August 23, 2008

When you see a standup comic, such as Robin Williams, rattle off hundreds of one-liners in the course of a 30-60 minute performance, you often leave the show thinking that was hilarious, but I don’t remember any of the jokes.

If you are a public speaker, that’s not what you want your audience thinking as they leave your presentation (maybe the “hilarious” part, but of course, you want them remembering at least parts of your speech).

A friend of mine recently gave a speech loaded with great examples to illustrate his speech premise. In fact, in the course of his seven-minute speech, he used so many examples (5, 6, maybe even 10), I lost track. Not only that, I hardly remembered any of them.

To make your speech memorable, it’s best to wrap a story around your key points. People remember stories, but bullet points are often lost on them moments after the speech ends, if not sooner.

If you have multiple examples to illustrate a key point, choose the most powerful example and run it through the Sinatra Test, a phrase that comes from the book, Made to Stick (which I wrote about here).

Stories stick in people’s minds. And best of all, stories can have the power to make people act.

March 30, 2008

In the next ten minutes, you are going to learn how to captivate an audience using a simple technique that subtly makes listeners pay attention.

That technique was used subtly in the previous sentence, which was to replace the word “I” with “you.” By putting the audience in the opening of a story personalizes it for them, and therefore, connects the speaker to the audience.

Some speakers start a speech by telling their audience what s/he (the speaker) is going to talk about, by saying, I’m going to outline steps on how you can captivate an audience. Instead of doing that, it’s far more effective to tweak that sentence by saying, During this presentation, you are going to learn how to captivate an audience.

Here are two examples on opening a speech. The first is written in first-person. The second example uses you, then transitions to first-person:

Example 1: My first paid speaking engagement couldn’t have gone any worse. As I took the podium in front of 300 real estate professionals, my knees wouldn’t stop shaking. I knew I would be nervous, so to calm my nerves, I tried opening with a joke, figuring that if I got them to laugh early on, my nerves would subside. But as I delivered the punch line, there was dead silence. How does a speaker recover from that?

Example 2: Imagine that you have been hired to keynote a conference, which will put you in front of the largest audience you have ever addressed – 300 real estate professionals. You take the podium. Your knees are wobbling as you peer out at a sea of unfamiliar faces. You deliver your opening statement, which you thought was laced with humor, but it is met with dead silence. (Pause) When that happened to me four years ago at my first paid speaking engagement, I imagined I would never be hired to speak to anyone ever again. But I overcame that disastrous experience and here I am, years later, making a living as a public speaker.

In Example 2, the speaker allows the audience to visualize themselves in that situation. Similar to when you watch a movie, you are living vicariously through the character, or in this case, the speaker. By the fifth sentence, the speaker seamlessly transitions the point-of-view by saying: When that happened to me four years ago at my first paid speaking engagement… By then, the speaker has hooked the audience, and now he can talk about his personal experience and how he overcame that frightening time.

March 22, 2008

Speakers who can simplify their message through clear and concise examples have a far greater positive impact on there audiences. Instead of using multiple examples to illustrate a single point, it’s often best to use one very powerful example, and run it through the “Sinatra Test.”

The Sinatra Test, coined by Chip and Dan Heath, co-authors of the NY Times bestselling book Made to Stick, refers to the singer’s classic “New York, New York.” In the chorus, Frank Sinatra sings about starting a new life in New York City, and declares “if I can make it there, I can make it anywhere.”

The Made to Stick authors elaborate on the point by suggesting if you run a security company that has provided security for Fort Knox, there is no other credential you need to prove your credibility to another potential client. In other words, this one example alone is powerful enough to establish credibility, that no additional examples are necessary. Therefore, it passes the Sinatra Test.

By using an example that passes the Sinatra Test, a speech will have the clarity and simplicity to keep an audience attuned to your message.

January 14, 2008

Motivating and inspiring speeches start with a powerful introductory statement. One that connects with the audience and leads them to believe what they are about to hear is very important to them.

You do this by answering two fundamental questions they are all thinking. One: Why am I listening to this? Two: How can I use this information?

If you are keynoting a small conference or leading a sales seminar, a common misstep is to open by reintroducing yourself following the MC’s introduction of you.

The MC’s introduction should not only introduce your name and title to the audience, but also establish you as a credible expert in this field or on your topic. For example:

Our next speaker made headlines when he was hired by XYZ Corp. to revitalize its corporate sales department. Within three years under his leadership, XYZ went from the world’s eighth largest automaker to third. Here to share his secrets, please help me welcome, XYZ’s VP of Sales, John Smith.

An MC introduction like that allows John Smith to go right into the speech with an introduction that would paint a vivid picture in the audience’s mind of a common problem sales team’s struggle with and how he inspired his sales team to work together to overcome those problems.

If John’s introduction fails to grab the audience’s attention, he loses most of them for good.

Therefore, whatever powerful points he may have in the body of his speech or in the conclusion will have little impact on them if any at all.

While the introduction aims to grab their attention and inspire them to listen, the body of the speech aims to keep them engaged all the way through to the conclusion. The conclusion reinforces the main point and inspires them with a call to action.