Enough for him to make quite a bit of money in speaking, at the range of $5000 to $10,000 per engagement!

In case you are oblivious to who he is, David Lim is best known in Singapore for leading the 1st Singapore Mt Everest Expedition. This year, he is going to test his limits again by crossing the world’s largest salt desert (in Bolivia, South America) on foot, weathering the temperature variations of Bolivian winter between 15º C to -20ºC while pulling across Salar Carts weighing 12 kg across 175 km desert at the rate of nearly 30kms per day for 7 - 8 days.

That’s the distance he has to cover, which is essentially equivalent to FOUR Pan-Island Expressways joined together!

Imagine yourself weathering the blistering cold winter while travelling from Tuas to Changi, then back to Tuas, then back to Changi and then back to Tuas again.

So what make this daredevil worthy of being paid so much?

Coz’ he achieved the impossible!. That’s why. And we want to know how he did it. We, as the audience, perceived this as something extremely valuable, so much so that we are willing to pay a lot of money to get him to spill the beans.

So unless you have broken some world record or achieve an insurmountable task that no ordinary human has been able to, you are like me… Mr Ordinary. For now at least.

How then can Mr Ordinary - like you and me - be able to create so much impact and value in our speeches that people are willing to do anything including paying thousands to hear us speak?

I believe I found two subtle clues while watching David Lim gave a presentation at Asia Professional Speakers Chapter Meeting this evening.

1. Build Credibility Right From The Start

I am amazed at how quickly he built his credibility right from the beginning. FYI, I am not that familiar with this man… so I was rather skeptical at first. Remember this fact I share with you - in the first 30 seconds, the audience is the most skeptical and you the speaker is the most nervous. Hence having an impactful introduction is critical if you want to command the listening of your audience.

In the case of David Lim, he immediately explained why he is the best person to speak about the topic “Leveraging The Media To Double Your Income”. Firstly, he told us that he used to work in Singapore Press Holdings for many years. He then proceeded to share some insider “secrets” of how things work in the news room, information that only people working there will know of. Later, he showed us at least ten cuttings from both newspapers and magazines that he was featured in. Within minutes, the audience was clearly convinced that he was THE MAN to teach us how we can leverage the media.

We started to open up to him and resistance dropped. Learning begins.

Likewise, a lot of us conveniently forgets that having an impactful introduction is not enough. It only grabs attention for that one single moment but doesn’t guarantee the next moment. What will ensure the listening of your audience is your ability to show them that you deserved to be listened to.

In other words, you have to answer this question right from the start - “Why am I the best person to give you lead this presentation or share with you this message?” It builds credibility, dissolves skeptism and win your audience confidence. In Dale Carnegie’s book “Public Speaking For Success”, he shared three ways to do so.

1. Sincerity
There was no doubt that David was sincere. It helps that he was very audience-centric.

2. Be properly introduced
The emcee mentioned the credentials David has including being the President of the Asia Professional Speakers Association. He even brought up today’s newspaper cutting that features David’s new challenge in walking across the largest salt desert.

3. Speak out of your own experience
Almost every point he made was based on some kind of personal experience he had.

So as a reminder for your next speech, see if you can map every point you make to a lesson you have learnt or an experience you had. This will add a lot of credibility to what you have to say.

2. Be An Expert On Something

If you want to be paid for speaking, it is not just about the ability to entertain or speak eloquently, it is about the VALUE you provide for your listeners. And the value comes from your expertise and experience. You got to really know your stuff in order to ensure your audience benefit from your speech. And even if you are not speaking for money, you got to still have a certain level of knowledge on that topic to ensure that your audience learn something at the end of your speech. Otherwise, it will be a waste of their time and yours too. So how can you become an expert in a given field of interest?

Here’s a quote from Earl Nightingale that David Lim shared this evening. It left quite an impact in me and I would like to share it with you. It will help answer the above question too.

“Find a field of interest and study it for a minimum of one hour every day. In five years time, you will become an expert in that given field!”

What I really like about this quote is its simplicity! Like an ocean that began with a single drop of water, we too can acquire an ocean of knowledge through the accumulation of knowledge-droplets. So the next time you have to give a presentation, spend a significant amount of time to learn as much as you can about that topic. Search the internet. Talk to other experts. Attend seminars. Read books.

Though you may not be an expert overnight, you will be in a better position to command the listening of your audience. And perhaps one day, you will even be regarded as an expert in that particular topic and start moving your way from Ordinary to Extra-Ordinary. Just like what David Lim did…

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach

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