Professional speaker Wade Randolph suggests using an activity to empower your audience. For example, ask the audience to repeat a powerful key phrase (e.g., "I am a powerful person!").
Powerfully,
Tim Wilson Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
The big movie at the moment is Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Huge opening. Lousy reviews. Great movie - but I'm biased. I've been waiting for this film for years, and I'm a huge comic book fan - specifically DC Comics, and there stable of heroes that include Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and hundreds of others.
So I loved it, for the most part. Still, one aspect really bugged me, as a communications coach.
***SPOILERS BELOW***
When the big promised battle between Bats and Supes is about to begin, it's because Luthor has manipulated the two. He's convinced Batman that Superman is a menace, and kidnapped Superman's mom, telling our hero that unless he kills 'The Bat' she will die. Darn those super-villains!
The face-off starts promising enough. Superman tells Batman he needs his help. As he steps forward, he triggers a booby trap of hail and ice bullets. Pushing through that, instead of asking again, or, heaven forbid, telling him WHY he needs his help (Bruce, we need to save my MOM!), he pushes him across the roof, and a 10 minute battle ensues before Lois walks in and cooler heads prevail.
I understand they had to fight - it's the selling point of the movie. But c'mon. Two top-notch heroes fighting because they can't even communicate? Terrible.
While most of us will never be in the middle of a literally earth-shattering conflict, most any conflict can feel that way to us when we're in the middle of it. Our egos, our relationships, our livelihoods are often at stake - or at least FEEL as if they are at stake.
5 Ways to Approach Conflict 1. Set boundaries, expectations, and outcomes for the conversation. 2. Be willing to try more than ONCE to get your point across, before resorting to anger. 3. Disarm your 'opponent' emotionally by letting them know you understand their side of the conflict. 4. Avoid becoming overly defensive OR offensive, which takes you both off point, and into an emotional state that is harder to control than an objective state that focuses on the actual issues. 5. Bring in a third party to arbitrate/defuse the tension.
If you're headed into a potentially contentious discussion with peers, clients, competitors, or even your boss, you'll want to avoid having it end with a Kryptonite spear plunging into your chest.
In the meantime - go take a kid to BvS - cause I really want more movies. After that, go Speak...& Deliver!
Professional speaker Wade Randolph suggests using an activity to put your audience into your story. For example, if trying to get your audience to understand the perspective of a no-armed person, ask them to put their hands behind their back.
Actively,
Tim Wilson Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
World Champion speaker Craig Valentine suggests you combine physical transitions with speaking transitions. For example, when you are moving from one point into the next, speak your transition while moving from one place on the stage to a different place on stage.
Transitioning,
Tim Wilson Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
Professional speaker Jeremy Tracey suggests thinking about these things when creating questions for your audience:
Cast a wide net - ask a question that will involve most if not all of your audience
Make it a real question - some questions force the user into a certain way of thinking (e.g., "How much time do you want to spend on this?" assumes that the person is focused on the length of time a task takes, when that may not be important to them at all)
Give the audience time to answer in their head - if you are asking a simply yes or no type question you can pause for a brief time before continuing with your speech, if you are asking a complex question (e.g., "What are you going to do with the rest of your life?") give a much longer pause to allow the audience to have a chance to think about an answer
Questioning,
Tim Wilson Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
World Champion Speaker David Henderson suggests you create a speech within your speech that sums up the point of your entire speech. For example, one of your story characters could say something that sums up your speech's main point.
Suggesting,
Tim Wilson Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
World Champion Speaker David Henderson suggests you continually analyze your speech, taking note of what works and does not work with the audience. Then redo your speech, using the improvement ideas and see if that improves your audience's reaction.
Suggesting,
Tim Wilson Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
World Champion Speaker David Henderson suggests you use dramatic movements on stage to quickly switch between emotions. For example, in one of David's winning speeches, in the middle of a happy moment he trips and falls. This quickly switches the mood from upbeat to dangerous. This sets up the sad moment that comes just after David falls.
Suggesting,
Tim Wilson Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
Professional speaker James Whittaker suggests when using notes onstage, combine looking at your notes with a body movement. For example, turn your head from left to right and look at your notes in the middle of the movement. This method can also be used if you have a teleprompter.
Notably,
Tim Wilson
Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
Professional speaker Dr. Michelle Dickinson suggests you can slow down your rate of speech if you practice while listening to slow music. When you practice your speech, speak at the pace of the slow music to ensure you do not rush your speaking. When you present your speech, imagine the music playing in the background and match your speech pace to the slow pace of the music.
Slowing down,
Tim Wilson
Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
World Champion Speaker Darren LaCroix suggests when you work with an interpreter, plan on presenting half of your speech in your speaking time. For example, if you are slotted to speak for an hour, plan to speak for half an hour: the other half hour will be for the interpreter to translate what you said.
Interpreting,
Tim Wilson
Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
World Champion Speaker Darren LaCroix has these suggestions for your speech:
Focus on the process of speaking
Build a team to help you with your speaking but trust your gut - sometimes people will give you speaking advice you know won't work for you: trust your instincts that you know you best
Start with a deep message - begin your speeches deciding what your point is and what deep message you want to get across to your audience, then find or create a story that makes that deep message's point
Suggesting,
Tim Wilson Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
Last month, I was working with my wife as she practiced her keynote speech for BCNF - a Neurofibromatosis Awareness group in British Columbia.
Kristi is NOT a speaker. Well - she is, and she could be, and sometimes she even WANTS to be - but she's a wife, a mom, and in management at Colorado's largest movie theater - NOT a speaker.
Still, she's a celebrity in the NF world. She writes a popular blog, we put together a book for her a few years back, and she's dedicated to both creating awareness and educating doctors, parents, and children about the disorder that affects her and three of our six kids so directly.
As she prepared, she knew she wouldn't be able to memorize her speech. Instead, she's more of a 'lively reader'. She's worked hard to create a very authentic script - which is a lot harder to do than it sounds. Yet, every time she'd read it, I'd have to push her to really wring the emotion out of it.
"You've got to MEAN it!" came out of my well-meaning mouth more than once.
That's a huge lesson for all of us as speakers, whether we use notes or slides, or whether we read our speeches, or even can rattle it off verbatim each time without help at all. It's not just the words we say, it's the emotional meaning we give to them.
Kristi certainly MEANS everything in her speech. It's intensely personal, and designed to connect with and uplift her audience. It has humor, pathos, irony, anger, and triumph - all drawn directly from her real life. The obstacle is more often translating that meaning from the page via our voice inflections, pacing, and volume.
Tips for MEANING what you say:
1. Write the way you Talk - it's easier to be authentic when you deliver conversational phrases vs. well hone prose. 2. Record yourself - you might THINK you sound like you mean it, til you hear yourself say it. 3. Use Note CARDS - with bullet points to remind you where you're going, vs. letting yourself go through the speech solely via the script. Imagine trying to get somewhere new by car looking only at your GPS screen! 4. Highlight Emotions - with a real highlighter - different colors for different emotions, just to trigger yourself when you see it. 5. Get coached - or at least have a neighbor spray you with a water bottle everytime you slip into monotone.
When you MEAN it, the audience FEELS it. When they FEEL it, they remember it, and they are much more likely to act on it - which is, after all, the whole reason you're up there, right? To Speak...and Deliver!
I've attached her speech below - I think she's getting it ;)
World Champion Speaker Ed Tate has these suggestions for your speech:
Record every speech you give and review those speech recordings
Speak to change the world
Before beginning your speech, pause to make a deep connection with your audience - before saying a word, make lasting eye contact with people in the audience: focus your thoughts and attention entirely on them
Suggesting,
Tim Wilson Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
World Champion Speaker Craig Valentine has these suggestions for your speech:
Sell your message - get your audience to agree with you that your message is relevant and important to them in their lives
Focus on making a connection with your audience - instead of focusing on perfecting the details of your speech, focus on giving a speech that connects deeply with your audience
Suggesting,
Tim Wilson Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
World Champion Speaker Craig Valentine has these suggestions for your speech:
Tell a story that makes a point
Use a foundational phrase to get the message to stick in your audience's mind - use a 10 words or less phrase that sums up your speech point and will stick in your audience's mind (e.g. "create a phrase that stays")
Tap, tease, and transport - focus on your audience first (tap into their world), tease them about something upcoming in your speech, and tell your story (transport them into your world)
Suggesting,
Tim Wilson Professional Speech Coach Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
