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.
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!
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
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
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’ll share more about how you can project spontaneity and authenticity in your elevator speech by rehearsing with the actor’s technique called “Endowment”. Here is a summary of the steps:
Step 1: Choose a person from your real life in who has qualities that help you feelliked, trusted, and respected when you speak with him or her.Step 2: Choose a spot to place your focus, and imagine your business listener, right there in front of you.Step 3: Endow your imaginary listener with these same qualities that help you feel liked, trusted, and respected. As you say your elevator speech aloud, speak AS IF you were in conversation with the person from your life.
Here are some additional guidelines for the Endowment process.
1. It’s very important to be flooded with positive feelings as you rehearse this, so choosing the “right” person to feed your imagination is key. Experiment with the technique of Endowment by imagining various people from your life, in order to discover which one person most effectively triggers your expression of warmth and relaxation when you are speaking.
2. Never tell anyone the identity of the person you have chosen to “use” for this process. Keeping it a secret will increase the power that the Endowment technique will have on your demeanor and delivery.
3. The technique of endowment may be challenging at first, so rehearse aloud as often as possible. Over time, rehearsal of the endowment process will help you focus your mind in a very useful way. It will help you create an emotional environment for yourself: to project authenticity and spontaneity when you’re networking and meeting with prospects and clients.
Using the Endowment technique has a secondary benefit: it will keep your mind so focused on the task at hand, that you’ll have very little emotional availability to be nervous or self-conscious.
This is a way to use rehearsal strategically: it will prepare your for a spontaneous and authentic presentation of yourself and your business message.
Business listeners respond well to a speaker’s positive energy and lightness of being. As a speaker, you can project this kind of lightness by doing a quick emotional clearing in advance — the way actors do before going on stage.
At least an hour before you have that important business conversation, meeting, or presentation, do the following:
Take your “emotional temperature”. Identify your current emotional state: happy, sad, nervous, excited, disappointed, excited, angry, etc.
Find a private area to release these emotions in a big way, even if it feels exaggerated or “phony” to do so. For example, you can jump for joy, shout, laugh out loud, shed a few tears, if necessary; whatever you need to do to release your emotions, especially the ones that are less pleasant.
Do some deep breathing with long, slow exhalations to a count of ten; then stretch out your arms, legs, back, and shoulders to release your emotions more fully.
If you are having any emotions that will not serve to enhance your speaking delivery, releasing those emotions in advance will decrease the power they have over you and will decrease any negative impact they might have on the way you speak.
You will be more “present” with your listeners and more available to respond to them authentically “in the moment”.
You will be free to use you positive and upbeat energy to engage and inspire your listeners — with a lightness of being that will help put them (and you) at ease.
You can sharpen your mental focus right before an important business conversation or presentation. Here are two simple techniques that will help you feel and look fully present and energized.
You probably know that actors warm up their bodies and voices right before a performance. Well, they also warm up their brains before they go on stage! As a business professional, you can sharpen your mental focus before you speak, in the same way that actors do, right before they go on stage.
Before you enter the room where you’ll be speaking for business, find a private spot, and try the following:
Busy your brain with arithmetic! That’s right: Do arithmetic, starting with small sums. Add numbers like 64 and 27. After a few combinations like this, graduate to larger figures, like 459 and 3897. It really is OK if your answers are not correct; the point of the exercise is to work the brain; to make the effort.
Busy your brain with Jeapardy; just like the game show! Think of any simple category. Speak/whisper all the words you can think of that belong in that category. When your ideas stop flowing relatively easily, change the category and repeat the exercise. Categories like “capital cities of the world” and “languages of the world”, etc., are good ways to begin. The choice of categories is almost endless. Choose categories that are challenging enough to work your brain and that give you a sense of achievement.
Mental gymnastics will energize you and help you feel and look authoritative. They are very useful tools to help you deliver your ideas with confidence and focus!
You can engage your business listeners fully by “taking stage”: capturing their attention and keeping it.
How do professional actors get the audience’s attention and keep them riveted to the action of a play? One answer is that they take stage: they inhabit the space with a “do or die” purpose and an attitude of complete belonging.
Business professionals need to do the same thing, in order to persuade and inspire your business listeners, whether you are speaking one on one, or to a group; whether you are speaking informally, or delivering a PowerPoint presentation.
Here are three techniques to help you take stage –to command your listeners’ attention and keep it:
1. Before you begin, situate yourself in a position of power whenever possible. When you are speaking to a group, that’s usually front and center. Whether you are seated or standing, begin with both feet planted firmly on the ground, and imagine that your legs are tree trunks and that your feet are roots extending deep into the ground. This initial grounding helps you claim the space as your own and gives weight to your movements. It helps you project confidence and authority.
2. If you’re standing, stand away from furniture and resist any temptation to lean for support. If someone offers you a podium when you speak to a group, politely decline it whenever possible, unless you truly need it. You want to eliminate as many physical barriers as possible that might come between you and your audience. If you must use a podium, stand tall and don’t lean on it!
3. If you have handouts for a talk, whenever possible, distribute them after your talk has ended — not before or during the talk. Giving people material to read during your talk encourages them to focus on the written word and encourages them to ignore you! Giving material in advance can send the message that your listeners might just as effectively have read your talk — that they did not need to hear you live and in person!
Take stage to engage your listeners. Better yet, take stage to captivate your business listeners!
I recently read that Abraham Lincoln co-owned a general store for a short period of time and that his store failed because he “wasn’t a very good salesperson”; he was “frequently a little too honest about his products…”
I began thinking again about the qualities of a good salesperson, the relationship between honesty and successful selling, and why that story might be of interest to so many professionals.
Almost everyone in the world of work is a salesperson. Whether we are business owners, work for a corporation, or bring our talents to other professional areas, we are all involved (directly or indirectly) in selling ideas, products, or services.
Only the naïve believe that success in business is always accompanied by strict honesty at all times, but the old adage “honesty is the best policy” is usually a wise goal. We cannot be all things to all people and cannot be all things for all clients and prospects. We can certainly try our best, and if we cannot deliver, we can offer to clients and prospects alternative sources to find solutions.
Of course, some who are dedicated to enhancing/maintaining their professional image have been known to bend the truth quite a bit and often make a lot of money doing so. Many years ago, the adult grandson of a restaurant manager told me a true story that I have never forgotten. The restaurant was part of one of the biggest and most successful hotels located in the Catskill Mountains during the 1950’s. One night, when the restaurant was filled to capacity, a diner who was seated with a large group of people started screaming, because she found an enormous cockroach in her food. The manager rushed over to the table, saw the cockroach, and knew that the restaurant could now lose not only these customers, but the ones seated at the surrounding tables. With a grand gesture, he immediately grabbed a spoon, removed the cockroach from the woman’s plate, and popped the insect into his own mouth, chewing and swallowing with delight. Smiling broadly, he loudly proclaimed, “That was no cockroach, Madam. That was our most exotic mushroom, a true delicacy imported from Asia!”
How far would you go, to salvage your professional image and keep your sales moving forward?
In my last blog, I wrote about your use of pauses, to allow your ideas to land when you speak & engage your listeners.
Today, I’m going to talk about the power of the surprising pause. Successful business speakers, like good actors, use the surprising pause strategically to command attention and add depth to their message. The element of surprise is a key factor in capturing and keeping your listeners’ attention when you speak for business. Pausing at meaningful and surprising moments can be helpful to you in three ways:
1. It creates variety in your delivery: A moment of unexpected silence provides the greatest contrast to a stream of words.
2. It creates suspense: It teases your listeners for a moment, making them want to hear more.
3. It gives your listeners a window into your inner world: Listeners want to know what is “going on” with the speaker underneath the words. A surprising pause filled with meaning allows your listeners to observe a different quality in your expressiveness and gain additional perspectives.
In the video version of this blog, I demonstrate now just how effective a surprising pause can be. You may wish to view that now; simply click the thumbnail for the video.
If you prefer to continue reading:
I use the following sentence as an example of the use of the surprising pause. It’s a sentence about concept of supply and demand: an excerpt from a play called Other People’s Money, by Jerry Sterner; which was first produced Off Broadway and later made into a film with Richard Dreyfus. Here is the sentence:
“One day, when the dollar is weaker or the yen stronger, or when we finally begin to rebuild the roads, the bridges, the infrastructure of our country, demand will skyrocket.”
Logical but predictable moments to pause would be after the words, “day, stronger, and country”. A more interesting choice would be to add meaningful pauses after the words, “dollar, yen, and demand”. The surprise and suspense created in those moments leads to a more compelling delivery.
As you rehearse your business talk, consider why and when you will pause. Take logical, meaningful pauses at moments when those pauses might be most surprising.
Make your delivery truly compelling — and captivate your listeners!
In today’s blog, I’ll write more about how to keep your listeners engaged by allowing your ideas to land when you speak.
Last time, I wrote about Step One in this process: Speak in thought groups. Today, I’ll write about Step Two: Pursue your point with energy and focus. I’ll share some early advice given to me by one of my teachers: the late Mira Rostova, (who for many years was coach to the great film actor, Montgomery Clift).
One of the most common mistakes speakers make is to put focus on (to stress) each word – or too many words — within a complete thought. Speakers who do this are usually attempting to be clear, but the result is often a delivery that sounds unfocused, pedantic, or even condescending. While every word that you speak “counts” and should be understood by the listener, take time to consider which of your words should receive focus and which should not.
Prepare with these three strategies:
1. Review your notes and identify the focus word of each complete thought. Remember that the more words you stress, the more you lose focus and clarity — so be very discriminating as you choose your focus words. Make word-stress choices in creative ways that add depth and an interesting perspective to your ideas. This can add an element of surprise to your delivery, which is very engaging.
2. Underline the focus words of each complete thought.
3. Rehearse aloud, stressing only the focus words of each complete thought. Put your attention on your focus words. Keep them at the forefront of your mind, and pursue them energetically as you speak. My late teacher, Mira Rostova, used to say, “Go for the point! Go for the point!” Mira was talking about pursuing your point with focus and energy. Rehearsing this way will help you drive your ideas and will prepare you for the third and final step in this process.
So, be sure to read my next blog: Step Three for How To Engage Your Listeners by Allowing Your Ideas to Land When You Speak.
