In his entertaining memoir Speech*Less, speech writer Matt Latimer reveals something about the speeches developed for President G.W. Bush.  By the way, he was one of the speech writers.

‘I quickly discovered the answer to a question I’d been asked by people since I’d arrived at the White House:  why did the President’s speeches always seem to be so bad?  It turned out it was intentional.  On my very first day, Bill McGurn and Marc Thiessen both told me that the president was “okay” with a flat speech.  All he cared about was logic and organization, not eloquence.  As a student at Yale, the President had learned that all speeches should have an introduction, three points, a peroration, and a conclusion.  I didn’t even know what a peroration was.  The president wasn’t as insanely rigid about this approach, though, as Bill and the other writers thought he was. I’d read many of his finer speeches in his first term, and they rarely followed this pattern.  But pushing the President to like a speech that was written differently was too risky.  The writers all lived in fear that he’d blow up at them, which on occasion he’d been known to do.  So in the quest for rigid logic—point A to point B to point C to conclusion—language that satisfied the President in one speech would be cut and pasted into the next speech and then the next.’

Matt decides that, since he didn’t go to Yale but rather attended the University of Michigan, he was not obliged to follow the routine.

The Bush Doctrine of speech writing sounds suspiciously like the models I’ve seen being peddled to the business community.

Having a model is good, because it saves time and helps you think about structure.  But slavish devotion to models creates M&M: monotony and mediocrity.

Look for a way to use your model as a spring board to create an EXPERIENCE for your listeners.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

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The Wick Smith Approach is based on the four elements in an ad:

The Headline, The Image, The Body Copy, The Logo

Each one has a role to play, and each viewer will have his or her own preference as to which is most important.

The Headline is the big idea or the claim being made by the ad. People who like the big picture and avoid the details prefer to read the headline.  Since people make decisions out of fear or desire, a headline should target one of those emotions.

The Image appeals to the visual thinker. The Image could evoke a problem that needs to be solved, or an aspiration that the viewer has. Either one stimulates the emotions and moves the viewer to action.

The Body Copy is meant to give the reader reasons to buy—some would even say “permission” to buy. For instance, expensive chocolate companies often compose body copy trying to convince prospects that they are “worth it,” and deserve a little luxury in their lives.

Finally, the Logo is meant to build the relationship. It is the identity of the company, and therefore the sign of trust and reliability, or perhaps of excitement (Ferrari) or innovation (Apple), or perhaps luxury (Tiffany).

Speeches and presentations need all four of these elements.

First, the Headline. The speaker should be able to articulate the Headline, or premise of the talk, in one simple sentence. For instance, “Everyone can become a better speaker,” is the premise of this blog (and this article.)

PowerPoint should be used to supply visuals to support the spoken word, or if the speaker chooses to NOT USE POWERPOINT, he can tell stories or use metaphors and analogies to paint pictures in the mind of the listeners.

In a presentation, Body Copy is the proof you marshall under your claims. Each slide should have a Headline that makes a claim, and the imagery or data on the slide should supply the evidence that the headline is a valid conclusion.

It is ill-advised to put body copy on a slide because it is hard for the audience to read slides and listen at the same time.

Much better to put dramatic imagery on your slides and put the detailed narrative in the notes section of the PowerPoint page.

Finally,  in a presentation, the Logo is YOU. You are not a corporation. You are a person, and your behaviors and look should be consistent with the message you strive to impart.

Furthermore, the presentation should be all about the audience, not all about how cool you, your company, product, or ideas are. So, in a sales presentation, I suggest that you remove your company Logo from all your slides except the title slide.  Instead, put your prospect’s Logo on the slides.

Conclusion: Good ads persuade us to buy through four channels of communication:

1.  The claim,  generalization, or summary headline

2.  The details and evidence to prove that the headline is true and valid

3.  An image that enables us to feel the benefit of the offering

4.  A logo, or a branded source of information, that strives to earn our trust in the argument being made.

Speeches and presentations have similar elements: Key take-aways! Data, facts and other forms of proof (such as stories) that justify the key-takeaways! And Imagery on the slides or created in the mind of the audience by the speaker telling vivid stories!

And then there is you, the speaker, the source of the information. Your comfort, confidence and ease on stage help you generate the willing suspension of disbelief amongst your listeners, which allows them to take a chance on you and your idea.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills andpublic speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

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What are those rules?  One of them is that the human mind is drawn to problems, puzzles, and mysteries.

Rather than seeking to capture the attention of the audience by making a case for the puzzling mystery of the topic at hand, most scientific and technical speakers simply begin with their objectives, methods and data.

This may be admirable science in some circles, but it is not effective communication because it fails to provide the context for the content.

Effective communication seeks to gather the attention of an audience by igniting curiosity and emotion, and only when it has done so can it pull the many human minds present in the same direction.

For instance, let’s say a locomotive is backing up to hook onto a long train of railroad cars.  If it fails to connect, it cannot pull the train forward.

A speaker who does not connect with an audience has the same problem:  He cannot pull his listeners forward unless he has somehow gotten his hook into them.

To sink the hook, a scientific or technical speaker must leave the narrow realm of his expertise and put it into broader context.  He must make a case for the importance of the problem he is working on, or for the maddening slipperiness of the always- receding solution he seeks.

This is the skill of the storyteller, the weaver of tales, the painter of pictures that draws us in—deeper and deeper.  This is the skill of the dramatist, whose opening scene makes us want to stay tuned, and whose subsequent scenes keep us asking the question, “Where’s this going?  What’s going to happen? “

A doctor, researcher, or engineer can improve her outcomes by applying the scientifically established principles of communication.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

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Set the tone

We the people perform best in a “high energy, low tension” environment.  Your advisors are people, so create energy and relaxation at the start.

This means that before you get to the serious issues surrounding your compound in development, rearrange their internal molecules by getting them to smile, laugh, interact, or do something unexpected.

For instance, I recently attended a symposium on American poetry where, at the start, the host sang a ridiculous song about Cape May, NJ, the site of our meeting, and encouraged us to sing along with him.

When we finished, our fearless leader said, “If I can sing in front of 200 people, you can certainly express your opinions with vigor at this meeting.  I urge you to take chances.”

You may think such an approach is not appropriate for you or your situation.  However, consider this:  we laughed, we breathed deeply, we relaxed, we connected with our facilitator and each other, and I recall the meeting with fondness.

Ask yourself:  Do your advisors feel the same way about your meetings?

Lay the ground work

Now comes the housekeeping—the objectives, agenda, and ground rules.  If a list of all attendees is in front of each person, complete with bio and CV, skip the usual personal introductions and ask them to tell the group something about themselves that the group can’t read on the paper.

I’ve had success asking people in our workshops to speak about pet peeves, pet passions, or to tell a story about a time in their lives when they “should’a been dead.”  Everyone’s got one of those stories.

PS.  You might even do the “should’a been dead,” exercise instead of asking them to sing.

PSS. Yes, your audience is time-pressed, content-driven, and results-oriented.  But so are you, and the results you want include a relaxed, honest, and spirited group.

Poke them in the brain

Now we’re getting serious.  What makes people think is a really interesting question, or a puzzle—a problem that needs to be solved.

Think about the most popular shows on TV:  House or Law and Order.  They start with a problem that needs to be solved.

Frame the discussion around a problem. Make it sound fascinating and complex.  They’ll start pondering right away.

If the group has met before, than recap briefly what transpired previously, and then proceed to re-frame the remaining questions or problems that need to be solved.

Ask precise questions

We all know that the way questions are phrased determines the answers we get.

For example, two priests who, being unsure if it was permissible to smoke and pray at the same time, wrote to the Pope for a definitive answer.  One priest phrased the question, ‘Is it permissible to smoke while praying?’ and was told it is not, since prayer should be the focus of one’s whole attention; the other priest asked if it is permissible to pray while smoking and was told that it is, since it is always permissible to pray.

Be careful how you phrase questions.

Now that you’ve brought them together, laid the ground rules, framed the topic in an interesting way, and introduced your well-phrased questions, let’s look at the importance of sequencing.

Sequence questions

Sequencing questions is like constructing a good survey instrument.  You have to anticipate what the possible answers might be, and then generate a unique follow-up question, or a whole branch of questioning, for each possible outcome.

It could be instructive to frame a single question as a Yes/No, then as a multiple choice, and finally as an open question.  This would be especially interesting if you had an electronic audience voting or tally system on hand.

For instance, “In the design of this protocol, do you think investigators will be able to determine which patients are on therapy (vs. placebo) because of side-effects?  Yes or No.”

Following the answers being tallied on the screen, you could ask individuals on each side to explain their choice.

Then, you could put up this question: “Investigators will be able to determine which patients are on active therapy and which are on placebo.  Very likely.   Not likely.  Highly unlikely.   Impossible.”

Again, you could ask them to explain their votes.

Or, you could ask them this open question:  “What are your thoughts around the issue of investigators being able to ID patients on active therapy vs. placebo by observing side-effects?”

Finally, you could ask them: “To what extent will this issue influence the credibility of the data with the regulatory authorities?”

If your advisors begin to change their opinions when they consider the due diligence of regulators, you may have your answer.  Actual bias, and the perception of bias in a protocol, can result in the same outcome.

Take breaks

Nice long ones, with food and coffee and access to sunlight. Maybe even some brief calisthenics and some lively music.  Mens sana in corpore sano.  (A healthy mind in a healthy body!)

Also, they hunger for their cell phones.

Display the questions

This may be obvious, but you should have your well-phrased and sequenced questions displayed on the screen, so that everyone can remember what the question is.

Listen to their answers

Listen.  Don’t pretend to listen.  Really listen to what they say.  Ask follow up questions for clarification.  Point out inconsistencies between contributors.  Or ask someone else what he or she thinks about what was just said.

I find it gratifying when, after I have spoken, the facilitator or another advisor summarizes what I said, as if to make sure he got it right.

If as the facilitator you space out, say so.  If you think they’re wandering off the subject but you’re not sure, say so.  And if you’re sure they’re off the subject, stop them firmly.

They want a strong leader who will ensure the meeting is orderly, energized, and successful.

Watch them like a hawk.  Pounce on them when they roll their eyes, or scrunch their mouths.  They’re trying to signal something.  Ask them what’s going on.

And don’t let a highly influential advisor dominate the meeting.  Be the boss.  Tell them that you want to hear from everyone.  Call on the less experienced, the junior members.  Compliment them on their contributions.  Sprinkle your approval around the table wisely, and your disapproval as well.  You are, more than likely, herding cats.

They will appreciate strong, diplomatic leadership.

Use names

Nothing is as sweet to us as the sound of our own names. And nothing makes a meeting better, in the eyes of an attendee, as having been acknowledged as a valuable contributor.

When referring to something said earlier, include the speaker’s name.  You might say, “But as Dorcas said earlier, time to progression is not an end-point.”  When you do, a little pilot light in Dorcas’ chest will ignite her self-esteem.

And she will be grateful.

Summarize

To talk much and arrive nowhere is the same as climbing a tree to catch a fish.  Summarize the journey that the group has taken.

Do it alone with your prodigious recall of the entire conversation.  Or engage the group in reconstructing where the conversation started and where it ended.

Or take a mini-break before you wrap up, and have a colleague (who has been acting as the secretary and note-taker of the meeting) present the record, or review it and present it yourself.

Gain the approval of the advisors that what you have captured is accurate.  Promise them a copy of it in the mail.

Plan next steps.

Thank them and say good-bye.

Follow up with a personal letter, or a phone call.  Get more feedback.

Be endlessly curious.  Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it has preserved the life of many compounds in development.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

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When I was in college, I drove a truck full of modern art from a New York gallery to a museum in Tennessee.  It was October.  The World Series was on the radio. My team, the Mets, were playing, and the signal was irregular and full of static.

It was raining.  It was dark. I was on a two-lane mountain road. I had to deliver the paintings by morning. The windshield washers could not keep up with the downpour.  The road was twisting and I was fiddling with the radio dial desperately trying to tune in through the static to hear how my Mets were doing.

I was an audience of one in the cab of that rented Hertz truck, fighting to hear the signal through the noise.  And I don’t think I’m reaching too far for a simile to say that our audiences are in a similar position when they listen to our presentations.

Our audiences are on a mission to achieve their business objectives.  The market is dark and unpredictable.  The staff cannot keep up with the constant demands.  Our listeners worry about hitting their numbers, managing the budget, and positioning themselves for a promotion.  Plus, their tummies might be rumbling with hunger, or their kids are home alone and they’re worried.

They try to tune in to what we’re saying, but it’s hard.  We may take too long getting to the point.  They get bored or frustrated. 

We may start talking about ourselves, or our product, or our company, and fail to relate the information to what they care about.

They will have to fight through the noise of our talk to hear the information that they care about.  And they only care about information because they have an emotional interest in what it could mean to them.

Does the information you offer make them more successful at their job?  Is it simple and clear?  Does it solve a problem?  Does it save them time, or help them make more money?  Does it make them feel more secure, or less uncertain?  And could it make them look good in the eyes of others?

These are the signals that most of us want to hear.  Your job as a presenter is to boost your signal to noise ratio. 

Do so, and you will make more money, be more successful, reduce your anxiety, and look good in the eyes of the world.

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When we consult Maslow’s Theory, we learn that people have a hierarchy of needs.  At the bottom of the pyramid are physiological needs—the need for air, water, food and excretion.  Most business arguments cannot invoke these as rewards for compliance, or as punishments to be feared if the listener fails to do what the speaker suggests.

Next up on the list are the emotional needs for safety. These include the needs for security of body, employment, and property.  Politicians often claim that certain ideas, programs or “isms” threaten our security.  Healthcare companies appeal to our deep need for well-being.  And business arguments can invoke the loss (and the possible increase) of employment security as emotional reasons to endorse a particular initiative.

The need for love in the business world is the need for social connections and a sense of belonging.  Since we spend more hours with our colleagues at work than we do with our families, this need provides a strong lever for a business speaker seeking to sway an audience.

The workplace is even more significant for us as a forum in which we can earn distinction and status.  Our need for esteem is profound, both self-esteem and the need to be respected and acknowledged by our peers.  It is often said that pay is not the greatest motivator.  The greatest motivator is recognition and acknowledgement.

If we are lucky enough to satisfy all the needs mentioned above, then we will work for self-actualization. This will include our desire to make a difference, to develop our deepest human abilities for feeling, imagination, caring, and spontaneity.  It seems that Apple Computer and Google have marketed themselves as employers where self-actualization is possible—where creativity and “changing the world” are part of the business culture.

All persuasive arguments have an emotional component.   But it requires a deft touch.  If you overplay your point, you lose credibility.  Subtlety and indirectness are essential.

For instance, you cannot say,  “You are a small and vulnerable outsider dealing with a vast, deceptive insurance industry.  Work with us.  We’re friendly.”

Much better to hire a little talking gecko with an Australian accent and get him to personify your company.  He’ll reduce your audience’s anxiety, and build customer loyalty, even while he’s making a simple rational argument that he can save you money.

Sims Wyeth is a private speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in executive speech coaching and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

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I am a font.  I’m Copperplate31ab.

You’re a font—Southbee Two. 

I am elegant and stately—I live on wedding invitations.

You are playful and informal.  You live beside railroad tracks, and on those rock walls along two-lane roads.  High-school Romeos proclaim their love with you.

I win points for being subtle and intellectual. 

You get points for being real and authentic.

I get points for balance and restraint.

You get points for telling it like it is.

I get penalized for being professorial and aloof. 

You get penalized for being overly simplistic and intemperate.

I can succeed in places that you can’t, and you can win the war of words where I can’t even gain entrance.

I am a font—Copperplate31ab.  I grew up in Hawaii and California.  My father was from Africa, my mother from Kansas. 

You are a font—Southbee Two.  You grew up at Andover and Yale, and maybe a little in the White House.

How come I’m Copperplate? I should be Southbee.

And how did you get to be Southbee? You should be Copperplate.

We should stop trying to be the fonts we want to be, and start being the fonts we are.

Sims Wyeth is a private speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in executive speech coaching and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

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The advice was sound for structuring a formal talk, but I couldn’t conceive of an elevator speech lasting three minutes.

I could see an elevator dialogue being three minutes long, but not an elevator speech!

Three minutes in an elevator listening to someone trying to sell me on her business sounds like an eternity.  Three minutes at the water cooler would be half an eternity. And three minutes at a networking event would be long enough to make me look for the guy passing the little crab cakes. 

We all recognize the increasing value of brevity and concision, but three minutes does not feel brief and concise in an elevator, or any other social or public setting.  

I recommend an elevator dialogue that starts with an elevator question.

How about this for a starter after you’ve rubbed elbows with (and introduced yourself to) a VP of Marketing.  You ask each other questions, he finds out you’re an expert in the principles and practices of persuasion, and then you ask him if you can give him your value proposition.

“How long is it?” he’s bound to ask.  If you say three minutes, you’re dead in the water. 

You say, “Short,” and begin. 

“What is the value of your Brand Directors being able to make their plans clear and exciting to the organization?”

The answer should be, ” Uh…that’s important.”

You say, “Why is it important?”

And he says, “Because it saves time and money, reduces indecision, and gets the whole machine humming — it improves the vitality and energy of corporate life.”

Then you ask, “How are your Brand Director’s doing?”

He says, “Okay.”

“What if they were doing great?  What if you could take time and cost out of the marketing process, and at the same time electrify the brand teams?”

He might look at you a little skeptically at that point, but admire you for your enthusiasm.

“I’m not sure that’s possible,” he might say.

And you, taking the bull by the horns, say, “Listen.  Every day, information is sneaking off to make babies with other information.  The world is overrun with information, and it’s only getting worse.  The most valuable thing on this planet is a person who can create a sense of clarity and alignment out of the tsunami of information that demands our attention.  The ability to communicate well is a hard corporate asset masquerading as a soft skill.  It’s the ultimate competitive weapon.  And that weapon can only be developed through training.”

He looks at you, and says, “You really believe this, don’t you?”

You say, “Yes, I do.  I’d like to schedule an appointment with you to show you how my company can save you time, money, and frustration, and give you the one competitive advantage that is hard to replicate overnight.”

And more than likely, he’ll say, “Okay, give my assistant a call and get it on the books.”

How long was that?  A minute and 10 seconds.  And it wasn’t a monologue.  Yes, it had a speechy part, but it was based on asking questions, listening, and asking follow up questions.  And only once, when he tried to dismiss the argument, did you get on your high horse and get salesy. 

The world has hype-fatigue.  Engage in dialogue.  Don’t make speeches in elevators.

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Everywhere on earth man is born with a voice able to rouse households from their slumbers.

And everywhere in business, he struggles to keep his listeners attentive to his presentations.

Vocal power

We underestimate the importance of the human voice and we do so at our peril. 

Surgeons are more likely to be sued when their tone is too authoritative.  Air traffic control is more apt to keep planes in fatally prolonged holding patterns when pilots request permission to land without expressing urgency. And business presenters, who may be dealing with dry material, are doomed to lose listeners if they cannot set their reasoning on fire with passion and conviction.

Reason with passion

Of course, too much passion may lack credibility, but business presenters would do well to communicate excitement! I often hear from clients that they can’t express excitement because the material is so dry.  And I reply that the drier the material, the greater the need to make it relevant and appealing to the audience.

Think of a pair of scissors.  One blade is reason, the other is passion.  In a good presentation, it is hard to know which blade does the cutting.

The voice that lost the client

One of my first clients was the consulting arm of KPMG now known as BearingPoint.  When they called me, the firm had  lost a major sale because, they were told, the presenters had sounded bored.  The prospect did not want to hire a firm that was not excited about the engagement.   They wanted me to help, and here’s what I did.

Human bag-pipe

The first thing I did was teach them to breathe properly-by filling the lungs and then contracting the  abdominal muscles to drive the breath up and out to strike the vocal cords with force and thus create a full sound.

Sound making for humans is the same as it is for bag pipes.  Pipers fill their goat skins (their bags) with air, and then squeeze the skins to release the air to produce sound.  Same with people-sort of.

We fill our lungs with air, then squeeze our lungs with our lower abdominal and intercostal muscles (those between the ribs) to push out the air and create vibrations in our vocal cords which produce speech.

However, if we don’t take in enough air, or we don’t use our muscles properly, we won’t have enough energy to make our voices rich and powerful.

Uncork the bottle neck

Next I had to uncork the bottle neck.  It’s amazing how many people try to talk without really opening their mouths and throats.  In order to teach this basic skill,  I introduced the yawning exercise, which stimulates the throat to open wide, and the “Floppy Jaw” exercise, which teaches how to open the mouth all the way for each and every syllable spoken.  Both these exercises made the consultants sound like morons, which is very upsetting for people who are 1000% invested in appearing to be highly intelligent.  But the experience reminded them that “to speak is to make a noise,” and noise, like music, has emotional qualities.

“You won’t believe it!”

Then, I modeled the “You won’t believe it,” exercise.  I asked each of them, one at a time, to cup their hands around their lips and call out across the Grand Canyon to their friend Joe.

“Hey, Joe!  You won’t believe it!  I found the most amazing thing!  You gotta get over here to see this!”

“What is it?” Joe yells back.

Here I would coach and say, “More excited!  More amazed! More buzzing with energy!”

The exuberant, long-distance dialogue would continue.

“I found the most amazing consulting firm.  They have this process designed to streamline the financial systems of global companies.  It’s amazing!”

“All right, I’m coming,” Joe yells.

At first, clients struggle with the exercise, but soon they get the picture.  They realize that a significant portion of their emotional impact on others depends on their verbal and vocal expressiveness.

Phone charisma

Most of us think that charisma-that magical appeal that some people exude-has something to do with beauty!   It doesn’t.  It has more to do with communication-the ability to send and receive emotional signals.

It is widely believed that the ability to communicate emotion over the phone, without the support of gestures and facial expressions, is a good indicator of your capacity for charisma.

To explore this, I asked my consultants to team up with a colleague and sit down in separate chairs with their backs to each other, taking turns speaking as though on the phone.

They either improvised a conversation, or used a script like this:

Jack?  This is Jill.  You won’t believe what just happened.  Frank went into Bob’s office and told him he was quitting.  (Listening)  Yes!  Flat out.  He told him everything-that he was sick and tired of Frank’s meddling, that he was tired of being the last one to know, and…(listening) He’s already gone.  He took his coat and left.  Cindy saw him storm out.  He was beet red-I mean crimson!

While each participant took the part of Jack, the other consultants served as Olympic judges.  At the end of each performance they held up papers with scores. The room resounded with lusty cheers for great vocal variety.

On a more technical note

English works best when a change of pitch occurs at every stressed syllable. To address this aspect of vocal expressiveness, I gave them a passage to read aloud . 

Developed in 1941 by a committee from the faculties of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, among others, it describes a vision of a liberally educated person.

The liberally educated man is articulate, both in speech and in writing. He has a feel for language, a respect for clarity and directness of expression, and a knowledge of some language other than his own. He is at home in the world of quantity, number and measurement. He thinks rationally, logically, and objectively, and knows the difference between fact and opinion. When occasion demands, however, his thought is imaginative and creative rather than logical. He is perceptive, sensitive to form, and affected by beauty.

I found that introducing movement techniques helped with identifying speech patterns.  As participants used their hands to “hit” the stressed syllables, they more readily brought emphasis and meaning to the text. 

In addition to using the body to connect to expressiveness, I also asked them to use their imaginations.  Some people responded to the suggestion that they speak like an eccentric British professor.  Once they allowed themselves the freedom, they began to pontificate with greater color and expression.

And there was one consultant who channeled  a pompous Southern Senator.  It helped him to imagine he was stepping inside the skin of the senator, just as a hand fits inside a puppet. You step into the skin of a good-ole-boy Senator from Alabama, and all of a sudden, you’ve got a voice that can raise the rafters.

Caveat speaker

These exercises are meant for practice.  They are stretching exercises for the voice.  Just as dancers extend their legs at the barre,  and pianists practice scales, speakers need  to awaken their most human instrument-the voice.

And if you know someone who thinks this approach  is foolishness, let me give you a few words of advice.

Admittedly, we have fixed traits-such as shyness, perhaps, or an unflappable reserve. But we also have free traits-behaviors that are outside our comfort zones that we can embrace for projects aligned with our deepest values.

For instance, many professors are introverts, but in order to earn a living, they force themselves to give lectures.  And if they want to attract many students, and not have the dean drop their course due to lack of interest, they may even strive to improve their lecturing skills.  Who knows? They may even try to improve the quality of their speaking voice.

These professors choose to act out of character in order to do their jobs well. One definition of courage is acting out of character!

If your mind is sharp but your voice is dull, your ideas may not cut through the clutter.

Your greatest calling card is a pleasing and effective voice.  I urge you to explore your most human instrument.

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However, when you focus on your own needs to tell them everything you know, regardless of their interest, their willingness to listen and respect you as an expert is damaged by–well, too much talking about what’s in your head, and not enough talking about what’s in theirs.

They therefore think less of you. Thus, paradoxically, when you focus on your own needs, you damage your audience and yourself.

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