Why should a CEO pay attention to a screenwriter?

I have attended many screen writing classes for fun. Not because I want to be a screen writer, but rather to give me insights and ideas for helping my executive clients deliver better presentations. After all Hollywood knows how to emotionally connect with their audience in a way most executives do not.

The class I have repeated several times is Robert McKee’s Story. Also the name of his very good book. Here are a couple of questions from a Harvard Business Review article where they interviewed Mr. McKee.

Why should a CEO or a manager pay attention to a screenwriter?

A big part of a CEO’s job is to motivate people to reach certain goals. To do that, he or she must engage their emotions, and the key to their hearts is story. There are two ways to persuade people. The first is by using conventional rhetoric, which is what most executives are trained in. It’s an intellectual process, and in the business world it usually consists of a PowerPoint slide presentation in which you say, “Here is our company’s biggest challenge, and here is what we need to do to prosper.” And you build your case by giving statistics and facts and quotes from authorities. But there are two problems with rhetoric. First, the people you’re talking to have their own set of authorities, statistics, and experiences. While you’re trying to persuade them, they are arguing with you in their heads. Second, if you do succeed in persuading them, you’ve done so only on an intellectual basis. That’s not good enough, because people are not inspired to act by reason alone.

Essentially, a story expresses how and why life changes.

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How to Market Yourself by Digitally Cloning Yourself

Professional speakers, business coaches, presentation skills coaches, seminar leaders, consultants and entreneurs all have something in common! How do we position ourselves ahead of the competition. We do that when we can help our prospects get to know us in advance of their emails or calls. If you have been to my website fripp.com you know that whatever service you click on small “mini fripps” talk to you one on one about the reason you are searching for a speech coach, keynote speaker, or sales presentation skills trainer. Assuming this is something you would like to investigate for your own business here is an interview with my secret weapon and business adviser Bob Chesney.

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Sound Intelligent in Your Executive Communications Skills

On TV’s The Office, Creed challenges Michael’s grammar: “Michael, he wasn’t inferring, he was implying. You were inferring.”

Infer and imply are often confused, but in this case Michael was technically correct. He was doing both, first inferring something and then implying it. He could hardly imply something that he didn’t know or hadn’t thought about.

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Making Your Keynote Speech a Hit: Add Hollywood

Five Memorable Moments

Patricia Fripp, Glenna Salsbury, Dee Jolly looking HollywoodIf you want a hit movie, it’s not the advertising; it’s five moments. Your five moments and my five moments might be different. That’s when you walk out of the movie with your friends and you relive the high points. And then you go to work the next day and you say “You’ve got to see this movie…and there’s this scene with…and you’ll know that…and when you think of the hair gel…and you’ve got to see this scene in the restaurant… trust me…you’ve got to go and see this movie.”
It is the advertising and the promotion that gets us to the opening weekend. Hollywood knows even if the movie isn’t good the opening weekend can get their money back. It is the word of mouth that makes a movie a blockbuster success.

If you want your audience to say… “wow, you have to hear this speaker…” or “I hope our sales people represent us as well as that sales team represented their company…”, or “Wow, we really are working for the right company” use Hollywood techniques and makes sure there are five moments in your presentation, the ones that make it memorable.

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How to improve your presentation skills: Notes from PR thoughtleader

Keepers from Patricia Fripp’s Speaking School

Points of wisdom from Patricia Fripp’s Speaking School in no particular order:

• It is better to be consistently good than occasionally great.

• Our goal is to speak to be remembered and repeated. To do that use short sentences, or speak in phrases.
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• Use personal stories.

• A good speech is not a conversation, but a good speech is conversational.

• In a speech we need to be more clear and concise and uses more specific words.
For example: Not “a bunch of business cards” rather “a handful of business cards.”

• To develop content, mine your life for turning points and influences. What do your friends laugh about at the dinner table?
Review your life story, where was the conflict?

What was your decision? What did you discover? (Max Dixon’s advice)

• To emotionally connect with your audience don’t say, “I’m going to tell you.” Instead say, “You are going to learn.” Or “You will hear.” Or “You will experience.”

• Use specific words because they create pictures in a person’s mind and makes you sound more intelligent and well educated.

• Before you close review your presentation by asking a rhetorical question that relates to your central theme or what Patricia calls your premise.

• Within the presentation ask audience to summarize what ideas they have learned or been reminded of. This is called “an internal review.”

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Want to Make Your Webinars More Exciting?

Be creative. Think Hollywood! Tell stories and give examples as you go through your program, the same way you would in person. However, your Webinar needs more visuals to help engage the audience. Use more slides than with an in-person presentation. Add bullet points one at a time as you “build.” Don’t present a list of all your points before you discuss them. Keep it simple, keep it moving, and interact often.

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