The Fast Track to Becoming a Fantastic Speaker (Fast Track Speaking Book 2) by Dryden Mack

Author:Dryden, Mack [Dryden, Mack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2015-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

But I tell five times that many stories in my main keynote speech because stories about people like Thomas Edison and my Dad and Abraham Lincoln can be extremely profound and moving. And if you make your points and spice your speech with short, poignant or funny stories, you’ll hold your audience. In one of my speeches, I talk about the importance of listening to what the world is trying to tell you and not stubbornly ignoring the facts. It can get you into trouble. I tell the story of my Aunt Myrlene nagging my Uncle Buddy to get a hearing aid, and he resisted, accusing my aunt of “mumbling” and that she was the one who needed a hearing aid. One day she was in the back bed room folding clothes when he decided to test her. Forty feet away he said, “Myrlene, can you hear me?” She didn’t answer. Ten feet closer, “Myrlene, can you hear me?” Nothing. Ten feet closer, same thing. Then, from four feet behind her he said, “Myrlene, can you hear me?” Without turning around, my Aunt Myrlene said, “For the fourth time, yes. ” And now Uncle Buddy loves his hearing aid.

Tip Number Four: Tell Them Something They Don’t know. It sounds pretty obvious, but how many times have you listened to someone drone on about Striving for Excellence, and being Persistent and not letting anything discourage you from reaching your goals? When the going gets tough, the tough get…bored to tears because they’ve heard it so many times (be sure to study the chapter “Creating a Killer Speech”). Go through your speech and see what major points you want to make, and then find some incredibly interesting, amazing, or hilarious story to illustrate each one. With access to all the world’s knowledge on the Internet, it’s not that big a deal. Just don’t make the mistake of finding something wonderful and profound that Benjamin Franklin wrote, and reading it word for word for three long, droning minutes. Figure out how to condense your stories into relatively short, punchy segments that are designed to get a laugh or a “Wow! I didn’t know that!”

Finally, in the section of things to do in the days and weeks BEFORE your performance:

Try to Foresee Possible Distractions

Okay, I’m not going to pretend that this is an easy step—particularly if you’re just getting started and battle stage fright—but I should let you in on a little secret. Have you ever been watching a speech or standup comedy and something unexpected happens and you were amazed and delighted when the performer ad libbed a very clever line right on the spot? Well, guess what? All of us professional comedians and speakers have prepared clever comments that sound improvised. I cover this in more detail in the chapter about using humor in your speech, but I’ll give you this tip:

Particularly if you suffer from nerves or stage fright, find out as much as possible about where and when you’ll be performing, inspect the room, try to watch a similar event in the room if that’s possible.

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