[This is the first of two blog posts based on Rick Goossen’s interview with Larry C. Farrell, who shares lessons he has learned about public speaking during a storied career on the platform.]

The Farrell Company has trained over six million students in its entrepreneurship programs, in some 40 countries, across 9 different languages. Over the nearly four decades it’s taken to reach these milestones, Larry Farrell has personally delivered more keynote addresses and taught more seminars on the entrepreneurial spirit - to more people than any other person in the world. Larry has spoken at ELO Forums multiple times over the years and has always delivered a great keynote.

Along the way, he’s learned a few important lessons about public speaking. As you will see, the first two lessons learned didn’t originate with him. They actually come from the two guiding lights who have most inspired him in his chosen field of entrepreneurship. Of course, his two heroes further inspired him because they also liked the presentations of his work.

Their comments below both came after hearing Larry speak: Peter Drucker at a Business Week magazine conference in Taiwan and Tom Peters at a business/economic conference in Copenhagen. These are the kinds of references speakers dream of – and, according to Larry, they have become the most valuable endorsements he has ever received! They also come from the two speakers he most greatly admires and from whom he has learned very important lessons. Peter Drucker, one of the 20th Century’s greatest management thinkers, exclaimed, "Bigger is better turned out to be another 20th Century myth and Larry Farrell has just explained why.” Tom Peters, the world’s all-time best-selling business book author stated, “If you want to know about international entrepreneurism, Larry Farrell is your man.”

In my communications with Larry Farrell, he shared four lessons. This first blog post covers the first two lessons, based on Peter Drucker and Tom Peters.

1. The Peter Drucker Lesson - Be An Expert “In the extraordinary quote above, Drucker was referring to my original research on the “Life Cycle Of All Organizations.” It was no surprise that he chose that particular section of my morning speech in Taiwan to comment on during his later luncheon address. When you are called the “Father of Modern Management,” as he was, you’re allowed to confirm (or condemn) other ‘ground-breaking’ research when you see it. And that’s the point. Being an acknowledged world-class expert on your topic is the single most important lesson I’ve learned about public speaking over the past 40 years. You notice I’m not saying, “seeming to be an expert,” or “coming across as an expert.” No, I’m saying you have to actually BE an expert on the subject you are presenting – like Peter Drucker was! This means you have to put in the time (years not days,) do your homework, do your research, and you have to have a ton of personal experience working with your subject matter (decades not years.) If you ever heard Peter Drucker speak, I think you would agree that he was a compelling speaker for one reason – everyone in the audience knew they were hearing the words of a world-class expert, a ‘God’ if you will, or the subject of business and management.”

“Violating the Peter Drucker Lesson is a world-class mistake too many speakers make. The most common and egregious violators seem to be from the world’s endless supply of motivation and leadership speakers. These presenters, (along with some other subject areas too of course,) so often just make up their key points or principles out of thin air. They don’t bother with facts or research. A variation on this approach are the speakers who claim their message comes from their inner soul, with zero external validation - which in my view is too close for comfort to the “just making it up” crowd. These self-ordained prophets have no first level research to report, no decades of personal experience to relay, no hard evidence for anything they are saying.”

“I’m pleased to say I have tried to be a walking/talking poster child for the Peter Drucker Lesson. First, I did my homework. I spent ten years being an entrepreneur and researching/interviewing other entrepreneurs before I wrote my first book on the topic. I delivered my first big Keynote Address on the entrepreneurial spirit another year after that. So I put in my time, acquired a lot of knowledge, stuck to my knitting (to borrow a Tom Peters principle) all in the hope of becoming a world-class expert in my field. Happily today, after 40 years of experience, my publishers can legally and factually claim on the cover of all my books, that I am: “The world’s most experienced authority on researching and teaching entrepreneurship.” It has taken a while and it hasn’t been easy – but that’s what it takes. And I’m still trying to catch up with the late, great Peter Drucker!” 

2. The Tom Peters Lesson – Be A Story-Teller “Peters was/is a master story-teller. He never gives his audience an idea or principle to follow – without giving them a real life example of it – a true story about where and how it happened. Perhaps the earliest origin of this approach (after biblical parables!) may have been the Harvard Business School case study method of teaching. Of course, there is one big difference I can personally attest to between being ‘taught’ by Tom Peters and a Professor at HBS. Peters’ stories are riveting and often humorous, while the case study stories I got as an HBS student seemed designed to put students to sleep. Imagine sitting through an entire semester of Michael Porter (as I did) opining on the “competitive pricing strategies of the corn fructose industry!” Sorry, I digress…”

“In any event, I follow the Tom Peters Lesson religiously. For every key point I make in a speech, or every practice we teach in our seminars, I have personally interviewed or thoroughly researched the best entrepreneurial examples of that practice and created a real story about them. It’s a super powerful technique. I’ve actually heard former participants, from 20 years earlier, perfectly re-tell one of my stories and say they remember the key principle or practice because they remember the story! I should add here that from my heritage, I’ve been blessed with an abundance of the Irish gift-of-gab – and am a pretty good story-teller. But the main lesson here is not that you have to be a dazzling storyteller, but that you have to use real-life stories, real examples of people, places or events, to back up the points you are making in your speeches. So giving real examples, through story-telling, is the essential lesson to learn if you want to bring your public speaking theme to life for your audience.”