It’s All the Same to Me
I sat listening to a 30-year-old speaker. His enthusiasm, energy, and meaty content immediately grabbed my attention. But five minutes into his speech, my mind began to wander. After ten minutes, I had definitely lost focus. He never lost his energy. His volume didn’t wane.
At about the twelve-minute mark, he told a personal story, complete with the vocal nuances and inflections you would expect in a story, and he once again had my full attention.
What happened?
Enthusiasm is good. Energy is good. So is content-rich material. But when there is no variation, the audience tires of it. It is difficult to stay focused. If you want to hold your audience’s attention, you need to vary your delivery–volume, pace, and tone. Above all, you must intersperse your material with examples, video clips, skits, STORIES–something that will spice it up, break it up, and reinforce your content.
Natural Gestures
“My hands are out of control. I don’t know what to do with them.” Believe it or not, you’ve just taken Step 1 in curing the problem. You have become aware of the problem. Now that you are aware, just leave your hands at your sides—not pinned to your sides—but naturally hanging there in a relaxed manner.
Step 2 is to allow yourself to feel the power and importance of what you’re saying. Your hands will follow in a natural and consistent manner. Think about it: When you are telling a friend something exciting that happened or you are making a point that you are passionate about, you don’t choreograph how your hands move, do you? Of course not. They move in a manner that supports and synchronizes with what you are saying.
In the same way, when you speak before a group, after the initial case of nervousness has worn off, allow yourself to experience the importance of what you are saying at that moment, and your hands should come along for the ride.
269 Gallons of Water
“I can see how you use stories, but I’m an engineer. My presentations are very technical in nature. My audience wouldn’t want to hear a story.” Oh, really? I would argue that a story can make any presentation more understandable, more memorable, and more enjoyable.
A young engineering student wanted to sell his senior project to the board of directors of a local campground—all of them non-engineers. During the rainy season, the entrance road would flood making the campground inaccessible. As he originally wrote it, the proposal was comprised mainly of numbers and jargon: “You’ve got 269 cfs coming over the wall . . . “ I cut him off. “I’m an old retired guy and I’ve volunteered my time to be on this board. I have no idea what you just said or why I should hire you.”
The young engineering student and his partner put their heads together for a few minutes and then he tried it again. “As you enter the campground, there is a low retaining wall.” (He motioned with his hands.) “During the rainy season, when this area floods, the water cascades over the wall.” (Notice his word picture.) “If I were to take 269 gallon jugs of water and stack them up right here, (he again used his hands to demonstrate) that is how many gallons of water flow over the wall every second.” (The use of a story gave him a natural opportunity to use his voice for emphasis.)
I turned to my imaginary colleagues on the board. “I recommend that we hire these people immediately!”
The use of storytelling will be invaluable in helping you to sell your service, product, or idea.
Write a Letter
I just had to share this one! I recently sent an observation/example to Patricia Fripp (a world-famous speaking coach from Lady and the Champs) and look what she wrote a very nice post about me on her blog. You can see the full post here: http://www.fripp.com/blog/public-speaking-tip-from-patricia-fripp-and-president-obama/. Be sure to look at the full blog entry! Watch the video below to see what I said about the Lady and the Champs conference in 2010.
http://youtu.be/qK5kvZUCysA