytelling’ has become something of a buzzword in the business community over the last decade or so. Again, this is largely thanks to TED and similar platforms prioritizing story over research, and programs like Donald Miller’s Storybrand.

It’s also the most valuable category in Speaker Slam’s evaluation form.

And hey, I’m a sucker for storytelling. A huge part of my speaker coaching program is dedicated to modernizing the hero’s journey and understanding the science and psychology of how to persuade via storytelling.

Everyone loves a good story.

But that’s the thing- all this emphasis on storytelling has misled people into believing it’s merely telling a story that matters.

It’s not. What’s much more important than telling a story is how you tell it.

Over and over I listened to competitors describe minutiae in their personal stories, the way a 10th grader writes a paper when they’re trying to reach the word count. 

“The smooth, silky feel of the recently pressed bedsheet caressed my warm, vulnerable flesh, just awoken from a deep slumber doused in dreams of a better, kinder, more generous world.”

Oi.

The trouble is, sometimes super detailed descriptions can grip the audience emotionally, and other times they bog down your speech, belaboring a point you’ve already made. If you can’t tell the difference, run everything through this lens:

Does describing this part of my story in detail immediately and obviously support the big idea of my talk?

If not, it has no business being in a short-form speech. “I woke up having dreamt of a kinder world” might get the job done.

Sin #2: Performing Instead of Conversing

Gone are the days of Tony Robbins and Zig Zigler.

We no longer want our heroes to be larger-than-life, unattainable figures. We want them to be relatable and authentic, to speak like we’re a close friend.

The format of Speaker Slam is similar to creating content for social media. Competitors submit a 4-minute, pre-recorded speech directly to the camera and without a real-time audience.

As Marshall Mccluhan famously said, the medium is the message. And that particular medium pushes people to perform, rather than converse.

Some of the speeches sounded like slam poetry. Which, of course, isn’t a bad thing in-and-of-itself. I love me a good slam, snaps all around. And it works in the context of a pre-recorded video intended for social media consumption.

But real live audiences don’t want a monologue. If they did, they’d go to the theater. They want a dialogue. They want to be part of the conversation.

Consider this: If someone from the audience bumped into you at the hotel bar after the conference, would they feel like they were talking to the same person they saw on stage?

So, if you’re thinking about speaking professionally in front of a live audience, work on adjusting your tone from performanitive to conversational. Imagine you’re having deep talks with a friend in a coffee shop, or around a fireplace.

Don’t try to speak to 100 people. Speak to one person times 100.

And remember: Bad speakers talk at the audience. Good speakers perform for the audience. Great speakers converse with the audience.

Sin #3: Being In It

It’s been said that speakers should tell stories that are scars, not open wounds.

A handful of competitors told stories that they were clearly still in the middle of, or had not yet fully worked through emotionally. Yes, it was gripping. 10 points for authenticity and emotional connection.

But it was also uncomfortable. The audience shouldn’t feel like they’re hosting a therapy session for the speaker. It’s an unfair burden and far too much to ask.

The other problem with revealing an experience that you haven’t fully worked through yet is consistency. Yes, you’ve gripped me with your emotional delivery today, because you’re in it. You’re feeling it right now.

But what if you have to give a speech when you’re not in it emotionally? When it’s not so fresh? When you’re not feeling it right now?

Professionals deliver their message and tell their stories with the same weight every single time, no matter what.

In the words of Steve Martin:

“Being great is easy. Everyone has nights where everything is clicking. What’s hard is being good, consistently good, night after night, no matter what the abominable conditions.”

That requires perspective, which you can’t get in the middle of an experience.

So, don’t tell a story you’re still living. Wait until the dust has settled and the scar has formed.

Sin #4: Trying to Appeal to Everyone

Again, this is a product of how Speaker Slam’s evaluation forms are weighted.

So many competitors’ core messages were exactly the same, because they were each trying to find something universal.

If you’re trying to reach everyone on social media or intentionally go viral, you need a message that absolutely anyone might connect with. The problem, as Seth Godin says, is that the only way to do something everyone likes is to be average.

General motivational messages about overcoming adversity, pushing through failure, finding joy in darkness, are outdated. The speakers who get away with generic inspirational speeches are already famous for something else, and being hired to speak for their name recognition ticket draw.

If you want to speak professionally, your message needs to be specific.

Develop a narrow message from your perspective serving a focused audience. That’s what event organizers are looking for today: specialists in a field with a unique perspective, delivery, or both.

How to Evaluate Professionals

Speaker Slam’s evaluation form leads to speeches aimed at maximizing their chances of winning – like any competition. Again, that’s not a bad thing at all. You should always play within the rules of the game you’re in.

But professional speakers are evaluated by event planners and conference committees on very different metrics. What I’m hoping is that this article illuminates the difference between speaking for a competition or social media post, and speaking in a way that gets you paid.

Here’s how I would weight the same categories, but for professional speakers:

• Presentation & Authenticity (40 pts)
• Uniqueness (20 pts)
• Storytelling (20 pts)
• Emotional Connection (15 pts)
• Universal Message (5 pts)

If you’re going to represent a company or conference on the big stage, taking up an hour of precious time, the most crucial element is your presentation: How well do you present your ideas, and do you fit within the vision of this event? I’m lumping authenticity in with presentation because it’s a given today. Inauthentic speakers don’t get booked, period.

Next, uniqueness. As we’ve discussed, organizers want someone fresh. Audiences want to hear something new. What makes you different from the tens of thousands of other speakers they could choose?

Tied with uniqueness is storytelling. Yes, it’s really important, when it’s done well. Expert storytellers engage audiences and hold their attention long enough to deliver the main message and make it stick, which is what professional speakers are expected to do.

And of course, when you’re engaging with powerful storytelling, you will naturally form an emotional connection with the audience. That’s why I’ve listed it so far down. It’s a natural byproduct of presentation, authenticity, uniqueness, and storytelling. When you’re doing everything right, you shouldn’t have to worry about making an emotional connection. You will.

Lastly and for reasons already discussed, universal message. Unless you’re speaking at a super general conference for a super general audience (hardly any of those exist anymore), there’s little-to-no value in having a universal message.

Avoid these mistakes and you’ll be on your way to paid, professional speaking.

It’s Your Turn

If you aspire to speak on a TEDx stage, or if you’re a leader who needs to be more influential in less time, join my self-paced program Conquer the Red Dot.

My students TEDx talks and newfound message clarity have led to:

• International movements that impact tens of thousands of people.
• Paid opportunities to speak in front of audiences who can be moved to positive action.
• The freedom and courage to quit the 9-5 and start a business that matters.
• Industry conversations about equality and diversity that inspire change.
• Transforming a 6-figure business into a 7-figure empire.

If you’re a coach, consultant, executive, author, speaker, small business owner, or nonprofit founder with a story to tell and a genuine desire to make the world a better place, take my word for it…

There is no better place to do it than on the Red Dot.

I’ll help you get there.