The title of this article is the same as a famous book by Richard Bayan that is used by marketing professionals around the world. As I was looking through it the other day I realized that the same kinds of words could be used in public speaking to get the same kinds of effects.
We want to sell our ideas don’t we? We want to increase our credibility don’t we? We want to move people to action don’t we? These are all the things that good advertising copywriters try to do in print with their words. Judiciously using the phrases in this book will give you a more scientific way to accomplish the goals of your speech. You will have specific words and word phrases to pick from to get a particular response from the audience.
Example: Let’s say you are telling the audience about a good resource that you want them to check out. You want to persuade them to seek it out and take advantage of it. You might turn to the “Words that Sell” book and go to the “Informative” section. There you would find words and word phrases that mean valuable and informative.
You might say:
“This resource will:
* take the guesswork out of …
* expand your knowledge …
* help to alter your perceptions of …
* keep you abreast of …
* give you new insight …
* give you the hard facts …
* keep you ahead of the game …
There were 33 phrases in that section alone. This book will simplify your work especially when you are searching for just the right thing to say to make a particular point. In addition, it is an indispensable tool to have around when you are writing copy for your promotional material and website.
Copyright © 1998 - 2005 Advanced Public Speaking Institute
Tom Antion provides entertaining speeches and educational seminars. He is the ultimate entrepreneur, having owned many businesses BEFORE graduating college. Tom is the author of the best selling presentation skills book “Wake ‘em Up Business Presentations” and “Click: The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing.” It is important to Tom that his knowledge be not only absorbed, but enjoyed. This is why he delivers his speeches laced with great humor and hysterical jokes. Tom has addressed more than 87 different industries and is thoroughly committed to his clients’ needs. http://www.antion.com
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Have you ever been in the audience and listened to a speaker who just drones on and on…? If you have attended college or worked in the corporate world, chances are you have. This is because in these environments, people are chosen to speak based on their education, experience, and position, not their ability to speak. While it is great to have knowledgeable people speaking, the unfortunate side effect is an audience that stops paying attention, doesn’t get the point, and may even fall asleep!
Speaking is an art form, and the ability to keep an audience engaged is critical to the speaker. One way of doing that is to use your voice as a tool to draw the audience in. The dictionary defines drone as “to speak in a monotonous tone.” Monotonous is defined as “spoken in an unvarying tone.” Therefore, if you don’t want to drone on as a speaker, you must learn to vary your tone.
Varying your tone sounds simple enough; just mix up the volume, pitch, and speed of your speech. The challenge is that while varying your tone sounds simple, it can be hard to do. This happens for two reasons:
- In our own heads, when we speak, we tend to hear how we think we sound. You may think you are varying your voice a whole lot, but to an audience you may be completely monotonous.
- You can end up so focused on your content and the words that you have to say that you may completely forget or ignore the delivery. This could be due to nerves, lack of preparation, insecurity, or many other things. Regardless, once you forget about delivery, you fall back on to whatever speaking style you have always had. If that happens to be a bit “drone-y,” then you will bore your audience.
The first challenge is easy enough to fix: Either record yourself speaking and listen to it later (I know this can be painful, but it’s invaluable!) or ask for sincere audience feedback from people you trust to give you honest but constructive criticism. Joining a Toastmasters club is a great way to do this.
The second challenge is a lot harder. How do you shift some of your focus to delivery when it’s all you can do to control your fear and remember what you have to say next?
The simple way is to completely separate content from delivery. To do this, use an improv comedy technique called “gibberish.” Gibberish is defined as “unintelligible or nonsensical talk.” Quite simply, pretend to deliver a lecture, but rather than speaking English (or whatever your native tongue is), speak in gibberish. Make a series of nonsensical sounds as you pretend to speak to an audience.
At this point, your content is irrelevant. As you do this lecture, really play around with the speed, volume, and pitch of your voice. When doing this, really go “over the top” with it. Remember, in your own head you probably think your variety is much bigger then it is. By using gibberish, you can focus 100% on your delivery.
Once you get a little bit comfortable just playing with the variety in gibberish, you can take it up a notch with a fun partner exercise called the Gibberish Expert:
You will be an expert on some simple, everyday topic. You will then deliver a lecture on this topic, but you will speak only in gibberish. After every couple of sentences, pause, and let your partner “translate” what you just said in gibberish. In a performance, there are comedic gimmicks to make this exercise funnier (i.e. you speak in gibberish for 45 seconds and your partner translates with a single word like, “therefore”). For the purpose of learning vocal variety, you don’t want to do this. The goal here is to get your partner to translate as correctly as possible what you are saying, using just your tone and voice. You will have a tendency to use your hands and body; This is fine to a degree, but don’t turn this into a game of charades. You should deliver your gibberish as if the audience understood you. By practicing this, you will gain an understanding of how to use the tone of your voice to convey as much information as the words you say.
Of course, when you get in front of an audience you will not speak in gibberish. However, by practicing with gibberish you will be prepared to take the stage, keep an audience engaged, and never have anyone fall asleep on you!
For more information and specific exercises on how to use gibberish to increase your vocal variety, (and get a fr.ee 7-Day E-Course), visit http://www.improvforspeakers.com
Avish Parashar is the world’s funniest (and potentially only) “Improvising Motivational Keynote Speaker” To learn more about how to bring the hilariously powerful lessons of improv comedy to your organization, visit http://www.avishparashar.com
Tags: Fear of Speaking, improv comedy, professional speaking, public speaking, Speaking, vocal varietyIn this article I discuss some of the common habits that speakers unknowingly exhibit while presenting, how to spot them, and ways to overcome them.
Do you look at your watch to check the time? Time is extremely important when we are presenting. We don’t want to talk past our limit, but we do want to fill the time we are expected to fill. This causes many presenters to look at their watches continually. This causes the audience members to start looking at their watches and become more concerned with the passage of time than the important information we are trying to impart.
There are several ways to work around this distraction. If you have a lectern or a table, you can place a small travel clock that it easy to read from a distance, so that a quick glance will be inconspicuous. Another aid is to ask a friend to sit fairly close to the front of the room and give an agreed-upon signal when you have five to ten minutes remaining, so you can start your closing without rushing.
Banish the use of filler words from your speech. By “filler words” I mean the ums, ahs, ers, you-knows, ands, buts, and any other word that you may be using to excess. Often we are not aware that we are filling our presentations with distracting words, so the best way to spot them is to ask someone to tape your presentation. Listen to the tape in the privacy of your home or office. You will be astounded. There may not be any “ums” or those kinds of fillers, but you may be saying a word over and over again. The first time I tried this, I found that I said “and” close to thirty times at the beginning of or between sentences. Once you are aware of this habit, you just need to stop and pause for a moment, and then clamp your mouth shut before you let one escape.
Keep your hands off and out of your clothing. I can’t begin to tell you how many speakers I have observed who put their hands in their pockets — and even jingle change. Talk about a distraction! I also witnessed a well-known woman speaker who kept smoothing her skirt and another who kept pulling the front of her jacket together. Neither was aware of what she was doing, but part of the problem arose because they were either nervous and/or uncomfortable with the clothing they were wearing. If you can find someone to video your presentation, you will be amazed with the little habits you have acquired over the years.
What bad habits have you acquired? Work to erase them and your speaking expertise will reach a brand new plateau.
Chris King is a professional speaker, storyteller, writer, website creator / designer, free agent, and fitness instructor. Sign up for her eclectic E-newsletter, Portfolio Potpourri, at http://www.PowerfulPresentations.net You will find her information-packed E-book How to Leave Your Audiences Begging for MORE! at http://www.OutrageouslyPowerfulPresenter.com and her business website at http://www.CreativeKeys.biz
Tags: audiences, bad habits, presentation skills, presentations, professsional speaker, public speaking