THE ESSENTIALS OF PERSUASIVE PUBLIC SPEAKING by Sims Wyeth

• Public speaking is a centripetal social force: it pulls people into the same place at the same time to think about the same thing. It is an ancient technology designed to help tribes, communities, companies, and nations make wise decisions.
• Good leaders generally speak well, but not all good speakers are good leaders.
• Speech that authentically reveals the personality of the speaker, and is addressed to and about an individual or defined group, is far more memorable than a message from a corporation meant for a demographic.
• Make all your presentations personal.
• Let there be drama in your presentations.
• Spoken language is less ambiguous and more persuasive than written language because it is amplified and clarified by gesture, voice, character, and dialogue.
• Cutting back is easier than taking it up a notch.
• PUBLIC SPEAKING IS the number one tool of leadership because when you get people in a room to hear the same message at the same time you have the greatest chance of moving them to action.
• Most of us in business are better at talking about facts and figures than we are at evoking emotions, values, and beliefs. But the ability to unite both types of speaking—the intellectual and the emotional—is the jewel in the crown of public speech.
• Language lies close to the heart of invention.
• Thou shalt not be Arrogant. Thou shalt not be Boring. Thou shalt not be Confusing.
• Stick to being you. Everyone else is taken.
• On Broadway, you’re a triple threat if you can sing, dance, and act. In business, you’re a triple threat if you look the part, know the part, and see your role in the larger drama.
• Accept every invitation to present. Seek out opportunities to speak. The more you speak to groups, the stronger you become.
• Speak 10,000 times. Quality comes from quantity.
• Most presentations get less effective when loaded with too many fine distinctions. As a speaker, you don’t have to be mathematically exact. You have to deal only in probabilities.
• ADVERTISING ADDS TO the intrinsic value of products by enhancing our perception of them.
• People who look good, sound good, and make compelling sense in high-stakes moments have an unfair advantage over those who don’t.
• Do not dismiss the power of perception. All value is perceived value.
• Good speakers project confidence, a quality attractive in men and women.
• The world we live in is created in our heads. The world our listeners live in is created in their heads, and that’s the world we need to connect with.
• To be your own best speech coach, speak to yourself as you would to a client—be consciously positive. Over time, you’ll become unconsciously positive.
• You’ll improve your speaking by improving how you speak to yourself.
• AS SPEAKERS WE face two big danger zones: 1.We fail to express our intentions, and 2.We express things we don’t intend.
• The power of metaphor. Use it—often!
• WHAT KEEPS PEOPLE up at night? The answer is universal: open questions or unresolved problems.
• A speech or presentation is complete when there is nothing left to take out.
• IF YOU ARE SERIOUS about getting better as a public speaker, cheat and steal whenever possible. Watch others, take what you can, and make it your own.
• Boost the signal by sticking to your point. Kill the noise by making sure that your delivery expresses your intention.
• A good talk is a lively mix of fact and opinion, analysis and story, appeals to reason and emotion.
• Keep the audience’s interest, and end with a bang.
• Problem definition is the key to success.
• Openings and endings are equally important. Pay equal attention to both.
• At the start of your presentation, instead of telling your audience what they need to know, ask them questions that have the potential of revealing that they lack complete knowledge of the subject you’re about to address. You’ll get them thinking and rouse their curiosity.
• Beginners become masters by persisting through failure. Or as the Japanese say, “Fall down seven times, get up eight.”
• Your presentation is always more effective when there’s an obstacle to overcome, a problem to fix, a myth to be busted, or a puzzle to solve.
• Memories tend to cluster around emotions, positive and negative. When appropriate, pack your talk with humor. Your message is bound to be remembered.
• Predictability kills interest from the start.
• Good content is often necessary for persuasion, but usually not sufficient. The landscape of history is littered with content-rich arguments that went nowhere.
• Herbert Simon, a Nobel Prize–winning economist, spoke about the relationship between information and attention. He said, “What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”
• Listeners appreciate a speaker who can clarify complexity, without oversimplifying it.
• Speak to your audience in the language of your audience, about what is most important to your audience.
• The best strategy for a shy presenter is to be concise, well-rehearsed, clever with words, and humorous now and then. Forget theatrics. That’s a language the shy should not dare to speak.
• Terseness is a kind of hostility. Brevity, on the other hand, implies clarity without elaboration.
• When on stage, it’s a good idea to point with your whole hand rather than use a single finger. It looks better, more assertive.
• Point with your whole hand.
• IF YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE what to work on—your voice or your body language—choose your voice.
• Your voice expresses logic and feeling. Your body language only gets noticed if it’s crummy.
• Fashion is often out of style, but style is never out of fashion.
• LEARN TO STAND STILL as a presenter.
• The juxtaposition of stillness with movement is very near the crux of any performance art.
• THE ABILITY TO PAUSE effectively lends you stature and helps listeners listen.
• Look one person in the eye as you deliver your opening.
• IN WELL-SPOKEN ENGLISH, there is a change of pitch on every stressed syllable.
• Vocal emphasis brings your meaning to life. Not everything is equally important.
• Vary the pitch of your speaking voice.
• The spaces between words are as important to your message as the words themselves.
• Preserve the silences that make speech more effective.
• Rather than correcting your audience for their indifferent response, take responsibility for their experience. It’s not their job to be interested. It’s your job to get them interested.
• LESS IS MORE. People can only retain three to five points. And studies indicate that attention drops off after twenty minutes.
• So, if you have to give a long talk, break it into twenty-minute chunks and give the audience a breather. Or just stop talking for a few seconds as you leave one section and begin the next.
• Don’t be the hunted. Be the hunter. Focus your eyes on your listeners, one at a time.
• Tone of voice counts.
• Great performers narrow their focus. They put aside fear and thoughts of success and bear down to get the job done.
• MEMORIZE YOUR OPENING and deliver it while the title slide is on the screen. The lack of detail on the title slide allows the audience to focus entirely on you.
• Memorize your opening because it’s the part of your talk your audience is most likely to remember.
• Technology is helpful, but there is no substitute for connecting with your listeners, knowing your lines, and speaking with just the right oomph.
• Don’t use slide headlines to introduce a topic. Use them to make a statement.
• Tiny reductions in friction can lead to significant results.
• Don’t let the audience rewrite your talk when it’s time for Q&A. Find a way to bridge back to one of your main points no matter where the audience wants to take you.
• SENIOR DECISION MAKERS are time pressed, content driven, and results oriented.