Many people see a bank teller’s job and a “women’s job” (which isn’t true by the way) and giving the teller a high pitched, weak sounding female voice could definitely be offensive to many people (both male and female) in the audience. If the women in the story had been the branch president of the bank, not only would the speaker have not used the silly voice, but that voice wouldn’t even have made sense. Why? Because a bank president is a strong, important person. Well guess what? Everyone is, or at least wants to feel like they are a strong important person, including bank tellers.

The only people that might be able to get away with something like this is are comedians, who often are trying to be offensive on purpose.

In general, the only time I recommend using an exaggerated accent for a character in a story is if you are showing that character is a positive light. Here is an example; you have a man from the deep south in your story, if you describe him as stupid or slow and then give him a voice like, “tat boiy was as anouted as a tick on a flee’s back.” Guess what? You just offended anyone from south of the Mason-Dixie line. However, if you describe the character as a warm, loving man with that southern charm and then you the accent, people will love the story.

So, when planning your speech away consider what it would be like to be a character like the ones in your story sitting in the audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFJ6-AsabWw

Good talk huh? Joe is a very funny guy. The three specific sections I want to focus on are the jokes at video index 1:29, 4:39, and 6:25. Rewatch those sections (about 10 seconds each). Go ahead, I’ll wait. Dum … de dum dum … dum de dum. Oh good you’re back. Now we can analyze the comedy technique that is used here. It’s called “subliminal humor.” Let look at the first joke at video index 1:29, where Joe talks about working in Las Vegas. Here is the joke.

“I was a show girl … I’m just kidding … I was a stripper, but my point is …”

Standard humorous thinking state that you should always wait for the laugh after your punch-line, but this is where Joe breaks the rules. “I was a show girl,” is funny and then Joe waits for the laugh. “I’m just kidding,” is the set up for the bigger joke. “I was a stripper,” is the punch-line, but notice that Joe doesn’t wait for the laugh here. Instead he quickly adds, “but my point is …” which has nothing to do with the speech, it just adds to the humor of the punch-line. It makes it appear as if Joe really didn’t mean to say that and it just leaked out as a Freudian slip. This makes the joke extra funny and is a very advanced technique.

Now, go back and watch those three sections again and notice that Joe ends each joke with “but my point is …” Knowing how this works will give you an entirely new appreciation for Joe’s abilities and possibly give you a new tool in your speaker arsenal.

http://www.wisconsinspeakers.com/blog/geist.html

Watch the video and then read my comments.

This is a very good speaker’s demo video. I liked it. The best type of video for a speaker is the one where the viewer can see how much the audience likes the performance. But, as always, everyone can improve and there is something to be learned from every speaker and speech.

This demo video was done in two parts. On the first part, notice the use of the hand-held microphone. During the second part, there is no microphone. Bill’s hand gestures are much better without being restricted by the microphone in his right hand. In part two, he put down the microphone and the sound quality went to hell. The hand-held microphone is causing problems for Bill in both instances.

I know what you are thinking, it’s not Bill’s fault. The venue supplied the microphone and Bill just used what he was given. Oh contraire, everything that happens on the stage is the responsibility of the speaker. Bill could have asked for a better microphone like a lapel or headset microphone. That would have freed his hands up for the great gestures he is making and given him great sound quality throughout his performance.

I know what you’re thinking now - “maybe the venue didn’t have such a microphone available.” That’s true, many venues lack the audio knowledge for what makes a great speaker’s microphone. That is why it is important to own a good microphone yourself. The best microphones for a speaker are the headset wire mics. They have great sound and are fairly invisible from the audience’s point of view. These types of mics are expensive, but even a lower cost Shure or AKG headset or lapel mic is better than the head-held for a speaker.

Bill is doing a really good job in his speech. He has some good analogies, power point slides and ideas. He is speaking smoothly, at a good pace, and with good dynamics. Nice use of humor. Let’s face it, Bill is rocking the house, up until the last 10 seconds of his speech. Boy that ending just dropped out of nowhere like dying, wet cat.

“It’s been an honor to be with you. Best wishes for a fabulous year. I know it’s going to rock for you and thank you so much. Have a great year.”

Really?!? With all the clever stuff in this speech that’s the best he could do.

He really needs an ending that will get the crowd to erupt with applause. In my video, “It’s a good day to die,” -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?=Q5znbEiATDE&feature=player_embedded

- at time index 5:09, you will see how I have crafted the ending so the audience knows that I’m done without me having to add, “Thank you, you’ve been a great audience.” Notice the applause that this technique gets. Your ending is the last thing your audience will hear you say, make it great and they will remember how great you were.

So, what can we, as speakers, learn from Williams’ actions? Plenty. It wasn’t what Williams did on the court that can teach us something, it’s what she did after. During a post game interview, Williams did not apologize to the lines-women and showed no remorse for her actions. Furthermore, she aligned herself with John McEnroe by saying he was one of her heros. John McEnroe was one of the most misbehaved tennis players of all time. His tirades are legendary. Then to add dung to the already mounting pile, the next day Williams released an official press statement blaming the lines-woman for the bad call, does not apologize and shows no remorse again. All I can say is WOW! Hard to believe. Who is her public relations coach? Does she have one? If not, she needs one or needs to fire the one she has.

Have we learned nothing from ex-president Bill Clinton? “I did not have sex with that women!” Remember that line? He got caught with his hands in the cookie jar, or the blue dress as the case may be, and still lied bold face to the American people. If he had just admitted what he had done and begged for our forgiveness, everything would have blown over is a couple of weeks. Instead this will haunt his presidency forever. Big mistake. Same mistake Williams is making now. People don’t mind you making a mistake, but they do mind you not taking responsibility for your actions.

As speakers we sometimes make mistakes either on stage or in our lives. One of my motivational speaking friends was a cocain addict in her youth. She doesn’t try to hide this information and will talk to anyone openly about it. John Grey of “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” fame is divorced. He doesn’t try to hide it, in fact he talks about it on stage. When Tim Allen first stated his popular TV show, “Home Improvement” it came out that he had done time in prison for selling drugs. He quickly and completely admitted it and all was forgiven quickly.

This is a lesson we should all learn. I have seen speakers mess up on stage, get called on their mistake from the audience, and then try and defend their actions. Don’t do this. In one case I can remember, the speaker had bad statistics and an audience member called him on it. Instead of saying “You could be right. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I will make sure to double check my facts as soon as I return home,” he had an argument with the audience member. This led to an uncomfortable audience and the destruction of an otherwise good speech. You can bet he didn’t get asked back to speak there.

Just last week I was giving a talk and about five minutes into the speech I realized that I didn’t pass out my handouts. It’s hard to have people write stuff down in their handouts when they don’t have them. I knew right away that this would be a disruption to the flow of my speech. So, I freely and openly admitted my mistake with the line, “and proving that even the best of speakers can screw up … I just did. I forgot to pass out my hand outs.” The audience laughed and I handed the stacks of papers to people in the front row to pass back. Returning to the stage with a grin and lightly rapping myself in the head, all was forgiven. The flow of my speech continue without a hitch.

If you made a mistake, admit it, talk about it openly, ask for forgiveness or apologize and move on. People will love that fact that you are real and open.

Girl Faints

What happens here is a fear feedback loop. Basically, this is a fear of failure. The thought of looking foolish starts the cycle. Your mind, on automatic, looks back into your past and starts drenching up times in your life where you looked foolish. You remember being laughed at for saying the wrong thing. You remember feeling ashamed and embarrassed. The problem is that you never released these feeling from the past, so they are still with you.

The cycle continues when the energy from your past memories is used to analyze your actions in the present. This makes the present situation seem more important and larger than life. Your current fears are then added on to the fears of the past.

Your mind on automatic, tried to recover ever more memories to help you in this fight or flight situation, but only finds more examples of how your have failed in similar circumstances. The new fear is added to the first loop. The cycle continues until your mind is processing so many thoughts at once that it can no longer handle the input load. Your mind starts to draw energy from the rest of your body. Your breathing slows, which creates less oxygen to the brain, which in turn makes things worse. Finally your brain start to shut down from the strain and lack of oxygen and you pass out.

This is a very extreme case of speaking fear, but a similar fear loop can make you shake or feel ill. There are some simple steps to ease the situation. Here are some suggestions:

1) BREATH!!! Your brain needs the oxygen, especially now. Focus on your breathing not on what you are going to say. This is what they do in yoga or meditation.

2) Blank your mind out. Think of nothing. Don’t focus on the speech. If you have prepared, it will come back to you easily went your mind is clear.

3) Ignore messages from your subconscious that have anything to do with past speeches. This speech has nothing to do with those. It’s a new day, and new time, and a new speech.

On an on-going basis, I have decided to look up professional speakers totally at random on the internet and watch their videos. I am looking for people I have never seen speak before. I will then give a critique of their performance. My comments should not be conveyed as either an endorsement of the speaker or as a condemnation. The only point of this exercise is to have examples speakers to help anyone reading this blog with their speaking skills. Most of these speaker are quite good, but everyone can improve. Feedback is the way to do that. I video tape all my performances so I can critique myself later, just like I am doing here.

The first speaker is John DiFrances

Link to his video:
Video Link

What I liked:

Very smooth polished voice. Speaks clearly, at a good pace, and has solid use of pauses.

I like the way he stops talking and lets the audience fill in the answers, very good.

Good progression to his point. He leads the audience all along the way.

Nice interjection of humor.

What could be improved:

Don’t talk in front of the projector. The lights make it very difficult to see him and distracts from the image.

Paces too much. He walks around the stage without purpose. Also walks behind lectern without purpose.

Need to put his hands down. The double hands up is a barrier between him and his audience.

I want to start by saying it’s a was a good speech. I liked it. However, one of my clients commented that it was the “best speech he had ever seen,” and I believe him. It’s not the best speech I’ve ever seen, but it was very good.

Now, that that’s out of the way, here is how I think the speech, although good especially by presidential standards, could have been better.

1) Many times during the speech, President Obama stepped on his applause and thereby reduced the crowd reaction considerably. A good speaking coach would have shown him where these moments were to be expected and how to capitalize on them. By changing the inflection in his voice at the ending of certain sentences and waiting for the crowd to react, President Obama could have stirred the audience practically into a frenzy. This opportunity was missed, reducing the effectiveness of the speech about 25% in my opinion. Imagine the impact this could have had on an already good speech.

2) There was no connecting thread to the speech. There was no recurring theme that makes a speech memorable. It has only been an hour since I heard it and I can’t remember pretty much anything he said. I can tell you vaguely what he said, but no details. There was a great speech that everyone was talking about today, MLK’s “I have a dream” speech. If you listen to the recording of that speech, every time he said “I have a dream,” and waited for the crowd reaction, that is what made that speech so powerful, and memorable, even 40 years later. President Obama’s speech today didn’t have that. Blame this one on the speech writer. All president employ speech writers and it their job to make this happen.

3) My last point is actually a problem with President Obama delivery in general. It’s the pinched finger hand gesture he makes. It looks like he is giving an “OK” sign only down by his lower chest. This gesture looks as if he is holding a pin and stabbing the audience with it. It’s aggressive in nature and should be removed from this stable of speaking tools.

As you can see, any speech can be made better. This was a good speech, but with a few tweaks could have been much more powerful.

I video record my speeches and critique them all the time. You should too. Remember, if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.

Well, it’s about time. People have been bugging me for a while to set up a blog. HERE IT IS! I will be commenting often about different aspects of public speaking/presentations and anything else that strikes my fancy or rubs me the wrong way. I may even get on my soapbox now and then, but what are blogs for.

Cliff