Attention Grabbing Presentation Skills – Get Noticed and Promoted – “Illuminate your Speech or Presentation with Clear Transitions”

Dave Hill - Speech Transitions

Envision you are listening to a speech or presentation where you are enthralled by the information being presented and the stories being told. You blink or lose focus for a split second, and suddenly you have no idea what the person is talking about. They seem to be off on a tangent. You rationalize what is going on, “Ok, one minute we are talking about humor in the workplace, and now you are talking about the company financial difficulty and restructuring. How did we get here? Where is he going with this? I am lost and confused- time to zone-out and grab a nap”.
The two most common reasons that lead to this kind of scenario include bad speech structure or inadequate transitions from thought to thought. Let’s discuss transitions.
The fundamental importance of transitions is that they help the audience follow along step-by-step through your presentation. They let the audience know that you are deviating from the previous train of thought. Here is a simple speech structure to illustrate where you would typically incorporate transitions:

Opening Story
TRANSITION SENTENCE
First Point/First Story
TRANSITION SENTENCE
Second Point/Second Story
TRANSITION SENTENCE
Third point/Third Story
TRANSITION SENTENCE
Conclusion

SOME TRANSITION STRUCTURE OPTIONS:

Reiterate your last idea
EXAMPLE
“Now that we have discussed how humor at work and can evoke creativity and bring you leading edge technology and profits, let’s discuss how conflict in the workplace can erode earnings and force you to lay people off to maintain a viable business.”

Ask a question and lead into your next idea
EXAMPLE
“Will we ever reach a point where the culture in the corporate office embraces the fundamental concept that respect and trust amongst employees and leaders increases profits? It’s easy to come up with examples of negative traits, but let me give you some recent indications that indicate that positive change is underway”.

Use words that clearly indicate a shift from the previous train of thought
EXAMPLES
“Let’s look at this from another perspective”
“Let me go off on a tangent for a minute”
“Let me put this into a real-world scenario”
“You may be envisioning this as someone else’s problem, but let me twist it around and demonstrate a different line of thought”
“Today we have covered the benefits of respect, trust, and levity in the workplace. I want to demonstrate my passion for this subject with one final personal story. The story may at first seem irrelevant, but with a bit of thought, you will understand why I am standing here today”.

SUCCESS STRATEGY
What can make transitions powerful and crystal clear is when you incorporate purposeful movement into your speech or presentation.

EXAMPLES
1) “I have discussed how effective I have become as a public speaker; however, let me take you back to when I was a young engineer standing in front of corporate executives and my mind went blank”.
Note: As I am saying the words “let me take you back”, I am walking slowly to the left or the right to symbolize going into the past. If my speech wording has me going into the past again, I make sure I use the same side for clarity and consistency. If I was to talk about going back to my childhood in the same speech, I would walk further than I had walked to get to the young engineer stage placement.

2) “We have talked about my humorous escapades as a teenager, now I need to take you to a different place, the place where pranks go wrong and consequences are dire”.
Note: As I am saying the words “now I need to take you to a different place”, I might decide to step backwards, or backwards and diagonal to symbolize moving into a negative story.

3) “My talk today was designed to change your life. I have a personal story that will demonstrate how my life was changed”.
Note: As I am saying the words “I have a personal story”, I might step forward center stage to symbolize moving into the positive story in my speech conclusion

WORKSHOP EXERCISE
Take 20 pieces of paper and on each one write down a topic or word that you can easily talk extemporaneously about “on the spot”. Put the 20 cards into a bag, take out one card, and talk for 30 seconds about what’s written on the card. After 15 to 30 seconds, pick another card and use a transition to flawlessly lead into the topic written on the second card. This is a fun way to help public speakers hone their skills with transitions.

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on this subject. Please use the comments section below or send me an e-mail at dave@davehillspeaks.com – Thanks, Dave

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (bio – Keynotes – Workshops etc.) www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2009 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Photo Attributes:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyron/ / CC BY 2.0

Powerful Presentations – Get Noticed and Promoted -“Start Your Speech or Presentation with Pizzazz”

Dave Hill - Energize Your Audience

Imagine you are standing in front of an audience delivering a speech or presentation. After your first few lines, you notice the audience losing energy and interest, and leaning back in their chairs. Some people are looking at the ceiling with their hands behind their heads. What happened?
This is a hypothetical scenario to lead into this article on how to start a speech or presentation. If you want to suck the energy out of an audience, start with fluff like this:
“Good morning everyone, it’s a pleasure for me to be here today. What a miserable day it is out there, will this rain ever end? We have a smaller than expected audience, but I think we will still have some fun and education. Why are you guys spread all over the room, why not fill some of the empty chairs up front. Let me remind you that if your cell phone goes off I will publicly humiliate you………Ha, Ha, Ha.”

Last week, I was coaching someone who was getting ready to enter a speech competition. His speech was excellent with a great blend of humor and stories coupled with a delivery that had energy. The speaker was animated and provided excellent visual details to bring us into his stories. My main recommendation to him was to stand center stage at the start of his speech, take time to scan the audience members while smiling, but most importantly, I suggested that he cut out the “fluff” at the beginning of his speech, and instead bring us straight into his first story. His first story is powerful, and has the “sit up in the seat” kind of audience impact.

Some of the ways I start a speech or presentation are as follows:

Telling a story
1) When telling a story, I like to use one of the following action verbs to bring the story into the present and to allow the audience members to become part of the scene: Envision, visualize, imagine, picture. I put as much detail into my sentences as possible to conjure up visual images.
EXAMPLE: Picture my 12 year old son standing in a field in Ireland. He had just gained the confidence to feed grass to a cow in a field. He hesitantly held out his hand with a fist full of grass, and the cow inched towards him with its huge lips stretching towards the grass. It was at this moment I had an impish smile on my face and shouted out, “Oh my goodness, it’s a bull!” You have never seen a little boy panic and recoil so quickly.

2) Another way I start a speech is to give the audience the date, time and location of the story, followed by some visual details:
EXAMPLE: “It is March 23rd, 2005, at the BP refinery in Texas City. Imagine you are walking through the refinery that day. An event is about to unfold that will change your life forever. You will wonder if there was something you could have done to prevent your friends getting killed. That day, a total of 15 people were killed, and over 170 injured in an explosion. You will carry this memory for the rest of your life. Today, we are going to talk about efforts underway to make sure this type of accident never happens to us”.

Ask a rhetorical question
EXAMPLE:
“Have you ever been asked a question by senior management where you had the answer in your head but your brain went blank? Have you ever walked away from one of these scenarios thinking to yourself I am such an idiot- I know this subject inside out, why could I not get my thoughts together?”

Use a quotation that relates to your speech content.
Try to use a quotation that is not well known; it will have more impact. Make sure you reference who the quotation owner is.
EXAMPLE
John Wayne once said, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway”. Today, I am going to talk to you about ethics, standing your ground in the face of adversity, and following your passion with uncompromised values.

Ask a funny or absurd question that the audience can relate to
EXAMPLE:
Can anyone here relate to how men tend to run their cars until the gas tank level is down to the fume level, and feel they would die if they were to stop and ask for directions? Today we are going to learn how to coach our husbands on minimizing unnecessary stress and also understanding the fundamentals of mutual respect. The first thing I want to cover is toilet seat etiquette; let your husband know loud and clear – “If I sit on the toilet and fall in, we fall out!” To drive your point home, show him what flannel pajamas look like!

Provide a shock statement
EXAMPLE
I arrived home with a bunch of roses for my wife. There was no particular occasion, it was an impulse action. What floored me was her piercing words, “So……, you are having an affair!”

SUCCESS STRATEGY
1. Practice, practice, practice your opening story etc. so it is flawless. If you spend the first few sentences stumbling around with words, um’ing and ah’ing, then your image and credibility as a speaker can be diminished right from the start.
2. In general, do not open up with controversy- start with ideas people will be agreeable to. When trying to convince people to accept an idea it can help to give them two subject related rhetorical questions that they will nod in agreement to. The third related question is the one that may get potential resistance, but the previous affirmative nodding may help coax them into agreement or at least a consideration.
3. When deciding how to start a speech, consider what kind of opening is suitable for the audience. I personally use a lot of humor in the workplace and out in public, but I have to take into consideration the appropriateness to the occasion and to the audience. If I have a speech or presentation in the corporate office that may involve conflict or disagreement, I may still decide to start with a humorous anecdote as I have found that humor is a great tool for reducing tension.
4. Making fun of yourself is an excellent ice-breaker- audiences feel comfortable laughing at this type of self inflicted humor. Laughter helps you form a bond with the audience which can get them interested in your subject matter and can also make them feel at ease and more likely to respond to additional humor and stories.
5. One of the important things to remember is that your stories, rhetorical questions, etc. should relate to your subject matter. Do not use humor or stories for the sake of it. Choose the ones that will enhance your content. It can also be extremely powerful if you can include information that the audience can relate to. Professional speakers spend time learning about the audience while customizing a speech for an event.

SOME CAUTIONARY NOTES ON SPEECH OPENINGS
1. Do not tap on the microphone to see if it is working- why would you want to annoy the audience?
2. Do not open with a joke. The impact of a joke is only successful if the audience members do not know the punch-line. In the world of e-mail and internet access, many jokes are already worn out by the time they reach you. Use your own stories and vignettes that have proven effectiveness.
3. Don’t use a story that goes on and on and on before reaching a conclusion or the punch line. The audience will lose interest and lose track.
4. Don’t use rude jokes. This is a quick way to turn-off an audience. Just because some people laugh does not make it appropriate to the occasion or the audience.
5. Do not try untested humor with questionable effectiveness

Dave Hill - Don't You Love an Energized Audience?

I would appreciate any feedback or personal stories on this subject. Please use the comments section below or send an e-mail to dave@davehillspeaks.com – Thanks, Dave

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (bio – Keynotes – Workshops etc.)
www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2009 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved

Last Photo Attributes:

http://flickr.com/photos/blmurch/ / CC BY 2.0

Exceptional Presenters Get Noticed and Promoted – “Take my Word for It”

Imagine you are developing a very important speech. You have identified the speech structure, the points, the stories, the beginning and ending, and you have written it out. You are now looking at the written words, trying to work out how to get the speech to the next level- and you are stumped. The speech could be for your wedding reception, a eulogy at a family funeral, a keynote at a conference, an important meeting, or even a speech competition. In this blog, I will explain some of the simple online tools I use to hone the words in my speeches.

My goal in speech writing is to have clear, concise information and stories that illustrate my points. When I am telling stories, I want the audience to have vivid details to the extent that they feel that they are actually witnessing the event.
The most important piece of advice I can give you is that every word has value in a speech, and getting to the exceptional level requires you to analyze words to see if you can find ones that give a better sentence flow and visual detail.

THESAURUS (MS-Word – Toolbar/Tools/Language/Thesaurus or Shift+F7)
I use the Microsoft Word Thesaurus extensively- whether I am writing speeches, blogs, newsletters, or even books. There are times that I find a specific word I use is getting repetitive in my sentences, so I use the thesaurus to come up with a different word. I want my sentences to stand out and clearly describe what I am saying.
Example sentence that would get changed:
“The speech title is an important part of a public speaker’s speech” – This is a clumsy sentence with too much word repetition. I would plug “speech” and “speaker” into the thesaurus and look to see if there are any better words to frame the sentence. If not, I would spend time playing with the sentence until it sounded better – “A good speech title will get the audience sitting up in their seats with interest, you immediately have their full attention”.
Another useful place to find an online thesaurus is http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dictionary.htm. It helps find more visual words in sections such as synonyms, related words, and antonyms. An online visual (MindMap style) thesaurus can be found at http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

IDIOMS (words that mean something other than the literal meaning)

To try and add additional quality to my writing, I will also check out what common idioms are available to see if I could weave them into a sentence. You can enter a word into the search engine of the following website http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/. If you type in “word” in the search engine it comes up with about 120 idioms. One of them is “take my word for it” – I decided that this would fit in the heading of this blog heading – Exceptional Presenters Get Noticed and Promoted – “Take my Word for It”.
I also find idioms useful for developing humor. I take a common idiom and change the last word.

ACTION VERBS
When I am editing sentences to provide more visual details, I sometimes use the following site http://workbloom.com/ (see action verbs in the left hand column). I use action verbs a lot when telling stories; it helps me bring the audience into my story and become part of it. Look how I started off this blog with an action verb – “Imagine you are developing a very important speech. You have identified the speech structure, the points, the stories, the beginning and ending, and you have written it out. You are now looking at the written words, trying to work out how to get the speech to the next level- and you are stumped”.

QUOTATIONS
Quotations can also add color and detail to a speech. A quotation that relates to your subject matter can be used at the beginning of a speech, at the end, or even to enhance a point in the main part of it. It is appropriate to identify who the quotation owner is. You can see me using quotations in my demo video on my web site at http://www.davehillspeaks.com. One of my favorite quotation sites is http://www.quoteland.com/

WORD COUNT (MS-Word – Toolbar/Tools/Wordcount or Ctrl.+Shift+G)

If your speech needs to be a specific length, use the rule-of-thumb: 700 to 800 words = about 7 minutes of speech time. MS-Word has a toolbar which will automatically count your words in your Word Document.

FINAL NOTE – Putting It all Together
Envision (ACTION VERB) yourself sitting down writing a speech; you have used the thesaurus, idiom and quotations to bring depth to your sentences. As you sit looking proudly at your creativity, the words of Truman Capote come to mind – “To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the music the words make” (QUOTATION). Mark my words (IDIOM), these simple techniques will help you bring your speech writing to the next level.

Dave’s website: www.davehillspeaks.com
Copyright © 2009 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.

Powerful Presentations – Get Noticed and Promoted -“Just-In-Time Presentation Skills”

Dave Hill - Presentation Skills Training

1) Imagine your boss walks into your office and announces that he needs you to present to senior management on a subject within half an hour.

2) Visualize yourself just about to present a PowerPoint presentation and as you are setting up, the projector bulb pops and you have no notes or handouts to guide you.

3) Envision you are at a meeting discussing a project and its benefits, but the non-verbal body language from the audience indicates that they are not getting it. You know that you need to quickly come up with a more visual explanation technique to clarify and illuminate your points.

4) Picture yourself standing beside a friend or family member who is asking you to deliver a eulogy at a funeral in two days time.

Reading these statements may make many of you feel gut wrenching stress. Public speaking is fearful for many people, and short notice public speaking can cause people to have extreme anxiety, loss of sleep, and loss of the ability to keep thoughts lined up.

Twenty years ago, I stood up at my wedding and spoke briefly at the reception. “Briefly” is the key word! Back then I was scared to death of public speaking, and on the most important day of my life, I was unprepared. I held the microphone with sweaty, nervous hands and said my high speed thanks in what seemed like one long breath. I did not thank the Hungarian community properly at the reception. There were many of my wife’s family friends who had gone all out to help us put a wedding together on a very tight budget. If only I had known what I know now about public speaking, I could have thanked them properly.

As time went on, I discovered that I needed better speaking skills to help me succeed as an engineer. I joined a public speaking club. Public speaking soon became a passion, and I started to excel and have fun.

About 8 years ago, I discovered a speech development technique that has been invaluable to me. I use it to develop my own speeches and presentations and help other people gain clarity on how to make a speech effective. The side benefit is that it also helps me memorize the structure of my speech. The technique I am talking about is Mind-Mapping, and it has been around since the 1960’s. Tony Buzan is credited with being the “inventor” of this process.

The photo shows my speech writing book with simple mind maps to help guide me through my speech development process. This book also contains the Mind-Map for the three speeches that brought me to the finals of the 2004 World Championship of Public Speaking in Reno, Nevada.

In this article, I will outline its use specifically for the purpose of short notice speeches or presentations. If you want additional information on this subject, go to http://www.imindmap.com/.

STEP 1 – Clearly identify what you are going to talk about.

If you cannot describe what you are going to speak about with the amount of words that would fit on the back of a business card, you may not be focused enough yet. Make sure you clearly identify what you want to talk about before you proceed. What is your primary subject matter? Let’s use a speech I developed on multi-cultural diversity.

STEP 2 – Clearly identify what main points you want to make

STEP 3 – Identify what stories you could use to support and illustrate your points

STEP 4 – Identify what order you want to put your information and stories in. Determine what would be the most impactful opening, and how you could tie the ending back to the opening story.

STEP 5
Depending on the amount of time available, you could now either:
1) Write out the speech, hone it, and practice it out loud (If your speech needs to be a specific length, use the rule-of-thumb of 700 to 800 words = about 7 minutes of speech time).
2) Practice it out loud using the mind map as a mind jogging memorization tool

Keep practicing until you get it to flow without stumbling. I practice out loud while driving my car, and once I have the speech outline, transitions, and stories in my brain, I then practice in my home with a focus on my hand gestures and physical movement that will enhance the speech. Stories are typically easy to remember, spend most time memorizing the transitions (from point to point and from story to story). Make sure your opening and ending are practiced so they are flawless.

FINAL NOTE – sometimes my Mind-Maps get complicated. Here is one I used for a training session; I call it my Mind-Map on steroids!

Dave’s Public Speaking Website (bio – Keynotes – Workshops etc.)
www.davehillspeaks.com

Copyright © 2009 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved

Empowered Presenters – The Successful Eulogy – “Learning From Senator Ted Kennedy’s Celebration of Life”

This week I have been captivated by the speeches during Senator Ted Kennedy’s “Celebration of Life”. There are things we can all learn from this and use when the time comes to speak in public during emotional circumstances.

The dignity, character, and strength of the Kennedy family at this difficult time made me proud as an Irishman and also reinforce what I know as a public speaker. The Kennedy family gave Teddy such a great “send-off”. What made it so impactful in my opinion was the content and wording of the speeches which empowered the speakers to maintain composure, and allowed us to visualize moments from his life. We were all part of that family for a while.

Imagine if speaker after speaker was to break down into an emotional roller coaster, fighting tears and struggling to finish sentences. How many funerals have you been to where you sat in the congregation feeling uncomfortable and striving to suppress your own emotions? With a bit of understanding, we can all follow the Kennedy example and deliver speeches that help the emotional healing process while celebrating the life and stories of the recently deceased.

You may be thinking to yourself, “Well, that won’t apply to me for a long time. Nobody is sick or old in my family”. The reality is that death has a way of being very unpredictable.

Ten Tips for Delivering a Successful Eulogy:
1) When developing the outline of a eulogy, talk to friends and family and discuss what stories could be included. Refrain from stories that could offend anyone.
2) Structure your speech with a strong opening (start with a story, humorous if appropriate).
3) Bring the recently deceased “back to life” by reminiscing with vivid stories.
4) Provide visual details in the stories so the congregation can clearly relate to the event.
5) Read your speech when practicing, and identify areas that will challenge you to maintain composure – if possible, leave these parts out. Remember, on the day of the funeral, the emotional level can be even higher.
6) Read your notes many times, and identify words that are hard to pronounce, or ones you keep “tripping over” – change them.
7) Put your page-numbered notes on stiff paper (32 lb.) in as large a font as your eyes need. Use heavy paper to counter the potential for shaking, nervous hands. It also provides for less rustling noise if there is a microphone. Put the pages in order, and slide them to the side when each page is finished (don’t staple them).
8) If there is a podium microphone, determine if you will have to switch it on (your preference should be that someone else looks after that). Do not tap on the microphone to test it.
9) Adjust the microphone close to your mouth, and remember that if you move your head to one side, the congregation will not hear you clearly.
10) Finally, the audience is not your psychiatrist. Do not bring everyone to tears with details of negativity and suffering. It’s not beneficial.

How can you help me communicate more information on this important subject?
a) Do you have any stories to share about public speaking during emotional circumstances?
b) What made a eulogy the best or worst you have ever heard?
c) What other tips would you recommend?

Copyright © 2009 Dave Hill Speaks LLC all rights reserved.