Speaking and the Power of Live At-Bats

Baseball may be my first love. There. I said it.

The good news is my wife and I share this love, which fueled us to visit all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums before we turned 30. All thirty, yes, even Oakland.

The smell of rawhide, the raised stitching on a baseball's saddle, the sound of a cleat scuffing the batter's box, and the gasp of a crowd when the ball rockets skyward - these are the heartbeats of a diamond-loving, American pastime-playing fan.

The game feels different in the big leagues.

A hitter can look like a sure-fire Hall of Famer at Triple-A only to go oh-for-everything his first two weeks in the majors.

The size of the baseball doesn't change. The speed of pitches is a mostly negligible variance at that level. The base paths aren't magically longer in the jump from Triple-A to MLB.

But the margin for error is miniscule at that level. That's why one of the best practices for a rookie is to get as many at-bats as possible in the majors.

That same is true for speakers. While working with close to 1,000 speakers at every talent and experience level you can imagine, I discovered the connection between baseball and the stage.

Speakers who grow their stage presence, tonality, pacing, blocking, audience engagement, and delivery the most are the ones putting in good at-bats.

Not every speaking opportunity is a good at-bat. The size of the crowd largely does not matter nearly as much as how much you can learn from that opportunity.

I watched a speaker with a 10-year track record of speaking give a B+ performance in front of a whole stadium of people. That speaker gave the exact same speech in front of a different crowd of about 5,000 people a few weeks later. It was still a B+ speech.

The crazy part is this speaker knew there were gaps or missed opportunities in the first performance that made it a good but not great speech. The speaker chose not to make any changes, review any 'game film', listen to their speaking coach (not me), and kept every detail nearly identical.

Unless something changes, that speaker will get ovation after ovation - and still, not hit their full potential because he doesn't want to push himself anymore. In his words, "Jon, I've been doing this ten years. It's a great speech."

Another speaker I worked with named Jeff studies his speaking 'at-bats'. His message is focused on helping kids build self-confidence and live with greater character at school. Jeff records his talks. He does a debrief with every event planner at every school where he speaks. He listens to his coach.

Most importantly, Jeff makes constant, intentional changes to different elements of his talks and his overall speaking style.

Jeff's speaking requests (and fees) have more than doubled over the past two years.

Why? Because he makes that most of his 'at-bats' - every time he steps on any stage he makes the most of it.

If you want to be a Hall of Fame speaker, it demands Hall of Fame habits.

That's one of my gifts. I help coaches, consultants, and advisors leverage speaking opportunities to elevate their impact. Even if you have zero speaking experience, I can show you the practices, techniques, and habits it takes to be a natural, comfortable speaker in front of any audience.

If you're ready to use speaking to grow your impact and income, comment below or send me a message to start a conversation.