Executive Speech Coach NJ - Sims Wyeth » speech coach

Short Public Speech on Health Insurance Rhetoric

simswnj — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 22:27:13 +0000

On the Senate floor, Judd Gregg compared health care reform to not only a “huge asteroid,” but a huge asteroid that will “land on our children’s heads.”

“Tyranny” and “socialism” are the buzz words of the day. States are filing lawsuits because they believe the requirement that individuals carry health insurance infringes on constitutionally guaranteed liberties.

These are emotional arguments. They inflame the already throbbing belief systems of some of our fellow citizens.

If our friends and neighbors had the patience to reflect on these claims—that our children will be squashed by debt, and that our political freedoms have been curtailed—they might think twice before putting on their hats and coats and going out for tea.

Yes, we are in debt. What portion of it comes from health care? And what portion of it comes from razing and rebuilding a nation in Mesopotamia? Does health care reform add to our debt or reduce it in the long term?

Can we do the research and get the answers to these questions before we start shooting life-threatening emails and bullets into the offices of elected representatives?

Is the requirement to carry health insurance worthy of the label, “tyranny?” What about the requirement to carry automobile insurance? Is that tyranny? Or the requirements that we drive on the right side of the road, or obey the speed limits?

No, these don’t amount to tyranny. While these laws do limit our freedom of choice, we give up these lesser freedoms to preserve our own safety, and the safety of others.

And living without health insurance? Is that such a great freedom? If it is, it’s a freedom we should agree to give up for the same reason—the safety, security and well being of our American society.

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.

Public Speaking Tips: Familiarity breeds affection

simswnj — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:29:06 +0000

Robert Zajonc (pronounced ZYE-unts) was an American social scientist who explored the interplay between feeling and thought—between emotion and cognition.

He was interested in determining which influenced the other more strongly. On balance, he came down on the side of emotion.

He was best known for establishing what he called “the mere exposure” effect. In this experiment, he showed subjects a series of random shapes in rapid succession—so rapid that they could not possibly tell if any were repeated.

When subjects were later asked which shapes they found most pleasing, they reliably chose the ones to which they had been exposed the most often, though they had no conscious awareness of the fact.

Familiarity, in other words, breeds a kind of affection, an established truth that has, ever since, encouraged advertisers to repeat themselves.

Speakers can do the same. Find a phrase, an image, or a single word to weave throughout your talk.

“I have a dream,” is such a phrase. “Of the people, by the people, for the people,” is another. And the current American President, Mr. Obama, has been repeating the word, “Responsibility,” perhaps to defuse the charge that he’s bailing out reckless banks and irresponsible people.

“Every word uttered strikes a note on the key board of the imagination,” said Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Choose the words or phrases to repeat so that your audience will remember your message with affection.

Overcoming Speaking Anxiety: Step into your stage fright

simswnj — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:16:13 +0000

The sensation of stage fright is bad enough, but what’s worse is the damage it can do to your career and your self-esteem.

If you let it stop you, your sense of self gets smaller and your stage fright gets bigger and more powerful.

However, when you step into your stage fright, you learn quickly that it’s a phantom–a fog—like most of our fears. When you step into that fog, you soon realize that it is a figment of your imagination—and that your effort to cut through it can easily succeed.

Here is a pep talk, courtesy of Theodore Roosevelt, who knew something about courage and determination.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

Presentation Skills: Use emotional arguments

simswnj — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:25:09 +0000

Reason makes us think, but emotion makes us act. So how can we build emotional arguments into our presentations?

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.

Voice and Speech Training

simswnj — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:18:45 +0000

Henry Higgins was right. The moment we open our mouths to speak, people judge us. If we have New York accents, we get stereotyped. If we speak with a southern drawl, same thing, different stereotype. And if we speak like a professor, I would bet that many people avoid us like the plague.

Of course, we can overcome these stereotypes with the positive qualities of our character. We can sound like Tony Soprano and act like Mr. Rogers. But the lingering effect of the stereotype remains.

In our practice at Sims Wyeth & Co. we are asked to improve the voice and speech of employees whose are having trouble being heard. This takes several different forms.

First, there are those who have difficulty getting to the point. This is most likely a thinking problem and a habit with obscure roots, not a voice and speech problem.

Then there are those who speak English as a second language. We are a country of immigrants, but when 12 individuals in one department come from 10 different countries, there are many accents and many sets of ears trying to listen to many different pronunciations of English. If the conversations are crucial to strategic business issues, it’s a problem.

Then we have some good old American mumblers. These people need to learn how to use their articulators.

And then there are fast talkers, slow talkers, close talkers, soft talkers, and too-loud talkers. And up-talkers, nose-talkers, and talkers who sound like they have marbles in their mouths.

Presentation Skills: I Hate the Elevator Speech

simswnj — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:40:38 +0000

Browsing the web recently, I ran into a video teaching the purpose and structure of 3-minute elevator speeches.

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.

Voice and Speech Training: The Most Human Instrument

simswnj — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:42:35 +0000

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.

Presentation Skills: Acceptance Speech Tips

simswnj — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:28:57 +0000

Thank Your Wife

My father and I graduated from the same high school, 25 years apart. This past weekend we went to our reunion and watched as one of Dad’s classmates won the lifetime achievement award for his work in cancer research.

The winner was a distinguished gent, a good friend of my father, and a slow, but charming speaker. He told funny stories of his time at the school, and only at the end did he mention his work.

I happen to know, thanks to Dad, that the prize winner’s wife has been a a tower of strength over the years, but he never mentioned her as he recounted the story of his career. There she was, sitting in the front row, but not a single acknowledgment came her way.

The speech was largely well-received, and I certainly enjoyed the stories, but it would have been even better if it had included a gracious and loving tip of the hat to his spouse of sixty-odd years.

Such a remark would have alerted the audience that she was present in the hall, and would have made the remarkable accomplishments of the speaker’s professional life even more salient by drawing attention to his personal graciousness and private character.

Business Presentations: Stay Positive

simswnj — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:16:15 +0000

What do you do when your product is losing share to a new competitor and it’s time to present the annual marketing plan?

Stay positive! Acknowledge the challenges and the implication, but do so in a matter of fact manner, and move quickly to your proposed solution.

Even if you have a snowball’s chance in hell of recovering your market share, put together a plan that could work if everything were to break in your favor.

And demonstrate commitment in your choice of words, your posture, and your tone of voice. Everyone knows it’s a bad situation before you begin, so you must demonstrate belief in the possibility–however small–of success.

We are not rewarded in business for dragging problems into the board room and dumping them on the table in front of senior people. We are rewarded for being crystal clear about the situation, and giving them the best option you and your team can devise.

You are the captain of your brand. There is no honor in leaving the ship while it sinks. Your job is to fight to the end. The brand may go down, but you will be remembered for your determination and optimism in the face of dire odds.

Sales Presentations: Susan Boyle

simswnj — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:42:26 +0000

If a Susan Boyle look-alike stood in front of the Board Rooms that I’m familiar with, she would have been exposed to the same ridicule and condescension she experienced at her televised audition which I just saw on You Tube.

It would have been politely concealed, but the corporate elite occupying the seats around the table would have fidgeted on their leather cushions.

The video made me cry, especially when the judges finally gave voice to what I was feeling, although I thought the complete version on You Tube was incredibly cynical and manipulative. (I’ve linked to it, above.)

It made me cry because Ms. Boyle seemed to take it in stride that everyone spoke to her as though she were the village idiot.

Why is it that a middle-aged woman without a figure or a chic wardrobe is an object of ridicule?

In this youth-obsessed, status craving, competitive world, she took the stage with no apparent ammunition, until she opened her mouth. And suddenly we learned she had nerves of steel, talent, and a depth of humanity that made her seem more powerful than all the glitzy show-offs, and we all felt like idiots.

Which means we’re not really idiots, because when we see or hear something profoundly beautiful, we acknowledge it, and shake our heads at our own folly.

“Deep down, we’re all shallow,” said Oscar Wilde. I have to disagree.

I’d say we’re shallow until we witness something deep, like Susan Boyle’s talent, and then we are moved out of our shallowness, and into appreciation.