Patricia Fripp Blog

Honor everyday heroes. — Robert Fripp & Patricia Fripp delivering a keynote on How to Be a Hero for More Than One Day

As you may know, my brother Robert Fripp played on David Bowie’s Heroes. In our presentations on How to Be a Hero For More Than One Day, I ask Robert questions and he gives brilliant and thoughtful answers.

As one ordinary hero to another, I hope you find this as thoughtful and brilliant as I do.

PF What does it mean to be a hero?

RF The hero aspires to three things:
the clarity to see what is required of them;
the courage to accept what is required of them;
the capacity to discharge what is required of them.
Clarity, courage, capacity.
Three categories of heroes:
the unlikely, or occasional, hero;
the everyday, or ordinary, hero;
the superhero.
The occasional (or unlikely) hero is one who responds honorably to an unlikely & unexpected event: they rise to an occasion, to a challenge, when it presents itself.

“The Rule of Three” is a writing and speaking principle suggesting that a trio of events or characters is more humorous, satisfying, and effective than other numbers.

The trio format holds a special appeal to audiences. The use of three elements offers brevity, rhythm, and a concise pattern that sticks in your audiences’ minds. with the smallest amount of information needed to create a pattern.

It makes an author or speaker appear knowledgeable while remaining both accessible and catchy.

Slogans, film titles, jokes, speaking techniques, and writing have been structured in threes, a tradition that grew out of oral storytelling.

For example, the classic “The Three Little Pigs,” “Three Billy Goats Gruff,” and The Three Musketeers. Similarly, adjectives are often grouped in threes to emphasize an idea.

The Latin phrase “Omne trium perfectum” (Everything that comes in threes is perfect, or every set of three is complete.) conveys the same idea as “The Rule of Three.”

In my world of powerful presentations, I encourage my speech-coaching clients and audiences to never underestimate the power of a pause.

In this article, we will explore the significance of the pause and how you can leverage it to create additional impact in your presentations.

The Essence of a Pause:

A pause is not a moment of nothing; it is a deliberate tool that helps you establish an intellectual and emotional connection with your audience. By pausing at strategic moments, you allow your listeners time to process what you have said, enabling them to stay engaged and follow your message effectively. This is particularly crucial if you tend to speak rapidly, as pauses provide the necessary breathing room for your audience.

Use Punctuation as a Guide:

Are you losing sales you feel you deserve to win?

Are you confident that everyone on your sales team can deliver your company story well?

Are you making the fatal flaw of many sales managers?

Make More Sales More Often when you perfect your sales presentation

You may be like many of my clients before I work with them. You have great products and services—perhaps complicated and technical in nature—and they require an incredible amount of trust to sell.

You invest in your sales professionals with product knowledge, ways you compare to your competition, territory management, and technology the company uses. Then you say, “Go out and call on the C-Suite.”

However, you may often fall short on training your sales professionals to create and deliver an engaging, clear, concise, and prospect-friendly presentation.

Lisa Poole knows how to capture an audience’s attention.

Are you ready to take your presentations to the next level and captivate your audience from the very beginning?

One surefire way to make a memorable impact is by incorporating interesting statistics and little-known facts into your opening.

In this article, we will explore a brilliant example of how industry expert Lisa Poole used these techniques to engage her audience and set the stage for her presentation delivered at a PayrollOrg convention about “Adding Value to Your Organization Through Job Costing.”

Let’s dive in and discover the power of intriguing statistics!

I am on the couch reading “Just Another Brick” by Stephen J Moles “The Restoration of the Historic Walled Gardens at Croome” and remembering a wonderful afternoon spent last year on vacation. As I am back in the UK again, my message is more personal. I hope you will enjoy it.

My brother and I had the most amazing afternoon exploring the historic Walled Gardens at Croome Court. The book was a gift from our friends Chris and Karen Cronin, who are good friends with my brother Robert Fripp. You know, they’re the ones who create those massive stages and sets for rock shows, which they’ve also adapted for use in movie sound stages. However, their real labor of love is their garden, and that’s where we went to visit.

Being a tourist and learning about history is a pastime I love, so visiting Croome was a real treat.

Swanage in World War II

Exploring the history of a town or city adds a rich layer of appreciation to our experience of a place.I love being a tourist and understand the value of delving into the past to enhance my understanding and connection with a destination. During my vacation in Swanage, Dorset, near my childhood home, my friend Derek Arden encouraged me to buy the book titled “Swanage in World War II” by C. Stewart W. Borrett.

This simple book ignited a spark of curiosity, prompting me to delve deeper into the history of the town and its people.

The Notion: Acknowledge the Mentors on Your Journey to Success

Sooner or later, as a high-achieving professional, you’ll be invited to share your journey to success. The very thought may trigger a nervous response. After all, we’ve been socially conditioned not to “brag.”

Let’s simplify the process with a strategy. Every speech orbits a central theme. In the “about me” speech, it’s this:

Blurred image, Microphone on stage with blurred bright light background

Success is never a solo venture. Credit your influencers, role models, and mentors, though your personal triumph remains the focal point. Consider your life story as a three-act play:

Act I – your early years, Act II – career initiation, and Act III – the pinnacle of success.

To illustrate, let’s revisit my coaching experience with Alex, a prosperous executive and multimillionaire. At their annual gathering, 700 realtors were well aware of Alex’s financial success but ignorant of his humble upbringing as an illegitimate child. His speech commenced with, “I never knew my mother and met my father at 14. I was raised by my grandmother, and life was perfect.”

Being a tourist and learning about history is a pastime I love, so visiting Croome was a real treat.

The gardens there are the largest walled gardens in England, and they used to play a crucial role in supplying food for the occupants of the grand Croome Court. Just imagine the bustling activity of planting, nurturing, and harvesting that would have taken place there. It must have brought a sense of tranquility and stability to the people living in the big house. However, the true history of Croome is far more turbulent than the serene beauty we see today.

Let me take you back to a chilly morning in February 1840.

Picture this: all five furnaces supporting the Hot Wall are fired up, along with two additional furnaces pumping hot water to the glasshouses. If you were standing on Earls Walk, you’d witness the industrial revolution in action, with smokestacks belching out thick, black clouds of smoke, rousing the garden from its winter slumber. And if the wind blew from the east, the smoke would envelop the entire big house, obscuring it from view. These images serve as a reminder that the Walled Garden was primarily a food factory, rather than a serene countryside getaway.

The restoration of the gardens at Croome has been a step-by-step process.

As the Cronin’s told us, “You can’t start by restoring the glasshouses without first rescuing the pathways that lead to them.” The entire project has been spearheaded by the Cronins, who are both remarkable individuals with unique skills and strong personalities.

What you may find as amusing as we do, they embarked on this venture seeking a simpler life—a self-contained home and garden. They were fortunate enough to buy exactly what they were looking for without needing a mortgage.

When they first set eyes on the Croome Estate, it was a sight that defied description.

Enormous glasshouses lay in ruins, resembling shipwrecks surrounded by a sea of brambles. As Karen Cronin recalls, she was trying to take in the scene when her husband Chris uttered the words, “Well take it.” So much for a simpler life!

Our visit to the Walled Gardens at Croome was not only a beautiful experience but also a journey through time. Stephen J. Moles tells this story much better than I ever could, and I’m grateful to have received his book, “Just Another Brick,” as a gift from our friends.

If you are interested in history, gardens, or what can be accomplished by creative and generous people who believe they can turn the seemingly impossible into the possible.

Every story has a “Once Upon a Time.” The place where the intricate weave of values, experiences, and influences begins to shape the fabric of our lives.

As a speech coach, I guide my clients to revisit their own “Once Upon a Time”, unraveling the threads of their past to better understand the tapestry of their present. It is here, in our early years, where the essence of our unique voices and our authentic selves are formed. My “Once Upon a Time” has etched a distinct pattern into my professional journey. Growing up in a time and place with limited expectations for girls, I began to envision a life that starkly deviated from the norm of a small town in the South of England. As a small girl, it was the vision and wisdom from my parents that laid the foundation for my approach as a speech coach and set the stage for a life I had dared to imagine and have very much enjoyed.

Expert Advice about Presentation Skills
from Patricia Fripp

Robert Fripp How to Be a Hero For More Than One Day

As you may know, my brother Robert Fripp played on David Bowie’s Heroes. In our presentations on How to Be a Hero For More Than One Day, I ask Robert questions and he gives brilliant and thoughtful answers.

“The Rule of Three” Makes Magic – Do You Cast This Spell On Your Audiences?

“The Rule of Three” is a writing and speaking principle suggesting that a trio of events or characters is more humorous, satisfying, and effective than other numbers.