Polished speaker → trusted message
- mayadolgin
- Sep 9
- 3 min read
(September 9, 2025 Newsletter)
I’m in an airport lounge coming back from an annual trip to prep the speakers of a big industry conference for their mainstage keynote addresses, product demos, and customer interviews.
The interesting thing about coming in for these sorts of engagements is that I have no input on the content in advance and am expected to focus my attention almost entirely on aesthetics.
So as I sit and reflect on my fourth year with this company, I’m thinking about what differentiates good speakers from excellent speakers. It’s the polish.
Why it matters
Your team can help you come up with a compelling story. You and they can spend weeks, if not months, crafting the right cadence, examples, throughlines, punchlines.
By the way, so can AI these days. In less time and sometimes just as well.
But when you step onto that stage, it’s you and your polish. No AI, no team, no one, can smile at the right moments, land the jokes exactly right, quicken your pace or slow it down to make it all come alive for the audience – except for you.
Polish, on one foot
Effective use of the stage: We tend to shift, rock, pace, or wander when we’re unsure of ourselves. Steady feet and deliberate walking are indications that you’re grounded and that your audience can trust you. Plant your feet. Period. Decide when you’re going to walk, where you’ll stop, and for how long before you start moving again.
No fillers. Period. You can check out my newsletter from earlier this summer about getting right of “kind of,” “you know,” sort of,” and “like.” You want to sound natural? Even practice the moments when you’ll look like you’re thinking so the pacing is right.
Connect to the audience: It’s all for them, isn’t it? Give them a big warm welcome when you come out. Look out at the crowd, not at confidence monitors or notes. Talk TO them. Involve them with a rhetorical question every now and then.
Bring out the best in others: When you have a partner up on the stage, your primary role is to make them look amazing. Look very interested in what they’re saying. Encourage the audience to clap at good points they make. Give them a big high five, fist bump, or hug when they join or leave.
Nail the transitions: Make sure your opening and closing are rock solid. Practice both just as much as the meat (the content you probably know best is in the middle of the presentation). Rehearse the transitions between slides until they’re smooth. Um’s, ok so’s, and pausing to look at the talk track and nod to yourself before continuing… they’re all dead giveaways to your audience that you’re not totally present.
Final thoughts:
If you have multiple opportunities to speak in front of audiences, take the above and work on them one at a time.
If you have one or two big opportunities, create smaller opportunities in between so you can accelerate your learning curve between the high stakes engagements.
And of course, if there is anything I can do to support you in preparing for your next big presentation, don’t hesitate to reach out. You deserve to look polished and confident and it’s easier to prep with a buddy than alone.
The Coaching Corner
Let your team hash it out first
If you have two team members (or more) debating something, encourage them each to have their turn and respond to each other.
Of course, if it crosses any lines into personal attacks, that’s different, but as long as they’re staying focused on which idea will prevail, resist the urge to jump in and be a tiebreaker too quickly.
At some point, if they haven’t reached alignment, you can add in your two cents and effectively end the debate. Emphasize that you appreciate hearing all sides and now it’s time to move on.
Recommendations
Brené Brown is back! A new book, Strong Ground, is coming, which means the podcast tour has begun. Here she is on The Daily previewing the main messages of the new book, which will be out in October. I’m sure there will be many more thought provoking interviews coming…
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