If you are new to the blog, or maybe just scanned a few early articles, here are a few of my most popular posts. I hope that they serve as a great introduction to my writing, Toastmasters and the topic of public speaking mastery:

Toastmasters

How to be successful in Toastmasters - Part 1 of 2

How to be successful in Toastmasters - Part 2 of 2

Why Toastmasters Makes Sense in a Down Economy

Technical Aspects of Speaking

Educational Moment – Handing over control of the lectern

How to Nail an Introduction

How Rude: Don’t Be a Content Thief

Speaking Mastery

Quit Navel Gazing: It’s About the Audience

Epic Failure: How to Not Connect with the Audience

Being an Excellent Speaker

Speak to be Remembered and Repeated

Keep on speaking,
Chris Elliott

Did you know that Thanksgiving can make you a better speaker?

How you ask? Because of your Crazy Uncle Larry!

photo credit: :ray

What? You don’t have an Crazy Uncle Larry?

Well maybe you don’t have an Crazy Uncle Larry, but you might just have a family member that has a whole cadre of funny stories that they share for the holidays. Now, you might have heard all of the stories a million times, but I want you to pay attention, because to be a successful speaker you have to become Crazy Uncle Larry.

You don’t want to be Crazy Uncle Larry?

You Need to become Crazy Uncle Larry in your Speeches

Consider this, what is it about Crazy Uncle Larry’s stories that make them so compelling, even if you have heard them 10 years in a row?

Could it be that he has included some of the keys to master storytelling?

Keys to Master Storytelling

1. Vivid detail that uses very descriptive language
2. Times, places, and numbers are presented in specific terms…its not all just “stuff”
3. The stories are told with such gusto that you have believe they happened exactly as told
4. They are so well internalized, that note cards aren’t needed to remember details
5. The stories are conversational and don’t seem scripted
6. Events have been told so many times that it seems effortless

What this means, is that with a little spit and polish, your Crazy Uncle Larry just might have what it takes to be a professional speaker.

Pay Attention to What Makes a Good Storyteller

Now, are you going to ignore Crazy Uncle Larry tomorrow or are you going to pay attention to what makes his stories so compelling so that you can do the same things in your speeches?

Learning how to be Crazy Uncle Larry is just one of the many things you can learn if you attend a Champ Camp. Try it…you just might become Crazy Uncle Larry.

If you are celebrating it, have a Happy Thanksgiving

Are You Ready to Take the Stage?

What is Excellence in Speaking?

Excellence in speaking is being so good, that everyone in the room wants you to speak as much as possible. An excellent speaker is alive with energy, has fully internalized their speech, and captivates and motivates an audience to action. Without gimmicks, without a sales pitch, and without having to be “perfect”, an excellent speaker gets us thinking about our life and how we can live it differently.

On Becoming Excellent

I have mentored and coached speakers ranging from professional trainers and presenters to people who have been scared to death of speaking in front of an audience. The trainers and presenters are similar; they are usually good but they want to be great. The people scared of speaking are usually bad, but they know that it is a fear to be conquered.

After six months of similar practice, both the professional and the neophyte can have the same level of speaking ability. The reality of speaking is that it does not take much practice to become a good speaker. For me, after just six months of Toastmasters, people would tell me that I should become a professional speaker. That I, “have what it takes.” However, they did not watch the tapes.

After watching the video tapes of my speeches, I realized that yes, I was good but I was not great. While my presentations might have impressed a group of Toastmasters, I did not have the content, the connection, and the sparkle that separated good from great. That gap is what most people don’t appreciate, other fear, and many more don’t understand the amount of work it takes to cross.

Why Would Someone Fear Excellence?

A fear of excellence can come from a fear of standing out, a fear of failure, or a fear of change. Self improvement junkies like me want to cross that gap, want to get better, and want to make a difference. Many people are not like me. There are many speakers in this world that don’t want to make a big splash, so they allow that fear to take hold. Those are the ones that do just enough to get good, but don’t cross over to excellence.

How do I Conquer the Fear and Allow Excellence?

There are two keys to conquering the fear and allowing you to become excellent. The first is to admit that you have room for improvement and second is to focus on the steps it takes to become excellent. Let’s talk about each of those in a little detail.

Admitting a Need for Improvement

Admitting that I am only good is something that I struggled with for a long time. Early on in my speaking, many people would tell me I should be a professional speaker. Needless to say, I let that go to my head. Thinking you are great when you are only good is a surefire way to stay stuck at just good.

To overcome this, videotape yourself giving speeches to an audience. The tough part is then watching them as a dispassionate observer and realizing that you are not as good as you thought. When you start doing this, you will notice what needs corrected and you will be able to put those corrections into action. Doing this forces you to get better as a speaker.

Focus on Becoming Excellent

Becoming excellent as a speaker is not as easy as saying you will be better. Becoming an excellent speaker is devotion to both the techniques of speaking and the development of excellent content. There are many speakers in this business that are either excellent speakers or excellent content producers. There are very few speakers that can do both. If you focus, day by day at improving your content and becoming a better speaker, you will move towards excellence.

The Path to Excellence in Speaking

The path to speaking excellence is not a day hike through an idyllic wonderland. Obtaining speaking excellence will require hard work, steady determination, and a dose of professional feedback. If that is something you seek, then attend and participate in as many Toastmasters meetings as possible, continually improve through study, and attend seminars and workshops that will coach you to speak better. It is not going to be an overnight transformation, but your continual dedication to self improvement will pay off. You just have to give it time and don’t fear it happening.

To get a copy of my new Special Report, “Make Money? You’re Not a Mint: Suggestions For Earning Money Online and Offline.” Sign up for my free newsletter!. In addition to the report, you will get occasional newsletter only tips on speaking, professional speaking, and special offers. Don’t worry, I don’t sell, rent, or share subscribers.

You might be asking yourself why I got a copy of Steve Pavlina’s new book, Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth to review and why am I reviewing it on a blog about public speaking and Toastmasters?

Over three years ago, I read the blog post “Overcoming Fear of Public Speaking” by Steve Pavlina. Steve’s blog post got me going to Toastmasters meetings, attending Darren LaCroix boot camps, and working on developing myself as a more thoughtful person. Luckily I got a copy a few weeks ago, and after getting back from a number of business and personal trips, have the time to sit down and write my review of the book.

Review:

Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth, by Steve Pavlina is not a manual. Unlike many self help books, it does not give you what the author thinks are step by step instructions to make money, be happy, or be healthy. What I found the book offered was a very practical foundation in a philosophy of personal development and practical guidance into how to apply that philosophy to your personal life.

The book is broken down into two parts:
1. Fundamental Principles or what I found to be the Philosophy of Personal Development.
2. Practical Application or how to apply the Fundamental Principles to your life.

In Part 1, Steve lays out the fundamentals about truth, power, love, authority, oneness, and intelligence. The descriptions of what each one of these contains are thoughtfully interlaced with personal stories from the author’s life. I was pleasantly surprised by the readability of the first part. When I first read the introduction, I was worried because sometimes Steve’s blog posts are so content rich that it takes me a long time to read and digest the material. This was not the case, and I found the fundamentals enlightening and it gave me some purpose to make changes in how I think about personal development.

Part 2 is the instructive portion of the book. What I found in part 2 was a very good description of how the elements described in part 1 can be applied to the topics of habits, career, money, health, relationships, and spirituality. What was enjoyable about the practical application was that it was not, “you have to do X to get Y.” It was more of a description of what steps you can take to make yourself a more congruent and conscious person in the different topic areas. Becoming more congruent and conscious will then allow you to advance in the different topic areas. Definitely a much different approach then other self help authors have taken.

Overall I really enjoyed reading the book. I did not find myself chucking it aside like many other self help books I have read recently. Honestly, I can say that I gained a lot out of this book and know that it will lend itself to be a great reference in my future development. There are a lot of new ways of approaching self development contained within the pages of the book and I hope to apply more of them everyday.

As with all of Steve’s writing, the most important thing to take a away is to try it out yourself. If you don’t get results after a month, then stop doing it, but you won’t know until you try. That goes with speaking, exercise, diet, and anything you can do to develop yourself as a person. So if you want, give Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth a try and hopefully you will get as much out of it as I have.

It is fortunate that the Olympics are occurring the same week, because it allows us to draw many parallels with the championship. Similar to competitors in the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking, Olympic athletes will spend years trying to qualify at home, scoring in the top positions in semifinals, and attempting to win Olympic glory. However, like in all areas of life, they will at some point fail. It is inevitable, but it is not the failure that we dwell upon, but what that failure teaches us about winning that is important.

I remember losing my area competition this year. Though I had elements of a great speech, I did not connect with the audience. I believed that I was so good, that I didn’t need to worry about the connection. It would just work because I had prepared more than anyone else. WOW, was I wrong.

I learned a lesson that I would not have learned if I had not lost. If I had not failed, I wouldn’t have realized that intellectualism doesn’t connect, that most people like Chicken Soup for The Soul themed stories, and that it’s about the audience…its all about the audience. Your message is not as important as you think.

Sometimes I think that we diehard competitors get so wrapped up in the technical details of speech writing and delivery that we forget what really matters; our energy, our delivery, and our wardrobe are perfect but we left out something…the message. It is only then through failure, that we feel the pain of losing, allow it to temper our resolve, and don’t give up until we have won it all.

Keep losing, keep failing, and above all else…keep trying.

Final Results of the 2008 World Champion of Public Speaking:

LaShunda Rundles
Region 3 · District 50 · Texas, USA

Second Place
K. Loghandran
DNAR District 51 · Malaysia

Third Place
Katherine Morrison
Region 7 · District 31 · Massachusetts, USA

One was an article in the New York Times on how Barack Obama developed his political ideas and tested viewpoints. In the article, it speaks of how Barack would study the writings and speeches of Frederick Douglass when composing his lectures and speeches.

The second event reminded me of the article and gave me the inspiration for writing this post.

I was riding in the car listening to the audio portion of Ed Tate’s new course, “Energize, Educate, and Entertain.” In his program, Ed discusses handwriting the great speeches of the world in order to get your brain thinking about how great speeches are crafted and to develop new ideas for your speeches. One source that Ed mentioned that I also have used in the past for inspiration is American Rhetoric.

Are you stuck trying to think of ideas? Does studying the past masters help you develop your speeches?

I would like to know.

For more information on programs by Ed Tate and other World Champions of Public Speaking, click here.

By etech

You see it in corporate presentations, professional seminars, and yes, even Toastmasters clubs…the speaker focusing on themselves and not the audience. This is the death blow for keeping your audience interested in your speech and it will cause people to not want to listen to you speak.

Don’t worry, you are in good company. Every speaker at some point will get an inner focus. It happens when trying to present unfamiliar material, have not internalized the message, or when you are talking about a personal story. Sometimes you just get wrapped up so much into the “You” of the speech, that you forget the “Them”, the audience.

It happens. So what can we do to prevent navel gazing during our pontifications (I mean speeches)?

1. Internalize Your Presentations – When you don’t know your material from every angle and point of view, you will not be able to understand the audience’s view of your speech. Practice it, read it into a recorder, put your heart into it, or whatever you have to do know the material….do it. Without a complete understanding, you will spend more time in your own head trying not to step on your lines then you will be delivering those lines.

2. Know the Audience – Who are you speaking to? Have you interacted with your audience? These are some of the questions you need to answer before speaking. When you don’t know your audience, it makes it tough to know what they want and what they are thinking. When you don’t know that, then you are thinking about that during your speech and it is obvious as you deliver.

3. I / You Ratio- This is one of the tips given constantly by the World Champions of Public Speaking and Patricia Fripp.  When you are transcribing your speeches, count how many times you have said “You” versus “I” in your speech. If you have said “I” many more times than “You”, then the audience might be thinking you have an ego problem, but more than likely you have just done too much navel gazing.

So next time you present, if you think you are not connecting with the audience, you aren’t. The reason you aren’t is because you are too inside of your own head. To prevent navel gazing, internalize, know, say “you”. Connect, connect, connect. That is the fastest way to get out of your head, and make the audience love you.

What is the audience thinking?

“Is he nervous? What is he doing? What is he doing up there?”, could be going through their minds.

It is then, after 10 seconds that you start, “I bet you wonder why I was just standing here staring at you for the past 10 seconds.”, or you could just yell, “FIRE!” and run out of the room…but let’s not shock them that much.

Anyway that you shock your audience, with a powerful action statement, saying something controversial, or even adversarial, you can shock your audience into paying attention to what you have to say. A shocking opening attracts attention to you and gets the audience to wonder what is going to come out of your mouth next. Trust me. It works and let me tell you why.

Imagine that you just came into a conference room. You had spent the last hour answering phone calls, answering e-mails, and trying to get a late TPS report finished. What is on your mind? The voice mails piling up, the e-mail burying you or the TPS reports that are filling your in-box? Whatever it is, you attention is not fully on this goofball standing in front of you.

Then all of the sudden, he is just standing there or maybe he said something shocking that totally stopped your train of thought. All of the sudden, you are not thinking about that girl in logistics, but you are thinking about what is going to come out of this person’s mouth next. You are hooked.

Why a shocking opening is so powerful is that it breaks the state of the audience. The listeners are usually so wrapped up in their own thoughts, that if you are not someone that they know they have to pay attention to, then it is likely that they might miss a large part of your speech because they were not paying attention. The audience is in a state that is not listening to you. The goal of the shocking opening is to then break that state and get them thinking about you, or more specifically your message.

How do you do it? Be memorable. Don’t start with, “Thank you for inviting me to speak or Mr. Toastmasters, fellow Toastmasters, and guests.”

Instead, engage their imaginations, say something unexpected, or point out something obvious that happened. In my studies of the great speakers, they always have some hook, some device that they use to capture the attention of the audience to pull them away from their inner focused state to an outward focused state of paying attention to your speech.

How do you know when you have succeeded? The audience is staring at you in apt attention and not their blackberries, their hands, or the ceiling above your head. How do you know what to say? Experiment with it. Have some fun with different openings.

What is your favorite way to break the audience’s state and get them to pay attention to you?

Connection, connection, connection.

For people that are competing in Toastmasters or other competitions, if you don’t connect then you don’t win. This was made clear to me when competing in an Area speech contest many months ago. I lost because I did not connect with the audience.

So Chris, how does one connect with an audience?

I’m glad you asked.

First, what you don’t do is….Don’t start your speech, “Mr. Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters, and guests. Thank you for having me come up here to speak tonight….zzzzz”

BORING!

Instead, jump into a story or ask a question. Anyway you do it, you need to somehow make the audience want to listen to you.

One of the formulas I use to connect with the audience is: 1. Lead them to forming a question in their minds 2. Answer the question in a humorous way and 3. Tell a personal story that really answers the question.

In a speech I am working on for the “Get Coached to Speak” workshop next week, it works like this:

1. I recite an extremely brief e-mail that gives me negatively life changing news. Then I jump forward in time and briefly recite the text of a document that contradicts the e-mail. The audience is left wondering, “WAIT A SECOND, but from what the e-mail said a moment ago, there is no way that this other thing could have happened? What is going on?”

2. Then I take a line from the second document and answer the audience’s question in a humorous manner.

NOTE: To give the audience time to digest what I just said, I now say, “Mr. Toastmaster”

3. Now I set the stage for the story that answers the questions that the audience has.

The steps I gave above is just one of many ways that you can connect with your audience. To learn how to better use this connection technique, and many more, I suggest picking up one of the speaker packs from the World Champions Resources. I have learned more about connection from applying the techniques in those CDs then I have learned in all three of my years as a Toastmaster.

How do you connect with your audience?

This is a problem I see from many Toastmasters both experienced and new. Many of them think that it is just about writing some notes, getting up there and speaking. WRONG! If you are really going to be a better speaker, you have to practice, practice, and practice some more. Every time you write a speech, it is going to take you hours to get it correct. Then after you give it, you can still go back, edit, practice, and make it something memorable.

Practice, practice, practice is the only way to really get better.