For years, an act of courage seemed something to use in the most extreme or vulnerable times …like our soldiers defending liberty.
That type of moment still sets the bar in my mind on how courage drives perseverance. In more recent years though, collaboration with folks on their speeches has taught a new view. Every person and every speech has revealed how courage moves ideas forward in creative ways.
The delicate route through creativity to voice:
Together we move through inevitably vulnerable times; creativity evokes that relevant but often rocky road which every public speaker heads down. Unearthing voice can be powerful and delicate all at once.
These experiences have shown:
It takes courage to get clear. It takes courage to realize the tricky thing called voice (…and overcome initial distaste with rough drafts and rough starts). The whole creative experience gets vulnerable, if not extremely so.
It’s a useful rough road, and takes everyday courage to move through to more resonant ideas as speakers. Asserting courage in this context gave way to a video project: The Deciding Courage series.
Can we study courage as an accessible habit to build?
This idea brings Gwen McKinney to mind. She founded McKinney & Associates, and as CEO has brought many social justice issues to light in our country.
(3) reasons why courage matters
Strong, convicted, and with wise humor — Gwen talks about courage as a frequent decision to make. Her wisdom from our (3) minute video conversation:
Courage can be hard to recognize in ourselves as we summon the in-the-moment resolve to use it.
Mistakes are a distinct part of the human dynamic in which courage plays a unique role.
Our audiences (any audience!) can respond in an interesting way when we ‘fall on our swords.’
What do you think?
What’s a decision in your life which you thought required courage, or in someone else’s life you’ve observed?
Footnotes:
I’m enjoying the new anthology Voice Matters by Gwen McKinney and her courageous community. The related ebook series just launched too featuring filmmaker Larry Adelman’s assertion: zip codes predict health outcomes more than any other factor.
And here’s the 3 point takedown with more context and examples in the 3 minute video:
1. Prepare a distinct point of view in a one-sentence assertion.
2. Use that one-sentence assertion as a way to standout and distinctly introduce yourself to the audience at the start (vs leaning on background info like professional title, business sector, and client list).
3. Suggest (3) questions to the panel’s moderator beforehand and then serve as the lead respondent for those questions. Other panelists may offer supportive commentary for these certainly; but secure the opportunity with the moderator to take the lead — and answer first to these selected questions.
Washington, DC offers rich archives about oratory, rhetoric, and the power of ideas.
It’s all gone down here: presidential inauguration addresses, worldwide movements (& the voices who marched them forward), and states of the union that comprise our nation’s history. I love this city so.
When near the US Capitol today:
I was a few hundred meters from where Elizabeth Cady Stanton first delivered her Solitude of Self speech to Congress back in 1892.
Her persuasive ideas and what stood out:
There’s ample room to analyze this speech (her ultimate appeal for women’s suffrage to the Senate hearing committee). What keeps coming to mind is her focus on ‘individuality of the human soul’ and a pointed focus on the nature of self-dependence.
A favorite excerpt:
“The strongest reason why we ask for woman a voice in the government under which she lives; in the religion she is asked to believe; equality in social life, where she is the chief factor; a place in the trades and professions, where she may earn her bread — is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty. Because as an individual she must rely on herself. To throw obstacles in the way of a complete education is like putting out the eyes; to deny the rights of property is like cutting off the hands. To refuse political equality is to rob “the ostracized of all self-respect…”
What voices have influenced your thinking about access to opportunity and self-reliance?
Happy Women’s History Month!
And here’s to self-dependence, self-assertion, and celebration of progress.
More resources and ways to celebrate International Women’s Day:
Today’s post is available via a 2 minute audio clip; or the written content follows too just below.
Frustration, frustration frustration.
A few colleagues and clients recently shared they were mentally caving to frustration. They were preparing for their next talk and realized: they didn’t know what to say.
They have deep funds of knowledge.
They have specific and creative expertise.
They’ve been speaking to public audiences on and off for years.
They are intelligent, driven people with plenty to offer a range of listeners.
Yet their ideas were stuck, as in really stuck…like an elephant caught in spandex. As in, no idea and no sense of permission were escaping the inner workings of their mind.
The ‘It’s Not Good Enough” syndrome: a common cause of blocked ideas
In each conversation with these great professionals one trait unified each person’s predicament: in every attempt to even casually brainstorm a point of view for their speech — each person immediately criticized themselves. Whatever idea they tossed out as a potential vantage point from which to develop their presentation – it wasn’t good enough to them.
Getting beyond cycles of criticism: a 20 minute exercise to help
Even with heaps of expertise to draw from and share, this often happens — that cycle of ideas/delete/ideas/delete.
This whirlwind of self-criticism builds off itself, making the self-perception of “my ideas aren’t good enough” as the only type of creative development possible.
This is a cycle to break.
For our ideas to progress as public speakers at this type of crossroads, the main goal (stat!) is to create a sense of permission with how we express (and assert) ideas.
Here’s a favorite exercise to get unstuck:
1. Set your timer for 20 minutes.
Your iPhone, Android, or old time tomato timer on the stove. Please grab it and set it for 20 minutes.
2. Commit to zero self-criticism.
Before diving into this exercise, dedicate your mind to a criticism-free zone. Grant full authority to your hand, the pen it is about to hold, and the paper it will write on.
2a. Which leads to: turn off your computer and find paper and a pen.
3. Start the timer.
4. Then write down at least (3) assertions in 20 minutes — one or two sentences each — about your expertise and related to the gist of your speech.
Keep writing until the timer rings.
Judge not, judge not, just write write write. And ideally: consider these assertions as points of view too. As in, write down what you hold true about your industry with your expertise in mind, again in one or two sentences per assertion.
Start each assertion with the words “I believe…” if that helps to dislodge thought.
Raw example:
“I believe public speaking is a self-assertion game and a clarity game…and it takes time to achieve both.”*
*Is that a run-on sentence? Yes. Is it perfect grammar? No. Is it an assertion that I hold true as a public speaking professional? Yes.
Does it satisfy the perimeters of this exercise? You bet.
Because the goal is to get unstuck, out of your mind, away from delete-every-idea-syndrome and onto the page before you.
Another raw example:
“I believe social content is an interactive and strong way to build community online.”
or… “I believe public relations means stimulating social voice around your company.”
How about you?
What tactical ways help you liberate creativity when preparing for a speech (and abandon self-criticism with ideas)?
A 10 minute video tutorial on persuasive speaking, laughter, & yoga too…
After sifting through LiveYourTalk’s video archives, I edited one of my workshops into a shorter version. It’s based on a 4-prong approach to preparing persuasive presentations, plus tips for using more vocal flexibility and understanding the impact of silence.
Are you attending Blogworld this year? If so, by golly join us!
It will be a highly fun, highly interactive session and inspire results for any woman wanting to take the stage.
And wait – there’s more!
Think fun, prizes, and learning to:
Identify your strengths as a public speaker and how to articulate your expertise;
Learn how to craft a strong speaker proposal;
Strengthen your public speaking skills in a fun, supportive, and feedback-rich environment.
Then the second half combines the chance for attendees to practice their pitch in a fun American Idol-esque environment. For this part of the workshop, we’ll invite participants to pitch to the audience for a few minutes — then receive motivating feedback and ideas to take your proposal to its next level of success.
Going to BlogworldLA?
Then I (Aliza too) welcome you big time to this workshop.
And whether or not you’re going to Blogworld…
Have a great week….and in the spirit of our workshop, ’speak up’ and exercise your voice for the greater good wherever you may be.
What a great experience!
A long time goal has been to speak at Ignite, specifically the unique community for IgniteDC. This short-form style is a blast; the DC crowd is supportive and energetic. And I’ve enjoyed coaching clients on this format with my business sponsoring local events.
Ignite is flat out fun.
Have you ever participated in an Ignite event?
Ignite’s mantra is: “Enlighten us but make it quick.”
It’s a vibrant public speaking event with many venues across the globe. Sixteen speakers get to present at each — all giving a talk within the same format: 5 minutes about any topic using 20 slides. And the kicker: each slide automatically advances after 15 seconds.
Do you have favorite tips for preparing short-form presentation like Ignite?
Here’s an approach I often rely on:
TIP #1: focus on your spoken content first and the slides last.
Why? to avoid ‘conjunction-caption speak.’
Focusing on the spoken content first helps to establish a cohesive structure and arc for the talk.
What is your core message or messages?
How does one idea transition and support the next?
Where does the audience end up?
It addresses all those questions.
And it avoids an unintended problem many Ignite speakers have described when they focused on making their slides first: they ended up giving an Ignite talk that is a set of conjunction-caption-like phrases that come across as run-on sentences (vs a cohesive storytelling experience for their audience).
Fuzzy bunnies: an example of the unintended conjunction-caption-sounding result when speakers focus on preparing slides first (vs focusing on a story-centric whole):
“Fuzzy bunnies are happy and cute, see aren’t they cute? and fluffy and they bounce and then they eat a lot and I wish they could fly and drive space ships and they make great cartoons too.”
Have you heard a presentation that sounded this way?
Fuzzy bunnies with context:
Or here’s an example of focusing on the spoken content first and giving the audience a specific point of view (and then crafting slides after the fact to support your spoken content):
“Fuzzy bunnies are a great greeting card icon for 3 main reasons: they evoke sweetness; they’re fun; and they are innocently playful too which makes them ideal images to help celebrate children’s events.”
I’m having some goofy fun here with the bunnies, but the point:
Focusing on your spoken-word content first creates a clearer way for your audience to relate to your ideas.
TIP #2: Knowing the word count for a 5 minute talk.
I focused on a draft that was app. 640 words in length for a five minute talk.
After timing it, I divided app. 31 words to each slide and crafted the slide deck based on that.
Factoring in a reasonable speaking rate and pauses to give the audience a few seconds to absorb along the way — a 640 word draft worked.
Footnote:
Certainly speaking rates vary for all of us!
You may comfortably articulate at a swifter rate and speak closer to a 150 word per minute rate. But after testing and timing some of my past speeches, this is a comfortable rate on my end – with time for pauses factored in.
It served as a really useful framework for the spoken-word draft.
Speech history really fascinates me so I chose (3) speeches to share about and then wrote, edited!, and re-wrote.
Ignite invites a wide range of passions — philosophy, tech, education and how-to, and personal experience.
What’s topic drives you the most?
TIP #3: Rehearsing each section with a recorded audio device.
This really helped to understand and maintain timing along the way (and ensure the right messages and images were on the screen as desired). For rehearsals, I timed without slides first — via audio a few times to ensure the 5 minutes (or 4:55 for a buffer window). Then after making the slides, I timed a few sections via audio again to see if a particular section was overly delayed and needed editing.
What do you think? Is it time to dive into your next Ignite talk?! What other tips do you have for prep?
Our human voices are riveting sources of sound.
What is it about the human voice that can capture attention and create allure like no other sound out there? It can express and evoke any type of mood or energy, a demand for attention, certitude, warmth — and at times, all that in a single conversation. Our voice, its tonal flexibility, and good ole inflection powers are addictive.
The voice and influencing conversations
The inherent enchantment of our voice can often be one of those traits that go unnoticed by ourselves. So the ability to assert conversational impact has a decent chance to being underused.
What could elevate awareness of how the voice can influence what we communicate?
3 scenarios to ensure the voice resonates intended impact
1. For when your voice sounds like a question when a sense of command is intended:
Often I observe people (many are women) who have striking funds of knowledge and career achievement, yet in conversation (one-on-one or sometimes in public speech dynamics) – the ending tone of their voice communicates uncertainty. It sounds like a question is being asked – where that ending vocal note increases half an octave. Yet they are actually making an emphatic statement – not a query. This vocal practice or ‘uptalk’ can be perceived as neediness vs confidence in one’s own credibility.
How to fix it:
Is this something your voice exercises? If unsure, ask trusted listeners or audience members if this trait is apart of your conversational style. If so, practice making your voice a consistent tone by recording your voice via a smart phone audio device. Consciously focus attention on being present-minded when presenting; exert continuity of tone -or- decrease vocal tone to convey a more authoritative tenor.
2. For when your voice is critiqued as too soft or less authoritative.
Have bosses or colleagues suggested after meetings (or live audiences after public speeches) that you could sound more authoritative? Years ago, I received such feedback and it’s an odd, vulnerable thing to hear.
How to fix it:
Learning how to exert your voice’s inherent flexibility is a great source of conversational leadership.
Image The Scream by NickeStamp, Creative Commons
But gaining confidence in what your own booming voice sounds like can be a big game changer. Can you practice speaking from the diaphragm in an informal setting (or alone)? Can you role play with a trusted peer and practice this vocal assertion when stating professional opinions or presenting data or expressing a minority viewpoint? Record the different range and strength you can achieve with your voice.
3. For when your vocal pace during a speech hurries enunciation (and thus distracts from audience comprehension):
A colleague and client recently admitted they often rush through enunciation when delivering public speeches, to the point key message and tone are often glossed over. She’s concerned about recent audience feedback and her perceived confidence.
How to fix it:
Rehearse your opening remarks yet in between each sentence – stop, inhale a deep, deep breath, exhale – then continue rehearsal of opening remarks. There’s another favorite exercise that may be morsels for another post. Yet what this initial practice puts into motion is a conscious cycle of exertion between enunciation, pause points, and breathing. It’s a method to remind the brain of its ability to manage conversational energy and thus, pace.
What’s your opinion?
What public speakers, presenters, radio hosts, or stage actors grip you when they speak?
How do they change or project their voice to make an impact (and what type of impact do they produce – more persuasive, emotive, alluring, assertive, or what else?)?
