by Beth Levine | Feb 29, 2016 | preparing for a presentation, public speaking
You’ve created something really amazing. Everyone wants to know more. The story of your success, how you got there, and what’s next draw curiosity-seekers and other interested parties like flies to flypaper.
So, what do you tell them? What’s your narrative? Do you have your usual spiel all dialed in? Is it something that rolls off your tongue without you having to think about it too much? Perhaps most important, though, is it strictly about your work or does it include you, the person?
Take a second to think about this.
The usual company narrative – dare I say, the “fallback” – is the one you might have generated for the VC community or for Wall Street, or it’s the one your marketing people crafted for selling your products and services. Or maybe it’s a combination of those two. If so, it’s probably great, but it’s not enough going forward. It’s actually not inspiring enough.
Audiences and your stakeholders crave a more earthy, gritty, revealing and more personal articulation of the journey – your success, how you got there, and what’s next. They want to feel it, feel a part of it, and they want to be inspired. By you. They want to be drawn in, engaged, connected. By you, the leader.
This matter is top of mind for me. I recently have had several requests from Marketing, Communications, and Brand Managers who have come to me requesting public speaking help for their CEO’s. Their concerns have ranged from the leader being “awesome but dry and uninspiring” to reports of being “brilliant but unable to connect.” Ouch!
Despite these less than stellar reviews, my experience in coaching executives and entrepreneurs tells me that it’s there, it’s in them. It’s usually pretty close to the surface, it just needs to be coaxed or allowed to come out. It may even need to be teased out by a trusted friend or advisor. But it’s right there.
So, what am I suggesting here? How do you go about creating a more personally inspiring narrative? Where do you begin?
Take a deep dive. Tap into yourself, your deepest self. Prepare to open up and share your vulnerability as well as your passion – for example, what makes you doubt yourself and what makes you tick, what scares you and what excites you.
Here are some questions to prompt your thinking:
What was my worst fear when I started this job/venture?
What was my worst moment?
Where did I most go right/wrong?
Where did I overshoot/undershoot?
What was my biggest surprise?
What do I love to do every day?
What do I love most about this project/company?
What have we forgotten/underemphasized?
How have the people I work with impacted me personally/professionally?
How has this venture exceeded my expectations?
What is my greatest wish for this project/company?
The answers to these questions will provide you with sound bites you can use to open with, weave into your existing presentation, or even formulate an entire talk. Think about using these sound bites as being transparent, but on steroids: being as open with your thoughts and feelings as you are with information.
There’s also a lot of chatter about the effectiveness of storytelling, both the wisdom and the science behind connecting with audiences by using stories. Everyone loves a good story, because they love to be entertained – even, or especially, during an informative or persuasive presentation. Your dreams, nightmares, successes and failures all make great story material; sharing them would make audiences feel very much a part of your journey.
There’s a lot to be gained – and nothing to be lost – by using your story, your narrative, and engaging your audiences and stakeholders on a deeper level. Make a note of the reactions and comments you get from people after you do. I’m willing to bet it will result in greater buy-in and engagement – from employees, investors, customers, and even vendors and partners.
by Beth Levine | Feb 15, 2016 | Just Mouthing Off, public speaking, quote, smartmouth talks!
In the introduction of my book Jock Talk last year, I noted that the business world was suffering from a bad (and performance-inhibiting) case of communication neglect. This year, SmartMouth is offering a cure that can help on the large-scale organizational level or the individual level, but before we dive into that, let’s harken back to my book:
“Tolerance of mediocrity in business communication is my pet peeve. It’s not only the mediocrity itself that bothers me, it’s also the acceptance of it and the lack of action taken to remedy it. There are simply too few people calling phooey, or if they are calling phooey, they don’t know how to change things for the better—how to raise the bar.
“I believe you can start with this: Make medal-worthy communication skills a core value. Then get to work on making them a core competency. Organizations hire me to work one-on-one with executives or to train executive teams. Often they come to me with a wish list like this: They’re so long-winded, can you make them more succinct? Can you add some polish and professionalism? They need to make a better impression. Is there any way you can make them sound more commanding? I can, and I usually do. Most of the time what they have been delivering, and how they have been delivering it, has been adequate—not particularly bad, not particularly good, simply adequate. It met the low standard that business audiences have come to expect.
“Well, what is standard in the business world may be adequate, but it’s not optimal and, let’s face it, it shouldn’t be acceptable. Think about how often you roll your eyes during meetings that are too long and, worse, pointless. Think about the boring presentations you’ve sat through—the ones in which you waited for the single valuable nugget, that one answer, that lone call to action that came at minute 52 out of an hour-long talk. Think about the speech by the CEO who was incredibly dry or who mouthed the same old-same old. A bar set at adequate or standard is far too low for organizations that expect excellent outcomes—or aim to be the best in the world.”
Under our traditional model, SmartMouth coached individuals and trained groups out of this rut – in person. But we realized that, as much as we were driven to be evangelists for change in conference rooms and boardrooms everywhere, we couldn’t reach everyone in person.
That’s why we developed SmartMouth OnDemand. Our online communication training lets us offer our insights, strategies and proprietary methodology to anyone who has an Internet connection and a device.
Presentations is our first – and our flagship – course. It is full of games and interactive segments that are only slightly modified from what we do in our in-person group sessions. Best of all, Presentations is loaded with our SpeechBuilder tool – a fill-in-the-blanks form that prompts you to outline your remarks for any occasion – and anyone who takes the course gets lifetime access to the tool. Pretty soon, we will be adding courses that dive in even deeper on topics like Visuals, Delivery and Storytelling.
Online communication training is the future of the industry. Its flexibility, low cost to the user, and effectiveness make it the obvious choice for organizations that want to enact large-scale change in how employees communicate and for individuals with busy schedules and tight budgets.
by Beth Levine | Feb 2, 2016 | preparing for a presentation, public speaking
I know better, but I’m as guilty as the next person when it comes to placing too much emphasis on content – the actual words and phrases – when preparing for a presentation. Communicating, as you might know anecdotally, is as much about your body language and facial expressions as it is about your words.
Here are some interesting facts about the importance of non-verbal communication:
- Human communication is 20% verbal and 80% non-verbal. This means if you’re saying something but your body language says the opposite, you’re not likely to get your message across.
- According to researchers, our bodies express emotion better than our faces.
- The average person actually only speaks words for a total of 10-11 minutes a day. And the average sentence takes 2.5 seconds to say.
- We make and recognize about 25,000 facial expressions a day.
- Pointing is one of the most offensive gestures pretty much around the globe.
- Hand-steepling is the most high-confidence hand gesture. This involves touching the spread fingertips of both hands in a gesture similar to praying hands, but the fingers are not interlocked and the palms may not be touching.
- Power poses – e.g. standing up, sitting with arms spread out on the on the chairs around you, “Wonder Woman” stance (feet planted; hands on hips) – make speakers feel more powerful as they actually change testosterone and cortisol levels in the body.
Be body-aware and body-smart. Think about your face, your body and your posture. Identify what your “job” is – your communications task for each public speaking occasion – and practice what that might look and sound like as part of your preparation. In other words, what does persuasion look and sound like; what does reassurance look and sound like; what does motivation look and sound like? Practice with your words, but also make sure it looks and sounds like you!
by Beth Levine | Jan 19, 2016 | preparing for a presentation, public speaking
Use visualization and positive imagery …
Do breathing exercises …
Tell a joke …
Picture your audience in their underwear … Should you try these techniques? Will they put you at ease? Most important, will they help you engage your audience?
There’s a lot of multi-tasking required of a speaker while delivering a presentation:
- opening properly
- getting the amplification of the microphone or natural projection of the voice just right
- advancing slides or juggling A/V equipment
- making eye contact and employing good body language
- managing time, and
- remembering the flow of the presentation material
Honestly? The last thing a speaker needs is distracting gimmicks on top of the multi-tasking. I prefer the basics: simply focus on connecting with the audience.
In fact, the SmartMouth approach is based first and foremost on the concept of audience-centricity. Or, as I like to say, “It’s not all about you, it’s about them!” Getting back to basics in presentation training means reminding speakers to focus squarely on their audiences from preparation all the way through to the end of delivery.
What does this mean in practical terms? Well, here’s a short checklist to help you understand what I mean:
- When preparing a speech or presentation, think about what interest the audience might have in your topic and what aspect or angle would be most beneficial to them – rather than what interests you.
- Go to the front of the room worrying about giving your audience a good experience – rather than worrying about how you look or whether you sound smart. (You do look good, you made sure of that already! And you are smart, that’s why you’re at the front of the room!)
- Open by acknowledging your audience – offering a compliment, recognizing good work, identifying a common bond – before you introduce yourself or share anything about your background.
- Look at them as if you were trying to draw them in and make new friends. Even move toward them if you can slip away from the podium. Make the people in front of you a more important focus – than yourself and your material.
- Remember to smile, be present, use people’s names if you can, and be yourself. People really like all of those things. It puts them at ease and engages them. And when they’re at ease and engaged, you will be too!
by Beth Levine | Jan 5, 2016 | procrastination, public speaking
res·o·lu·tionˌrezəˈlo͞oSH(ə)n/ noun 1. a firm decision to do or not to do something.
It’s that time of year. For as many people as I know who make resolutions about physical fitness, I seem to know just as many who make resolutions about communication skills.
If you have been kicking yourself and muttering any of the following under your breath over the past year – “I need to get some coaching, I need to be a better communicator.” Or, “Next time, I want to go in there and knock their socks off.” Or, “Okay, this year I’m going to work on my presentation skills.” – you’ll want to read on.
There’s no magic bullet and no one-size-fits-all coaching remedy to help you be a better communicator or presenter. There is, however, one really important, knowledgeable, insightful person already in the mix – you! – and so I’m designating you as your own coach.
And here’s how I suggest you begin – 1) read, and 2) make two lists. Pretty simple. Read this blog, read others, read whatever you can get your hands on that’s relevant to you and your career and the venues in which you communicate. Then make two lists – one to keep track of what you want to start doing differently, and the other to keep track of what you want to stop doing.
According to the dictionary definition, the word resolution implies an intention to change. Change is much easier said than done. That’s why in order to make it doable, you’ll want to be more specific than “I want to be a better communicator” or “I want to get some presentation skills coaching.” You’ll want to break it down into “starts and stops,” so that you can itemize and track what change looks like for you.
Be a keen and objective (well, as objective as possible) observer of yourself and others. Check in with your lists once a month or so, adding new insights and ideas on the “start list” and hopefully crossing off old and bad habits from the “stop list.” Be fair and honest with yourself, and relish even the smallest “starting” and “stopping” victories.
Remember: Communication is the currency of your success. You exchange words and ideas more often than you exchange money. Make your communications as valuable as you possibly can this year!
