Welcome to February!
Here at last is Part 3 of the speaking articles!
Continuing on from the series I started writing last year, and thank you for many of your lovely comments about the value of the comments and ideas! I am thrilled it helped so many of you!
Parts 1 and 2 should be on my website archived but sorry, they are not as we have a problem Houston!....... which we hope to have fixed soon!
Meantime if you would like the whole article in pdf form, just visit www.thejoyproject.com or click on http://www.thejoyproject.com/download_some_free_joy
Here goes…..
Make your content memorable.
How can we expect people to remember an hours worth of talking?
People, these days, have attention spans of ‘knats on amphetamines’ as the Readers Digest said, so we have to help them remember.
I studied with Michael Grinder for 15 consecutive years (and still do) to learn about the process behind the presentation, that makes the content memorable.
And how to embed it into their bodies. I suggest you consider it as well if you are serious about speaking for impact! http://www.michaelgrinder.com
Use symbols, acronyms, things like
- ‘the 3 rules of …”
- the 4 lies /myths of …”
- attach concepts to images or stories etc.
- I often make all my concepts start with the same letter, the 4 “L”s of life; or today we are talking about F words! (Family, Fear, Feelings, Fun etc)
There are many ways of making your points memorable, even if you make them turn to each other and repeat what you said!
Use interactive exercises, stories, create characters on stage, attach ideas to gestures, wear silly hats or glasses or headbands like I do - and you will find that years later people will remember great chunks of what you said!
Remember to tell stories that touch the hearts of your audience members.
Believe in yourself
Belief in our own ability is a great predictor of success than any level of skill! Did you know that?
Do whatever work you need to do to have the faith that you know your content, your heart is in the right place, you have done your preparation in room setup and process activities and then go forth and have fun, trusting yourself to say the right things at the right moment.
It’s often the fear of speaking and fear of how others are judging you that ruins presentations!
Being arrogant and believing in yourself are two different things! Being insecure and appearing arrogant is a terrible thing to do to people in an audience!
If you feel nervous, share it with people, 99% of them will empathize with you!
Be authentic. Be real. Unless you are a professional speaker, no one really expects you to be perfect!!
Think about the structure of your presentation
When I prepare a presentation, I draw a series of boxes down the left hand side of a page and in the top one I write ‘start’, then the next 3 or 4 are the main points I think the audience needs to hear , then ‘finish’ in the last one!
Off each box, I draw 3 or 4 lines and these are the sub topics and stories and ideas I want to use as example of the main point.
On the right hand side of the page, I list the ‘exercises’ to go with each sub point I am making.
And the exercise might be just to make people laugh; or turn to the person next to them and do ‘x’ or say ‘x’; or to stand up and go and say something to someone else, all activities designed to embed the message in their bodies.
But have the audience do SOME interaction at least every 3-5 minutes if you want them engaged the whole time you are speaking.
I make sure that the finish is something that summarises all I said and makes them laugh, you might get them to turn to each other and “tell the person next to you ‘3 things you have learned that you are going to do differently from now on’.”
This is a clever way to have people self select what changes they will make, so they take ownership over it, and also to embed the messages in their memories!
Process vs content
Michael Grinder taught me about the power of influence, he said’ we are in love with the influence of power when we really should be in love with the power of influence’.
He is a master of non verbal communication.
Once you are very familiar with your content, you can pay attention to the process by which you deliver the content.
Some of it is very obvious and some very sophisticated!
For example, we all know that if someone READS their presentation, people are sure to be in a coma in minutes!
Why do that?
Why not just give them the presentation to read themselves and save everyone time.
It’s almost impossible to absorb a message if it is just read to us. That’s a simple and easy to understand process idea.
So is pacing back and forwards or side to side on a stage!
It usually drives people nuts, and they are so busy wondering if you are going to stop pacing, they don’t hear a word you say!
A more sophisticated one is to think about using your face, voice, body and location on stage to anchor messages in different ways- In other words to make them memorable.
When I tell stories, I will often act out the characters in the story but changing my posture and voice style and tone and volume, and where I stand on stage and each time I play that character, I assume the same posture, voice and position!
You can make your own little video in that way!
There are ways to use your voice to be approachable or credible.
So you can build rapport or make a point.
Watch a news reader for the credible voice, and then listen to how they change to approachable for the last story which is supposed to touch your heart! Credible voices drop down in the last part of the sentence or word. Approachable, they finish on an up note.
All this is available in Michaels various products, he is also BRILLIANT as a coach or presenter on these topics.
And how you use your hands is critical! Michael has a very funny link on Youtube about this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59g5aIujRSc
You will learn a lot!
Preparation
In your preparation where you are thinking about who will be in your audience and what they will be thinking, try to put yourself in their mindset and imagine how they will react to what you say.
Pretend you are an audience member and you hear the speaker (you!) say ‘blah blah blah’.
What do you say to yourself about what you just heard?
Once you have an idea of the range of things people might say to themselves about your content, you have to then to watch them carefully. (remember you are now very familiar with your content or you can’t do process!)
If you see anyone looking like they might be reacting to what you are saying, you can step off to the side and say something like, “ I know that some of you are probably thinking ‘ oh sure, I have heard this all before’, but really this time it IS different and allow me to share with your why it will be different.” Or some words like that.
In other words, you step off to the side and repeat what you think they might be thinking! And then address that skeptical or negative or angry thought! It’s very effective I promise!
You will really capture their attention and they start listening to you again.
With a controversial topic, you may need to do this a few times!
There are way too many process tips to cover in this newsletter but at least you have now heard of some ways that you can delve deeper into how you present yourself anywhere, even in a one to one situation!
Of course Michael tells us that we can’t really focus on process until the content is very very familiar, so I am sharing with you some ideas to work towards as you become more confident about your content!
How to sound intelligent!
The easiest way to sound smart is to pause.
Avoid saying 'um' and 'er' in the pause, and use the correct grammar!
I could write a whole newsletter on the power of the pause!
It must be the right length - so you give people time to breathe, but avoid keeping them on hold while you are thinking of what to say next!
Without a pause, people literally cannot breathe listening to you!
With pauses that are too long, people are asleep in between words, or their minds go wandering!
Filling the pause with 'um' and 'er', 'like' or 'you know' - or just interlacing your presentation with them is very distracting.
If you say any of them often enough, you will have the whole audience irritated and listening only for the next time you say it - missing your entire message!!
Last points!
Remember it is never about you!
It is always about them and how they are responding to you.
YOU need to be in a great state. Be in your heart and sincere in your desire to help them in some way. To give them something they need. Something they will value and be able to use.
Make sure that you dress appropriately as people will judge you in the first 30 seconds.
If you want them to accept you, look the part first and then blossom out into how you really are and what you really want to say!
Come from your heart; be sincere and pray beforehand that you give people what they need.
But most of all, have fun - which gives them permission to have fun.
You can be VERY professional and respectful, and still have fun.
Above all, have fun, even with serious subjects. It works.
