Open Your Speech by Relating to The Immediate Situation

Show you are “one of the group” by referring to something that is happening right now. One opening to help you immediately connect is to walk out and start with, “I love your theme!” Then tell them why. Or, “This is the perfect time of the year for this meeting.” Naturally, this must segway into your message.

When I speak at a very large hotel like the enormous Opryland Hotel in Nashville, or any of the convention hotels in Vegas, I often use the line, “When I checked in I asked the desk clerk, ‘Do you have a gym!’ She replied, ‘Yes madam, but you don’t need it. You are going to have to walk 6 miles to your room.'”

Your surroundings are often a good starting point. Once I spoke on a set designed to replicate the bar in Cheers. My opening, “As an unashamed, relentless self-promoter, it is great to be in a place where everyone knows my name.”

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What Hollywood Taught Me: 7 Ways To Become A Star

The sultry blonde looked deep into the executive’s eyes, her voice throbbing with emotion. “I know you don’t know me,” she said, “but you must trust me. We don’t have much time. You need to do everything that I tell you. You’re not very experienced, but I’ve been doing this a long time. I am your new best friend.”

The couple spent the next four hours in a locked room. Their activities included role-playing and changing positions. “That was so good!” she’d cry. “Do it again! Even better. Try it standing up.”

Finally the door opened, and the executive emerged exhausted, but smiling. “I’ve been Fripped,” he told his friends, “and I can’t wait to do it again!”

This is how I open my speech called “How to Add Hollywood to Your Presentation.” The premise is: if you want to be a better speaker, go to the movies!

Why? Imagine that you have unlimited resources to design a keynote that will make you the hottest commodity on the market. Where would you go to get the best, highest-priced writers and directors in the world?

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5 Tips for Exciting Speeches

1. Open Hot, Close Hotter.
To grab audience attention and be remembered, start your presentation with a bang, not a limp, “Thanks, it’s nice to be here.” The first (and last) 30 seconds have the most impact on the audience. Save any greetings and gratitude until they’ve already grabbed the audience with a powerful opening. And don’t end with a whimper. Remember that last words linger. Unfortunately, many speakers close with, “Are there any questions?” Wrong! Instead, say, “Before I close, are there any questions?” Answer them. Then close on a high note.

2. Get the Inside Scoop.
Attendees at one of my seminars, “How to Be a Coach to Your Client,” want to know how they can personalize and add excitement and color to the speeches they craft for others. How, they ask, can they get those invaluable inside stories? I suggested they do what I do–interview the speaker’s client’s colleagues and family members. These people are familiar with the “stories” the speaker often tells, stories that have already been honed to what I call the “Hollywood model” (characters, dialogue, dramatic lesson learned). What insights and amusing stories can they share? Advise your members to ask others for input that can provide color and energy to a presentation.

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Getting Over the Jitters Before You Speak

You’re waiting your turn to make a speech, when suddenly you realize that your stomach is doing strange things and your mind is rapidly going blank. How do you handle this critical time period?

People ask me this question in all my speaking classes, but there is no single answer. You need to anticipate your speech mentally, physically, and logistically.

MENTALLY:

Start by understanding that you’ll spend a lot more time preparing than you will speaking. As a general rule, invest three hours of preparation for a half hour speech, a six to one ratio. When you’ve become a highly experienced speaker, you may be able to cut preparation time considerably in some cases, but until then, don’t skimp. Part of your preparation will be to memorize your opening and closing — three or four sentences each. Even if you cover your key points from notes, knowing your opening and closing by heart lets you start and end fluently, connecting with your audience when you are most nervous.

LOGISTICALLY:

Go to the room where you’ll be speaking as early as possible so you can get comfortable in the environment. If you will be speaking from a stage, go early in the morning when no one is there and make friends with the stage. Walk around on the area where you will be speaking, so the first time there is not when you deliver your talk.Then, during your presentation, you can concentrate on your audience, not your environment.

PHYSICALLY:

A wonderful preparation technique for small meetings is to go around shaking hands and making eye contact with everybody beforehand. For larger meetings, meet and shake hands with people in the front row at least, and some of the people as they are coming in the door. Connect with them personally, so they’ll be rooting for your success. We as speakers are rarely nervous about individuals, only when faced with the thought of an audience. Once you’ve met the audience or at least some of them, they become less scary.

It’s totally natural to be nervous. Try this acting technique. Find a private spot, and wave your hands in the air. Relax your jaw, and shake your head from side to side. Then shake your legs one at a time. Physically shake the tension out of your body.

Try not to sit down too much while you’re waiting to speak. If you’re scheduled to go on an hour into the program, try to sit in the back of the room so that you can stand up occasionally. It is hard to jump up and be dynamic when you’ve been relaxed in a chair for an hour. (Comedian Robin Williams is well known for doing “jumping jacks” to raise his energy level before going on stage.) Sitting in the back also gives you easy access to the bathroom and drinking fountain. There’s nothing worse than being stuck down front and being distracted by urgent bodily sensations.

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Sound Intelligent, Powerful, Polished, Articulate, and Confident

Do you want to sound intelligent, powerful, polished, articulate and confident? Of course you do! Voice coach Carol Fleming, PhD gave me some great insights based on her years of study and working with thousands of clients.

TO SOUND MORE INTELLIGENT:
Speak just a bit slower to allow yourself to select your most appropriate vocabulary and to give the impression of thoughtfulness.

TO SOUND MORE POWERFUL:
Use short, simple declarative sentences. You say what you mean and you mean what you say. Cut out any useless connectors, adjectives and adverbs, especially superlatives.

TO SOUND MORE POLISHED:
Never answer a question with a blunt ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Append a short phrase of clarification. For example, “No, I did not see it.” “Yes, I know Mary.”

TO SOUND MORE ARTICULATE:
Make a special effort to pronounce the final sound in a word and use its energy to carry over to the following word. Pay special attention to final ‘t’ and ‘ng.’

TO SOUND MORE CONFIDENT:
Carry your body up. Hold your head as if you had a crown on it. Don’t let your arms and legs have side to side motion when you move. Keep your elbows and knees close to the midline of your body.

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Story Development Ideas

You have read, or heard me say, stories make a speech or sales presentation more interesting, memorable and ‘visual.’ Remember, your audience remembers what they ‘see’ in their minds more than the words you use. In my sales training I recommend you call your satisfied clients and interview them about their experience of doing business with you.

Follow this formula:

  • Situation – the problem they had before you did business together
  • Solution – what product, service or advice did you give that solved that problem
  • Success – how has their condition changed…in their words.
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Get in the Game, but Not Without a Coach!

Get a what?
Champions get coached. In 1999 I won the World Championship of Public Speaking for Toastmasters International and have been speaking regularly ever since. Several years later, after a disastrous speech in Montreal, I went back to my hotel room, threw my head on my pillow, and faced the following reality: I need a coach badly!

Although I had never had a public speaking coach to aid in my considerable success to that point, I knew I needed one to take my speaking to the next level. Therefore, I decided to call a person who is supposed to be one of the best public speaking coaches in the country. I said, “I would like to be coached by you.” She asked, “Are you sure?” I said, “Yes. I did my research and I know you are the one I want to coach me?” She said, “Do you know how much I charge?” I said, “At this point, it would cost me more not to get coached.” She said, “Great!” Then she quoted her daily fee and I thought to myself, “Well, I am pretty happy with the skills that I have.”

Then I thought, “Wait a minute. Tiger Woods is the best golfer in the world and he has a coach. All sports teams have coaches, and every extremely successful speaker I have ever heard of has had a coach. Wake up Craig. You need a coach!” Despite my reluctance, I decided to go for it and it was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. In fact, I signed up for two days! When you decide to get coached, you will find it to be one of your greatest decisions too as long as you follow these critical pieces of advice:

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In-Between Time

In-Between Time

by Craig Valentine

In-between time is what I refer to as the time between your major points. Of course you need to use this time to transition into the next story or example, but how you use this time can make the difference between a dry speech and an exciting one. One effective way you can use in-between time is to add more humor. Hopefully your stories have humor as well, and if you add humor between these stories, then your audience will really enjoy your speech.

For example, immediately after one story and just before the next one I may relate the following to add humor:

There’s a lady that used to work for me and she liked to tell me all of her problems. One day she said, “Craig, I’m sick of guys.” I said, “Oh no, here she goes again. What’s wrong?” She said, “All the guys I date are always the same.” I said, “What do you mean?” She said, “The last five guys I dated all had drinking problems.” I said, “Really? Where do you meet them?” She said, “At the bars!” I said, “Well, if you stop going to Drinkers R Us, then you might find a good man.”

[Now completely facing the audience] You know what the key to her situation is? If she wants to keep getting what she’s getting, she should keep doing what she’s doing. Ladies and gentlemen [I step forward to make my point] if you ever want to change what you are getting, all you have to do is change what you are doing, and most people are not using their gifts!

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The Most Important Part of the Speech!

“Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself.“
—Aristotle

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Want Your Audiences to Remember What You Say? The Importance of Clear Structure

Your message, no matter how important, will not be remembered if you don’t recognize the importance of structure. Here are some practical ideas that can immediately make you more effective.

Your Structure 

Can you write the premise or objective of your talk in one sentence? If not, the chances are that your thinking isn’t clear enough for the audience to understand your purpose. And if you don’t organize your material so the audience can remember it easily, they’ll have a hard time grasping your message. They may be dazzled by your pizzazz and laugh at your stories, but little will stay with them afterwards.

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