Ric Elias gives a nearly great speech here, he has a strong attention-getter, a lot of wonderful stories, and a strong call to action, but, unfortunately, that work is undercut by lackluster non-verbal communication; a downward vocal inflection style (especially toward the end of the speech), and uninspired movement.
Ric starts with a rousing attention-getter, he tells the audience about the sensory experience of being on the plane that crashed in the Hudson River. There are many great details here, the sound of “no sound” as the plane’s engines are cut, the look of terror in the eyes of a stewardess, the thoughts that flashed through his mind as he braces for impact. There is also an excellent call to action at the end of the speech, a detail that many speakers leave out. All speeches should strive to create some change in the audience and here Ric challenges the audience to imagine as if they had only moments to live, and to think about what they might change. This is wonderfully creative.
But, alas, Ric appears a little bit out-of-gas. He shuffles somewhat listlessly, and gestures without much intention. He allows his pitch to descend at the end of some sentences.
If you are feeling a little lethargic before a speech, try something simple…like push-ups! Sound crazy? It’s not. Even a few push ups will get the blood flowing, and perhaps enliven your body. If you have a downward inflection style, work with a coach or colleague on your presentation and make sure to lift the last syllable in each sentence.
Keep in mind 80% of our impression of a speaker is nonverbal! If you feel your presentation style could use some work, give me a buzz, and let’s set up a free 20 minute consultation.
Let’s look at the Republican presidential contenders from a public speaking perspective; how did they do as speakers during the debates?
As the video above shows, there was a wide variety of talent on display. Politics aside, I think Gingrich is far and away the best speaker of the bunch. Gary Johnson had perhaps the best punch line of the debates (“My next door neighbor’s two dogs have created more shovel ready jobs than the current administration.”), but Gingrich can pull together stories, quotes, statistics, comparisons and contrasts effortlessly, and convey his point with conviction with almost every question he answers. Herman Cain, on the other hand, was often vague during the debates, offering up platitudes instead of meaningful details.
In the video above, watch the way Gingrich uses the Carter administration as a metaphor for the current administration, and slips in a witty, sly quote from Ronald Reagan to make his point about the need for reform.
Say what you will about him politically (full disclosure, his politics aren’t mine), but Newt Gingrich is perhaps one of the world’s best debaters.
I’m a big believer in the present moment. Why not, right? The present moment is all you got.
This week I had a client who seemed very tense when he walked in for a coaching session with me. This is not uncommon; public speaking is one of our greatest fears, it’s perfectly natural to feel keyed up before you speak. But this guy’s energy felt off; he was cutting me off before I could finish my thoughts, staring out vacantly from time to time, and rushing through his presentation. The problem wasn’t his tension, but, rather, his lack of awareness around his tension.
I put the problem to my client; why are you rushing? You feel really “not here”…how do you correct that? He stopped speeding through his presentation, and breathed for a moment. He looked at me directly, with self-awareness, with presence, for the first time in our session together and said, “I guess I am a little tense today”. Yes. And from then on he was fine. Not because he felt perfectly relaxed, nobody feels perfectly relaxed, but because he became conscious of his tension, and that awareness itself was enough to do the trick.
Don’t bother with trying to feel relaxed while presenting. Presenting is nerve wracking. But do try to be conscious, aware of yourself in the moments before, during and while you present. Try doing this with a non-judgmental attitude, simply noticing what comes up, even if it’s tension. If you need a point of focus, follow your breath. You might be happy with the results.
Ah yes the brain freeze. What do we do when our most primal public speaking nightmare comes true? Can it be avoided? Yes, and no. I think Rick Perry’s stumble here was rather epic, however, most people tend to forget things all the time, as this quote from the New York Times illustrates:
“Brain researchers note that countless memory lapses like these happen to the rest of us every day, whether it’s walking into a room and forgetting why you are there or being unable to recall a name that’s on the tip of your tongue.”
Public speaking involves risk, and there is the chance that you might forget something, or succumb to stress. That being said, there are two sure fire ways to reduce the risk of a Rick Perry-like monumental blunder, and that is to prepare yourself thoroughly (my God man you’re running for president, did you think to rehearse a bit more?), and to always, always have notes in front of you with key talking points (put them on your Ipad if you want to be all tech-sexy). And, yes, eliminating three governmental agencies would certainly be considered “key”.
Of course, if you speak regularly for a living, there is the chance that something like this might happen, as it did for Christina Aguilera when she forgot the lyrics to the National Anthem as she performed at the Superbowl, or when Obama made an embarrassingly politically incorrect slip of the tongue at the Congressional Black Caucus. How do you recover? First, breathe, and try to do nothing for a moment. Just sip your water. Attempt to accept, and let the anxiety pass. I don’t buy the notion that anxiety can be “channeled”. Panic sucks. It must be accepted, however, because it’s happening, even if it is not terribly useful. So just breathe, accept the anxiety as it is happening, and allow it to pass. Then, consider using humor. ”Oops” is not a terribly witty answer but “I’m not sure what agency I would cut, but I’m pretty sure the oxygen to my brain has been pretty well severed” is slightly better. Then… “Let me check my notes for the answer, and circle back around to you in a moment.”
I know it’s not an ideal answer. But it beats “Oops”.
Should you use note cards while presenting? In a nutshell, yes. I know, your boss doesn’t like it, but let’s be honest, in lieu of notes, you usually just read off your PowerPoint slides, right? Not so good. Remember PowerPoint is not your speech, you’re the speech, your ideas, your thoughts; PowerPoint is just there to enhance the experience. Why not put your notes on your ipad? Or your iPhone? Or tuck them discreetly into a secondary window on your computer screen? Your boss is less likely to worry about your notes if they have a high-tech gloss, and you will have the added assurance of having some bullet points in front of you in case you get lost.
And yes, it should only be a few bullet points in front of you, not a series of paragraphs. If you write out your speech, and then present it verbatim, it’s likely to feel canned. Once you have thought hard about what you would like to say, backed it up with statistics, added comparisons, quotes, contrasts, humor, and analogies, there is only the need to write down the bare-bones structure of the speech, rehearse it out loud 3-5 times, and then review the ideas behind the speech silently. Then keep it loose, allow yourself to experiment with different wording, and relax because if you get into trouble, you can always glance at your notes!
Elizabeth worked very hard on this speech, and she executed it flawlessly. Notice the ease with which she moves, how she takes her time with the language, how she tells stories to illuminate her point, and, finally, her dynamic call to action. Excellent stuff.
I have mixed thoughts about Graham Hill’s TED speech.
He has a nice attention-getter; he utilizes a prop to make a point about how often we move from place to place, and the amount of things that we drag along. He has a simple premise; simplify, and some very nice examples. He uses PowerPoint very well, utilizing simple, entertaining images to drive his premise, and he does not clutter his slides with data.
But I’m still a little underwhelmed. And that’s because we’ve heard this speech before. It’s important to really sweat out what your premise is when you begin a speech. Once you’ve decided what you would like to do with the speech, whether it is to entertain, persuade, or educate, it’s crucial that you look for something novel or new to say with your speech. Unfortunately, we’ve heard many times before that we all ought to simplify our space, simplify our lives. There is nothing terribly novel about Mr. Hill’s speech, so it lacks power.
What might have helped? A new approach. Ok simplifying living spaces is your passion… how about discussing the concept of simplicity itself a bit more? Or delving a bit into why we clutter? Or connecting a personal story of your own to why you truly like to simplify? Personalizing a speech always creates more interest.
Yes, sometimes it’s good to go with your first instinct with a speech…but often, we need to sit with our premise for a long time, in order to reap its rewards.
JJ Abrams gives a killer twenty minute speech here.
How? Simple. First, NO POWERPOINT. Break the addiction folks, powerpoint is often way overused. He uses video.. a more interesting choice
Second, he has a single, simple message… can you find it? I think it is “mystery is more important than knowledge”.
Third, he tells loads of stories, and gives the speech a personal touch. He begins right off the bat correlating his love for mystery with his love for his grandfather, and then tells touching stories about him. There is always room to share; yes even in your business presentations.
Fourth, the power of three; he has a strong premise, discussion section, and conclusion. We all like threes… so tell them what your gonna tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.
Fifth, he’s got cool props. Not slides, not graphs, not the dreaded hand-out, but props; the mystery box he bought as a kid, a deconstructed kleenex box, etc. Props are powerful storytelling aids.
He stumbles a bit for wording at the top, and has some vocal tics, but who cares, as long as the passion and craft are there, an audience can accept imperfection.
“Silence hath more eloquence than words” – George Farquhar
Silence serves many purposes in a speech, but the simplest, and most important purpose it serves, is to allow you to breathe. Many people hold their breath while speaking, and this creates tension, and a monotone speaking style. It is best to breathe from the diaphragm, in a relaxed, organic manner (for a great breathing exercise, click here).
Of course, Martin Luther King used pauses to great effect. As an exercise, take a look at this excerpt from his “I Have a Dream” speech. Read over the excerpt silently, and then read it over out-loud, taking a two second pause for ending punctuation, and a one second pause for all other forms of punctuation:
‘This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.” And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
Notice any differences? Hopefully this exercise allows you to take deeper breaths between sentences, allows you to clarify your thoughts more readily, and let’s you more easily control your rate of speech.
Let’s compare it with the master himself….
Click here for the “Brilliant in the Boardroom” Seminar!
