The Speech of Your Life...

How about a few words?

“It usually takes more than three weeks to create a good impromptu speech.” Mark Twain didn’t want to “wing it”.  He wanted to give the moment it’s due.  Perhaps he had a message of thanks or inspiration to share.  It’s hard to imagine that he could lose his point or his points of reference.  He probably would have known very well what he wanted to say.  What his (attributed) quote tells us is that he, for any given invitation, wanted to carefully prepare how he would say it.  I’ve seen many confident speakers under-prepare for the weekly address, an annual event, or a lifetime achievement award acceptance.  There's confidence and there's over-confidence.  As practiced professionals, we want to believe that nothing can phase our message, that we’ve been speaking all our lives and, how tough can it be to reiterate what we know.  But approaching the moment of human connection is different from developing the original thought at home on your computer.  As I was processing these thoughts, I looked around on the net and noticed more than one speaker in chat mode, searching for good quotes they could use in impromptu speeches.  Teachers and lecturers know that preparation is required to take impromptu (unprepared thought in an unprepared moment) to extemporaneous (prepared thoughts in an unprepared moment). 

To grip and distribute the full power of a brief opportunity,  we must take in several key components of good communication.  The real gist of the material, the message, the story, the value must be prepared, and that may not be the toughest part of a good impromptu appearance.  As an author, coach, teacher, doctor, scientist, or a tech-boomie, you probably have an established story to tell.  Regardless of how much you know, taking a story to the disguise of the impromptu moment will require awareness of the setting, timing, participation, background and these days, sensitivities far beyond one’s own.  Context and sensitivity are critical to succeeding in delivering a moment which is offered to be either a lighter moment or a profound opportunity.  Preparation for the impromptu moment can be  tedious, and it can go to extremes. 

For example, a well known comedian who later became a mega movie star; many times in his early years of comedic road shows he would spontaneously cut off an audience members tie.  There was always a guy with a tie and he was usually sitting on the end of the aisle.  Every time it all looked impromptu, in the moment, free moving because it was never the same setting or timing or victim.  Here, it just sounds like a repeated joke, but it went down as fresh every time.  Another powerful example, the public role played by my wife.  She is a public-relations director for a very visible non-profit, and may, on any given day, be standing before the reporters cameras answering inquiries about the latest changes in programs and services, or to dispel rumors which spawned from a police report.  She must be on point, on message, 24/7, regardless the scenario or the question. 

You’ve been asked to say a few words at an event, nothing prepared, really.  First, know the setting and the subject of the moment; know the short version, know the long version, know the details and how to bound the length of your response.  Think about what the event planner will go through to create your “nothing prepared” moment.  How much time will you have, or take?  Is your real audience in the room, or out there on Youtube? Remember, out there, the sound bite rules.  Take the time to say thank you to the right people.  Deliver your message in exactly the words you want to be heard.   If that requires editing in the moment, be light and easy, not heavy and serious, which can cause verbal stumbling.  Keep it moving and return to being “on message”, the message they respect you for already.  Stay in bounds - keep your heart where they already believed it was, with your own topics, purposes, and familiar, and hopefully safe jokes.  Practice.  Know every aspect of yourself, your image, your story, your content, in it’s most condensed poignant phrases.  If you can keep it short, you can always add length to fill the time allotted. 

Eventually, whether you expect it or not, you will hear, "How about a few words?"  Be ready to get to the point, every time, any time.  It probably will take a few weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. 

   

In your own way

“What could be different today, we’ve all seen it a million times?”  When it comes to public speaking, expectations are repetitive.   Speeches start at the front of the room, at the microphone, on the podium, stepping up to the lectern, reading from notes,  beginning with a PowerpointTM page with your logo and topic, and by now, some in room are already asleep.  Audiences have pre-programmed mental routines. Why would you want to do things any differently? 

In the modern surplus of seminars, speeches and videos, corporate and civic messages can easily get lost in a sea of same-dom.  Inevitably, you’ll discover the genuine need to be different.  Attendees, journalists, bloggers, and corporate representatives often return to home base with the same reading; “How was the conference this year, Bob?” Reply;  “Oh yeh, I did go to that last week, didn’t I?”  If you want your presentation to stand out and be remembered, you’ll need to do things in your own unique and different way.  What different means will be the exceptional moment that you create.  There are some easy ways to extend beyond the norm without bending the rules to the point of breaking the protocol of the event (and scaring your event coordinator in the process). 

Introductions and first impressions:   When an introducer walks off-stage before the speaker comes on, what happens?  All eyes are on the stage.  Have your introducer walk away before you walk in, creating an “open” moment when everyone is drawn to the stage just because the transition suddenly changes pace.  The mental reaction in the audience will range from “huh?” to a dramatic pause.  Either way, it draws focus, and the mind remembers what it focuses upon, which will be you, in the next moment. 

Here’s another option.  Have your introducer go through your introduction and then point to you in the back of the room.  If you are wired, start speaking right away from off-stage.  This kind of shake-up in expectations can cause the audience to expect something else different throughout, and they will pay more attention to your speech and content all the way through. 

Creative point-making:  It’s often the case that a business point or a plea for a caring action can be plain, normal, bo-ring.  Straightforward is powerful, but often dry and easily filed in the mental bin as more sameness.  Can you call upon a personal anecdote or tell a story that makes your point better than your material alone?  Since you are a living being, you probably have examples of wonderful events which may not immediately relate to your end point, and that’s where the creative part comes in.  I like to bring a point by having it sneak up on the listener;  a calamitous journey ended in a change of perspective, a dog taught me to pause and think of others, a young mother lost her child in the mall and discovered her deepest loyalties.  The details of a cancer battle, the facial reaction of the congressman to your proposal, the life lessons of your daughter as she moved away and began managing her life.  There is a path to humanizing every goal or topic.  The more detailed, the more it and you and your point will be remembered.  Don’t be afraid to dive into personal stories at any point in your presentation, but don’t take the audience down too many side-roads either - memorable stories are not the same as memorable points.  Make sure relevance is clear and connections are obvious. 

About those visuals:  When it comes to Powerpoint, begin differently.  That first slide could have a bona fide grabber on it - instead of the preliminary company logo and your name and title(boring), save that for a few slides later.  An image of the desired end state of change (a happy customer handshake, a parent-child hug, a smokestack with no emissions) will pull in the audience right away.  They will immediately want to hear how to make that happen.  They will see you at once as someone who cares about helping them see and make change happen.  Sell an idea first, establish common ground, then, introduce yourself.  Blank the screen from time to time, especially as you launch a detailed story.  If your point takes too time to reach, and your story content is not directly shoring up of the visual, kill the visual.  Come back to it at the right moment to use it to make the point and set up the next point.  This breaks up the mental processing routines, and causes a person to keep up, and again, causes positive focus.  Blank a screen too often, however, and you’re just playing with the technology.  Don’t overuse blanking.    

Being different does not mean appalling your host or splattering watermelon juice on the front row.  A slight distinction in speech presentation technique can make a big difference in retention - unique is memorable, and memorable is actionable.