From Here to Autonomy

Real Advice on Public Speaking

I got a kick out of reading Tim Ferriss's post on how he prepares for a public speaking gig. Ironically Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, could take up an entire four-hour work week with just his recommended prep alone.

Still, I appreciated his no-nonsense approach to getting things done, and in this post his candid admission, despite much acclaim and speaking opportunities, of not being a natural public speaker. I can totally relate. People who know me probably think that's disingenuous coming from me, an extrovert, a Gemini, a communicator. But it's true. Sure I love to talk, but talk in an organized, engaging manner? That takes practice.

Five years ago, if someone asked me if I had a strategy for public speaking, I would have said something about winging it and going with the flow. I am oddly more comfortable with being asked to share something off the top of my head than a practiced response with chunks of sound bites. Unfortunately for me these days that ain't realistic. So I did what I had to, built a speaking prep routine.

Over the past few years I've established best practices that work for me, and maybe for you:

5 bad reasons to become an entrepreneur

1. Because you really need a job: Even as the economy is showing signs of life, the job market still sucks. I get it. I've been one of those people who, months into a downturn, thought "Hmmm, what if I started my own business?" But I should have looked a little deeper. Back in 2002 I teamed up with a woman who had run her own business for years to start a marketing consultancy for professional gurus. I figured, I loved to be around smart people, had a Rolodex of contacts and strong background in media, and I had a partner who knew the ins and outs of running a small business, so why not? But what I really wanted was work on my own terms.

We needed capital to pull together marketing materials--something that I really didn't have. We needed to invest in a designer, an accountant, and the legal procedures to properly incorporate our business--expenses that felt like amputations. All I wanted to do was the business development and the client work, none of this business-planning stuff. After six months I had a heart to heart with my partner and realized: I don't want to start a business, I want to be hired to do work I'm good at. Big difference.

Sure there are businesses that have sprung from necessity, but unemployment is one of the worst reasons to become an entrepreneur. You are spending your resources at a time when you need them the most. The best time to consider entrepreneurship is when you are employed and drawn to doing something else. Then you can truly answer the question of whether you are committed enough to provide steep outlays of time and money to give your business the care it needs.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to take the bull by the horns when you are unemployed and drumming up your own work, but determine what it is you want: a paycheck, or your own business?

2. Because you want to work less. More flexible work schedule? Check. Fewer hours? Not exactly. Despite what I've read from people who have whittled down their workweeks to four hours, I still think that people who start businesses for a more leisurely lifestyle are not crazy, just delusional.

Some people eventually achieve a momentum and can allow others to do much of the heavy lifting, but by no means does this happen without a whole lot of elbow grease.

When we first formalized our business, my partners and I enjoyed the freedom of creating our own hours, but that didn't mean we could reduce them. And frankly, the more established our business became, the harder it became to do things on our personal schedules. Clients and investors could not be slotted in when it was convenient for all of us. Opportunities happen when they happen. Later when we received venture capital and hired staff to help us, we still had a lot of work to do--just a different scope of it. As we built a workplace that allowed for such things as varying commute times and child pick-ups, we still needed to adhere to the same general hours our employees did so that we could be available when they needed us, and then for everything else that came up.

The entrepreneur's challenge is not "How can I make money doing not very much?" It's "How do I fit the rest of life into my day?"