SmartMouth Talks!

When it’s Time, it’s Time

by Beth Levine | Oct 15, 2012

Have you ever run out of time during your portion of a meeting, panel discussion, or during a presentation? And did you stop when your time was up, or did you keep talking because you had just one more really important point to make?

I had the most interesting experience watching more than 25 presentations in a row at a corporate retreat about a week ago. Even though there was a timekeeper, and presenters knew when they had reached their limit, more than a handful busted right through and kept on going. They had just one more point – or in some cases, several more points – to make. They even called themselves out and said, “I’m out of time, but I just need to tell you this one more thing … ”

Ouch. Really? Who is that all about? Is it all about the audience? Or is that all about the speaker? You know the answer.

So, here’s a reminder about Rule #1 … It’s all about them, the Audience! It’s not all about you. You need to respect your audience’s time and attention. You were lucky to have it in the first place, don’t abuse it. If you build your presentation effectively and organize your content so that messages (e.g. summary statements, statements of significance) are well constructed and primary, and then information (e.g. background, supporting detail, data) is dispensable and secondary, you’ll always be able to cut yourself off. Rarely is a speaker that special, or their material that compelling, that time limits don’t matter.

Trust me on this, there are two things about audiences you should keep in mind:

1) when an audience wants to know more, they’ll ask for it; and

2) audiences never complain when a speaker finishes early or on time!

Facing Your Enemy

by Beth Levine | Sep 24, 2012

Well …

One thing we haven’t discussed here is the belligerent, hostile, or grandstanding audience. You know, the audience you are compelled to present to, but the same one that’s also poised and ready to take you down?!? Ugh, no fun.

Aside from being astutely aware of whether the Q&A section of your presentation has turned into an opportunity for members of your audience to make their own speeches (ahem, grandstanding!), I’d like to encourage you to get in touch with and remember these core principles of a leader’s voice:

Be brief. No one has less time, patience, and tolerance than an unfriendly audience, or an audience waiting for their turn to pounce. At least win their respect – and possibly their support? – by being crisp, clear, and to the point. It’s much easier to get annoyed with a rambler than with someone who is succinct.

Be transparent. If you have to share bad or controversial news with an audience, be open about it. Tell them right upfront that this may be hard, or that not everyone will agree, but that you’re hoping at least they’ll be more informed. If there’s an element of discomfort and you’re the messenger, call it out; don’t try to downplay it or hope that it will go away on its own.

Be gracious. Despite the sometimes overwhelming temptation to push back with a corresponding level of hostility or even belligerent defensiveness, don’t … nothing good can come from that. Stay in your most gracious self. The dictionary definition of gracious is: courteous, kind, pleasant. Try to remain gracious, it’s the high road, you’ll be the bigger person.

Be sincere. Honest, yes, of course. But also sincere as a professional, sincere in your commitment and dedication to your work or your professional standards. People may not like what you have to say, but if you are sincere in your intentions to do right or do well, it can help a lot.

Leave the coat of armor at home, try brevity, transparency, graciousness, and sincerity!

Raise Your Hands!

by Beth Levine | Sep 10, 2012

Did you know that using hand gestures gets your audience to pay attention better and also increases their ability to retain what they are hearing? Your hands provide the punctuation for your mouth. So interesting and so the opposite of what most speakers think is okay.

Here are some hand gesture tips:

Rubbing your palms together indicates the expectation of something positive.

Hands clenched together (with interlocking fingers) can indicate frustration, so be careful with that!

Making a steeple with your hands, fingers lightly pressed against each other, can look like thoughtfulness … or it can be read as superiority, so be forewarned.

Holding up your hand with the thumb and index finger together, with the other fingers resting in the palm, is used for emphasis by politicians and others engaging in persuasion (but be careful not to rub the thumb and index finger together, as that begins to suggest money and not in a positive way!).

Hands clasped behind the back have an unfriendly authoritarian feel; they’re not unlike crossed arms in terms of unfriendliness and should probably be avoided.

Arms open, palms open, arms and hands gesturing upward and toward the audience are all positive and engaging.

Height matters when it comes to your moving parts; keep your arms and hands at chest level or below to avoid blocking your face or being overly distracting.

In any case, big thumbs up on talking with your hands!

**Oh, and as a note, thumbs up or down are very powerful; they have been since Roman times when thumbs up or down meant life or death to a gladiator! Just sayin’ …

Dumb it Down

by Beth Levine | Sep 4, 2012

You’ve been asked to speak at an event. Or it’s on your shoulders to make a big presentation for your company. You want to seem smart, you want to appear to be savvy and sophisticated, you want to make a good impression.

If that’s the case, I have some great advice for you: play dumb. Yup, I think you should play dumb.

You know those high-brow talks you’ve heard with big picture concepts and even bigger vocabulary words? And you know those super fancy slides you’ve seen people present with, the ones that move and change and grow before your very eyes? Well, forget about all of it. More often than not, when the speaker and the visuals try to go too big, the audience takeaway is “huh?!”

Go for simplicity. Be willing to do the hard work for your audience. Make it simple for them, so they can understand and remember. Dumb it down. Even the most complex ideas, projects or transactions can be made simple. Use basic everyday words, think of metaphors or analogies that can help illustrate, make your sentences short and crisp, keep visuals clean and clear.

If you can simplify for your audience – and make your ideas accessible, understandable and memorable – then you’re definitely the smartest person in the room!

Cut to the Chase

by Beth Levine | Jul 2, 2012

Ready for a good summer shortcut to being really effective in a meeting or presentation? Here it is: Think like an audience member.

How, you ask? Well, here’s what your audience is thinking but not saying out loud: Cut to the chase, please! Spare me all that info, just tell me what you want me to know! Yep, that’s what they’re thinking. You’ve thought the very same thing when others are speaking or leading a meeting, so you can pretty much assume others will be thinking it when you’re speaking or leading a meeting.

So, given your topic or your purpose for the meeting, take a preemptive strike and imagine that someone in the audience told you to cut to the chase. What would you say? Once you’ve thought of that, jot it down, and clean it up a bit, and voilà, you have your opening and closing comments. In the middle you can offer up some background information your audience may need, but only as much as they have the appetite for, so be careful with that!

Bottom line? Just cut to the chase. Everyone will be happier. Everything will be clearer. And all will be well.

Laugh Track

by Beth Levine | Jun 19, 2012

When preparing a talk, don’t forget to build in the laugh track. You’re probably wondering if I mean that literally. The answer is yes and no.

What I mean is that audiences need guidance, and they need it to be spoon fed to them. Guidance, cues, prompts, reminders, directions, suggestions – all of it helps an audience to stay with you and to know what’s coming and what’s expected of them. Audiences don’t like to work hard, think hard, guess, or wonder. It’s your job as the speaker/presenter to build in the cues and the prompts and as much guidance as possible.

Some examples: If you’re digressing to tell a story, call it out and say, “I’m digressing for a moment to tell a story.” If you’re slowing down to ensure that everyone follows a complex idea you need to share, say so. If the whole reason for addressing a group is to reassure them, then tell them, “The whole point of my talk today is to reassure you.” If you’re moving between sections of a longer presentation, then, by all means, announce the transitions.

For followers of SmartMouth Talks, yes, this is the same idea behind using a Focal Point at the beginning of a talk and reinforcing it at the end – if there is something you want an audience to think or know or do or feel, you need to tell them.

That’s why sitcoms use laugh tracks, they leave nothing to chance; when they want you to laugh, they prompt you with the sound of laughter. And guess what? When we hear the laughter, we laugh. Works like a charm. The power of suggestion. Fascinating. Use it.

Whatever Works is the Right Answer …

by Beth Levine | Jun 14, 2012

Interesting phenomenon. Yesterday I was working with a CEO who is filming a series of short video messages to his large and growing employee base. The content is good – simple, straightforward, memorable and repeatable, a little bit of humor, a little bit of info, a lot of focus on the audience. The delivery was a bit more of a challenge; we needed to get him to appear more natural and less stilted on camera. Hmmmm, I thought, let’s ditch the script and teleprompter and have him just chat with the camera. Sounds reasonable, rational, logical, right?

Well, after versions where we had him wing it and just chat, then had him use just bullet points, then fleshed out the bullet points a bit more, we ended up back at the starting point – pretty much a full script running on the teleprompter. Ironically, that’s what helped him relax and appear most natural. In fact, he was quite good, we got some great footage.

In this biz, there are a lot of woulda-coulda-shoulda’s, but in the end whatever works for the individual speaker is the right answer. We’re all wired differently; what motivates us, comforts us, and gives us confidence differs from person to person, speaker to speaker. I could beat each of my clients over the head with the same baseball bat, but it would be pointless. Whatever works best resides within each of them, and so my only role is to help find that and pull it out of them, that’s it.

K.I.S.S.

by Beth Levine | Jun 4, 2012

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

– Albert Einstein

What Does It Say About You … ?

by Beth Levine | May 21, 2012

What does it say about you as a speaker when you stand squarely behind a podium or cling to a lectern during your entire talk? We don’t even need to answer that, do we?

Standing firmly in one place – or, even worse, hiding! – doesn’t really advance the cause of connecting with your audience, does it? Any structure between you and your audience is simply a barrier. And it’s a pretty safe bet to figure on it being more than just a physical barrier.

So, what are you supposed to do when a podium or lectern is turned over to you? Step out, people! Go ahead and use it as a prop or as a place to put your “things” (e.g. notes, laptop), but unless you’re addressing a large audience in a large room and the only available microphone is fixed to the podium (the only reason you’d have to stay put!), step out, around and in front. It sends the most important message to your audience … that you’re coming closer to them!

Game Plan: Your First 8 Seconds

by Beth Levine | May 14, 2012

Second 1: Smile

Ahhh, a smile relaxes you and your audience, and it gets everyone ready for something positive to come.

Second 2: Breathe

Sounds obvious but it’s not, and those who forget to breathe make themselves more nervous.

Seconds 3 – 8: Engage

There’s no doubt that you will spend most of your preparation time working on the meat of your talk or presentation, i.e. the 15+ minutes that follow the first 8 seconds. But I would encourage you to give just as much thought and care to what you will say right off the bat. It’s standard, expected, and therefore boring and mediocre, to stand up and thank people for having you or offer other polite niceties as an opening. Set yourself apart by standing up and telling people exactly what they will know or feel after your talk … e.g. “you will be inspired tonight” or “you are about to learn all about xyz today” or “we are going to have some fun for the next 30 minutes” or “what you’re about to hear will change how you do business.” Give some thought to your audience’s needs and expectations in relation to your topic, and let them know – as you’re just getting started – what you’re going to give them during your time together.

Audiences will decide inside those first 8 seconds whether you are worthy of their attention, so speakers beware!