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.
A gorgeous sunrise starts this video (that’s fyi if you just have a second vs 3 minutes for the whole screening!)
In the spirit of new beginnings and perspective, Happy Good Friday.
Today started at DC’s Lincoln Memorial for some reflection as the sun peeped up. It was a vibrant moment. That sunrise and this Good Friday have stimulated new views toward Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address for me.
It’s oddly alluring and startling all at once to be struck by a favorite text or speech in a different way (…after perceiving it in a certain light for years).
Have you ever crossed a similar bridge?
That altered perspective happened with one idea in particular with the Gettysburg Address, more fleshed out in the video moments above.
Remember his thought here, with this line?
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation [our nation] …can long endure.”
His use of the word testing stands out anew here. It’s a strong assertion, truthful in light of the huge civil strife, and also daunting. For whatever reason, I hadn’t fully considered the fact the president could’ve been testing his own certitude for how we would prevail. This is startling, a concept I haven’t consciously digested. Naive though it may be to feel this — I crave a president’s certainty, especially one like Lincoln during this gigantic national pivot!
Grappling with and rethinking the world’s great speeches motivates this new video series “Rhetoric Relived.” Sunrise moments are irreplaceable for refreshed perspective; so it’s my fond hope to keep recording on site at dawn.
Lincoln’s speech is a pillar of oratory strength, with critique of it widely offered in our nation’s robust speech history. His efficiency with ideas, nobility, and sense of reverence has drawn my attention in the past. But for some reason, this Good Friday and living in DC have sparked a renewed take on what he asserted with that line.
Is it obvious he doubts, even slightly, the tenacity of our national life? Maybe! It’s taken me years though (and more coffee!) to really stop and look at his assertion there. It is beautiful, strong, and unnerving still…just thinking our decisions as a country henceforth from Gettysburg just may derail us.
Or hopefully instead our country’s decisions and nation will “have a new birth of freedom…and not perish from the earth.”).
What strikes you in a different light - an exchange with another, a decision, an outcome, or something else?
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.
There are so many great ideas on how to start a video blog and express one’s self to the camera. From the perspective of growing as a public speaker, I heartily see videoblogging as a fantastic development tool.
I really enjoyed it because of her genuine, comical nature which she shared.
Her video also demonstrated these three tips for getting a video blog off the ground (which can apply to shaping your mindset when talking to the camera in general).
And the 3 tips are:
1. Seek honesty vs perfection.
The camera is a 100% truth finder. Faking it? It sees it. Doubting your ideas or words? The camera (and thus audience) sees that too. She (Lisa) didn’t shy away from the fact she was nervous about talking to the camera. Expressing her anxiety openly fit into the topic of her overall video blog.
2. Assert clear intent.
Did Lisa have a distinct message, as if giving a media Q&A? No and that was absolutely fine (and more natural). She did however assert clear, simple intent and purpose for the video i.e. to share her big goals to improve physically and professionally.
3. Create momentum through editing, a layered viewpoint, or storyboarded structure.
Stimulating energy in the cut itself can be done with different editing decisions. It can be achieved by showing enthusiasm and conviction for your topic. Choosing a specific content structure enables energy to come across too. This was Lisa’s approach: choosing a simple consecutive structure. Lisa conveys uncertainty about her structure in the video itself. It works however.
She relayed one-by-one different goals she wants to accomplish this year. That added vocal variety and thus stimulus from an audience’s vantage point (yet without losing focus on the main purpose of her cut).
What ideas and tips do you like to use when “getting your video blog on?”
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.
Welcome to this week’s edition of the #silent10 video project - which combines the practice of silent meditation with social video. The goal: to make the meditative benefits of silence more shareable online.
Want to share 10 seconds of silence?
UPDATE:
Friend and Simply Leap founder Lauree Ostrofsky just submitted her 10 seconds of silence. Her gaze and face are wonderful, just wonderful.
The Friday Fiscal Tickle video experiment
A few years ago my husband and I really wanted to get our personal finances together. That commitment led to a renewed interest in world financial news. And at the time, I wondered if online video could make the whole approach to learning such subject matter more playful (and somehow digestible to my learning style). All this brought an informal (SILLY!) video project to life – called the Friday Fiscal Tickle series.
Over months of time, app. 22 mini video cuts shaped the ‘tickle’ series at roughly 90 seconds each. Each clip is a micro digest about global fiscal events where I play around on camera as a news anchor and multiple personalities.
It was an absolute blast.
The goal frankly was to somehow crack myself up with the camera on, to just have fun. I learned a lot. Strangely it was clear these videos were accessible online and public; but back then I don’t believe I fully internalized the fact folks would potentially watch.
Does that make a hill of sense?
Later as my business took shape, I re-allocated time toward that and away from this tickle-video playground. But eventually the series took on a whole new level of developmental impact, beyond the just-having-fun aspect.
What Friday Fiscal Tickle taught as a public speaker and speaker coach — is that loss of self-consciousness is a great, great liberator.
Every blue moon ‘tickle’ video would come to mind. Nice friends or colleagues would ask about it. Or (gulp…) sponsors at events where I’d be speaking would mention: “Hey that tickle series is fun.”
Then the mental games would begin in my head. And questions like these would swirl around in self-doubt:
-Is Fiscal Tickle video too goofy?
-Does the series send the absolute wrong image to prospects, partners, or heck – Mom and Dad?
Then the moment-of-clarity struck and this realization suppressed all other doubt:
“Holy Smokes, how liberating! Those videos were a blast. They were fun. And somehow, the fact that others were allowed to observe the goofiness was not a concern. Those cuts created a chance to not be so self-conscious, to storyboard concepts, to play, to create, to deliver.”
Is that not a vision of confidence for a pubic speaker?
…it is at least for this speaker and coach at this end of the netz.
It was a liberating realization!
So to celebrate this re-commitment to fun self expression, a Friday Fiscal Tickle episode will be re-published here at Live Your Talk intermittently.
What do you think?
What project or topic is so fun and stimulating that your paranoid sense of self slips away….and authentic expression takes over?
Silence flat out fascinates. When practiced and exerted, it yields a range of results (with distinct impact too when giving a speech to a doubtful audience). And earlier this year, practicing meditative silence became a priority. It felt good. It cultivated clarity of mind and inner ease.
That’s what this Silent10 video experiment is about.
On a weekly basis, I practice silent meditation yet honestly I’ve been inconsistent with publishing the video clips. Sometimes others participate too and record themselves being silent for just a few seconds.
Above my friend and business coach Nicolette Pizzitola participates in the project. For 10 seconds, she is quiet and looking head on to the camera.
That’s it.
In some way, this project is expansive and gratifying to me …if for any other reason - it crystalizes beauty.
Just looking at Nicolette, this becomes evident — for she is open, steadfast, and beautiful.
What do you think of this type of experiment?
What are your thoughts of spreading the benefits of silence through video, and making them more shareable online?
Have you ever been told your stage presence was “duller than a box of rocks?”
To clarify: it’s a special level of suck.
A straight-talking mentor gave that feedback years ago after seeing me deliver a speech. At the time my wounded ego just wanted to resign from public audiences altogether.
Studying stage presence and public speaking however became a fascination. And to this day, how to energize stage presence remains the most popular question from colleagues, students, or clients.
They are often bewildered at what to do.
…which is understandable. Causes could be rigid or feeble vocals, over accelerated pacing, anxiety management or a sundry of things. Or sometimes it’s purely a content issue where certain writing vehicles can add momentum to the presentation. But much of the time, the content is solid leaving stage presence as the item to tackle.
Energy, impromptu storytelling, & social apps
A colleague further framed this challenge so well and asked:
“How can I make my energy more consistent from a stage presence point of view?”
Presenting in front of a live audience and feedback community is stellar practice for stage presence – like Toastmasters or Ignite. But in lieu of those defined public scenarios, there’s another option.
An absolute favorite and results-inspiring solution is to practice a lot with social applications.
The goal?
Practice impromptu storytelling and externalizing your voice as often as possible with a few audio and video tools (smart phone apps included). Keep your recordings private if that’s preferred.
But just investing conscious energy in this exercise a few minutes a day can expand energetic capacity when facing live audiences.
Suggestions for social tools:
Audio apps: Audioboo.fmorcinchcast.fm are mobile and web platforms with reliable audio, a simple interface plus the ability to add other types of media to your audio casts. And both have apps for iPhone and Android;
Video and group apps:
Viddy is emerging as the Instagram of video: it enables 15 seconds of recording with visual filters. You talk about energizing your mind and vocabulary in a hurry! It’s a compelling tool with some major growth since its recent launch. And CloudTalk is a fascinating platform with both iPhone and Android apps – allowing you to share video, audio, text to public users or to a private group (this storytelling app, Blurb, looks fascinating but I’ve yet to toy with it.).
Perfection vs progress
When it comes to upping stage energy, nothing replaces the chance to practice in front of live audiences from a defined stage space. Yet waiting for perfect circumstances inhibits ultimate progress; so I vote for creating a stage-like dynamic with social tools like these. What do you think?!
Becoming your own best audience
Whether recording via audio or video, these tools (and you) become your own reliable audience. And the chance to practice impromptu storytelling or simply get your voice out of your head is an energetic exercise. From my personal work and through observing others too, this practice has fostered more fluid and energized presence from the stage.
Are you game to try these exercises?
What other ideas have helped you galvanize your own stage presence?
A story that grapples with these questions plus examples unfold in the quickie video above (which is also apart of Tinu Abayomi-Paul’s video challenge project – which you can participate in too).
As for key messaging for your presentations, what helps you formulate your primary point for your speech content? Do you like that part of preparation? What are examples that you’d enjoy sharing?
Discerning and shaping key messages can be a welcome but distinct challenge for me — so please, your ideas are welcome anytime in the comments(!)
