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Showing posts with label Self Esteem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Self Esteem. Show all posts
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Friday, September 4, 2015
Can I Read My Speech?
Many of my students come the to the TalkPower Workshops with
the idea that reading a speech is unprofessional; they fear that reading will
make them lose their spontaneity. This is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard
and completely impractical. An all-or-nothing approach will only serve to
discourage you from ever taking the risk of ever speaking in public.
Isn’t it better to feel confident, using a script? Why avoid
an opportunity to speak because you will forget what you wanted to say? If you
do accept and opportunity to speak, isn’t it foolish to run the risk of
rambling on and on, feeling insecure and embarrassed? Is it any wonder why
there are so many terrible speakers out there when people are taught that using
a script is a big no no? Of course you can read. Common sense will tell you
that confidence comes from feeling secure, and this will happen only if your
speech is accessible.
The fact is that people use their spontaneity when they read
from a paper because they prepare a talk as if it where a term paper. “Fill up
as many pages as possible and you’ll get a better grade.” If the professor had
to skim over repetitions and irrelevancies, that was his problem. A listening
audience cannot skim. Go of the beaten track for half a millisecond and you
lose your crowd. The audience tunes out planning dinner, lunch, the weekend,
counting the tiles on the ceiling…
Learning how to write for a listening audience, not a
reading audience in a TalkPower workshop makes all the difference. After you
have been using a written script for some time, and have internalized what a
real beginning, middle, and end are all about, you will be able to speak
without a script.
An old wives tale maintains that if you read from a script
you will sound stilted. Actually, you sound stilted when you constantly read
with your nose in the text. The secret of appearing spontaneous lies in rehearsing
the script so that you look up at the audience and then back at your script,
from time to time. Practice your talk looking at the text, then looking out at
your imaginary audience, then finding your place and looking at your text
again. Not only will you feel secure, you will appear charming, knowledgeable,
and in control.
Each year I subscribe to a series of play readings in New
York City, produced by a very talented theater company called TACT (The Actors
Company Theater). The actors are all seated in a semi circle and every actor
reads from his script. These readings rank among the best theater I have ever
experienced. Much work and rehearsal goes into each production, yet not one
actor memorized or improvises his part. Every word is read from a script, and
the results are always delightful.
Politicians read their speeches from a teleprompter and they
usually go off without a hitch.
Perhaps last month you saw a professional speaker a long,
magnificent, hilarious presentation without reading fro ma single note. And perhaps
you felt envious and inadequate. Let me assure you that this professional
speaker has probably given the same talk 100 times in the last five years.
“I was scheduled at
two colleges on two successive days. On the first day my talk on Ecology went
over so well I decided to get more mileage by giving it the second day. My teenage
son was with me and during dinner, prior to the second talk, I suddenly became
aware that my son was regailing the head table with an exact account I had
given the night before- and was about to give again!”
-Issac
Asimov
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Saturday, August 29, 2015
The TalkPower Word Budget
Students tell me that their inability to edit material is a
major problem. Often they accumulate enough research material to talk for hours
even though they only have 10 minutes to do their presentation. Cutting this
down for your allotted task is a herculean task, leaving you feeling totally
overwhelmed.
It’s like a dream I sometimes have.
In this dream I go into my office and all of the files are turned upside-down
and emptied out on the floor. I need certain documents quickly, to prepare a
summation for a jury, and I don’t know where anything is. I feel rushed and
helpless. I don’t know where to begin. That’s what it’s like when I have to
prepare a summation or a speech, or any kind of presentation.
-Jason,
Attourney
Almost every presentation has a time limit. Since there are
approximately 150 words to 1 minute of speaking time, once you know how much
time you have for your talk you can keep track of the amount of material you
need by using a word count to limit yourself. This is how you do it.
If you are given 10 minutes to give a presentation, you will
have to prepare fewer than 1500 words, including time for pauses. The
combination of a time limit and word count gives you and approximate word
budget to work with (there area bout 250 words per double space type written
page, given 1-inch margin and a 12 point font).
If this idea seems radically different from your normal
procedure don’t panic. Writing a talk will become as familiar as driving to
work, when you understand the rules. Once students learn how to edit themselves
in terms of minutes and word counts, they are amazed at the beauty and clarity
of their talks. In addition, the time saving factor of using this formula is
considerable.
Friday, August 28, 2015
Verbal Graphics
The TalkPower Action Formula (refer to TalkPower Kindle)
provides a perfect vehicle for stylizing the look and sound of your talk.
Verbal graphics is the TalkPower method of breaking a speech down into sections
and then shaping the speech with strategically placed pauses. These pauses give
your presentation the same design you would find in a poem of an essay. Just as
the written page is designed with headlines, margins, bold print, bullets, and
spaced, spoken word needs the contrast of silence and sound for style,
beautiful design and dramatic effect.
Verbal graphics create the space (silence) for the audience
to take in and reflect upon what you are saying. These pauses create a rhythm
that brings your presentation to life. The rhythm causes the speaker and the
audience to move back and forth, figuratively, in unison. This movement is the
catalyst for the intensity that occurs between speaker and audience when
so-called dynamic speakers perform. For example:
Speaker: When I
was doing my research for this talk I got the strangest call. (Pause)
Audience: (leans in)
Contrast this with the following:
Speaker: when I
was going my research for this talk I got the strangest call. It was a young
man that claimed he had been abducted by aliens!
As you can see, a pause brings dramatic tension to a speech,
providing the speaker with a mysterious quality called presence or charisma. I
can think of many well-known speakers (I will not name them because I do not
wish to embarrass them) who speak well, but are not thought of as dynamic
presenters. They speak in endless even blocks of sentences with no pauses at
all. In that case, the entire speech becomes one long ribbon unraveling with no
values, colors, shades, or changes.
If speech without the logical pause is
unintelligible, without the psychological pause it is lifeless
-Constantine
Stanislavski
Even if the speaker has an interesting voice filled with a
variety of intonations, he/she will not project a dynamic personality if he/she
does not pause properly. What begins with and exciting liftoff for the audience
when the speaker first appears, fades as the speech progresses and the
attention of the audience suddenly begins to diminish. I have seen this happen
on numerous occasions, and I thought, “if only there were 10-15 well places
pauses in this speech, the speaker would surely receive a standing ovation
instead of polite applause.”
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Saturday, August 22, 2015
The Likability Factor
I frequently ask my TalkPower client “ what is your personal
objective in giving a presentation?” The answer usually is: to communicate a
message, to sell a product, to convince them to do something, to unite people,
and other variations on these themes. The answers are usually about the speech,
never about the speaker. From my point of view, the most important personal
objective is to be likeable. By this
I mean general impression of confidence, ease, credibility, and warmth you
project so that people feel comfortable with you.
Likeability happens when you are in control of yourself.
Then you are able to be clear, not talk too fast, and your words flow with
ease. A likeable speaker has a much better chance of getting an idea across,
selling a product, convincing people to vote for him, and certainly winning an
election. Our resent history abounds with stories of politicians who seemingly
came out of nowhere to capture the public vote simply because people “like
them.” I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
Now, the reason I make such a fuss about this likeability
notion is because so many people secretly believe that before they have a right
to ask others to listen to them, they have to be brilliant, superintelligent,
clever, witty, dynamic, innovative, or else they do not deserve to stand in
front of an audience and talk. As a result, either you avoid speaking or your
talk is top heavy with facts, statistics, attempts at inspiring
generalizations, and huff-and-puff.
How unnecessary! Just use the TalkPower formula
(the innovative concentration exercises, the focusing and stress reduction
techniques), tell stories, look away from your script at the audience from time
to time, handling yourself in a leader-like manner… In other words, be likable, and you will be a huge success!For the TalkPower formula see the kindle book or attend one of the in-person TalkPower workshops
www.talkpowerinc.com
TalkPower Kindle
Friday, August 21, 2015
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Facing the Audience
When you first face the audience you will feel a slight
shock. It is in this moment that you shift from being a private person to
relating to the audience. A few seconds of silence before you speak will help
you to make this transition. The silence now allows an introductory process to
begin so that you and your audience can tune into one another.
On the other hand, if you start speaking immediately, you
will be skipping a very important step. Imagine meeting a new person and
launching right into a conversation instead of introducing yourself and shaking
hands. This behavior is just as awkward as facing your audience and starting
your talk without an initial pause.
A good way to do this is to stand still, face your audience,
and slowly squeeze your toes thee times before you say the first words of your
speech. This gives the audience time to focus their complete attention on you.
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