If you live in America, today is the anniversary of that speech.
On 28th August, 1963, Martin Luther King spoke to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
I have a dream.
He had not intended to use that line – “I have a dream”. Along with the marchers, he had been singing gospel songs among other things as they marched. A powerful gospel singer and civil rights support, Mahalia Jackson had called to him “Tell them about the dream, Martin.”
And he told them about his dream – impromptu.
In 1999 this speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century, and at least part of it was impromptu!!
He had used the dream before in several speeches, so it wasn’t entirely impromptu, but chosen from his repertoire of “things that work”. Do you have a repertoire of “things that work”?
There had been several versions of the speech prepared beforehand, but none of them was used in its entirety.
The structure of the speech is graceful and powerful. I love Nancy Duarte‘s study of it.
He used the gospel connection well. He used geographical reference well. He used the American iconic moments of history well.
The clever rhetoric and speech structure are obvious.
The two moments that stand out for me are two examples of rhetoric. He resonated with lists and particularly anaphora, I think. The first was when he used “now is the time …” Suddenly what was merely a speech, now had passion. There was genuine feeling in his voice. The second was just before he introduced “I have a dream”. He had listed all the parts of the country his audience would return to, and it was as if he suddenly really connected with his audience. He left the script with his eyes and they continued to scan the audience. Suddenly the whole rhythm and pitch and pace of his speech changed. It returned but his face had changed. He felt somehow free.
What makes you feel free to connect with your audience – that you have the power to move them? We all have it.
Enjoy!
Your speech flows along.
It makes sense.
Your audience is listening, watching, presumably absorbed.
Keep them that way. A speech that flows along like that will get boring before long unless you introduce something that brings your audience’s comfort up short.
Today’s quick tip is one little device that will interrupt the normal communication process and rather than following the flow of ideas, the listener focuses on the words instead. Using this effect, you can have your audience stop, and really listen – to all that you want them to understand, engage with and remember.
This effect is to do with the sounds within words.
One way to create this effect with sounds is to use alliteration. Alliteration is one of the most powerful ways. Here, each word begins with the same sound. So I might have a “particularly powerful proposition” or an idea may be “Revolutionary and radical.” Can you feel the device working, drawing your attention to the words and all that they mean?
Another technique using sound is rhyme. Like all devices, it can evoke emotion which is one of the best ways to resonate and engage with your audience. It can also be used very effectively to create humour… Ogden Nash wrote: “Candy is dandy. But liquor is quicker.” How much meaning there is in those few words … and he draws attention to them using rhyme.
These are also the words that will create what I call a “bright spot” in a speech – a place you can call back to. Use it to identify a point in your speech, or a moment in the presentation as a whole.
So start getting into the habit of incorporating alliteration and rhyme into your speeches – at times when you want to slow things down and make a major point. They will be a powerful ally for you.
Speak Up for Your Business: Presentation Secrets for Entrepreneurs Ready to Tell, Sell, and Compel
Dr. Michelle Mazur
ISBN 9781936984459
Format Paperback
Publisher Difference Press
Published 25th April 2014
Do you love your business but don’t know how to talk about it with others?
Is the fear of public speaking keeping you from taking your business to the next level?
You know public speaking is a great way to establish your credibility, create buzz about your business, and attract your perfect client, but you have no idea what to talk about or why anyone should listen to you.
Or are there a million ideas swirling in your head but you don’t know the presentation secrets of crafting a message that resonates? Do you fear that people won’t like you or want to do business with you because of something you said-or didn’t say?
Fear public speaking no more.
Professional public speaking expert Michelle Mazur is here to help.
With a Ph.D. in Communication and hundreds of speeches under her belt, Michelle knows exactly the presentations skills you need to engage your audience, persuade people to believe in your message, and ultimately, get the sale or business relationship you desire.
In Speak Up for Your Business, Michelle reveals how you can:
Develop your presentation skills so that you persuade and motivate your audience
Stop feeling sleazy about selling with this one presentation secret
Create a strategy to cope with your fear of public speaking
Embrace your Inner F-Bomb (it’s not what you think)
Organize your presentation in a sexy way
Give your audience real value
Create an experience through story with four essential ingredients
Begin your presentation with a win & close with a bang
Adapt your presentation on the fly
Handle those wing-nut questions that threaten to derail your speech
Land more speaking gigs
About the Author: As a Speech Designer and Idea Architect, Dr. Michelle Mazur guides introverted business professionals and entrepreneurs to ignite the smoldering fires within them so they can speak up, speak out, and make their impact-one compelling presentation at a time. Her passion is helping super smart people get their ideas communicated to the people who need to hear it most. Michelle earned a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Oklahoma, and as a professor, she inspired university students to find their voices and share their messages for more than ten years. She is the author of Speak Up for Your Business and contributing author to the Amazon Best Seller Ted: ology: Presentation Secrets of TED Talks and Master Presenter: Lessons from the World’s Top Experts on Becoming a More Influential Speaker. Her writing has appeared on 12 Most, PR Daily, Ragan.com, SOLD Magazine, PR Europe, and Business2Community. Her blog, Relationally Speaking, was listed at #11 of the 101 best online resources for public speaking. She resides in Seattle, Washington with her loving fiance, two obsessive felines, and a huge collection of Duran Duran memorabilia.”
We are wired for story.
For hundreds of years, we passed on our culture, our values and the understandings necessary for survival, verbally, using story.
Our stories had a moral. All of them. There were lessons to be learned and we knew they were valuable.
We are wired to look for the moral, the point of the story.
What an opportunity to tell a story and have your audience expecting the point you are going to make!
What a shame then, if we tell a story and don’t make a point. What a waste.
And what a let-down for the audience.
The moral is – “Don’t waste your stories”.
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”
― Rudyard Kipling
Is it a drug you need to persuade people when you speak?
We spend a lot of our time speaking to persuade – persuade people to adopt our ideas, persuade them to buy our products or services, persuade them to employ our skills – sometimes just to pick up their towels from the bath room floor.
Is it a drug you need when you want to persuade?
We can drug ourselves into belief with the stories we tell ourselves.
Undoubtedly we can drug our audiences into belief just as well with the power of words.
We can create emotion with words. And emotion is one of the most powerful persuasion devices there is.
We can build a relationship with a audience to take them with us into the behaviour we want.
Let’s start with emotion.
You can attach emotion to an idea with words that will give it a positive energy or a negative energy or remove either of those.
Associate an idea with positive words and make it attractive. We would all rather a glass half full than a glass half empty. Generally we prefer something with the words “New and Improved” attached. Advertisers use adjectives that build the positives of their products – adjectives like more, increased, amazing, best, fastest, greatest. And I would far rather take up reading, if I were a child, if I knew it would give me a pleasant experience rather that because it would keep me out of mischief.
Reduce the negativities of an idea by using words that diminish that side. So we refer to “layoffs” rather than “downsizing”. We refer to “Intensive Interrogation techniques” rather than “torture” and refer to “used” Aston Martins as “pre-owned”.
On the other hand, associate certain words with a person or an idea and create a negativity around them. Adjectives again, like “infamous”, “malicious” and “stingy” all attach an emotional negativity.
These are powerful emotional drugs to use in persuasion.
Underlying this communication, though, are the word choices you can make that build your credibility for your audience and encourage their trust.
Perhaps the most important word you can use is “You”. Every audience member needs to feel that they are the centre of your attention and that meeting their needs is your prime objective. Focus on using the word “You” and you are forcibly reminded to turn your own thinking and your language that way.
Beyond this, though, the best words to use are “we”, “together” and “us” because they give the impression that you and your audience are of one mind, working towards the same outcome. Take them with you to that outcome. Speak to them, too, in their own language, avoiding words they might not understand and jargon that excludes them.
Validate them and their ideas whenever you can. Use words like “Thank you” and appreciate”.
We have talked already about the adjectives you can use for various reasons. Try to avoid adverbs. Use, instead, very evocative verbs.
Mark Twain again –
“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”
What can you use instead of “said”, for example? “Whispered” or “screamed” will communicate far more useful emotion. This is so much more effective than “said quietly” or “said loudly”. It also uses fewer words. We often associate verbosity with someone who is trying to cover something. So to build trust, keep it simple and use simple powerful words.
Now, how to reword my requests about those bath towels??!!
Maybe all you need is Disaster Management
You KNOW that speaking is a great way to share your brilliance with a wider audience, gaining you leads and clients for business, supporters for your ideas, more souls who need your inspiration (and just connecting with people).
But is something stopping you?
Public speaking nerves are normal and healthy, but not if they are stopping you sharing that brilliance.
There are all sorts of sources of those nerves and their paralysing effect and all sorts of ways to release them.
But sometimes it is as simple as taking a moment or two to define just what it is you are afraid of – what is allowing the paralysis.
It may be as simple as fear of disaster – of something going horribly wrong.
And step two may be just as simple. Set disaster management plans in place. Don’t court disaster, but just set stuff up so that you can visualise success, knowing that you have contingency plans in place.
So take that moment or two today and it may, indeed, be just that simple.
[Image source: http://vulkanschule.de/images/vulkanausbruch.jpg]
Last week, Prezi released their list of the Top 100 online resources for presenters. It’s an incredibly useful resource all packed into one page.
We have scoured the web looking for the most inspirational and useful resources for anyone looking to improve their presentation skills; the #PreziTop100 is the result of all this hard work. We assembled this list by looking at both popularity data (Alexa Rank, Google pagerank, pageviews, Klout score, social media followers, and social engagement) and the quality of the content as determined by a panel of Prezi judges.
And I am so honoured to be included in the blog section. Honoured to be chosen by Prezi, but also kind of amazed to see my name listed among people whom I have been reading and learning from for years.
So to Prezi, thank you.
To you, I have a wonderful new resource I can share with you – The Top 100 online resources for presenters
“Imprison it”…? Hmm. My mother used to say to me “Put your words on the palm of your hand and look at them before you speak.” I liked that. Sweet Benjamin needs to guard against speaking without thinking.
If he’s going to be a speaker, he needs to consider his message and his audience before he speaks.
But “imprison” …? What do you think?
Everyone admires a good comedian.
They groan loudly at someone they think is a bad comedian.
Most speakers either harness humour or wish they could.
We love to laugh and we love the sound of laughter.
But there’s more to it than that.
Behind these thoughts and opinions about humour and laughter, is the understanding that we like people who make us smile.
We are more likely to love people who make us laugh.
What does this mean to you as a speaker – having an audience like you?
What if you have a heavy message – something that has to be said, but has the potential to be weighty? Humour will lighten it.
What happens if you are presenting an idea that is new to the audience, an idea that maybe they find objectionable, if you have to persuade them? Introduce humour, have the audience liking that experience and maybe liking you, relaxing a little, and you have made it a little easier to bring in that new idea.
Behind this phenomenon of liking someone who makes us smile is also then, the ability for us as speakers, to reinforce our credibility. It allows us to answer the questions usually present in every audience member’s mind – who is this person? Why should I listen? Use humour to acknowledge those questions … and answer them. Create a smile and you have opened a door to friendship. Share some self-effacing humour and you introduce authenticity, and the possibility that you are maybe, just maybe, not going to be a boring presenter.
You have grabbed attention and engagement.
When it comes to engaging a specific audience, there are many techniques you can use. Refer to the location if you can. Refer to the local sports team, a local iconic building, or to a national characteristic that they are happy to laugh at. Research or meet the audience. Is there someone whom everyone knows, who is in the audience and who would not mind having an idiosyncrasy used humorously?
Not only does this create engagement between us as speakers and our audiences, it also creates a bond between members of the audience. They are in this experience together. And if there is one thing successful speakers do every time they speak, it is to create an experience. This is all the more powerful if it is felt to be shared.
And this makes event organisers heave a sigh of relief. “That speaker was worth hiring, did you hear the audience laughing?”
Event organisers will remember you (and re-hire you).
That audience will remember as well. Humour makes your points more memorable. They will remember and repeat – you and your message.
Finally, a little personal support, (and as speakers we need that at times!).. humour allows us to deal with disasters. Create a laugh to share with your audience about something that has gone wrong, and any anxiety and awkwardness is dissipated.
So while it may seem that a speaker has just thrown a joke or two into their speech to lighten things up, in reality, what they were doing was guaranteeing their success – creating an experience, creating engagement, easing the process of persuasion and ensuring future gigs. Not bad for a joke or two, and certainly worth the investment.