Steve Boyd Presentations

Presence and Presenting

            This past week-end the Cincinnati Reds Caravan made its way to Bowling Green, Kentucky, for an appearance. Hall of Fame broadcaster for the Reds, Marty Brennaman, and several Reds players and front office staff made the trip. The caravan is divided into three separate tours making a total of l5 fan stops in four states, covering more than 2,700 miles in four days.

            Why would money and time be devoted to such an event? Why not have a special television program and have different Reds celebrities appear and be interviewed? A main reason is that people want to see those who broadcast their favorite baseball team and meet some of the players they follow daily during the six-month season. Who knows how many tickets are sold to Reds games because the fan now feels a personal connection with the player? No doubt many will listen to a Reds game on radio or watch on television because they have seen in person the announcer or players.

            Sometimes the message of the speaker is not as important as the speaker. We want to see our CEO speak at our company's year-end meeting and we want to hear our minister or priest present at important religious events. We want our leaders who represent us to show up at town meetings and interviews.

            Don't allow your technology to substitute for the person. Important messages should be communicated in person. When a loved one has surgery, we don't want to receive a text message saying our spouse or child did fine through the operation. We want the surgeon to come out to the waiting area and talk to us face-to-face. We will not fire a person by phone, text, or email (I hope!). Watching the nonverbal and getting a sense of the emotional interaction is too important not to include in the message.

            When you have a choice of sending a message or talking to the person, or when you can send out a long memo to the company or appear in person to present the message, don't just consider the content of the message. Your presence may be more important than whatever your message might be.

            When a company has a United Way kick-off meeting, for example, it is vitally important that the CEO be present to speak.  What he or she says is not as important as just showing up. This tells the employees that this endeavor to raise money for community projects is really important to this organization.

            Technology seems to take much of our communication time. But as long as there are people, there is a place for presenting the message in person. Baseball season is still a few weeks away, but fans are buying tickets and anticipating a winning season because their favorite Red came to talk to them.

Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor Emeritus of Speech Communication, College of Informatics, Northern Kentucky University, near Cincinnati. He presents keynotes and seminars to corporations and associations whose people want to speak and listen effectively. See additional articles and resources at www.sboyd.com. To book Steve, call 800-727-6520 or email him through his website.

 

Clarity in One Sentence

One of the major challenges for the presenter is making the message instantly clear. Audiences cannot click “back” or "rewind" and hear again what you just said. The audience member cannot say, "Hold on while I look up the meaning of that word," or "Give me a few minutes to get some background information online.” Your language choice must be instantly clear.

The most effective way to combat this challenge of immediate clarity is to use a comparison where you connect the familiar with the unfamiliar. I'm reading a book about World War II, Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. In the book she discusses how difficult it was for a pilot to fly a B-24 bomber because of the way it was constructed and the bulkiness of fuel tanks needed in order to fly l6 hours without landing. To give the reader a clear understanding of how difficult this was and why pilots disliked flying this plane, she quoted one pilot who said, "It was like sitting on the front porch and flying the house!"  You may never have been in a bomber or have any inkling about flying planes of that generation, but with this one sentence you understood how awkward and challenging this plane was to pilot.

The comparison can sometimes be a piece of humor as well as making a point clear. For example, you may not know much about defense configurations in basketball, but consider this comparison by one of the most successful NBA coaches, Norm Sloan. In talking about a zone defense he said, "It hate it. It looks like a stickup at 7-Eleven. Five guys standing there with their hands in the air." 

Such comparisons can make a world of difference in audience interest in what you have to say.

 

Find It in an Obituary!

Great sources for new material in your next presentation can come from unusual places--such as obituaries!

I’ve always sought to find in nonfiction books original or creative stories or information that I might adapt to a particular speech, but my wife introduced me to the obituary as an additional source. She shared with me an unusual obituary she found in our local newspaper. The account was short, regarding the life of an 89-year-old lady from Covington, Kentucky. The statement that took my breath away was this: “Survived by many, remembered by few.” 

One can’t help but speculate on how this sad commentary came to be included in the obit. Perhaps the woman had requested the line before she died. Or maybe one of the few who did remember wanted to remind those who knew her that they had pretty much ignored her in life. Whatever the source, this piece of nonfiction could be applied to several components of human relations, including the importance of giving attention to our senior relatives and friends.

Audience members are attracted to material they have not heard before, and this is tough considering the ease of finding information on the Internet. To keep your material fresh, seek out unusual sources for material besides the usual sources such as biographies. Think of what intrigues you and might interest others.

Strolling through a cemetery has given me ideas for illustrations, including epitaphs on tombstones or drawings, such as a page from a hymnal, carved into the stone. Recently we found Bud Light Cans on each side of a gravestone.  One can only speculate on the significance of those.

Guides on tours of significant landmarks provide captivating lectures to share. As we passed through a small town in Alaska, the guide informed us that law enforcement agents used to check out the town occasionally because the place was so removed from civilization. When satellite television reception arrived there, several arrests were made in response to “America’s Most Wanted.”

Pick up a brochure when you visit a landmark. I learned much about Kentucky Bourbon from brochures while touring the Bourbon Trail in central Kentucky. When chatting with older people, ask what their childhood was like.

Seek information about a topic when you meet an expert on a given subject.  I learned much about coffee beans in talking to a key executive in charge of purchasing coffee for a large manufacturing company. Keep a pen and paper close by when you are watching a movie. Dialogue from the movie sometimes has great quotations you can use in a speech. For example, in the 1992 movie, A League of Their Own, Tom Hanks, as manager of the team says, “It’s supposed to be hard. If it weren’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.”  I’ve used this quote for years.    

Another classic quotation I still use was from a homeless man I met in the Bowery of New York City. I told him where I was from and that we were sightseeing.  His response: “Ten years ago I came to see the sights, and now I am one of the sights.” 

Don’t limit your sources for thought-provoking information for your next presentation. You may find a memorable line in a simple conversation—or in an obituary.

 

Context and Humor

Using humor in a presentation is a challenge for most presenters. We are not comedians! Few of us can snap out the one-liners the way born comedians do. One way to make humor easier is to use the context of the speech.

For example, a few days ago we were on a Caribbean cruise. Three of the days we were at sea and spent a lot of time on the ship engaged in all kinds of fun activities. The cruise entertainment director, J.C., was an especially good presenter. On the last day, as part of final instructions for disembarking, he talked about the great experiences on the cruise the past several days. Included were "questions" he had received during the week from some of the vacationers.

With each question, the audience of several hundred laughed loudly. Questions he had been asked included, "Have you seen my husband?" Another was, "Does this elevator go to the front of the ship?"  The questions may seem not very funny on the surface, but one of the constant challenges for all 2000 guests was finding their way to different locations because the ship was so large. Getting lost was a possibility each time we left our cabins, so everyone could visualize getting lost.

Another question that brought howls of laughter was the question, "Does the crew sleep on board the ship?"  Much of the week had been spent hundreds of miles from shore so the thought of getting back to shore each night was hilarious. Similar to that was "Does the ship produce its own electricity?"

Probably the guest dialogue that got the biggest laugh was with an elderly lady who made this complaint to J.C: "There is no safe in my room." He kindly said, "Let me go with you to your room and show you the safe."  In the room, the safe was exactly where it was supposed to be. When he opened it, he found a cup of coffee and a Danish. Her response: "I wondered why the microwave did not work."  Context was the key since all of us had safes in our rooms and could visualize the vague resemblance to a microwave.

Developing humor without context can be challenging indeed. However, using context that everyone relates to will help you connect with the funny bone of the audience.

Have a Hook!

Most business speakers who represent their companies as they speak to clients do not have ambitions to become motivational speakers. You, however, can learn to improve your own business presentations by learning from successful motivational speakers. A key to be effective in your career presentations is to have a “hook.”  Paid motivational speakers often have some unique challenge that they have overcome, so they use that event as a "hook" to share success ideas in their speeches.

For example, in March of this year Anthony Robles won the 125-pound NCAA Division I championship in wrestling. The unusual feature of this feat is that he has only one leg. According to Jason Gay in a Wall Street Journal article, "An Inspiration Moves Off the Mat," Anthony has not been home often since his victory because he has been on the road most of 2011, "...building a profession as a motivational speaker. He's spoken to companies, schools, halfway houses and pro teams."  In his speech he tells his personal story of being born to Judy Robles, a 16-year-old mother who raised her son "...telling him he could do anything, and watched him go out and prove it." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all have had unique experiences in life that have brought us to our places in our careers. Think about obstacles you overcame, or an event that changed your life forever. Perhaps you had an unusual job at one point that might dovetail into the content of your presentations. I grew up in an auctioneer family and learned to deliver the auctioneer's chant at age 14. I worked as my uncle's assistant until I left for college. I sometimes incorporate the chant in a speech—especially in the introduction.

When I was a boy, my dad and I had one of the largest rabbit farms in Indiana with over 350 in our rabbitry. That is an effective hook I use to talk about different ways to multiply your investments of time or money.

Think about unique life experiences that might make you stand out from other speakers vying for a business contract from a prospective client. Perhaps you need a special way to keep the interest of your employees as you explain a new benefit package or a new software program you are initiating. What is there about your background that might work toward that end? 

In basketball, the hook shot is common for a tall person to shoot within ten feet of the basket; the main reason is how hard it is for the defensive player to block it even when he or she knows the player is about  to shoot a hook. In like manner, a hook in your next speech will demand the attention of the audience even if they don't want to listen. Whether in fishing, basketball, or a presentation, the hook is indispensable.

The Power of the Spoken Word to Sell Books

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal chronicled the woeful state of the book tour for bestselling authors. Most authors read aloud poorly, according to Joanne Kaufman, author of the article “Rethinking the Familiar Book Tour.” She wrote, "Sure, they [authors] know how to read, but they may be none too skilled doing it out loud." She quotes one audience member: "When some authors read, I'll mutter to myself, ‘Is that snoring I hear?'"  Exceptions, she writes, are "skilled performers of their own material."  They include T. C. Boyle, Sebastian Berry, and Brad Meltzer.

Two factors are in play here. One is that people's attention spans are short and they are not willing to spend their time listening to boring readings. The other is that people are used to being entertained in a fast-paced manner and constantly bombarded with information.

This current trend underscores the importance of the power of the spoken word delivered well and to the importance of holding the attention of the audience when you do speak.

Kaufman recounts that Brad Meltzer, author of thrillers like The Book of Lies, "...regales crowds with background stories about his books and with tales of the 24 rejection letters he received at the beginning of his career...." 

In any career you can improve your competitive edge in the market place by excellent delivery style and using stories when you speak. You can improve your ability to read or tell stories by punching out key words and proper nouns. Take an acting class to work on the use of your voice. Listen to the style of the professionals who narrate the popular "books/CDs on tape." Practice the craft of reading aloud by reading to small children—maybe your own toddler, preschooler, grandchild, or a child of a neighbor. (Warning: This may make you very popular with the local moms.)

Be a student of your own life. What memory do you have that might be developed into a story to illustrate a point you want to make in conversation or a presentation? Think of  what you learned from certain work-related experiences that might prove a point you want to make.

As is the case with best-selling authors, you may have an excellent command of the language but speaking the words so people will want to hear them involves a different skill set. Take the time to practice what you plan to say so you can say it with enthusiasm and energy and develop illustrative material to make the audience want to listen.

As Robert Redford's character, Tom Booker, said in the movie, The Horse Whisperer,  "Knowing is the easy part; saying it out loud is the hard part.”

Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor Emeritus of Speech Communication, College of Informatics, Northern Kentucky University, near Cincinnati. You can contact him at 800.727.6520. He presents keynotes and seminars to corporations and associations whose people want to speak and listen effectively. Visit his site to read other valuable articles on effective speaking and listening.

Conversation Time!

Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours said, “With cell phones, iPhones, Blackberries and computers, Americans today have no trouble making connections…it’s making conversation that seems to be a problem.” Good conversation is a diminishing social skill. Because it is the holiday season when people get together at parties or family gatherings, a look at the keys to good conversation is important. 

A key to good conversation is listening. People tend to talk at each other instead of taking turns talking and listening. You will make the talker like you and respect you not by what you say so much as how well they think you are listening. People love to talk and when someone has a story to tell, you can’t wait to tell your own story. Sometimes the only reason you listen is because you know you get to talk next. 

Spend more time listening than you do talking. Add a competitive element to your listening. Summarize in your own mind what the other person’s point is. If it is a familiar topic, listen closely to learn something new. Think of a question you might ask even if you don’t get to ask it. These simple mental exercises will keep you listening instead of interrupting the talker or thinking of what you want to say when he or she stops talking. Voltaire said, “When you listen, you have power; when you talk you give it away.”

To improve your conversation skills, learn to ask questions. A good question will keep you engaged with the topic. As someone said, “The person who talks a lot dominates a conversation, but the person who asks questions controls the conversation.”  Don’t too many questions; you will seem like an interrogator. Ask more open questions than closed questions. Good open questions might start with “What do you think,…” or “How do you feel about…” or “What is your opinion…” 

Finally when you do talk, keep your comments short and concise. A little boy asked his mother a question. The mother said, “Why don’t you ask your dad?”  His response was, “I don’t want to know that much about it.”  Some people can’t give a “yes” or “no” answer to a closed question. They feel like they have to elaborate or give an example. 

As Moriarty concludes her discussion of conversation, she writes: “Talk may be cheap, but good conversation is priceless.”

Don't Miss It!

Some things we miss are obvious. A player for Indiana University last month missed an uncontested layup in a basketball game against Butler. The 17,000 fans at the game saw it, as did thousands watching on the Big Ten Network. Any time high-profile people miss something, everyone hears about it.

Many things missed, however, are not so obvious. That is one of the problems with multi-tasking. When you seek to do several tasks at the same time, you may miss what is really important, inspiring, or helpful. When you are speaking on the phone and reading email at the same time, you may miss the ache or frustration in a person's voice. When you are focused on your smart phone, you may miss a beautiful sunset or flower. One writer said, "The world's most beautiful garden might as well be an asphalt parking lot if you pound through it while barking into your cell phone." 

A big challenge in effective listening is being able to pay attention solely to what the person you are listening to is saying. During conversations I've seen people answer cell phones or read a text message or check email. Not only is this rude, but that person may be missing important time with important people with important information.

Since you think four to five times faster than you can talk, chances are high that you will miss a significant piece of information. We have all messed up the directions when finding an unfamiliar location and ended up on the east side of town instead of the west side—that is, until along came the GPS. However, that little magic box can keep us from paying attention to the highway as we drive. So we are constantly struggling with paying attention. How can we keep from missing the important, the valuable, and the memorable? 

Exercise your mind to learn to focus. For example, you can learn a second language. This makes you pay better attention to the words people use in conversation because you have been studying what that word or sentence means in another language. Because languages have different pronunciations, you will be more sensitive to the tone and pitch of a person's voice. These benefits are in addition to the mental exercise of memorizing words in a different language. I'm being tutored in Spanish and the time I devote to memorization and comprehension certainly motivates me to concentrate.

Carve out quiet time in your daily schedule. When you are quiet for a while, you tend to pay better attention when you do engage in conversation or sit at your computer reading email or composing a letter. Quiet time gives you an opportunity to think and prepare mentally for the important tasks of the day or significant meetings you must contribute to. This might involve spiritual meditation, a walk in the woods observing nature, sitting by a creek enjoying the background sounds, or simply pondering areas important to you for the day as you sit in your favorite chair at home.

Expose yourself to new ideas, activities, and knowledge. When you move out of your common routine, you tend to see things you have never seen before or look at events in a new light. Ballroom dancing has given my wife and me opportunities to know more about the beat and time of music, identify different kinds of music, and visit places to dance that we had never seen before.

Read a book out of your field. Travel to other countries and learn about other cultures. After spending several weeks in Thailand, I pay better attention to ethnic foods and dress.

You only have a finite amount of time to live; don't miss the important. As Paulo Coelho wrote, "You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one; each day brings a miracle of its own. It's just a matter of paying attention to this miracle."

Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor Emeritus of Speech Communication, College of Informatics, Northern Kentucky University, near Cincinnati. You can contact him at 800.727.6520. He presents keynotes and seminars to corporations and associations whose people want to speak and listen effectively. Visit his site to read other valuable articles on effective speaking and listening.

Embrace Serendipity in Your Next Speech

Last week the Cincinnati Enquirer featured a story about a little girl who was sitting in her third grade class playing with about an inch-wide gold, heart-shaped locket. She took off the necklace and in the process fumbled the locket and the locket went down her throat. This made it very difficult to breathe and her chest hurt. Her mother rushed to school and then on to the hospital with her.

En route to the hospital, the family car hit a massive pothole. The jarring caused the locket to discharge from the girl's esophagus, forcing it to travel all the way down her throat and saving her life.

Usually you want to avoid potholes, but here the pothole was a life saver. This young lady was the recipient of serendipity! Good things happen by accident. If you look for good things to happen in a speech, you will be more alert to contextual factors that improve your presentation. Seek to make serendipity work for you.

One of the benefits of getting to the meeting place early and meeting some members of the audience is that you might learn something unexpected that could help you in your presentation. As I talked to people before one presentation, I found that several had had me in class at the local university. So I mentioned that early on to boost my credibility with those who did not know me and connect with those who did.

Be grateful for serendipity when there is no explanation. For example, once I was making the point early in my presentation that I hoped by the end of the speech each would have an "aha" so that they would leave thinking "Aha! I can use that tomorrow on the job."  When I said "aha" the audience broke out in applause. The initials of their national organization were "AHA."  They thought my play on words was great and at the time I had no idea what I had said that made them applaud. I just enjoyed the positive feedback and their immediate connection with me.

Don’t be oblivious to serendipity, but embrace it and use it to your advantage.

The Gaffe: A Trap Waiting for All Speakers

The word "gaffe" seems to be in print in increasing numbers. When you participate in political campaigns or when any person speaks frequently and is followed by the press, the possibility for gaffes is great. A gaffe is an embarrassing mistake you make in public. Another definition is a blatant mistake or misjudgment, or a social or diplomatic blunder.

History has a litany of gaffes. George Romney, father of Mitt, was a leading contender for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination until September 4, 1967, when he told a Detroit reporter that he had been "brainwashed" by American generals into supporting the Vietnam War effort. His candidacy never recovered.

On the campaign trail in Beaverton, Oregon, in May, 2008, then Senator Obama said, "Over the last 15 months, we've traveled to every corner of the United States. I've now been in 57 states?  I think one left to go." This definitely fit the "blatant mistake" definition of gaffe.

Most recently, Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, debating in Rochester, Michigan, on November 9 declared that he planned to eliminate three government agencies in Washington. But when he began to explain, he could only think of two and after nearly a minute went by he had to say, "Sorry. Oops."  This lapse on national television did not help his candidacy.

What can you do to avoid the gaffe? Certainly you could just not speak in public. But that is not a practical solution. The key is appropriate preparation of what you plan to say—even if you do not know the questions or context you might be in.

Prepare yourself physically. Get enough sleep the night before you speak and eat healthy foods. The campaign trail, for example, is exhausting and can hinder the ability to think clearly. In the l952 gubernatorial campaign of Frank Clement of Tennessee, he spoke as many as 16 times a day in the last days of the campaign. Exhaustion was inevitable. JFK in the 1960 campaign spoke so often he had chronic laryngitis and had to seek speech therapy help and skip a few crucial campaign days to recover.

Think about questions that may be asked of you and how you will answer them. If you know your subject well and how it relates to current situations, you can anticipate many of the questions so you won't be caught off guard. According to a book by Dan Rather, The Camera Never Blinks, prior to a press conference President Kennedy would call in his White House staff to grill him on questions the press would probably ask. Thus he was rarely blindsided when speaking to the public.

Don't be afraid to pause a moment or two when asked a question. Those 2 or 3 seconds give you valuable time to consider your response. Don't just blurt out anything that comes to mind as soon as the question is asked. What you say cannot be taken back, so the few seconds to think can save you embarrassment and a loss of credibility.

Finally, don't talk too much. Keep your comments short and concise. Don't take a minute to give an opinion when you could say the same information is ten seconds. The longer you elaborate the more possibilities you have for committing a gaffe. As my mother-in-law used to say, "Don't tell all you know." 

The gaffe is inevitable if you speak frequently and over a long period of time. Whatever technique you incorporate, at the foundation of our approach should be the reminder from Robert Benchley, "Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing."

Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor Emeritus of Speech Communication, College of Informatics, Northern Kentucky University, near Cincinnati. He presents keynotes and seminars to corporations and associations whose people want to speak and listen effectively and coaches local executives. Visit his site to read other valuable articles on effective speaking and listening.