Maria’s program, “Enhance Your Leadership Presence with Acting Improvisation”:  Learn how to enhance your  leadership presence by using improvisation and storytelling techniques to transform your communication skills. You will learn how to land new business by making deeper interpersonal connections, building trust, speaking with authenticity, and engaging your listeners.  You’ll learn how to address the changing needs of your current clients by expanding your creativity and spontaneity.  Discover how you can project a spirit of collaboration and convince prospects that you can and will help them solve their business problems!

One way that successful speakers engage their listeners is by pacing effectively and allowing each idea to “land” before going on to the next idea.  This helps listeners understand fully and gives variety to the delivery.  I recommend a rehearsal exercise based on one that I learned from the Academy-Award-winning actress, Olympia Dukakis.

Today, I’ll present the first step in this process:  Think in thought groups, rather than thinking in words.  This will help your pacing become organic, authentic, and compelling.

Research tell us that people don’t think in words; we think and listen in complete thoughts.  Match the way you speak with the way your listeners listen!  Apply my adaptation of Olympia’s technique, which was originally created to help actors internalize the sections and emotions of a scene.  I have adapted Olympia’s technique for business speakers, so that you will develop greater sensitivity to your listeners and more consistently pause, tune in, and allow each idea to “land” before you go on to the next idea.

Begin rehearsal for any business talk with a simple exercise:

• Set out a few chairs, as you would for the game musical chairs.  Begin by sitting in one of them.
• As you rehearse aloud, move to a different chair each time you complete a thought.  Speak each complete idea from a difference chair.
• Repeat this exercise until your mind and your body have internalized the moments when each complete thought has ended and the next one is about to begin.

This simple exercise will increase your awareness of your thought groups.  It will help you become more sensitive to your listeners and be better able to pause, tune in to the listeners, and allow each idea to “land” before going on to the next idea.

You listeners will understand more fully and be more fully engaged!

If you prepare your business presentation by memorizing, you will probably end up sounding “canned” — the quickest way to get prospects, clients, and other business listeners to tune you out.   To avoid this problem, do what the best actors do:  internalize, don’t memorize.

Most actors try to avoid rote memorization of a script, because memorization has a tendency to block the most important part (and the most connective part) of speaking: our communication actions that lie beneath the words.  Effective rehearsal is the rehearsal of communication actions/”objectives” (rather than the words themselves), in order to sound conversational and authentic at every moment.

When I played Amanda in The Glass Menagerie last summer, I was working with a young actor who tried to memorize lines by associating them with his blocking (i.e., where he sat, stood, and moved on stage).  The director changed the blocking many times during our rehearsal process:  of course, the actor then had difficulty remembering his lines!  He was then forced to learn lines with a different strategy: he began to internalize his lines by associating them with his underlying actions/objectives.  This allowed him to not only remember his lines perfectly, but to sound conversational, authentic, and believable.  His lines and physical behavior created a unified, seamless whole.

Business speakers, whether using notes or not, should internalize (not memorize) your content.  You need a strategy to help you become deeply connected to your message, so that listeners will believe that you are fully committed and that you and your message are “one”.

Do the following:  divide your notes for a talk into “beats” (individual topics that are smaller than your overall message).  For each beat, choose a communication action directed toward the listeners.  As you rehearse aloud, focus on the underlying communication action of each beat; keep it at the forefront of your mind, and pursue it energetically.

You will be better able to remember your content fully; you won’t have to worry about “memorizing” anything.  Your voice and body language will support your words,  turning your content and demeanor into one organic, unified, and seamless message.

When you rehearse this way, you’ll never have to worry about “over-rehearsing”, because your rehearsal will never produce a “canned” delivery.  Instead, your rehearsal will help you speak with authenticity and maximum impact.

In my last blog, I provided two strategies for successful business speaking that are rooted in theater techniques that I used while I was rehearsing and performing the role of Amanda in The Glass Menagerie this past summer.

Here is another technique you can use in business to enhance your confidence when you are about to make a presentation:  know your venue and become adaptable to the space, so that you can speak comfortably in a range of situations.

Our set for The Glass Menagerie depicted a tenement apartment in St. Louis during the late 1930’s.  Right before one performance, the stagehands had placed a heavy chair in the wrong spot on stage.  I had been directed to sit on the arm of the chair all the way stage right, at an angle facing away from my scene partner.  With the chair in its incorrect spot, my sitting on the chair that way would block half the audience from any view of the action.  I had previously thought of various other options for my stage movement, so I was able to improvise a solution during that performance.  Under the new circumstances, I stood in the stage area far right of the chair, to open up the view for whole audience.

Business speakers, too, should be ready to improvise physically when necessary.

• Whether your business presentation or conversation takes place in an office, conference room, boardroom, or convention hall, visit the space in advance whenever possible.
• Notice what is in the space and how it might help or hinder your ability to communicate.  Request what you do want and do not want to be “in your space”.  Then, assume that the space may not be just as you wish, and look for ways to improvise, if necessary.  Determine Choice B and Choice C for where you will be and where you will move, so that you can be ready to adapt.
• During your advance visit, do a brief “walk-through” or “sit-through” of your talk.  Experiment with a variety of other spots for you to stand, sit, or move.  This will help you improvise gracefully (and give your audience a full experience) whenever you face challenges with the physical setup of the room.

Preparing for uncertainty in this way will give you a wonderful sense of security and the confidence that your message will have impact for your audience, even when your venue is not ideal!

I recently played the role of Amanda Wingfield in the play, “The Glass Menagerie” and was reminded that so much of the rehearsal process for a play should be used by business people who want to make a dynamic impact when they speak.  Here are two tips that can help enhance your credibility during business meetings, presentations, sales calls, and more.

Engage With Vocal Variety:
Our director was confident that we actors would have no problem making ourselves heard by audience members in the last row of the theater.  Knowing that there were some intimate, “lower volume” scenes in the play, she took the extra precaution of planting an assistant at various spots in the last row to listen, so that we actors could be told of any moments when we could not be heard adequately.  Business speakers/presenters who are not using a microphone can benefit from a similar strategy, to help you use a range of vocal dynamics (sound volume) to engage your listeners.  Do the following:  Arrive at your speaking venue/meeting room early; arrange to have someone listen as you speak parts of your talk, and be sure to speak any sections where you will choose to use a lower volume than usual (perhaps for dramatic effect).  Use your sound assistant’s feedback to guide you on your volume levels, so that you can use a range of vocal dynamics with the confidence that you will always be heard.  This range of dynamics is key to listener engagement.

Feel and Look Like Your Message:
As we rehearsed “The Glass Menagerie”, I naturally wanted to immerse myself in the character and the setting as quickly and thoroughly as possible.  One way that I do this when rehearsing a play is to wear rehearsal clothes that give me the same (or similar) feeling as the costume(s) in performance will.  This helps me feel/appear to be “one” with the character, so that the audience will perceive no difference between “Maria” and (in the case of this particular play) “Amanda”.  As a business speaker/presenter, your rehearsal process can help you become “one” with your content, so that every nuance of your delivery will project and support one, seamless message.  Try the following as you rehearse.  Consider the nature of your message, who your listeners are, and how they dress.  Allow this information to help you plan what you will wear.  When rehearsing, wear those clothes or even just one or two pieces from that outfit (shoes, blouses, and jackets are particularly useful for giving you the right feeling).  Become conscious of the way your clothing affects your feelings about yourself and your demeanor, and make any necessary adjustments in clothing.  This will help you feel and project the image you desire.

Use these strategies from the theater, and watch your prospects, clients, and other business listeners become increasingly engaged when you speak!

How often have you been to a networking event where attendees are talking at other people — talking only about themselves and trying to cram into the conversation as much as they can about their own business, achievements, and successes, etc?

Not only is this unpleasant for the listener, but it is actually counter-productive.

Why are you at the networking event?  To get business?  Make a sale?  Well, not really.  Your goal at networking events should be to begin conversations that lead to relationships.  If that does not happen, there will be no sales.  Period!  Because people buy from people they like.

The most important thing is to let the other person do the talking,  and to listen carefully for ways to help that person achieve his or her goals.   This may sound counter-intuitive, but it is the key to the entire process.  Your goal in networking should be to give before you get.  Giving before you get makes it much more likely that the other person will want to talk with you further (and that’s the best hope for business in the future).  Giving may include

• Introductions
• Business or personal suggestions
• Information
• Invitations
• Volunteering to help with a civic organization or charity the other party feels strongly about or
• A piece of free counsel on a subject of interest to your conversation partner

So, as you network, focus on building relationships:

1. First: Ask questions to find out as much as possible about the other person.
2. Take time to listen to your conversation partners.
3. Offer something useful to each person you talk with.

Follow these steps, and you will be on your way to conversations that begin to build relationships that lead to sales.

What do you wish to accomplish as you speak during your networking activities?

Your immediate goal should be to learn about the other person, not to sell your products or services.  During your networking conversations, ask questions, listen and do not interrupt others with stories, opinions, solutions, or personal experiences.

Here are some questions to ask your conversation partners (with a smiling and warm disposition) to start and maintain meaningful conversations:

• What are the most important things you’re working on right now?
• What do you want to accomplish this year?
• What are the biggest barriers to meeting your goals?
• What can I do to help you achieve these goals?

Asking questions and truly listening to the answers will help build a relationship and will let the other person know that you are interested in giving, not just getting.  

And don’t forget the power of silence; don’t be in a rush to “fill in” the pauses in a conversation!  Let your conversation partners’ rhythm guide you, and remember that giving time to people is like giving them a gift.

The most important thing is to let the other person do the talking and to listen carefully for ways to help that person achieve his or her goals.   This may sound counter-intuitive, but it is the key to the entire process!

And have fun!

https://youtu.be/XQF7OQh-xeg

Presenting your value proposition in networking conversations and with any business prospect will enhance your credibility.  This is your opportunity to point out the benefits of your products and services with more detail than your elevator speech can do. 

Step 1:  Do Some Research
If you are going to be speaking with people at a networking event, seminar, or conference, do some research in advance.  Find out who will be there, who might be interested in what you offer, and why.  This will help you discern which benefits might be the best ones to mention first during your business conversations.   And remember that people choose one provider over another for their reasons, not your reasons.

Step 2:  Write a Success Story
Describe how you or your company saved a client or customer time or money, or saved the day when they were in a tight spot.  This is an indirect way of saying “I will do the same for you.”  What you prepare to say should be flexible.  The way the conversation unfolds will determine which parts of your script you will say and which you will edit or even omit, at the spur of the moment.  So, build into your script some wiggle room.  Then, internalize (not memorize) a few more success stories; have them ready for a great delivery; this will allow you to choose in the moment which story will be best for any given listener.

Step 3:  Make it Multi-Purpose
Create two more versions of this conversation preparation:  one version that is expanded with flexibility for a conversation that might last five minutes and another that is expanded with even more flexibility for conversations that might last up to ten minutes.

Follow these steps, and you will be on your way to a value proposition that enhances your credibility and helps generate the next conversation.

https://youtu.be/rrw0ni_SCsg

In my last videoBlog, I shared strategies to help you enhance your credibility and engage your listeners during the conversation that happens after you have delivered your elevator speech.

Here is a strategy to position yourself and your company as experts.

Focus on the human element:  talk about who you and your team are as human beings.  Your initial, face-to-face conversation with a prospect is the ideal time to be personable —  and project authenticity, approachability, and dedication to customer and client service.

Focusing on the human element is very wise, because it changes the focus of the conversation.  You are no longer speaking about your products or services; now you’re speaking about the way you and your team care; the way you behave on a human level.

For example, you might say something like this:  “We’re people who pay close attention whenever our clients speak.”    Or this:  “We’re people who are passionate about every assignment.”

This strategy positions you on the same side as your listener.  On the other side are

1. all your competitors who don’t pay close attention to their clients: who put their own interests ahead of those of the client or customer
2. all your competitors who are not passionate — who view certain projects only as a cash cow.

When you are speaking with people who have had a negative experience purchasing a product or service in your category, they might appreciate your focus on the human element.  When you say that you pay close attention to your clients, your listeners might find that refreshing; they might even chuckle.  Then you’ll have them engaged, and that’s really the whole point.  Because engagement is a very important element in relationship-building.

So, use this strategy.  Focus on the human element, and you will be on your way to conversations that position you and your organization as experts and generate more conversation that can lead to sales.

Today, I’m going to share strategies to help you enhance your credibility and engage your listeners during the conversation that happens after you have delivered your elevator speech.

When you craft and deliver your elevator speech effectively, it should elicit questions and comments from your listeners about what you do.  This will reveal what interests them, and that is valuable information for YOU. 

As the conversation unfolds, you should dribble information about your products and services.  I use the word “dribble” because you should maintain an element of suspense as long as possible during the conversation.  The reason for this is simple:  each time you express an idea, you should try to create within your listener a need for additional information.

Use the following three strategies:

1.  At the beginning of the conversation, after you have spoken your elevator speech, include a sound-bite:  a few concise sentences that described what you do, with a bit more detail than your elevator speech did.

 2.  Position yourself and your company as experts who stand out from the crowd of people who do something similar to what you do.  Use phrases like

• We specialize in
• Our reputation is
• We’re known for

3.  Mention your experience in industries that are the same as (or similar to) those of your conversation partners.  And namedrop!  Mention your clients who have the most impressive name recognition.  And, of course, name only the ones who have not asked you to protect their anonymity. 

As you namedrop, be sure to sound as casual as possible.  When you appear to be unimpressed by your own experience and track record, you enhance your image as an expert.

Follow these steps, and you will be on your way to conversations that enhance your credibility, engage your listeners, and help generate the next conversation!