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Say it ain’t so, Joe…or John…or Barack…or Sarah

A speech nerd by nature, you would think I’d be in heaven this time of year.  More speeches to critique than ever.  The political season gives me ample material.   But it dawned on me today, I’m getting fed up.

Eternal optimism is my goal.  It takes too much energy to be negative.   Yet, these political speeches are zapping my enthusiasm.   Their negativity is getting to be too much.

What don’t the candidates get about Americans hating this type of political speak?  We want information about how those running for office plan to get us out of these messes we’re in.  Instead, we’re hearing too much about what was done in the past.  So, like Sarah Palin said during the VP debate, “Say it ain’t so, Joe” as she criticized one of his answers as being backward looking.

But “Say it ain’t so, Sarah.”  You had plenty of moments when you were looking backward.    And the same goes for Barack and John.

Would someone please give me a speech I can praise?  Time is slipping by.

Bush Needs Visual Aids to Sell Bailout Plan

There have been many important speeches from presidents of the United States throughout my career as an executive speech coach.   But I’ve never watched one like tonight’s speech by President Bush.

It was one of the only presidential speeches that I would categorize as a speech which needed to educate us. Only by educating us, could the president PERSUADE us that his plan was the right one for these dire economic circumstances.

Our individual and collective financial futures are at stake and most of us couldn’t tell what a mortgage backed security was if it was Fed Ex-ed to our front door.   But mortgage-backed securities, as well as other complex financial terms and issues, needed to be explained to us in simple terms. It could have been done much better.

Let’s analyze the speech from the 3 questions I always use with my clients:

1.  Has the speaker given us a good road map, so we know where the speech is going?

On the whole, Bush’s speech was well organized.   He began with a brief overview of the problem and then acknowledged that we citizens wanted to know the answers to 3 questions:

• How did the US reach this point?
• How will the proposed financial bailout work?
• What does it mean to my financial future?

Good questions that were repeated each time he got to that section.

2.    Are there appropriate “speech landmarks” along the road, so that we can comprehend the information in a way that is memorable?

In this case, no.   Although it was well written, it screamed for visual aids.   This information is way too complex to rely only on words to tell the story.

This wasn’t a radio speech.  It was a television speech.   So how could his speechwriters forget to use visuals?

You don’t see a TV news anchor explain complex financial information without some graphs.

Most people rely on visuals to absorb and process information.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get that option this evening.

3.    Is the auditory trip filled with interesting highs and lows, twists and turns, to make the voice easy to follow?

In this case, yes.  BUT…and a big BUT it is…President Bush spoke very quickly, which was unusual in itself.  BUT when the information is complex, it doesn’t hurt to slow down or repeat information.

Recommendation to the White House: If you want to persuade American citizens, you might want to sharpen your PowerPoint skills.   For a $700 billion dollar bailout, there must be a few extra bucks to hire a graphic designer.

If you want some PowerPoint tips, visit my website and check out “Easy Ideas for the PowerPoint-Impaired.” I may send an extra copy of it to the president.

http://real-impact.com/learning/learning.htm

Jean Palmer Heck

www.Real-Impact.com

Another VP Candidate Hits a Home Run with Speech

Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, took the stage Wednesday night and wowed everyone in her audience, including many watching her on TV—like me.   Her speech ranked up there with those of Joe Biden, Fred Thompson and Michele (yes, Michele, not Barack) Obama.

Just as Joe Biden set the stakes high for his “boss,” Barack Obama, to overwhelm the audience with substance and style, Palin has set the stakes high for John McCain to take the crowd on a trip into the future of our country.  I don’t think Obama’s speech lived up to that.  Will McCain’s?

Palin showed strength, warmth, and humor in a wonderfully worded speech.  Her comments were naturally spoken, not shouted like way too many political speakers. I give her an A++ .

HINT:  Watch how she uses the teleprompter.   Some speakers say a sentence and then turn to the next prompter, say another sentence and turn again.  Their patterned action makes them look like robots.  Palin gracefully slides between the 3 prompters.

HINT:  When you write you speech, for the TelePrompTer, put it in 16 point font or 14 point bold font, in upper and lower case letters.  The old broadcast standard of writing in all caps is too difficult to read.  (I’ll never know why that became a standard.)

Also observe Palin’s great facial expression.   It adds to the warmth and variety in her voice.

As good as she was, her show was stolen by 7-year-old Piper, who, while holding her baby brother in her arms, licked her own hands and then tried plastering his cowlick hair down.

If you’d like an analysis of your speaking style, please email me at  Jean@Real-Impact.com, or call me in the U.S. at 317-873-3772.

GOP Thompson Demonstrates 9 Speaking Tips

Disclaimer:  This is a NON-partisan blog.  Its purpose is to point out the good, the bad and the ugly of giving speeches.

Day 1 of GOP convention

Best speaker:  Fred Thompson.   Worst speaker:  Bill Gross

If you have any uncommitted time, google “Fred Thompson’s GOP Convention Speech” and watch it.  He is a master, as you might expect from this senator-turned-actor-turned-presidential-candidate-turned-supporting-politician.  He gets an A ++.

Here are the positives you need to think about in your speeches before large crowds.  And some of these pointers might surprise you.

1.    He used “but,” “uh,” and “and” throughout his speech.  While there are speech coaches worldwide who will tell you to eliminate those words from your speech persona (and I do, too, if they’re an annoying habit) … his speech sounded so conversational with these 3 tiny words included.   Reason: There are very few people who never use these words in every day conversation.

Surprised?  These little touches show humanity.  I’d guess that the But’s & And’s were added to the text of his speech.  HINT:  Very easy to add “but,” “and,” “well,” “so,” & “therefore” to your speech text at the beginning of sentences.

The Uh’s were probably a part of his own “acting” technique to make it sound like he was speaking extemporaneously.   HINT:  It takes practice to be able to use “uh” and “um” effectively to give that effect.

2.    He coughed and wiped his lips with his hand.  This was good.  Surprised?  In its analysis, MSNBC made it sound like his coughs were mistakes that should have been technically corrected by giving him a microphone cough switch.  Come on!  This cough was real. It was NOT a nervous habit.  He obviously had some kind of tickle in his throat and probably spit while he was talking.  Ever happen to you?   HINT:  If you are a confident speaker, you can get away with this.  If it is a nervous habit, you’d better overcome it. Videotape your speeches and see if it is a problem for you.

3.    Lots of humor throughout the speech.

And I can say without fear of contradiction that she (Sarah Palin) is the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose … with the possible exception of Teddy Roosevelt.

Also here tonight is John’s 96-year-old mother, Roberta. All I’ve got to say is that if Roberta McCain had been the McCain captured by the North Vietnamese, they would have surrendered.

Now, John’s father was a bit of a rebel, too. In his first two semesters at the Naval Academy, he managed to earn 333 demerits. Unfortunately, John later saw that as a record to be beaten.

4.  He moved from funny to serious very well.

Humor first:

He never violated the honor code. However, in flight school in Pensacola, he did drive a Corvette and date a girl who worked in a bar as an exotic dancer under the name of Marie, the Flame of Florida.

Thompson slowed down the pace of his words, lowered his pitch and gently eased us into the description of horrible events.

And the reason I’m telling you these things, is that, apparently, this mixture of rebellion and honor helped John McCain survive the next chapter of his life:  John McCain was preparing to take off from the USS Forrestal for his sixth mission over Vietnam, when a missile from another plane accidentally fired and hit his plane.

5.    He also knew that it was important to bring the audience back up after relating somber/serious/emotional part of a speech.  HINT:  a semi-funny part of the story helps the transition.

He was beaten for not giving information during interrogations. When his captors wanted the names of other pilots in his squadron, John gave them the names of the offensive line of the Green Bay Packers.

6.    He used irony to make his point.   WARNING:  Brain research shows that older people don’t process irony as well as they did in younger years.  Know the age of your audience members.

Now our opponents tell you not to worry about their tax increases. They tell you they are not going to tax your family. No, they’re just going to tax “businesses”! So unless you buy something from a “business”, like groceries or clothes or gasoline … or unless you get a paycheck from a big or a small “business”, don’t worry … it’s not going to affect you.

7.    He made use of a technique all of us can and should use—visual analogies.  In this speech:  Bucket of money = bucket of water.   Money = water.

They say they (Democrats) are not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the “other” side of the bucket! That’s their idea of tax reform.

8.    Lots of variety in the pacing of his sentences.  Lots of variety in the pitch of his sentences.  Lots of variety in the length of his sentences.   Just listen to the first minute of his speech and you’ll understand what “vocal variety” means.

Listen to this part of his speech where he changed the pace to rev the crowd up.

This man, John McCain is not intimidated by what the polls say or by what is politically safe or popular.  (Thompson speeds up here.) At a point when the war in Iraq was going badly and the public lost confidence, John stood up and called for more troops. And now we are winning.

Here’s the example of how he went from complete sentences to phrases.

So then they put him in solitary confinement…for over two years.
Isolation … incredible heat beating on a tin roof. A light bulb in his cell burning 24 hours a day.
Boarded-up cell windows blocking any breath of fresh air.
The oppressive heat causing boils the size of baseballs under his arms.
The outside world limited to what he could see through a crack in a door.
We hear a lot of talk about hope.
John McCain knows about hope. That’s all he had to survive on.

9.  Finally, he used a very tried and true technique; he asked the audience questions.  HINT: By asking questions, you re-engage the audience and make them part of your solution.

It’s pretty clear there are two questions we will never have to ask ourselves, “Who is this man?” and “Can we trust this man with the Presidency?”

On second thought, I’ll give him an A+++.
More tomorrow on lessons learned from speeches…and a  review of the worst speaker on Day 1 with hints on what YOU should avoid.

If you’d like an analysis of your speaking style, please email me at  Jean@Real-Impact.com, or call me in the U.S. at 317-873-3772.

Obama’s Historic Speech Doesn’t Match MLK’s

He was his usual confident, well-spoken, forceful self, but Barack Obama’s speech on tonight did not compare with others he has given before (2004 Democratic Convention), nor was it as memorable as this historic day required.

Barack Obama had the 84,000 people at Invesco Field and millions more watching TV or surfing the web in the palm of his hand.  And although he is a great speaker, he didn’t do anything memorable or repeatable.

The first 15 minutes of Obama’s speech was delivered in the usual political style, a little too strident for my taste.  He went on the attack right off the bat.

After that long opening rally (tirade if you’re a Republican), he finally allowed the conversational Obama to emerge.  He lowered his voice and reminisced about his past and his interaction with people he’s met over 20 years.

Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton’s Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.

In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships.

When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.

And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. She’s the one who taught me about hard work. She’s the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life.

The best line of the night, from my executive speech coach’s viewpoint, was …

This election has never been about me. It’s been about you.

So, too, are all good speeches.  They are not about the speaker; they are about you, the audience.  It’s not about what the speaker says, it’s about what the audience takes away.

Obama finally mentioned Martin Luther King’s historic trip to the Mall in Washington, D.C. 45 years ago to the day, at the very end of his speech.  But the words about that day were so-so.  Nothing to remember.

And he ended with a Biblical quote, that he “swallowed” at the end.  I just heard it and I can’t remember it.  It was unlike him to blow his closing line.   HINT:  Practice your ending line.  It’s the last chance you have to make your speech a winner.

Although Martin Luther King, Jr., may have been up in heaven smiling, realizing that his dream is visible on earth, he won’t have to worry that his iconic speech will be toppled from the top of the list…at least for the time being.  Barack is still young.

Biden’s Speech Outshines All—Even Bill’s

Whether you like his politics or not, it’s hard to argue that Bill Clinton knows how to give a speech.  While Ronald Reagan has been touted as the Great Communicator, Bill Clinton was his equal on stage and with a microphone.   They’ve met their match!

Joe Biden brought the house down.  In comparison, he even made Bill Clinton seem like an average speaker.

Joe did everything right:
•    Opening that was real—not histrionic.
•    Meaningful stories and quotes from his mother:

“Joey, God sends no cross you cannot bear.”

•    A glimpse into his nightly ride home, thinking about the people whose homes he passed.

o Almost every night, I take the train home to Wilmington, sometimes very late. As I look  out the window at the homes we pass, I can almost hear what they’re talking about at the kitchen table after they put the kids to bed.

•    Instead of reciting a list of issues that they might be discussing, he used the words they might be saying around the kitchen table:

o    “Should mom move in with us now that dad is gone?”
o    “Fifty, sixty, seventy dollars to fill up the car?”
o    “Winter’s coming. How we gonna pay the heating bills?”
o    “Another year and no raise?”
o    “Did you hear the company may be cutting our health care?”
o    “Now, we owe more on the house than it’s worth. How are we going to send the kids to college?”
o    “How are we gonna be able to retire?”

•    Great variety in his voice—pacing, pitch and projection. When Joe raised his voice, it was done with real passion, not just a technique.  As a result, he did not sound not strident like so many other speakers.

It will be interesting to see if Obama, even the great speaker he is, can top his running mate’s example tomorrow night!

Hillary Clinton Uses Typical Politician Style

If you love Hillary, she gave a great speech and you’d give her an A +. If you really dislike Hillary, she gave a horrible speech and you’d give her an F. If you are an executive speech coach and can approach her dispassionately and ignore the content of her speech, you’d say she was an average politician.

This blog is non-political. It is based on my experiences with speakers from around the world. To keep this an assessment of style—not substance—I look at the overall stage presence, voice quality, variety of vocal pacing and projection, and techniques to make it memorable (such as humor, repetitive phrases, call backs, visuals, analogies, examples, stories.) So here’s my grade for her tonight: C.

Here are the notes on various style points that all speakers can learn from:

1. She started out by shouting her words. The pitch was the same. It is very difficult for a woman to pull that off. Hillary can’t.
2. When she did quit shouting and softened her voice, it was much more interesting to listen to, because it allowed her to use a variety of pitches and sound more natural.
3. She spoke too slowly. And the sentences were often the same length, making it often too patterned.
4. Great memories of the people she met along the campaign trail. Quick 1 or 2 sentences summaries that got to the heart of the story. “I remember….” is a great technique. It allowed her to list all the people she wanted to highlight and use them as a…..

5. Callback. Callbacks take you back to something that was earlier said. At the end she asked “Are you in it for me? Or are you in it for….” It allowed her to make her point: she wanted her followers to look at the big picture, rather than only her.

6. She is a pro at using a Teleprompter. It felt like the speech wasn’t even being read.

7. The crowd loved the reference to the Sisterhood of Traveling Pantsuits. Clever. Natural humor is always a crowd pleaser. No need to tell jokes.

Overall, the techniques she used with the writing were good. But her shouting makes her sound like the typical politician, which is often equated with used car salesmen!

If you’d like an expert assessment of your speaking style, drop me an email at Jean@Real-Impact.com.

Day 2 Speakers Demonstrate How-NOT-to Speak

After a magnificent example of great speaking last night (see yesterday’s blog about Michelle Obama), the presentations at the afternoon and early evening sessions of the Democratic National Convention leave much to be desired. Most were average at best. A few were a little better than average and had some good techniques I’ll talk about. But there were some ones that did nothing to add to their political cause.

I’ll grade the speakers below, but first here are some hints that you can use in your business presentations:

1. When the crowd is noisy, don’t shout. It won’t help them or you. Use your normal voice and let the microphone do the work. Shrill voices turn people off.
2. Watch what you wear. You don’t have to wear designer clothes, but you should make sure your clothes aren’t wrinkled. And small flowers are not flattering when you’re up in front of a crowd.
3. Tell stories. They grab the attention of everyone, especially if they’re well written. Write them out and edit them. Then practice so you are comfortable.
4. Use pauses. Your listeners need a break. It helps recapture their attention if your voice or words (or their pressing needs) have made them drift away.
5. Blink. It’s unnerving to watch someone stare at a TelePrompTer without blinking. It’s the deer in the headlights look. Creepy and very unnatural.

Here are a few critiques:

The announcer needs to learn how to pronounce “commemorative.” When she asked people to turn around and face the camera platform, it took 3 tries before she got the word correct! Oops. At least you can pronounce “Obama” right, unlike Congressman Joe Baca (see yesterday’s blog).

Chris Van Hollen US House, Maryland Speech Expert Assessment C
+ Story telling
- Eyes looked shifty as he bounced between TelePrompTers
- Voice pattern too predictable

Barbara Mikulski Senator, Maryland Speech Expert Assessment D
- Major shouting. Ouch! My ears hurt!

Mary Landrieu Senator, Louisiana Speech Expert Assessment B –
+ Varied her pacing throughout
+ Blinked enough to make her reading very natural

Blanche Lambert Lincoln Senator, Arizona Speech Expert Assessment C –
- Needs work on TelePrompTer
- Pitch not comfortable to listen to
- Voice was patterned

Debbie Stabenow Senator, Michigan Speech Expert Assessment C –
- Used hands to point/chop the air on every word. I felt chastised. HINT: Watch your body language. Audiences react to your gestures and facial expressions.

Amy Klobuchar Senator, Minnesota Speech Expert Assessment C –
- Too much shouting!
- No vocal variety
+ Story of coal miners
+ Good use of TelePrompTers

Ed Rendell Governor of Pennsylvania Speech Expert Assessment C –
- Another speaker who points on each word. Why?
- Another shouter
- Changed too quickly between prompters
- The crowd was not interested. Listen to the noise.

Tammy Baldwin House of Representatives, Wisconsin Speech Expert Assessment C +
+ Thank goodness a change in volume. She did NOT shout.
+ Had lots of expression on her face. HINT: Your voice follows your face. If you have a lot of facial expression, it will add variety to your voice. Result—you’re easier to look at and to listen to.

John Sweeney President of the AFL-CIO Speech Expert Assessment F
Worst speaker of the day.
- His opening idea was of a 6th grade boy dreaming of a job and his future family. I don’t know any 6th grade boys who think about things like that. Do you?
- His voice pattern was tedious. He took a breath after every 3 words. I’m exaggerating. Sometimes he said 5 words before taking another breath.

The Average Citizens:
Robin Golden Autoworker from Michigan
The people who allowed him to go on stage without adequate preparation deserve a D. He looked like a deer in the headlights. His shirt was wrinkled and his doom and gloom appearance and words did nothing to invoke sympathy or promote the political cause. I couldn’t wait for him to get off stage and take away his pain. It was not fair for him to be put in front of a crowd.

Katherine Marcano Cedar Rapids, Iowa flood victim
She was in sharp contrast to Golden. Although she had a sad story to tell, she was sincere and did not look scared. I liked her ending phrase: see him (Obama) with my eyes, feel with my heart and support Obama for President.

Pauline Beck Homecare worker
Another D for the organizers of the convention. She should have been interviewed and had the best sound bites used in a video. She was clearly too uncomfortable up front.

Gloria Craven Laid-off North Carolina textile worker
Very good and natural. Her NC dialect was so real, she was a good choice to make the political point she did.

If you’d like an expert assessment of your speaking style, drop me an email at Jean@Real-Impact.com.

Michelle Obama Shows Us How to Give a Speech

Michelle Obama Speech Expert Grade: A+

WOW! Warmth, brains, beauty, substance, storytelling, repetitive phrasing, good use of Teleprompters. You name it, Michelle Obama displayed it. None of the shouting, trying to get the crowd into a false frenzy, staring at the Prompter….or any of the common mistakes that will be shown over and over at these conventions. HINT: Notice how Michelle used details to make her stories come alive. She told of her dad using 2 canes to walk cross the room to kiss her mom. Can’t you just picture that? It’s the details that make you feel as if you are in the same place, living the experience.

My Dad was our rock. Although he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in his early thirties, he was our provider, our champion, our hero. As he got sicker, it got harder for him to walk, it took him longer to get dressed in the morning. But if he was in pain, he never let on. He never stopped smiling and laughing – even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes to get himself across the room to give my Mom a kiss. He just woke up a little earlier, and worked a little harder.

HINT: Notice how she subtly closed her eyes at one point, as if to think and imagine what she was going to say. This was a technique, because it was already written out. But she used this so naturally, I almost thought she was adlibbing!

Watch tonight and compare Michelle’s warm approach to Hillary’s usual strident approach. Hillary has shown she can tone it down, even cry on cue. We’ll see if she learned from Michelle and exhibits that style or if she plans to use the Teddy Kennedy/typical political speaking approach. I wonder which Hillary will show up tonight.

If you’d like an expert assessment of your speaking style, drop me an email at Jean@Real-Impact.com.