It’s been an ongoing meditative exercise since giving the TEDx talk last Tuesday…pondering questions like:
What worked while preparing for this TEDx talk?
…with a more vulnerable follow-up question: what was excruciatingly difficult to prepare (and why?!)?
There was a lot of pure nuts-n-bolts process to this speech; at the same time – it was one of the most fulfilling yet absolutely gut wrenchingly difficult speeches to deliver. Heck, not just deliver but to cull out.
For starters, there was a huge mental wrestling with the TED brand plus internal feuds with my ego; there were so many re-writes that it seemed moving to Alaska to instead cut wood for a living would be the best career move (…vs plugging along in what seemed a sea of obscurity in discerning a story arc); there were many brainstorms with speech coaches; there were unexpected decisions with slide decks.
Whew Nellie!
Some parts of this were expected but so many aspects of preparation I did not foresee.
And it all comes down to an unforeseen mind game where my perceptions of storytelling came head-to-head with the daunting TED brand.
It was all humbling and energizing all at once. Not to mention that through the whole experience, the patience of my husband was crystalized in renewed vibrance.
The recesses of my brain are sorting out core details to this strange, satisfying, wrestle-of-a-process. And I look forward to conveying more (and learning from your thoughts) in the next week.
Last Friday, I had the wonderful pleasure meeting University of Maryland students in two communications classes Comm107-1701 and Comm107-0801. Founder of DC’s Social Media Club-Breakfast chapter, PR guru, and U of Maryland professor Andi Narvaez launched a speaker series for her communications students. And a few days ago, I had the chance to share ideas about persuasive public speaking and public conversations in general with her students. Thanks to Andi and both classes for a great morning!
We talked about different speech devices used in persuasive presentation – and which ones they found most convincing. Some leaned toward logical reasoning while others responded strongly to perspectives delivered with strong conviction.
What an angry client taught years ago
I shared an experience with a client from a zillion years ago when first starting in sales (corporate sales at Borders Books). At the time, I messed up a client’s order (she happened to speak Italian too) and visited her office to deliver some but not all of the order. She then expressed a special type of rage for the order being incomplete — that included unrecognizable Italian words! As she expressed her huge discontent, her staff and the company president casually gathered around, becoming an unintended audience of this discussion. After an extended exchange that day, which largely involved me listening to her and confronting my guilt, the outstanding book order arrived the day after (& before the competition was able to produce…); the client then permitted my delivery of her product, with discussions of ongoing business to follow. Whew.
I mentioned to the U of MD classes that I then returned to the office, relieved(!), and invited a colleague to celebrate.
She preferred however a more thorough analysis on what happened with that client, suggesting: “We need to assess your conversation for persuasive elements.”
The (4) questions my colleague asked have since stuck – really helping my line of thinking toward persuasive conversations in and beyond a stage dynamic:
1. What point of view did you represent?
There were many but the main one was to be the client’s trusted bookseller, even after my error. It helped to focus on this primary point of view and maintain empathy/respect for the client.
2. What was the audience’s (customer’s) point of view – and did it have merit?
It absolutely had merit and it warranted respect (and humility) on my part.
3. What was at stake in the conversation, both from a best case/worst case vantage point?
Worst case – a relationship would be lost with this client’s negative perception influencing her colleagues who also were potential clients. Best case – There was an opportunity to re-build trust, serve the client in future needs, and ideally those of her staff who also had budgets.
4. How did your emotional resolve create a persuasive advantage or disadvantage?
I really appreciated my colleague asking all of these questions but most of all this one. She helped to crystalize how emotions impacted the possibility of renewed trust and recovered common ground. Extending honest empathy vs being defensive with the client proved critical.
These questions set the stage for the value of persuasive speech and persuasive conversation in general with the students. I loved it and we talked more on engaging in public conversations via social media too — with more recaps from Quinn Kelley in 1701 and Brandon Isaac from 0801.
I had a motivating, super time.
And here are some favorite TED videos with incredibly effective persuasion (as requested from Professor Andi):
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor: for sharing a powerful, honest personal story
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: for her use of data in parallel to her enriching personal experience
Benjamin Zander: for his diverse ways of engaging the audience and relating through his passion
That’s Lina Almansa and Juan Botero, founders of D’Blend. They’re the digital production team that created the dynamic interactive video for Neil’s TEDx talk. Heck I may not be very objective with them as I worked with this team as Neil’s presentation
coach ie I’m a fan!
They were fantastic — and resilient in the face of mysterious tech challenges plus demands of some unique creative goals.
…on mobile now so more links and context forthcoming.
At TEDxPotomac this Thursday, Berit shared why she sees the DC region as an ideal leader for the business philosophy called co-opetition.
-Really enjoyed her talk and her kind, intelligent leadership that framed it.
Jill Foster Live Your Talk liveyourtalk.com @jillfoster
Wow.
What a fantastic experience meeting Neil through this TEDx gig; his sincere conviction for crowdsourcing is addictive — as is his drive to express a presentation well.
Take down of his TEDx talk here: http://www.cooltownstudios.com/2010/05/21/tedx-transcript-on-crowdsourced-pla…
My pics are going up via mobile now with a blog series brewing in the brain on the whole, incredible coaching dynamic that emerged.
Jill Foster Live Your Talk liveyourtalk.com @jillfoster
