Getting Caught in Italy
Here is a link to a story I wrote for Salon.com about getting caught in Italy as Coronavirus began shutting down the country and the world.
Why I encourage Failure or How to Answer Tough Questions
I’m a big fan of Improvisation and its application in the business world. Why? Because being a Leader and a Great Public Speaker are both about risk. They are both about being prepared and being able to make changes with a moment’s notice while not letting it rock your boat.
Improv teaches many of those skills in a fun environment. And it’s fantastic! And terrifying.
Confession -I’m terrified of Improv is terrifying. As an actor, hand me a script and I’m fine. I like knowing my lines. I like having the comfort of a formula and known outcome. We all do! Agendas, To-do lists and Instructions are wonderful things!
Improv offers no such guarantee. The threat of failure is high. The likelihood of falling on your face is almost assured. And I have. Many times. I have walked off the stage with my head hung low knowing I’d made a choice that didn’t advance the scene. And that is a beautiful thing; it taught me how to cope with those feelings. And I learned how to get right back up and do it again. But with a sharper sense of observation and the ability to change course at lightening speed.
As a Public Speaking Instructor who uses Improv in my trainings; I love when things fail! When a scene falls flat. Dealing with that failure – even in an extremely safe and supportive environment without an audience – is difficult. It’s uncomfortable. And it’s important to learn how to handle that feeling with grace and humor and be able to get back up and try it again – hopefully with more success!
I also greatly adore when Improv scenes go well for the teams and individuals I work with. I love when they are able to change course suddenly in the midst of a scene. Or handle an unexpected physical or verbal offering from a scene partner. That is confidence building. And it teaches us the we have the ability to handle unexpected things in our professional work lives too.
Success or failure, Improv is valuable tool in Leadership Training. I dare you to name one field of work where knowing how to confidently adjust to last minute changes of schedule, failure of technology or information, or unexpected responses from clients or employees is not a valuable tool. Having your reflexes sharpened and the confidence to make late in the game changes is indispensable.
Recently, at a Leadership Charisma and Public Speaking Training, a seasoned executive told me how she still has an issue with fielding unexpected questions. She is not alone in this. Many executives fear unexpected questions; they pull us off course. It’s like having a bomb lobbed at you. “How do I handle these questions without getting flustered?” she asked.
Here’s the thing – the ability to handle the unexpected is a difficult skill to learn but highly sought after, especially among Leaders. There isn’t an easy way – you simply have to trust that you are able to do, have the self-confidence and grace to handle them well, and the ability to move on afterward.
Where, oh where, can someone learn this about themselves? Get thee to an Improv class!
What you can do with a little imagination!
In the interview with Rock It Out!, he says it’s part of his commitment to real community engagement.
“It’s so funny, because TV stations and radio stations, always say, ‘Engage with the viewer. Engage with them.’ So they put up a poll question. That’s it. That’s not engaging.”
h/t InsiderLouisville
The Speaker’s Studio: Fall Public Speaking Classes!
Is the fear of Public Speaking holding you back in your career?
Learn how to manage your fear!
Be a better speaker!
Advance your career!
Register for The Speaker’s Studio’s Fall Public Speaking Class
Classes are small group and designed for working business professionals. Register below!
You will learn techniques to manage
- Manage/Overcome Public Speaking Anxiety
- Speak with greater clarity and impact
- Aspects of Rhetoric to enhance effectiveness and persuasiveness.
- Other areas covered include Vocal Strength, Movement/Gesture, and incorporating Story.
These classes are designed to help Executives and Professionals enhance their presence and public speaking ability and advance their careers!
October Class
Saturday, Oct 5 9-12 AM &
Mondays Oct 14, 21 and 28 4-6 PM
November Class
Saturday, November 9 9-12 AM &
Mondays, November 11, 18 and 25 4-6 PM
Cost for each is $325 and includes the 4 sessions, materials, and recordings.
All classes will be held at the Clifton Center at 2117 Payne Street, Louisville KY.
Sign up below!
You’ll be contacted with payment options and class details!
Detail, Practice, Connect
There’s lots of information out there on how to tell your own story – our own stories are the ones we tell most often – but frequently other’s have stories that are so compelling or perfect for the moment that we need to tell them as well.
Here are 3 tips to telling someone else’s story:
1. Detail it – dates, names, events, colors – all of those wonderful little details that make a story vivid and compelling. If you need to, return to the source – ask questions or review what’s out there if the story is in the public domain. You will have to edit the information as the shape of the story crystallizes.
2. Practice it – it’s not as easy or natural to tell someone else’s story as it is to tell our own. It takes a bit more practice – so tell your spouse, tell your dog, tell your co-worker. Practice may not make perfect – but it will make it your own.
3. Connect it – connect it back to the mission or topic of your speech/organization. Using phrases like “This story is a perfect illustration of….” will help transition between the story and the greater context or point. Don’t assume people will do that automatically. Help them.
This Kitchen Gadget will Spice up Your Presence
How can this simple device improve your phone presence?
When using notes for your conference calls, put them on a stand – like this cookbook stand. The change in the angle of your neck will encourage you to sit up straighter which will subsequently change the way you breathe and the strength and vibrancy of your voice. As a result you will sound stronger, more powerful and more energetic – definite pluses when you are speaking to shareholders or your board via the phone!
This kid totally schools his professors.
There is so much he does right. Watch and enjoy the speech – and then read on for what he masters.
1. He makes the stage his own – decides that what is best for him is not standing behind the podium but takes the microphone and steps in front.
2. He takes a moment to collect himself. By standing in silence for a moment or two he creates tension and tension and anticipation. And giving himself a moment to breathe.
3. He let the audience know clearly what he is going to do – give them advice. He is clear, his concise, he is quick.
4. Relevance – each of the points are relevant to the audience. He understands who he is speaking to and what they need to hear.
5. Simplicity – he keeps his points simple and doesn’t belabor them with gratuitous examples or overly long explanations.
6. He commits. He goes whole hog when he gets to the end – any backing off of the crescendo would have made this speech less magnificent. He moved forward confidently and took us with him. Had he hesitated or looked insecure the speech would not have been successful.
7. He looks like he’s having fun. He looks like he wants to be there. Nothing worse than a speaker who looks like they don’t care or doesn’t want to be there.
8. Humor – his speech is humorous. And the humor serves a point – to underscore the importance and validity of what he is saying.
9. Structure – he starts with a short introduction, moves quickly and easily through the points which all build to his grand finale. He changes pace through-out and allows for pauses.
10. Brevity. Nuff’ said.
11. He ends strong and clean. With a great last quote and a definite period at the end before walking off with energy and joy.
Taking it on the Chin
It’s incredible how expressive the chin is.
There is a lot of attention paid to the mouth, the eyes, even the eyebrows, in terms of expressing emotion and detecting non-verbal clues to inner monologues. Not much gets said or written about the chin. Yet time and again I find myself directing my client’s attention to the activity of their chin.
Chins pull your head left or right. They tuck into the neck or raise up, exposing the neck and thrusting out the jaw. A chin can jut, bounce and tremble and tighten. These movements convey an array of emotions; hesitancy, aggressiveness, reluctance, anger, tentativeness, enthusiasm or skepticism.
Most of the time, people are completely unaware of what they are conveying with the tilt of their chin. They think they are communicating in a forthright or open manner, but they will listen to their counterpart with their chin tucked down and tilted left or right in a manner that says “I don’t like what you are saying” or “I don’t agree with what you are telling me.”
Perhaps they walk into a room with their shoulders relaxed and a big smile – they are portraying confidence they think – but one look at the chin will tell me if they are insecure (chin too high or tucked into the neck) or tentative (chin tilted down and towards one of the shoulders.)
These little clues, whether you are the one speaking or listening, have an effect on your counterpart. I have walked out of meetings thinking to myself – “well, their words said one thing, but their chin led me to believe they were skeptical or unwilling.”
The freedom to move the head and do what one will with the chin is an important option in the course of conversation and communication. Congruence between emotional state and one’s physicality is important. But if you are trying to facilitate open, productive, straightforward conversation but doing it with a tilt in your head, then there is a tilt in your thoughts.
The solution is to be aware of the level of your chin. You want it at a natural level, straight on to the other person, as much as possible. This shows openness, engagement, and a lack of defensiveness that will help facilitate healthy communication and demonstrate an easy confidence on your part; especially at times when meetings or conversation can easily devolve into conflict or tension.
And if you find your chin is tilted, tucked or too high – take stock. What is causing this? Are you skeptical of something that’s going on? Upset at what is being said? And is the tilt of your chin preventing your from dealing with something “head-on?” And what effect is it having on the other person/people you are communicating with?
You may find, that by adjusting the level of your chin you can adjust your thoughts and create better communication.
To Hell with Presentations!
Earlier this week, I accompanied the Executive Director of a professional organization I am a member of on a sponsorship call to the Toshiba Business Center.
The President of the company began our visit with a tour of his facility which started in their showroom.
As he described the way they used the space, I realized it was less of a showroom and more of a Sales Theatre. The space is re-imagined for every client that comes through the door; it is set up to mirror the problems the client has and the solutions his company can provide. His products aren’t exactly sexy; Toshiba Business Solutions provide printing and technology related solutions. I imagined myself as a a client walking into this space, one that is set up specifically to address my problems and the solutions TBS provides which would make running my business easier, more efficient and more cost effective and I got excited. REAL excited.
What if we took this idea one step further? Read more…
Use Humor to rise above the clamor!
Public Speaking is about creating an Experience. Humor helps create that experience.
I attended, at the invitation of a client, a meeting of the Kentucky Chapter of the National Speakers Association. The Speaker for the evening was current National NSA President, Ron Culberson.
His topic was using humor in presentations and trainings. Here are some of the points that resonated with me.
1. People need Humor. It gives them a break from the hard realities of the world. As a speech and presentation coach, I have worked with individuals whose jobs center around weighty topics; death, abuse, metal illness, and other such topics. Many people who speak on these topics struggle with the idea of including humor in their presentations. It seems in appropriate they say. There isn’t a way to include it elegantly. It may seem incongruent, but it is completely necessary.
Humor is a counterpoint to gravity – you can’t fully feel joy unless you have been touched by tragedy Ron pointed out last night. Humor highlights the tragedy of a situation. When telling a poignant story, perhaps to raise money for a non-profit, using humor to balance the seriousness of your talk will actually highlight the gravity of your cause.
And more pointedly, humor literally gives the audience a change to breath. There is a heaviness to tragedy, a weight to it that both in the moment and in the retelling, stops our breathing. Humor and the laughter it induces and encourages us to breathe. It allows us a moment to catch our breath. Read more…
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