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

The Opening – A Boring Opening

“Thank you for inviting me to speak today. My name is Chris Elliott and I am going to talk to you about….”, so says the speaker that is putting the audience to sleep.

The first trap that will cause you not to connect with your audience is a boring opening. You can thank the organizers for bringing you in to speak after you are done. Your job during the opening is to start off with a story, a poignant result, or a key benefit that will capture the audience’s attention in the first few moments of your presentation. Failure to do so will label you as a boring speaker and you will not capture the full attention of the audience.

The Middle – The Curse of Knowledge

Lisa Braithwaite and I had a conversation about this on Twitter, which she summarized on her blog Speak Schmeak.

The Curse of Knowledge is a concept from the book Made to Stick. Basically it means that you know too much about a topic and talk as if everyone has the same knowledge of the topic as you. I see people fall into this trap this many times when hitting their stride in the middle of their speech. The Curse of Knowledge can strike in any presentations, but is most often seen in technical and academic presentations. It is demonstrated by speakers using technical lingo, buzzwords, or technical babble that not everyone knows.

The Close – Not Calling the Audience to Action

So you have avoided all of the Public Speaking Traps as you reach the end of your speech and have delivered a dynamic speech filled with relevant, useful, and engaging information. How do you conclude the speech? Do you just summarize what you told them, or do you call the audience to take action and use the information you have presented.

If you are just summarizing what you told the audience, then you are falling prey to the trap of not calling the audience to action which breaks the connection you have strived to keep through the presentation. Not calling the audience to action leaves them with a summary of what you talked about, but no marching orders on what to do next. That leaves the audience thinking, “OK that was a good speech, but now what?”

The trap of not connecting with your audience is the most important trap to avoid. It is filled with many other traps that can cause you to speak at and not with your audience. Avoiding the trap of not connecting is not easy and takes many hours of diligent preparation, practice, and coaching. As you study the traps of public speaking, I urge you to join Toastmasters, get a coach, and practice speaking with you audiences. I promise you that if you learn the essentials, your audience will thank you.

Repeat after me, “You do not have to speak like Tony Robbins when you are presenting.”

I am not trying to say that Tony Robbins is a bad example of a great speaker. You can learn a lot about connecting with an audience by watching Tony work a crowd. However, the trap many new speakers fall into when presenting is to trying to emulate other speakers, like Tony Robbins when they should be developing their own style that fits their personality.

Why People Try to Be Like Other Speakers

When you first get in front of an audience, you want to make a huge impact, connect with the audience, and inspire them to action. So what do you do? You might study other great speakers such as Darren LaCroix, Patricia Fripp, or the before mentioned Tony Robbins. The problem is that many times when we study other speakers, we start to try to speak like them, because unconsciously we think that their style works for them, so it has to work well for us. Speaking like someone else can make you seem inauthentic, kills the connection with the audience, and will not get you invited back to speak.

So what are you going to do to be more credible?

Be yourself when you are on the platform. When you are speaking, you are uniquely you and audiences can connect with someone that is being themselves. I know that you are thinking, that the real you isn’t good, well I have a solution for that, Practice.

If you are going to develop your own personality on the platform, you need to practice. Whether it is in Toastmasters or other organizations, you have to practice. Practicing your speaking is the best way your can learn what your real voice is on the platform and be authentic.

Another way that you can be authentic on stage is to deliver material that you have produced from your own life experiences. Don’t use other people’s ideas and experiences. Use your material from your own life and you will be authentic. Combined with time spent practicing and you will be yourself on stage.

So what are you doing today to be authentic, be credible, and discover your own voice?

photo credit: Midnight-digital

Losing Your Audience

Losing the audience after giving a killer opening is something I see many speakers doing on a regular basis. Whether the speech is given at a convention, a business meeting or a Toastmasters club, it is very common for speakers to deliver a fabulous opening, and then get very, very boring extremely fast. I know because I have been there, so what I hope to teach you today is that there is one reason that this happens and a one solution you can implement to fix this problem and improve the overall quality of your speeches.

The Reason You Are Losing the Audience

One reason that speakers give fantastic openings but then fall flat during the rest of their speeches is that they are spending too much time on their opening and they neglect the rest of their speech. I see this bad habit all the time. Speakers will spend a huge amount of time trying to come up with a dazzling opening, and then spend very little time writing and practicing the rest of their speech. This causes their speech to start off very well, but then they lose connection with the audience and people walk away without getting much out of the speech.

How I Lost the Audience 

One of the ways you fix this problem is to learn how to practice your speech. I remember when I first started speaking; I would take my entire written speech and try to practice from beginning to end. Doing this, I would start practicing my speech from the beginning, find something wrong, correct the mistake, and then start practicing from the beginning again. This method of practicing caused me to go over the opening far more times than the body and more importantly the conclusion of the speech.

How to Fix the Problem

What I should have done is practice each section of the speech initially before the final read through and then when each section was perfected, I could practice it as a whole unit. This is exactly how performers get ready for their theater performances. They don’t try to do the entire performance in one sitting; they work on each act and scene as a separate unit, and then piece it all together much later in the process.

How can you make this work for you? When you are working on your speech, think about each section a discrete unit to be delivered to the audience. Then appoint an equal amount of time to work on each section in both writing and practice. Then when you are giving your speech, you have spent equal time on each section. Doing this will make the speech more even and if you have practiced enough, then you should wow the audience during the entire presentation.

When writing a speech, we often try to cram as much information into the speech as possible. This is like computer software companies trying to cram as many features into a program as possible. Like a bloated piece of software that needs a new computer to run correctly, information packed speeches need audiences with the exact same experiences as you to understand what you are trying to tell them. Let me let you in on something, no audience is ever going to have the exact same experiences as you, so your information packed speech is going to fall flat.

Why Bloated Speeches Happen

Your speeches get bloated when you try to make more points then you can appropriately fit into your allotted time. For example, if you have a five to seven minute speech in a Toastmasters club and you try to explain ten major points, you are going to give a bloated speech. Delivering ten major points in a five to seven minute speech is not going to make you look any smarter; on the contrary, it might make you look confused as you rush to fit all of your points into your speech.

How Many Points to Make

Depending on the complexity of the points you are trying to make, you should only attempt to make one point every five to seven minutes. That means in a standard Toastmasters speech, you should make one major point. In a 45 minute keynote, you can raise the number of points to five or seven, but too many more than that and you will be getting into the information bloat.

How to Prevent Speech Bloat

Speech bloat is preventable. In order to make sure you are not trying to cram in too much information, you should attempt to tell one story and make one point in a five to seven minute speech. Please make sure you find a story that is relevant to your point, and then fill it with as much graphic detail that also reinforces your point. Successful speakers do this very well and the results come from the awards they win and the checks they receive for being engaging and entertaining speakers that are remembered and repeated.

When All Else Fails

When all else fails and you have a 5 to 7 minute speech that is filled with “useful” information, cut it in half. Then add supporting detailed stories to get it back to 5 to 7 minutes. Then cut it in half again and go back and add more detail. Doing this simple process will add vivid, memorable stories to your speeches and allow you to be a successful speaker.

Yesterday, while listening to a recording by one of the true masters of public speaking, Patricia Fripp, she said something in her talk that absolutely blew me into a stunned state, “Your job as a speaker is to be remembered and repeated.”, and then a few moments later, “What will people say about your speech 10 months from now?”

I remember hearing her say the same thing in teleconferences on the Champions’ Edge and at the Get Coached to Speak Champ Camp I attended a few months ago. However, the point did not stick at that time. I was too worried about the mechanics of my speech at the time to really sit down and focus on what the message was in my speech.

Upon contemplating this for awhile, I kept being drawn back into things people have been saying to me the past two weeks. Things like, “what is the point?”, “OK, that is the why but what is the how?”, or “what value does it add.”

How many times in your speech has someone said something like that to you?

We are too Focused on the Mechanics

It hurts, because we do get wrapped up in the mechanics more then the content. That is one of the flaws of Toastmasters. That is one of the reasons why after so many presentations, we only remember the ones that are designed to be “remembered and repeated.”

What lessons can you learn from this?

1. Make sure you have a clear and concise message before you sit down to prepare your speech.

2. Write down the key phrase that you want people to walk away saying after your presentation.

3. Make sure that the key phrase is short, connects to the purpose of the speech, and is something that can be repeated at key moments in the speech without sounding like you are trying to get people to memorize the phrase. Yes, that is tough, but audiences know when you are trying to trick them.

4. Most importantly, know your topic. You are far more likely to have key phrases in speeches that you have internalized then something you have put together at the last minute with little to no background on the subject of the speech.

Remember what Patricia Fripp said, “Speak to be remembered and repeated.”

How will you be remembered and repeated in your next speech?

Manifesto

photo credit: Janex & Alba

manifesto

Noun
1. A public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions, especially that of a political party

The CEO of our company will be delivering his manifesto today.

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Disabuse

photo credit: danorbit.

Transitive Verb

to disabuse

1. To free [someone] from a misconception or misapprehension; to unveil a falsehood held by [somebody]

Example

It won’t take them long to disabuse the new Toastmasters Member of any notions of superiority.

Source

vis-à-vis

photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar

Preposition
1. In relation to or compared with
“Canada’s role vis-à-vis the United States’ in Afghanistan”
2. as opposed to

Adverb
1. face to face (with another)
2. (archaic) In a position facing a specified or implied subject.

Noun
1. (historical) A small horse-drawn carriage for two people sitting facing each other.
2. One of two (or more) people facing or opposite each other during a formal dance.

Etymology
From French vis-à-vis ‘face to face’.

Source: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vis-%C3%A0-vis

photo credit: niznoz

courtier (plural courtiers)

noun

1. A person in attendance at a royal court.
2. A person who flatters in order to seek favour.
I tried to speak to the World Champion of Public Speaking at the last District Conference, but I could not get thru the throngs of courtiers.

I hope that you find the word useful.