The Ideal Communicator

The “IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU” Speaker

Imagine this: You’ve just left a presentation that inspired and motivated you. The speaker made you laugh one minute, and then see connections the next. You got ideas, tips, enjoyed relevant stories and examples, a great handout, and a message that inspired you. And most importantly, the speaker seemed to talk directly to you and your needs. It was almost as if you and the speaker shared similar life experiences and values. As you leave, you are grateful that you decided to attend the presentation and promise yourself to take action based on what you learned. What a valuable use of your time it was!

And now, imagine this: You’re sitting in an audience about to listen to a speaker tell [what you hope] is an inspirational story about how they became so successful. Perhaps you’ll be able to learn some valuable lessons that you can apply to your current situation. The speaker starts with a long, text-heavy powerpoint slide that lists their credentials and qualifications, complete with fancy initials that follow their name. They boast about their accomplishments, their awards, their rock-solid work ethic, and how many businesses they had by the time they were 18 years old. You wait and hope that they will share something of value — something that isn’t purely about THEM — that shows that they care about what their audience gets out of the presentation.  But… nothing. The conclusion goes something like: “I’m so busy and successful, you would have to stand in line if you wanted to work with me.” Ah, well. There goes an hour of your life.

Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink, The Tipping Point, Outliers, What the Dog Saw and others, discusses the American quest to find the perfect spaghetti sauce in this 17-minute TED video, and relates this quest to a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.

In his introduction, the first thing that comes across is his very friendly, conversational speaking style. He sets up his credibility right from the start by mentioning the books that he’s written. He makes the audience laugh several times throughout the speech, but most importantly, the first laugh comes in the first minute of his speech. This allows for a quicker connection with the audience.

My colleague Jane Atkinson, speaker coach and President of Speaker Launcher, recently launched a Best Speaker Video contest on her blog. For many speakers, a speaker video is the #1 form of marketing – if done right. So Jane, along with a panel of judges, looked at several submissions, and then came up with a winner, and 5 runners-up – and gave a brief explanation of why they came in at the top.

I was so impressed with these contestants, and wanted to share their videos with you. Some are very professionally done, with lots of bells and whistles – and some are no more complex than pressing “record” on a videocamera. But each speaker and video has its own unique style which makes it stand out.

These videos will give you an example of not just what works, but what works really well.  Read the rest of this entry »

Well here’s a speaker you just want to sit down and have a drink with! Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the best-selling book and recent movie Eat, Pray, Love, shares her thoughts on creativity and the notion of “creative genius” in this 19-minute speech at TED - and in the process, shows her audience how very funny, thoughtful and well-spoken a writer – and a speaker – she is.

Elizabeth excels in many ways in this talk. And there are some small things that she might have ‘tweaked’ to make it even more powerful.

 
STRENGTHS IN DELIVERY:
 
1.  She’s funny – and here’s why:  There were a few instances of great use of language to get a point across. At around 1:45, she laments how some people ask her if she thinks that she’ll “die on a scrapheap of dreams with my mouth filled with the bitter ash of failure” because she’ll never be able to follow up the success of her best-selling book. This comment is quite lengthy, and she almost gets out of breath as she says it. This makes it go from a ‘witty remark’ to just a little outrageous, thereby pushing the audience from a potential chuckle to an outright laugh. Well done.  If you can get your audience to laugh in the first 2 minutes, there’s a much better chance of having them sit up and listen to you for the rest of your speech. (I’d also like to give credit to her vivid metaphor of  “It’s like asking someone to swallow the sun.” That’s a great visual!)

2. “Messy” – but enthusiastic and authentic. Like Jamie Oliver in last month’s blog post, Elizabeth can be considered a “messy” speaker…but in a good way. Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago, I attended a full-day marketing and branding conference to listen to six individuals, all professional speakers, authors, and experts in their field. They were scheduled to take the stage for 45-60 minutes at a time, to an audience of approximately 1,000 people. Some of these speakers were more well-known than others, but all had a specific expertise, and I was eager to listen to them all and hear what they had to share.

What did I come out with?

1. The speakers who can make the audience laugh the most will be rated the highest
2. You don’t always need slides to get your point across concisely and powerfully
3. Even the best professional speakers can miss the mark and completely alienate the audience

Let’s focus on point #3.

All the speakers had their fan base. There were two speakers who were big draws – one of them was an author of several books, very active on social media, and a true expert in his field. I know many people who RT him on Twitter regularly, who read his books, and follow his advice. The other had fewer books, a little newer to the speaking field, but is a well known local personality.  And while I can accept that even the best speakers can have an “off” day (as I was told by someone who had seen these people speak before, who assured me that they are generally much better than their performance on that day), here’s what these speakers did that really annoyed the audience: Read the rest of this entry »