Feb 26

Creating Killer Content Off the Cuff, part 3

I’ve had a bit of a think and this could be a way for the Borden Method for public speaking, as discussed in the former blog of Public Speaking Coach, Eric Feng and Mind Mapping as written about in my previous post could synergise. To start with we have from the Borden method that featured on Eric’s blog:

“Ho-Hum” (B-O-R-I-N-G!)

If you’ve read the earlier article you’ll know that this is what you imagine your audience shouts at you. So, if you’re able to plan your speech in advance, even if it’s a few minutes before, you know that you need a strong opening. Perhaps ask yourself what sort of information can I give my audience that will make them ask themselves “why?”

If they ask themselves why, then they’re engaged in your speech. This becomes the first branch on your Mind Map. As you move onto your first point imagine the audience saying to you:

“why bring that up?”

This means that you will need to find a good solid reason for the point that you have just made. Your point should relate to your overall message. The next part of the method is:

“For instance?”

This statement means that you will need to come up with an example to back up the point that you just made. So far, so straightforward. The final statement is:

“So what?”

This is the part where you conclude and draw out the core message of your speech. Now, the only problem with the Borden method I see is that it doesn’t support the standard Toastmasters structure, which is absolutely fine if you’re having to give a short talk.

But the three-point structure that Toastmasters uses is specific for helping you to create a 5-7 minute speech with three points and supporting information.

The point of this post is to work out a way to synergise the two methods. So for my money it’s simply a question of repeating steps two and three for your second and third points.

The final structure would, therefore, look something like this:

“B-O-R-I-N-G!”
“why bring that up?”
“For instance?”
“why bring that up?”
“For instance?”
“why bring that up?”
“For instance?”
“So what?”

You can see how this works in the Mind Map below:

Public Speaking Mind Map

Please note: once you’ve clicked on the image use your back arrow in your browser to come back to this blog!

In fact you could imagine the audience asking those questions for however many points you want to make in your speech. But for this example I’m just sticking to the classic three-point structure.Although, admittedly, it is now somewhat longer than the original four-point approach, it does provide a clearer method with each point backed up. The Mind Map is useful because it’s a memory technique and helps you remember the structure and it allows you to see how the ideas in your speech inter-connect.

So next time you have a speech that you have to create killer content off the cuff or, ideally, with a bit more planning try to think through the above structure so you can pre-empt your audience’s internal questions.

March 6th 2008 Update!!!

I’ve just come across a review of the Mind Mapping software iMindMap 2.0. I’ve used the trial version of the software, but unfortunately my laptop died in an unrelated incident. So I have to go through the process of getting hold of iMindMap again. Sigh. The software’s from Tony Buzan’s company and allows to create mind maps like you do with traditional pens and paper.

I also saw on Chuck Frey’s MindMapping Software blog that he’d written about 3 benefits of visual mapping in meetings. This can esaily be applied to individuals too. Here’s one of the benefits:“1. It creates a much higher level of engagement among meeting participants. This has to do with the way our minds work, Sibbett explains. When our minds see a work in progress – such as a sketch or a mind map – they want to fill in the missing details”.If you have longer to develop the speech and you plan to use it more than once, you can always add more to it and it can grow over a period of time.

 

Feb 20

How Can You Capture Your Sense of Humour?

For those of you who really want to learn stand-up comedy, or humorous speaking, I wanted to share with you a recent newsletter that I received from my comedy colleague Steve Roye. His newsletter is the “Comedy Success Professional Newsletter” (CSPN) and is offered specifically for new and experienced comedy professionals.

If you haven’t done so already, read my review of The Fast Start Guide review, then get your own copy and sign up to Steve’s newsletter. You won’t regret it.

I wanted to re-post an extract of one his newsletter’s here and supply some of my own thoughts alongside Steve’s (mine appear in italics). It’ll also help you get a taster of the quality of information that he provides that helps you learn stand-up comedy and techniques for creating humorous material.

In this particular newsletter Steve was asked whether he makes eye contact with someone when he made them laugh. Hope you enjoy it:

—Start of newsletter extract—

“When you make people laugh in everyday life without “thinking” about it… Were you making eye contact with the person you made laugh at something you said?It should go without saying that making someone laugh while talking on the phone doesn’t count….”

See I think that it does count. A laugh is a laugh, surely? If you can make a note of exactly what you said (see further down this post) then I think you can certainly try it out. Obviously making eye contact AND being in the room’s best. But why not experiment?

“But in person… While there are no absolutes, I would be willing to bet that MOST of the time, you were looking directly at the person you made laugh.

In other words, you were making direct eye contact when laughter “struck” the other person out of the blue. While this may not seem like a big deal now, trust me — it’s huge and can be directly applied to the comedy stage or podium.”

Yup, have done that. Whilst I haven’t tried out entire bits that have been created in everyday conversation, the odd line here and there has definitely worked when translated to the stage.

“For now, just keep track and make a mental note on whether or not you make direct eye contact when you make someone laugh in casual conversation…”

I always try to carry an ideas book around with me. Think the best thing might be to carry around a small dictaphone, so then you can record entire bits that get created in conversation and the correct wording and inflection can be captured too.

But before I go there, I want you to understand what I am trying to accomplish in this series. First, I DON’T want you to be “on the lookout” for anything in advance. Otherwise, you won’t simply be “you”.”

Absolutely. I’m usually too busy doing the funny that I forget to write it down even after the event. But you should definitely write the ideas and lines down AFTER the event. Not during.

“You will end up being some sort of analytical wiene that won’t get any laughs…”

Hmm, already an analytical weine (sic). Just happen to get the laughs too. Which is a nice bonus 🙂

“What I DO want you to do is pay attention to some things AFTER you have made someone laugh without
“thinking about” what you did to make them laugh in the first place.

In other words, you don’t even begin to think about what happened until after it has happened — the trigger here is…

You made someone laugh under “ordinary”, everyday circumstances, just being yourself. Only then do you start thinking about what happened…”

—End of newsletter extract—

Absolutely, although sometimes I think the difficulty can arise in situations where you make people laugh about, say, colleagues in a work environment. So your colleague is laughing at another colleague’s expense.

In this scenario I’m not sure how that would translate into a platform situation. Not without a lot of explanation at least. In-jokes are probably best avoided, especially ones which are derogatory to your fellow employees.

What you have to remember is that if you’re giving a talk or presentation at work you are being watched by people. People love to be entertained and the mechanisms for making someone laugh in a bar, by the water cooler, as a stand-up comedian or during a presentation are no different.

Obviously, what can happen is that you feel different during a presentation. People expect different things, react in different ways and there can also be a different atmosphere in the room. There can be a certain amount of reservation amongst the participants. But they are still able to laugh, even if they might not be readily able.

What is worth doing, then, is finding personal stories that relate to the presentation or talk that you’re giving. This is also a useful starting point if you want to learn stand-up comedy. You cannot just present the facts or statistics, you have to find a way to personalise them through examples and stories. Which you can then use to bring out your own sense of humour.

That’s where your own sense of humour can come into play. If you’re able to keep a note of the funny things that you say…

And those funny lines are relevant to the topic of your speech…

Then you can definitely incorporate them. If your a speaker, you’re not setting out to be a laugh-out-loud comedian. Don’t worry. Remove that pressure right now. What you are setting out to do is to make the points of your talk more memorable. People often remember things better when they’re laughing and being entertained.

Even if you are setting out to learn stand-up comedy, you don’t want to pressurise yourself either. Just make sure that your stories and the humorous ideas that you capture are genuine.

What I’m talking about here goes beyond mere usage of joke writing formulas. Whilst they are very useful, you don’t have to use them in order to create humorous material for a speech or presentation. Oftentimes I’ve found that they actually get in the way of the comedy writing process.

However, they can sometimes be useful as they can help add detail and allow you to refine your funny lines and stories. So I’ll deal with them in a future post. Although, that said, I don’t even think Steve addresses them at all.

So, if you haven’t done so already, check out: The Fast Start Guide.

Update: 15th April 2009

Steve Roye now runs a blog useful for both stand-up comedians and humorous speakers called:
The Stand-up Comedy Professional

Note: There are affiliate links on this page. That means that if you make a purchase via my link I get paid a commission. It’s how I help pay the bills.

Feb 13

Dealing with Difficult Audiences

Diane DiRestan from the “Business Presentations” blog wrote an article on dealing with hecklers and difficult audiences. I wanted to reference her blog as well as recount my own experiences on the same topic.

Diane outlines a 3-point strategy for dealing with this type of situatuation: depersonalize, detach, and defuse. Check out her blog for further details. I think she’s absolutely right with her assessment. However, it’s sometimes difficult not to go head-to-head with a heckler and, as a result, set up a competitive dynamic. Although, if it can be avoided, then it absolutely should!

But the very fact that an audience member has heckled immediately makes the situation confrontational and fills the room full of tension which, as a speaker, you have to deal with. As Diane rightly says, if that happens and you can diffuse it with humour then so much the better.

I personally think you need to be able to find a way to end the exchange before it gets out of hand. The best way forward initially is to try and ignore the heckle, especially if it’s in a large audience. People don’t always hear the comment and it may just be you. Therefore if you launch into a vitrolic attack, you may come across as the “baddie” as you have seemingly attacked an innocent party.

But that’s not always possible, as sometimes a section of the audience hears the heckle. Not everyone always hears the heckle, but even so a lot of times the rest of the audience knows that someone has said something. In this situation, I think that if the heckler’s dealt with in a firm, but humorous way and you re-gain the audience’s attention then you can move on.

I was speaking at a charity gig once and had a similar experience. A drunken audience member commented during my speech, I acknowledged what he said, he shut up and I moved on. I actually can’t remember if I got a laugh or not, but the very fact that I was on the ball and acknowledged the situation meant that I was capable of dealing with the situation even if it got out of hand. I asserted my authority.

Whereas the speaker who followed me wasn’t quite so lucky…

He just stayed there and slugged it out with the heckler and continued with his speech. Not only did the heckler get more instense with his vitriol, but other audience members joined in, initially to shout the heckler down.

Then the speaker’s suporters turned on the speaker when it became apparent that he couldn’t read an audience and his speech seemed overly complicated. I felt he should have cut his losses, realised the audience was beginning to turn against him and wound up his speech. Instead he carried on for 20 minutes after being heckled about 7 minutes in.

What to do in that sort of situation? I think that if a heckler “takes hold” and there’s nothing you can do to stop their torrent of abuse and disturbance of your speech then two things have to happen a) you cut your speech short and leave the platform b) the heckler gets ejected.

There are not always people mon hand to eject a heckler in this sort of situation.To my knowledge it’s still common practise in the Jongleurs comedy club chain. But speaking is an entriely different animal. Due to the gladitorial nature of stand-up you expect to be heckled. Not so with speaking.

I think in the above story, the speaker should have realised that his speech was going down like a lead balloon. He wasn’t attempting to entertain the audience; a fatal mistake. I think there has to be a certain amount of entertainment, especially if you’re speaking after dinner and people have drunk some alcohol.

Sometimes losing an audience’s attention is obvious. If people begin quietly chatting amongst themselves, generally it’s you that has made them lose interest. So you need to cut it short and go. Other times, it’s subtle; especially if the audience is sober.

I was in an audience recently at a Toastmasters club watching a 15-minute keynote speech and at a certain point at least 50% of the audience shifted in their seats at the same time! It was a weird experience, especially as I was one of the ones that moved. But when all those people moved together it was like it was rehearsed.

In that sort of a situation I think it becomes necessary to re-capture a restless audience’s attention. This is something that I have mentioned before. Those are the sorts of things that need to be kept an eye on when you’re speaking. Sometimes the audience getting restless or uncomfortable might not be because of the speaker. It could be the environment or something else beyond the speaker’s control.

The thing is to notice that type of situation and “head them off at the pass”, find a way to re-gain their attention before it gets worse and they turn into hecklers. Perhaps the above mentioned speaker could’ve employed The Hancock Manoeuvre?

Feb 06

Is Lots of Stage Time Really the Key to Being a Great Speaker? part 2

So as a sort of follow on from my last post I managed to get myself along to a different Toastmasters club tonight. London transport being what it is I probably would not have made it home if I’d have gone earlier in the week. But I found myself at Canary Wharf Communicators. It’s been on my to visit list for a while as it’s geographically quite close for me.

Not only that but the Vice President of Education , Rory Marriott, made a comment on this blog earlier in the week, so I thought it’d be nice to put a face to the post. It’s always good to be able to know the content of a Toastmasters evening, but have it conducted in slightly different ways in each club. So there’s a sense of familiarity and newness all at the same time.

As soon as I mentioned that I was an experienced Toastmasters I was immediately thrown in the deep end and asked to be a Table Topics Evaluator. Of course, I was more than happy to oblige. I was, however, unaware that I could have been evaluated myself tonight. I was under the impression (from what I’ve been told in the past) that in order to deliver a speech at a Toastmasters club, you have to be a member of that particular club.

his, as it turns out, is not strictly true. Which suddenly opens up a whole world of possibilities. That said, if you’re struggling to get a role at your club and someone from another club waltzes in and gets a speaking role without being a member, you’d be duly miffed.

So in order for it to fully work there would have to be some reciprocation. If you were able to get a speaking role at a different club, in my case if I spoke at Canary Wharf, then my home club, Grosvenor Square would have to offer a Toastmaster from Canary Wharf a role at it’s club. Fair’s fair.

Another interesting thing that Rory and I spoke about in the final part of the evening – the bar afterwards – was that it’s possible to become a mystery speaker at a club during the Evaluations Contests. This is something I’d hadn’t thought ab out befor either. By doing this you get to work on a speech and have 5 people giving you evaluations.

So if it’s a speech that you want to develop further, say it’s from the competent communicator manual, and you’d like to re-visit the subject for an Advanced Manual, then you would know that sort of things that worked in the speech as well as knowing what areas you need to work on as a speaker.

Rory actually wrote an article on that subject which got reprinted over at The London Speaker blog. This is certainly a valuable thing to bear in mind as it’s useful to help you develop your speeches. Not only that but of course it’s of great bebenfit to the club that you go and help out.

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Feb 03

Is Lots of Stage Time Really the Key to Being a Great Speaker?

I recently had a brief email exchange with Darren LaCroix, 2001 World Speaking Champion. He said that I should be speaking once a week at a minimum, even if it’s at Toastmasters. So I’ve decided to take him up on his challenge.

From tomorrow I’m going to visit as many of the London Toastmasters clubs as I can. I was originally a member of two, but had to leave one when I moved to a different part of London, otherwise I would’ve probably been traveling for more than an hour just to get there. So I need to find a secondary club. I know there are two near me as I currently reside in the East End. So I’ll probably pop along to those.

I’d also like to join Excalibur Speakers because they are predominantly a club for Advanced Speakers. But the only thing is they are only a monthly club (most clubs here in London meet twice a month), so that greatly reduces the frequency of stage time. But it would improve my game.

After all, that’s what it’s all ab out – the stage time. The more frequently I get up to speak in front of an audience in no matter what scenario the more my confidence will grow. I’m a pretty confident speaker anyway, my background as a professional actor and a comedian has provided me with the ability to be able to get up in front of a crowd.

But in order for anyone to grow as a speaker that must speak. Kind of makes sense really. If you’re only outlet is Toastmasters use it as the tool that it is. Whether you’re scheduled to do a manual speech, a leadership role, a table topics or you just get to stand up as a guest at the end of the evening and say how much you enjoyed being at the club that evening, stage time is stage time.

When Darren LaCroix was preparing for the World Championship not only did you frequent many different clubs honing his championship speech, but he also took it into comedy clubs too. That way he’d really get to see what bits were working and which bit weren’t.

For those of you who don’t know, LaCroix’s a humorous speaker with a background as a stand-up. So it made complete sense for him to get comedy club gigs and really hone his speech down. So not only did he work out the timing of the laughs, but he also got tonnes and tonnes of stage time.

You’ll find that there are similarities amongst the top speakers in the world. apart from earning large some of money and helping out business or educational establishments. One, is that they write on a daily basis, as Eric Feng pointed out recently over on The Public Speaking Blog. The other is that they speak – frequently. You can’t hope to develop as a stand-up or as a speaker with getting up on to a stage or platform and do the thing that you say you do.

I myself speak fairly frequently. But I think it’ll be nice for me to try and crank things up a notch or two. I’m going to try and track my progress here. But obviously, I might have to take the odd day off from my mission to see my friends and family. With any luck i’ll be able to meet some of the other London speakers that I’ve recently been in touch with via this blog.