Our September Pro-Track class linked up with the Northern California Chapter in a banger of a meeting with over 100 attendees. As Chapter President Scott Q. Marcus noted, “Organizing one of these events is a little like making sausages, enjoyable to experience, but you really don’t want to know what went into putting it together”. As for the meeting, so for a speech.

Indeed. Now I’m a Board Member, I was privy to some of the logostics involved in bringing together the outsized ego’s who presented today. But, unlike other Boards in Northern California, the NSA Board is 100% leak-proof, so any discussion remains firmly off the record.

The day began with ten concurrent ‘Meet the Pros’ sessions, where experts in the field of public speaking shared words of wisdom for 20 minutes. We could attend any two of the sessions.

Victoria Squier Professional Speaker Coaching

Victoria is on the staff of Speakeasy Inc. I’ve taken their outstanding delivery classes from Throckmorton Theatre owner Danny Slomoff. Speakeasy Inc are in my mind the best of the companies serving corporate executives in need of developing a more powerful presence on the platform or in one-on-one communications. Speaking with authority is achieved with small changes to posture and by practicing the simple technique of pausing. Connecting with the audience increases the impact of your communication.

Ed Brodow Acting Techniques for Speakers

Ed’s public speaking skills spring from his creative side — as a professional actor. A veteran member of Screen Actors Guild, he is often recognized from his many starring roles in feature films, made-for-TV movies, a soap opera, and commercials. He won the lead in the European film Jackpot, and appeared opposite Jessica Lange (Frances), Ron Howard (Fire on the Mountain), Christopher Reeve (Love of Life), and other Hollywood luminaries.

His niche as a professional speaker is training audiences on negotiation skills.

His books include Negotiation Boot Camp and Beating the Success Trap: Negotiating for the Life You Really Want and the Rewards You Deserve .

The secret of great speakers is their ability to connect with the audience by telling great stories. The acting techniques which speakers can use include:

Personalization - bringing aspects of yourself into a speech. Instead of memorizing a script or relying on PowerPoint bullet points as prompts, simply share experiences with the audience. As you re-live experiences you’ll easily be able to visualize them in your head. Personalization is the actor’s secret for being real. You’ll have no lines to forget. You’ll get the audience involved. And people remember stories.

Improvisation - allows you to relate great stories to your speech points. Improvise to develop aspects of your story for a specific audience and play with the content. Practicing a scripted speech with improvisation words allows a speaker to discover the language and mode of delivery that feels most comfortable.

Drive - is the objective and point of view of your speech. It’s the call to action or belief you’ll want to share with the audience.

If you are nervous and uptight before speaking then channel this energy by concentrating on the details which will make the speech work. Remember, you can punch-up the opening of a speech by starting your story in the middle “I was stuck in the elevator with the bellman and the guy in the chimpanzee suit when I suddenly remembered the reason I don’t like visiting Cleveland in December…”. However, before ending the speech the stories you tell must have been brought to closure and the reason you told them made clear to the audience.

Ric Giardina Polishing Your Performance

Ric had tutored Pro-Trackers back in March when he spoke on how to sell yourself to the Corporate market. This afternoon he spoke on “performance” - meaning the sytems that professional speakers need to have in place to support their business.

He strongly recommends watching the DVD of the movie The Secret to understand the Law of Attraction: whatever you are thinking about you’ll get more of. So focus on what you do well, not what is dysfunctional. In being aware of your thoughts you can create a new reality for youself and transmit this to others. Avatar Adi Da Samraj has clearly stated that you become what you meditate on:

Everyone transmits. All of you are transmitters. You reinforce these limitations in one another and you transmit them to one another. Each one of you emits invisible forces that are locked up in limited messages that reinforce the same limitations in others.

Professional speakers with a modicium of realization about their topic can transmit new information to an audience to break down their limitations. To do this effectively requires you start doing something differently:

If we don’t change direction soon, we’ll end up where we’re going.

Ric’s Top 10 things to do as you take your speaking career to the next level are:

1. Be Yourself - be consistent on and off the platform.

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is You’re than You.

2. Be Flexible - Don’t just imitate other speakers.

3. Keep Your Agreements - remember the Golden Rule.

4. Under-promise and Over-deliver - surprise conference organizers.

5. Customize, Customize, and then Customize some more - use just-in-time techniques to deliver customized communications every step of the way. Arrive early before a speech, mingle with audience, find what’s on their minds and work their issues into your speech via improvisation.

6. Keep track of everything - notes in Outlook and your other online systems help you to keep these logistical agreements.

7. Manage you client - people have a lot on their plate. Double-check so there will be no misunderstandings.

8. Don’t be a Prima Donna - you role is to make the client look good.

9. Send thank you cards, notes, letters, email and gifts - Ric has a small folder of note cards for penning thank you’s on his flight home. Source interesting and unique gifts that fit with your brand. Ric’s a rock-solid guy who has this Sonoma County outfit carve custom messages.

10. Make ‘Long Term Relationships’ your mantra - Use electronic newsletters, blogs and other techniques to keep your name fresh with booking agents and clients.

Patricia Fripp Good to Great Performance Techniques

Sister of King Crimson founding guitarist Robert Fripp, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is one of the NSA’s most successful speakers. She spent three hours sharing the secrets of her success. Many more of her suggestions are online here. I highly recommend reading her many articles and checking out her DVD’s and CD’s for professional speakers.

Fripp used a one-page speech planning template to walk us though the steps of effective speech writing and content creation. It was wonderful, appropriate, unforgettable, sanguine.

Start with a strong opening: a story, quote or interesting statistic captivates, mystifies, and create an emotional bond that keeps an audience in the palm of the speaker’s hand. Script, rehearse, transcribe and edit the opening so that each and every word adds impact. Use picture words that the audience can “see”. Make sure your opening answers unspoken questions about the “How” and the “Why” of your topic. Then answer these questions with your main points of wisdom in the body of your speech with examples and stories.

In planning a speech be absolutely sure you can state the premise in one sentence. A strong premise leads to clear thinking and a strong outline.

Make sure the “I-You” ratio of words is heavily weighted to “You” - to the audience, to what’s in it for them? Focus on the receiver of the message, on the audience needs (that you would’ve found out if, as Ric and Fripp both suggest, you arrive early, schmooze often).

Hollywood screenwriter Robert McKee says Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.
Stories are key to emotionally connecting with an audience. Fripp has taken screenwriting classes to learn Hollywood’s secrets to writing compelling story scripts. A speech relies far more on the screenplay (written for the ear) than the novel (written for the eye). Speechwriters: always read your words aloud before sending to your client! The more specific the story details the clearer the audience will grasp the situation, solution to the dilemma and successful outcome. And the more they will remember.

The secret of an effective close? First, summarize the key elements of the speech. If you’re planning to take questions from the audience, say, “Before my closing remarks, are there any questions.” Answer them then.

The last thirty seconds of your speech must send people out energized and fulfilled. Finish your talk with something inspirational that supports your theme.

Fripp closed the afternoon with some revealing one-on-one speech coaching where her expertise was apparent in the way she took presenters apart and put them back together again. Her executive coaching skills are second to none.

At the end of the day I felt like I knew more about the sausage, from the inside out.