Craigstrachan.com – Keep talking!

A simple method to improving your speeches

Content ? what is your topic, why this topic, what is your angle on the topic, why is it important to the audience, what stories are you going to tell to illustrate your points?

Organisation ? how are you going to structure your speech, what are your key points, how many key points, what is going to go into the intro and conclusion?

Delivery ? You only get one take when presenting, how are you going to make the most of it?

Evaluation ? to become a better speaker, you need feedback. Ask others what they thought, record yourself and listen to it afterwards. Figure out what really worked in your speech, what didn?t and how you can be even better next time.

(thanks to Martin Louw for the idea)

Note: The image on the right is a QR code – see if you can find the hidden message

On the the keynote sessions at the recent Toastmasters Convention was presented by Bob Hooey -  "The Ideas Man". His speech was entitied "The Power of One – you can do and will make a difference" – a very relevent topic to leaders in Toastmasters.

He gave us all a copy of one of his books – "The Power of One". He has also made several books and articles available for free on his website. This includes several full length books on leadership, management and self-development.

I highly recommend some of the downloads – so visit http://www.inthecompanyofleaders.com/TM.htm to grab some of the articles.

This list is from a brain-storming session we held at the recent World Champions Edge summit in Calgary. 

1. No message
2. To many messages
3. Ingoring your audience
4. No pausing
5. ?chicken soup? stories (using other common stores and not using your own stories)
6. Making yourself the hero
7. Stepping on the laugh
8. Explaining why, not how
9. Not being yourself
10. Making assumptions (about your audience)
11. Being too serious
12. Forcing (irrelevent) humour into your speech
13. Repetitive gestures
14. Winging your speech
15. Not customizing your message to your audience

In case you are wondering why my blog has been so quiet, it is because I spent the last two weeks at the Toastmasters annual convention, and the World Champions Edge summit. One of the great things about Champs Edge is that it costs less than $30 per month, and in addition to the monthly CD's, weekly lessons and access to the online forums, they put on a full day members only training at no cost! The value of the training I received at the summit easily covered the cost of the annual subscription.

Yes, I did have every intention of sharing my thoughts on my blog while I was at the convention, but it was a very busy time, and I simply did not have the time to write anything (ok, a pretty poor excuse, I know).

The convention was an amazing experience. If you ever want to network with people from all over the world, this is the place to do so. We also had the opportunity to rub shoulders with several of the world champs of public speaking, as well as to meet some of the Toastmasters directors. Best of all, I got to meet several of my online friends in person (hi to Sherri, Able and Rich).

Over my next few blogs I will share some thoughts and learnings from the convention.

By the way, here are some of the photos.

Pecha-kucha is an unusual method used to create PowerPoint presentations. The rules are simple. You can only create 20 slides, and you have to display each slide for exactly 20 seconds. This gives you 6 minutes and 40 seconds to give your presentation and get your message across (perfect timing for Toastmasters speeches!).

There is an interesting article about Pecha-kucha on Wired Magazine.

I am going to try it for my next presentation and I will let you know how it goes.

I found a video of Ben Zander online at TED. You can view it below. TED has loads of great videos that you can download for free, including Al Gore, Malcolm Gladwell, Bono and Peter Gabriel. Topics are diverse and interesting.

I heard an interview on the radio this morning in which the interviewee said

?It is obvious that our advertisement offended some people, however sales clearly went up?.

This got me thinking about how often we use superfluous and meaningless words in both our speaking and our writing.

• It is obvious that?
• You will see that?
• You know?
• And so on and so forth?
• Each and every single one of you?

Then you can combine the superfluous words ? ?you can obviously see that?

The problem is that they very seldom add value to what you are saying, and they are not always true. In the above case, is it really that obvious? Then there are the obvious filler words ? umm, ahh?clearly you can see how little value they add. If you need space to think when speaking ? just pause and take a breath. It also gives the audience time to catch up.

We tend to use the same filler words in our speeches; they become crutches. This can become very distracting for the audience. To find out how good (or bad) you are, record your next presentation and listen to it afterwards. Even better, transcribe your speech, and you will very quickly become aware of what you are saying.

One of the words that I recently found myself using is ?stuff?. It is a not-descriptive word ? it does not portray any meaning. So now I ask myself the questions ?what stuff?, and I try to find a more meaningful word.

What are your crutch words?

I had the opportunity of seeing Ben Zander speaking last year, and it was a remarkable experience. He is a world-renowned conductor and an inspirational  speaker on Leadership and the ?Art of Possibility? (he co-authored the book ?Art of Possibility? with his partner Rozamund Zander).

Ben is speaking in Cape Town on 21 and 22nd August. The kind folks at Symphonia have offered a 25% discount to tickets for the Cape Town presentations, provided your tickets are purchased before 31 July - just mention my name for the discount. Both Lois and I have secured tickets, so we would love to see you there. I promise you, it will be worth every cent!

Ben has appeared five times as a keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

You can watch the video of Ben’s presentation at the TED conference earlier this year. This is a short 20 minute exposure to Ben’s presentation style. The 1,600 people in attendance responded with a standing ovation and called this presentation the most inspirational talk of the conference http://blog.ted.com/2008/06/benjamin_zander.php

You can download the full details of all the presentations as well as the 4 concerts in Cape Town from Symphonia’s website http://www.symphonia.net/thought_leaders.html

?Zander is a fairly frequent visitor to South Africa. Apart from an obvious affinity for the Rainbow Nation, he has also been “discovered” by corporates who bring him over to help articulate visions and share ideas on the New Age manager. Occasionally outsiders are invited. Should you happen upon the opportunity, grab it. After putting his ideas to the test, who knows how many shining eyes might soon greet you at the office??

Alec Hogg, Moneyweb website

Ben has the ability to ignite and inspire large groups of people in a 3 hour session ? he uses the power of music to galvanise people to action and a sense of possibility.

For more information about Benjamin Zander:

www.benjaminzander.com

COSTS PER PERSON (before 25% discount)

For bookings received after 1st June: R1,350 + VAT

A 10% discount applies to group bookings for more than 10 people
 
PLEASE CONTACT

Johleen van Dyk
for a registration form
(johleen@symphonia.net)

Louise van Rhyn
to enquire about special pricing for large group bookings
(louise@symphonia.net)

Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series, wrote in his novel Jingo ?Give a man a fire and he is warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he is warm for life?.

One of the problems with motivational speaking is that they are akin to giving a man fire ? the effect of the speech only lasts as long as the fire. But what happens when your speech sets a man on fire? Then the change becomes lasting. Being given fire is good ? it makes you feel nice. Being set on fire can be painful, but the changes are long-lasting.

Mark Brown, the 1996 WCPS, says that in his speeches he tries to touch the head to make you think, to touch the heart to make you feel, and the hands to make you act. I think that Mark sets people on fire.

Here are some of the differences that the audience will feel:

Given Fire
Feel good (but no action)
Motivated (but to do what?)
I (the speaker) achieved in life, so can you (yes, but how?)

Set on Fire
Action plan (today, tomorrow and next week!)
Open up possibility ? new ways of thinking
Challenge paradigms
Feel uncomfortable, challenged

When you speak, do you give your audiences fire, or do you set them on fire?

Just a quick apology to anybody trying to visit my main website – www.craigstrachan.com. A setting that has worked fine for many months seems to have suddenly started causing issues a day or so ago.

Anyway, without telling you all the boring details, I have made the repairs, and all is up and running again. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.