Archive for the ‘storytelling’ Category

Ask Questions

Monday, December 17th, 2007

Vendors come to us at Media Training Worldwide and the Speaking Channel quite frequently to pitch us their wares (as we do with prospects as well). The atmosphere is relaxed, with people sitting around a conference room chatting. Normally, the sales pitches are interesting, engaging, and useful, even if we don’t ending up hiring the company.

But the funny thing is…many of these salespeople and consultants will tell me “I’m no public speaker” or “I don’t like public speaking” or “I’m no good at public speaking.” And these people are obviously lying to me. No, they’re not intentionally fibbing. It’s just that, in most cases, I’ve just seen them give an excellent presentation, so they are obviously good at giving presentations.

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Posted in Audiences, sales talk, storytelling | No Comments »

Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff (Not everything is the small stuff)

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

Too many speakers sweat the small stuff of speaking, i.e. the occasional “um” or “uh.” This is a misplaced fear. I am reminded of a well-know self-help series called “Don’t sweat the small stuff, and everything is small stuff,” only, not everything in speaking is small stuff.

Having something interesting, memorable and relevant for your audience—this is big stuff when it comes to speaking! For example, Martha Stewart has a lot to say to people, especially women, about how to organize their homes and lives in order to have more beauty and class. Stewart touches something in people (I’m not much of a fan, but I do admire her business and communications savvy).

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Posted in Career Advice, Fear, keynote advice, storytelling | No Comments »

Props Aren’t Just for Magicians

Monday, November 5th, 2007

I used to be against business people using props during a presentation. Too gimmicky, I thought. Plus, what happens if your props break or don’t function properly? You should not be dependent on props to make a point; you should be able to make the point just with your words from your own mouth.

I still believe that most of these things are true. However, if you are speaking for longer than 10 minutes and you do have a prop that makes your point more understandable and more memorable, then why not use it? This is my new attitude.

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Sincerity – Get It or Fake It

Monday, September 17th, 2007

Of all the many fine qualities a great speaker could have, sincerity ranks very high. If you have an interesting and relevant message, plus it is packaged with your heartfelt sincerity, you will succeed as a speaker. It won’t matter if you occasionally stumble over a word, fumble a phrase, or misstate a name–your audience will forgive you.

If, however, your audience thinks you aren’t sincere with them, they will quickly deride you as “slick.” Once an audience has positioned you as “slick” there is literally nothing you can do that will impress them. You could cure cancer on the stage in front of them, turn water into wine, and your audience will dismiss you as a “slick” huckster who is merely trying to “play them.”

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Re-Live stories, Don’t Re-Tell Stories

Friday, August 3rd, 2007

I often tell my presentation training clients to illustrate their key points by telling stories. For many people, telling stories is the single most difficult thing they can imagine doing during a speech (somehow it seems easier to rattle off a list of bullet points on a PowerPoint).

I give my clients 12 key elements that are essential to story telling; I provide other helpful tips. There are even entire books written on the craft of story telling. But the reality is you don’t need all of that if you can focus on one simple principle:

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Test Your Public Speaking Skills

Monday, May 14th, 2007

Are you looking for a sure-fire way to test your speech for its effectiveness?

Conduct a movie test. Here’s how.

      1. Record your speech into an audio device.
      2. Play back the audio.

      3. Write down every image that comes to mind as if you were a movie director blocking out scene after scene from a movie.

      4. After you are through listening to the speech, look at your paper. If you don’t have pages and pages of notes filled with images for scenes, you are in big trouble.

The number one problem all speakers have (after data-dumping) is that their speeches are too abstract and general. The problem with abstraction is not that audiences won’t understand you. The difficulty is that people don’t remember abstract ideas from speakers. The answer is to make your abstract messages concrete by giving examples, case studies, anecdotes and stories. When you provide these, your audience can provide the images to the movie in their own brain as you give your speech.

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Posted in Corporate Communication, Speaking Concisely, storytelling | No Comments »

Speaking Skills: How to Make Your Employees Better Speakers

Wednesday, May 9th, 2007

“Why is everyone a horrible presenter in my organization except for me?”

That’s a question I get quite frequently from CEOs and bosses. My answer?

“It’s your own darn fault!”

Here’s why. Many bosses intimidate their employees. Therefore the employees create data-filled PowerPoint slides cram-packed with numbers, facts and complex graphics. The employees’ sole objective is to avoid criticism for being “unprepared.” In order to cram as much data in the presentation as possible, the employee presenter removes all examples, anecdotes, stories and, for that matter, anything remotely interesting from the presentation.

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Posted in Career Advice, Fear, Leaders, storytelling | No Comments »

Why Story Telling Is Essential To Public Speaking

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

Here is research from a new book “Made to Stick.”

The authors examined a whole series of students giving presentations in classrooms. Here is what they found:

The average student giving a short speech used 2.5 statistics.

Only 1 student in 10 used a story to illustrate key points.

When students were tested 10 minutes after the presentations were over, an astonishing 63 percent remembered the stories.

A mere 5% remembered any statistics.

Stories are not a luxury; they are the single most effective way to get your audience to remember your messages.

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Speak in the Present Tense

Monday, December 11th, 2006

A lot of bad habits speakers have can be solved by thinking of two words: present tense.

The more a speaker talks in the present tense, the better. When you are giving examples and telling stories, talk about them as if you are reliving them in the present, not telling an old, dry history lesson.

Talk about what you and your organization do today; don’t waste lots of time educating everyone on how you were formed in 1946 and what the highlights were for you in 1963.

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