A few easy running steps, a casual jump on the stage. Once at the top, he turns around – the audience claps. Then the sentence: “Thank you, it’s rare that a Bavarian in Austria gets so much applause.” Laughter. Next, a little interaction: “Who has a thumb? Then please raise your hand.” Everyone put their hands in the air and he is sure of his attention. He will explain why everyone should show their thumbs.
Michael Merkl is on the stage of the community center in Graefelfing, the hall is empty. But even without an audience he manages to convey in a dry run how he succeeded a few weeks ago in getting viewers in a crowded hall to listen to him for five minutes. At the end of the evening, when many like him stood on stage and vied for the favor of the audience, he was the winner of the seventh Austrian Speaker Slam in Vienna.
Explore the country and people around Munich: Every Thursday with the best leisure tips for the weekend. Register for the newsletter for free. Click here for registration.
Image: SZ
For Michael Merkl, 26, a dream came true with the victory: He wants to earn his living as a professional speaker, as a so-called keynote speaker. The win, he hopes, will give him a boost to become better known in the industry. The industry, that is, companies or associations that book speakers. These then usually speak at the beginning of an event on a specific topic in order to inspire and entertain the audience. Michael Merkl is firmly rooted in the Würmtal. He grew up in Martinsried, went to school at Feodor-Lynen-Gymnasium, and plays soccer at TSV Graefelfing. Today he still lives in Martinsried, now with his girlfriend. With his career aspirations, he is an exotic one in the circle of friends, “I don’t know anyone who wants to do that too”. That was the case before, when he wanted to be a moderator. He was probably the only one who, as a child, used Lego bricks to assemble microphones to play quiz moderator. Or who, as a self-proclaimed sports commentator, followed up the Bundesliga soccer season with his father and brother and commented on the moves. Even at school he was probably the only one who lived out the feeling of having something to say by selling a newspaper he had written himself on Mondays for a school year.
He can talk a lot and quickly. He underlines what has been said with gestures, arms and hands are constantly in motion. With his neatly coiffed hair, the jacket over his jeans – his stage outfit – he looks older than he is. A keynote speaker not only has to be able to speak and cast a spell over his audience, he must above all have a topic that he speaks about, that moves him and with which he wants to move. Michael Merkl has found his topic – focus. His message: Invest time in the things that give you pleasure and bring you closer to your “heart’s goals” and waste less time on duties and incidental things that distract you from your goals. For him, focusing is the recipe for more happiness and satisfaction in life, instead of getting bogged down and in the end wondering where you actually ended up. This can also be called priority management – and a good investment in success and health.
Sounds like a bit of a philosophy of life for a 26-year-old. But why not. Life experience is not measured in time, but in the moments in which one has reflected, says Michael Merkl. And he did a lot. He found out what overload means when his mother was burned out. That moved him a lot as a child, and he talks about it on stage. After all, he has bogged down himself several times, simply wanting too much at once. In order to realize his original dream of being a moderator, he started training at a media academy, while studying law at the same time. The course was more of a concession to his parents, he knows today, and it also appeared to be a logical consequence of the Abitur. It wasn’t until he dropped law after a semester that he succeeded at the moderator’s school. “Better to do something right,” was his conclusion. Just focus.
He then completed a bachelor’s degree in politics and law, which could be better combined with the moderator’s training. In retrospect, he wouldn’t do that either. “I didn’t have the courage to just let it go,” he says. After completing his training, Michael Merkl didn’t want to become a moderator. He didn’t want to present any given moderation texts, but rather to convey his own message on stage and as a speaker – to fill life with the things that are really important to you. He can only convey that credibly if he lives it himself.
The quality of a speaker is measured in the attention that the audience pays him. And winning them is hard work. “One minute on stage means at least an hour of preparation.” On the stage in the community center, Michael Merkl shows how the attention at the speaker slam in Vienna succeeded. First he asks the audience for their thumb, then for their smartphone, which of course everyone has in their pockets. And then he tells the audience that every one of them down there in the hall has already run a thumb marathon on the display twice today. It’s funny at first, but also a bit serious, because everyone knows how much time they waste on the device. Michael Merkl has now arrived at his topic, he has “built up relevance”. Now is the time for a little “depth” – his message.
In Vienna the jury declared him the winner. “I’ve been working towards something like this all my life,” says Michael Merkl. He definitely wants to pursue his goal of establishing himself as a professional speaker – very focused. Apparently he has an important prerequisite for this in his blood. While the mere idea of having to speak in front of an audience brings beads of sweat to others’ foreheads, he says: “I feel great on stage”.