I think it was Bart Starr of the old Green Bay Packers and Vince Lombardi days who said, “If you show up to one of Coach’s sessions on time, you’re late.”

It’s the same for lecturers on cruise ships.

If you show up just in time to go on stage you are way late.

If you show up just in time to get your computer and mic and projector and what not all set up and made sure that they are working, you are late.

Related: More of the 17 Skills

If you show up in time to do all the above AND spend time meeting and greeting your audience as they come in in a leisurely pace, then you are on time.

I show up 45 minutes before I am to go on stage.

That gives me time to make sure my PC is charged, plugged in AND charging, that the projector works, that my embedded videos play and that sound is working and that my microphone is working.

I then walk throughout the venue to get an audience’s perspective of me.

Then I smile and wait and greet my audience as they come in.

I am sensitive in my short exchanges with my listeners for bites that I might be able to include in my talk. I ALWAYS find something that I can include somewhere in my talk, usually in my opening remarks.

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