My brother James on Summit TV
For several months recently I was plagued with problems, firstly with computers and then my Blackberry and I could not have sorted these out without a great deal of help from my brother James for which I am extremely grateful. If you're a techie, you will find his blog informative and amusing.
James is a product strategist for a leading software-as-a-service vendor and he speaks all over the world, not just at conferences and meetings but on TV and radio as well. Last month, he was once again in South Aftrica and (despite jet lag!) threw himself into a round of media appearances, often travelling great distances across the country to make them.
One of these was an appearance on the Summit TV business programme Intellectual Property and you can read a transcript and watch/listen to him here.
I am struck by his confidence during this interview. Even soime other seasoned interviewees who respond to a question with "I think there are two particular issues that you've brought up" might deal with the first and then, in the heat of the moment, forget what the second one was but he is very relaxed, knowledgeable about his subject and totally on the ball.
Another point is that even though he is there to publicise his company, any plugs are naturally introduced and this is an informative interview for anyione interested in his subject - not just a sales pitch!
Most speakers will know that presentations, speeches, etc, fall into four categories in terms of their planned outcomes:
entertain
inform
motivate
persuade
(some people say there are only three and merge the last two but I believe, like many others, that these are different).
Although there may be one that dominates, few speakers rely on only one. The goal of the political leader's keynote speech may be to persuade the electorate (and often their own party!) not to vote him out but this is more easily achieved by having a motivational message backed up with information, such as statistics. And if some entertainment can be added in the form of humour at the expense of the opposition then that helps as well!
In this case, the promotion of James's company's services is enhanced by the informative nature of his answers instead of him just crowbarring in a persuasive sales pitch wherever possible.
Another very good blog I recently discovered is Tiger Two Tiger - Surviving the jungle of Online Reputation. In a recent post, Nancy Williams wrote about visiting the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin and the difference between education and pitching. She lists networking as the fundamental requirement for attending an event like this and education as the second and she uses a wonderful phrase to dismiss those going in for the hard sell:
"We take the time out of our working life and spend the money because
we want to come away enriched, inspired and possessing more knowledge
than we did before we came.
It is on the basis of this second fundamental requirement that I
judge the speakers. And the big issue I have found is that being
pitched at does not fulfill my educational requirements".
Remember that last sentence!
Public Speaking Tip #254: A presentation that informs (or entertains) may be a far better advert for your goods or services than a straightforward sales pitch. Selling is often done on the basis that whatever is being sold can solve a problem for the prospective customer - so why create an additional problem by alienating them?
Thank you once again, James, for solving my own problems!
Cranborne Women's Institute
23 September saw me giving an evening talk on My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer for Cranborne Women's Institute in North Dorset. This was a small audience - just 13 - but much more responsive than another tiny crowd I wrote about previously!
I am always looking for local references to include, wherever I speak, and for this, my first-ever talk in this village, I mentioned that when I was writing for BBC Radio 2's News Huddlines, a familiar face at the end-of-series parties was the character actor Jonathan Cecil whose aristocratic family have connections with Cranborne going back over many centuries (in fact the meeting was being held in the Michael and Richard Cecil Memorial Hall, a very pleasant venue.
Public Speaking Tip #251: if you think about it for long enough, you should be able to come up with some reference that links you to the place or organisation where you are speaking. It doesn't have to be some great long story or even terribly recent - just something to add that little touch of personalisation amongst your other material.
My thanks to their Chairman and Speaker Secretary Mary for running me in from Wimborne Minster and back. Since then, this WI have celebrated their 89th anniversary!
Solent U3A
I spent part of my birthday on a speaking engagement. No hardship - there are few things I would rather be doing! This was a return visit to Solent U3A in Titchfield in Hampshire. The audience of 80 was very sharp and picked up on the subtler references in my Algonquin Round Table talk. The interesting thing is that there were so many present; the last time I spoke to this group in April 2006 there were about half that number but their membership has increased so rapidly that they have had to move to a bigger venue,
So many of the organisations I speak to are struggling to keep going and sadly a number do have to close, usually because they can't attract enough new, younger members or no-one wants to take over a committee position when someone finally stands down after many years. But there are some organisations which seem to be booming and this certainly is the case with the University of the Third Age. There are also a large number of Probus clubs with waiting lists with the result that new ones are constantly forming.
Public Speaking Tip #252: If you are a speaker for clubs and societies, you should be able to identify a market among certain organisations which are constantly growing in popularity - whatever the trend where others are concerned.
The recent improvements to my Algonquin talk have now made such a difference that I wonder how I ever managed without them. My thanks to their very well-travelled Speaker Co-ordinator Valerie for the lift from Swanwick station and back.
Downton Good Companions
My last booking in September was on the 30th for the Good Companions Club in Downton, Wiltshire. There were about 25 there to hear My Life as a freelance Comedy Writer and, as with all my bookings in this village, I was very pleased with the response. I also ran out of copies of Nick R's in a Twist! to sell.
Public Speaking Tip #253: If you run out of merchandise at a speaking engagement then look on the bright side - you should have some customers for that item the next time they book you! Of course, in order to get re-booked, you need to a) deliver a good presentation and b) add further titles!
I enjoyed chatting to the members of this friendly club afterwards and, as always when I speak in this area, I took the opportunity to head into Salisbury after the meeting. It was a good way to round off a pretty busy month for speaking - but then September usually is!
Tips on using lecterns
In the lead-up to Gordon Brown's keynote conference speech last month, the BBC's Daily Politics asked the award-winning actor Brian Cox what presentation tips he would pass on to the Prime Minister. He replied that he should stand his ground by standing his ground, in other words, speak from one spot instead of roaming around the platform as the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg had done as he spoke at his party's conference the previous week, guided by a number of autocues. Sure enough, Mr Brown spoke from behind a lectern.
Which brings me to the recent discussion among some of my favourite public speaking bloggers concerning the use of lecterns. I suppose it began back in August when my fellow Bournemouth speechwriter Brian Jenner's site displayed the clear, portable, branded model he had just taken delivery of. This drew several comments, positive and negative.
Then Lisa Braithwaite of Speak Schmeak wrote a couple of posts arguing against lecterns, one listing what she feels are the problems with using them and another a few weeks later after she had seen a TV debate featuring the US Presidential candidates where Barack Obama towered over his lectern, leaving the somewhat shorter John McCain seemingly dwarfed by his. The excellent UK blogger Jeremy Jacobs weighed in with comments and a post on his own site Corporate Presenter agreeing with Lisa.
So what are my own feelings about lecterns, having used quite a few myself over 700 speaking engagements?
I think that for a nervous, novice speaker learning to get up in front of an audience and use notes, they can be a something of a labour-saving comfort, especially if the microphone is attached. When a speaker becomes more experienced, it can be a different story.
Much depends upon the nature of the presentation. Roaming around the stage may be expected of a cabaret singer, a comedian and possibly a motivational speaker but when politicians start doing this instead of speaking from the podium then to me it always looks rather manipulative (ok, they're politicians - make that even more manipulative than usual!)
To those who always want to wander around during their presentations I say try after dinner speaking - chance would be a fine thing! Sometimes you can speak from a different part of the room after a luncheon or dinner (I usually try to as it's more comfortable for me and more visible to my audience than my place at the Top Table) but I have sometimes had to perform standing in front of my seat in a dining room so cramped that the waiting staff have barely had enough space to squeeze between the chairs and the walls to serve the food - there hardly seems to be room for a lettuce leaf let alone a lectern!
I don't mind using lecterns but they can have a few drawbacks. My talks are humorous and lively and I often walk away a few feet as I act out certain scenarios - difficult to do if the mic is attached to the lectern. It is also often the case that although they are in theory designed to hold written materials, some cannot actually do this; the shelf may be too narrow to hold a medium-sized book and even a single sheet of paper may slip off the shiny wood unless it's fastened onto it or a clipboard!
My ideal is a small table for my notes, water, props and merchandise. I can stand behind it, beside it or in front of it - and during a typical talk I may do all of these.
Public Speaking Tip #250: Lecterns may be a good focal point and, in the case of eulogies and religious readings, they can add the required dignity to the occasion but for other types of speaking, I would say that, whatever your height, you must be bigger than the lectern: in other words, be lively and animated in your delivery and don't bury your face in your written materials - but then surely these 'rules' apply to all speeches, whatever the setting!
Gordon Brown's Conference Speech
Possibly the most eagerly-anticipated UK speech of 2008 was delivered by Primie Minister Gordon Brown at the Labour Party Conference on 23 September. There had been talk for months that this was a 'make or break' address and that its reception would determine whether rebels within his party overthrew him. In the event, he delivered it well and it seemed to be acceptable to the delegates (even if, as the Daily Mail pointed out, numerous parts of it were less than original!)
Mr Brown's popularity in the polls jumped (although probably not as much as some were hoping) and now, three weeks later, the headlines are dominated more by financial crises than talk of leadership challenges.
What I found fascinating about all this was the media speculation about how this speech and this speech alone would determine whether he kept his position. I believe that if a politician has reached a certain pinnacle (and you can't go much higher than PM!) then the public is so used to them that - with the possible exception of in wartime - no speech will make that much difference to how they are perceived. If enough people want you out then that' s it (remember Conservative leader Ian Duncan-Smith announcing impressively at his party's conference in 2003 that 'The quiet man is here to stay and he's turning up the volume'...and then being ousted very shortly afterwards?)
But if someone's star is in the ascendant, then I think one speech can have an extraordinary impact, such as that described in this extract from Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery: An Autobiography, published in 1901.
Public Speaking Tip #249: If you are already gathering some momentum, for example, in your career or in public life, then one very good speech can bring you much wider recognition almost instantly.
This post from last year highlighted the potential negative impact of a single speech!
A very quiet audience
The words 'well-received' or 'went very well' appear rather a lot in this blog, especially when I am writing about delivering my talks My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer or The Power of Humour in Everyday Life. This is hardly surprising as these include anecdotes which I have honed in hundreds of speaking engagements, in some cases over a period of twelve years.
But, just ocasionally, I will come across an audience which just doesn't respond the way tens of thousands of other listeners have. I had such an experience on 19 September at an evening booking in my local area.
I last spoke to this particular group in 1999 and I was struck by how the attendance has diminished since then. There were just 14 there this time (12 men and 2 women), a drop of about 50%, Now, I have blogged in the past about how small audiences can be very responsive, such as this one last year. That wasn't the case here. From the moment I started, I was getting very little reaction, just odd laughs here and there, never the whole audience together. 'Tumbleweed'. One man directly in front of me yawned and made no attempt to cover his mouth. Another looked at his watch just a few minutes in. And, in one of the more ill-mannered displays I have encountered recently, someone started loudly jangling the coins in his pocket.
I started using different techniques, such as delivering in a more exaggerrated, stand-up style and drawing the audience in by asking questions. There is a section towards the end of My Life as... where I include a number of unintentionally funny press cuttings. These normally go fantastically well so I changed my running order and introduced these much earlier - to little effect.
Humour is subjective, of course, but this was tried and tested material. Sometimes when I'm speaking, I will notice that an audience prefers the real-life anecdotes while another might respond more to the humorous descriptions of my work for radio or TV appearances but this group just didn't seem to go for any of it.
There is a story I usually finish this talk with called the Blair-Nick Project (it's in my booklet Nick R's in a Twist!) It's a great anecdote with the minimum of embellishment and a killer pay-off. It not only gets a huge laugh, it also usually draws a round of spontaneous applause. I have been ending on it for eight years and if this one doesn't grab them, then I am left feeling that well, it wasn't me, it was them! Sure enough, even this didn't get much of a laugh.
After the talk, I took the odd question and then chatted. The members were friendly, there were some complimentary comments and a couple of people were even good enough to buy booklets but I was left wondering why on earth they had booked me and indeed, why they would book any speaker. What must it be like delivering a factual presentation there that isn't even humorous?
I appreciate the booking and fee, the comments afterwards and the merchandising but I wanted to write about this engagement honestly so I have decided to do something very unusual for this blog and keep their identity anonymous. I am not sure that I would go back there.
Public Speaking Tip #247: However many times you have delivered a particular presentation with great success, however finely you have honed the material, however much praise you have received for it afterwards, you will still, every so often, encounter an audience that just doesn't go for it, whatever techniques you apply to try and improve their response. Getting through this adds to your experience and besides, think how dull public speaking would be if every engagement was predictable!
In my early days as a speaker, I had quite a few like this (and worse) and I would feel pretty numb for days afterwards! Today, this happens so rarely that I can just shrug it off, especially as I have delivered this material so often and so successfully. But what kept me going to the end of this presentation instead of saying 'Well, I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, this isn't working for anyone. Why don't we just forget the fee and I won't waste any more of your time?' (This is something which I have never done anywhere, incidentally!)
In addition to the confidence gained from past experience, there are other resources which I draw upon. There are my LAMDA Public Speaking qualifications (Bronze, Silver, Gold Medals and Associate Diploma, all gained within my first year as a speaker: 1996). I will blog in detail about these at a later date. And then there is my Equity card.
When I started going to Broadcasting House to attend BBC radio comedy writers' meetings, many years before I ever even considered becoming a speaker, some of the senior writers were also stand-up comics from the London circuit who were members of Equity. That all seemed a world away from anything I could achieve.
When I became a speaker, my comedy scriptwriting stood me in good stead and my material made up for a lack of personality in my delivery. Even though I had passed all these public speaking exams my talks still needed something more. If the quality of the material wasn't drawing laughs on its own, I would just carry on to the end, pretty much on autopilot, focusing on the fact that the next booking would probably be better. And most of them were.
And then in 2000, having completed a couple of hundred speaking engagements, I plucked up the courage to apply for an Equity card. I submitted paperwork from a number of recent bookings and forthcoming work plus a detailed CV covering all my entertainment industry/media experience.
I was accepted and from that moment on, I felt like a performer. If an audience seemed reserved, I would step up a gear with my delivery. The results were immediately noticeable and I improved enormously. It really made a huge difference to my speaking and on the rare occasions like the booking I have written about here, I know that at least I have given it my best shot.
Equity in the UK is currently on a recruitment drive using the slogan 'Proud to be a member' (and I am). The monthly subscription fee is very good value and there are numerous advantages in terms of legal help over contractual disputes, public liability insurance and much more. Their website is here.
There are, of course, some 'qualifications' which are awarded just for turning up for a course and organisations which anyone can join if they simply pay the fee but you can really increase your credibility and therefore your confidence as a speaker if you can succeed in an area where there is a risk of failure or rejection, such as taking an examination like those offered by LAMDA or applying to join an organisation with minimum requirements for membership, such as Equity.
Public Speaking Tip #248: You can gain extra backbone as a speaker from qualifications, such as recognised external examinations or membership of professional bodies which have standards for acceptance.
Brirish Gas Retirement Poole
Another repeat booking! On 16 September, I paid my fourth visit to speak to the Poole branch of the British Gas Retired Employees. I made a further alteration to the beginning of my Algonquin Round Table talk by asking a very basic question: who had heard of them? It turned out that a number of the audience had. I asked this because I had found at so many previous bookings for this talk that a people seemed t beo intrigued by its title. Some even thought it was something to do with the service organisation Round Table!
Public Speaking Tip #246: Sometimes asking a very simple question at the start of a presentation can give you some useful guidelines. Asking who has actually heard of your subject matter may seem incredibly obvious but it lets you know how many in the room will be totally unfamiliar with what you will be speaking about and perhaps also that there is already some interest/knowledge where others are concerned.
There were about 60 there and this is always a friendly club to address and chat to afterwards. One lady asked me to write down a couple of the quotations I finished on. I think it is time for me to start giving out a handout with some of these sayings after the talks.
I was amazed to learn how many of their members are now in their 80s (you would never know it) and the club was making preparations for its 30th anniversary dinner. I have since heard that it was extremely well-attended and much enjoyed. Long may they continue.
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Blog Directory ID: 1235
Blog URL: http://www.nickrthomas.co.uk
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Blog Description: The blog of a busy public speaker, speechwriter and presentation skills coach in the United Kingdom. Every post includes at least one useful public speaking tip for readers.
Blog Tags: public speaking - presentation skills training - personal growth - scriptwriting - career development - confidence building - self-help - performance
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Blog Owner: Nicholas R Thomas
Blog Added: December 09, 2007 08:20:07 PM
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