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Mastering the Pieces of Public Speaking

An article from my favourite speaker coach Craig Valentine. 

If you want to create a masterpiece, you first have to master each piece. The three major pieces of public speaking are structure, content, and delivery. Mastering one means nothing if you do not master the other two. That is why it is critical to not just study speaking as a whole, but also to dive a mile deep into each piece. In this lesson, you will pick up one tool from each of the three pieces of public speaking. Then, just as a bonus, you will get one very substantial idea if you plan on using speaking to grow your income. 

Three Tools (plus one) to Help you Create a Masterpiece

A Structure Tool – To be a masterful speaker you must become a masterful tease. It is imperative to become skilled at teasing your audience to want to know more. Legendary Motivational Speaker Lou Heckler once said, "Don't tell them; take them." In other words, don't just tell them what happened in your story, take them into it by establishing a scene, using dialog, etc. Here is one of my foundational phrases that I keep in mind when structuring a speech: "If you can't tease them, you can't take them." Here are three examples of teasing your audience to want to know more:

• "If you understand this next point, you will find yourself moving towards your goals, dreams, and aspirations, even while you are asleep. The providence, serendipity, and grace will all be on your side pushing you toward the life you have imagined. The wildly successful people in life use this tool and it is yours for the taking."

• "What do you think is the number 1 thing that stands between most people and their goals? [wait for answers]. Those are all great answers and they're all wrong. [laughter]. Actually, they are not wrong, but they are not the number 1 thing that stands in the way. The number 1 thing is not what you think."

• "Have you ever worked with a StatusQuoaholic? You know these people, right? They are averse to change and they say things like, 'This is the way we've always done things around here. Why change. I wish for the good old days again.' What do these people do to your team? [wait for answers and the build up of frustration]. What if you had a way to turn even the biggest StatusQuoaholics into positive forces for your team? Well, you can, but only if you implement the following tool. "

Do you see how these statements tease the audience into wanting to hear more? When you pick up a newspaper, what makes you decide whether or not to read an article? Chances are it is the headline. That is exactly what these tease-based statements do. They act as headlines and are designed solely to get your audience to want to hear what is coming next. When you become a great tease, you generate interest with ease.

A Content Tool – As soon as you introduce your characters in a story, establish the conflict right away. Get the Titanic to hit the iceberg early on because the conflict is the hook to your story. Most speakers have to much preamble before they get into their story and then they have too much unnecessary information before getting to the conflict.

Once you establish the conflict, escalate it! Look at your conflict like the water rising on the Titanic. If the water never rose on the Titanic, we would have thought it was a terrible movie. Once you establish your conflict, it is critical to ask yourself, "How can I escalate this conflict to a point of desperation? How can I raise the water on my Titanic?" When you establish and then escalate your conflict, your story keeps your audience members riveted to see how it turns out.

A Delivery Tool – Establish a story space and a conversation space on your stage as you speak. The story space is where you tell your stories and the conversation space is where you physically step out of your story and speak directly to your audience. My story space is usually a step back from my conversation space because I like to step up to make my point.

In your story space, you can be as wild and crazy as the story takes you because, after all, you are reliving what happened. However, when you step up and out of your story into the conversation space, it should be just that; a conversation with your audience members. This conversational style should be similar to the one on one conversations you have with people and it should not sound preachy, forced, or sound like you are still in your story. The story creates the emotion but the conversation keeps the connection. Having physical spaces for each helps clarify for your audience whether you are still in your story or you are now addressing them.

A Business Tool – One of the most important marketing strategies we can ever use is to give our recipients a specific next step to take and make sure we are part of that next step. Here are some examples based on various marketing tools I use:

• When people visit my website, the next step is to sign up for my FREE Masterful Speaking Toolkit.

• When I speak to speakers, their next step is often to invest in a certain product or service.

• When meeting planners visit the Motivation side of my website, their next step (after reviewing my Meeting Planner section) is to download a special report and/or fill out the Request Craig form.

• When I speak to managers, their next step is often to bring me in for Part 2 or Part 3 of that program.

Whatever your next step is, just make sure you have one. Also, do not give several options. It is best to give one specific next step for each audience (or recipient) and design your entire speech (from your very first word) or marketing piece to drive them towards that next step. A confused mind says, "No", but a clear mind says "Go."

Final thoughts:

If you want to create a masterpiece, I strongly suggest that you dive a mile deep into each one of the pieces of public speaking; structure, content, and delivery. What you read above is the very tiny tip of the iceberg. I have created 3 courses (1 for each piece) to help. If you do not have them yet, you can get them piecemeal or get them together for a substantial discount (through The Whole Kit and Kaboodle) athttp://www.craigvalentine.com/speech/products.php

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10 Ways to Improve your Speech Delivery

Another Amazing and insighful article about public speaking from my favourite speaker Craig Valentine

10 Ways to Improve your Speech Delivery

Below are some well-known and some not-so-well-known tips for delivering your speech. The key is not whether you know these tips; it's whether you put them into practice. 

1. Don’t forget about your face. Your facial expressions are more important than all your arm and hand movements combined. The eyes are indeed the windows to the soul. What you do with them can make or break your entire speech.

2. Use your character’s gestures. Keep in mind that speaking involves utilizing captivating stories to make your unforgettable points. Each story has its own characters and each character probably has his or her own way of gesturing. When you take on the role and persona of that character, you should use his or her gestures. While rehearsing your speech, consistently ask yourself, "How would this character say this?"

3. Let the emotions drive. The emotions in your story and in your point will drive your movements. If you are intoxicated with your emotions while telling your story or making your point, the appropriate gestures will come. It will be effortless. When you’re really angry at someone or something, do you have to think about what gestures to use? No, they come automatically. If you build the emotion, the gestures will come.

4. Gesture 360 Degrees. Many speakers gesture in front of them and on the side. World Class Speakers realize there is an entire area around them and they utilize it. Feel free to gesture down for the lower dimension. For example, when I speak about a swamp tour my wife and I took, I talk about the alligators that surrounded the boat. At that point I gesture downwards with the open hand. Then I describe the trees that were hanging down as if they were trying to grab onto us. At that point I gesture upwards to the upper dimension using my hands to emulate how the trees hung and swayed. At times I point behind me to the back of the stage or in front of me out into the audience. I might point to my right to signify the past and point to my left to signify the future as I use the stage as a timeline. The key is to go up, down, back, forth, and side to side in order to paint a whole (surround-sense) scene for your audience in order to invite them into it.

5. Don’t use the same gesture over and over again. This is evidence of a habit and most likely distracts from your presentation.

6. Watch out for your resting position. This is the position your hands fall to when you’re not using a gesture. For example, my hands used to fall together in front of me with my fingers interlocking. It was distracting.

7. Don’t move all the time. If you are always moving then no movement will be meaningful. Your audience will never know what’s most important. Move with a purpose. When there is no reason to move, don’t.

8. Use an open hand. It’s better to point to your audience with an open hand rather than an index finger. It’s less threatening and more inviting. The open hand is also effective when calling back to spots on the floor as you revisit the points, characters, and stories you previously used.

9. Use bigger gestures for bigger audiences. Don’t mismatch the size of your audience with the size of your gestures.

10. Smile.

The art of communication

"Speak to be remembered and repeated." Isn't that the goal of every communicator—to be remembered and repeated?

Patricia Fripp, speaking coach

The ability to speak in front of an audience requires courage but the ability to communicate well requires practice, practice and more practice. How many times have you heard a speaker on stage  keeps rambling on even though he'd losses the audience attention. How many times have you applauded to a wonderful presentation but unable to recall what he or she said, a week later.

Communication is about getting the intended message across in the simplest and most memorable manner. It takes years of practice and refining your speech material until you get it right unless you are one of those few who are bestowed with this gift since birth.

I admire stand up comedian such as Jerry Seinfeld, Robin Williams, Jay Leno because of the hours of practices behind the screen.Their delivery is superb and they make it so easy and natural. We need to practise until we become naturally comfortable with ourselves and also be able to connect with different audiences from students, auditors to CEOs.

If you want to take your speaking to the next level, I strongly suggest investing in videos of proficient speakers and even considering a speaking coach. 

On your next speaking engagement whether it is a room of 300 people or 5 people, ask yourselves this questions.

1. If I was to summarise the message in one sentence on a name card, what would it be?
2. What is the most impactful opening and relevant to the audience that I can use for the speech? 
3. How do I create an instant connection with my audience?
4. How do I make my speech easy to be remembered?
5. What stories can I use to further illustrate my points?
6. What actions do I want my audience to follow through after listening to me?
   

I hope that this questions will be helpful for your next presentation. 

Engaging your audience with your eye contact

This is my 1 year old daughter Ryanna looking straight at me with such innocence and love. I have read somewhere that the eyes are the window of the soul. You can tell the person whether he is happy, frighten, sad and how he is currently feeling by looking at his eyes, though no words have been spoken. 

A few months back, I'd attended a seminar where the facilitator had us standing face to face with another partner and looking into each other eyes for 1 minute and not speak a word. Do you know how awkward that feels? You can hear the minute hand ticking  slowly as if it is in a twilight zone. After 10 seconds, there was a strong urge to move our eyes away from each other. Some giggle, body twitching and some complaining how silly the activity was. The reason for being uncomfortable, is that we feel exposed to the other person. We are uncomfortable with ourselves.

Whenever I am up on stage delivering my speech, I make a point to make a personal eye contact with someone in the audience.  I would zoom in to at least three persons in different sitting position. It is especially effective when you are making a point. Aside from making your audience feel that you are talking to them directly, I am able to gauge whether the audience is still with me. The worst thing that could happen to a speaker is when he continue to speak without realising that he has lost the audience.

Speaking is all about connecting, getting the essence of your message  across  to your audience so that they will take the desired action that you have intended in the speech. The next time you are going to deliver your speech to an audience you are not familiar with. Spend some time to get to know a few people in the audience prior to speaking. Later when you begin speaking zoom into  this people through eye contact. It will make a big difference to the success of your speaking engagement.

Building competencies through continuos learning

Since school days, I have always believe in taking responsibility in my self learning. I place high value in continuous education in my life. Completing school education is just the beginning of the journey to many new discovery. Through updating knowledge, it is much easier to conceive and develop new ideas. It is my opinion that bankrupt of ideas are the reason most business fail. Without ideas, we may are not able to innovate new products to meet changing customer demands. Absence of ideas also stops us from moving forward in our business. And so , I strive top fill the ideas vault as much as possible.

Aside from reading, I attend all kind of seminars for breakthrough thinking. One such seminar, I am attending today is the Internet marketing coaching. Something new to me and that's make it even more exciting. With this new found knowledge , I am looking forward to build a foundation for me to have the option to change my future lifestyle.

Life of a Trainer

I enjoy attending seminars and workshops. It is a good way to gain new refreshing ideas that can enrich my personal life. I just completed the train the trainer workshop conducted by PSMB (Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad) a body appointed by the government to provide skill training services to small and medium size company in Malaysia. From the five days workshop, I have learned that as trainer, we need to continuously improve ourselves by attending many other seminars. This is one way to keep on renewing our enthusiasm and stimulate creativity input into our training modules. Secondly trainer need to be passionate about developing people and discover their potential. Thirdly, the people I meet at the event , broadens my personal networking and gave me new insights from their shared experiences.

It seems so easy to watch trainers delivering with ease but what is not seen is the sweat and sleepless night putting the program together. Aside from the preparation , there are times when things can go seriously wrong. I remembered while I was giving a sales training to a group of sales font liners in Sandakan, (an eastern city in Sabah) when the power was abruptly cut off due to power failure. I was in the middle of making a point in my power point presentation. After waiting for 7 minutes the power was still down and I had to deliver the remaining session off the cuff. I'd learn a very valuable lesson that day. " Don't be too dependant on multimedia " Stick to good old fashion way of using flip chart, games and story telling to convey the message."
If it ever happens to you... just stay cool and be creative. Just say to your self " This is interesting" and laugh about it.