My virtual keynote speech

Not everyday do I get the opportunity to articulate my thoughts and beliefs to a group of rising and current leaders.  I had just this opportunity on the evening of October 3rd, when I was asked to deliver a keynote speech for the SigEp Balanced Man Scholarship Banquet for the SigEp chapter at Wright State University.  

This wasn’t a normal banquet, as the whole program was delivered virtually a la COVID-19.  From the mingling amongst guests, to the recognition of scholarship winners, and the delivery of speeches.  In my role, I was given a prompt of “share advice around personal and professional development”, and you have 10 minutes.  There are a lot of ways that I could have taken this, but I immediately knew that I had to share one of my favorite concepts, Big Hairy Audacious Goals by Jim Collins (BHAGs).  I will recap what the speech consisted of later on, but first I have to share my three biggest takeaways about effectively delivering a keynote speech via Zoom.

• Recognize the “elephant in the room”.  Don’t shy away from the fact that delivering a speech or an event virtually is unique.  Life is different for all of us right now, and that is okay.  Acknowledge that and openly discuss this throughout.  Embrace the uniqueness of a virtual event and celebrate this new experience with the audience.  It is okay to be vulnerable with your audience about how different this is for you.  

• Harness the power of visuals.  Visuals have always been and will always be important for giving a memorable speech, but I would argue even more in a virtual environment.  A Harvard Business Review study suggests that 65% of your virtual audience is actively multi-tasking.  Presenting your audience with visuals, at least allows your audience to “catch up” to what you are saying if they do get caught multi-tasking and lose focus.     As the audience is watching a speech through their screen, a visual helps keeping them engaged and following your points throughout.  

• Embrace the impact of inflection and body language.  One of my greatest skills in public speaking is that I have always been a good projector and I can “work a room” to keep my audience engaged.  Unfortunately those skills are pretty useless when engaging with people virtually.  Instead of projecting to my audience, I had to instead intentionally change the inflection of my voice at different points throughout to help keep the audience engaged and reinforce key concepts.  While presenting I also learned about how important body language still is.  Even virtually, a smile will always be infectious, and if you can see even one person in the audience, read their body language to understand if they are following along and engaged.  

I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about giving a keynote speech virtually and even more to share some of my favorite beliefs and concepts.  I spent approximately 10 minutes sharing my approach to Jim Collins’ Big Hairy Audacious Goals.  This concept has served me time and time again and was a large piece in building my 26th-year goals through my goal-setting framework.

Step 1 – Identify your key values and use that moral compass.  Every goal and decision that you make should be rooted in your values and interests.  

Step 2 – Look to the future.  Think far into the future.  What are your wildest dreams?  What is that goal?  Make it crystal clear; just like JFK did when he declared the desire to go to the Moon!  These goals should be arguably unrealistic, causing those around you to think they won’t ever be accomplished.  

Step 3 – Focus on what is next.  Now that you have your long-term goal in mind, identify what 365 days from today looks like.  What do you need to accomplish in one year that will drive you towards that long-term BHAG?  As you identify that one year goal, be honest, and confront the brutal facts.  What is actually holding you back from accomplishing that goal?  Diagnose these problems and tackle them.  

Step 4 – Get tactical.  Once you know where you are going, set up the plan for how you are going to get there.  What do you need to do tomorrow, and the day after, to move one step closer to your Big Hairy Audacious Goals?  Once you know what you need to do, measure it.  What gets measured, get done.  As you accomplish these daily tasks every day you will begin to experience the flywheel effect by Jim Collins, propelling you forward toward the ultimate attainment of your Big Hairy Audacious Goals.  

As I wrapped up my framework on setting and accomplishing your BHAGs, I left the group with five key elements that are critical for success throughout your goal setting and accomplishing process.

1. Write down your plans.   
2. Build a team.
3. Create visuals.  
4. Ask for feedback.
5. Reflect.

The world spins and moves everyday whether we like it or not.  And if the world is going to move, I would rather move with it in purpose than just drifting along.