So far this series hasn’t looked at specific speaking methods, but it will. This short entry touches on that, and one other point.

The other point is that my approach is not the only way to get there. Anything that works for you is fine with me.

Among patient speakers, the most conspicuous example of not-Dave is the amazing Regina Holliday, who among other things is giving a master class in September at the Stanford Medicine X conference.

Speaking skills count

Regina’s method’s different from mine, but she brought an essential skill: she’s an accomplished storyteller (which shows up in her blog posts) and had extensive speaking experience in high school. Reviewing a draft of this post, she wrote:

My senior year in high school I qualified for regional competition in Lincoln Douglas debate, domestic extemp, foreign extemp, original oratory, poetry, humorous interp, dramatic interp, monologue, humorous duet and dramatic duet.

Two takeaways:

• Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t be who you are. If something works for you, good!
• If you haven’t had training or mentoring, see if you can get some, to develop yourself.
  • As I said yesterday, I had to attend forty events before I got paid a cent – let’s see if we can shorten that! The point is that no matter how “right” your message is, you’re responsible for delivering it effectively.

Other successful speakers: were you trained or mentored? By whom? Or did it just come naturally to you?

---

Next in the series: #9: Your website, with video

It took a month to get through the first five posts in this series, all based on the notes Randi Redmond Oster took from one thirty minute phone call. THAT’s getting value out of a conversation.

And that leads to this next point, which is short and simple. As you consider what to say to your audience, ask yourself this:

What could be said that would make any difference?

You may get frustrated by this – you may think people should think the way you do, or you may think people should want to hear what’s on your mind. You’re welcome to those feelings; heaven knows I’ve had them. But my point here is: if you want to make a difference in the world, by speaking, you better think about what could make a difference.

A lot of speeches I hear seem to have been written without wondering about that. Except for purely academic events, it’s not enough to recite facts. In academia it’s okay to say “I presented the facts – my work is done.” But if you’re advocating – if you want to change the world – that’s not enough. For instance:

[Read more…]

If you’re new to this series of advice to speakers, read the initial post, and it’ll help if you follow the chain.

It’s been three weeks since this series went on hiatus. This post is the fourth to come from notes taken by Randi Redmond Oster. And this post springs from advice given to me by Kent Bottles MD, whom I mentioned yesterday on pricing. (That’s him speechifying, at right.)

In addition to counseling me about price integrity, Kent’s the one who taught me that it’s my responsibility to find out what’s on the organizer’s mind – which often involves helping with the exploration. As I said in #2, “two thirds of good speaking is good listening.”

The consultative approach

[Read more…]