SPEAK LIKE A DON

Props that better your speaking presentations, get you booked more
& make you money as a public speaker.

Copyright 2021 © Emeka Nobis.

The moral rights of the author of this book have been asserted.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval

system without the prior written permission of the author.

Printing or distributing this work without the prior written

permission of the author or publisher is highly prohibited.

Published by:
Switchpath Consulting
101A Brookstone Street,
GRA Phase 2, Port Harcourt.
www.switchpath.ng

Cover Design & Layout: WORITAL

 Contents

Introduction ............................................................................v

Bind Them With A Spell ..........................................................1

Those In The Shadows Aren’t Invited ...............................5
Prove Your Mettle ...............................................................10
Only Experts Are Invited To Speak ..................................15
Don’t Waste People’s Time ................................................19
Don’t Be Sectional, Don’t Give Them Your Jaw ............22
Be Sensitive To Culture......................................................24
Use Slides Sensibly .............................................................28
Anything Can Go Wrong ....................................................31
Practice Begets Mastery.....................................................35
Revisit Your Gigs ................................................................38
When Invited, Tame Your Gluttony ................................40
A few words on inviting speakers to speak at
your event ............................................................................43

A bit about me .....................................................................48

 Introduction

I remember my first ever speaking gig.

I’d been invited by the cousin of a student I’d taught during

the compulsory one year youth service after university.

But before you continue reading, I want to be your buddy so

we can chat whenever. Quickly click here so we connect on
WhatsApp.

So…

He wanted me to speak to fourth year students of his faculty

concerning life after school.

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That day I dressed like I was going to speak at the United
Nations; suit and tie adorned beautifully to make the best of
impressions.

Since 2011 I can’t exactly recollect how many speaking gigs

I’ve had, but they’re very many. In churches, at seminar, in
companies, at conferences, online forums, and at events, I’ve
gained lots of experiences speaking to many audiences.

This resource is borne out of my experiences, noting the

things I call props that have helped me do better and climb
the ladder of success as a public speaker.

I serve them to you here with relish and delight.

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 Bind Them
With A Spell

Every speaking session should be viewed as a performance.

It’s a time to show your audience that you’re worth your
mettle and that inviting you was the best decision that they
ever made.

As you’re climbing the stage to speak, people will immediately

begin to have ideas about you. That’s within the bracket of
perception.

Trust me, this perception can swing from utter excitement to

indifference to downright denunciation of your personality
even before you open your mouth to speak.

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 SPEAK LIKE A DON

Some are there to happily receive from you.

Some are there to size you up because of your age.
Some are there to pacify their beliefs about certain speakers.

There are lots that go on in people’s minds.

As a speaker, you’re human. You want to be liked while you’re

speaking. You want to be validated that you did great as a
speaker. There’s nothing absolutely wrong with such feelings.

It’s an innate desire to want to swing all ideas in people’s

heads as you mount the stage from the feelings of indifference
to the feelings of excitement, attentiveness and openness to
receive the message you’re passing across.

How do you do this?

It starts with your bio.

Your hosts MUST receive a well-prepared bio of you before

you’re to speak. That can be in written, audio or video format.
It has to be either read out or played for the audience to have
a feel of who you are, what you’ve achieved, and a perception
of your capability to influence their lives through your spoken
word.

You bio should contain the following...

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 EMEKA NOBIS

1. Your background. Your educational background works

wonders. People want to know where you’re coming from.
Your accomplishments, awards gotten should be included.
The more accomplished you are, the more people believe that
you’ve got something worth to offer to the world.

2. Media appearances. If you’ve appeared on TV, radio, print

media or on foreign media, they should be mentioned.

3. Marital status. Depending on the audience, if your bio

reads “She’s married to her husband and they have 3 children
together”, it can do wonders in certain climes where culture
plays a big role, especially with regards to family values.

These 3 are fundamental, but more can be added.

However, note that reading your bio shouldn’t be another

session on its own. You can bore people if its lengthy. I advise
people to limit the reading of their bios to 2 minutes maximum.
I love one-minute reads. In my opinion, that’s perfect.

So you may be thinking now. What if your bio isn’t as great

as the audience might expect, especially for someone just
starting out, with no TV, radio, magazine appearances, and
possibly has never been paid for speaking yet? I’ll say this. We
all grow. As to the level you are, you have a history, a story and

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a message in your heart. Those can be included. As real and as

authentic as you can be, those are mind-swinging items.

So, go now and craft your bio if you don’t have one. Polish it
so that you can have it ready when you’re called on to speak.

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 Those In The
Shadows Aren’t
Invited

Of what use is speaking in public if you’re not seen?

You need to be seen to talk to an audience.

In 2011 when I wanted to start speaking in public, I had no

clue as to how to be invited to speak in public to an audience.
I loved the likes of Tony Robbins and all the big speakers I’d
seen on TV, but how could I get to speak on stage like them?

That year I’d launched my first book titled The Profound Life.
One day after service in church, I had the leading to go see our
then Senior Pastor, Cosmas Garvey, in church. I got bold and
went to his office.

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 SPEAK LIKE A DON

When he ushered me in, I simply told him I’d written a book

that I’d love him to have. The meeting didn’t last up to 15
minutes. Three days later, I got a call from Pastor Cosmas.
I went to his office. He said, “I want to put up a 3-day
empowerment program for our church members and I’ll like
for you to speak to them on those 3 days.” 3 whole days? I was
in a trance. Shortly, the flier came out and I was listed among
other pastors in church to speak during the 3 days.

I prepared like I was going to appear before the Presidents of

different nations. Truth be told, I gave it my best shot. Those
3 days remain the most remarkable moments of my career as
a public speaker. I owe a lot of gratitude to Pastor Cosmas for
giving me the platform to kick off.

Thereafter, I got a call from a student I’d taught during my

NYSC days. His cousin was looking for someone to speak to
them in their department on the topic, Life After School. He
asked me if I could handle it. Of course, I accepted. I dressed
in suit and for 60 minutes I spoke to the students of his
department at Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.

How have I grown over the years, getting speaking

engagements regularly every month?

I asked people to let me speak on their platforms. I started

with my friends. Some of them were pastors and so I reached

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 EMEKA NOBIS

out. Some let me, some turned me down, but I was relentless.
I wasn’t asking for money to speak, I just enjoyed the thrill
of being invited to speak at seminars, close-door meetings,
parties, workshops, in churches, and conferences.

I don’t ask to speak at events these days, but I started off by

asking.

Today, make a list of your friends who have platforms. Reach

out. Be open to the fact that you will face rejections, but ask,
nevertheless.

Tell people that you’re available to speak. I do so from time

to time by telling my audience that I’m available to speak for
FREE at their events if they’re able to cover flights, feeding,
accommodation and welfare. They love it and they invite me
to speak.

Make noise about your speaking engagements. These days,

I don’t post many pictures of flights taken to speak or the
highlights of my speaking gigs, but to be noticed, you’ve got
to be in the faces of people and show evidences that you’re a
public speaker.

Take a friend along who records you. A smartphone is enough

to take snippets of your speaking session. Take as many
pictures as possible - while speaking, with the hosts, with the

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 SPEAK LIKE A DON

guest speakers, with the attendees. Your hosts may give your
pictures later, but there’s something that Nigerians call “as e
de hot.” You’ve got to enjoy the excitement of the present.

Splash them all over your platforms - WhatsApp, Facebook,

Instagram, everywhere!

Use everything to your advantage. If you see your picture

on the billboard done by the hosts, snap it and write about
it. If you are invited to speak on radio about the event, tell
everybody about it. If you’re being flown to speak, take as
many airport and airplane pictures as you can.

When you meet people of high impact in the society where

you went to speak, please don’t keep quiet about it. People
MUST and SHOULD know that you speak in public. You
MUST showcase your thoughts using the platforms available
to you.

Social media isn’t a place for tomfoolery. You’ve got to show

that your brain isn’t filled with dust.

While sharing, note that while you should be inspiring and

motivational, know that organizations and people aren’t just
keen on motivational talks. They want results. That’s why
they pay heavily for speakers. So, share your ideas, thoughts,

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 EMEKA NOBIS

strategies, processes, stories, failures and successes. That’s

what will get you invited.

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 Prove Your
Mettle

While I advise that asking to speak on platforms can raise

your chances for profiting from public speaking, you’ve got to
accept that people protect their platforms.

Let me address you if you’re seeking church platforms.

In as much as I believe that Christ came, not to establish
Christianity, but a kingdom, “church assemblies” are run by
established doctrines and ideologies. These vary from church
to church. Why is it so? I can’t pin an answer that will receive
universal acceptance.

A certain man was invited to speak in a church. He climbed

the altar and gave knocks to deeply-held doctrinal issues in

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 EMEKA NOBIS

the church. Mental pandemonium happened and the hostess

didn’t find it funny. That’s why churches screen a lot and will
invite folks who are doctrinally aligned with them.

As a speaker, if you go doctrinally tangential, you may knock

nails on your own coffin. Does this mean that churches won’t
invite you? No. It means that those who will invite you will
take time to screen you through referrals and observations.
That’s why I tell folks who are intentional about building their
personal brands should be careful how they publish content
and how they engage others on social media. You’re being
observed, whether you like it or not.

When invited, respect their doctrines even when you feel

them like pepper spray on your body. When they’re at peace
with you, they will invite you over and over.

Let me address you if you want to be invited by people to

speak on their own platforms.

Sadly, many requests by people to speak on my platforms are

undergirded by deeply selfish intentions that aren’t anywhere
near symbiosis. All they want is to ride on what has been built
to their own fame. Absolutely preposterous.

People have spent energies, resources and time to build their

platforms. You can’t just walk out from nowhere and expect

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 SPEAK LIKE A DON

to be given that opportunity, no matter how good you think

your message is. If that’s your mindset, kill it now. When you
have the intention to truly give great value to those who invite
you to speak, you’ve opened the doors to greater things.

And if you’re there murmuring and saying “The big boys

aren’t giving chances to the small boys to shine”, that thought
will eat up your intestines and you will wilt before you know
it. Man up and stop playing with those petty thoughts. They
will do you no good.

Finally, you’ve got to show that you’re not just depending on

others, but you can also do your thing.

How? Host your own speaking gigs.

The thing is that many people who want to speak in public just
want to be like the Tony Robbins of this world with all the glitz
and glamour without giving a lot of thoughts to the process
path that leads to fame. They want to host their own events
by filling a 1000-seater hall when they’re hitherto unknown.
That’s not to say that’s a bad desire, but there’s always the
place of organic growth that puts feathers of faith on your cap.

I started out by hiring a hall in Port Harcourt that cost me

N3000 an hour. It had a sitting capacity of 50 people. I’d pay

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 EMEKA NOBIS

for 3 hours and invite people for free. They’d fill the space and
listen to me speak.

I wanted to host a free speaking session in Owerri and told

my childhood friend about it. He told me he’d just moved into
a 3-bedroom apartment and that his sitting room was large
enough. He asked me to use it. That day, I hired 20 plastic
chairs at N50 per seat and added to his sitting room chairs. I
had a 4-hour meeting with about 30 people and felt so good.

In Lagos, I was introduced to a venue where I used to pay

N15,000 for a full day with access to projector, kitchen and
water. Even by charging 30 people N5,000 only, it was a great
deal that left me with N90,000 in my pocket after feeding
them and other expenditure.

While doing all the above for free, I was raking in the 10,000
hours that makes one to become an expert in speaking.

Grow your hours by doing as many free speaking gigs as you

can. It will get to that tipping point when you can comfortably
charge what you desire to speak for an hour and people will
pay.

When you do so and showcase all you’re doing, you’re

calling the eyes of those who need you to empower their own

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 SPEAK LIKE A DON

audiences with your spoken words. That’s how they start

sending you invitations to grace their own platforms.

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 Only Experts
Are Invited To
Speak

Whenever I am facilitating a presentation as a public speaker,

I have a slide that quickly explains who I am and what I do.

A quick look at my Facebook bio will immediately tell you

about Emeka Nobis. Depending on my audience and where
I’m invited to speak, I can tweak their perception of me by
shaping my bio to fit into the situation in the room.

However, a general description of me is: I guide individuals

who have a message to share with humanity, but are scared,
confused and doubtful to clarify their paths, build formidable
platforms and earn profitably by setting up effective systems.

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 SPEAK LIKE A DON

There are two key questions to ask when you want to define
yourself

Who do you serve?

How do you serve them?

You CAN NEVER speak on EVERYTHING under the surface

of the sun.

I’ll paint a scenario for you. You meet Doctor A who tells you
that on Sunday he pastors a church, on Monday he spends
5 hours at a teaching hospital and 3 hours at his clinic,
on Tuesday he goes to play golf because he is a pro golfer,
on Wednesday he plays with his gang in a nightclub, on
Thursday he goes to the writing club where he teaches history
of Egyptian culture, on Friday he plays football for his football
club and on Saturday he travels out of town to go meet with
his real estate agents who overlook his real estate business.
Doctor B tells you, “Hey dude, I’m a cardiologist. I operate
and work on hearts 24/7. That’s what I love and that’s what
I do.”

If you have a heart disease and you have to choose between

the two doctors that I described above, which one of them will
be your choice? The answer is obvious!

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 EMEKA NOBIS

When you’ve not been able to define who you are, people
will take you like Doctor A who is all over the place, without
specifics. You’ll find it hard to get very profitable speaking
gigs if you go that way. You’ll become a commodity speaker.
Commodity speakers usually don’t command great speaking
fees.

A lot of folks feel like when they niche down to their specific
areas, they’ll run out of invitations because they feel they’re
too compartmentalized. That’s where defining your core and
corollaries come in. My core is training individuals how to
build profitable businesses based on what they already know.

Based on the above definition, I have quite a bracket of

supporting subject areas - what I call corollaries - that I can
speak on. A few of them are personal leadership, personal
effectiveness, social media mastery, building a movement,
personal branding, writing, marketing, corporate culture, and
writing. These are all within the bracket of my core.

I’ve written a resource in which I’ve been able to explain how

to define your focus when building your personal brand. Head
over to www.emekanobis.com and key in your email to be
able to receive the resource for FREE.

Now, whip out your jotter and begin to define what’s it

you want to be really known as a public speaker. A guiding

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 SPEAK LIKE A DON

question should be : If 5 people sit at a table and deciding

whether to invite you to speak, will they all unite to say that
you’re specific about a core subject matter?

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 Don’t Waste
People’s Time

When I worked for SAIPEM, I was part of the fellowship

for Christian workers in the facility where my office was
domiciled. We’d meet once every Tuesday to pray during
lunch hour.

We had a particular brother who loved praying. However,

the problem was that each time the brother was given
the assignment to pray before we kicked off fellowship,
he’d close his eyes and become “slain in the spirit.” He’d
overshoot the prayer time of 5 minutes into 10 minutes. It was
awkward having to tap him to stop, so we’d struggle with the
remaining 20 minutes we had to wrap - preaching, offering,

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 SPEAK LIKE A DON

announcements and any other thing - and proceed to lunch

before the break time was over.

When I became the leader of the fellowship I tried out the

brother twice and he did exactly the same thing. I stopped
him from praying and assigned other duties to him.

I see public speakers do exactly the same thing, especially the

ones who have been touted as “heavily anointed speakers”;
whatever that means. They’d climb the stage, announce that
the Holy Spirit had given them a new message and overshoot
the allocated time given to them. The consequence was that
they’d leave other speakers struggling to fit into their own
times or the entire event would become stretched to the
yawning disinterestedness of participants.

As a speaker, never do this. Resist the being slain by the spirit.

God is the God of order. Stick to your timing so that you don’t
keep rushing.

How do you do so?

Ask for your speaking time. Each time I’m invited to speak, I
ask for my speaking time. They must be specific about this to
aid me in preparing.

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 EMEKA NOBIS

Next is to chunk your speaking time into portions. This is how

I do this. If I’m given 45 minutes to speak, I will apportion
9 minutes each to 5 points I’d be dwelling on. If there are 9
points I’ve chosen, I will apportion 5 minutes to each. The 5
minutes would be spread across telling a story, explaining an
accompanying principle, driving home some valid points and
wrapping with a takeaway.

As you practice and practice, you become a master of time. It’s

so ridiculous to have an usher standing by your side to signal
you to stop and then you keep saying, “I don’t have time, let’s
rush though it” or “Time is going, let me just finish up.” When
you say those things, you leave your audience feeling that
there’s something they’re missing out on. It’s not a good place
to be.

Lastly, when you show respect for the time of those who
invited you, you increase your likelihood of being invited
again and again.

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 Don’t Be
Sectional,
Don’t Give Them
Your Jaw

You’ve got to make your listeners feel your authority,

connection and interest in making sure that your words are
intended to aid them experience transformation.

How do you do so?

You do so by the “scanning the room” technique.

Have you been to an event where the speaker on the stage

faces only one section of the audience and is talking to them?

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 EMEKA NOBIS

The thing is that those sitting in other parts of the room may
feel left out. You should never do that as a trainer/public
speaker.

Given, there are people who sit in the room and tend to whittle
your energies. Those are individuals who look slovenly, sit in
slouchingly, or look morose. They can sap your energy. What
I do when I step into the room is to identify listeners in all
parts of the room who give off the energy that supports my
delivery and while scanning the room, I place more focus on
them than the others.

Move about in the room and take charge. You must be seen
to be the commander there in the room, one that they have to
listen to. At that point, all eyes are on you and you must show
that you’re equal to the task.

If possible, draw close and look at folks eyeball to eyeball.

However, make sure to pay attention to culture. It can be
distasteful to some cultures to look a woman in the eye. In
that situation, focus on the space between the eyes.

The overall objective of this strategy is to make everybody in

the room feel special that you’re there for them. It makes your
delivery more impactful.

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 Be Sensitive
To Culture

As a public speaker, you need to know that culture is a very

sensitive thing. Depending on how you dwell on issues
regarding culture, you may either shoot yourself into the
hearts of people or get yourself booed off the stage and penned
in the black books.

Culture, unwritten or written, is the blueprint that guides a

people’s behaviour, languages, economic disposition and
social relationships.

I’ll share 3 areas you should be very careful with when

speaking in a location.

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 EMEKA NOBIS

1. Political affiliations.
In Nigeria where I live, and since democracy truly gained
grounds in 1999, the political arena has been largely controlled
by two main political parties. When you write on social media
about the good things that the government of the day is doing,
the people in the other political party place nasty comments
opposing your support. They’re blind to the nice things. When
you swing and lash against the ill things of the government,
the ones in the ruling political party call you an enemy.

Hardly will you see some form of great intellectual

engagement to discuss the points marshaled out. You’ll only
witness throwing of emotional brickbats. These engagements
can even degenerate into assassination attempts. The arena
of politics is a tough and emotional one. If your speaking
engagement isn’t solely focused on political issues, you’ve got
to be careful how you choose the words you utter on the stage.
If you don’t move around with good security, you wouldn’t
want to be accosted in your hotel room by thugs who disguised
themselves to attend the speaking event.

2. Religion.
As long as you exist on this earth, people will choose to
worship what they want - penis, water, wood, Buddha, Islam,
Christianity, Satan. Some choose not worship anything at all;
plain freestyling till they die off.

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 SPEAK LIKE A DON

The problem I see with many people of different religious

affiliations is trying to force others to join them by using
vilifying or despicable words to match their vigorous approach
to evangelism. You will die from this earth and there will still
be more than 3000 religions, so why kill yourself?

When you climb the stage to speak, never talk down on other
people’s religious beliefs. If you want to share how your
religious beliefs have helped you in an inspiring way, do so,
but that podium isn’t a place to begin to poke holes in other
religions.

People hold their religious beliefs so dear and are willing to die
for them. That’s why you’ll continue to hear stories that tingle
the ears concerning religious acts in religious places around
the world. Whether it’s about a pastor shaving a woman’s hair
on the altar or Muslims flogging the devil in Mecca or the
mauling of their bodies in the ancestral Hindu temples, the
world will always experience the drama of religion.

When I’m invited to speak in a gathering, I usually ask about

the religious affiliation of the people attending. If they’re
predominantly Muslims, a simple “Asalam alaikum” greeting
when I meet them endears me to their hearts and opens them
up to receive from me, even when I’m not a Muslim.

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 EMEKA NOBIS

3. Ethnicity and foods.

I remember a friend of mine who had travelled to Ghana
to speak at an event. He’d eaten Ghana jollof in Ghana.
Thereafter, I saw him make a derogatory post about Ghana
jollof. I told him to immediately pull the post down. He
listened and did so.

Every ethnic group has its fair share of positives and negatives,
but what I see people do often is to highlight a lot of the
negatives of ethnicities in very demeaning ways. I remember
flying in Airfrance to France and I saw a Nigerian squirm in
disapproval when he opened the food served to him. I could
hear him mutter that his “eba and soup were better than all
the nyamanyama that French people were eating.”

Noethnic group is better than the other, their proclivities

notwithstanding. Culture evolves and a people evolve. That’s
the flux of life. Every human is equal as a human at the base.

Personally, I love to experiment with foods. In Italy, my

Italian colleagues loved taking me out because they loved how
I would eat their foods without complaining. You may not
be me, perhaps you’ve got health issues with your digestive
system, but never get yourself into the position of demeaning
people’s foods when you speak.

I hope this made some sense?

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 Use Slides
Sensibly

I remember the times I’d never done any corporate training.

I’d see the likes of Fela DurotoyeII and Steve Harris talk about
training organizations - banks and blue chip companies - and
I’d stare in wonder.

I wondered if they had different heads.

I wondered what different things to tell them.
I wondered if I needed to be a guru.

As I’ve progressed in my career as a business consultant who

trains, I smile when I remember the past.

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 EMEKA NOBIS

People in organizations are humans.

Organizations will always have problems.

Your role is to find solutions to many problems within your

core specialty and offer them as authentically as you can and
in the simplest formats possible.

When I train, my slides are simple.

I use stories a lot.
I hold conversations.
I simplify complexities.

My aim isn’t to load them with a million words to prove my

mettle, but to make sure I cause shifts, embed experiences
that seep into the subconscious, and leave them with actions
to take.

If you’re the type of public speaker or trainer that fills your

slides with unending sentences from to top to bottom, please
stop it! It’s a sin. Your listeners should go and buy a textbooks
instead.

You were hired to speak and not read notes from the slides.
It bores your audience. Damn, it gives their brains “too much
work” to follow along, leaving them feeling overwhelmed.

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 SPEAK LIKE A DON

Filling your slides with plenty words and charts is not a mark
of erudition. Some speakers feel doing such is to “show them”
that you’re a badass speaker. Nope!

Make your slides simple, spatial and uncluttered.

Your slides should serve as guides.

Internalize your content and be the expert that you’re

supposed to be.

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 Anything Can
Go Wrong

In March 2018, I was invited to a church in Port Harcourt

called The Wisdom Place to go teach on a few strategies they
could utilize to grow a church using social media.

Done with preparing the slides, I’d promised myself that I’d
go over the slides once more before sending it off to my host,
the lead pastor of the church.

As a pro I usually do multiple backups - email the slides to my

host, email it to myself, save it on my tablet and go along with
a saved file of it in my flash to the venue.

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 SPEAK LIKE A DON

On Saturday morning, the day before of the event, I was

billed to speak at Federal University of Technology, Owerri,
a city in a neighboring state. As I prepped to leave to travel I
remembered that I’d not sent the email. I turned on my Mac
and Wi-Fi. The gods of the networks were angry and the pages
whined. Reluctantly, I saved the file on my flash and left for
Owerri. I didn’t take any of my laptops along.

That Sunday morning, I left Owerri at 7 and went straight to

the church, without reaching my home. I wanted to be early.
Church service over, I walked over to the media guys to prep
me and make sure the slides worked well before I went up to
speak.

Then it happened. The file had become corrupt. Wowza!

All efforts to get the file working were to no avail. I felt

disappointed. Quickly, I walked over to the Lead Pastor
and explained the predicament, apologising for the
disappointment. He smiled, waved it aside, and decided
that we shifted the session to next Sunday. Thankfully, he
apologized to the members who had gathered. I felt great
hearing how he let loose seasoned words of apology.

In the place of my session, he went ahead to conduct a

meeting. I decided to stay back and my decision was right.
As he shared words, I got a lot of insights that made me think

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 EMEKA NOBIS

of revising my slides. My notebook lapped up new ideas and

strategies.

Since I turned pro in 2011 that was the first time that my saved
filed had ever become corrupt.

In public speaking, you must know that something can go

wrong.

Lights can stop working.

Microphone can go off.
Your laptop can shut down.
Someone can faint in the audience.

Just anything can happen.

During my first Tedx speaking experience, power went off

while I was on stage speaking. I didn’t stop. I continued
speaking as if nothing happened. I’d prepared for it.

An invited guest speaker can overshoot his time. If you’re

billed to speak last an event, you must learn how to create
shorter versions of your prepared session. Trust me, many
speakers are so zealous to showcase themselves on stage that
they overshoot their times. When you speak last, you will
definitely be speaking to a larger percentage of the audience
that are tired mentally, especially if the sessions are long. You

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must learn the skill of being able to revive the sleepy audience
using stories and exercises like standing up and stretching

Prepare offhand. I’ve arrived at an event before to realize that

I’d forgotten my written script at home. I couldn’t tell my
invited guest that because it could set off fireworks. Because
I’d prepared offhand, I went outside, walked around and did
a new script. Well, it lost some of the stories I’d written down,
but the major points were on it.

Question is : As a speaker, what’s your backup plan?

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 Practice Begets
Mastery

While I worked for SAIPEM between 2006 and 2016 when I

resigned, I was honing my speaking skills.

When projects let us breathe on Saturdays, I’d accept or fix

speaking gigs. I’d travel as far as Jos on a Friday, speaking
on a Saturday, hit the road back on Sunday to get to work
on Monday. I spent my salaries to host events, seminars and
close sessions without billing anyone or bothering anyone to
support me.

Gaining mastery is as a result of practice. Nobody masters

anything just by doing it once. By doing something again and
again, you become adept at doing it so well.

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Doctors who perform operations they call “routine procedures”

do so because they’ve mastered what may seem tough by a
newbie surgeon.

Practice begets mastery. Malcolm Gladwell calls it the 10,000-

hour rule. He says that to be a master, you must have done
something for 10,000 hours.

When the legendary David Beckham played for Manchester

United, I loved his free kicks. Watching a documentary made
of him, David spent hours practicing free kicks and that made
his goal conversion rates from free kicks quite high.

It’s the same with public speaking. The way to gather your
10,000 hours mostly is through free speaking gigs.

Even though I’m highly paid to speak at events, I still do free

speaking gigs because of...

• Inviting organization.
• Friendships.
• Family affiliations.
• Exposure indices.

But I grew my skills through speaking for free. I hosted my

own events. I used the houses of friends. I used bars. I used

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 EMEKA NOBIS

hotel lobbies. I’d just gather people and speak to them. I

accepted 100% of invitations during my first 18 months of
speaking in public. I grew strength and fortitude those years
speaking for free without being paid.

While I advocate that you grow your 10,000 hours via speaking
for free, you’ve also got to know that doing so always can be
taken out of context and may lead you to being frustrated for
not being paid to speak. That’s the highway to brokeland.

When it comes to speaking for free now, I have my deciders.

• It is my decision. Sometimes, I get the prompt to do so.

I’m not pressured to speak for free, no matter the guile.

• How does it enhance my brand’s visbility? Speaking

for free at Harvard Business School before 1000 people
should do great to my brand than speaking for free before
1000 people at Ogwumabiri Village.

• Will there be the possibility of a collaboration now or in

the future?
You can craft your own deciders.

Yes, lots of people I know speak for free. That’s their decision
and it’s personal to them, but if you really want to be in the
business of speaking, it’s a different kettle of fish.

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 Revisit Your
Gigs

As a public speaker, your brain is the greatest asset you have.

From it flows the streams of grace, knowledge, and blessedness
that your audience needs for their own transformation.

With every unexercised part of the body, staleness can set in

if you don’t renew your brainpower.

“...but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that

you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of
God.” Romans 12:2

Newness is pleasurable and thrilling. Newness is good. When

you speak, even if it’s on a topic that you’ve spoken about
before, your audience should feel a freshness to it.

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 EMEKA NOBIS

As a speaker, you must be a collector of experiences, stories,

facts, statistics and perspectives.

Revise your notes.

Revisit your past gigs.
Infuse fresh ideas.
Tweak stories.
Utilize new facts.
Deliver dynamic perspectives.

You grow when you continually look at your works and

see how to inject newness to your speeches so you remain
inspiring, contemporary and useful.

Don’t be seen to be repeating same thing you’ve been saying

for ages.

Don’t get into the zone where people see your name on a flier
and can predict what you’ll speak on and assume erroneously.

Read voraciously.
Listen to other speakers.
Deep your knowledge of your subject matter.

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 When Invited,
Tame Your
Gluttony

There are people and organizations that will invite you to

speak and give you a blank cheque regarding your welfare and
logistics. By that I mean that they book you in a hotel, allocate
you a driver, and do not care what you eat or where you go.
They’ll pay every bill you rack up by the time you leave.

That’s a beautiful place to be, trust me. It’s so tempting.

Perhaps, you’d never drank Hennessey or Moet in your life
and by virtue of your skill getting you into such situations,
you decide it’s the time to let lose the belts of your stomach
and indulge.

Tame your gluttony.

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 EMEKA NOBIS

Even if you’ve been given such liberty, take note that your host
is watching. It’s one thing to be provided luxury that you’re to
enjoy, it’s another thing to invite your friends, party all night
in your hotel suite, eat and drink, and leave your host to deal
with the bills.

For moving around in the city where I am invited to speak,

I make sure if my host is to take of that or not. If they are, I
make sure that I leave my itinerary in their discretion. If not,
then the bills are on my personal expense.

There are times when my hosts ask me to pay my cab fare

to and fro the airport when I invited. For such, I keep taxi
receipts carefully for reimbursement purposes. I also make
sure that I don’t incur further costs apart from the ones that
my designated routes. That’s accountability.

I implore that you do the same.

Do You Have Products?

Apart from corporate trainings, most of the speaking gigs

you’ll have last a maximum of 90 minutes. Speaking gigs
aren’t usually for deep dives into the concepts or subjects you
are invited to speak on.

How then do people experience your insights on a deeper

level?

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It’s through the products that you create and sell.

You should have digital and physical products that embody

your knowledge of the different topics, concepts, and subjects
that you speak on.

I strongly recommend ebooks, printed books, and online

courses. On most occasions, I’ve witnessed people ask for my
books that they can buy to learn more about the things I’ve
spoken about during my speaking sessions.

When speaking, your printed books or other materials like

audio/video CDs can be displayed on tables outside or within
the halls so that attendees can easily purchase them.

Your books can also be a bargaining tool for speaking gigs. If

you speak for $3000 for an hour, for example, an organization
not able to afford that, but really desiring to have you speak,
can pay $1000 worth of your books and share to their
attendees. That way, you’ve made money and your book will
become spread to people. The effects of this can be very far-
reaching.

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 A few words
on inviting
speakers to
speak at your
event…

So this happens and it makes me smile.

Someone wants you to speak at their event.
He sends a message inbox to your messenger.

He tells you how he has been following you from a distance (or
silently, which is a popular one), praises you to high heaven
for all the excellent work you’ve been doing online to touch
the lives of people.

He describes himself and the work he does and then tells you
about the summit that they held before that had the highest

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attendance in all of Africa (I wonder how they come about

the stats), mentioning the big names that attended and spoke.
Then he tells you that he wants you to speak at the upcoming
summit.

I ask him some questions and finally land on the one that
always causes issues - remuneration.

Most times when I ask, I want to see their mindset concerning

remunerating someone they feel has a lot to offer. 90% of the
time, something usually happens.

They tell you that those “big speakers” all spoke for free and
they’re actually not going to pay you, but you should see it as
an avenue to showcase yourself and touch more lives.

Well, that statement has three implications.

Firstly, it’s an attempt to downplay the immense respect

you’ve earlier expressed for the gigantism of the said
resource’s intellect. When you use the word “big speakers”
while addressing the resource, you’re actually implying, “If
these big speakers can speak on my platform, who are you to
say no?”

Secondly, you’re imposing the templates of others on the

resource. During my public speaking training under Fela

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 EMEKA NOBIS

Durotoye in 2012, he told us he doesn’t bill churches to speak.

When Steve Harris took the floor to train us, he told us that
Fela is who he is and he was Steve, so he bills. Different
templates. It’s not within your right to impose and tell a
speaker how to behave with regards to remuneration.

Thirdly, it is an insult to tell an established speaker that you

will give him or her exposure. You can tell that to a newbie who
hasn’t had up to 50 gigs, not one who has spoken at countless
places he or she can’t even remember. That sentence simply
says to the brain of the speaker, “You’re not exposed enough,
so let’s expose you.” It’s demeaning.

What then should you do instead?

Start by deciding to “follow unsilently.” You see that “I follow

you silently” or “I follow you from a distance” talk, it’s utter
bullshit. Come into the light and engage. That silence doesn’t
help your cause.

There’s nothing sweeter than venison. The Bible has given an

example how meat played a role in Isaac’s blessing largesse.
Every human loves to be helped and loved. Promote the
speaker’s event. Buy their books, or if you don’t need the book,
buy and share to others. Get their resources. It makes for a
smooth landing when you want to invite them in the future.
Establish a relationship. Even the comment section and

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sharing their posts can get you the relationship. You’ll be

shocked that many speakers who charge $10,000 to speak
for 45 minutes can speak for free because of beautiful
relationships you have with them.

Consistently find a way to be a blessing and not a taker. You

just come out of the shadows to invite a speaker without
prior relationship and you expect him to lower his standards
because of how excellently you presented your proposal? No,
it doesn’t work that way.

Be open to negotiate. Don’t try to muscle the speaker. You can

find a common ground that he or she can accept to walk on.
If he tells you $1000, you can bid $800 or $900, not outright
slashing to $500. He’s not beans and garri that you price as
you wish.

That you’re an NGO or church gives you no right to tell a

speaker to speak for free. Present your proposal and let him
or her decide. Saying you’re an NGO or church can be subtly
manipulative.

If you can’t afford to pay or the speaker outrightly turns down

the invitation, thank him for his or her time. The future holds
better.

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 EMEKA NOBIS

If you’ve done wrongly before, I hope you do better after

reading this.

If you’ve never done wrongly before, this is a manual for doing

it right.

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 A bit about me

It’s been a joyful ride speaking at many events since I started

speaking professionally in 2011. It’s been a joyful ride that
has afforded me the many opportunities to travel and meet
people in many different places.

It’s my wish for you. These props will help.

Beyond being the CEO of Switchpath Consulting, I am not the

fan of any football club. I don’t like Messi, I watch Telemundo
and I am the father to 3 amazing kids. I love eating veggie
soup, I hate burials and stupid customs of my people, and I
absolutely love relating with folks with progressive minds.

‘Nuff said.

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 EMEKA NOBIS

Want us to connect?

Send me a mail to emeka@switchpath.ng

Let’s be friends on Instagram
Let’s be buddies on WhatsApp

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