The Leader’s Guide to CX was the top rated talk at last week's Salesforce event. Since I'm often asked for speaking advice, this seems like a good time to share some tips:

1. Work with the organizers on the brief
Ask what success looks like for them AND the attendees: What are the key themes? What are people hoping to learn? How does your talk fit into the agenda?

2. Research the audience
If it’s a B2B crowd and you deliver a canned talk full of B2C examples they’re going to think you’re a moron. If it’s a small group research attendees individually.

3. Never give the same talk twice
To give the best presentation for each event and audience you'll need to customize what you have or even start from scratch.

4. Rehearse
I ran my full presentation 20 times, including 3 runs back-to-back to build stamina and sear the contents into my memory.

5. Seek out criticism
I sent recordings of my rehearsals to people who are hard to please. Yes, they were critical. No, I didn’t care —their input made the end result better.

6. Have a ritual that puts you in the zone
I always listen to the same playlist, eat the same food and do the same stretches beforehand. It makes me feel calm, energized and ready to rip - just like you'll be.

Train hard, fight easy. Good luck!

See this post on LinkedIn