The Proactive Speaker: Introductions
Another place we tend to get passive as speakers is in the bio/introduction—what is going to be said and by whom. And, once more, the organizers will only be grateful when we are proactive. The best thing about tackling the introduction in advance is that we can off-load the bragging we often feel obliged to do in order to gain credibility. For our Charlottesville TEDx, we promised our speakers a thoughtful, rich, thorough, personal, generous, and loving introduction. This meant that our speakers could jump right into their talk rather than reassuring the audience they were worth listening to. Our phenomenal Emcees (pictured here are Kellie Sauls and Richard Averitt) spent lots of time researching the introductions and ran everything by the speaker and their coach to ensure that the intro elevated the speaker without giving away the content of the talk.
It is not only hard to talk about our own credentials, it can sound desperate, narcissistic, or sales-y, and runs the risk of putting the audience off. It also takes away from the purpose of the talk—not to talk about ourselves, but to talk about our work in the world.
Here’s what I recommend:
WHO
First, ask if someone is introducing us. If so, who? If not, we are proactive and request that someone introduce us. If they don’t have anyone available, we can always find someone ourselves! Reach out, make friends with the other speakers, organizers, tech crew, bring a friend to introduce us. If there is really, truly, no one to introduce us, we just let it go and jump into the talk, knowing that when we are compelling, people will look us up and read our bio themselves. The mystery is alluring!
Recently, a client was doing an interview about her new book with another well-known author. They were told to introduce themselves. I recommended that they introduce each other, instead. The author was relieved, happy to shine the light on her partner, and her partner was thrilled to celebrate my client. Be creative. Be proactive. There are always choices.
WHAT
Rather than waiting for the organizer to do a web search for our bio, we can send along a short, pithy, punchy bio in advance. Load it up with our accolades and accomplishments—let someone brag for us!