The Power of the Smile

Watch this fascinating talk on Ted.com by Ron Gutman, entitled "The Hidden Power of the Smile:"




Gutman explains,

It's very difficult to frown when looking at someone who smiles. You ask why? Because is evolutionarily contagious and suppresses the control we usually have over our facial muscles.


From the Green Room: When you speak, your emotions are contagious. If you suffer during your presentation, your audience will suffer with you. But if you smile and your audience will smile in return - and instantly feel more positively towards you.

Drop the "The"

I love this scene from the Social Network:



Sean Parker gives Mark Zuckerberg a critical piece of advice:

Drop the "The." Just Facebook. It's cleaner.

This tiny change made all the difference.

From the Green Room: When you speak, be ruthless about eliminating words that muddle your language and distract from your point.

Keep your language clean and direct.

Make each word count.

Lessons about Stage Fright from the Kentucky Derby Announcer

This year, Tom Durkin, who has called the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown horse races on network TV has decided not to renew his contract on NBC Sports. Why?

Stress and performance anxiety.

Listen to this interview from last Wednesday's All Things Considered on NPR:



When Melissa Block asks Durkin why he quit, he answers:

"For three months a year, I'd be walking around with this pit in my stomach...the stress leads to bad health... I tried everything I could to treat it with hypnosis which I've been doing for 20 years."

The interviewer then brings up the 2009 Kentucky Derby, where a horse comes out of nowhere and wins. She asks whether that was one of his nightmare scenarios.

Turns out, Durkin's nightmares are not the kind that actually happen in real life. He explains:

"I have crazy nightmares. Most of the time, I can't get to the announcer's booth or someone has spray painted my binoculars and I can't see through...One time in my subconscious mind I was calling the Kentucky Derby and a Norwegian cruise liner came down the stretch and I couldn't see the horses! Those are big ships, too. Can't see many horses behind them."

I wonder what would have happened if one of these things had actually happened during a race, and Durkin lived to tell the tale. If someone had actually spray painted his binoculars (or freighted a cruise ship onto the track), perhaps it would take some of the anxiety out.

Perhaps it is the possibility and not the reality of this type of nightmare that makes it so scary and anxiety-producing.

From the Green Room: The next time something unexpected trips you up during a presentation, be grateful. That is one more stressful situation you no longer have to be afraid of!



From the

3 Things I Learned from Ric Elias

Here are three speaking lessons from Ric Elias' speech:

1. Begin and end with power. Elias begins and ends brilliantly by asking us to imagine a life-altering experience.

2. Use concrete detail to reinforce your message. Seat 1D. Smoke filled the airplane. Prepare for impact. Elias' speech is filled with memorable, vivid, and relevant detail.

3. Make each word count.

P.S. Notice I mentioned three lessons. Why? People remember things in threes more than any other number. Elias also masterfully uses the Rule of Three.

Ric Elias: 3 things I Learned While My Plane Crashed

On every level, this is truly a remarkable speech:

Speaking Lesson from Wal-Mart

One of my favorite books is Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath.

According to the Heaths, “If you attempt to say three things, you end up saying nothing.” In other words, have one message and stick to it.

Apparently, Wal-Mart learned this lesson the hard way. According to Steve Inskeep on NPR's Morning Edition this week:

Wal-Mart has given up on the upscale end of the downscale market.

The retailer suffered a two-year slide in sales. This may be part of the reason: It was trying to promote the style of its products. It was competing with Target, which features famous clothing designers.

But Wal-Mart says it lost customer confidence in having the lowest price, so it's returning to its roots, positioning itself as the place where you can buy lots of stuff really cheap.

From the Green Room: Before you write your presentation, determine the one thing you want people to know. Let the rest of your content flow from that core message.

Speak to Move, Not to Inform

In this TED video, Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, discusses his revolutionary approach to education:



Khan advocates flipping the traditional classroom model. How? Lectures happen at home, and homework happens at school.

At the Khan Academy, students first watch educational videos in order to learn the material at home at their own pace. The "homework" part happens the next day - in the classroom with the teacher there to help.

Khan points out that what is so remarkable about this approach is that technology is actually being used to humanize the experience of learning.

Khan's talk reminded me of the problem with speaking to a group in order to simply give them information. It is far more effective instead to speak to an audience in order to move them.

After all, people remember much more how they felt when they hear a speech, rather than the information they learned. Perhaps this is because people learn as distinct individuals, but they feel things as human beings.

From the Green Room: Speak to move, not to inform. Remember that the power of a live presentation can be fully actualized only when there is an emotional connection between the speaker and the audience.

How to Feed Your PowerPoint Addiction

Who knew there were smartphone apps designed to help people give better presentations?

In this week's "Killer Apps" on Slate.com, Farhad Manjoo shows us a few:

http://www.slate.com/id/2288534/

I was disappointed to see that the main app featured enables further dependency on PowerPoint. The app actually lets you download your PowerPoint presentation right onto your phone.

What a brilliant way to merge two addictions - PowerPoint and Smartphones!

Could someone design a public speaking app that teaches speakers to get away from the screen - and connect with the people in the audience?

But perhaps this is a lesson that's better given in person.

Speaking Advice from SNL

In this week's New Yorker, Tina Fey recounts nine "Lessons from Late Night" - what she learned from working with Lorne Michaels.

Lesson #7 is "Never cut to a closed door." Tina writes:

Lorne said this once in exasperation...the director had cut to a door a moment too soon, before the actor entered, and in that moment Lorne felt we had "lost the audience"...Lorne would have preferred that the camera cut follow the sound of the actor knocking on the door. Which is to say that the sketch should lead the cutting pattern, which is to say that content should dictate style.



From the Green Room: Let your message and your content dictate your speaking style. Most delivery problems stem from a lack of clarity about the content. If you are 100 percent clear on what you are trying to say, your delivery will flow much more naturally and the your audience will stay engaged.

Anne Hathaway and James Franco: What Not to Do

Clearly, Anne Hathaway and James Franco bombed as hosts of this years' Academy Awards.

Their downfall can be summed up in one word:

Status.

From the moment they stepped on stage, Hathaway and Franco lowered their status. They managed to appear even younger and sillier than they actually are. Franco acted as though the evening were a joke, and Hathaway acted like a star-struck teenager. Both did not act hosts, but rather like annoying kids taking over a grown-up party. And as a result, they lowered the status of the entire event.

Another word for the host of an event is "Master of Ceremonies." The key word here is "master." The MC's job is not just to keep things moving, but to do so masterfully - with a sense of authority and grace, thus elevating the event.

This was painfully highlighted when Hathaway and Franco introduced Billy Crystal who then
"introduced" Bob Hope. For a brief moment, we were reminded of what a host is actually supposed to do.

From the Green Room: The next time you MC an event, be masterful. Remember, you are the host - not the guest, and your job is to elevate - not to ingratiate. Rather than lavish praise upon the other speakers and the audience, (which many of us are tempted to do), aim to bring a sense of dignity, respect, and elegance to the affair.

Colin Firth: How to Make the Universal Unique

Could there have been a duller set of speeches than the ones at this year's Academy Awards? How many times must we witness the same old "incredulous" reaction of the winners?

Last year, Sandra Bullock stood out from the crowd. This year, it was Best Actor Winner, Colin Firth. He managed to communicate the giddy joy of the moment without sounding like a tired cliche:

From the Green Room: The speeches we remember the most are the ones which express universal truth in a voice that is both distinct and authentic.

Speaking Lesson from Gabrielle Giffords

I find Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' recovery process inspirational, particularly as a speech trainer.

How does a person begin to recover from such traumatic brain damage? How does a person relearn the ability to speak?

According to a recent NYT piece by Marc Lacey and James C. McKinley Jr., one way is through singing:


With a group of friends and family members acting as a backup chorus, Ms. Giffords has been mouthing the lyrics to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love, Baby.” And as a surprise for her husband, who is celebrating his birthday this month, a longtime friend who has been helping her through her rehabilitation videotaped her mouthing the words to “Happy Birthday to You...”

According to Dr. David Langer, an associate professor of neurosurgery, the use of singing... is a standard technique to help restore speech in people with brain injuries.

This reminds me of an earlier post, in which I quoted speaking advice from Roger Love, one of the foremost vocal coaches in the world:

Try practicing singing your speech.

Love explains:

"When you do (sing your speech), you'll find yourself discovering interesting ways to emphasize words, you'll hear them a different way, and you'll begin to hear the real message shining through...Singing gives you new perspective on your material because it's one of the only times both sides of your brain -- the creative, imaginative side and the orderly, logical side -- operate together. When you practice by singing a few phrases, then going back to speak them, you tap into the power of your whole brain...and you can't help but express yourself in a way that feels whole. You might even surprise yourself. Your delivery feels fresh and people can't help but listen to you."

(Roger Love, Set Your Voice Free, p178-9)

From the Green Room: Practice singing your speech. Singing opens up your voice and helps you tap into the essence of what you are trying to communicate.

End the Silence. Overcome Your Fear.

In Saturday's NYT, Adam Liptak writes that it has been nearly five years since Justice Clarence Thomas has spoken during a court argument:

In the past 40 years, no other justice has gone an entire term, much less five, without speaking at least once during arguments, according to Timothy R. Johnson, a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota.

Apparently, here is one reason why:

He has said...that he is self-conscious about the way he speaks. In his memoir, “My Grandfather’s Son,” he wrote that he had been teased about the dialect he grew up speaking in rural Georgia. He never asked questions in college or law school, he wrote, and he was intimidated by some fellow students.

Clearly, this is an insecurity that can and needs to be overcome.


From the Green Room: Don't let fear or insecurity get in the way of your being a better and more confident speaker. While the fears may be real, they can also be overcome. The payoff is immeasurable - even if you're not on the Supreme Court.

More Lessons from a Ukulele

Part of what makes Jake Shimabukuro's ukulele performance so remarkable is the element of surprise. We think of the ukulele as a simple, happy instrument - perfect for jamming a three- chord song on the beaches of Maui.

By choosing to play the multifaceted and complex Bohemian Rhapsody, we see this instrument in a new and unexpected light.

The same is true for your voice.

The human voice is an amazing instrument that has unlimited potential. The problem is that we tend to put our voices into a box. We speak with limited variation - in "three chords" - rather than push ourselves into new and unexpected vocal terrain.

I help my clients to exercise their voices in new ways so that they are capable of much more nuanced and complex ways of speaking.

A theater director once said to me, "Your voice is gift." How true. Challenge yourself to make the most of your voice, just as Jake Shimabukuro makes this most out of his ukulele.

Lessons from a Ukulele

According to musician Jake Shimabukuro from his bio on this week's Ted.com:

"...The ukulele means more (to Jake) than grass skirts and loud shirts. He's on a mission to revolutionize our perception of the four-string, two-octave instrument."

In what is a very obvious example of "show, don't tell," Jake expresses his love for the ukulele not by talking about it, but by playing a stirring rendition of "Bohemian Rhapsody:"



From the Green Room: Most of us don't something as clear as a musical instrument to show, rather than describe a message.

But we all can learn from Jake's TED presentation.

If you're trying to tell a group of employees how much they matter to the company, focused eye contact says more than words.

If you're trying to sell a new product, a physical demonstration is so much more memorable than a description.

And if you're delivering bad news, the tone of your voice can soften the blow the way no words can.

In whatever way you can, show, don't tell.