An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Start with dessert — Do not introduce yourself to start. Someone probably just did as you took the stage. My approach is to JOLT the audience with a powerful stat or statement as my first words rather than the traditional small talk start.
At some point in our lives, many of us will have to give a talk to a large group of people. What does it take to be a highly effective public speaker? How can you improve your public speaking skills? How can you overcome a fear of speaking in public? What does it take to give a very interesting and engaging public talk? In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker” we are talking to successful and effective public speakers to share insights and stories from their experience. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Smith.
Chris Smith is the cofounder of Curaytor (an Inc. 500 fastest-growing business) and he is one of the four best marketers under 40, according to the American Marketing Association. His book, The Conversion Code, is taught at colleges like Johns Hopkins University and he has been a guest lecturer at NYU.
Chris used the blueprint in his book to quickly grow his own company to eight figures in annual recurring revenue, without raising any venture capital. His work has been featured in Adweek, Forbes, Fortune, and many other publications.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in a small town around orange groves, chicken farms, and cow pastures. It’s called Polk County and so people joke that Polk stands for People Of Little Knowledge. I spent every other weekend with my mom in various trailer parks.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
My dad used to say that if I could get paid to talk I would be rich. He was right. My start presenting was doing inside sales. Then I moved to outside sales. Then to training. Then to trade show panels. Then I finally started speaking on my own.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
One speaker story that comes to mind was when I was visiting Calgary for a keynote and the other keynote was Mr. Wonderful. As I was going through customs they were grilling me and nothing I could say would appease them. They eventually asked me to prove I was a professional speaker by showing them the event website.
When I pulled it up it was me and Mr. Wonderful. They got super excited and were immediately like, “oh you know Mr. Wonderful come on in. That is the day I learned he was a Canadian.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Well I’ve almost peed myself on stage because when I first started I never drank any water before the talk so my voice would get raspy by the end. So, I over corrected and drank WAY too much water one time and ran off the stage out a side door to find the nearest urinal the second my speech was over.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
One thing I’ve learned about family, mentors and role models is that you actually benefit as much or more from the terrible ones than you do from the good ones. You learn what not to be. They teach you how not to act. They show you what not to do.
Those are more valuable lessons in my opinion.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging and intimidating. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
Failure is a required ingredient of success. You can’t become a business legend without some.
What drives you to get up everyday and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?
Stop chasing leads and start attracting clients. Marketing and salespeople are annoying and consumers are tired of it. The byproduct of my teaching people how to be better at marketing and sales is that it benefits all who their marketing reaches. Not just them.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I’ve got a mobile app for kids called Slumber and a collectibles company called Business Legendz coming soon. Both are passion projects with massive upside.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Ignore the noise. There is a lot of it. If you aren’t positive in sales you don’t eat. Enthusiasm is a major key to success.
Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.
Start with dessert — Do not introduce yourself to start. Someone probably just did as you took the stage. My approach is to JOLT the audience with a powerful stat or statement as my first words rather than the traditional small talk start.
Nail the first minute — I don’t practice my talks but I do think deeply and specifically about the first minute. My goal is to get an interaction and a laugh. After that, I’m golden.
Perform — It’s a stage and you are giving a performance. You are a verbal artist. An orator. The audience wants to be moved and inspired and fired up when they leave. That requires tons of energy on your end and embracing that while up there you shouldn’t be yourself you should be the two notches higher version of yourself.
Make them laugh and make them cry — Being funny is my security blanket. I know what gets a laugh and when I need to get back on track I reach for a joke I know will slay. Even though I am funny throughout I added poignant moments too. Because I don’t take that route often it makes it even more powerful when I do.
Close — Your talk is not over unless you have clearly outlined the next steps in working with you or keeping in touch. Tell them to follow you right now. Put your email or phone number up and say message me right now. Getting good at closing from the stage can be the difference between a career as a speaker or it being a hobby.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
The only way is to tackle it head on and get up there. In most cases AFTERWARDS it wasn’t as bad as it was in your head. You will always get butterflies your goal is to get them to fly in a line.
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Equal opportunity for entrepreneurship. There are so many people who have amazing ideas and are willing to do the work but they don’t get a chance.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
I would be okay with Seth Godin joining me for lunch. I’m his heir apparent he just doesn’t know that yet.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
https://www.theconversioncode.com/contact
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
Author Chris Smith On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
