Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [52]
If you are asked for your picture, don’t send a color snapshot or a fifteen-year-old photo of you before your hairline receded or you put on those extra thirty pounds. Send a fairly recent, black-and-white print, either 5”x7” or 8”x10”.
It amazes me how many public figures do not bother to get a good, recent photograph taken of themselves for publicity purposes. If you have not yet had such a picture made, you will find out that it is well worth the effort and that there will be multiple uses for the prints.
Confirm the details the day before, and recheck directions just to be sure about them. Allow yourself at least thirty minutes leeway—time to get lost or delayed in traffic. An hour is even better. Arrive on time for your own peace of mind and in consideration of your hosts’ blood pressure. Keeping people waiting for even a few minutes makes for a very awkward situation, and it can create a negative impression before you even step up to the platform.
When you are traveling out of town, keep a running record of the travel arrangements, who made the reservations in what name, and how the tickets are to be paid for. Stick receipts, as you go, in an envelope that you brought along for just that purpose; keep it handy in your briefcase or purse.
Large or unfamiliar airports are often confusing, so if you are to be met, specify which entrance, what airline, or a certain location out in front. Work out a system of recognition—a description of your appearance, perhaps, or have the person greeting you hold up a small sign with your name on it.
Always know what hotel you are staying in, in case no one meets you. Linger at the agreed-upon meeting place if your flight comes in early. Allow time for your host to get through a traffic jam, then place a page to him or her on the airport’s public-address system.
If you are going to go directly to the site of the speech without checking into your hotel first, call the hotel to reconfirm your reservation from the airport or from the site. I once had to take my luggage to the speaking site and ended up not finishing up there until the wee hours of the morning. When I finally got to my hotel, they had canceled my reservation and given my room to someone else because they thought I wasn’t coming. Fortunately, they were able to find me a room in another hotel close by, but had it been a time of peak hotel bookings, I might not have been so lucky.
Be sure to have an alternate plan, in case everything goes wrong. Before you leave the airport, call the telephone number you have been given and say you’re on your way in a taxi. If you’re going directly from the airport to the speaking site, make sure you get full directions about room number or banquet hall name, so as not to waste time when you get to the site asking where you are supposed to be.
You will know in advance the nature of the function at which you are speaking—a reception, a formal dinner, a rubber-chicken lunch, or a barbecue. You will know whether you are going to be at a podium, at a speaker’s table, or mingling with the public. This information will enable you to have the right clothes with you, plus one alternate outfit.
Finally, check out the room in which you will be speaking in advance. Note such details as the background you will be standing in front of (you may want to change the colors of your clothes, for example), the height of the podium, how the mike adjusts up and down, the lights (if possible), where the head table is (if any), where the restroom is, and so on.
PREPARING YOUR SPEECH
Preparing your speech is hard work. First, determine the subject and the central purpose of your presentation. Find out exactly how long you will be expected to talk. Find out if there will be a question-and-answer session following your speech and if the time allotted to your speech includes the Q-and-A. Plan to keep strictly to the time given to you. Know what is expected of you, and anticipate